evag

After I spent a long time writing this I remember my friend who I used to treat as my personal Wikipedia told me when I asked him questions about 15 years ago, that google is my best friend, I looked it up and it will on the new Aqua ship but other than that I can’t find the answer to my questions, probably the res agents don’t know about that either. Well I’ll keep my post up, the anecdotes my amuse you 😀!

I saw on one of the cruise YouTuber video that they were going to do that, but they didn’t say if they already had it or when it would start and if not on all ships, which one.  I wonder if they are going to base the menu on meals made from scratch using only natural ingredients or make use of a lot of processed foods which can contain a lot of meat analogues, i.e. impossible ground meat, chi’ken, etc. Do you know now that they are creating meat made from animal cells that has the natural taste and texture of meat as it is, you just don’t kill animals, I wonder how many vegetarian feel about  that if they don’t eat meat solely because they don’t want to kill animals-vegans don’t want anything to do with meat so there’s no question of them not wanting to do that (sorry, I have ADHD so got off the track, though I think that could be a start of a spirited discussion!)

 The pastor of the local Seven Day Adventist Church who has bible along with his healthy food studies with vegan meals once a week, and a vegan movie and cooking class once a month, hates them, never recommends the canned line of fake meats his church provides thru the Loma Llnda brand and doesn’t like one of the most popular veggie food chains locally, the Veggie Grill, because it has a lot mock meat dishes-I think he like some vegans not only don’t like people eating meat but to get away from eating meat like dishes. I who, enjoy the taste and texture of eating meat could never become a vegetarian if I couldn’t fall back on something like that. They eschew sugar so also can rarely eat vegan desserts though not containing animals it would contains sugar which they also eschew (psst-there was a good cake made from a coconut milk based Cool Whip spread on fresh strawberries though really enjoy that then just eating fruit all the time-when I asked if there is a good snack he recommended he said fruits and vegetables, he thinks carrots make the best hot dogs. (BTW unless it’s meat stickers or jerkies most snacks ARE vegan even if they may have other ingredients not so healthy.) 

One last anecdote is that in 1982 when I worked for FedEx (Federal Express at the time) before an Xmas party they sent out a letter giving people a choice for ONE other meal which was a vegetarian one, although I wasn’t a vegetarian and although I still ate meat I wanted to try it out.  When the order came, I looked at it appalled, just a plate with boiled or steamed vegetables, no side dishes, special seasonings or sauces, I wanted to shout bring on the prime rib!  At the very least if they didn’t want to cook something they could have made a nice salad with a variety of toppings, it reminds me of a colleague from work who in the late 70’s who told me that when she went to a French restaurant she could only eat the bread (though she COULD have I think ordered a salad-you can get that ANYWHERE) how different from today, with most restaurant usually having a specially prepared veggie (includes vegan) entree and lines of frozen foods with a veg orientation. It’s even easier now that you don’t even have to do food combining like Frances Moore Lappe advocated in Her Diet for a Small Planet!  I know I tend to ramble but hope someone can answer, if they ate there, was it just mostly bean and rice and salad dishes or did they have fake meat, was it a free (hopefully there are many vegans who can’t stand the SMELL of meat) I once remember a person wouldn’t eat steamed veggies once as the water used to steam the vegetables had been used to steam a lobster or something like that.

I can't find the other webinars on their facebook, but if you click on to the link it shows at all time, is not live.

They will have stocks issued for this company and is very a thorough overreview.

I finished listening tot he first part, almost an hour with the captain talking, and they said that this webinar will be posted (most likely on their site) now answering questions about special diet and Asian foods and then medical facilities, assuring EVERYone that the cruise WILL be sailing, and that the Gemini IS seaworthy but that they will be using another cruise ship because of the space, no travel agent fam trips for now as they are getting too many inquiries from direct inquiries and a minimum of 135 countries and may throw in a "few" surprises.  Children under 16 not allowed but may be on other voyages, can join trip from more than one location.   Again, use the link provided in the above comment to hear more and again, they are NOT cancelling this cruise and hope to start sailing in Nov . 

I do not know where people are submitting their questions.  They will announce in the next few weeks as to when the new ship is sailing and when people can embark.

I received two days ago to register for a webinar of updates on the cruise.  Just logged in to the link they sent me, and right now at 3;10 PDT PM on June 7, Wed. the seminar is going on, do not know if live, bad echo on the audio.   Below is the email with the link.

Please join us for a Q&A session on Zoom with the Life at Sea Cruises by Miray Cruises executive team. We look forward to answering your questions!

Thank you!

Register for Webinar!

All the best,
Life At Sea Cruises Team

He is starting with a bio of himself. Hopefully this will have a link to listen to so people can stream this later, they say they are on the Gemini. They are answering questions that were submitted.

Even given the excessive salaries given to the CEO'S and also specifically the owner of the Carnival Cruises (and unfortunately not to the service staff) which translates into high fares for the mainstream cruise lines including RC and cruises under the Carnival umbrella, don't think NCL has world cruises and leaving out the luxury line, the fares charged for this one are much too low, especially with the unlimited wifi and will not be sustainable and I think you will be hit with extra fee surcharges during the cruise.  A few years ago, HAL partnered with Cruise.com to offer "a retire at sea" program (though not quite sure if it was worldwide) it stopped every few months for a few days in the U.S. so people could go home and take care of business and it failed, you can't even find it on google. Other than The World which is for EXTREMELY rich folks, there haven't been many attempts to create a cruiseline that allowed people to buy a cabin, there was one guy who was going to do it for River Cruises for the U.S., another one that I can't remember the name, another one where the guy was going to buy a boat that was owned in Terminal Island by a cult and transform it to a owner owned cruise ship and of course Storylines, one where I went to a salon discussion on their RTW cruise, wanted to put entertainers on but it never came to fruistion and then of course Storylines which keep pushing it's start date. This one may succeed as it is not going to be owner occupied just a regular cruise ship but I would be VERY, very hesitant in putting my money down yet. 

As for more info, Cruise Critic has a page on it as well as the company who call their fact page lifeatseacruises.com and it will give you more info on it.  Someone asked a question if there were cheap world cruises and I'm going to make some more suggestions there.

Of Covid?  Was going to book some transatlantic and Med. cruises and was surprised how full they were.  Could be that people feel more comfortable now because of all the vaccines and number of fatal cases has gone down, but have heard that previously numbers were lower not only because people were reluctant to cruise but the ships don’t want to fill them up to full capacity.  Does anyone know for sure if that’s the case or is it because of the sales and people want to get out-hopefully not just conjecture. Took a repositioning cruise from YVR recently, only 1800 out of 3800 booked, nice no lines and can go to a show one minute before it starts and sort of dreading ships being real full again so just wondering. 

To ALL, yes (and I admit it is long winded so can understand people not reading it all of my post or should I say epistle) but if I am to be criticized then criticize me for what I should be criticized. As I said I DID read their post on Covid rules in Canada, and it did NOT mention ArriveCAN so I don't see why ANY one on here is scolding me for asking that Princess put a links to ArriveCAN and the Canadian government website instead of simply saying that you need to see Canadian regulations which tells you NOTHING, if it makes it easier for us, why not???

Why did the person who said s/he research my background on this site say well she's cruised for a long time and she should know better, as I said in the beginning I READ the website and when I went to the Canadian government website they mentioned ArriveCAN but I saw no link to that website so that's why I called  Princess since things change so rapidly, I thought the agents may know more current info than what's on the Princess website which again only said something to follow Canada's regulations.  How was I to know that the Princess agents did NOT know what they were talking about or just read what I knew already (and I told the second agent, NOT to tell me what was already on the website), I only cruised once before during the pandemic on Celebrity which was on a whole different level of service plus there was no onerous country regulations to get conflicting information (I do admit unless you were on a ship excursion, you could not get off the ship in a few places.)

I made too sweeping a generalization when I said why people are not taking cruises anymore, it was just an expression of my frustration with dealing with the conflicting information with the agents and what's on the website, but I KNOW my cruise ending in Vancouver is only half full and that's why cabins and single supp. are half priced, it could have a LOT to do with the difference with the cruise ending in Vancouver vs. Seattle and the extra hassle one has to go through because of that.  I just had heard the heartening (NOT) news from my bf that he just got a call from his ex-boss who he had not heard from in many years who was looking for another employee and that he and his wife just disembarked from an Alaskan cruise and as careful as they were, she has Covid now, though not sick enough to be hospitalized and it has me very worried, but even with trip cancellation insurance you can't get your money back for a what if  that hasn't happened (unlike Vanessa Bryant who got millions on the what if destroyed photos would pop up) sorry for that non-sequitur, but am terribly worried now.

I am booked on Discovery Princess Sept. 18 sailing and if it wasn't in the 90's in my city of CA where it only normally get to the mid 70's I wouldn't have booked it,  it's been a nightmare.  I read the Covid restrictions and while I was waiting for the travel agent to book it, my potential companion who is from Canada told me that I had to the app ArriveCAN (although he spelled it wrong), when I googled it, I got on the website for the Canadian government NOT for the site which didn't go into great detail how to do it, just gave info on it.  Failing that, I decided to call Princess, giving my booking number AND ALSO MENTIONED that I am both vaxxed AND boosted where I talked with a res agent  who told me that I can't fill it out , can't get tested  until 3 DAYS before we arrive in Canada and was also told, can't get tested on ship.  Surprised I asked her, are you sure I can't be tested before I board the ship and she said yes, she also told me about doing it on the website as I told her I was not good with apps.  Then talked to the travel agent and he said I just upload docs and nothing about being tested.

The next day I called Princess again, to find out if they did testing on the cruise ship for testing for Canada as I didn't want to spend my precious few hours in port getting Covid tested  and this time (she seemed inexperienced) the agent told me that they did have testing onboard but it cost $60. She said you can can get tested on the ship and spent twenty minutes at least looking on Princess's website even though I told her it didn't say anything about the ArriveCAN website (I finally found it).  I had to call Princess again and a third agent said also that I had to be tested 3 days before disembarking in Vancouver but NO charge from Princess to administer the test.  I then tried to put a mock run on the website and saw if you have been vaxxed you do NOT need to be tested but upload documents. I called travel agent and told him I was told by agents no testing needed by Princess to go onboard and he said follow the WRITTEN guidelines as to what is needed, better safe than sorry. 

Why can't Princess (which DOES seem to update frequently the Covid site) put on links to some of things?  it said regarding Canada to see what they need, mentioned nothing abut ArriveCAN when they can simply put a link to the ArrivCAN website on there, so you can easily find it. As I said if you google it will just give you the government website for info for that but not their site. Its frustrating when you call and TELL the agent that the information you are asking for is NOT on their Covid website as I told Paulina (if you get her you should excuse yourself politely and hangup ) who does it anyway as she seems terribly inexperienced because she doesn't know anything but reads you what you already know from their website and she has to continually put you on hold to ask someone things as she can't answer your questions.  

I will go and enjoy my cruise but I hope (and guess not) that Princess takes some of my suggestions, with the frequent changes for Covid rules, all they need to put government links and if they do testing on the ship, SAY so and how much it costs.  Since from Paulina I know the support agent SHE checked with is wrong after I talked to a wonderful agent named Victoria (third agent) who seemed to know the answers and said there was NO charge so I hope she is right if testing IS necessary for Canada, then they should say if they do it on ship and the cost on their Covid info link.  Put everything the agent should know on the website, why would the first agent tell me that they don't test BEFORE you get on the ship. (luckily I checked as I didn't get her name.)  I am almost to elite status on Princess but because of what happened to them 2 years ago and recently (when they had more Covid outbreaks)  wondering why I am cruising with them again, oh, it's 90 and I can't get a refund (only way they can get you to try them again) for my first cruise because of all the confusing info I get from their agents which conflict with each other and their website.

I was looking at a travel agency's website that had a grid and it showed a HAL cruise that was discounted 65% for $441 but when you went to the singles rate with NO single  supplement it was higher because they charge you the rack rate of  $1193.  Now of course, it is not sanctioned by ANY cruise line that you book for two people and you make up a second person who won't be coming at all but there is nothing to stop you from paying for a booking for two people where the second (real) person is highly unlikely to show up and thus is a no show, the port charges are refunded, just FYI.

this should follow up with my most recent post about the travel insurance thread but there are some important points to be made so I am starting another thread.

With the advent  of the internet people think, why use a travel agent, the airlines used selfbooking to get rid of travel agents.  If you are familiar with cruises and room locations (as I suppose most readers here are) you probably won't need them for advice, but since the business is very competitive many of them rebate part of their commission so you will get OBC or something extra the cruise line won't give you  (they may know the cruiseline's agent for travel agents very well also to get you some perks or upgrades) or there are some (one who has a well known grid) where they buy cabins in block and they can sell the cabins at any price the want since they and not the cruise line own the cabins.   

Also (most cruise lines won't tell you this) you can put it on a 24 hour courtesy hold and then pay and most travel agents will do that and in some cases extend the hold as much as they can even if it's final payment period. I am using one now affiliated with an airline just to get the extra airline miles and I hesitated about them because  in the past I booked them and there was a $25 service charge and because the agency's rules are no written quotes,  you must book at the first time you call so I stopped using them but when they had a good mileage special, when I explained to the last agent I talked to why I haven't used them for my last few cruises and she saw that I booked loong (sic) repositioning cruises and balcony cabins, she bent the rules and would give me a written quote AND hold the reservations if I needed to find a mate to travel etc.

The most important reason though to have a travel agent, is that they are there to protect you, they want to keep you as a client because if you are not happy with one line, you can still use them for another line, whilst the cruiseline is there to protect THEMselves.  The family who claimed to have lost $25K on their Asian cruise, booked through a warehouse club travel agency who may because of their low prices and booking online wouldn't go to bat for them but I maintain a personal relationship with my agents and if I had a problem like that, I would say to the agent, I am booking through you so you can help me with any problem I have and I'd like YOU to try to solve the problem first.   The problem with agencies that want you to self book (usually an online one) is that often you don't build up a relationship with one person, it goes to a call center who may not be allowed to work on your behalf and not being their personal customer have no incentive to do) or if they bought a policy (as I said in my post about travel insurance) NOT sold by the agent through the cruise line, which DID contain the cancellation policies, just can't help.  

That is why it's important to book with ONE agent, I used to hop around to whatever agencies offered the lowest fare (forgetting the online agencies who also had a loyalty tier but again, because of problems you might encounter as I had mentioned they might not be the best bet.)  If you get a lower fare they will try to pricematch it, if the fare goes down after you paid (and YOU have to monitor that, they will not as it's not in their interest) they may be able to help you get a refund or more likely an upgrade or OBC.  They are more likely to do this if you have been a longtime customer who books a lot of cruises with them, than a first time customer who booked a 4 day Bahamas cruise.

There are some cruises that were said to be sold out the online agencies claimed, talked to my personal travel agent who talked with the cruise line (who I tried to talk before and as also told was sold out) and there in fact were some cabins available so that's another reason. 

Was surprised that the family who had lost 25K on the NCL cruise was not issued a refund since they had travel insurance, but the whole story wasn't told in the news (and I am NOT a fan of NCL!)  Called them and told them that the carrier was AON which is used by the Carnival owned lines, and knew that the policies do include trip cancellation for any reasons on both policies cruise lines sell, and he told me that insurance that the cruise lines sell DOES include cancellation for any reason but the family bought a Centex (not sure of spelling) which does not include trip cancellation just medical expenses and evacuation.  I often get flyers for them and the Centex ins. is like the free travel insurance you get on your credit card and also carry Allianz annual travel insurance plan but when I read the policy it only have trip cancellation for covered reasons, illness, etc. (went to Sth America last Nov. when they had demostrations and Allianz said civil unrest was not terrorisim and had no problems with the demos) so make sure you get either the cruise lines or a travel insurance plan elsewhere (it's cheaper) that has cancel for any reason. Surprised at the many people who don't ask questions about their policy. 

The reason why I asked is under general questions as to why some high end lines are selling out their Asian cruises now vs the lower end, and was somewhat admonished for it.  So a simple question if you have taken these cruises are they mostly made up of native Chinese or foreigners from the Western world?

Thanks

Thanks for replying, you are right, but think I should be posting this under NCL as those are the passengers who took this cruise.

1 hour ago, fragilek said:

 

The article quoted experts who researched on that and were not just anecdotal incidents. I was NOT talking about people that have illnesses compromising one's immune systems and yes, YOU should not be handling borrowed, used books so therefore since YOU do not need to touch them  don't use libraries but since I don't think the average person will die from handling a book read by others, they shouldn't ban libraries because of THAT reason. If as someone else posted they want to make room for new rooms etc. that's something else entirely but often libraries are there NOT just to store books but where they might have computers or just a quiet place to sit  and read where people won't be talking  (we learned from childhood to be quiet in a library, you can't shush people in most other places.)  If you can find evidence that a person got a fatal illness from a book please post a link on here,

I have been monitoring the Asia cruises this month, not afraid of viruses as the chances of catching are rare. I went on a cruise from Africa to the U.K. during the Ebola crises and fares were starting $999 per person for thirty days (we ended up on a back balcony where it was only $3 a day more and when we went up the waters. Captain threw that in-from France to England, it was fabulous seeing both shores.)  Shortly before I went I took a cruse from Galveston and a friend of mine who knew my penchant for traveling, warned me not to go anywhere and get Ebola, the irony was that on the sailing before  a medical worker who worked in a hospital where a colleague got Ebola from someone who came from Africa and was treated there, and although she never met the worker or the patient and never had it, she had to stay in her room (probably to protect her from fellow passengers who were NOT allowed to disembark because the ports wouldn't allow them because of the one woman!)  When I went home, I told my friend, why go 10K miles away to get Ebola when I can get it 1K miles away but I digress.

I saw a rate a little over 2K pp on Celebrity for an Aqua suite (for the first time at 2 AM last night) and was going to call my travel agent and a friend to see if he wanted to go but by 8AM it was booked and they only had one other left a Sky Suite at a high price , in contrast on NCL which had much lower prices with more added perks (granted the Celebrity had four more days and additional stops but the price differential was a lot), all categories of cabins that are listed are the same prices as for the past week, and don't seem to be selling so I wanted to have some thoughts from people as to why. 

Granted the amenities and type of service is better on Celebrity (for me it's the room service) but given how low the prices are on NCL, is it possible that more of the clientele on NCL are people from Asia especially Chinese so people in the U.S. are reluctant to book on there/  Has anybody on here from other than Asian countries booked on that and can comment.  It shouldn't matter of course if they are Asian locals,  as they would be screened carefully, but there is a chance that they could be more likely exposed to the virus before getting on board.  

On 1/24/2020 at 3:41 PM, kwokpot said:

Again that's just not a feature that non cruisers are looking for. You certainly don't find libraries in a land based resort hotel. That's just a feature that 'traditional' cruise ships have offered. I have 85 cruises under my belt and not once did I ever take a book from a ship's library.  With ebooks you have a whole library in your hand!

Yes, but they should still have libraries for people who don't have ebooks and WANT to read (and yes some hotels DO have libraries., usually small locally owned ones or hostels.) 

What bugs me, is that people criticize what other people want to do.  NCL  (know this is Celebrity forum but only wanted to make a point) wants to promote their cheap entertainment which doesn't cost money for individual use, games and escape rooms and such vs. ones that do, books or DVDS that require to be purchased. Other than pretty insipid ones which can be watched for free, you had to purchase the other movies OnDemand, was a while ago,  so couldn't remember how much, maybe $7.99 or 9.99 @ seemed pretty high.  When I suggested on this websites forum and some others that they should have some movie pass one could purchase so that a person could watch as many movies that they wanted on the TV (remember paid, not for free so those not wanting to watch would NOT have to pay) you can't imagine the vitriol  and ridicule I got from others, saying she's on a cruise ship, she should do other things besides watch movies, ad nauseam. 

I've been cruising almost twenty years, and in the beginning I would run from activity to activity, and now that I am older, I don't feel compelled to do all that. I travel mostly for the destinations, like to relax reading or watching TV, eat the good food, half the time I skip the shows having seen so many similar ones.  So, yes, there still should be libraries for people who STILL want to use them, maybe more paperback and magazines, if weight is a factor. 

On 1/24/2020 at 3:30 PM, fragilek said:

funny how 2 sailings can be so different- I like peace and quite and spend a lot of my time reading and found this ship much better for this than Infinity was.  I am surprised that any ships still have libraries/ book lending as this is an sure fired way to spread viruses about.  

I had to address this issue RIGHT away, especially with the new Asian virus going around, there is practically NO chance of people getting viruses from a book https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71875/just-how-gross-are-library-books-exactly.

I was on a Holland American ship where they had the norovirus and although I can't remember reading books at that time, they had a lot of prohibitions i.e., we couldn't borrow the DVDs, use the hot tub (and I am talking about in the Persian Gardens which you pay EXTRA for so a little more exclusive), or use the washing machines etc.  Now this is the irony of the whole thing, you COULD use the slot machines who somehow were "vaccinated" from the virus.

I took Celebrity once which had the norovirus which left the dock late because of what they had to do and remember that the library was closed the first few days because they were "sterilizing" the books and that's why the cruise ships are doing away with the libraries, is the extra cost, books cost money to buy and add weight to the ship which entails using more fuel to sail NOT because people don't want them or read the books (noticed how many there are with not so friendly people not wanting to talk to others,  before shows, events, dining by themselves, etc.)