Brewster

Hi, 

I had to cancel our cruise in May due to my spouse's current medical diagnosis (I do have travel insurance but I am not sure if I'll be able to recover due the "medical discovery look back in the policy). It's possible I will get my funds back and it's possible I will not. I cancelled my NCL cruise at Day 96 so the penalty is 25% of the fare paid. I am fine with that. However, our agency just processed the credit and took way more than 25%. NCL won't provide me any information on how the calculation is done. I just want to get back what I am entitled to. Just wondering, I understand cruise fare is charged at the 25% but are the port taxes and fees also charged at this amount normally? Even if the port taxes are charged at 25%, the agent still refunded me a lot less than what I thought I was supposed to get. I know I can dispute this with my credit card company but also wanted to also understand what I am fully entitled to receive back before I dispute anything. Thanks in advance. 

Hi, we're on an upcoming POA cruise in early 2024. For Maui, we are planning on doing the Road to Hana (private tour, no rental car) on day 1 and the Haleakala Crater at Sunrise Tour the following morning. Since the tour gets back at 9:30 AM on Monday morning and the ship does not leave until 6 PM that night, any recommendations on how we should spend the rest of our day (Beaches, any interesting excursions in the area without going more than 30 to 40 mins away from port via taxi/Uber on that day)? Thanks. 

It's hit or miss on the service. On our very recent cruise, we ate in Savor one night and the service was very slow. Likewise we ate in the Manhattan Room another night and the service was great. Seems to be random as far as this goes based on previous comments. 

Hi, I just got off the Breakaway (was a Greece/Italy Cruise). Starlink service was excellent. I had pre purchased the unlimited WIFI(regular not premium) for one of our devices for $200 for a 10 day cruise. The regular is fine for emails, social networking sites, any other websites - just not for streaming video. During the cruise, the price to purchase the unlimited was $30 a day. There was never a discount offered on this price on this particular cruise. One thing that was annoying is that after you purchased the unlimited on one device you lose the 150 mins on that device.  I thought I was going to have at least have 300 mins in total to use on my other device but that was poor thinking on my part. On the positive side, it is very easy to switch the unlimited back and forth between multiple devices so if you are willing to share, it's not an issue having one device on the unlimited plan and the 150 mins on the other (and those 150 mins do go very fast). 
 

On 9/5/2023 at 10:01 AM, KeithJenner said:

We took the Oia excursion in Santorini (on the bus back to Thira now). With so many ships in port there was always going to be a long queue for the cable cars, and it looked like the queue was indeed very long as we went past the old port. It is the cable car that is the issue here rather than the tenders.

 

They use local boats for tendering rather than lifeboats so they are more comfortable.

 

They seemed to be getting through the tender groups fairly quickly.

 

As for the bar service etc, there were no restrictions that I saw in Rome, including for people without the packages. I will check for restrictions here later. We don’t sail away until 10pm so it’s the one that would potentially be a problem if anyone can’t get a drink onboard.

Hi, first off, thank you for providing this information. It's much appreciated. We also booked the NCL OIA excursion on our cruise in Santorini. Approximately, what time did the bus drop you back in Thira? Thanks. 

Thanks all for the replies/suggestions. Yes, it's for dinner reservations. We're concerned since we're a large party of 8 and due to the "non linking" of the reservations, it's been difficult in trying to reserve the main dining options/specialty restaurants (which we tend to do before getting on board). It's a little surprising that Celebrity's technology appears to be quite antiquated and either the Celebrity personnel or our TA is able to address it adequately. It's also a special BDay cruise with my older in laws so I was trying to get everything set before we got on board. It's a "first world" problem but it's annoying that it can not get fixed nonetheless. 

Hi,

I'm a experienced cruiser and this is a new one for me. My family (8 people/4 separate cabins) made a reservation on the Celebrity Apex in January 24 at the same time with the same travel agent. 3 of the reservations are booked in a balcony class and the other one is an OV room. Celebrity's site will only let us link 3 out of the 4 reservations together and states that we can't link the OV reservation since the cabin is in a different booking class. I tried to get this rectified via Celebrity but they said they could not help me and I have to go through the agent. The agent says that this policy is correct and has not been that helpful with the issue at all.  I am trying to reserve meals/specialty restaurants with all 4 reservations and I am not able to do so (and the agent is having difficulty as well). Is this situation legitimate? Do we need to switch agents? Again, I have traveled with many different Cruise lines (including Celebrity previously) and have never experienced anything like this before.  This is the first time I am using this particualr agent so I have no experience to judge if this agency is really trying here. It's for my 2 in laws 80th BDAY celebrations and would really like to work out this issue before we get on the ship if possible. Any suggestions? Thanks. 

Again, thank you for this information. Much appreciated!! It is extremely helpful! 

Thank you. Much appreciated for your very helpful info!! Just one question..for Kauai, is the street where you parked in a neighborhood? Just trying to get a general idea via Google Maps (I'm a huge pre-planner, can't you tell :). Also, assume the area is safe to walk back after dark (looking to take a possible excursion that would get us back around 9 pm. Thanks, again! 

Appreciate all the great advice I've come upon here. I'm trying to plan out my itinerary for my POA cruise in 2024. I'm also seeing how difficult it is to get to and from the airport to rent a car for the day. Thinking of renting a car at AVIS in the morning (since they still have the shuttle to and from the port from what I can tell). Since the POA is docked for one night at the pier, how hard is it to drop the car off at night say 9 PM in the evening back at Avis at the Lanai airport and either getting the AVIS Shuttle (if it runs at that time) back to port where the POA resides (or obtaining a cab/Uber). Being a realist, I doubt the Lanai airport is that busy in the evening so transportation back to the ship is a concern. On one hand I am reading stories about how hard it is to get a cab. On the other hand, with the POA in town, I would think the cabs would be in this part of town (by the pier/airport). If anybody has any experience or insight (positive or negative) on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. 

For the OIA on your own tour from the ship excursion, where in Fira does the tour drop you off at the end (near the cable car)? TIA.  

Just wanted to say thank you so much in your very in-depth and thorough review. Your insights really helped me for our future October cruise on the Breakaway with a similar itinerary. It was really much appreciated!  Enjoy your future Alaska cruise. It's also a great experience. Thanks again. 

Hi, I recently booked (cabin 9818 to be exact) on the Breakaway. Anybody recall any issues with outside cigar smoke on a frequent basis in these cabins that lingers from the Cigar lounge below the balcony. Thanks. 

5 minutes ago, jptoz said:

On my receipt it does say special offer. Maybe RCI is testing the waters. 

My email receipt says the same thing. It does seem logical that this a "special promotion." 

Thanks again for your detailed review. We actually booked the Majesty for Feb 2019... such a big price difference on the suite so we opted for an OV....now that you have been to Havana, wold you consider taking an independent tour the next time? Thanks.

Looking forward for the rest of your review. Seriously considering this cruise to Cuba in Feb. 2019.

Although I have never been cancelled due to a charter, I can certainly empathize with the original poster. Chartering the boat under a year during a typical family break where a lot of people have limited flexibility due to set vacations (school calendars) is just poor customer service/public relations on the part of RCCL. I get that this is capitalism at its best but it still does not make the situation right. An additional $200.00 OBC (with such short notice) in my opinion is not adequate compensation here.

Was on this itinerary last week

We stayed on ship time the whole time.

Roatan local time was - 2hrs to ship time

Mexico stops were - 1hr ship time

Great, Thank you.

Hi,

I am just trying to plan around some independent excursions that we booked. For the current Allure Western Caribbean itinerary (which includes Costa Maya, Cozumel and Roatan), does the Allure ever change the "ship" time at any point or does the ship stay on the Eastern Time Zone at all times. The reason why I am asking is that some of the ports mentioned are in the local CST and Mountain time zones. Thanks.

We were on the Med Jewel of the Seas cruise last July. We booked all of our tours except one independently. For me, the independent tours were better (smaller parties, cheaper, more customized etc). A good place to research is Trip Advisor. We also used Viatour (which happens to be owned by Trip Advisor).

Just as a further tip, if you have extra Euros in your pocket at the end of your cruise, you can still pay your final bill down with them (Guest Services will use a comparable current currency rate for the transaction). I did this in my July 2017 Med cruise.

I also want to say thanks for your in depth review. Enjoying it very much so far.

Thank you for posting all of this! Much appreciated.

We used a car service company last year. Yes, it is more expensive but you will have peace of mind in getting to the port with no issues. I would just consider this an incidental cost of your cruise. Btw, you are in for a great experience. We had a fantastic time last Summer on the Jewel (out of Civitavecchia) and I am sure you will as well.

HI, I was thinking about booking either a 3 day or 4 day Dining plan on the Allure for an upcoming May cruise. If I pre-book the 3 day Specialty Dining Plan and decide on the ship to add another specialty restaurant night to my cruise, would RCCL just pro-rate the charge (works out to an extra $15 PP if I switch from a 3 to 4 day package while on board? In other words, would RCCL allow this change? Anybody have experience in doing this. Thanks.