My Cuba Cruise

[ONT-CA]

This morning when I opened the site and under "Start Your Cruise" and "Search Now" prices were being shown in Euros. Retuning to the site for a clarification, the currency was then Canadian. Either there are specific sites for specific areas and I jump from one to another or each price is equivalent taking into account exchange. But I cannot cross check them. It's all Greek to me. Which says a lot about Europe this morning...

[ONT-CA]

Just slap on a bit of paint. Maybe a few extra flower decals for the Cuba season.

 

 

http://s6.postimg.org/5zlfxaxtt/Si_CC.jpg

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

Ron ~ cute!! ;) Boy you're up early!!

 

Kerri ~ here's a picture of the other guy!

 

http://www.news.odin.tc/index.php?page=view/article/2212/Cruise-liner-Celestyal-Crystal-vs-tanker-STI-Pimlico--Update

 

Chimo!

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[KandCsailing]

http://s6.postimg.org/5zlfxaxtt/Si_CC.jpg

 

 

See, don't even see the boo boo anymore.

 

 

 

That photo of the tanker makes me imagine the Crystal Captain yelling "Ramming speed; full ahead".

[retiring soon]

HI again!

 

Gotta say the Crystal sure made an impression on the tanker!:eek:

Lucky there were no injuries or a fire!

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[burm]

Holy cow. I'm a little slow, but I just realized that it hit right below my cabin. Can you imagine how frightening that would've been, especially if you had been standing on the deck?

[ONT-CA]

Holy cow. I'm a little slow, but I just realized that it hit right below my cabin. Can you imagine how frightening that would've been, especially if you had been standing on the deck?

 

Your cabin? Your cabin?

[burm]

Your cabin? Your cabin?

 

LOLOLOL. What, you didn't see my initials scratched onto all 3 of the closets and the Jacuzzi?

[burm]

Ron, were you able to get "our cabin" for all 3 of your 2016 cruises?

[ONT-CA]

Ron, were you able to get "our cabin" for all 3 of your 2016 cruises?

 

No. For some unknown reason(*) we have to take the Presidential Suite instead of "our" Royal. It will take us a few days of drape shuffling to locate the door to the equally decadent deck. The morning sunrise won't be the same but we will soldier on...

 

(*) We were told that we were instead assigned this suite because the ship now sails counter clockwise from Havana :confused:

 

On a more serious note, when one reads the details of the accident it is a miracle that the two ships did not go up in a ball of flame considering the cargo of the freighter. The minor damage is a hiccup in comparison.

[burm]

No. For some unknown reason(*) we have to take the Presidential Suite instead of "our" Royal. It will take us a few days of drape shuffling to locate the door to the equally decadent deck. The morning sunrise won't be the same but we will soldier on...

 

(*) We were told that we were instead assigned this suite because the ship now sails counter clockwise from Havana :confused:

 

On a more serious note, when one reads the details of the accident it is a miracle that the two ships did not go up in a ball of flame considering the cargo of the freighter. The minor damage is a hiccup in comparison.

 

 

Few people get to truly see how the other side lives. :D

 

I was imagining myself on the deck when the ships collided, point of impact only a few feet from where I stood watching (even closer than where the captain would be standing :eek:). First I would put my life jacket and run. The thought of an explosion would be foremost in my mind. It would be terrifying.

 

Those on the far end of the ship probably barely noticed a bump.

[ONT-CA]

You say tomato I say tamato...:cool:

 

Cristal? Crystal? Seems as though we have our pick. In the last few days, news agencies have used both spellings. Cuba Cruises however now use the "y" when in fact last season it was with the "i". But Y knot? :D

[burm]

You say tomato I say tamato...:cool:

 

Cristal? Crystal? Seems as though we have our pick. In the last few days, news agencies have used both spellings. Cuba Cruises however now use the "y" when in fact last season it was with the "i". But Y knot? :D

 

Cruising around Cuba, I always thought of it as the "Luís Cristal", with the Spanish pronunciation.

[ONT-CA]

Few people get to truly see how the other side lives. :D .

 

In this case, a "West Side Story"

 

As to your envisioned location on "our" deck when the ships collided, because the forward hull protrudes so, you would have been in a position to look down upon the tanker's main deck below, fitted with miles and miles of pipe, some of which would have been spewing jet fuel. The fact that it happened at 1:30 am most probably is the reason there were so few and minor injuries with almost everyone being in bed. However, hitting the tanker broadside as it did must have knocked a few night staff members off their feet if not rolling heavy sleepers onto the floor for she was travelling at 15 knots.

I have to wonder if there was a full emergency signal and what it was like. No mention of it to my knowledge. But surely they would have summoned everyone to their muster stations which of course in our case no longer existed.

Edited June 29, 2015 by ONT-CA

[broberts]

It appears from the bow damage picture that the ship hull is concrete. Anyone know if this is so?

[tring]

All this news is quite a shock, but nothing like as much of one that would have been felt by the passengers/crew of both ships!!

 

Regarding the Cuba Cruise website - I have been into it a few times over the last week looking at trips which have been appearing, and am of the opinion the site is in a state of flux, so presumably still in the making. The prices are currently being charged in Euros from what I saw today, but the price conversion seems similar to what we have been charged in Canadian, (our receipt says CAD - we booked on the net directly with the Canada office). They are also offering free excursions and a drinks package if you book now, but going into our booking, (which was made when the cruises first went on sale in March), we have neither - unless it changes in the future. I feel very badly done to if we loose out. I accept that better offers are made nearer to a cruise departure, but we are still 9 months off and the cruise went on sale late, by comparison to other cruises so it is early days yet.

 

I am thinking that the cruise line could be affected by the situation in Greece as well as the damage to the Crystal as it looks like there is a lot of financial turmoil to come no matter what happens. At least we booked with a British credit card so our deposit will be protected by that if need be. We will also need to fill in a week of our month long trip to Cuba, but that should not be too difficult.

 

The Greek financial position is well reported on our TV as we will suffer some effects as members of the EU, even though we are not a part of the Euro community.

 

Just need to keep fingers crossed all will be OK in the end.

 

We have not long ago returned from a one month round trip cruise from Liverpool which went up the St Lawrence, calling at quite a few smaller ports not visited by the larger cruise ships. We are impressed with Canada - you have a lovely country and the people we met were really nice. Also saw my brother and his wife in St. John's and one of his daughters and her family in Montreal, so a successful visit.

Edited June 29, 2015 by tring

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

tring ~ glad you had a good time here & liked what you saw of our country.

I just returned on the 14th from a tour of Cornwall & a couple of nights in London & really enjoyed your country too.

 

Hope all works out well for Cristal for the Cuba season. As most of you know we did the cruise twice & really liked it but will try something different this Feb., possibly a Thomson cruise. Anybody sailed with them?

 

Chimo!

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[ONT-CA]

...We have not long ago returned from a one month round trip cruise from Liverpool which went up the St Lawrence, calling at quite a few smaller ports not visited by the larger cruise ships. We are impressed with Canada - you have a lovely country and the people we met were really nice...

 

Thank you tring for this information. Would you please advise us of a little more detail about this cruise such as the name of the line, the ship involved and itinerary. We have always wanted to sail a trans Atlantic to and/or from Liverpool, our parents and grandparents having emigrated to Canada via this route. However, we were told that we could only embark/disembark via Southampton. I have been an advocate of a cruise of our maritime provinces via the Celestyal Crystal. So few of our countrymen have had the pleasure you so graciously speak of.

[ONT-CA]

It appears from the bow damage picture that the ship hull is concrete. Anyone know if this is so?

 

With our accommodation and our oft visited muster station being in the very bow of the ship I would say no, steel and steel plate only. Looking at the photographs of the damage, I think that the Crystal may have retrieved a good portion of matter from the freighter when she reversed engines which gives the impression the hull is other than steel. Anyone?

[ONT-CA]

...Regarding the Cuba Cruise website - I have been into it a few times over the last week looking at trips which have been appearing, and am of the opinion the site is in a state of flux, so presumably still in the making. The prices are currently being charged in Euros from what I saw today...

 

The site at the moment is showing us prices in Canadian dollars. Perhaps their system detects the origin of the enquiry and responds accordingly. But as things hopefully do stabilize and as you having booked in CDN$, I would certainly challenge fares that are subsequently shown as being requested in Euros on a one-to-one conversion basis.

[tring]

Just checked exchange rates this morning using this site:-

 

http://finance.debenhams.com/travel-money/exchange-rates/

 

the price we have booked on is ($2407CAD), which would cost us £1279.66

 

Current price shown in Euros for XE grade (that is what is showing to us at present - perhaps they are using that in Europe) is 1731.2 Euros, which would cost us £1263.81.

 

Hence there is a small price difference of £15.85 (less than $30CAD), so pretty mimimal.

 

I can see that if you are booking and paying in your own currency, you would not loose in an exchange rate, so the price would actually be less to you in CAD than for us.

 

I see the details of the trips are mentioned on the site as being included in the cruise, whereas I did see some prices a couple of days ago - that is what I have been looking at recently. The drinks packs do say they can be added to a booking, so I am still unclear if trips will be chargeable.

 

I think we need to leave it until the site is settled a bit before asking the company (I have found email works well from here), but we are toying with the idea of cancelling and rebooking under the new terms. We have flights and hotels booked though, so would need the same departure date of 29th Feb and would loose $100CAD each according to our booking conditions.

 

We would only be interested in two trips:- the nature trip in Maria La Gorda and one from Santiago de Cuba (both of which seemed to be showing as 50 something dollars (about 56 I think), which I had assumed was in CAD, but perhaps not! We will probably look at a non alcoholic drinks pack as well - does anyone know what they have been charging for that in the past as there are no prices mentioned on the site for drinks packs?

 

Any comments welcome.

 

ONT - will post about our cruise later today.

[ONT-CA]

... I see the details of the trips are mentioned on the site as being included in the cruise, whereas I did see some prices a couple of days ago - that is what I have been looking at recently. The drinks packs do say they can be added to a booking, so I am still unclear if trips will be chargeable..

 

Thank you tring for confirming the new international booking system is applying prices to local currency. With the fluctuations in currency underway in Europe at the moment we can appreciate why they are pricing in this manner.

 

By "trips" I assume you are referring to shore excursions. I do believe that excursions are separate costs. I have found these two statements at least on our Canadian site:

 

Quote: Prices quoted on the website include all applicable discounts, taxes and port fees of $178pp. Rates quoted are cruise only for low season departure dates. and DO NOT include air or transfers to/from the ship (except as specifically noted), or any other services or costs on land.

Unquote

 

Quote:Not combinable with any other offer. Valid only for FIT bookings. Bar and beverages, room service, Shore Excursions, onboard and restaurant purchases NOT included. Unquote

 

I further assume you are being offered the 20% discount for the early bookings you have made.

[burm]

I read "something, somewhere" this past week that said there were free excursions being offered. As another Cuba cruise is out of the question for us in 2016, I did not check into it further.

[tring]

Thanks for the replies. There do seem to be different sites for here and Canada, although I am using the same link I always have. I got the prices from going into a mock booking and it def says that excursions and open bar packages are included - and still does. This is, however, for a fresh booking, but what I find confusing is that if you view the excursions, they say 'included in your cruise', rather than give a price to paid. I know current booking rates etc. are usually for new bookings only, but they normally get reduced over here when the final balances have been paid. With the generous cancellation costs offered in Canada that we do not get over here, it does seem that we could be better off by cancelling and rebooking. If they are talking early booking then I do not see how we can be considered not to be an early booking. What we do is to be decided, but we will leave it for today and mull it over.

 

The Euro actually went up yesterday against the £ and the $US (and is still up), which does sound surprising, but it is possible that the thought of a decisive end to the ongoing 'saga of Greece' may have encouraged the markets to support the Euro. Stocks are down though.

 

retiring soon:-

 

Glad you enjoyed Britain. London would not be our idea of a good venue, but after travelling so far there will be things there I can understand you would want to tick off a 'to do' list. We did a one night mini cruise on Thomson Spirit or it's sister ship Thomson Celebrity a few years ago, but the ship takes too many passengers for the tonnage of the ship in our opinion with very crowded public rooms/restaurants. They are less formal than the other cruise lines, so dinner suites are not really seen from what I understand. It will have mostly British package tourist onboard, some doing cruise and stay holidays. They may be more like the Cristal, but I do not know yet.

 

ONT-CA

 

Our cruise was with Fred Olsen who do use a number of ports around the UK, including Liverpool, but the big lines (e.g. Carnival Corporation and Royal Carribean) only offer Southampton and occasionally Dover. Other ports would probably not be able to support a turnaround of such big ships. Most of Fred's ships only carry about 800 passengers, with one that carries 1200 and which will be sailing out of Newcastle next year as well as south coast ports.

 

Our cruise was a one off and nothing similar is currently on sale. They are offering a 16 night around Newfoundland cruise for August and that itinerary is down to be repeated in May and August next year. I am bemused at the thought of that being offered for May and my brother is even more bemused - he told me he has stood on the shore at the straights between Labrador and Newfoundland and watched the icebergs pass by!! He thinks Aug/Sept are viable though. Our 28 night cruise did not sell well, so I would not expect a repeat any time soon. They are all round trip cruises from Liverpool, although a change over at Montreal was offered just before the cruise left Liverpool as they had a lot of availability - very few people did the 1/2 cruise. I believe leaving a ship early does not work as there needs to be facilities for a change around in place. We were told we were on the first passenger ship to sail from Liverpool to Canada since 1972, when the liners ceased that route.

 

I will not go into any more details here, except to say that Fred's ships are older than those run by the big cruise lines and definately more juddery and noisy in the cabins which are to the rear and low down, but do much smaller ports and are quite quiet places, with an older clientelle. The service and food are good though, although one ship has a persistant tummy bug onboard at present - another ship (Boudicca) had probs like that a couple of years ago, but there did not seem to have been any excessive infections in between that time.

 

You will find a number of threads on the Fred Olsen and P&O sections of this site comparing the two lines. P&O is a Carnival brand and I suspect is not quite to the standard of Princess and below that of Celebrity and Holland America, though not totally disimilar. I will do a review of our cruise, hopefully within a week or so which will give some details of ports etc. The ship was Fred's 'Black Watch', which you can search on here.

 

If you want to see the sort of cruises offered I will put a link below for their website.

 

http://www.fredolsencruises.com/?gclid=CJTujNPOg50CFcQB4wodfGGjMA

 

Liverpool has become very popular as both a cruise stop over and a general tourist destination in recent years as there is a lot there now, museums etc. including a big maritime museum. There have a lot of events going on as well - often at the water front, but they can get very crowded.

 

Cheers,

 

Barbara

[ONT-CA]

Thank you Barbara (if I may) for the detailed information. I had a feeling it was not a regular scheduled cruise for I think we would have heard something of it. I envy you the trip for I have always wanted to trace the journey the family made from Lancashire to Canada beginning in 1924 aboard RMS Caronia of the Cunard White Star Line and continuing until all 12 members had landed here.

 

Chimo

 

Ron