Ship's Wake

Yes, you can leave once you check in. As others have mentioned, make sure you're back onboard in time for departure.

As far as bringing another bottle with you when you return, go for it. Highly unlikely you are prevented from doing so.

Have a great cruise.

If Viking can bring the service that we have experienced on their river boats to Ocean going cruises then we will have found our perfect ocean cruise line!

I'm with you on this. Anxiously awaiting the launch of these ships.

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing this.

Mobile has a unique market. Carnival only sends distressed ships there. If you see a Carnival ship in Mobile, Carnival has got problems on their hands, and CNN can't be far behind. LOL

Yep.

Many years ago I had a friend who was a district sales manager for Royal Caribbean. He mentioned that some cruise markets where there is only one ship sailing from there, in most instances the cruise line will have one of the older ships in the fleet based there.

The cruise line can do this because they are the only game in town - ie: no other competition.

The home ports where there is lots of competition usually get the newest ships.

We are friends with 2 HAL Officers (and the wife of one of them) and have done some port things with our friends. But never on a HAL tour or any kind of tour. Like us, they prefer to do their own thing. And I know that at least one of those 2 Officers would not be caught dead (or alive) on a HAL Passenger excursion since the last thing he (and his wife when she is aboard) want to do when they have port time off,,,,is spend it with a group of passengers. Our non-married officer friend prefers to spend his few hours of shore time in a decent local "watering hole" with his personal friends (mostly crew...with a few long time passenger friends if they happen to be on his ship).

 

This is a somewhat amusing post.

Did you get the sense that the HAL Officers would have preferred to have enjoyed their port time off instead of hanging out with passengers like yourself? Or do they only associate with certain types of passengers?

Another option if you really want to go to Rothenburg bad enough (I've been there during Advent season and it is absolutely gorgeous), perhaps consider leaving the boat in Regensburg and taking the train on your own to Rothenburg. Overnight there and then train to Nuremburg to catch up to your boat the following afternoon.

Use this to check your possible train options. Each way looks to be around 29 to 45 euros per person depending on what you select.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Select Regensburg HBF and Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber HBF for Start and Destination. Looks like 2 1/2 hours, Regensburg-Nuernberg-Ansbach-Steinach-RODT.

That's true. A lot of the hubbub was as the cruise industry moves to building only very large ships, Tampa will be left out in the cold. I prefer to sail Spirit size ships, like the layout (translation: hard to get lost!).

 

The estimates I've read about hover around 1.5 billion to raise the bridge. In today's prices the cost of a new build cruise ship in the Spirit class size range is around 500 million.

Meet Carnival or Royal Caribbean or Norwegian half way and agree to pay for half of the ship if it is based out of Tampa for a certain number of years/sailings/etc.

This would be far less expensive and not disrupt any road traffic one bit.

The local area still gets the benefit of the money spent related to travel and supplying the cruise ship. This is still better than not having cruise ships based there.

I think they have decided.

 

Nobody's going to build a port outside the Sunshine Skyway and the bridge isn't going to be rebuilt for many decades yet. I think Tampa is done for 7 day Carnival cruises for the foreseeable future.

 

The only options are to travel to another port or choose another line.

It would be far cheaper for the Port of Tampa (ie the taxpayers) to provide monetary incentives for Carnival to base a Spirit class ship out of Tampa than to replace the Sunshine Skyway or try to build a new cruise port somehwere along the beautiful white sand beaches in the area.

It has been my pleasure to read of the interest in cruising from Tampa aboard Holland America ships. Here is the history of which ships have sailed from Tampa:

1982 Veendam (prior Veendam than the present ship)

1983-1999? Nieuw Amsterdam (the new "N" class ship)

1999?-2003 Noordam (the sister "N"class ship)

2003-2008 Veendam (the current "S" class ship)

2004?-2005? Ryndam (14 day cruise) Veendam continued on 7 day

2008-2014 Ryndam

 

The Ryndam will return to Tampa in November and leave in April 2015. With it leaving the fleet, the Veendam will return to Tampa in January 2016 for a short season. Those of us who care, hope Seattle will continue to base a ship here. The "R" and the Vista should be able to clear the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. With Carnival, Royal, and Norwegian sailing 7 day or shorter cruises, it would be best for HAL to do the longer (10+ days) market.

Thank you for this bit of HAL history in Tampa.

 

It has been discussed here and some who know about such things than I do said the Vistas are too tall. There has been discussion in Tampa newspapers I have read that they fear they will lose the cruise ship traffic because the investment to raise the bridge is prohibitive. Dredging and other solutions were discussed and the investment is massive.

 

Carnival's Spirit class (which share a similar hull to the Vistas) can make it under the bridge quite well.

Vistas from HAL should be able to clear the bridge.

Congratulations!

You were faced with a no lose situation - both options were excellent. Glad you're booked and counting down the days already. :)

LiseD, I would go with Avalon.

Newer ship, far less passengers, as Got2cruise mentioned - Basel to Amsterdam direction works to your advantage, lower deposit amount.

The 1 bottle of wine policy pertains to Embarkation. You can get off the ship but you are doing so as a passenger who has already gone thru the Embarkation and check in process. You will get off the ship and return with your Sail and Sign card showing you are already checked in. Thus you have already done Embarkation and most likely will not be able to bring any wine with you or it will be taken and held until the end of your cruise.

Is your answer based on first-hand knowledge or is this just conjecture?

Yes, they do.

AND, some of the posters on the Carnival boards work doing social media for Carnival.

Viking would really have to prove itself to me after seeing how their river cruise passengers were treated last summer when the rivers flooded and they just about told them that they did not care about them. I would be very hesitant to sail with this company after reading some of those horror stories.

 

The test of good customer service is how a company reacts when things are not going smoothly.

Terri

In a couple of years when I have more time to take longer ocean cruises Viking will be on my shortlist of lines to consider.

Their new ships look to be fantastic.

Madeira is a lovely island and Funchal a very pretty city. We have been fortunate to have stopped there twice on trans-Atlantic cruises.

If you have the time and funds, I would recommend you strongly consider adding on the extension.

There is a wealth of information on Madeira on the cruise ports forum. Here is a link to threads that discuss Madeira:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=53523428

No competition there .

 

 

That's also the reason they use their oldest ship there - no other options for customers to choose from.

No way the put the Fantasy in a more competitive market like FLL/MIA.

I can see Charleston being just another Carnival cast off in a few years. They need to think long and hard before they lay out huge sums for a new terminal.

Agreed. Carnival has demonstrated in the past that they will drop a departure port at a whim.

Smoking is a relevant discussion, especially since HAL is one of the few remaining cruise lines where balcony smoking is allowed.

Like any thread, the reader can bypass those that don't appeal to them.

What's next, only one thread for those who have a complaint about anything related to a HAL cruise?

MUTS was an ill conceived idea. The Princess cruisers love it, but they can keep it.

Plenty of cruise ships elsewhere for those who need a big screen to keep them occupied.

I think it is pretty far-fetched to assume the Russians are playing some sort of "game".

 

Does anybody really believe that Putin, or one of his minions in Moscow, ordered a whole 85 people be denied landing in a port in Siberia as some sort of punishment to Americans? Really?

Exactly.

I'd be more worried about the spy base in the process of being reopened in Cuba.

I don't see how the changes you are about to make add any improvement to my user experience.

Are post counts down with the current setup versus the way the river cruise forum was laid out previously? What is the impetus behind changing the forum yet again?

Wakepatrol, thanks for your review.

What type of music was being played on the pool deck? Would you say the volume level was moderate or plain loud?

Only way we will cruise on HAL is in an inside cabin. We prefer balconies, but will not book them on HAL until they update their smoking policy to be in line with the rest of the cruise industry.