Ship's Wake

The Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy have a swim up bar in the adult area.

Night life on a River Cruise is pretty much dead .Who wants to go to bed almost every night at 9pm???

What changes would you like to see?

OP, thank you for taking the time to write about your experiences.

You have no doubt realized you have entered the territory of posters who seek to discredit you and your motives. Human nature is what it is I guess.

Shooting the messenger when you disagree with the post only serves to turn this board into a cheerleader forum where no dissent is allowed.

This is total speculation, but it makes sense.

It was announced by the Tampa Port Authority that Carnival Corp owned cruise line AIDA will home port a ship in Tampa in 2014 and 2015.

http://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/10121.html

This satisfies the need to have ships sailing from Tampa that can fit under the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

My guess is that Carnival will soon announce that the Carnival Pride will remain sailing from Baltimore (which has a similar bridge height issue) instead of being deployed to Tampa as currently planned.

Your thoughts?

Since one of the main reasons for the Royal Princess design is to provide more opportunities for passengers to spend money, have any of your currently cruising on her noticed passengers doing just that (ie: spending more money) than if they were cruising on another Princess ship?

Demand for river cruises is so strong that cruise lines (Viking) can ask for full payment far in advance and still get it.

This is how cruise payment used to be handled for some lines twenty years ago. High demand, not enough berths, sellers market, seller controls the terms.

Quite a contrast from ocean cruises where cabins are often available on most itineraries a few weeks before departure.

Had a Jimmy Buffett song playing in the background (Tin Cup Chalice) where he sang the line "gimme oysters and beer for dinner every day of the year and I'll feel fine".

Since I was booked on an upcoming cruise on HAL, made a play on words with Oosterdam.

No, not again the Viking Forseti, this time it´s the Viking Sun which hit two metal piers on the French side of the Rhine river near Strasbourg yesterday. No one was injured but the ship has a nice gash. So all of the 189 passengers (mainly Brits, some US and some Canadians) and 47 crew have already been transfered to another ship to continue the voyage to Kehl. There they were put on busses to continue to Amsterdam. Some have decided to fly back home.

 

steamboats

Wow.

Sorry for those passengers whose cruise got interrupted. As for the next Viking Sun sailing, I wonder if the boat will be back in service by then?

 

After being on CC for nine years, I finally had enough tonight and put someone on ignore, and will do that again in the future if I notice a pattern of negativity from other posters. Yes, it made me feel better knowing that my little corner of CC will be less antagonistic.

I've done this as well. Makes spending time on CC more pleasant when you filter out those who out themselves as trolls, flame baiters, or constant downers.

I want this site to be an enjoyable diversion when I'm here reading and discussing what is for me a fun topic.

Has anyone ever booked their next cruise while they are onboard? They mention discounts, but I wonder how much more of a discount it might be. We'll be on Uniworld, but I am curious about other experiences too.

For Uniworld (at least for our Dec 2012 cruise) you fill out a form requesting your next cruise. You don't put any money down at that time - either your travel agent or Uniworld direct (depending how you booked your current cruise) contacts you upon your return and then assigns a booking confirmation number and requires a deposit.

Make sure you look for this form or ask the reception for one - ours seemed to get hidden in other paperwork and we didn't notice it until the last day. There are plenty of brochures to look through but there is not an onboard booking consultant. If you have a future itinerary you are interested in, do your research ahead of time before your cruise.

Once you have been issued a booking number you have 30 days to cancel or change your itinerary.

Discounts are as follows when booking the following itineraries (keep in mind these amounts may have changed since 12/12):

$100 pp on 8-10 day Europe cruises

$200 pp on 11-17 day Europe cruises

$300 pp on 18+ day Europe cruises

$100 pp on 8-10 day Egypt

$200 pp on 11-17 day Egypt

$100 pp for China

$200 pp for Russia

$100 pp for Vietnam/Cambodia/Mekong

This onboard booking discount is combinable with your past passenger River Heritage Club discount you are eligible for after your first cruise, which for 2014 bookings amounts to $150pp/7-10 day or $250pp/13+days.

So yes, if you want to book your next cruise while onboard, you can get additional discounts. :)

Do you have an Amex Platinum card? Uniworld is the only river cruise line that participates in their Platinum Travel rewards program. You get $300 per cabin OBC (hard to use on an all-inclusive cruise...) plus champagne and chocolates. You must use the Platinum card for all payments, from initial deposit through final payment.

Agreed, but the onboard spa, premium wines and spirits, laundry service, and optional excursions are not included in the all-inclusive price. I guess that means it's almost all-inclusive. ;)

Jazzbeau et al, Yes Tom Baker was one of my favorite time lords. The Tom Baker mentiones here writes for Conde Nast magazine. Have a hard time swallowing his breakdown of river cruise lines. His luxury lines as of 2014 are all inclusive. Also would switch Viking and Avalon. IMO none of these travel mgzine writers ever sail incognito, so the staff knows who and what they are. Yes, just a bit snarky but it is Mon. and still no weight bearing on this dratted foot. Pat

Just a wild guess here, but I bet this blogger hasn't taken near as many river cruisers than you have. :)

I will never show up for the buffet a couple of minutes before posted closing hours.

I skipped dinner in the dining room one night on an Alaskan cruise to be outside watching the beautiful scenery. Showed up to the buffet at 7:57 or so and literally had the crew closing the screens on the buffet exactly at 8pm.

No exaggeration - I had to beg them to serve me.

Learned my lesson.

Hi everyone

I've been trying to lurk and read and hope I find the information I need but there is SO MUCH information!

I'm starting the process of researching to plan a river cruise in Europe to see the Christmas Markets in Dec of 2014 for my husband and myself and I don't know where to start. A travel magazine link took me to Viking but research has shown me there are many companies to choose from and many options.

 

What is the best way to go about doing research for this trip? I want a good company with a solid reputation. We are on a budget and will be trying to save money where we can. Any advice and help would be appreciated. Between my husband and myself we have travelled a decent amount but neither of us have ever cruised before.

Thank you!

Before you chose the cruise line, first narrow down your itinerary choices to one or two. Once you've decided where you want to go, then begin deciding which cruise line .

The 3 Christmas markets itineraries we have been on have been so far have been: 1) the Main and Rhine rivers, Wurzburg to Cologne; 2) the Danube from Passau to Budapest; and 3) the Main Danube Canal and Danube River Nuremberg to Vienna.

All have been outstanding. Depending on how many days you have for this trip, you may want to bookend your cruise with a couple days before or after the cruise (or both!) at a destination that has plenty of Christmas markets activity or sightseeing opportunities.

For us, we've chosen to spend extra time in Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, and Lucerne. There are many other excellent choices.

Many posters on this forum have there favorite lines and some will try to convince you their favorite is the only way to go. Just recognize that there are almost no "low end" river cruise lines, which means it's very difficult to make a bad choice and chose a bad river cruise line.

Just be forewarned: once you go on one Christmas markets cruise, you'll be hooked and will have to budget for several more of them in the coming years. :)

Here's the best part:

http://www.hollandamerica.com/assets/cruise-vacation-onboard/KBYG.pdf

Guests who violate any of our alcohol policies

(e.g., attempt

to conceal alcoholic items at security and or luggage check

points or any other time, provide alcohol to guests under age

21, over consume, or demonstrate irresponsible behavior),

may be denied boarding or may be disembarked at their

own expense.

I'm amazed that this is the best policy that HAL management could come up with in order to create more onboard revenue.

Signature of Excellence, 2013 version.

And you know this for a fact?

If you care to know more about this topic, try reading the referenced thread in the first post.

Can I asked who told you that? Or is it based on personal experience? I guarantee if all the shirts that DH sends to HAL's laundry were washed in hot water ... he would be shirtless by the end of a cruise ... nothing would fit.

Please reference the link in the first post of this thread. You'll find this information contained within the other thread.

I have no idea if all HAL ships use the same laundry equipment as the Carnival ships, but since they are owned by the same company and many of their ships were built in the same shipyards, it's reasonable to conclude that the laundry operations for passenger clothing is similar throughout the Carnival Corp lines.

The ship's laundry is what it is:

all clothes washed in very hot water, all colors mixed together, harsher chemicals than regular laundry detergent.

Bet most of us don't wash our clothes that way at home, especially the items that indicate to wash in cold water on a gentle cycle. I for one don't wash my fairly new denim jeans with my light colored clothes.

Came across this very interesting thread on the Carnival boards from a poster with excellent knowledge about how passenger clothes are laundered onboard.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1882447&highlight=laundry

In short, only send out clothes that you consider disposable and don't plan on keeping for awhile.

edit: sorry for the title misspelling

Thank you pacmom for sharing your experience about cruising the Gironde.

Would you recommend this itinerary to other river cruisers?

Where does this river cruise rank for you in comparison to the other river cruises you have taken?

The "bells on the bow?"

This is making me even more excited for our "virgin" voyage with HAL next week! We love the feeling of being on a ship.

On the Amsterdam, be sure to go all the way to the back of the verandah or navigation decks and exit out the doors at the end of the hallway. You'll come to a "secret" deck area that looks out over the wake of the ship. You'll find a couple of benches that you can sit on and enjoy the view.

This area gets very little traffic - you may just have it to yourselves for long stretches of time, and is also an excellent area to be outside if it starts raining, since it is covered by the deck above.

To see this area:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/amsterdam-deck-plans/dp/?shipID=173&deck=6

No, definitely not.

We have been on the bow of 14 of 15 HAL ships and ALL have teak bow. It is absolutely not metal and not painted.

 

That photo does not give anything resembling the natural look of HAL's bows. It is not likely snow as I see no footprints or 'rubbed bare spots'. I think something reflected or its not a good photo.

 

 

The ship in the photo is the Volendam.

http://www.hollandamericablog.com/2011/12/19/cruise-diary-sounds-of-new-zealand-milford-doubtful-and-dusky/

Holland America ships are ideal for scenic cruises. You can walk out to the front of the promenade deck when the ship is doing a scenic cruise day such as in Alaska or New Zealand or through the Panama Canal.

Don't believe you can do this with any other large ship cruise line.