Mary Ellen

Doubtful - let's see if OP clarifies.

I sure don't see ANY reason why they need to justify their previous statement to anyone here. Their life. NONE of our business. Period. :rolleyes:

What hmmmm? Have you seen the list of food items that cannot be taken into the US?:D

If you're going to be logical.... ;)

OP, besides the fact that many countries forbid the casual import of some foods, the ship is only responsible for serving you breakfast the last morning. Any future meals are your responsibility.

We are on the Solstice Sept 11 departing Seattle and visiting Skagway, Ketchikan, Juneau, ISP in Alaska. Does anyone know if there are any places at these ports that offer free wifi? Don't want to have to buy an onboard internet package just to check my email every couple of days or so...

Thanks, Cathy

If you have a smart phone you should be able to check emails on it while in Alaska without being dependent upon free wifi. Ours are easier to take ashore than a tablet or netbook/laptop. Just remember to turn 'data roaming' to off. We have Verizon and have had very good signal strength in Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. Don't remember if we tried in ISP.

Hi I am a single widow 59 years young and just now thinking of my first cruise.(solo)......but I do not and cannot fly.....this poses a real problem to get to the port of embarkation Anyone else have this dilemma?. I live in beautiful Colorado so Miami seems to be a daunting bus ride....lol.......I want to go to Caribbean. so any past for present cruisers that do not fly please let me know your experiences.. Thanks.

My FIL (also living in Colorado - Western Slope) does NOT fly. He takes the train to either coast. He's done the Amazon, Panama Canal, Alaska, Europe (that was 5 cruises in a row that went from FLL to NYC) and is still considering Australia/NZ. Just be sure to allow extra time. It isn't just planes that don't always arrive on schedule. ;)

Our most recent HAL cruise was on the Volendam this past spring. The "deli" area had been moved to the main Lido line, port side. While there were a good quantity of pre-made sandwiches available, I rarely saw anyone avail themselves of this option. I had plenty of time to notice as I stood in line to get our made-to-order sandwiches. So much for it being a "least used" section. :rolleyes: We tried a pre-made once. That was enough. Simply awful.

Since our preferred onboard lunch time is 2:30-3:30, our typical lunch is splitting a sandwich and salads. I can't say that I ever remember not having others on line. Actually, I remember being happy if there were only one or two ahead of me.

Seeing so many pre-made sandwiches sitting out, going uneaten, I wonder about how much more food is wasted vs. made-to-order. :rolleyes:

One thing we've missed when sailing on Princess has been the Deli sandwich area. I guess HAL has lost another of the (very) few advantages we found over Princess. With HAL ships losing the Deli, I'm struggling to think of any remaining advantage. Maybe the nacho/taco bar - but DH loves that Princess offers milkshakes. That's a draw.

I'm with some of the others - Why were you surprised? :confused:

I think she meant if she doesn't pay $1 for a drink then that same $1 can go to tipping extra. Just taking from Peter to pay Paul kind of thing.

IF that is the case, just think of how much extra she can tip by not buying jewelry, watches, spa treatments, photographs.... the crew will raking in the extra tips from what she isn't spending on those things. Really, have NO idea what she meant. ;)

And, we do not drink alcohol, so I suppose that will save us 15% on the booze bill which can then go instead to the other staff members that made our cruise so enjoyable, I am sure we will have an enjoyable time!!!!

:confused: The 15% is only added to the price of your lounge beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). That has nothing to do with the HSC and completely separate. There is nothing that will "go instead to the other staff members that made our cruise so enjoyable".

Downloaded 'On the Fly' but it does not seem to have any info on flights with free stopovers. Not much different than Kayak which is my go to app for searching flights. Maybe I missed something?

No, I didn't say that it would show flights with free stopovers. It shows where we'd have to connect anyway. I use both this and Kayak as sometimes they have different flights. Also, if we're flexible on dates, the 'On the Fly' shows a wider range - about a 5-week time frame.

I'd suggest looking at wherever you'd need to connect anyway to get home. Probably one of those cities will appeal to you. I like the ITA 'On the Fly' app to peruse the possibilities.

I have tried the Better business bureau, Maritime lawyers in Florida and asking the insurance company that came with the cruise. I feel that this was no.way our fault and deserve compensation. The final offer from Carnival was a 20 per cent did count on our future cruise. Does anyone have any suggestions for us.

I'm sorry your cruise didn't live up to your expectations. However, as the others have said, you've already received more compensation than you are due.

I understand the excitement of your first cruise. We've been cruising for over 30 years and not once have there not been multiple oral and written notifications of when passengers need to be 'all aboard'. The standard Cruise Director announcement when docked is along the lines of: "Welcome to (port of the day)! The ship has been cleared by the local authorities and everyone may go ashore. The gangway is located on deck (X), and can be reached by using the (forward/mid-ship) elevators or stairs. All aboard is at (insert time here) and we sail PROMPTLY at (half an hour later) for (name of next port)."

The all aboard time is always clearly noted in the daily program. That would have been delivered to your cabin the night before - giving you plenty of time to read it. When scanning off the ship at security there is also a sign noting the all aboard time.

Think about it this way - The Carnival Magic carries around 3690 passengers. Apparently 3686 knew when to be back to the ship. I'm sorry, but I really don't think the fault lies with Carnival.

I don't care for the taste of coffee either but I've always been able to find beverages there. I like the Explorations Café Iced Chai Tea Latte. There are also iced chocolate drinks, but I have to make sure the crew member knows not to use Mocha. :rolleyes: Last summer there was one guy who just couldn't (wouldn't?) get it. When I would flatly state "NO coffee" would turn around and start pumping the mocha syrup. Thank goodness we had the Explore4 that cruise. More than once I would take a sip and have to throw it away.

You guessed right! We've got the Explore4 drink package & I'd like to use some of it for other than alcohol based drinks, too.

The menu of the Explorations Café offers both hot and cold (blended iced) beverages.

Just my thinking... as there should have never been a charge paid to the travel agent on the passenger's card, it is at least a misuse of the customer's credit card, whether $2, $2,000, or $20,000.

Exactly. While I do believe in 'Innocent until proven guilty', I'm not sure how a business can charge a client's card to themselves "by accident". Not only once, but twice as they also did the same thing to Dorothy's friends. :rolleyes: No way around that it was a deliberate act. What comes into play was intent. Mistake I can possibly believe. Accident? No. I do hope that Dorothy and her friends both report this error to the State's AG for investigation.

Unless there is a new cruise terminal from when we were there - you will be dropped off at the cruise terminal. You'll check in there and then have to shuttle out to where the ship is docked.

Like I said, the information for activating will be ON the ship. For us it was in our cabin, with the cards. All that was required of us was that the bar server also wanted our room card the first time we used the card. Now that it is said to be 'on' your cabin key/ID card/charge card, you may just get some sort of Explore4 info sheet when checking in. It could be in your cabin. I REALLY don't think HAL is going to keep guests in the dark if the card needs to be activated. They don't leave passengers guessing about what to do for the Emergency Drill, Tender Procedures, Disembarkation....

I've only had good experiences calling HAL Shore Ex. Calling any other dept - you're rolling the dice. :rolleyes: I know I sure wouldn't be calling HAL over this.

Not so sure, Mary Ellen - we all know 3 phone calls with the same question to HAL will likely elicit 3 different answers.:D

Don't worry. There will information about what to do with the cards. HAL won't expect passengers to guess.

I thought I read on here recently that the cards had to be activated at the front office. I could be wrong, but for some reason that is sticking in my mind. I have one for my next cruise, so it would be good to know for sure.

Last time in Bejing the Chinese officials decided that those on private tours had to be back on board 2-hrs earlier than those on the ship's tours. For us we were so fed up with China Highlights that we returned to the ship even earlier. (We decided to allow extra time should our driver get lost again.) We were part of the fiasco below. While we didn't say anything directly to the officials, there were a number of us joking about what they would do should anyone have a fever. It sure seemed to us that the officials were making things up as they went. Who knows what the 'rules' may be when you're there.

What you experienced is a more or less normal day in Tianjin.

The officials make things up as they go.

You never quite know what to expect.

 

One of my company's ships was there last month.

The officials announced that they were going to measure everyone's temperature as they disembarked. Somehow they forgot to do it.

 

So the next day, as the ship was preparing to sail, the officials announced that all passengers had to get off the ship to have their temperature checked before the ship left China.

The passengers reluctantly started disembarking to have the temperature check. When they got into the terminal, they asked the officials where the infrared cameras were. THe officials replied that the cameras were hidden in the ceiling; the passengers had only to walk through the terminal and back to the ship.

 

Some of the passsengers asked the officials what would happen to someone who failed the temperature check. Would he be forced to leave China - which the ship was about to do anyway - or would he be forced to stay in China - which would not make any sense.

 

Then a few minutes later the officials called the ship and announced that the temperature check was cancelled.

The ship departed 3 hours late.

 

Consider yourself lucky that your ship did not call at Dalian. The officials there are far worse.

In the future you can also click on "User CP" in the upper left side of the screen. You'll be able to click on something there to find all of your posts. There you can also set your subscriptions to automatically subscribe to any thread on which you post. You can set your notifications to receive an email immediately, daily, weekly....

You can also subscribe to any thread that interests you, even without posting. In the upper right side of the thread is a "Thread Tools" box. Click on that. One of the options is 'subscribe'.

I am sure they consider being on the land tour being the same as being on the ship: you get a cruise day credited for every day on a ship or a land tour.

Exactly. No reason for anyone to get greedy and expect double-dipping. :rolleyes:

You will save nothing doing it yourself and eliminate the benefit of having an advocate on your side if anything goes wrong with your booking.

Exactly. Once we had a problem on board and getting nowhere trying to rectify it. I contacted our TA and he was able to work on our behalf to get it resolved before the cruise ended.

Also, note on the sign that has how many laps for a mile that there is an arrow indicating the direction in which to walk.

I apologize. And bless your heart for the not so gentle rebuke. :rolleyes:

NO NO NO.

 

PE (Premium Economy) is NOT what you will find on AA/DL/UA. What AA/DL/UA are providing are standard coach seats with additional legroom/recline. This is NOT premium economy, which has different seating and often inflight service.

 

Delta Comfort, Main Cabin Extra and Economy+ are NOT PE, which you can find on European and Asian carriers.

 

Please don't post incorrect information.

Was scarred for life by various TA flights on assorted US airlines when working [surly service, paying for drinks!!!] so would prefer to avoid them, and in any case, none as far as I know, offer PE.

Looking forward to your suggestions.

Actually most of the US airlines offer PE. US Air is the only one that comes to mind that hasn't had PE seats on flights we've considered.

For what it's worth, we flew BA from DEN-LHR business class once. Never again. Worst business flight we've ever had. The next time we needed to go to London, rather than the BA nonstop, we connected at IAH for a UA 787, PE seats. We vastly preferred that to the BA business. It says something that we'd rather connect than take a BA nonstop. ;)

Considering this thread is over 5 years old, you may want to confirm anything you've learned. ;)

I've learned a lot on this thread - I had no idea what a trac phone was. But the information is very contradictory. Works in Puerto Rico, does not work in Puerto Rico, works on the ship, does not work on the ship. Still, this sounds like the perfect phone for my DH so will look into this further . Thanks.:)