ontheweb

Actually, everything is quite pricey in Iceland!

No need to apologize. These stories are always good for warning others of the pitfalls that can occur when making changes.

Good to know something is being done. Of course it is not perfect as nothing is, but as stated in post #29, it helps.

🤦‍♂️, This all sounds too complicated! I just know my TA does not charge any fees. One time we had a not very expensive cruise, and he was going to send us a small check afterwards. After we had 2 price drops (and an upgrade), all of which of course cost him time and money, I told him don't send the check. You just can't be making enough on this booking to justify it.

We have never seen any fee from our TA!

And we sailed on that ship the next year.

Nor should you ever see a charge charged to your TA instead of the cruise line. An example---our last cruise was on the Prima this past summer. We booked it way back in the Fall of 2021. At that time I had an offer from Amex for a $100 credit if we spent $500 for NCL. We were required to deposit $250, but I deposited the $500 to take advantage of the offer. I made the charge on the phone with my TA. If it had show as charged to the travel agency, there would have been no Amex credit .But of course, the charge was direct to NCL.

Yes, the TA owns the booking, but he or she passes through the charge to the cruise line, in this case NCL. They own the charge. It will show on your statement as a charge to NCL.

I understand what you are saying about involving the credit card company, but shouldn't the charge be showing as from the cruise line, not the TA? I know when we do a charge through our TA, it shows on our statement as being a charge by the cruise line. And there have been posts warning others that the charge should always show that way, not as a charge to a travel agency. I would think they would do the charge back to the cruise line, not the TA.

I don't expect him to monitor for price drops as doing that for all his clients would consume his entire work day. I do expect him to take care of price drops when I call him, and he has. One time he did call us to alert us to a good offer for an itinerary that we had told him we were interested in. And we did book the cruise in question.

Yes, I wonder if some day someone will explain why having to call the cruise line for any changes is "keeping control of their booking".

We were on the Prima this past summer on the London (Southampton) to Reykjavik itinerary. The sail into Geiranger is spectacular.

Call NCL, and they will be able to tell you. I know I did that when I needed to know where they docked in Amsterdam.

Wow! It's basically up to a little over 1/2 of what we paid for it. 🤦‍♂️ (Of course we did get dividends for quite a while and several times recieved teh OBC.)

Our Princess Alaska cruise was pre-Covid, so I hope that having a naturalist is not something that has disappeared.

NCL did the same thing this past summer for Prima cruises with Isafjordur, Iceland. The ship did not port there a single time as either their lifeboats were not certified to tender or the Captain refused to tender with so many passengers. (Both excuses were given.) They continued to list and sell excursions claiming the port was making progress on completing the dock.

In 2007 we did a Baltic cruise for our 30th anniversary. On the 8th day (Helsinki) while doing laundry, I overheard a woman say that her luggage was finally delivered to the ship. She also said Princess was very good at helping her with getting clothes up to that point.

Princess for Alaska cruises has a naturalist onboard who provides enrichment.

I've been in that situation and called. Sometimes it works. sometimes it does not. It seems to depend on who at Princess answers the phone.

That was not clear from your original post. I am glad that has now been clarified.

The silver line worked well for us when we cruised out of Boston and the one time we also did a vacation in Boston. Maybe we were just lucky with the terminals where we landed.

We have never been on a cruise that long, but the last time we had fixed dining (2014 Ocean Princess) we did have tablemates who had. I did ask them about the menu and was told that it pretty much stayed the same.

And every time I got a new e-mail, I looked for any changes. but there never were any. I would get 2 e-mails each time, one from NCL and the other from my TA.

No problem. And Paris is seen much better from a land trip than the small amount of time an ocean cruise will allow.

When we did a cruise out of Boston, we used public transportation (the MBTA) from the airport to the cruise port. I had asked directions in the cc board that included Boston, and got directions from a Boston native.