ShmuelCharlie

23 minutes ago, yogimax said:

Thank you but I don't see anything in the article that forces people to book at least one shore excursion. 

 

You say, "A current CC article address whether cruise lines would require their guests to book at least one shore excursion to ensure that they stay within the social distancing "bubble". 

 

What am I missing?  What I see is a requirement that IF you book a shore excursion, it has to be with the cruise line.  That is far different than requiring guests to book at least one shore excursion.

It's the former requirement of booking the excursion w/the cruise line. I may have misinterpreted the whole article, but I got the vibe that the line requires its guests to book at least one excursion to the exclusion of other tour operators such as the ones shown in the Roll Calls. 

5 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I knew they offered air, but first I heard they offer hotels. It must not be a popular choice or would be more posts about it. 

 

I too have always just booked my own hotels. 

Thanks for the reply to my topic posting. I can see how some hotel choices might not be popular because the rates offered are lousy or the location(s) suck. My first two visits to Barcelona in '10 and '11 offered three choices: the Majestic, the Hotel Conde de Barcelona, and the Diagonal respectively. I chose the Majestic in '10 for one night before embarking my 7-night Voyager OTS cruise the next day. I chose the Hotel Conde de Barcelona in '11 for 3 nights before embarking on my 12-night Celebrity Solstice cruise. Which hotel did I like more? The Hotel Conde de Barcelona because it had a modern annex across the street from the main building. Why didn't I choose the Diagonal? Because it was too far from the sights and attractions downtown. All this said, however, I plan to book my own hotel for a post-cruise stay in Barcelona following my 12-night Vision OTS next June.  

As for air, sometimes the choices of fares offered are either too high, you're stuck in cattle car class, or the departure times suck. Flying to the Continent sometimes required red-eye flights so that you arrive in the daytime (and hopefully a good night's sleep en-route to the desired city). I also have a new booking engine source: SkyLuxe.com for heavily discounted biz or first class flights. I used them last August '19 for biz class flights to and from AMS. The booking engine also offered a luxury car service to take me to my AMS hotel for a one-night stay at Movenpick. The flight to AMS from Toronto on Air Canada was great, until that airline nearly lost my walker, which wasn't delivered to my Celebrity Refection cabin until 3 days after the ship had sailed AMS. How heavily discounted are these fares? Try this fare on for size: 2500 bucks RT in Biz class from IAD to BCN. Great, huh? Downside? You have to change planes in Turkey and arrive in BCN @ 11-ish PM. 

5 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

Do they force people to actually enter the shop?  I've never had that happen, on any shore excursion.  I would suggest just not entering the shop.

Well, I'm not sure whether the guides actually coerce guests to enter the shop, but when I or anybody else has the urgent need to visit the lavoratories, those facilities are invevitably located near the shop's display counters. Worse of all, you're stuck inside the store because the bus driver isn't going to unlock the bus doors until he's ready to do that. I've seen that happen at that cameo shop near Naples. 

4 minutes ago, yogimax said:

Could you please send a link to the article?

Here's the requested link: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5570/.

Fellow RCCL cruisers, do you often find yourselves frustrated by the limited choice of hotels in departure or final ports for pre- or post-cruise hotel stays? Do you wish that this cruise line would offer hotels whose names frequently appear on travel magazine best hotels list for various countries and cities? I've had that feeling for years, and wonder why various cruise lines choose a particular hotel or resort to offer their guests participating in pre- or post-cruise hotel stay packages. For example, why does RCCL only offer one hotel in San Juan, PR--the Renaissance La Concha--for its guests when there are plenty of other choices in the Condado neighborhood? Why does RCCL only offer one hotel in Barcelona--the NH Sants--when there are better and more familiar choices such as Hotel Arts, etc., that frequently appear on Travel & Leisure Magazine's World's Best Hotels list? 

2 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Depending on the port, and the excursion, I would consider taking a cruise line excursion if I wanted to see something that was offered.

 

 It would have to be to a port that was either new to me or a port that had something special to offer. 
 

m

Cruisegirl, what port would be new to you or had something special to offer? An example of a new port for me would be La Spezia in Italy for tours of Cinque Terre. However, if RCCL's shore excursion office offered a tour that visits Lucca and/or Siena, I would definitely sign up for that one because I haven't visited those Tuscan towns yet. 

6 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Based purely on your post, I would say that you (and anyone else) should feel free to eschew the shop.

Thanks for replying to my new topic question, which I decided to do to see what happens. Regarding the souvenir shops RCCL practically requires its excursion buses to visit, I can think of several. One of them is that cameo shop near Naples, and the other one is that wood carving shop on the main drag entering Sorrento.

Other examples of required shops include the wood carving shop in Anacapri (the town w/the chairlift up the hill, not the town w/the fancy shops, resorts, and the funicular train to the marina below), and jewelry or ceramics shops on Malta en-route to the lunch place at a beach resort. The thing all of those shops have in common are bathroom facilities, and if you visit these facilities, you're practically roped into watching how the shop owners create their merchandise. 

Regarding the social distancing "bubble," I'd have to wonder whether temperature checks are given to guests entering the shop or boarding the bus to return to the ship, followed by Q-tip swabs of my nose or throat to test for Covid. I also wonder whether the test facilities at the terminals are that quick and efficient to render results within 15 minutes and get those results to ship security or Guest Relations before the guests board the ship. 

A current CC article address whether cruise lines would require their guests to book at least one shore excursion to ensure that they stay within the social distancing "bubble". Here's my thought about that requirement: So long as the required shore excursion visits the sights I expect to see on that excursion and does NOT visit a required shop from which the line receives its commissions, I have no problem booking that excursion. For example, if the excursion visits Pompeii and then continues to Sorrento or Amalfi from either Salerno or Naples, I have no problems visiting Pompeii and/or Amalfi while within the social distancing "bubble", but I refuse to enter those souvenir shops that the line requires its guests to visit unless I really need to use their Men's room facilities. 

RCCL guests, what are your thoughts about this issue? 

10 hours ago, Budget Queen said:

Viator is only a booking agent and does not operate any tours.     And in Porta Montt they are probably contracted with GV tours.     Facts have been-  this is where they are based and anything else you book with them is contracted.      I find it far more efficient to go direct.    

Agree that Viator is a booking agent. I admitted that in an earlier posting. If you read this nearly two months ago, you also may have seen my reply. I still have reservations about whether direct tour groups are able to give the guarantee that they will return the van/coach/whatever conveyance to the dock as well as ship shore excursion operators can. I also don't know whether private tour operators are bonded and insured as well as ship operators are.

I base that opinion on what happened in Arica, Chile over 15 years ago: The same ship that took me and my Mom to Chile on a holiday cruise between '05-'06 also had another sailing to this port that included a B'nai Brith tour group (in case you don't know what B'nai Brith is, it's an international Jewish service organization). This group hired a private tour operator to give them an excursion of Arica's sights, included the petroglyphs in the Atacama Desert. On the return trip to the ship, the tour bus driver, who had little sleep the night before, fell asleep at the wheel and took the bus full of passengers over a cliff, killing everybody aboard the vehicle. Accident investigators learned that the tour company had no insurance on their vehicle and the driver wasn't insured ether.  Lesson learned: take the time to research the tour operators before booking them. Another lesson learned: ship tour operators are vetted by the cruise lines to ensure safety of their guests. 

On 2/6/2020 at 9:55 PM, kinipela35 said:

 

Viator is not a tour company, just a 3rd party booking agent. After you book a tour with them, your voucher will tell you who the actual tour company is that's being used. As stated above, GV Tours lists some of their tours on Viator so you could get stuck with them if you aren't paying close attention to your booking. 

OK, yeah, I should have realized that Viator was a 3d-party booking agent. Also, they're not always reliable w/regard to who they work with and supposedly work with. An example of the latter situation happened when I had an excursion in Buenos Aires this past Fri., 2/21, to do lunch at an establishment called La Bistecca in Puerto Madero. Unfortunately, the voucher Viator issued to me wasn't honored by the restaurant, and the phone number shown on the voucher didn't exist. Fortunately, the folks at La Bistecca accommodated walk-in diners, and I had a good lunch there, but I wish I didn't have to pay 2x for the same meal. I mentioned this issue in my review of the excursion w/Viator, and requested a refund.

But usually, though, I've had great success w/Viator. What Grey Line does is OK, too, but the thing that bothers me about Grey Line was their tendency to take people from their hotels to a central depot, drop them off there, and then require the visitors to board the waiting coaches at the depots to go on their tours. When you're doing this in unfamiliar territory, I get a bad feeling about whether I'll get a good experience from the tour. 

On 1/31/2020 at 10:06 AM, pghflyer said:

 

You are lucky. I emailed them a few questions a month ago....never heard back.....went ahead and submitted a reservation form through their site.....never heard anything from them @ their supposed communication timeframe of "30-days prior"....emailed them the beginning of this week....nothing.......not a great start for a company we were hoping to do 2 tours with (Santiago-Valparaiso-SanAntonio; and PuertoMontt-Osorno Volcano-Petrohue-PuertoVaras). 

 

I guess with your 12 you have already filled their truck so perhaps not a good sign.  I am mainly just wondering if these are even going!!

The troubles described in the above posts tell me that I have three good reason to book most of my land excursions only with Viator or Grey Line, while my cruise excursions are booked with the cruise line: 1. Both Viator and Grey Line are reliable, have good equipment, and have good guides. 2. Cruise lines offer a guarantee to get their guests back to the ship before it sails. 3. I don't need the hassle of booking with a relatively unknown organization with possibly spotty customer service records.  

10 hours ago, cruznjan said:

Also, my Carnival ships on sticks.

I had one, too: my first trophy won for Pictionary aboard the Carnival Spirit, sailing from the Big Island to Ensenada, Mexico in October '01 after a 12-day cruise of the Hawaiian Islands. 

4 hours ago, cruznjan said:

My Diamonds International charm bracelet with charms from different ports.

How many charms in all? Isn't the bracelet heavy w/all those charms? 

26 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

One of my friends from high school in Brooklyn,NY moved to Alexandria,VA .She is the only person I ever knew who lived there but she moved to Fla when she retired.

The only time I ever traveled for a Bar Mitzvah was recently to Mass.However,I did travel to Fairfax,NJ for a wedding.We never did family travels when I was growing up.The first time I was on a plane was at age 50 ,big mistake to have waited so long.Now I am old and dealing with disabilities .The only form of traveling I can do is a cruise and therefore have been going to the Caribbean.

I did the overnight ferry to Yarmouth too.

Cruises are great for those of us who are disabled because many ships have wheelchair-accessible cabins and crews trained to handle pax w/disabilities. 

11 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I have never been to anywhere other than North America with the exception of one cruise to South America ,however,one of my daughters has traveled all over the world and almost always brings me back a tee shirt made in the country she visits.

Whenever Mrs.66 and I cruise we always endeavor to buy an article of clothing made where we are.

When I started traveling w/my family, we had car trips to Boston; Springfield, MA for family Bar and Bat Mitzvahs; Lake of the Ozarks (in Missouri); the Poconos (in Northeastern PA); Hershey and Lancaster, PA; NYC for Passover and Bar Mitzvahs; DC, etc., along w/a first long flight trip to and from Florida (for a cousin's Bar Mitzvah). Later, in my late teens, I ventured across the Pond to Europe and then to Eastern Canada. Also in my teens, my family went to visit my maternal grandparents living in Miami Beach and other locales. 

My first cruise aboard Home Lines' Oceanic took me to Bermuda and the Bahamas (Nassau). Before that cruise, the only times I have been aboard larger vessels than power boats or sailboats were when I was aboard an overnight ferry to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (Prince of Fundy lines) from Portland (July '75) and the Cape May ferry to Lewes, Delaware (August '69). By the time I returned to Europe in the mid-90s aboard HAL's Statendam for a 12-day cruise that visited the Aegean, Black Sea, and the Med, I had caught the "cruise bug" and never made myself cured of this wonderful "disease."

Cruises have taken more to most of the Caribbean, Mexico, and many European countries. But there are some places I haven't visited, like Scandinavian countries such as Norway  and Iceland; Asia, most of Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of South America. Now that I'm retired, I'm checking off a few countries from my bucket list.  🙂 

I do have a question for CC members: how do I insert the cruise ship names and dates in the signature area like other posters?

Thanks. 

27 minutes ago, clo said:

I think we're done with magnets also.  Here's something to consider:

https://thewanderclub.co/

We have a very fun world map in the kitchen that we'd been putting red pins up.  Now we have these.  I'll post a photo later.

Yeah, I also have a travel world map that has pins. A friend warned me that sometimes those pins fall off and can create a hazard to anybody walking on a carpet in bare feet: they are risking their skin through exposure to unseen pins in the carpet's fibers. 

24 minutes ago, clo said:

Someone (you?) recently brought this up.  A friend who knew his jewels, pulled out his loupe, and was told to leave the store.  My husband over the years spent some time in Sao Paulo and eventually was introduced to a woman who had made her fortune selling good things to, at that time, "American businessmen."  She sold out of her wonderful home, in a great area, by invitation only.  We got an aquamarine.  Couldn't afford the precious stones.  A nice memory.

I wonder if I ask a jewelry sales person if he or she had a spare pane of glass to test the stone to see if it cut the glass, would I also be told to leave their store? Answer: Probably yes. One other thing about glass and crystal: To test whether a piece was either glass or crystal, wet your finger tip and touch the item in a circular manner. If the item emits a musical note, it's crystal. Glass items make no sound. I learned that on an episode of CSI: NY, "Murder House." 

5 minutes ago, clo said:

Thanks for all of that.  Our upcoming cruise will stop in Montevideo and Buenos Aires so I'll have to check those out.

You're welcome. I'm going on a South American cruise, too, in several months. Two other trivia things about flags: 1. If you're sailing from Chile, check out its flag and tell me whether it resembles the flag of Texas w/that triangle in the left field. The difference is that Texas's flag has a star in that triangle while Chile's flag doesn't. 2. A trivia question: What's the only State flag showing a Union Jack along w/the red, white and blue stripes? Answer: Hawaii's flag. Reason: before it was a State and a Territory, it was a Kingdom, and it had a long relationship with Britain. That relationship is also why Honolulu has a Beretania Street and the Church of England churches on Hawaiian soil, decades before American missionaries reached the Islands. 🙂 

3 minutes ago, clo said:

We avoid mass merchandised items.  As I pointed out to someone you can go on Amazon and get similar things.

We stopped buying tees years and years ago.   I've been to around 50 countries and Bob has far more (lived in Germany in the army and traveled for business). And again, most aren't made in the country they advertise.  We buy little 'arts and crafts' for probably no more than $10.  Have 'collections' all over the house 🙂

One thing about arts and craft items such as Native-made handicrafts is that places like Alaska requires that stores offering Native handicrafts display a special sticker or decal. The decal certify the store is selling merchandise made by the tribes who live in Alaska and are not imported from China, Japan, Philippines, Korea, etc. I wish other ports would follow Alaska's example.  

10 hours ago, cruznjan said:

Sorry, Diamonds International. They used to give coupons to get a free charm bracelet with a charm for that particular port. You also got a card with other ports where you could collect a charm.

I thought those charms were offered by Pandora, the charm and bracelet jewelry store. Now I know that they're offered by DI. Thanks for correcting my memory of who offered those charms in the Caribbean ports. 🙂 

11 hours ago, clo said:

We have a second home (small apt in SEA) and both fridges are getting filled.  One is completely.  I've even donated some non-travel ones.

Yeah, you can have too many magnets. I gave a few of mine away to work friends and donated many of them as Secret Santa gifts at work holiday parties. Unfortunately like the broom in the Mickey Mouse cartoon "Sorcerer's Apprentice", for every few magnets I gave away, they kept multiplying. Finally, I stopped buying the magnets, which stopped their multiplication like the real sorcerer stopped the brooms carrying the water that flooded his house. 

11 hours ago, clo said:

It IS kinda funny how many have red/white/blue in some combination.

 

That's actually the best those flags looked.  First I stuck each one in Play-Do and down in the dirt.  They fell over.  Then we duct-taped them to the outside wall of the planter.  They blew/fell down.  I think next year we'll put them in the planter - like that one - across the back of the house.  Less wind.  But it IS fun, weighs almost nothing and takes up no space.  

Yeah, I agree w/the red, white, and blue colors in various European countries' flags: French, Dutch, Russian Federation, UK's Union Jack, etc. Have you also noticed how the South African flag uses all the colors in the Olympic flag? Also have a look at how similar Belgian and German flags are: black, yellow and red in different stripe configurations.

Two other points: 1. Have you noticed just how similar the Argentine and Uruguayan flags are w/respect to using a smiling sun? The Uruguayan flag has the smiling sun in the upper left field while the Argentine flag has the smiling sun in the middle white stripe. 2. The Aussies and the  New Zealand flags are almost the same except for how the Southern Cross appears. On the Aussie flag, the Southern Cross is at an angle to the star representing the island of Tasmania, while the New Zealand flag has the Southern Cross in a straighter position. 

One last item before I post this message: the study of flags is called vexology, something I learned a few months ago doing those fun online quizzes. So now you have a fun trivia response for the next time your family plays Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy!: What is Vexology? 

51 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I have never been into jewelry.I am very happy with my Timex watch that I have worn for years.

One problem I've encountered w/jewelry such as rings I bought in the islands is that their stones are more glass than actual precious stones such as emeralds, rubies or sapphires. I wonder how many customers are scammed in that manner when they attempt to sell the jewelry to fund short-term cash needs and discover that their jewelry is worthless. 

On 7/4/2019 at 8:43 PM, clo said:

Didn't get these, well, maybe one, from a cruise....  But when we travel we've started picking up small flags from countries we visit.  We didn't start this way back so the Western Europe ones are missing.  But here's what we recently did with them.

 

Oh, what an interesting way to display your flags. Did you know that the current flag of the Russian Federation is based on the one from The Netherlands? When he went on his Great Embassy tour of Europe during the 1690s, Tsar Peter the Great adopted used The Netherlands' flag as the basis for the Russian flag, and reversed the stripe colors (white on top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom. [Source: Peter the Great, His Life and Times, by Robert K. Massie.]

On 6/4/2017 at 7:54 PM, kdn hawaii said:

Idk if you can get any on a cruise ship but I remember someone I met on a cruise in Europe who collected patches from different places he had been to. He had them sewn on his backpack. He gave us a patch from where he was from, which was so nice of him. I thought that was a neat way to remember different places you've experienced.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

What sights did the patches show? What shops did this fellow guest visit to buy them? I used to to buy patches, too, but usually I specialized in emergency management (my career field) and fire service-related patches. My bro-in-law specialized in NASA patches. As in lapel pins, you have to know what you own before you think about trading a patch for something you want.