ontheweb

Obviously, we can all live without that NY Times summary digest, but many of us enjoyed getting it (or similar newspapers from their home country), and it was one of the things that made HAL different from all other mainstream cruise lines. Little things can make a big difference.

Yes, but no one has answered what they are supposed to do if the water level is too high or too low for them to navigate the river.

Is your purpose to gain the power to close threads? 🤣

I gave a like, but here's also a thank you for agreeing with me. 😊 It should be added that they had a lot of other newspaper digests, so passengers from countries other than the USA also received newspaper digests from their native countries.

We have a river cruise booked in a little over a month from now. And yes, we would be disappointed if it becomes a bus tour for any part because the waters are either too high or too low. But, as I wrote in a previous post, it would still be better than the other river cruise that we booked 20 or so years ago that was chartered out from under us after final payment. And what pray tell would you have a river cruise line do if the waters are not navigable? Would I expect some compensation? I have a feeling we would get at most some sort of future cruise credit. That could be worthwhile, or it could be totally worthless. And if they put a time frame on it, it becomes more likely to become worthless.

Yes, I believe it is just for the DSC and casino that non-refundable OBC cannot be used.

I agree with both points, it will be hard to find a cruise that short with those diverse ports and that a travel agent should be consulted. A good cruise specialist travel agent should be able to look at the itineraries of all cruise lines and be able to come closest to finding something that will work out for you. I say closest because I agree that a 7 day cruise won't be found with all those ports. You will either have to take more days or eliminate some of the ports.

That's a shame. I really enjoyed when they delivered it to your cabin. I liked getting the baseball scores (even if they were a day old) and doing the crossword puzzle.

We did on Valentine's Day, the day it premiered. And Bob Marley was shot. Luckily he survived.

IIRC, that was happening when passengers did not think they were getting their refunds quick enough after all the Covid cancellations in 2020.

I can understand that, but better than nothing we got when our ship was chartered. We were once on a gate1 escorted tour, and on our 40th anniversary we were on a bus from Vienna to Prague. One of our fellow passengers said to us at a rest/lunch stop what a terrible way to celebrate your anniversary. And our reply was no it was good to wake up Vienna and end up in Prague. (And we did not even know at that point that a small bottle of champagne would be waiting for us in our hotel room in Prague.)

We will be going on our first river cruise, but we actually had one booked a long time ago. (It was over the Christmas/New Year's break in I think 2003/2004 or possibly the next year) And we were worried about low water levels because we had been reading of them prior to the cruise. But then that became superfluous as the river cruise line chartered the ship out. (This was well after we made final payment.) Yes, a bus tour would have been disappointing, but at least we would have got to see the ports, ports that we wanted to experience.

We did the Bob Marley bus tour; that is something you cannot do in any other Caribbean Island.

The only time I have had a weapon pointing at me was once when I approached an ATM with my card out and employee from the armored truck company was servicing the ATM. I had an ATM card in my hand and he had a gun pointed at me, and he said I scared him. 🤦‍♂️

We have a river cruise booked and there is a disclaimer that if the water levels are too low, busses will be substituted. I think this is a standard disclaimer. How are ships supposed to sail if the water level is too low?

I was specifically responding to taking a private tour there as opposed to a cruise line excursion. And no Baltic cruise is going anywhere near St. Petersburg at present and I would think the near future.

Somehow I doubt the State Department will issue a travel warning for the USA. Since you are from Canada, has your government issued any travel warnings for any part of the USA?

As I wrote earlier, time to lobby your state legislator if you are not in one of the states protecting privacy.

Too bad you and your family will not get to go to St. Petersburg again and do it right.😒

It is not forced in the sense that you do not have to take the "free" drink package with the tips as if you bought all the drinks being charged. I know we did not on our Prima cruise this past summer.

Yes, it is a good thing that people post their positive experiences, not just the things that go wrong. It is well known that people with a complaint are more likely to make it known than are people who are satisfied with their experience.

Start lobbying your state legislators to make one of the states that would force them to honor your request.

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day. We are going to go see the Bob Marley movie, One Love, that opens today and then go out to eat.

Just because the contract allows something does not make it the right thing to do.

Yes, absolutely correct. I had previously posted about that exchange and finally getting a refund for an pre-paid excursion to a cancelled port and was chastised by Bird for not allowing NCL procedures (OBC given instead of a refund) to be followed. And this was despite they acknowledged that their rules said you could cancel an excursion for a refund if it was 48 hours or more before the excursion. And why would someone not cancel an excursion to a port no longer being offered? 🤦‍♂️