Eli_6

@marazul Thank you for your response. The booking portion (at least on my computer) is in Italian even when I select English.  Do you know what I book to see the main cathedral, underneath where St. Peter is buried, and to see the Sistine Chapel?

Hello, I am taking a tour with Rome in Limo.  The link they provided me to buy tickets to The Vatican does not work. I asked for another and it still doesn't work. Does anyone know of the official vatican website where I can buy tickets?  When I google, it takes me to a bunch of third-party websites. 

Alternatively, can I buy them on the day of?  I did that when we were there before, but it was in 2007 so things have obviously changed. 

When I have been on the Pride, all decks were quiet. However, I have only sailed her in Europe.

So, as an update to anyone searching this forum in the future, an Auzzie on one my Splendor facebook pages who has recently cruised on her said that Splendor has starlink now. 

So, no one knows if the Splendor has starlink?  I guess I will ask John Heald. 

On 5/2/2024 at 12:11 PM, 1025cruise said:

My humble opinion: For a transpacific cruise, I would not put any guarantees on there being a usable internet signal for the entire voyage. I would expect there will be times when there is no coverage.

It is Australia to Singapore.  

On 5/2/2024 at 1:18 PM, jimbo5544 said:

Sounds weird to me.  Wonder why they would cut back so much.  

I think because it takes so much longer to go around the horn of Africa as compared to through the Suez Canal.  However, I personally would rather skip some of the Spain/Portugal ports and have still gone to Phuket, Bali, etc. I don't see why they couldn't have kept some of the Asian ports. They literally cut them ALL out.   

4 hours ago, jsglow said:

You're making the right call @Eli_6. The only folks who should be in those west Asian waters are sailors with big guns. Enjoy your Sydney/Singapore run. Is that Splendor going for dry dock?

Yes!  And I am super excited. 

The revised itinerary came out last week for our Princess world cruise segment and it had us going from Sydney to Barcelona with stops at 1 other Australian port, South Africa, 1 stop at some other African country, 1 stop at some Portugues island, Gibraltar (already been), 2 Spain stops at places we have already been, and ending in Barcelona (also where we have been twice)...and 31 sea days on a 41 day cruise.  Originally we were supposed to go to Bali, Phuket, multiple other stops in Asia, Oman, Jordan, Israel, Greece, and end in Rome. There was even an excursion to the Taj Mahal we wanted to take!  I get why they changed it.  I really do.  But that doesn't mean I want to drop 25k for the cruise plus the price of the airline tix plus 41 days of no work/no income for my husband to spend 3/4 of the cruise on sea days and half the other stops at places we have already been. 

So, I started searching other Australia/Asian sailings and saw they had two really great rooms next to one another on the Splendor. It doesn't have as many Asian stops as we were originally supposed to have on the Princess world cruise, but it is a FRACTION of the price...and certainly has more than the current Princess w.c. has.  I also really love the Splendor's layout despite the weird pink circle decor.  We got two of the scenic ocean view rooms with the floor-to-ceiling windows. I have always wanted to cruise in one of those rooms!  And hubs even got a casino deal where he got $750 OBC and a pretty cheap room.  I, unfortunately, did not get the casino offer but it still wasn't a bad price for a 16 day cruise stopping at some really cool places even at the "regular" VIFP rate.

I am not holding my breath as we are about to cancel our Princess WC segment because it was re-routed in such a terrible way that we completely skipped Asia and the middle east and it was literally the Asia/ME segment of the cruise!  31 sea days on a 41 day cruise.  I know Carnival Corp isn't responsible for the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea but d**n, how can you just completely skip an entire continent and call it a w.c.???  We are now doing a Sydney to Singapore cruise instead. 

I convinced my husband and younger son to go with us on our Sydney to Singapore cruise. (Originally, it was just going to be older son and I.)  The room next to us came open and I found us business award flights home (still working on flights out there) and hubs decided he would go.  My question is this: What will the wifi be like on the Splendor? Hubs would like to keep in touch with his office.  We took Splendor to alaska and the wifi wasn't great, but I know they also have gotten star link on many of the ships since then.  Does anyone know?  

Well, I can't seem to find anything about travel insurance on these Australian cruises so I ended up buying an online travel medical policy through nationwide and if I use Amex to pay for the entire trip, it will provide trip interuption so I guess I am just going to do that...

Question 1: Is the carnival insurance not offered on Australian/Asia cruises to US residents?  I am about to finalize my booking for a Sydney to Singapore cruise and it is not offering me the option of insurance as far as I can tell.  

Question 2:  What does it cover?  I have a platinum amex that covers for free trip interruption, delay, etc. but it doesn't appear to cover any emergency medical or accidental bodily injury.  Does the carnival insurance cover this?  

So, my Princess world cruise "segment" that was supposed to go from Australia to Asia to Middle East to Europe was re-routed so that it is now a 41-day cruise with 31 sea days with no stops in Asia or Middle East.  Further, I have been to 1/3 of the ports it goes to already and have no interest in a couple of the others.  I am canceling it and started looking for a substitute.  There are not very many summer cruises to Asia other than just the ones that go around Japan. However, I found the Carnival Splendor going from Australia to Singapore July 21 to August 5th.  It is less than 3 months away but was able to find 2 reward Biz tickets to Australia and 2 more reward biz from Singapore back to Houston.  Husband can't go on short notice and my younger son said he didn't want to go. Older son is all in, though, and super excited.  So, it will be and my 11-year-old going around the world...literally.  Will anyone else be on this cruise: Sydney to Singapore July 21 to August 5?  Anything I should know? Any tips on traveling in this part of the world?

I got the email regarding the actual schedule for the re-routing.  It is ~30 sea days and 8-10 ports...many of which I have no desire to go to or have already been to.  Not even slightly recognizable as the same initial itinerary that went to Asia and Middle East and many bucket list destinations. Not even ending at the same place  Not stopping at even one single port in Asia or Middle East.  I will be cancelling. 

6 hours ago, DCThunder said:

The leg that was supposed to go from Dubai to Rome via the Red Sea/Suez, has been changed to depart from Cape Town and stop in Walvis Bay, Cape Verde, Canaries, etc and then into the Med.  Those of us on that leg got an email yesterday with the new itinerary.  No additional charge and $300 of OBC as a "courtesy".

 

I guess the leg from Sydney to Dubai, will now end in Cape Town, but I'm not booked on that so don't know.

Thank you for answering my question. I was supposed to be on the 36-day leg/legs from Sydney to Rome through the Suez Canal.  I am hoping they re-book us on the South Africa to either the Med or Dover if the route for 2025 is the same as 2024 rather than the 19-day Australia to South Africa that only stops a couple of places in Australia. 

19 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I think you should ask the moderators to retitle your thread.

 

Q re re-routing of world cruises

 

Nothing indicates which ship/cruise line (Q is for Queen or Question?) is being impacted.

 

Thank you.

This is the Princess board. I am talking about the Princess world cruises. The original itinerary for *all* of the Princess world cruises go through the Suez Canal. 

I am on the summer 2025 Crown Princess sailing from Sydney. 

20 hours ago, Cruise NH said:

Could you let us know what it said?  Where are they going, around Africa?  Thanks.

It said that by the end of April they would let us know, but that they weren't going through the Suez Canal. Let me see if I can attach a copy here.  

I got a letter re my summer 2025 w.c. being re-routed.  We are on the segment that was supposed to go from Australia to Rome through the Suez Canal.  For those of you who were booked on this segment for the 2024 cruise, did you get re-booked for the 19-day segment from Australia to South Africa or the 37-day segment from South Africa to London?  I am hoping I get rebooked for the SA to London because I don't care about floating around in the Indian Ocean for 2+ weeks. 

I was looking at the cruise when panorama leaves dry dock in Singapore and there don't appear to be any Havana rooms available for booking.  I looked at it when it first came out and there weren't any either. I do not believe given the open availability otherwise of this cruise that the Havana rooms are all booked up. Are they not going to have the Havana rooms after dry dock?  

Is there a way to pay for princess excursions with a princess gift card?  On the website, it appears to only allow me to either pay with a credit card or paypal.

If this is still going on in summer 2025, we will be canceling. I am not flying from Texas to Sydney, Australia and spending all but 3 or 4 of our 36 days at sea. 

3 hours ago, CruisingFox27 said:

 

The itinerary is considerably changed, they aren't just skipping ports, originally they were going to Egypt, Saudi and Jordan, then as above, they were going to Cyprus and Malta, replaced with Malaga and Alicante. Presumably they'll now do SA, Mauritius and Madagascar etc before crossing over to South America as scheduled.

 

Costa have just cancelled their March 9th repositioning sailing from Dubai to Italy, MSC had already cancelled the Virtuosa sailing from Dubai to the Med/UK for April.

 

Whatever the Island Princess does, it isn't going to be sailing through the Suez Canal to return to Europe. After Singapore and Malaysia they could sail over to Mauritius, South Africa and return via the West Coast of Africa. That's just a guess on my part, but something along those lines would make sense.

It goes Sydney, Brisbane, Airlie Beach, Bali, Singapore, Phuket, Sri. Lanka, Salalah, Aqaba (Jordan), Suez Canal, Israel (obviously not going), Crete, Naples, and Rome.

So do you think they would head down to the Africa after Sri Lanka? I am anxious to hear what the route will be as I am on this 36-day leg next year (2025).  I am starting to wonder if I should plan an alternative trip. They have some nice ones on Oceania and Azamara that just stick to East Asia.  I did Princess because of my kids and wanting to see the middle east, but that's more and more sounding like it will be out. 

On 1/27/2024 at 12:51 PM, CruisingFox27 said:

Yes,  stopped at  Namibia and now enroute to Durban.

 

The situation is worsening in the Red Sea area, spring journeys through the Suez do not look very likely. We're booked for April '25 and I'm starting to doubt that happening. 

So, what ports are they skipping to make up for the extra time it is taking to sail around Africa?

Any updates?  I guess Poesia is going around Africa.