SWORRUB1

Ladies & Gentlemen

 

 

Would you risk flying on Flybe from Glasgow to Southampton ON the day of your departure?

Its an unnecessary risk, look at the BA fiasco

In Flaam we did a tour that involved getting another train at the top of the Flaambahn (Myrdahl) and went to Voss I think, where we had lunch we then had a coach drive back to the ship, excellent scenary on that trip, someone said on another forum that it is called Norway in a Nutshell, I cant remember!

 

 

Yes,,there is trip called "Norway in a nutshell". I did it last year but for the life of me I cannot remember where from:confused:

It must have been Flam because I do recall it ended with the train trip down from Myrdal. It was a good day out and we had a brilliant young man as our guide. We also had a very good lunch at a nice hotel near a lake.

If the place you stopped for lunch looked as per the photo yes it was from Flaam!

Stavanger - Definitely do the Pulpit Rock trip - it's very good. Unfortunately we had a rainy cloudy day when we were there back in 2003 so Stavanger itself didn't look as good as it could have done. Hopefully it will be okay when you are there. We're also back there this year on Arcadia and hoping the weather will be kind to us.

 

Olden - We did the 'Toy' Train trip which goes from just over the road from the ship and takes you around a lake, through the village and back to the ship - takes about an hour. We got off in the village and went and had a cake and coffee/hot chocolate in the little restaurant/cafe in the middle of the village - it was very good. The trip to the large glacier is well known and is apparently good, and the one to the lake and glacier is also recommended. Reviews of both trips say they are worth doing.

 

Flaam - many years ago we did a countryside trip that took in a wonderful waterfall, but the train trip is probably the one to do. Flaam is in a lovely position and is a very pretty little village.

 

 

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Stavanger

I would recomend the Pulpit Rock trip as I think that you need to find something to do, Stavanger was a bit subdued for us on a Sunday!

Olden

We did the Briksdal Glacier from Geiranger, which was an exceptionally long time on a coach, must be better from Olden and is well worth it, you need to do a bit of walking at the top to see the Glacier, but it is fantastic!

In Flaam we did a tour that involved getting another train at the top of the Flaambahn (Myrdahl) and went to Voss I think, where we had lunch we then had a coach drive back to the ship, excellent scenary on that trip, someone said on another forum that it is called Norway in a Nutshell, I cant remember!

I don't think that will work. If you pay in advance you will need to use a credit card and will be charged in sterling at your provider's current rate. Buy Obc in advance at the good rate and pay with that when you're onboard.

Although priced in Dollars when you come to pay the amount is converted to GB pounds before checkout if you are in the UK at the OBC rate.The credit card conversion isn't necessary

Thank you so much for your replies. We are still cruising novices, this is only our second cruise. I hadn't thought about having obc before. We plan to take some excursions so am I right to think that you can pay for this with your obc?

You can pay with OBC, but even if you pay for excurtions in advance you will get the same exchange rate as your OBC, you are locked into that rate!

My understanding is that the exchange rate is fixed at the time of booking and doesn't change before sailing date. I haven't checked the rate for our cruise later this year so that policy may no longer be in place, but fingers crossed it is as when we booked, more than a year ago, the rate was 1.45.

You can check this on the webpage on your planner. The dollar amounts of OBC are fixed at $25/$50/$100, so if the cost is shown £12.50/£25.00/£50.00 then the exchange rate is $2/£1, if however if it is showing £17.25/£34.50/£69.00 then the exchange rate is indeed $1.45/£, so stock up on it. You will not be able to get any excess out directly in cash, (methods do exist though) but you will get a cheque after you arrive back, (mine took 11 weeks) so you need to be in a position that you dont need the cash!

Nb

You can search these boards for 'the other methods' too complicated for me I waited for a cheque!

Sknight, I port schedule I am looking at shows 4 ships in port on 6/16, with the Regal at LP31, which is not right at Warnemunde. We have already been to Berlin, so not interested in a 5 hour bus ride to go back. We had planned to walk around Warnemunde, maybe take the train to Rostock. One person in our party speaks fluent German so we aren't worried about getting around on our own.

The locals all speak very good English, its an excellent stop with no help from Buses needed, just wander around!

I never thought of that good reason for waiting.

Tony

I thought you could cancel before you sail anyway!

Hello all,

 

I was on the Oct 27th Regal repo cruise and because of when I booked I was able to buy OBC at a currency rate of 1.20 CAD. I bought a lot of OBC since by the time we sailed the US/CAD rate was 1.35.

 

We had about $300 left at the end of the cruise and I understood it would be about 4-6 weeks before I would receive a check from Princess.

 

The 6 weeks is not up yet, but I'm wondering if the 4-6 weeks is correct and I forgot to find out would the funds be refunded in US or CAD.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks,

Kim

Check out this thread! http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2423977 Mine took 11 weeks

With the AIBP, yes - you can get the Korbel small bottles of champagne. And yes, you can ask for them not to open it so you can take it to your cabin. Not a problem..

Same for the small wine bottles in Horizon Court and such. Those are also covered by the AIBP and you can ask them to not open them.

No problem going to two or three vars and grabbing one from each or getting one any time you go back to your cabin and "stocking up". We've done it with sodas, beers, Champagne splits, and bottled water.. If the bartender asks, tell them the truth - you want it for later. Not a problem.

Enjoy

Had no problem getting unopened bottles with the AIBP in the Summer of 2016 on the Emerald.

In what currency was the cheque? If in British pounds, what conversion rate did they use?

Sorry thought I wrote that in post # 20, however Cheque was in GBP ie the currency of my home country and the exchange rate was the current rate at the point I asked for it, not the rate I purchased it at.

When you are refunded what is the rate ? The same as you purchase or the current ? So damn confusing if you ask me.

The rate ruling when I asked for it. Strange but thats what happened.

:)

Those who book in a foreign currency such as Canadian dollars or British pounds can purchase OBC at the exchange rate in effect when they booked the cruise.

If the value of their currency went down, they can get a better rate buying OBC than any ATM would give them.

 

For example, before Brexit the British pound was worth about $1.46 US.

.....

This is correct I booked my recent summer 2016 cruise in Jan 2016 Exchange rate 1GBP= USD1.54. Bought everything I could at that rate including Excursions and OBC. Had about USD 700 left in the account when I returned. Requested it to be refunded and a cheque turned up 11 weeks after I disembarked. I did try to get a little cash from Customer Services for cash tips but they were reluctant to do this and only in small amounts. Other methods exist for getting cash out of the OBC account and involve getting a casino account and cashing out. These are detailed on this forum.

I know it is 100% refundable back to my credit card ....

Not for me it wasnt I got a cheque 11 weeks later

No, not in my experience they are going to send me a sterling cheque.

I will report further when it arrives

The cheque has turned up today from Carnival.

It has refunded the OBC at the rate applicable when I asked for it to be refunded.

So that's 11 days from their promise of 10-14 days, well done, but 11-12 weeks since I docked back in Southampton. :-(

The moral of the story is to have excess OBC when your home currency is falling, but not when its increasing in dollar value!....and if you need the cash DONT DO IT!

So for clarification any preloaded OBC bought at the booking date £ to $ rate, will be refunded to the credit card / debit card it was purchased with?

Has anyone done this? Is the refund in $'s or £'s?

 

No, not in my experience they are going to send me a sterling cheque.

I will report further when it arrives

crowsnestclub wrote:

Waiting for them to be returned in sterling can take up to six weeks (end quote)

(Why has quotes stopped working for me?)

Ive been waiting 9 weeks now so dont bank on the 6 weeks that is commanly quoted if you need the cash in a hurry!

On our T/A cruise booked before the BREXIT vote we can buy OBC at $1.45 to the pound. On our Norway cruise booked after BREXIT is $1.28 to the pound. A big difference.

 

Will see but for No2 probably not worth buying OBC.

That depends if you think at the point of paying when leaving the ship that 1GBP will equal more than $1.28 with ypur CreditCard provider, that is only something you can take a view on!

mkloins asked:

i can buy in blocks of £16.25 or £32.50 or £65.00.

But I must pay on my charge card before I know how many US dollars that I am buying and then I guess after paying for them I will only know the exchange rate

sworrub1 replies:

£16.25 = $25 = Exchange Rate $1.538 = 1GBP

£32.50 = $50 = Exchange Rate $1.538 = 1GBP

£65.00 = $100 = Exchange Rate $1.538 = 1GBP

You will be charged in GBP by your credit card provider.

So if you purchase GBP650.00 worth you will get $1000.00 OBC

Best deal you will get anywhere!

If you go into your cruise personaliser it will show the cost of buying $25 credit, you should be able to work out the rate from that.

...and indeed $50 and $100.

Yes your exchange rate will be based on when you booked in April.

I am sure I said that! hahahaha:)

Pink-belle commented

I hope you meant August 2016 Sworrubi even so that is a long wait,

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Yes Im a pillock!

It depends when you book.

For example I booked in January 2016 when 1GBP=USD1.54.

The GBP/USD exchange rate then moved significantly so that anyone using USD to buy GBPs got a great deal. Of course the other way around was painful. However a kind poster on this forum mentioned that your OBC rate was actually set at the point of booking, and that this would, if the value of the GBP in Dollars was falling, cause it to be beneficial to purchase OBC. ...and so it proved. My rate was GBP16.25 for USD25.00 OBC, which was roughly $1.54/ 1GBP. Obviously I purchased lots of OBC, as it made a significant difference. Other posters/cruisers on the same cruise got various rates of exchange, following this discovery becoming know via CC and other forums, but as the $ continued to slide everyone was better off purchasing OBC. Obviously if the currency movement was going the other way the tactics would have to be reversed and no OBC purchased but pay for everything upon departing the ship.

I would imagine that other cruise lines operate in the same manner.

One word of warning, any left over OBC will be returned to you by cheque, with the amount to be returned in GBP calculated on what you purchased at, and I am still waiting at present, having disembarked on 6th August 2015 I am not that needy of the cash but some others may be

That price list looks to have familiar pricing, (not that I took too much notice) I was on Emerald in August 2016

I might be missing the point here but...........

20 or so people moaning and 3500 plus just getting on with it, and having a great cruise!!.....

Steve

That is par for the course I think, if you go in peak weeks then you must expect and accept lots of people being about. If you dont like that then go at other times. The other times are subsidised by the peak time travellers!

It was busy, it was frustrating in the first couple of days at the MDRs on this 23rd of July cruise but it was all predictable. I think that the staff coped well once the scale of the problem became clear, most frustrating thing for me was again the sun lounger hogging, and the ability of some groups to get up at 6AM to get a sunbed! However that was their (sad) choice!

There was a rumour that some parents left the children on board ship on port days and with the amount of children running around at times that wouldnt have surprised me.

The good news is that we didnt have the terrible weather that is unfortunately affecting the current cruise, bet there is no sun lounger hogging this week!