leaveitallbehind

You are correct. And this certainly can vary by port of call and cruise line, but typically unopened snacks in their original factory packaging are generally ok to take off the ship. Fruits and other like foods, however, are typically forbidden in most ports of call.

Yes, depending on cruise line, in the US if the price changes favorably prior to final payment you typically can benefit from that new fare but are also protected from any increases. Again, based on cruise line, you can also benefit from typically restrictive, lower non-refundable deposit fares that include penalties to the deposit for changes or cancelations prior to final payment, or have the option at a typically higher refundable deposit fares that allow for booking changes or cancelations without deposit penalty prior to final payment. The deposit amounts may also differ (favorably) from UK bookings. What I don't know is what, if any, the restrictions may be for UK travelers wanting to use US based travel agencies. Seems like, given just those stated advantages, that many UK travelers would book through one if they could. Hopefully others with more direct experience can answer.

That does seem odd that every stateroom would be a GTY. Wonder why?

Just to clarify, using RCCL in your signature as example, Cafe Promenade has 12 oz. paper cups with separate lids for their coffee service as an option. If you have access to the Crown Lounge (ex-Diamond Club) or Suite lounge, they have the paper cups with lids available as well. The service at the Windjammer (and MDR and the others) use the smaller ceramic cups with no lids which I totally agree are not the best option.

I hear you! There is a huge difference between the standard staterooms and the Haven suite level - and, depending on the suite, a huge price tag along with it! Never apologize for your budget and what you are willing to spend for your time at sea. The cruise lines offer numerous alternatives from small inside staterooms to multi-thousands of square feet suites to accommodate an equally large range of budgets that are legitimately justified at all levels by those who select them. There are a lot of good cruise lines, each with their own target demographics, on board venues, etc., from which to choose and how the "all in" price is arrived at differs amongst them from base fare plus numerous add on charges to truly all inclusive, and several ranges in between. It can be challenging at times to determine the best fit and apples to apples comparisons to arrive at your total budget. And sampling different lines is one way to do that, But loyalty also can have its benefits. Its all a personal choice. Either way I hope your bid outcome is positive for you and that you enjoy your cruise!

Although most cruise lines have similar policies, you are absolutely correct, as also suggested by CruiserBruce. In this case, pretty sure RCCL or Celebrity is the line involved from the OP's signature and later acknowledgement of the information provided, however.

I kind of glossed over that part initially, although my response would still apply. But maybe in that case the offer to upgrade to an "unspecified cabin in a higher class" was for inventory purposes. There may have been limited solo suites in the desired category so they were offering to upgrade to the higher category to preserve the solos for other bookings. Probably asked of other passengers as they booked as well, but I would have to believe it was offered as an option and since there apparently was availability in the desired category, the OP should be able to request that and choose a location.

Certainly would focus the redirect or help shape the answer. I just happened to see the signature in this case.

The only time we have been asked to wait behind ship sponsored tours to disembark was when the ship was tendering, in particular at Grand Cayman, which made an undesirable process even more so.

Good advice as always. But I am guessing from their signature that it is either RCCL or Celebrity, to which my response would apply correctly. And I did say "most" cruise lines to be sure, since we don't know for sure - LOL.

Yes, but not necessarily at the end of the cruise. With most cruise lines, whatever OBC you have on your account is adjusted daily as charges are made. As tips are typically charged daily, the OBC would also be applied daily. You cannot specify how the OBC is applied as it is applied without discretion as charges are made. In other words, your OBC will be applied to any charges made to your on board account. To add, there are also two types of OBC - refundable and non-refundable. Refundable OBC is typically applied by a third party - such as friends, family, or maybe a travel agent, and is the last type to be used for charges on your account. Any amount left over at the end of the cruise is refunded to you. Non-refundable OBC is typically applied by the cruise line and is also used first against charges made to your account. Any non-refundable OBC balance at the end of the cruise is kept by the cruise line.

I realize in my first response I provided a lot of information that maybe you didn't ask for, but I wanted to give as much detail about how these programs work as possible as it looks like this may be your firsts experience with this. Hopefully you also got the answers you were looking for from it - LOL. I do want to add that once you submit any bid(s), they become firm. With some programs during the "Pending" phase you can make $ adjustments and possibly withdraw. But otherwise, typically if a bid is accepted it is final and the amount non-refundable, your credit card is immediately charged the accepted amount, a stateroom assigned, and your original reservation cancelled. If you have multiple staterooms on which you have bid, the cruise line will select the one they accept and the rest are dropped. Also realize that your bid amount typically may be per person, not per stateroom.

This is actually quite common these days with many cruise lines. But, in my experience, it remains your choice to allow the cruise line to select a stateroom location or have you do it. I am not familiar with a cruise line that only accepts bookings where they assign the staterooms. The offers, when they do this, are typically at a reduced fare as an option, such as a guarantee stateroom. They apparently may also do so in reverse - as your example suggests - where if you let them select the stateroom they will give you an upgraded stateroom category at the lower category fare. But if you opt not to do this, you then would select your own stateroom. This can also occur with upsell, or bid, programs as @Woody14 suggests where after you have secured a booking and selected a stateroom, you can bid on upgraded staterooms if you wish, which the cruise line will assign if your bid is selected. But this is a different program option to the "standard" option to either select your own location or let the cruise line do so at the time of the initial booking.

If you are referring only to upgrades resulting from the bid process offered by some cruise lines, the answer is the available staterooms will go to the highest bidder(s) in each category. Not sure which cruise line to which you are referring, but some lines keep those out of inventory knowing that they will sell through the bid process as this may result in a higher fare than the current prevailing rate. Your "Pending" status may remain until close to the sailing date as that is the timeframe when remaining available inventory will be assigned. Doing so too soon may take some staterooms out of inventory prematurely for potential regular sale. It's all in how the cruise lines manage their inventory as sales continue. So the amount of unsold staterooms at the time still a couple of months ahead of your sailing date doesn't really affect your chances. Specific to you, your chances will depend in large part on how much you bid on the staterooms. Typically those at or close to the suggested minimum will have little or no chance as there will always be higher bids. But be careful and check the current prevailing rate on those categories when placing your bid so that you don't bid more in combination with your current category fare than you could purchase them directly. Although in the long run, that's exactly what the cruise lines hope happens. They wouldn't offer this type of program unless they were to realize profitable sales from it. Current cruise bookings are very high and most cruises will sail full. The cruise lines don't have to discount their fares - or worry about selling unsold staterooms through a bid process at lower than published rates. Just the opposite.

In fairness I have never sailed on MSC so I would not have direct experience regarding them as your option. However that by no means would suggest they would not be a good choice as I'm sure they would be. Just look closely at the venues and offerings to see if that would suit your expectations. I would recommend that with any cruise line. I would, however, suggest that you may also want to look at Celebrity in terms of cruising style based on some of your comments. If you were interested in looking at them, be aware that there has been some recent controversy over how some of their solo pricing was determined. My recent searches did not confirm that, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist. But I think the best way to confirm that for you would be to look at an itinerary you are interested in and do mock bookings for a solo cruiser in a standard double occupancy stateroom as well as their dedicated solo staterooms (on Apex class ships) for comparison and make your own determination. Whatever you end up with, enjoy your first cruise!

Good point. My reference regarding the lesser importance of having that information was with the tour's return timing itself - not thinking of individuals as you describe who fail to return to the bus at the appointed time.

This is particularly important if you are on and independent, non-ship sponsored tour where if there is an issue with returning, you can contact them to notify the ship of your situation. This of course does not guarantee the Captain will wait for you if you are significantly delayed, but it will at least make them aware of your situation and possibly provide a way to get assistance. This is not as critical with ship sponsored tours.

Perhaps if you could provide a little more detail about yourself and what your first cruise expectations are it would help with better responses. What age group are you in? Do you enjoy partying or prefer more quiet entertainment? Would you prefer to be around adults or families with children? Etc. The reason I ask is that most of the different cruise lines target different primary demographics with different on board venues to cater to that. Some offer the mega-ships that are more like floating amusement parks while others offer more mid-sized ships with a more sedate cruising environment. Royal Caribbean, Disney, and NCL, as examples, have families with children as their primary demographics with mega-ships at their core and most of their ships have venues to address that - water slides, rock climbing walls, bumper cars, etc. Celebrity and Princess are oriented more towards adults and have none of those "activities" on board. Their ships tend to be more mid-sized with less passengers with more of a pure cruising environment. Carnival "fun ships" are typically that with a lot of younger oriented activities along with those for families with children. They also feature mega-ships. MSC is an Italian based cruise line with a predominantly Italian crew and caters to a broad base of demographics with families as a focus. Their ships range from mid-sized to mega. HAL is mostly older adults with mid-sized ships. Etc., etc. So without knowing more about you and what you like, etc., it is going to be very difficult to respond with good information about what a good idea for a first cruise would be. One thing you should note is that as a solo cruiser, with most cruise lines your typical fare would essentially be the double occupancy fare for two in a stateroom, less one set of port fees and taxes. There are cruise lines (NCL / Celebrity as examples) that offer dedicated solo staterooms at a reduced solo rate that you may want to consider. My best suggestion would be to contact a live human travel agent who specializes in cruises and discuss your expectations with them and let them determine which cruise lines would be the best fits for you to consider. They would be in the best position to accurately assist you. Good luck with your first cruise. As with most of us, it will not likely be your last!

That would seem to make sense. Still some time before the itinerary you reference, so anything can happen. But that also gives the cruise line a lot of time to plan for any contingency and work around any additional delays resulting from sailing around Africa. Maybe an itinerary in advance may need changed or cancelled, or something along those lines, but ship and crew safety will obviously trump all else.

Having the ship go around Africa would be one option, I guess. Or if that was not feasible and they needed to reposition the ship, they could possibly transit the ship through the canal via a base crew only with no passengers as another. I honestly don't know but they certainly would not put passengers in harms way. Not sure about any refund because the ending port changes. That would depend on the booking contract's fine print, I guess, but port and itinerary changes happen all the time due to weather and other issues and typically only port fees and taxes are refunded for any ports missed. Sometimes a goodwill gesture of a discount on a future cruise would be offered. The low fare would most likely be a result of this being a repositioning cruise, and not related to the region or the current issues being faced there. Most repositioning cruises are attractively priced.

I agree but, flights not withstanding, I would also be surprised if a cruise line actually would confirm an itinerary that would place one of its ships, passengers, and crew in significant danger. I would be curious to see if the referenced itinerary gets changed or cancelled over the coming months unless the region regains stability.

So is August - the OP's planned cruise timeframe. And to further echo the comments by @Mum2Mercury, hurricane season only refers to the seasonal timeframe (June 1 - November 30) when conditions are most favorable for storm development, not that they will occur with certainty. Clearly during those months historically many have occurred, however. I guess we have been fortunate as we have taken many cruises over our 32 year cruising experience during hurricane season and have never had any cruise or itinerary directly affected by one. Not to say it can't or won't happen at some point.

Viking Ocean cruises has extensive itineraries in that region. I would also look at Silversea and Oceana - smaller ships. Not sure what your previous cruise line choices have been, but all of these companies, however, are premium cruise lines, which will have premium fares v the mass market lines. Value comparisons would be in order IMO in determining resulting total budget.

To follow up on my previous response, I would also now look to find a "brick and mortar" travel agent - aka a live human - who focuses on cruises and talk with them about your preferred cruise lines and let them review your general itinerary preferences and cruise expectations. They can best assist with narrowing down to the best alternatives. I'm sure, given this narrowed list, they would probably have a good sense of when new itinerary releases would likely be announced with each and would be more than happy to put a tickler in their system for each one to look for itineraries within your targeted timeframe to assist with your search. They can then work on finding the best fares for and on board benefits for select sailings and assist you with your booking.

This is not necessarily true as in our experience many 8-day cruises depart on a Saturday and return on the next weeks' Sunday. (These are frequently followed by 6-day Sunday - Saturday cruises. This 8 / 6 cycle often repeats allowing for weekend to weekend itineraries for both). Again, in our experience, this has 8-day itineraries similar to 7-day ones in terms of the likelihood of families with children on board. 9+ day cruises would cut into two weeks and would have the greater likelihood of less children and older demographics, depending on cruise line. Not challenging you - just pointing out what our experience has been.