uktog

We are cruising Singapore to Mumbai on Journey 3rd April.2014. Could anyone point us in the best direction for obtaining an Indian Visa.We

are based in the UK.

 

Many thanks,

But do not start the process until90 days before your cruise or you risk your visa running out before you get home!

We are doing Dubai to Singapore so the wrong order for exchanging in Singapore.

I should have made it clear, we would only be giving rupees to staff from India on the basis they can use it back home - we may not even have excess, I would love some Indian clothes

Thanks Lexdisc

I think I have a plan, sterling and dollars morning 1 and do some exchange on the way back to the ship for lunch!

A middle rate would do me nicely

I am assuming if I change too much some of the crew would be very happy to be gifted my "left overs" as an extra over and above the extra gifts we already will make

Thanks for that suggestion! So no plastic notes there :)

Thanks, that is exactly what I needed to know.

Did you also go to Goa and Kochin?

I am trying to work out where we buy our "item indian" - not sure how many gifts we will take back home and where we will buy them

I appreciate this is a very specific query, but I am hoping someone who previously made the trip we are making can perhaps answer the question.

We are cruising from Dubai to Singapore on Journey and we have three stops in India, the first of which is Mumbai.

As you probably know, the Rupee is a closed currency and as such you cannot get it through out of country foreign exchange providers.

On our first day, we are straight off on a ship run shore excursion which includes a visit to a market where we might want to purchase items. I am aware from others who travel and work there that traders do not like receiving dollars or sterling (though they will take it) as it is not easy for them to quickly get usable currency.

I therefore want to try and get rupees at an ATM at the earliest opportunity - and I suspect others on the excursion will likewise. My question is, can you use an ATM at the port and do they allow a slight delay in boarding the first days excursion bus to allow this to happen or alternatively, what are the other ways that can be used to quickly and easily get some rupees.

Any hints or tips on currency in India from those who have been there in the last two years (there have been changes in the financial system so really only interested in the very recent past sorry)

Thanks

It is attached to post 125

We have stayed in 8059 on Journey - see our comments on the sheet, our problem was a temporary one, I am sure it is resolved now a year later!

It's ok Bill, we knew from earlier in the thread Capt Carl was due on vacation then, so never read anything else into your post!

OOps sorry - you just cannot get the staff these days,

Azamara have all the good ones, I have the rejects!

Updated with the correct info, sorry

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 310813.pdf

August has been a quiet month with updates, a lot of posts looking for info on cabins but not so many updates

Maybe the September returners will give more info, but the chart has been updated with the August posts, thanks to those who contributed information

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 310813.pdf

Sue was one of the most genuine Cruise Directors we ever met. Much more natural than many others and one thing we noticed, whenever we complimented her about an event well run (such as on Summit the Diamond Jubilee party for those from Britain and the Commionwealth) she always said the same thing "I have a really great team of girls and guys" she never took credit herself

As others have said, we enjoyed her company by chance ashore, we offered to move away to give her space and peace and she would hear none of it. She is so like many of her age and style in the UK entertainment business and I suppose some will love it and some will hate it.

We hope she is on Summit when we return next year but who knows

Thank you Bill for the update. Very pleased to read the onboard attention to detail we know and love from Azamara is being applied and I am sure the end results will be great.

Is the internet still free in a RS?

It has never been free in the RS - well certainly not since 2000 when we had our first RS trip

Maybe we are OCD but we always travel with two credit cards (sep banks one in DH name, one in mine) and two debit cards same arrangements with the banks advised we will be out of country.

We each have one credit and one debit card for travel with lower limits in case they are compromised, seeing as banks very kindly keep jacking our other limited up very high, we always ask them to keep one set of limits below 5 figs

Covers as far as we can

Card being compromised

One banks online systems being down (a frequent these days especially if you are abroad as you will be using the card during night time maintenance times back home)

And heaven forbid, one of us not having the capacity to use the card.

I would never expect a hotel to hold anything on a debit card, never even occurred to me to ask

I guess I don't understand the poor credit ratings. If someone is having that hard of a time financially, how can they afford a cruise? .

Poor credit ratings are not necessarily linked to a lack of personal financial liquidity. If you have never borrowed before you will have a poor credit rating, that's how the system works. Also you can have had temporary problems 2,3,4 years ago that you are now well through and this may still be impacting on your history.

The OPs advice is spot on - in this case, the US guests were fortunate still to be stuck in a port that took their local currency but they too might also have wanted an ATM card. I would never ever leave home without both

This unfortunately is the way things are, and the earlier you book the more likely it is that you will be given a less desirable cabin.

I have no problem with the concept of a guarantee but the rules should be applicable across the board. It is not fair that US guests can change to a more desirable cabin within the grade whilst in the UK you cannot.

I totally agree. I have never seen an acceptable reason given as to why this is the case, it's nothing to do with legislation here and if its an IT issue, what's wrong with a manual workaround?

I think it is all relative and how used you are to air conditioning

I have not had an issue with the dining room being too cool, but I have had that experience on Celebrity so maybe Azamara have it better

I would still take a wrap it would also be useful doing the day for temple visiting etc

A question Sue, when you set up the put aside folder do they know you have a package

We stopped putting the pics aside (we do not buy the packages as we do not know use anything other than USBs, wish they would do these) after we were advised on one cruise that they had been instructed by Head Office not to do this as they had so many folders to look after.

That may have just been that particular ship where the photo staff were really lazy and poor, which we covered in our post cruise feedback

As a result of this and also because the quality has dropped so much in recent cruises, although we have pics bought our average cruise spend has dropped from a level that the package would be of interest to the purchase of the welcome pic only on our last cruise. I am not expecting portrait studio quality but for the price paid, a little more picture shot framing and attention to detail would not go amiss. We cannot be the only people wearing glasses (so think about flash bounce) or who do not like parts of the ships superstructure growing out of our heads (gangway pics)

We are also disappointed that the gangway pics no longer have the rim frame of various shots of the port of call, that was why we might purchase one per port because it gave an additional talking point when showing our elderly relatives. Now they are just cheap snaps another cruiser could take but not at cheap snap prices

I hope the Celebrity rep feeds this back to the company, less for higher prices is poor form!

That format works and is clearer thanks

Cruisenut

 

FWIW - your pp did "mess up" that page's font size on my device. This page is OK.

 

Guessing you have more columns than the board can handle. From time to time I see it with large pictures.

Strange, it was fine on my PC but is not good now

Would it be possible to split into two tables - one for "hotel and officers" and the other for entertainers. You could then put the ships on the vertical axis and role (of which there would be less) horizontal and then it would be easier to read and not so prone to the size issues we are having now.

Failing that on other boards documents saved as PDFs seem fine and we can just click on the latest PDF for all the info that way you can keep the format and even add more pics

Sorry either way is work I know but I fear this is become a "beast" for you and everyone so hope you can get a fix for all

Just want to confirm you're still talking about Infinity? So James Cox has been replaced by Ian Crewell as CD? Any comments about Ian?

 

Assume if he just took over that he will be CD for the Infinity Oct. 24 crossing.

Iain Creswell? Not great I am afraid, he is comfortable with Ozzie guests but not with others- not a great listener, quite prone to self publicity but to be fair not the worst CD I have had

Thank you for the kind comments and for the new updates. I leave it to Andy to judge whether it merits being a sticky - certainly the updates re cabins on the Celebrity board are, so hopefully this will be possible

Azamara cabin spreadsheet 050813.pdf

I think Mellissa Snow will be hostess on Summit by then unless the plans have changed again

The lovely Jonnette Sarmentio is on her way back to Century after maternity leave to be the CC hostess. How hard leaving her two daughters at home. Her husbands return contract is in the casino on Constellation so one of them hopes to move soon, most likely it will be Nelson

I read that thread and was hoping management would know now who we would have as we are less than 3 months out!!

 

Thanks!

So you will have read that in the last few weeks the Master has been announced as moving on and they are still working on contingencies, the immediate ones involving other Masters giving up part of their precious time with their families. 3 months out is a long way off and things do happen. We are lucky we even get an insight of who might be looking after us on these boards, other lines do not assist with such information.

Whoever you have will look after you well you can have no doubt about that