jsn55

Difficult to find room for compassion when your brain is totally absorbed with yourself.

And yet, in spite of all the hard evidence, people insist on doing financial transactions on a PHONE. Astonishing. Ignorant or lazy? I dunno.

Just reporting in ... I beamed up that grey bag. Just clicked on it, looked, and clicked out. Next day it was being pitched to me in a sidebar on AOL. I use a gmail address for this forum. i find this creepy, really creepy.

Amazing the perspective that comes to us as we age, no? You look back over the years and marvel how 'easy' it all was ... we did and wore whatever we wanted. Now we do and wear things that help us enjoy ourselves while not tipping over!

Where's the part about your life as a crew member?

Agree, asking a TA cruise specialist to book air along with your cruise is not spoiled; I can't imagine where that came from. Cruiselines pay generous commissions, lots of people don't care about the details, they just want the air booked. Websites may intimidate them, and they certainly can't call the airline to book a tix these days. While I would come unglued having someone else book my air, many people couldn't care less about the details. Doesn't make them spoiled at all.

One of the chronic annoyances of travel is lack of communication. Actually, that's true of 'life'. To me, it's clear that not communicating is much better for the travel provider. And here's why I think that. It's a great deal of effort to communicate any change with thousands of people. Someone has to work hard to formulate the exact wording of a change notice. The change announcement is made, the phone rings for weeks. Someone has to answer those calls, someone has to interpret the announcement individually (for some pax), someone has to listen to the complaints and rants, someone has to handle all the details of changing flights and reimbursing pax who booked their own air. Someone has to spend time on the phone with pax who want to cancel the cruise, and perhaps rebook it. Then there's dealing with those pax at the last minute who didn't get the announcement and starting all over again, only worse. This entire procedure costs a fortune. So the travel provider just doesn't communicate. If the change announcement is made at the last minute, more pax will tend to just gnash their teeth and deal with it. I think it's purely a business decision. When a situation happens during a cruise, such as shutting off the water to 25% of the ship for 12 hours, there's no excuse for lack of communication. We didn't even get an acknowledgement of the problem, much less an apology!

I have many goofy 'foot issues' and have had for years. After careful trial and expensive error, I've settled on the styles I can wear and the brands that work for me. So often the shoes are fine for a couple of wearings, then become monsters who try to eat my toes. I suggest you troll online at Zappos or Amazon (or maybe they're the same now) using your size and width as filters. I've also had good luck with Maryland Square, but their shipping is outrageous. Order some shoes, put shower caps on your feet and walk around for a good long time. Analyze your socks (I probably have 200 pairs of socks) and switch them if you need to. Do not fool yourself that the shoes are fine; be very critical during this try-on experiment. It's a lot of effort, but I'm at the point now where my feet are generally comfortable and I can order new shoes with more confidence. Goodwill is seeing a lot less of me these days.

Obtaining this kind of seriously-important information from Cruise Critic is probably helpful. But 'probably' is not good enough. Contact the authorities to find out exactly what the Bahamas requires for IDs. Contact MSC for exactly what is required to travel with children who are not yours. Get everything in writing. You may want to postpone this trip for a few weeks so you are sure everyone can board the ship.

Why doesn't this second paragraph surprise me? You can educate ignorance, but you can't fix stupid.

I sent some knit pants out on HAL once with no issue. But the rest of my clothing gets hand-washed. I just do it automatically. Before I get in the shower, I put my things in the bathroom sink with warm water and shampoo. Swish them around for a while, leave them there and swish some more when I get out of the shower. Wrap in a towel, hang up and they're dry quickly.

It's really annoying to have a cruise start with the pax standing around waiting to board. It does tinge all the rest of the cruise with critical outcome. I think that's what happened to you. Perhaps I can offer some perspective. While I enjoy reading propped up on my bed, munching cookies and gazing out the sliding doors, there are always some activities going on that I might enjoy ... and I actively seek them out. I read the evening newsletter and mark what I want to do the next day. Seems odd that nothing at all was appealing to you. Missing a port is a very big deal, but it happens. Your whole post sounds like there were ongoing communication issues from ship to pax. If you're just left out in the cold, not knowing what's going on, you become angry, and rightfully so. So you get the drift of what I'm trying to say? It's a half-empty vs half-full glass situation. I'd never book a 'brand new' ship that doesn't have any reviews ... reviews are the only way that you could have learned that the ship itself does not do well in cold weather. How you managed to run up a $200 dining bill at Cagney's is beyond me. If they gave you a bad steak, why didn't you send it back? Sitting around at the airport for hours before your flight could have been avoided ... reading reviews would inform you that allowing the cruiseline to book your air sometimes results in a bad experience. I've talked with people who are booked on flights with 4 connections, spending endless hours getting to the cruise and going home. A cruiseline books the least expensive far they can find, that's just good business practice for them. That's why they don't tell you the details until the last minute. I have no connection to NCL, I've only cruised them a couple of times, but they do seem to offer very good value; to state that you'll never cruise them again based on the experiences in your post, seems short-sighted to me. We did our first and last cruise with Princess last December. We had all kinds of issues that you experienced ... but the capper was Princess' insistence that pax use their horribly-flawed medallion system for most communication. I will not cruise them again because it was a double-whammy and it's obvious from everything I've read that this medallion debacle has been going on for years. Princess seems unable or unwilling to roll out a product that truly works. But they continue to force it down peoples' throats. Had the cruise had one problem or the other, I would have probably given them another shot. Based on what you've posted, I think you should give NCL another try.

What is anybody thinking with a 2.5hr plus trip and no stops? I understand the logistics, but engaging busses with onboard facilities should be mandatory for any trip over an hour. At the very least, RCL should have informed everyone of the situation when they booked the shuttle. Early morning trips on busses with no facilities is medieval. Many thanks for the warning!

No words to describe how awful it feels to read this. What a devastating accident, those poor desperate families. An absolutely horrible tragedy and I'm sure you'll carry those mental images for the rest of your life.

Yup, on boarding for our Christmas cruise, the checkin guy noted the wrong cabin number, then nobody could find our medallions. As we waited off to the side at Guest Services for a ship's officer to unscrew it all, there must have been 200 people in line. I soon found out why as almost everything I had arranged didn't function on the app. The first three days of the cruise, there were a dozen 'helpers' at the Internet Center ... obviously the ship had been dealing with this medallion mess for quite some time and they were prepared. How do I know this? I visited at least ten times at the beginning of the cruise to get things to work ... sort of.

What this thread really says is B O R I N G.

I agree ... today's ignorant mentality of 'cheapest' everything results in many trips that aren't as enjoyable as they could be.

So is this a website or what? "airporttaxistransfers" Sounds like a broker or umbrella organization. What's the name of the company that operates the taxis for the Barcelona port? That's who sets the waiting deadline, and who is responsible for your missed ride. Unless they stated this rule when you booked ... doubtful because a cruiseship is not like an airline; you have no way of knowing how long it will take to get off the ship. Much better to try to book local services if possible.

It's important to differentiate a real travel advisor (as they prefer to be called now) and an online booking service. While the OBS call themselves travel agents, they just take bookings and add no value. After the airlines stopped paying commissions to TAs, there was an informal rule that a TA would charge a fee to book air only ... but would be happy to book air along with a cruise. I wouldn't expect anyone to work for free, so this always made sense to me. I have no idea where the 'you pay more to a (full) service agent' comes from. My TA always saves me money booking cruises, she's able to negotiate lots of included goodies. With air fares changing every 5 seconds, it would be impossible to know if a TA charges more for an air booking.

You'll enjoy it ... but it's just more space, nothing special. But I think everything about an Avalon ship is great. My personal favorite is the long expanse of horizontal space along one wall, room for all my goodies ... I can even have a vase of flowers in the cabin. They do sell out fast ... if one isn't available, I pick a different cruise.

Thanks for this. I use my computer for this stuff. Do they have a company name and a website? Always good to get personal recommendations.

Yeah! And spending 15 minutes supine with your feet propped up higher than your heart really helps too.

I agree ... it's FUN planning travel online, for some of us. If you're in Opatija on the Istrian Peninsula of Croatia, have a look at the Miramar Hotel ... one of our favorites ever. We spent four days there and had something fascinating to do every minute.

I will readily admit to being spoiled. I fly first class and I travel whenever I wish. Like many of you, 'value' is my bottom line. I don't waste any money on suites or specialty restaurants and I can almost always get good value from the air. I don't cruise on Carnival or take public transportation with luggage or sleep in a Motel 6. So compared to 95% of the population, I'm spoiled. I think 'spoiled' is often thought to mean 'spoiled brat' and I'm not one of those, nor are most of you. I am grateful for every single day of every single trip.

Interesting ... my cruise agent doesn't book air either ... when she wants to fly somewhere, I do it for her! Well, I find what she wants and send her a link so she can book it. She was a friend first, we are on a travel forum together . I'll bet this cruise agent you're referring to got burned once somehow ... but I don't think I'd do biz with an agent I didn't know who refused to book air, even with the cruiseline, doesn't make much sense. I understand that booking air can be very easy, or very complex , and can take a lot of time. I sometimes book two one-way tix on different airlines, one with miles, one with cash ... and almost any combination you can think of. Then there are the upgrades ... I enjoy playing the points & miles game and I love to win. Like a $900 first class flight to Beijing, the best one ever.