YORKI1

Well did you ask which HAL ship will be?

Denise:)

Pardon?

FYI - I tried to book a cruise today for 14 nights, leaving Boston on the 14 July 2018 and sailing to Bermuda, returning to Boston and then onto Montreal. HAL informed me that the Veendam has been redeployed and will not be sailing this itinerary.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news if you have booked this cruise.

We have just returned from a cruise that included Kotor and I would go with your No. 1 option.

The sail in and out of Kotor is the same beautiful route and you will see Perast and the islets of St George and Our Lady of the Rocks from the ship. Perast is pretty and historical, but as its your first time in this port I would concentrate on Kotor.

Don't be tempted to do a water based excursion as most of them sail the same route that your ship will take.

Officially the travel agents are not allowed to sell outside of their set areas. RCL can punish from this behaviour in various ways, see the travel agent documentation at http://www.cruisingpower.com/public/global/taguideNoLogin.do#section_21

 

Additionally, the US rates are only for US residents. I've discussed this with non-US people of RCL and there is no way around it. Similarly any other discount programs are usually area specific (think BOGOHO etc) and cannot be applied to persons from not that specific area. When you select the state you are resident of, you are also binding to provide documentation that you are a legal resident of that state, i.e. you have to have a drivers license, state identification card or other similar public document). Whilst boarding this may be checked and whilst denying boarding doesn't seem to have happened to anybody, you might be asked to pay the difference in the published fare vs your discounted fare.

The above statement is not correct. I am from the UK and have booked many cruises with Royal Caribbean Cruise companies, including Celebrity, though US travel agents.

Royal Caribbean will often give additional discounts to US residents who, for example, live in Florida. If anyone attempted to book one of these rates and were not resident in Florida I imagine they would have a problem when they board the ship.

How annoying, I am sorry that you suffered from this inconvenience on your cruise. We are in cabin 8544 and 8546 in May, which appears to be on the other side of the ship from your cabins. I had paid particular attention, when I booked our cabins, that they were in an area that I didn't think would suffer from Deck 9 noise. Looking at the deck plan, I am amazed that they can fit table tennis table'sin the space.

I never normally book a cabin under a public deck but a Junior suite was too enticing to resist. Lesson learned!

We have just returned from our first Celebrity cruise (Eclipse) and throughly enjoyed it. We have sailed twice on P&O, June 2015, Oceana and December 2013 (New Year), Azura. Again, we throughly enjoyed both cruises.

There were a few minor things that I didn't like about all the ships, but none that would put me of cruising on them again, especially if the price and itinerary appealed to us.

We were on the same January 2016 Eclipse sailing as Rowse, same deck, cabin 1018 (C3). Loved the cruise.

I agree about the bread, same boring selection every night. Although it stopped me eating too much bread which can pile on the pounds.

One thing I didn't like about our cabin was that the bed was next to the balcony, I prefer the sofa to be next to the balcony. I was interested to see in the OP picture that their sofa was next to the bed. According to the Celebrity brochure both cabins appear to be C3 with convertible sofa bed.

Can anyone explain why the difference, as next time I would prefer to book a cabin with the sofa next to the balcony door.

Thank you.

I am enjoying your posts and pictures, keep them coming. We are on the 10 January 2016 cruise, also deck 10, Concierge cabin 18. I am So excited.

I also use the Halifax Clarity card when purchasing anything in a currency other than GBP.

Hi 4774 Papa.

I enjoyed reading your review of your visit to Istanbul. How did you get to the places you visited, e.g. organized tour, walk. taxi?

Thank you.

Hi Yorky,

I noticed we have similar user names on this board. I am from Yorkshire originally, hence the Yorki.

I am also very excited, we have just booked our first Celebrity cruise, Eclipse 10 January 2016 from Miami.

Have fun!!

I am not a member of a professional organisation.

If you have an HSBC Advance account you qualify for 5% discount on P&O cruises. You need to quote the reference number listed against this benefit in your account documentation.

I booked a cruise on Friday 16 January 2015 and was able to access my Cruise Personaliser once, every time I have tried since I get this message:

"Can not find validation element "FormValidationSummary". Make sure you've put an element with this ID into your HTML document.

Does anyone know what this means?

I checked the P&O site and everything they suggest I am doing, i.e. correct spelling and I am not in the Australian site.

++++++++++++Its working now+++++++++++++++++

Booked to go away in June around the Med on Ventura when are the trips likely to be shown on cruise personaliser?

I booked the Oceana from Venice (June 17) 3 days ago and my excursions are there already. Although I tried to log onto my cruise this morning and I keep getting an error message.

I am thinking about booking the Smiths Luau as an excursion in Kauai. I have looked at booking it through Roberts USD99 NCL USD104 and direct with Smiths USD90. There is not a lot of difference in price.

Is anyone aware of any advantages of booking through a particular company and why.

Also, is seating pre allocated or is it a dash for the best seats.

Thank you.

Hi we are booking a cruise for next Jan on Azura and looking at GC grade cabins on C deck my oh has now had a look at B deck same grade but the ones at the back of the ship not sure about those ,my question would be has anyone used those cabins and are they in a decent spot ? he never bothers looking at cabins now i dont know which one to go for they are same price so thats not an issue :)

I have just returned from the New Year cruise on the Azura, it was fantastic! I booked a GE Getaway and was allocated a GC cabin on B deck at the back, B706, no problem at all even thought it was next to the lifts we never heard a thing. You do feel a little more motion of the ocean, although it helps me sleep.

Anybody who's visited the Caribbean recently know how extensive the mosquito borne infection [ Chikungunya] is and what, if anything, they are advising onboard ships? Just wondered in particular if it was in the towns /beach or only in more rural areas?

 

I went onto our Cruise Personaliser today and the Check Your Vaccines tab was highlighted in red. I checked on the health website and apparently there's an illness caused by mosquitoes which started in St Maarten and has now spread to Guadeloupe and St Barth's. We're visiting all three and as my OH has a health issue it's a bit worrying.

We have just returned from a 14 night cruise on the Azura, which included St Maarten. I was aware of a problem before my cruise from reading posts on Cruise Critic and expected at least a warning before we docked in St Maarten but there was none, so I was not concerned. Although I was a little worried when I was bitten by something shortly after arriving in St Maarten, I never developed any of the symptoms.

I should stress I am fit and healthy and don't have any health conditions. If I did I would have taken extra precautions.

I did notice there were posters in both Philipsburg and Marigot advising visitors of the mosquito borne infection (Chikungunya).

If you have any concerns I suggest you speak to your GP before you depart.

Thank you all, I think I will go with the Gatwick option.

We are taking our first P&O cruise from Barbados, on the P&O Azura, over New Year.

I would like to buy a few bottles of Champagne for consumption in the cabin.

Does anyone know how prices compare between the duty free at Gatwick and the one in the cruise terminal at Barbados?

Thank you.

We are taking our first P&O cruise from Barbados, on the Azura, over New Year.

I would like to buy a few bottles of Champagne for consumption in the cabin.

Does anyone know how prices compare between the duty free at Gatwick and the one in the cruise terminal at Barbados?

Thank you.

Nope. 10th May, Eclipse. 2D now sold out but CON have 2C for £1309 as I type this (from their live online website). We went for the C3 as there were two adjacent cabins at that grade.

Well done, I don't know how you do it. The cheapest balcony cabins I can see are £1875 each (USD3069).

Its hard as I cannot mention a name. If you are looking for a CRUise it isnt a CON. Oops my caps lock got stuck there. Hope that helps. The price shown in the summary of all prices may change when you click to get an actual quote. Thats what happened to me. Currently have a 2D Balcony for 10th May on Eclipse for & £1309pp, free classic package, tips and $300 obc.

All the US agents, including CON, are quoting £2093 for a 2D now. Are you saying when you spoke to them they gave you the cabin for £1309?

Your earlier post said you had a C3 for £1465, are you referring to two different cruises?

I have not cruised with P&O before, going on my first one soon. Can someone tell me about the discount on drinks.

Thank you.

Thank you all for your help.

From the pictures I have seen and what visitors/locals say Dominica looks like a beautiful island, although not very developed. I am looking forward to seeing the island for myself.

This is my first P&O cruise, normally Royal C and I am surprised how reasonable the tour prices are. I have compared a few local firms with P&O and have decided to do Dominica's Favourite's ship excursion, its 4.5 hours long and costs £42. A similar tour with a local firm is £50, although it is 1.5 hours shorter.