TxCityKat

Howdy Nadersmom!

If this will be your first time to Texas, let me be the first to welcome you with a hug!!  

Here is the Weather Channel link to Galveston, TX: https://weather.com/weather/today/l/49a0ee1a4e600460186b14ecb345f1a0f9edea44c6f8052c0a452aecd661bfdf

Bookmark the link or put it in your Favorites. When closer to your cruise, check it to see what the weather will be like on Galveston Island for when you will actually be here. Note the area at top where you can pick Hourly, 5 Day, 10 Day, Weekend or Monthly. That way you will have the Weather Channel's version of what is actually going on instead of you just going by averages for that time of year.

To give you some statistics, I looked at November 2019 in Monthly and found the following:

71.0^°F    Average High

57.0^°F    Average Low

88.0^°F    Record High

26.0^°F    Record Low

3.42 in   Average Precipitation

And Barsnikel is correct about a cold front moving through that might change everything while you are here. All it takes is for some Okie up in Oklahoma leaving their gate open! Then all that cold you ARE used to will sneak on down here where we are NOT used to it.  

Happy sails,

Kat 🐱

Aldeya,

Thank you for your post and I agree about this forum as well as others! However, just posting your message on this forum is not what needs to be done. Remember, since Cruise Critic does not review messages before they are posted and cannot read through the thousands of messages posted each day, they depend on you, me and all our fellow Cruise Critic members for help.

As stated in the Guidelines, "We encourage you to utilize the reporting system built into the board system; you'll find a Report a Post icon located in the upper right hand corner of the posting. Use it! We will review the report and take appropriate action."

If you see any posts or threads on any Cruise Critic forums that are off-topic or violate the Guidelines, just click the ellipsis (the three dots next to the post number) for options. A list will appear. Click Report so the Report post screen will open. If it is a whole thread that needs to be reported, click the ellipsis on the first post in the thread for the Report post screen to open.

You will see a list for Why do you want to report this? If your reason is one of the reasons listed, click the radio button next to the reason. If it is not listed, just type your message about the problem post into the Report post text box where it says, "Optionally enter a message with your report." When done with your message, click Submit Report. Your part is done at that point. Please do not quote or reply to the reported post. Your quote or reply post as well as any other posts or quotes concerning the reported post or thread will be removed from sight along with the reported post.

A User Reported Content list of reports will be generated for review to all volunteer Hosts/Moderators and Administrators/Staff. The reports will automatically show the important information they MUST have such as the forum name, thread title or post in addition to your message.

The volunteer Hosts/Moderators or Administrators/Staff will review your Report post report when they can. I say "when they can" because all e-mails and Report post reports to Cruise Critic are answered in order of receipt. With almost two million members and some sending e-mails and reports 24/7 from all over the world, please be patient for any action. Also, please remember the Hosts/Moderators are non-paid volunteers and work the boards when their real life permits. Most Administrators/Staff work regular weekday business hours.

I hope all this information will be helpful!

Kat

1 hour ago, navybankerteacher said:

Yes, I do - but it cannot be mentioned here because CC sees it’s a competing travel agent...

Actually, Cruise Critic is not a travel agent worrying about competition. From the Guidelines:

Do you sell cruises? Are you sponsored by the cruise lines? Do the cruise lines pay you to say good things about them?

Cruise Critic is not a travel agency; we do not sell cruises. We do not rate or recommend travel agencies. Our mission is to help travelers plan the best possible cruise vacation.

We are not sponsored by any cruise line. Like most websites, we do accept advertising and, at times, partner with cruise lines for contests, events (such as Meet & Mingle parties).

At Cruise Critic our mission is to provide balanced, unbiased reporting and take our journalistic credibility seriously. It is central to this mission for the site to provide you, the reader and our members, with an accurate and reliable resource on all aspects of cruising, and we do so by pairing our editorial content with thousands of reviews from our members of the site. Cruise Critic accepts advertising, but it remains strictly impartial from an editorial standpoint -- something which is made clear to all advertisers.

And yes, Cruise Critic has a Find a Cruise feature, but it just helps members compare prices from multiple sites. They can start their search by destination or month.

Regarding travel agent recommendations also from the Guidelines:

Travel Agent Recommendations

There shall be no third-party recommendation (whether positive or negative in content) of travel agencies on any forums within Cruise Critic. General discussions regarding the TYPE of AGENCY to be used to purchase a cruise will be allowed, as long as no recommendations for any source of purchase are posted.

Touting of your personal cruise agent or cruise line "personal cruise consultant" (or any other venue by which you purchase a cruise) is not allowed on our message boards. Postings that contain "tell them John sent you" will be removed without notice.

This means you should not ask about someone's travel agent, nor should you respond in kind. Offering to email someone your travel agent's name or info is also not allowed, nor is asking members to email you for the information.

Cruise Critic will remove violations of the "third-party recommendation" guideline without warning. Additional posts may result in permanent suspension of your posting privileges.

Just trying to help if any newbie members (Howdy! ) reading this thread need to or want to know the above information.

Kat 🐱

From Community Help Center above:

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For questions or comments regarding the management of our community or any user-generated content you find on our site, or for media inquiries, please contact our Community Manager at: community@cruisecritic.com

Howdy richbum!

You might want to also post your question on the Family Cruises forum. That is a good place for suggestions/advice when cruising with children.  

Kat 🐱

Howdy @Chiquitamar 

Thank you for your post. However, please note the following information at the top of the first page of this forum:

Note:  This area is intended only for questions and answers relating to technical assistance in using these message boards.  Please do not post general cruise-related questions or Roll Calls here.

Please read the following from: What is a Roll Call? Everything you Need to Know 

Shore Excursion/Tour Shares in ROLL CALLS

This is an excellent benefit of participating on your ROLL CALL. If you are sailing on a specific ship and departure date, you may post your share request on the specific Roll Call topic for your cruise. You are targeting the specific group of people who would be most inclined to share since they are already sailing with you. Please remember, do not start a new Roll Call topic on the Roll Call forum or any other message board forum with your share request. Use your existing Roll Call topic to post your share request. Please note, our Guidelines do not allow personal ads looking to share shore excursions/tours, transportation, etc. anywhere else on Cruise Critic.

I'm New Here, Can I Post Looking for a Shore Excursion/Tour Share?

Technically, the answer is yes. However, our ROLL CALLS are not a classified ad area for your tour share. They are, as mentioned above, a place for cruisers to get to know one another before they sail. You will receive a much better response to your TOUR SHARE REQUEST if you take some time to read the entire ROLL CALL; get to know the other members and allow them to get to know YOU first! That is the spirit of our ROLL CALLS.

If my ROLL CALL is slow may I post it in other forums?

No. Please don't post topics looking for others cruising with you or share requests for tours, excursions, transportation, etc. on any of our other forums. Roll Calls became so popular that there was a need to set up a separate area for them. We ask that you keep Roll Call type discussions on your existing Roll Call topic in the ROLL CALL forums and keep the other forums open for general cruise discussions according to forum topic

You should not start a new thread on any forum regarding share requests for shore excursions/tours, transportation, etc. You should always post your share requests on the existing Roll Call thread for your sail date which you have already done. 

I sincerely hope this information will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic! 😊

Kat 🐱

Edited to add: In the future, I suggest you post your e-mail as msprovince at aol dot com to prevent harvesting by spambots. Or, just set up a special e-mail address just for correspondence relating to Cruise Critic.

For those that think the "list" is just an urban myth, Cruise Critic member Wennfred  (aka Fred) is the person that photographed the e-mailed list on display in the Carnival Splendor galley and posted it on the Carnival forum. See mention of the incident in the Cruise Critic article titled The Truth About Gratuities at https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=298.

AND HEEEEEERRRRRE'S....... WENNFRED!!!!!  

Cruise Critic Host Randy, now known as Randy & Carmen, was contacted by Carnival. He posted their remarks in post #248 at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/930627-the-prepaid-gratuities-removed-list/page/10/?tab=comments#comment-18158247. And then per Fred's request, Host Randy locked the now archived thread.

Kat 🐱

Here are some previous threads that should help:

From the Community Help Center tab above:

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We're sorry; there is no assistance available via the telephone. 

For questions or comments regarding the management of our community or any user-generated content you find on our site, or for media inquiries, please contact our Community Manager at: community@cruisecritic.com

Howdy again @CSAU!

Was your review a "one note" review consisting of JUST your bad experience? Did you cover ALL aspects of your cruise good & bad in detail? Was it JUST a short one paragraph review about your bad experience? Note the highlighted parts of the following Tips for writing a great review shown by Cruise Critic when anyone starts to write and submit a review for publishing:

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Writing a Cruise Review for Publication to Cruise Critic

We encourage all of our members to Write a Review for publication to Cruise Critic

Here are some great tips to help you write a review on Cruise Critic. Remember, your experiences help other travelers, so we look to publish reviews that cover a majority of this criteria:

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and

From time to time, Cruise Critic management is contacted by Tour Operators/Guides/Business who request removal of negative posts about their company. You should know that Cruise Critic will never remove negative posts from the boards at the request of any tour company, cruise line, store, shop, taxi company, driver, guide, etc.

As for the negative reviews being censored and filtered to create biased rating for the cruise lines, this is absolutely not true. Only "one note" reviews, "letter to cruise line" reviews or "short paragraph-long" reviews are returned to the member with an explanation as to why the review could not be published. Cruise Critic wants well rounded reviews containing both positive and negative information regarding a majority of the requested criteria as mentioned above.

Hopefully, your review was well rounded and covered a majority of the criteria. Also, the delay in publishing is only due to a large volume of reviews to be processed by the Cruise Critic staff at this time. From my experience, they are processed one at a time and in order of receipt.

Wishing you lots of good luck 🍀 in your review being published shortly!  

Kat 🐱

Note the following at the bottom of each  Cruise Critic page:

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Perhaps that has something to do with cruisecritic@invisioncloudcommunity.com?

Just a friendly  reminder to all regarding the Charitable Organizations in Ports of Call section in the Guidelines we agreed to follow when registering for our free Cruise Critic memberships:

Charitable Organizations in Ports of Call

Which cruise line at which pier? Walking from the Old San Juan Pier or Pan American Pier?

9 hours ago, kittenjing said:

I would like to know what cruise ships offer single cabins?  I heard NCL had a few - I'm looking to British Isles for 2020.  Would consider also Portugal/Spain as well.  Any comments would be appreciated.

Perhaps the following Cruise Critic articles will be helpful:

7 Best Cruise Lines for Solo Travelers

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=419

The Truth About Solo Cruise Cabins

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1989
 

9 hours ago, LHT28 said:

maybe ask on the solo forum you may get  a better response

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/279-solo-cruisers/

Or the Singles Cruises forum:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/85-singles-cruises/

14 minutes ago, clo said:

LOL.  Is there any way on this site to private message?  I'd like to connect with you.

The PM feature is not in service for members. However, you can receive PMs from CC staff, administrators, Hosts or Mods.

Howdy @leenie59!

Welcome to Cruise Critic and glad to have you aboard!

However, the FB page info is not allowed on any of the boards. See the following portion of the Guidelines we all agreed to follow when registering for our free Cruise Critic memberships:

Our Policy Regarding Facebook and Roll Calls

Thanking you in advance for your cooperation and I sincerely hope this information will be helpful.

Kat🐱

15 hours ago, sandytxtx said:

What parking lot has a schuttle that can carry 2 wheel chairs

You might want to check out the Disabled Cruise Travel forum at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/114-disabled-cruise-travel/ since that's where cruisers with physical limitations share their advice & experiences. I'm sure someone there will have cruised from Galveston and parked their car in one of the parking lots. They should be able to give you the answer you seek there.

Also, if someone is a Disabled American Veteran or Purple Heart Recipient, parking is free at the Port of Galveston Parking. See their website for what is needed to qualify.

https://www.portofgalveston.com/92/Cruise-Parking-Discounts

Kat

On your Roll Call thread where you have already been posting:

Share requests may only be posted on the Roll Call thread for your cruise. See the following thread:

If you are trying to send a PM, the feature is not available to Cruise Critic members.

Did you receive an e-mail stating your review had been received?

See post #4 for important information in the thread titled Review Submission Questions - (my review is not showing up) at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2626192-review-submission-questions-my-review-is-not-showing-up/.

Kat  🐱

15 hours ago, Rhysmorgan said:

... Any particular staff member who should be given a personal tip?...

Howdy Rhys!

Congratulations for going on your first two cruises! I feel you will find you love ❤️ cruising just as we all do here. Welcome to Cruise Critic! 👍

Since you are a first time cruiser, I feel it is important for you to know there are people you should tip that are not included in the pre-paid gratuities or any tip pool or do not work for the cruise lines. USA dollars are gladly accepted worldwide, so come stocked with singles, fives and tens.  💵💰

The baggage handlers who take your bags on arrival at the port work for the port, not the cruise line. They won't share in the pre-paid gratuities or any tip pool. Consider treating them as you would a bellman at a hotel -- a customary $1.00 or $2.00 per bag will do. When your cruise is over, if the port workers aid in getting your bags to your car or a taxi, the same amount would be courteous. 🛳️🏷️💼

While cruise lines generally don't charge for room service, though charges are becoming more common on some lines, it's customary to tip room service delivery staff $2.00 or $3.00 in cash each visit based on the size of your order. From my experience, they are usually in and out in a flash, especially during the morning coffee rush. Try to have the cash in hand so you will have a quick hand-off as they scoot out to make their next delivery. It is usually a different person each time so that is why you do not wait to give only one of them $ at the end of your cruise. ☕🍽️🥗🍰

If you book any shore tours/excursions through your cruise line or independently on your own, the guides and drivers work for the tour operator, not the cruise line. For a half-day tour/excursion, give the guide $2.00, or $4.00 up to $5.00 for a full-day. Consider giving more if there was any sort of special personalised service. And don't forget the driver with $1.00 for half-day tours/excursions and $2.00 for full day ones.  🚌🚕

And if you have a winning streak in the ship's casino, remember to tip your dealer as you would back on land. There is no standard for tiping dealers, so use your descretion based in relation to your winnings. ♠️🎲♥️♠️🎲♦️

Now the above figures are just a guide to what I do and are just suggestions for you. I'm a short, fat, old cat lady living on a fixed Social Security income. So for you or anyone reading this, please use amounts you feel are best for you and are what you can afford.

I sincerely hope this information will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic!

Kat 🐱

5 minutes ago, mmpadp said:

Thanks TxCityKat

That is what I was looking for.   However, it is a little more cumbersome to navigate.

You are most welcome!

Well, it ain't perfect... but it is "what we got" now! 😊

Actually, it does. It just does not say "New Posts" as in the previous vBulletin software.

Here in the new Invision Community software, click the Activity tab above. It is between Forums and Gallery and over Meet & Mingle. That will take you to All Activity at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/discover/.

Kat 🐱

On ‎8‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 3:24 AM, CruisingViv said:

... I’m travelling from Southampton to Rome.  Anyone here going on a trip around Rome before going to the airport? My flight back to London on the 10th Nov is 1610...

On ‎8‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 5:49 AM, CruisingViv said:

... Anyone on a Rome trip on 10th November which takes us to the airport? For a 1610 flight?...

8 hours ago, CruisingViv said:

Anyone going on a trip around Rome on the 10th October and go to the airport for 3pm ish?...

Howdy again Viv!  

Please remember the only place where a Cruise Critic member may post an "advertisement" or share request on shore tours/excursions, transportation, etc. for before/after/during their cruise is in the specific Roll Call thread for their cruise. In your case, that is the October 31st, 2019, Southampton to Singapore, 37 day Grand Adventure  Sapphire Princess Roll Call thread where you have posted before.

Be sure to read the Roll Calls section in the Guidelines and What is a Roll Call? Everything you Need to Know for very important information concerning the Cruise Critic Roll Call threads.

Thanking you in advance for your cooperation and happy sails!

Kat 🐱

On ‎8‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 1:48 PM, zitsky said:

A little frustrated with Celebrity Customer Service.  Tried to sign up for Connections party.  Thought I was signed up but just called to confirm.  Called Customer Service.  I was told I'm on a "group" booking. (Booked with TA)  CR rep didn't know what I was talking about.  Now she put me on hold with the group department.  Sigh.

 

And now I'm told I need to sign up through the Roll Call, and that Celebrity doesn't manage sign up for the Connections party.  Double sigh.

 

I think I documented this elsewhere, but when I try to sign up for the connections party, I get error message:

 

The booking entered could not be retrieved. Please check your entries.

You did document. I agree with your last post on your previous July 31, 2019 thread Connections email bouncing. My face is sad ☹️ too. I still cannot register since I am booked on a group fare with my group's TA as explained in your previous thread.

Yes, we found out the connections@celebrity.com e-mail address mentioned on the X registration page is not a working address. This is per the thread Cruise Critic Registration is not allowed for bookings in a status other than booked. Also, Essiesmom explained the following: "It's not booking through a TA that is the problem.  It is when that TA has booked you on a group fare, whether there really is a 'group'.  Until everyone booked in that 'group' has made final payment, no individual is considered paid.  EM"

As for you being told X doesn't manage the sign up for the Connections party, all I can say to X is "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" The registration page is on the X website, not Cruise Critic's. X hosts the party, X handles the registrations, X chooses the time, place, refreshments, what X staff will attend and X delivers the invitations to staterooms. Most often, trying to talk to X Customer Service or Captain's Club about having trouble with registration for the parties is a waste of everyone's time. And they seem to always throw it back to being Cruise Critic's fault or Cruise Critic has to "fix" it which is not correct.

As mentioned on your previous thread, members having trouble getting registered has been going on for years. Even though the start date for this thread originally about Connections party details is February 12, 2012, it went off the original topic in post #39 on February 9, 2015 when the X error message "Cruise Critic Registration is not allowed for bookings in a status other than booked" was reported. See the pinned threads at the top of X Roll Call forums titled Celebrity Connections Registration Issues and Connections Party Sign Up Site Issue. Note the start dates are in 2013 and 2014. After all these years, the pinned threads are STILL there because there are STILL the same issues!

Kat 🐱

Howdy SS Bubbles!

Welcome to Cruise Critic and thank you for your first post! 👍

However, this is not the forum for the information you seek. Please note the following at the top of the first page of this forum:

Note:  This area is intended only for questions and answers relating to technical assistance in using these message boards.  Please do not post general cruise-related questions or Roll Calls here.

I suggest you research the forum for your cruise line. I assume it is Princess so the Princess Cruises  forum is where you will find the information you seek.

I also suggest you browse around the different boards a bit so you can get a feeling for what goes where.  Click here http://boards.cruisecritic.com/index.php for the list of all Cruise Critic message board forums and be sure to read all Announcement and pinned posts at the top of the various forums for very important information or instructions before you post.

I sincerely hope all this information will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic!

Kat 🐱