terry&mike

Another option for you might be Bali for a few nights, as it is a short, cheap, direct flight from Singapore. I'm going to add 4-5 nights in Bali pre-cruise to our SE Asia cruise that begins in Singapore in January, 2020. 

If you plan on using products with DEET in them, please do a trial run before you are on vacation. Take a day while still at home and put the product on your skin, wear it around all day, and see how you do. Some people can have a skin reaction to DEET products, and vacation time is not when you want to find this out.

I am looking for suggestions for a hotel in Bali for 4-5 nights. You can suggest an area, such as Jimbaran, or a specific hotel/inn. I appreciate any advice.

We are a couple in our 50's, first time visitors to Bali, enjoy good food, and would like to see a few of the cultural sites, maybe attend a cultural dance show one evening. This will be for next December, before we board a ship in Singapore. 

Ideally, the hotel would be on the beach or near the beach, and not too far from a few restaurants and maybe a couple of shops; walking or biking distance would be perfect, if possible. We are not party people, so am thinking Kuta is not for us. 

As to style, it can be a small inn or B&B with character and great hosts, or a larger resort property with gorgeous grounds and good service; we are good with either. Will want one evening a romantic, nice dinner with great view to celebrate a special occasion. 

As to budget, I'm all about saving money where possible to use on other vacation experiences, so this is appreciated; will go up to $200/night. 

If you booked through a travel agent, and your email is attached to your cruise reservation (ie. you've done your online check in and provided this information, or it is already on file with NCL), then both you and your travel agent will receive an email inviting you to bid on an upgrade. You can bid for yourself, or instruct your travel agent to bid on your behalf.

If you booked through a travel agent, and your email is not yet attached to your cruise reservation (ie. you haven't provided it to NCL yet), then your travel agent will receive an email saying that you are eligible to bid on upgrades. Your travel agent should then forward this email on to you. You can bid for yourself, or instruct your travel agent to bid on your behalf. 

There are a few times when this may not happen:

1. You purchased from a travel agent who has opted out of the upgrade program; not many have opted out, but a few of the giant big box type have to not be burdened with the extra administrative work.

2. Your sailing doesn't have any upgrade options available for the category you are sailing in, or for the ship you are sailing in. Doesn't happen much, but some sailings are very heavily sold.

3. You are booked at a rate that does not qualify for the upgrade program. The general public will rarely see this, it is mostly internal rates, promotional sailings, free cruise sailings. 

If you can manage it, it is a much better experience to do a cruise to Antarctica where you get a "boots on the ground" experience. You are looking at a drive by cruise, which will feature scenic sailing in the area. If possible, please book an expedition cruise, which will allow you to zodiac from small ships (200 passengers or less) to shores and see wildlife close up. 

We sailed Ponant Le Soleil in January 2018 for 17 days to Antarctica, Falklands and South Georgia, and it was amazing. 

Feel free to email me for pictures or if you have any questions. 

For CDG I always try to allow at least 2 hours, with my preference being 2.5-3 hours. Well actually, as a connecting airport, I always try first to avoid CDG. This is a very spread out airport, and often lacks efficiency. I'd rather feel more relaxed, end up with some extra time, have a coffee and do a bit of window shopping, then feel stressed with such a short layover. 

If you really like the short layover, then I'd check out the flights your airline has CDG to Venice following your booked flight and have a note of them. If you see you are going to miss the connection, get yourself to a customer service rep ASAP and have the options ready to try to get yourself on board the next flight, or soonest possible available. 

This is the board for Asia, not for Europe. Also, you will be better to post this on your Roll Call for your particular sailing.

16 minutes ago, karioncruising said:

I certainly don't mind paying $56 if that is what it costs,.but when their competitors are charging the going rate plus $1 for processing then I will not sit back and say nothing. Especially, since we will have to pay this fee twice per person for stopping in Vietnam two times at non consecutive times. I just want to let everyone know that this is happening. 

 

As a business, they can charge whatever they like for the services and products. As consumers, we can pay it or buy from another operator. This is true with every aspect of the booking from the cabin costs, to the beverages on board, to the tours through the ship or from local operators. There is no set cost for any item that must be adhered to across the board. 

I don't think the cost of the visa is a secret, I was aware of the cost charged before booking the trip. There are 21 people currently booked to travel with me, they are aware. 

We all have choices in this. I can get the visa myself, I can allow the cruise line to handle it. I can sail with another cruise line, I can sail with Princess. 

It's a non-issue for me, and a small amount of money in the overall picture, and I'm happy to have someone else take care of the process. I've obtained visas myself several times in the past, and will easily give up this chore for a small fee.

If it's an issue for you, why try to swim upstream? Just move on to another cruise, another cruise line, or handle the visa yourself. 

I'm going to file this under things not worth worrying about. My documents from Princess for my January, 2020 cruise state the charge will be $56 per person for the Vietnam visa, that is the amount I am prepared to pay. If it is less, then it's lagniappe. Whether the Vietnam visa is charged at $5, $30, or $56, it is a nominal amount in the overall vacation cost which will most likely exceed $15,000. 

I'm curious, or think I missed something - diagnosed and cancelled in August for sailing in December, then you were not passed final payment, correct?

Yes, you are to early for either published air or Celebrity Air. As mentioned above, this air will be available 330 days out from your return flight date. 

13 hours ago, oregonian123 said:

 

Thank you. Do you know if NCL always chooses Basic Economy? My spouse and I need to sit together for medical reasons, so I may need to think about this more.  If it's a very full flight, there may not be 2 seats together at check in. 

 

 

Then I would suggest that the NCL air promo is not for you, for a couple of reasons.

The first being that your air routing is not ticketed and sent to you until 30-60 days before departure; on popular routes, seat selection may already be quite limited by this time, so even if in Main Cabin Economy, you may not be able to locate seats next to each other.

The second reason being is that they could certainly choose Basic Economy fares, as reported above. It has not been my experience that cruise lines use Basic Economy as their fare class, but there is nothing prohibiting them from using this fare class, and they are profit driven, so it stands to reason that they may. The "free air" promo is rather new to NCL as a booking promo, so until more people actually receive their flight routes, we may not have enough data to know their norm. 

In your case, I'd book my own airfare, so that you know what you are getting. If sitting together is a must, then I'd rather be in control of my air booking.

Happy Travels!

10 hours ago, oregonian123 said:

 

Hi, so if they gave you Basic Economy, do you get to choose your seats ahead of time. If you have a American Airlines Mileage account, can you add your number to the booking, even though you won't get miles?

In Basic Economy you do not get to choose your seats ahead of time, you can do so at check in for free, or 48 hours before flight for a fee. You do get to add your mileage account number to your booking. 

15 hours ago, Worldtraveler 4727 said:

 

I am just looking for something in the ballpark like: For every $500 of non refundable excursion costs, your trip insurance will increase by approximately 5% or by $10 or by ???

Just looking for a general idea....

I do not know what company your insurance is with, and your age is also a factor in the amount, but as a rough general rule of thumb you will pay approximately 10% of the value of the travel component being insured. 

This is actually pretty common in every day life as well, it just doesn't get reported to you via email or chat sites. A nearby office had a company come in and do some tests on their office environment for germs, bacteria and so on. They were all a bit surprised to find the highest concentration of bacteria, including fecal matter, was on the handle of the coffee pots in the employee lounges. 

I wouldn't feel worried going into the cruise, as it's all around you - shopping cart handles, entry doors, and so on. You just don't get the broadcast about it when an outbreak occurs.

16 hours ago, 1threadshort said:

huh?    you wrote.  Seen multiple reports of bookings where if you call and say  you won't be using the airfare, they will deduct $100/person off the cruise fare.

 

to me: that meant they will give you back $100. so that cant be because ive paid a thousand

I believe I understand what you are asking/saying, and the responses you are getting.

You have booked a cruise fare for passengers 1, 2 & 3, of XXX amount. You have then booked the "free air" promo, which from your city is actually discounted air of $299 pp for passengers 1 & 2 (with 3rd passenger being charged full airfare of $467. 

If you choose not to use the free airfare promo, you will automatically have the $299 discounted air for passengers 1 & 2, and the $467 full airfare for passenger 3, removed from your invoice.

On many sailings, by declining the free airfare promotion you will also receive a $100 discount off the cruise fare for passengers 1 & 2, but you will need to inquire directly with NCL or your travel agent on this. 

With the free air (and from some cities reduced air) promotion, you will know your air routing 30-60 days before departure. You can fly in the day before if you purchase your hotel stay from NCL.

Thank you for this lovely review of Xuan. I have reserved him for our small group of travelers on a Princess cruise in January 2020, and it's good to hear a first hand review. 

7 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

The travel agent said only economy tickets are available through the cruise line.

This is not correct. Without going back and re-reading this thread, I seem to recall you are sailing AMA. AMA definitely offers Business Class tickets through their air department, and usually has very good rates on them.

1 hour ago, Bruin Steve said:

I actually live very close to West Hills...

You could use Uber to get everywhere, but you are going to spend a lot of money on Ubers...

First realize there aren’t really any hotel options in West Hills...Chances are you are going to end up with a hotel in either Woodland Hills or in my town, Calabasas...which are, basically, just to the south of West Hills along the 101 Freeway...You would need rides from LAX to your hotel...and from the hotel up to your aunt’s house...and back...and from the hotel down to the port in San Pedro...The total distance would be pretty long.

 

Renting a car actually makes it all a bit simpler.  Depending on when your flight gets in (hopefully mid to late morning to avoid Friday rush hour), the drive is fairly simple...from LAX, take the 405 north to the 101...exit Topanga or Parkway Calabasas depending on which hotel you choose.  From a hotel in these areas, a drive to West Hills is all just surface streets through mostly residential areas.  Just use Waze or Google Maps on your cell phone to make sure you don’t get lost.

 

You could return the car to LAX and Uber or shuttle to the pier from there...but, you might as well avoid LAX and return the car in San Pedro instead (assuming there’s no hefty drop-off charge).  It will take you an hour or more to get there on a Saturday morning, but you’ve already paid for the car and it’s not much worse of a drive than going to LAX...You just head back down the 101 to the 405 south...pass LAX and head to the 110 south...exit Harbor Blvd.  Hertz and Enterprise are both right by the Crowne Plaza...3 or 4 blocks from the cruise terminal...

Bruin Steve, Thank you so much for taking the time to post this information. I'm going to take your advice and rent a car from the airport and return it in San Pedro. It will make for the most efficient use of our time, and although driving may give me a bit of stress, I will alleviate the stress of sorting out several legs of transportation from Ubers or shuttles, so there is a positive.

Another question for those who know Los Angeles well - 

I am taking my Mom on a Pacific Coast Cruise in May, departing on a Saturday from San Pedro. We are flying in to LAX on Friday around noon.

My Mom would like to go visit her sister who lives in West Hills and is home bound, on Friday when we arrive for a few hours. We'll get a hotel room for Friday night in the West Hills area, so that we can maximize time spent visiting my Aunt. We will make our way to San Pedro on Saturday mid-morning.

I have a feeling that our best option is to rent a car, but honestly, I am not the most comfortable with this thought. Although I can certainly drive, the idea of driving a different vehicle in an area I don't know well stresses me out.

Is there an option that would allow me to forego a car rental, such as all Uber for this, or is that ridiculous? Or is there an option that would limit my car rental drive, like get car from LAX upon arrival, visit Aunt, overnight in West Hills, and return to LAX on Saturday, and then Uber to San Pedro from LAX.

Just trying to put the logistics together in an efficient and low stress manner.....

8 hours ago, CruisingSince2012 said:

After a wait that.tested my patience, my travel agent was finally able to get a great deal on airfare for my vacation dates from the cruise line. The tickets will arrive next week so I don't know all the details yet, but the routes are MCO>AMS>BUD On June 11-12 and PRG>JFK>MCO on June 24. All flights are on Delta except AMS>BUD, which is operated by KLM on the same ticket.

 

We will have almost 3 hours to do everything (immigraiton, claim bags, customs, recheck bags, change terminals, and TSA Precheck) at JFK, so I probably don't have to worry about missing my flight there. Unfortunately we have a four hour layover in Amsterdam, but that is better than 80 minutes in Frankfurt (which would cost $50 more anyway) for an international flight.

 

Our next step is exploring a stay at the MCO hotel instead of driving to an off-site motel in Orlando after 11:00 p.m.

You wrote, "the tickets will arrive next week". I find this odd as there are not paper tickets any longer. You should be able to access the reservation online immediately with a Record Locator. 

Thanks for posting this. I thought it was only $50 per cabin, not $50 for first 2 people. That makes better sense of the word **free** now.

I could have swore I asked this before and it was only $50 per port, per cabin.

Yes, 2 different promotions. Free At Sea has a promo choice of $50 per cabin Shore Excursion Credit, if the sailing is also a Distinctive Voyage then there is often an additional Shore Excursion Credit, usually $50 per cabin.

That is an interesting question, and I'm following to see if anyone who has done this posts their experience.

A refare allows you to keep your same booking number, but gives you the new fare with the new perks, and takes away your previous perks. As you have already held your EZ Air flight, at $550, I'm guessing it will refare your cabin price, allow you to keep your $550 air (as this is not a perk, but an airfare you booked), but take away your "perk" of the $250 off of air, and give you any current perks on offer.

Been told that all 200 will go ashore, but in batches off 100 each taking turns who goes first, while the others explore the waters along the landing site.

 

For us the best compromise between relative comfort on an expedition cruise.

That was also our experience on Ponant. There was always something going on, whether it be going ashore, or going on scenic cruising, or talks from the naturalists, and so on. It is a very active cruise, especially if you join in the hikes that are offered.