jannandjohn

One note: even with a tour you may still encounter some problems, because it's a Wednesday.

WHY is it different on WED?

also..has anybody read this stickie?

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1020622

surely we can pass on research, even if not having done the tour.?.

We have always had a penthouse suite on Ncl, and have never needed to be "shown the door" to our suite.

We have Celebrity suites on Celebrity

And have owners suites on RCl.

We just find our own way when they announce all cabins are ready..

On all cruiselines.

I think you were expecting too much.

Ps..We book these cabins for the extra space, not to have a butler ...

I think NCL let them on without visas.

When the Israelis were denied entry, and went to the press, NCL blamed the Tunisian government.

It seems there is always more to the story, and it makes it easier to understand why NCL did not know beforehand.

This was on a French site..

Tunisie Maritime, the agency that manages cruise ship arrivals in Tunis, says that cruise ship passengers do not require a visa, no matter what country they come from, and that up until last weekend, Israelis were admitted without a visa along with everyone else, no problem.

Then...Saturday 8 March, Tunisie Maritime got a call from the chief of police of the port of La Goulette saying that Israeli passengers were no longer permitted to disembark in Tunisia.

With no explanation.

Tunisie Maritime immediately contacted NCL and MSC.

The Tunisian Ministry of the Interior released a statement this week simply saying that 14 cruise ship passengers were prohibited from entering Tunisian territory on March 9 because they did not satisfy the legal requirements for entry.

That cruise is always a hard sell for Epic, it might help if they added more ports of call.

.

Maybe they could tow a pop-up-port for the odd stop..;)

This will be our second cruise on NCL and as I read the Latitudes perks it states that there will be preferred boarding for us. If that is true just after one previous cruise with NCL I am surprised, since there must be hordes of folks for that.

We are on the GEM out of NYC March 17.

 

...Ott

Did you have an owners suite or similar last cruise?

That gets you up the ladder quicker.

I noticed after reading these posts , that our Jade cruise 28 March next yr, has also changed from Izmir to Kusadasi, no word about it from NCL, but I imagine it will happen eventually..

I do think it would be good customer relations by Ncl, to tell their passengers, before we find out elsewhere though...

eg..like finding out after reading others posts here on Cc.

Not everyone who cruises reads Cc...apparently only about 5%.

What would we do without Cruise Critic.

Are the 2 liners side-by-side? I've seen this with river cruises but not ocean liners.

 

 

Cheers

Steve O

you need to get out more Steve..lol

I agree with portcbob, its a change for the better...

Kusadasi is a lovely port regardless of being closer to Ephesus.

Certainly NOTHING to stress about.

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All the M&G's I have organized and/or attended had about 80% or more actually attending. Only having 35% show up is downright disgraceful! Remind me to avoid the M&G's you attend if that is what happens at those you attend.

Thats nasty...

You make it sound like it was sebas030's fault.

Which I am sure it was not..just bad luck.

It is pretty condescending to relegate them to a buffet salad. Because, there is so much more out there for them. People think vegans live on salad and grilled vegetables which would be very boring..]

There is definitely more than salads to choose from at the buffet, I just used that as an example..but at the buffet she can choose as much as she likes, and would have a bigger variety if she helped herself to it, rather than being served a plate of side vegetables in a steak restaurant.

I once had a vegan stay with me for 4 mths, she was born a vegan , she was 19 and had never had any animal products in her life..she was German, and told me that she had never had as much variety, and such good vegan food as I cooked for her..

I do love to cook, but the thing about cooking everything she ate in separate pots and pans everynight really got to me.

She had never had chocolate or ice cream in her life, because in Germany the cows get such bad treatment..when she saw our beautiful green pastures and said.

".wow, you have happy cows.."

she converted to eating chocolate and ice cream..she couldnt get enough of it by the time she left..:D

http://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/19424_Cagneys_web_breakaway_052113.pdf

 

Not sure how current this menu is but here it is.

so apart from some very basic sides..this is the only actual meal..if you could call it a meal.

Arugula Salad ...(Shaved pear | red bell pepper | red onions | spring onions |

raspberry vinaigrette

hardly worth the cost factor..

I am a happy, delightful, cruising vegan! People know I'm vegan only if they ask or if they hear me order a meal. I have been known to eat some cake that just might have an egg in it! I mean, I'm not an insaneatarian!

I have never had a problem in any dining venues on NCL. They are always happy to dream up something for me, or I just order sides.

good for you..a good vegan:)

the difference between you and "our vegan", is that she would not go to the restaurants on the ship if they were serving meat..she has been on one cruise and absolutely hated it..she had to go to the buffet and get a plate and go back to her cabin..

how awful it must be to want to live like that..we absolutely love animals, and would never harm one for fun, or to be cruel, but they are still a food source on the planet.

so yes, she is an insaneatarian..lol.

Our sympathies. "Vegans" are often political and even militant, in our experience.

They sure can be...ours is..to a ridiculous level.

She goes to every rally, belongs to every group, that is anti using animals for any reason..that even includes horse racing.

She has been known to go to a restaurant with her sister( who bends over backwards to please her) and found out there was meat on the menu..and she has stood up and abused everyone in the restaurant...

She travels a lot,is Aussie of course, so its always a long distance travel, but she always has to research where to eat before she goes, even las Vegas..the land of junk food.(full of animal fat)..there can be no "go in on an off chance" eatery.

she just came back from Morocco and complained that she could only eat vegetable tagines,..what did she expect..they even eat sheeps eyes!!

there is just no give and take at all with her.

we are disgraceful in her eyes because we do eat meat..

last Xmas dinner was awful.. her sister held it at her place, and catered for the one vegan out of 16..which meant we all had to have it.. everyone invited was looking for the meat on the table..

oh, no...only salads..

the men were not happy.

so its just easier to not eat together..ever..

Thank you for all the help. We are dining alone some nights but I didn't want to leave her out when we go to Cagney's with the 2 boys.

Thats probably THE night that you should dine separately.

Because it specialises in meat.

Our daughter is Vegan( which is obviously stricter than vegetarian) she would not be seen in a steakhouse under any conditions.

She wont even go to any family house dinners if meat is on the menu.

Not even at Xmas...if she is there it has to be vegan food.

Its just not worth the drama.....:eek:

So We never dine together anymore..not out...not at home.

Her choice, not ours, because we are wicked animal eaters.

If your daughter is a vege because of the animal issue, she would not be comfortable in a steakhouse.

If she is 18, she is old enough to go to the buffet on her own one night and have a plateful of salad etc, then you can go to Cagneys in peace, without subjecting her to all the steak/ meat smells..it is after all a Steakhouse.

She may make friends in the teen club, and be happy to dine with one of them..

I would have loved to have been separated from my parents at 18..;)

FWIW many people who don't drink alcohol might be bothered by its inclusion in the cruise fare and I hope they never do it

My husband hasn't had an alcoholic drink for 49 yrs, he would not be happy to have to pay for it and then watch everyone else drink it.( and can't have any himself)

I'm too new to know if this is a joke -- would people really quit cruising if there weren't table clothes in the dining room? My family might be in for a real treat at the end of the month ... I can't think of the last time we ate somewhere with a table cloth! Does it make the food taste better?

It would certainly be noisier....

That's interesting, I assumed when I went onto the website that it automatically redirected to the Aussie website, because the prices were in AUD, so is your credit card debited as AUD? And do you only pay the US deposit? Ie only $200 for a seven night cruise or do you have to pay $400? So do they honor the price drop guarantee??

All I know is that I always book direct, pay by Amex, whatever deposit is required for whatever number of days, select my choice of dining, which is always Select dining, prepay our tips as requested for Select dining, then receive my confirmation by email..

When I feel like paying something on the balance, I go into "my Celebrity" and pay through the website..no people involved at all.

If I/we change our minds and want to cancel, I again log in..

click on view reservation..

click cancel this booking..

It asks if I really want to cancel, I click yes..

and voila its cancelled..

I then receive an email saying its cancelled too...

and within 7 days I receive all payments paid back to my credit card, and then on the website log in , it says its cancelled with a section whereby I can restore the booking if I wish to...

or I can delete it forever.

We have done 4-5 cancellations in the past few months because we are fickle on where we want to go next...call it a rush of blood to the head when we decide to book one..:p

We have never gone into any price drop dramas with X...never felt the need.

The only time I did a price drop request was with an Ncl cruise in 2010.

And that was a real surprise..:D

Someone on our Cc roll had mentioned that balcony cabins were going for $10,000 which seemed ridiculously high..

I rang Ncl to ask why they were that high ( even though we had booked a Penthouse ) the rep said it was because they didnt have any available, and rather than say that, they just bumped them up to something people would not pay..

I asked him what Penthouse cabins were going for (then) and he told me..

I said..Wow..thats $2600 less than we paid..and added..thats not fair!!

He said..

no worries ma'am...I will refund the $2600 back onto your credit card....

I had rang 2 days before final payment...

How lucky was I..

So we took the CC member out to dinner on the ship,to Cagneys steakhouse, it was only a token gesture, but if it wasnt for her telling me about the balcony prices going up..

We would never had been aware of ours going down..:D

wondering if we are able to book directly with celebrity in the US? Or will they just direct us to celebrity Australia?

I am Aussie, and always book direct with US,( using celebrity.com..not celebrity.com.au) no problems to book...or cancel.

and it still shows in Aus dollars for the price.

70 cruises and as many land/air vacations booked through my TA. Never paid a cancellation fee. No fees period.

but you are not Australian...different strokes, for different folks..seems unfair.

Because my travel agent spends her commission at my friends hair salon.;)

So you would be happy to lose 1100 bucks in TA cancellation fees even if you didn't have to???

How can they expect to keep $1100 of someones money anyway, maybe they deserve $100 for the paltry paperwork that takes 30 secs to print out and file, but $1100.??? .... Or more in some cases.

No I would not WANT that TA as a client.

Ps real estate agents are becoming parasites too, our friends just sold their house, it took 5 days to sell from one internet ad their agent put on the net...the cost 50,000 .and then they took her out to dinner to thank her....lol.....total madness.

I tried to talk them into doing it themselves, but no, they would rather throw away 50,000..

Its not just Celebrity that agents do this with, but also NCL.

I am a hairdresser , I had a client who booked a cruise with NCL through an agent, I was on the same cruise.

He cancelled via his agent for whatever reason and lost $A 1100 ..

I cancelled also , but with NCL direct ...and lost nothing..

I am at a loss when its so easy to book direct, why do people still use agents?

my travel agent tells me we aren't eligible for this "early bird" deal, and we cannot cancel and rebook. Guess who we won't be sailing with for our planned cruise to Iceland in 2016??:(

 

Also, I have realised there is absolutely no benefit in using an Australian based travel agent if you are Australian-you are better off booking directly with Celebrity. We did this for our Bermuda cruise in 2012, and it was much less hassle. Lesson learned.

Ditch the agents and book it direct,then you can cancel, rebook , whatever .

.as long as its before the cut off dates....no problem.

Sounds like your TA is "having a lend of you"..

We book cruises through Celebrity directly(no TA) and we cancel them often if we find something different or change our plans..everyone does.

We have done this four times in the past couple of months,( we just changed our thoughts on where we wanted to go) one just last week, an Auckland to Perth cruise, we have received ALL of the money back on our deposits within a week..and have even rebooked the same cruise in the past because of a cabin change.

If we cancel it stays on "my Celebrity." Until I delete it..With a function that says restore booking.

So I do not believe your TA.

Especially as its for Nov.