Ride-The-Waves

Nobody NEEDS to drink battled water. That is just a marketing myth.

HAL already uses Ijmuiden as an alternative to Amsterdam.

Why should it require a call. RCI has all the information to include the canceled cruise data. This is just scamming people by RCI. Should be automatic.

Florida. Sometimes considered "outside the US" 🤪

Below are two of the seven emails from RCI detailing "no Refund" for the canceled October cruise:

Booked on line and canceled the packages on line. RCI's invoice for all packages was "No Refund."

Seven email notifications. Refund: zero. Aint right

Had to cancel an RCI cruise for November 2024. Cruise was booked with the understanding that there was a $900 cancelation fee, essentially losing the deposit. Understand and acceptable. RCI then also took paid items, such as meal and beverage plans, without refunding. Sad that a cruise line would do this... Never cruise again with RCI! Worst management of all cruise lines. Horrible company.

But you live incootie central: Florida!

Good comments, Blackduck. We agree with your perspectives. Enjoyed sailing Celebrity 5-plus years ago: good ships and great crews. Good entertainment as well. Sailed a Med cruise on Silhouette class in an after "porthole" balcony which was great - despite the long walk from the mid elevators. Who builds a large ship with no aft elevator bank? Loved the cabin, found the food average and entertainment ok to good. Also a frequent sailor on Princess and too, many cruises on Royal. Royal has priced themselves out of the market they wanted, mainly families. Not for us anymore: too much glitz and no polish. Last sailed Royal on Quantum and its was horrible. Couldn't wait to get off. Last year tried Holland America: Zaandam though the Panama Canal. Great cruise, excellent food and superb crew/staff. So good that we booked a Neptune Suite for an upcoming trans-Atlantic. Pre-pandemic we loved sailing Azamara. Have not sailed since they were sold to an investment company and don't have future plans either. If the upcoming trans-Atlantic is a good as hoped then we likely have found our new favorite line. Did a "one and done" on Apex. Horrible dark ship and dangerous stairs. The Infinity window and the cabin was good, better than the "standard" veranda cabin. Hated the ship! FYI, mu first "cruise was 1949 on Holland across the pond. My dad was transferred to Amsterdam as a tech rep with KLM.

The horror of it all! Abandon ship!

Chair Hogs, a breed, are a menace to humanity. But I don't care... I'm sun sensitive and don't use pool deck chairs.

Nope. It's all "marketing." The activity of taking something from you with slight of hand costing more than you understand. Its the new Princess way of vacationing.

So it's "stiff" the working staff if the policies are "wrong?"

We all need to remember that MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) operates at a different level than CCL and RCCL since it is privately, owned, and has the underpinnings of global commercial shipping as backbone. To place a hit on HAL for how it operates is unbecoming. HAL does a great job providing excellent cruise ships for its market. My first experience with HAL was as a youngster crossing the Atlantic in 1949. Today's mass market ships, and I include Princess in that category, cannot provide the same high level of experience we had in the 1950s on the Atlantic. I have sailed on many ships and many lines, to include Oceania and Azamara. Oceania was not up to their marketing. They do not have the "finest cuisine at sea" by any stretch of the imagination. Neither do any of the mega-ships and I include Princess' Royal class in that category. Have plans to return to "yesteryear" and cross the Pond this year on Zuiderdam, Adventure of the Seas, and Caribbean Princess. While not classic ships (with the exception of Zuiderdam) they are not part of the stomach-turning new breed of mega-ships. Oh, and I also have 30 years experience in the USN...