Coli

10 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

Coli,

is Ariel Sands ever going to be redeveloped?

I’m honestly not sure. I know the Dill family (Michael Douglas’s) family have something In the works. Such a lovely property.

On 7/30/2021 at 2:48 PM, Second seating said:

Thank you notamermaid for great pictures! We are just back from a trip to Bermuda, short trip for east coasters.

Home for me! Hope it was a good trip! I know the people who own the boat in the first pic. They live just down the beach from Cambridge. 💗

Hi All,

I’m in Bermuda and our airspace and marine traffic is closed except for cargo. All schools and churches are closed, along with government ordered spas, gyms, barbers, hairdressers. Many office and government business are working from home. A lot of the hotel and guest properties are closed. Anyone who has come into the island in the past week is under mandatory 14-day self-quarantine. There were idiots not obeying this law so are now being fined. Many restaurants have switched to pickup or delivery. Social distancing is the new norm but many feel the shops still open should close for now. There are worse places to be right now.  Wishing you all the best across the globe.

2 hours ago, suspaul said:

Coli, thanks for forwarding this information.  Our river cruise is a long way out, December, so we’re going to wait and hope things clear up by then.  This will be our first ama cruise and I will admit, I was disappointed and felt their policy was just another money grab.  We’ve done 18+ river cruises with different companies and all are taking this seriously and trying to make it painless for customers already booked. In light of current events it looks like they’ve stepped up to the plate.  Thanks again for posting.

My pleasure. I don’t post often but I do keep up with things. 😉

AmaWaterways have posted in their loyalty Facebook group the following:

We would like to take this opportunity to inform you about the latest information regarding your upcoming river cruise with AmaWaterways. Your health and safety, and the wellbeing of our staff and crew, are of the utmost importance and we must be vigilant and responsible in ensuring your safety during these uncertain times. As a result of the recent travel restrictions, we are voluntarily suspending the operations of our European river cruise fleet and cancelling all of our Europe river cruises through April 25, 2020.

With this in mind, we want to assure you that your long-awaited travel plans will be protected. We are therefore providing two options for you.

•    1. Future Cruise Credit: We are offering you a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) equal to 115% of the value of your AmaWaterways purchased services, redeemable on any Europe or Mekong River sailing through December 31, 2022. 

•    2. Full Monetary Refund: If you prefer, you may elect to instead receive a full monetary refund on all services purchased through AmaWaterways.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding your river cruise cancellation, FCC or refund, please contact your travel advisor as we are in direct communication with them regarding current developments on our policies. If you choose to contact us directly, please note we are experiencing a higher than normal call volume, as expected.

We are disappointed that we are unable to fulfill your journey at this time, but we are confident that our ships will make a successful return to the rivers soon and hope to welcome you aboard one of AmaWaterways’ many future sailings.

1 minute ago, AF-1 said:

Coli,  that is good news.  Ural Guy,  what kind of insurance did you purchase thru USAA?

Uniworld have posted something on their website and Facebook page as well. They are through April 23 in Europe.

AmaWaterways just posted in their loyalty Facebook group that they are voluntarily cancelling all European cruises through April 25: 

We would like to take this opportunity to inform you about the latest information regarding your upcoming river cruise with AmaWaterways. Your health and safety, and the wellbeing of our staff and crew, are of the utmost importance and we must be vigilant and responsible in ensuring your safety during these uncertain times. As a result of the recent travel restrictions, we are voluntarily suspending the operations of our European river cruise fleet and cancelling all of our Europe river cruises through April 25, 2020.

With this in mind, we want to assure you that your long-awaited travel plans will be protected. We are therefore providing two options for you.

•    1. Future Cruise Credit: We are offering you a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) equal to 115% of the value of your AmaWaterways purchased services, redeemable on any Europe or Mekong River sailing through December 31, 2022. 

•    2. Full Monetary Refund: If you prefer, you may elect to instead receive a full monetary refund on all services purchased through AmaWaterways.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding your river cruise cancellation, FCC or refund, please contact your travel advisor as we are in direct communication with them regarding current developments on our policies. If you choose to contact us directly, please note we are experiencing a higher than normal call volume, as expected.

We are disappointed that we are unable to fulfill your journey at this time, but we are confident that our ships will make a successful return to the rivers soon and hope to welcome you aboard one of AmaWaterways’ many future sailings.

7 hours ago, timesurfer7 said:

As of March 11, 2020, Viking is temporarily suspending operations of our river and ocean cruises, for embarkations taking place between March 12 to April 30, 2020. We believe Viking will be in a better place to provide the experiences our guests expect and deserve after this time and plan to resume operations on May 1, 2020, continuing all further sailings as originally planned.

When itinerary changes are required, impacted guests and their travel agents are notified directly by Viking Customer Relations. Please log onto MyVikingJourney.com for details regarding your specific voyage.

Yep, just read this. Let’s see if others follow suit. I see Princess has followed with their ocean voyages. Thank you for sharing.

I know... so excited about. Thanks for this Host with the Most 😉.

Friday is now Mary Prince Day ( https://www.gov.bm/articles/mary-prince-day).  The 2 days are called Cup Match, a truly unique Bermudian holiday. Go to the game, if you want a truly wonderful Bermudian experience, go to the game. And both ferries and buses run on public holiday schedule.

Ferry into town, walk up to the bus depot by City Hall, take one of the St. George’s buses. Enjoy the day.

I started river cruising at 41. Love it. I’ve met lots of people in their 40s on river cruises. Grab it and go for it!

On 2/12/2020 at 5:11 PM, CaroleLee said:

AMA+air

Now that several US airlines have devalued their frequent flyer programs my"elite status" FF points are almost worthless for international travel so... Opinions and actual experience using AMA to book your air (JFK/NYC) to Amsterdam and return from Zurich. I also have my TA looking into several options.

Thx

Carole

We used AMA for our air travel in November 2018 for JFK/Amsterdam/Zurich/jfk. Great service, amazing price. We’ve booked our Cambodia/Vietnam flights with AMA for August. Flying Emirates through Dubai. Also very happy with price and service we received from AMA.

23 hours ago, notamermaid said:

I hope you have had a pleasant flight and the mistery tour becomes a nice surprise.

 

Today is a busy shopping day for me under a bright Autumn sky. It is nice, but there is always the thought "this is not normal".

How is the poor Rhine doing today? Not too well: Maxau 327cm, Kaub 39cm, Koblenz 43cm.

 

notamermaid

 

AmaPrima’s mystery wine tour has begun. On our way to Utrecht and I can see that we’re heading to Gent by Tuesday. Sebastian nor our captain knows where we’re going after day 5.

14 hours ago, gadugger said:

About 16 hrs. before we drive to the airport to get to Amsterdam for our AMA Rhine river mystery cruise, I break a tooth after dentist office hours. Luckily I got an emergency appt. for a temporary repair before regular office hours tomorrow. Apparently I should have spent less time praying to the rain gods and more praying to the patron saint of travelers (St. Christopher). I will see whether tragedy  plus time  equals comedy when it comes to travel. 18 months ago, my wife broke her toe right before a trip to Amalfi Coast with its hundreds of steps. 

See you there gadugger. Heading to JFK later for our flight to AMS. The mystery tour will be epic! Poor Rhine.

12 minutes ago, gadugger said:

Thanks for the info. on the credit. I still haven't got any info. from AMA or my TA even though I informed them of what was apparently going on thanks to the posters on this board. 

Hi gadugger... our TA is on holiday so we called one of her colleagues today and said could they check with AMA. She called and said AMA sent out the letter yesterday to TAs and they sent her a copy for us today. I think Cruise Critic’s messaging system is down or I’d send you a copy. Again thanks to notamermaid and GMT and all the others who have posted about the river situation.

3 hours ago, hbr777 said:

Is it  lot of credit?

I have to be in AMS the morning our cruise ends. We have train tickets to Berlin  and Prague (same ticket)@ 9am and we are meeting other people. 

Have they said what they will do for you to get you back to Basel if necessary?

The credit is full amount you paid for this cruise to use on another AMA cruise. To be used in next 3 years. I’m on this trip with holacandita. Got our letter from AMA today. The other option was to cancel this cruise for a full refund. As holacandita states, AMA will get us to Basel for the post cruise extension. AMA also asks for those who are traveling indepentantly from Basel to give them all those details. Sounds like they are trying to get everyone to Basel regardless. Mum and I are going to take the revised itinerary, enjoy the fact we’re on holiday and go for the full credit for another cruise. We’re happy we get to do our 4 night post trip as planned.

HBR777 - if we end in Düsseldorf we take train to Basel. If we’re ending in Amsterdam we fly to Basel.

2 hours ago, holacandita said:

 

We are on this same cruise --- still can't get in touch with Ama and haven't heard a thing from them about any potential disturbances to our itinerary. The lack of communication bothers me more than anything.

Also on this cruise. Head out Thursday for NYC before our overnight to Amsterdam. Really not expecting any word from AMA as the offices are remote due to the CA fires. Do I expect a boat swap? Yep as AMAPrima has been in Cologne area for Several days now and she’s supposed to be on a Basel-Amsterdam leg. Suspect she’s waiting for a down river sister ship swap.

19 minutes ago, gadugger said:

Attn: AMA cruisers:  I just found the following on AMA's web site:

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: OFFICE CLOSED NOVEMBER 9, 2018 UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Due to mandatory evacuations, power outages and road closures taking place as a result of the wildfires currently affecting areas of Ventura County and Los Angeles County (CA), AmaWaterways Headquarters located in Calabasas will be closed on Friday, November 9th. The safety and wellbeing of our employees is of the utmost importance, and our thoughts are with them as well as with our valued guests and travel partners within the affected areas.

Our office has been impacted on all operating levels including our phone lines and Online Booking System. If you have left a voicemail, we will return your call as soon as it is deemed safe to return to normal business operations. Should this message no longer appear on our website, please feel free to reach out to our Reservations Department at 1.800.626.0126.

We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops and will provide an update should it become necessary to remain closed for a longer period of time.

 

Oh good grief.  I’m sure they’ll work on a redundancy plan for communication. Those fires in Cali are horrific. Looks like AMAPrima is in Cologne today.

1 hour ago, gadugger said:

Yesterday I received our info. packet for our AMA cruise from A to B Nov. 17 thru 24. No mention of low water issues. Info. on excursions  like bus time, walk time, etc. was provided but not in time to use the info. to do- on line scheduling so have to wait till on ship to make any changes.  If anybody's itinerary is changed to include new countries you should notify your credit card companies and debit card financial institutions of these changes.  

We got our docs here in Bermuda last week: A-B on AMAPrima Nov 17-24. We know it’s too early for the line to let us know if there will be changes. Just looking forward to a holiday after a crazy busy year with work. Traveling with my Mum who decided this was a 75th birthday present to herself this year. She’s packed pretty much already and has been walking everyday. As it’s a wine cruise - she’s got into training with that as well. 😂😂🍷

23 minutes ago, gadugger said:

This is what the AMA Waterways representative told me when I called their California toll free number two days. 

_______   There is very little chance that any of their cruises will be cancelled outright. A recent example of a deviation was cruising thru Belgium and then being transported go Strausbourg. I forgot to ask if the transport was by bus or train. If you booked air thru AMA then the air will be cancelled when a cruise is cancelled. As we have post cruise plans in Europe, we are essentially forced to accept whatever version our Rhine river cruise that will be offered.  AMA did not tell me when I booked the air that we would be prohibited from upgrading to premium economy on the flight over. AMA was supposed to send detailed cruise info. 4 wks. before our Nov. 17 cruise. I still have not received any info. despite asking at least twice. Their belatedly posted web site low water warning was generic and of little value. Their web site warning about water level issues was totally inadequate in terms of disclosing the risks customers face. They will not tell me how many days notice I will get of an altered cruise.  This likely will be my first and last cruise with AMA.

Thanks for the update. I’m on this cruise as well - AMS-BAS on AMAPrima. Our flight to Europe out of JFK is with AMA, our flight to NYC from Bermuda is not. Not an issue right now for us.  Our awesome TA is currently on her way back to Bermuda and we’re catching up with her next week. I don’t expect to hear anything concrete from AMA until I’m pretty much stepping on a flight to NYC in 2 weeks. Hope to see you on the ship!

15 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

New feature of the new Cruise Critic website:  they have officially labeled notamermaid as hot!

She rocks.

2 hours ago, kathywin53 said:

Thanks for the input. Also first river cruise and really hoping to keep some sort of river cruise in the vacation. We have independent air so that will not change if AMA cancels the cruise. Biggest issue might be finding best way to get to Basel, will AMA help with that as other companies have. Will post any updates.

Pretty sure they won’t let us know until at least 48 hours out from the trip. Nice to see a few more people on this trip though! We’re booked airfare and post trip with AMA. Very much hoping we get to Lucerne/ Zurich post trip no matter where we are.

Looking at marinetraffic.com it looks like AMAPrima has changed her 10 day Rhine/Moselle to Rotterdam/Amsterdam. Her track also shows previous voyage was Amsterdam/Rotterdam.  At least passengers get to stay onboard for voyage. I’ve been following this thread as we’re scheduled to be on Prima for her November 17 Wine Rhine voyage. Do know things can change and I’m great at adapting. Very much appreciate everyone’s input on this thread.

We’re taking a trip to Bermuda before our next cruise, & wanted to ask the knowlegeable folks here:

Is a taxi the best way from Bermuda airport to our hotel? We are 2 adults, 1 child, carryon luggage only?

Thanks!

 

 

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Hi there plum24. Contact the concierge at the hotel. Normally they have a prearrange private bus transport available. We used it for some of our guests earlier this year. It’s a good price.

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