ontheweb

The last time we were in Rome on a cruise, we took the next to last train back to give us some leeway for not missing the ship. It was very hot, and even hotter on the crowded train. And that was before a fight broke out on the train. 😒

Once again P.T. Barnum proven to be correct.

The "passengers" who booked this cruise do not sound like they saw this coming.

I remember those. Go to the small gym, hide under the desk putting your head down. And then kiss your ass goodbye! Later on in the early 60s during the Cuban Missile Crisis, I had a Spanish teacher who told us all the world was about to end. I knew he was such a fool, that I felt much safer than I would have otherwise.

There is a major difference between travel by airplane and going on a cruise. The former is often a necessity, while the latter is basically leisure travel. Just doing away with commissions for travel agents is not going to work the same way for the cruise industry. With all the cutbacks they are making to try to reduce their massive debts, why do you think they have not gone the route of trying to eliminate the travel agents? If anything eliminates travel agents, it will be the after affects of the Covid shutdown. I know the TA that we use who is the president of his company has told me that if he had known at the beginning of the pandemic what the results would be, he would have got out of the business. He basically laid off all but one employee and only lately has been beginning to bring employees back.

Think of it this way, every mailing we get from any cruise line always says to call their 800 number, book on their website, or consult your travel professional. They are actively promoting travel agents. I read several cruise line boards on these forums, and all of them have complaints about the results of calling and/or how bad the cruise line's website is. If they did not avail themselves of TAs for bookings, they would have to hire a massive number of new employees who would be even more inexperienced than their present employees.

It was a contributing factor. If getting rid of the cost of doing business with travel agencies would help the bottom line, don't you think at least some of the present cruise lines would try that?

I realize they always have a vegetarian option, but I should have said do they do some sort of special one for Thanksgiving..

And they are no longer around.

To my fellow vegetarians, the tofurkey is defrosting. And to make this a cruise question, on Thanksgiving Day do the cruise lines offer a good vegetarian entree in the MDR or do they just assume everyone wants turkey?

And right there is the purpose of terrorism--to scare people and make them live in fear and not be able to do things they would normally do. Yes, be vigilant, but do not live your life in total paranoia.

I remember reading a post by @Hlitner once about a cruise line that adopted that strategy, only direct bookings and no use of travel agents. They soon went bankrupt. Perhaps if he sees this post, he can give the name of the cruise line.

And how about the posts you occasionally see that complain about missing a port due to a hurricane? 🤦‍♂️

They never asked us on the Prima this past August if we wanted to share a table. They did on our last NCL cruise before that on the Epic, and we learned that there just were not other passengers who were willing to share, so we gave up asking after the first night. I did enjoy sharing tables, but not sure I still would as these days my hearing is shot.

We last cruised this past August, but it was the first one in almost 4 years as our last cruise had been in July of 2018. In 2019, we did an escorted land trip to Peru including Machu Piccu. In 2020, we had a Norwegian fjord cruise on Princess booked, but we cancelled it before they cancelled it. In 2021, we were not yet comfortable with the idea of cruising. The cruise we did earlier this year was booked in 2021. We fell in love with the itinerary, and felt it would be a great cruise to take on our 45th anniversary in 2022. But then we noticed that the ship was still being built, and the cruise was this year, 2023. So we waited for it.

Sounds like a great deal. 😊

When it does not apply to Carnival, do you also see no value in the protection against unlawful search and seizure? In your opinion, should they take that out of the Bill of Rights because, "if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear".?

I am sure that is true, but if passengers are still complaining that the ships reel of the smell of marijuana, a lot of it must still be getting through.

I'm guessing just like libraries, chapels do not produce any revenue.

On our cruise transfers were $75. I don't know if they are always the same for every port. Our embarkation port was a transfer from Heathrow to Southampton. Our disembarkation was from the port in Reykjavik to the airport in Reykjavik. DW decided we were going to spend too much time in the airport before our flights home, so she bought for us an excursion with a stop on the way to the airport. We asked and were told the charge for our BOGO transfers to the airport would automatically come off when we bought the excursion, but they did not. We had to go to guest services to have that done. (Luckily, I kept checking our account on the television.) And then our flight home was delayed, so we did spend too much time at the airport, though not as much as we would have.

"Paranoia strikes deep Into each heart in must creep" from the legendary Buffalo Springfield written by Stephen Stills

One other thing, they will include a charge for transfers, though you can have them removed. Also, transfers are only from the airport even if you have a one or two day deviation. For instance, we sailed this summer from Southampton flying into Heathrow. Even with our one day deviation, the only place they transferred from was the airport. It did not really affect us as we did not intend to schlep our luggage from the airport to London, so we intended anyway to stay at a hotel by the airport. Note, not sure but I believe if you book a hotel through them, the above does not apply.

Not as funny if you live up in the country. I still remember the time DW called and said she hit a deer. Though in truth, the deer hit her and took out the driver's side sideview mirror as it did not look twice before crossing the street. 😒

So is terrible noise one of the perks that you Haven people pay for? 😉

One thing to note---the transfers that they include for $75 per passenger (though you can remove them) are from the airport only. So, to use them with your deviation, it makes sense to either have a hotel by the airport, be prepared to get to the airport on the day of the cruise, or delete them and book your own transportation. This past summer we sailed a cruise from Southampton and did not intend to schlep our luggage to London, so with our 1 day deviation, we booked a hotel by the terminal that our flight was going to.