tim_london0

you can buy waterproof pants for $15 in your local camping store you don't need anything special here

whatever you do, don't use one of the generic online agents to book flights they are notorious for passing you from pillar to post if there is a problem with your booking. It isn't worth the saving of a few pounds should something go wrong (obviously it doesn't go wrong for 99.99% of people, but the unlucky one could just be you) Use online sites to get an idea of the cost involved, and then: either book direct with the airline's website, or your trusted local real world travel agent (assuming that you still have one of the latter)

I'm surprised that the people who suggest that the food was excellent were on the same cruise as me. For me, the food usually met the expected quality for the price that I had paid, but it was far from what I would call excellent. And in amongst the bunch were some real stinkers, that I really should have sent back (but didn't because I hate to see things wasted)

Oh right well I tried that and when you come to enter your country of residence you can choose between USA and Puerto Rico - Even Canada isn't an option for this booking method. (It's not clear how they might catch you out if you lie)

I can't get the .com site (if that is what you mean) to show me availability and prices and since when has "what the flip" been a rude phrase?

Well, on the basis of the info here, I just took a look at MSC pricing and I'm not seeing any special deals Absurdly, not only does a single, more or less, double up the cabin price, it also doubled up the price of the drinks package. *****! However, The prices of this cruise line are cheap enough not to worry about the SS (as long as you don't take the drinks package!). It's still on my possible list.

It's not clear to me how "always a variation on a theme" can be a problem when the alternative is a "choice of 3 pre-plated options selected by someone else". At least with Borough market I can go around and get my protein off of one counter, my carbs off another one and my veg off a third. I don't just have to stick with the choices that someone else has made for me. (I guess that I can change this in the MDR, but doing it everyday has got to end up being a right old faff.) And there wasn't a limited choice, IIRC there were 9 different counters to choose from. and I don't recall the being an excess of spicy food either. Finally, as I suspect is clear to you, I don't go on cruise to make meal-times into an event. They are just of means of gaining sustenance to survive until the next day.

I'm surprised by your review of Borough Market. On my trip I ate there every day because I simply don't like lunch/dinner to be a 2.5 hour marathon. and on most days the choices matched that which was being served in the Buckingham, though less formally plated. It most certainty wasn't "the same every day"

I missed the chance to search for this year's BF offers (I was in South Georgia that day 😀 ) so I have no idea if there were any cruise offers to Svalbard (though I did get a few Antarctic cruises in my in-box at 50% off, what a pity I had already taken advantage of one of those). But I do get frequent mailings offering me stonkingly large discount (up to 85%) on Ocean cruising (very occasionally with a Longyearbyen call), via companies that I don't think I'm supposed to name here, but there is nothing much on offer for Svalbard circumnavigation (and often what there is doesn't stand up to scrutiny - with an offer price more than the brochure price). Though I think you got lucky with the Ocean Atlantic (that's albatros-expeditions, yes?). That has a brochure price of $9000 per berth in a twin, and I can't find anyone offering offers from that company.

Whilst VAnavigator's information is very helpful, I find myself wondering what demand there is likely to be from passengers for cruises in the Polar Winter. Surely there are going to be few opportunities for shore trips in that period and as such only very dedicated travellers will want to do such a trip. This makes it difficult to fill up a season of such trips and hence more advantageous for the operator to take their ship to the other pole for a full season of summer cruises there (which is, in fact, what they do). So ships built to operate in Summer conditions would seem to be more than adequate, for most purposes. to Suzyq99 - Yes just got back (2 days ago) from the Opening cruise of SH's Antarctic season. do you have any specific questions? regards tim

if this is just about saving money surely the basic Hurtigruten cruises on the Nordstjernen can't be beaten: Spitsbergen and Polar Bears – an Arctic Adventure (Sunday to Friday) | Hurtigruten Expeditions

That's strange I found the lunch session to be busiest in the buffet.

Yes, No (it was a strike day), and Yes (obviously depending upon how much luggage you have)

I think you guys are misunderstanding. It's only available at that price because it hasn't been loading well. I think ACL are in danger of digging a huge hole for themselves. If they get a rep for discounting cruises by 50%, 3 months from departure. People will stop booking at full price and wait for the discounts. I'm certainly doing that with the Amazon cruise in the schedule.

I wasn't impressed by the MDR either. I simply can't believe that the people I see posting (elsewhere) about how wonderful (insert list of alternative superlatives) the food was, were on the same boat as me. For me, the food was (on average) OK. Though some of it was poor. But never did it reach the heights of being something to recommend as a reason for choosing this cruise line. It was more than adequate as a form of sustenance during my incarceration on the ship. As a holiday experience to remember - no chance!

For many destination it's impossible to find out about available group excursions in advance (I have tried, and failed, many times for land based trips), even where they do exist. And using a website to book an independent guide for a bespoke excursion is unaffordable for a party of size 1.

Long treks across the Atlantic is just the cost of choosing a no-fly cruise If you don't want to suffer that the solution is to fly to somewhere in the Americas and start from there. Personally, I'm keen do the trip down the Amazon, but 43 days on a boat just for a 10 day cruise down the river plus a couple of Caribbean islands is just too long. Ideally, I'd like out and back from Barbados, but I can't find anyone who does that. Presumably your new found dislike for this cruise company is based upon the AC problem. You seem to have got very unlucky. My cabin wasn't perfect, but it was nowhere near bad enough to refuse to travel with them again (if there were any itineraries that I might want to do, which there aren't 😀)

But unnecessary tin cans and glass bottles are a scourge on the environment too. Just because they are easier to recycle doesn't make them the good guys here. Plastic bottles are refillable. The idea that I can't take a single plastic bottle on and off board at each port - refilled from the tap or drinking fountains (boiled if necessary) is just absurd (and environmentally insensitive). This is what I do to lower my environmental impact, on every other holiday that I go on. Asking me to carry heavy glass bottle around to do this is just not reasonable IMHO

Yes and No. I tested myself after return from the final port in Greenland with no expectation of a positive test. I had exactly the same (actually fewer) symptoms than I had had the previous week when I tested negative. So I spent the 4 at sea days, plus the day at Orkney (which I had not planned to visit anyway as I have done it all before) locked up in my cabin. Sorry to hear about your temperature problems, I hadn't heard any that bad from the people who I met on the boat. Most just said that the maintenance man came and tinkered with something in the roof to make their cabin cooler - and then it was too cold 😀.

The driver of the Reykjavik bus told me that there were only running the bus hourly because they were short staffed that day. So it was bad luck rather than design. Though you are right to complain that the information didn't find its was back to passengers. This wasn't the only place. At ilulissat we were told that there was a shuttle to the town square, which was only about 200 yards away from the dock. What we weren't told was that there was a second shuttle bus that took you directly to the Isfjordscenter, which is where I wanted to go. So I ended up walking a mile a half unnecessarily

The thing that will put me off booking with Ambassador again is that they don't seem to offer experiences which are "everything that there is to see in this location". They just seem to offer a 3 hour trip to see A and B, and there's another 3 hour trip to see X and Y (overlapping so you can't do both) what about the 6 hour option seeing A, B, X and Y? It's almost like they just treat the "experiences" as "something to do", rather than a chance to visit somewhere exhaustively. I don't want to go to somewhere on a cruise and just use it as sample, and then have to go back again to finish off that location. If I'm going to have to go back again, I don't need to go there on a cruise in the first place, do I? Obviously my holiday desires are not the target for this types of cruise, which is a shame.

Can confirm what tring says AC controls in cabins do not work. The amount of heating/cooling is set once and remains like that. My cabin was over warm when the ship was in port and became too cold overnight whilst at sea. You can get it adjusted to be a bit warmer or colder, but that wont affect the difference. If you get it set so that it is just right in port, it will be even colder when at sea (or vice versa). Food was overall good, but reports from people who ate in the restaurant was that service was lacking. Apart from the Solo's welcome lunch I always ate in the self service, where there are 7 different choices - surely enough for anybody? Breakfast was a different matter. Both the sausages and the baked beans were cheap and nasty rubbish. The pastries had little taste (but I guess that down to the modern style of not putting salt in the mix). So, apart from a trip to obtain my daily shot of Orange juice, I decided to skip breakfast - there's more than enough alternative opportunities for eating. Other bad points were sliced chicken breast that was as tough as old boots (I really should have left it and gone back for something else) and the braised veal on the final day was very chewy and tasteless (Veal's supposed to be a tender cut, cooking it to be this bad must take some skill 😀). By the end of the trip they were running out of stuff. On the final days there was no orange juice, no grilled tomatoes and the bananas had run out over a week before. One bad thing about self service is that Ice cream was never an available desert option, whereas it's available almost daily in the restaurant Anyhow, back to the title of the thread. I got a cold the first week and tested myself as negative, but a week later, when the cold had more or less gone, and all I had was a sniffy nose, tested again as positive. Had to stay in my room, have all my food delivered from the restaurant menu and be tested daily. After 5 days I was negative again and was let out of my confinement. So whilst in my room I got to sample the restaurant fixed plated food option instead of my normal mix-and match approach. And I was amazed at the stupidity of some plates - 80% protein, 10% carbs and 10% veg. How's that suppling a balanced diet? Cleaner wouldn't attend to my room after I had been positive (he would deliver clean stuff but not take dirty stuff away). Apparently, the de-contamination team has to clean it after I left the ship on the final day..

is it still working?

I know that it doesn't say this, but I interpreted those percentages to be a minus amount from the shorter cruise price And there is now a new price list: Standard Prices 5-29 Nights Pre-Cruise Price, Per Person, Per Night £18.00 £33.00 £38.00 £11.00 Onboard Price, Per Person, Per Night £20.00 £38.00 £44.00 £13.00 Longer Cruises Prices 30-69 Nights Pre-Cruise Price, Per Person Per Night £16.00 £30.00 £35.00 N/A Onboard Price, Per Person Per Night £19.00 £37.00 £42.00 N/A 70 Nights and over Pre-Cruise Price, Per Person Per Night £15.00 £28.00 £33.00 N/A Onboard Price, Per Person Per Night £17.00 £33.00 £37.00 N/A and the prices are indeed that percentage lower (though very rounded)

what's MDR please?