ontheweb

When we book a cruise, our TA always lets us know if the deposit is refundable or not.

They can answer a lot of different questions. For example, for our recent Prima cruise, they answered website questions, questions that arose while we were trying to do the online booking, and which port in Amsterdam the ship uses to dock. Since they sent me an e-mail asking for our full names with middle names included, I am sure they could have handled that over the phone, though I did call our TA and have him take care of it with them. We also had a port lost due to low tide, and we had booked a cruise line excursion for that port. That was a hassle to get the refund to our credit card because the NCL representative thought I was asking for money back for missing the port. When she finally figured out what I was asking for, she went to another department after putting me on hold, and came back and said the money would be credited as according to their policies you can cancel an excursion and be refunded if it is more than 48 hours before the excursion.

I wonder if they had returned the moneys to your credit card (assuming it was the same AMEX card), would Amex have clawed back the credit they gave you. It would be like buying something to get the AMEX credit and then returning it for a refund but still getting the credit. By getting cash back, AMEX was taken out of the loop as to the return of the funds.

I must really be in a minority because I like talking to my TA. Yes, sometimes I get a message to go to voice mail and then his mailbox is full, but he always calls me back soon afterwards. I do also e-mail him.

At the time Carnival Corporation stock really tanked due to the onset of Covid, many on these boards were sure that the stockholder OBC would disappear entirely or at least they would require double the number of shares needed to qualify. I along with some others said no, it is a cheap marketing tool that costs them next to nothing. And we have been proven to be right.

We booked our Prima cruise from last August using a TA. I called NCL several times, and they talked to me and generally answered my questions. Yes, there are things that once you book with a TA must go through the TA, but the statement that they will not talk to you is a gross overstatement.

I think sometimes they just make things up.

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The observation lounge on the Prima during the sail in to Geiranger was anything but that. (And we are "old folks".)

Quote from the late George Young who was the General Manager of the NY Football Giants---"when they say it's not about money, it is always about money."

I agree, but I was just saying it still does not guarantee that they will not give you an unwanted "upgrade".

But even that does not guarantee they will not "upgrade" you. The cruise contract basically allows them to do whatever they want.

I was also responding to a post. Cruisers going to the Norwegian fjords almost always go to other places also. Sometimes advice is needed.

We once had a Princess upgrade though not requested from an inside to an OV. But it was right under a bar, and I did not want it. I called our TA, and he was not able to get our original cabin back, but did get one near to it. It sounded like it took a lot of effort from him. I remember at the time reading about many unwanted Princess "upgrades" at the time, and asked our TA about it. He assured me that that would not happen to us, but it did. Princess and its passengers do seem to have a different view of what is an upgrade.

I once did a Carnival Corporation offer for HAL on both my card and my wife's card which is connected to mine. But I believe since then, AMEX has stopped that. Once it is used on one card, it is deleted from the other if the cards are connected on the same account. Probably possible still if they are totally different accounts, not billed together.

Glad to be of help. I am sure if you went to the trouble of researching those museums you will enjoy whichever one you pick. We visited the Anne Frank House years ago when we were in Amsterdam on a land trip (actually we had booked a river cruise and it was chartered out from under us after we had made final payment.) I do believe these days, especially in the busy summer months, you have to pre-book timed tickets to the major Amsterdam museums such as the Anne Frank House. On this cruise, one of the museums we found fascinating was the Portuguese Synagogue. Admission also gets you into the Jewish Museum. And we were lucky to get into the Ryjksmuseum (probably spelled wrong). DW checked and there were no timed tickets for when she checked, but there were for the following half hour, so she bought those. BTW, there were no tickets at the box office for the connected Van Gogh Museum. DW said we are not spending a lot of time waiting in the airport, so she booked for us an excursion to the airport in Reykjavik that included the Perclan Museum, a museum about Iceland geology. It was fascinating. We could have used more time there. (And unfortunately, our plane was delayed so we spent way too much time anyway at the airport.)

One correction, there are 4, not 5 Kode museums, so I guess we saw them all. BTW, pay once, and it is good for all of them. Not sure, but when I wrote Picasso and one other famous artist, I think (again not positive) that other artist was Klee. DW basically does the museum research as she is a retired art teacher. Sometimes she just overtaxes me in museums. On this trip, we spent 4 1/4 hours in the British Museum on our pre-cruise day (way too long for me) and 2 1/2 hours in the Rijksmuseum on our port day in Amsterdam (better but still a bit long for me especially as we had already been to one museum and still had others to see.)

I have found all cruise line room stewards to be great, but HAL's are the best.

We loved the Prima this year.

We used the hop on hop off bus. We first went to the University where there were several museums. It was not opened yet so we walked around the gardens. DW wanted to go to the cultural museum, but it was closed for renovations, so we went to the maritime museum which was fascinating. We then went to a series of museums called Kode. There are 5 altogether. We first went to one that DW saw featured Norway's premier artist, Munch. We tried 2 more that basically had very little, but then found out there was another one that had a few more by Munch and several by Picasso and one other famous artist whose name escapes me at the moment,. I was ready to go back to the ship worrying about missing our boarding time, but DW insisted on the Funicular. Luckily we did not have much of a wait after the Funicular for the Hop on Bus. Boarding time was 4:30 and we got on at 4"18

We had those three ports and made each of them basically differently themed. Geiranger was for scenery, both taking pictures during our sailin and then taking one of the onshore bus tours that stopped at various sites. Bergen for us was about museums, though we also did go to the funicular for scenery. In Alesund we took a ship's excursion that highlighted the art deco architecture of the city.

I think I would have liked that larger static menu, but it is no longer there on the Prima.

Yes, it is one thing to have an opinion, but quite another thing to just misstate facts.

Yes, you and I saw the same Donna Summers' show. I don't know what the OP saw. 🤦‍♂️

We also had for the most part good weather for our cruise in August. It poured in London on our pre-cruise day and it rained in Reykjavik on our departure day. Otherwise the weather was good. DW, however, would have liked it less cloudy in the morning when we sailed into Geiranger for her picture taking.