penlanspice

1 hour ago, Malemew said:

actually yes it was worth it.

 

there is what appears to be an old sunken pipeline which was over towards where the rocks start to stick out to the right of the beach. 
 

we saw various tangs, triggers, angels, if you look carefully in the gaps between the pipes - anemones and clowns, parrot wrasse I also saw dragon wrasse. Lots to see! There were also some sea snakes but i just kept my distance when I saw them. 
 

 

 

Sounds pretty good, think we'll check it out. 👍 

4 minutes ago, Malemew said:

if you just want white beach, it might be even cheaper to pick up a taxi when you get there as it’s not really that far 😉

the ‘hoho’ bus is just like a little mini bus and the trip to puka felt like it took quite a while 

How good was the snorkeling at puka beach? Was it worth the trip

On 11/6/2023 at 2:57 PM, Malemew said:

Hi

not sure if anyone will find useful. 
we sailed on NCL Jewel. The tenders took us straight to Boracay.

there was a ‘hoho’ bus on arrival, unlimited travel for the day for 200peso. 
we found white beach was quieter with more access to food/drinks/shopping where as Puka was nice but felt busier with less ‘services’ but there was great snorkelling 

the bus did get busy so maybe allow extra time when coming back to ship

Think we'll use this option, ncl wants 41 pounds! To white beach.

Loved your updates, we get on the jewel on Monday in Bangkok.

You sure are enjoying your lives and good on you. Amazing to hear about your trips.

Half of the time people would be better off not sharing information on these sites they just get abuse and criticism. 

If people don't like it don't do it.

Cruise lines charge a shocking price for internet, if it was a reasonable price I'm sure many would pay it, so ideas like these help people out.

10 hours ago, Rob_H said:

 

The Philippines site is on the "free sites" list, like Cruise Critic, so doesn't use minutes. When I tried that it was too slow so I completed them while on a train in Taipei.

 

Not sure for Singapore, we'll find out soon, but it'll probably be faster to do it on land while we're in Vietnam.

 

BTW if you have global roaming on your phone, the Philippines is one of the worst places in the world for connectivity. Late 1990's data speeds (2G  Edge) in almost all places, nearly unusable.

 

We're in Malaysia today, back to modern technology!

Thanks for the reply. We'll prob do it on land then, thanks for heads up. 

We're on the jewel in a couple of weeks from Bangkok, we have to do the e visas for Singapore and the Philippines a max of 72hrs before arrival, did you get any free Internet time to do the evisa before arrival in the Philippines?

On 9/4/2023 at 5:46 PM, BoundForSea said:

Has anyone done Vibe passes on a Fall (or Spring) TransAtlantic? If so did you use them? I know weather varies, however its been staying warmer later into the Fall months and I'm almost wondering if a VIbe pass for a 13ni would be worthwhile? We sail Oct 22nd and head west from Azores for NY which is more southern latitudes (almost as south as North Carolina at 37' North) We enjoy some quiet outdoor time and don't mind long sleeves and pants (or even a blanket)  if needed out there.  WIll they still man the bar and such if it's a little chilly? I imagine if its a complete no go we can request a refund.

 

Thanks

 

We sailed from Southampton to NYC on a 9nt around 7 years around 24th Oct and the weather was really bad, it was extremely rough season too, nothing was open outside as the weather was too bad, I remember some shows and activities were cancelled too.

We've done transatlantic to the carribean many times but that's a lot further south and always had good weather after the first few days.

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

Thanks for coming back and updating us, but I can't imagine why it is taking almost 10 days for NCL to respond.  For them, it is a pretty simple yes or no answer.

It's not as easy as that at the min, you need to fill out the form, the regular agents have no access to that information and at the min and they are taking upto 30 days to respond. Hopefully shiuld be anytime

7 hours ago, CruisingCats5 said:

Hey, did you get anywhere with this? We have an NCL sailing in April that was booked 2 years ago, our 8yo daughter is on the booking and won't be vaccinated (we're also UK). Our TA is being a little bit evasive suggesting NCL may change 100% vaccine policy (despite NCL publicly stating otherwise). 

We're still waiting to hear from ncl but our agent believes she will be refunded. The policy isn't going to change anytime soon.

3 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Given the latest trend in UK and EU countries, unless OP is doing a round-trip out of the UK soon, I just don't see how a cruise ship passenger can travel abroad and/or be permitted to embark on NCL (and, probably, most other cruise lines) or able to fly to another port ... not unless restrictions are eased and vaccination requirements are no longer in force. But, IMHO, not going to happen anytime soon.  Sorry.

 

Between CDC's and US State Dept's advisories, plus the latest WHO comment / forecast on Omicorn hitting EU member countries hard next (search/Google/Bing the news yourself, easily found on BBC and AP News, etc.) infecting many, regardless, despite most with mild symptoms or remaining asymptomatic ... not good.  It is like dropping a nuclear device on the entire cruise industry ...

 

It seems that exercising that option to request a refund instead as outlined & linked above is the way to go.  UK and EU bookings have different rules and terms that govern, perhaps check that out carefully.  

My sister isn't going to be travelling anywhere, she doesn't plan to travel abroad so thats not the issue for her. Its always harder to get resolves with an issues when you book with a UK Travel agent as opposed to a USA agent in our past experiences.

Anyone from the UK can fly to America and get on a cruise anywhere currently, we are vaccinated and still plan to cruise.

9 minutes ago, Beer Belly said:

According to my T/A, it's a process to get $$ in return from FCC....

 

There now is a cash out option available where you have to fill out a form at this link to request it. Guest has to do it, not the travel agent.  https://www.ncl.com/case-submission There is no guarantee they will accept this option. In the comments section at the bottom state why you want the cash out option and not the FCC. You need to give them the original booking number, ship and sail date and attach the suspension notice for the cruise Norwegian suspended back in 2020. Reservation # is: ************...Original sail date & Ship. I've attached the notice you need to attach as well. (at the bottom of the form). If you decide to try this option, I will need to call in again to cancel before you can fill out the form. The groups department is closed today so I would not be able to call back today. The lady said you should get notified in 24-48 hours if they accept your request or not and if approved refunds are taking at least 90 days, maybe longer because of the current circumstances.

 

If they do accept this option, you will NOT get the 25% bonus FCC they gave you when they cancelled in 2020. You will only get the 100% you originally paid, which is $****.** each, total of $****.**, which is what you actually paid for the April 2020 cruise.

 

If they do not accept your request your will need to book something and apply credits by January 31, 2022, for a sailing by December 31, 2022. FCC's can take 14 business days to go back to your Latitude accounts before they can be applied to another booking.

We spoke with ncl about this earlier but its a case of filling in the form and wait to hear from them. Hopefully she will get accepted.

As others have said above when we booked we all thought covid would of disappeared by now and in no way envisioned this happening. I don't see why she should loose her money as this wasn't a condition when we booked to be vaccinated.

I'll report back when we find out.

Thanks

We're all sailing together and still outside of final payment, we were due to cruise in 2020 but it was cancelled due to covid so we took the fcc and rebooked this. 

She doesn't intend on getting vaccinated so obviously can't cruise, just wanted to know if anyone had cancelled as they weren't vaccinated. I know its going to be a situation as they used fcc to book this back 18 months ago.

My sister is unvaccinated and I know you need to be to sail with ncl, what's the situation with booked cruises? She booked well over a year ago now, what's ncls policy?

Thanks

On our two msc cruises earlier this year there was only one housekeeping per day, no turn down, im not sure if they did this before covid or not.

We quite often keep our sign/light out not to have housekeeping, we can live with making our own bed and saving the cabin stewards a job.

https://alaskashoretours.com/

They only require a 5 percent deposit and can cancel 14 days before, which is essential with everything that's going on. 

Has anyone used alska shore tours? Looking to book a helicopter tour with them in juneau next year.

Thanks 

I has the same problem last week, I used incognito I'm the end and it worked fine.

Problem is it couldn't never be completely safe, test upto 3 days before departure and again at port before getting on, if you picked up covid day before sailing or on the day you wouldn't yest positive yet, so you get on vaccinated or not, even if you are you could of caught it on sail day and pass it on to children who are unvaccinated. (If all adults were vaccinated to travel) 

We said sat from Southampton, test today, test before board, test on day 5, temp checks twice a day.

Those people on the seaside, have been around many many other people and touching everything, reality is that others now have it too.

4 hours ago, Aulanis said:

I think (but do not know) in the uk they have to offer full repayemnt of cash paid.

Companies try to hide this and offer vouchers instead  usually with something extra-

in this case an on board credit.

Their general conditions are here

https://www.msccruises.co.uk/terms-conditions

You might also like to ask here https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2741900-msc-uk-cruisers/

if not already covered.    This is a thread on MSC board set up for UK  MSC  as the rules

differ in the US etc.

Maybe try and get something in writing from you r T/A  if booking through them

also ask for a time frame - someone has mentioned 100 days.

 

I got a reply from msc and they just basically skirted around the answer and said if these cruises were cancelled they would be in touch to discuss options but didn't have the answers available at this time.

My thinking is they've given refunds all the long so this shouldn't change.

They obviously do the same thing as other cruise lines, airlines etc and try to only offer you the credit until you ask for a cash refund, we've had to do this a number of times over the past year.

It states drinks and food from room service menu so does that mean there's no charge for the American breakfast for example and the regular room service menu? Is the fee still payable?

Anyone know?

Thinking of booking a UK cruise with msc in June but little hesitate over the cancellation policy, we would only book if we can get a full refund if the government stopped them travelling, my ta said they have given refunds all the long but I can't find this in writing anywhere.  Anyone know?

This post was from back in July last year, but thats for you multiple quotes from my post and telling me I'm committing fraud and they don't record all phone calls etc, great reading 🤣

Just for your information they do record all phone calls and after listening to the call, which they also sent me, I had my cash refund for this cruise. I was told I'd get a cash refund and thats what I got. 

Thanks for your input tho.

Same for us, you can't see the 10% discount on your account. We booked a cruise last night with our fcc, got the 15% latitude discount and also the 10% discount ontop.

1 minute ago, rachiem said:

Can you ask for a recording of your conversation?

This is what we have done, apparently we have to wait to be contacted, then put it in writing!