denny girl

We filed a credit card chargeback with Costa for our cancelled cruise..

After an investigation by the bank our claim was upheld and the money was credited back to our account.

Well good news for us

We instigated a charge back on our credit card that seems was not contested by Costa.

We've received back the full amount. We'd paid in installments and it was refunded to us in the same way.

I've had a few nightmares trying to get through to Qantas in the past.

Our flights to Japan were booked through Expedia and I found them more responsive and probably Qantas dealt with them better than with individual clients.The middleman was an unexpected plus.

Our flights for a tour to Japan were mid March the day after Australia raised it's warning and after having packed bags at the front door we decided to forfeit our money and not go.

I hadn't done online checkin and three hours before our local flight I rang Expedia to see if anything could be done.

The operator was very helpful and got through to Qantas fairly quickly and cancelled our flights for a fee of $400 each, the cancellation fee for the grade of ticket.

One  very happy Expedia customer as I know from earlier experiences it's just about impossible to get through to Qantas. You can be hanging on for hours. It took the agent quite a while to get things sorted

A few hours later our tour was cancelled with a credit for later so we're all good for another time, hopefully

We also had Qatar flights booked for May. They offered us a credit for later which we refused.

28 days refund time was mentioned but we've now been told it has been transferred to our account.

We'll see what happens in the next few days.

30 minutes ago, andlep said:

Hey how about making a separate thread on buying cruise line shares instead of clogging this thread with off topic conversation.

Agree as I'm getting fedup with thread update that really have no relevance to finding cheap cruises. A separate thread solves my inbox problem

Yes it is on the CMV website where you can read all conditions relating to their cruises. Or your travel agent should inform you.

Vasco Da Gama
AUD $12 per person per night (this amount reduces to $10 per person per night for cruises of greater than 16 nights duration). CMV Additions packages allow guests to book and pre-pay gratuities at a reduced rate.

All service charges and gratuities are collated, so a portion goes to each crew member, who helps to make your cruise special. This is not only distributed to your cabin steward, waiter or bar attendant but also between the hidden stars behind-the-scenes, such as laundry operatives and kitchen staff, who you might never get to meet in person. Passengers wanting to reward a specific crew member for exceptional service are at liberty to additionally reward the individual.

I picked up books from the library.

Not a huge range and you just take and return them when you're

finished.

Looked like lots that had been left by past passengers

2 hours ago, possum52 said:

We were able to buy coffees at the Calypso Bar on deck 14, just near the Horizon Court. We rarely had to wait very long for our orders and they were also available at the Promenade Bar. We love our coffee too and didn't find the lattes too bad at all. We ended up not even bothering to go to the International Cafe.

 

Leigh

 

Good to know Leigh. We were just on the 5 day from Melbourne so didn't bother to do too much checking like we would on a longer cruise. The internation cafe was always really busy with a long queue for the coffee part. Finding a seat was also awkward as it's a popular spot to just hang out. We're used to HAL where it's also available at the bars.

I'm not the coffee connoisseur  in the family.  After ordering a pay coffee for dinner that came in a huge cup hubby tried various options trying to get double coffee or less water but nothing worked. He just got smaller weaker cups.

I'm happy with homebrand rubbish so I didn't care.

We loved the pizza bar on the Lido deck and had it for lunch a couple of times when we just felt like a snack. Really good thin crust fresh pizzas.There's also a burger and hot dog bar. I think they all close at 11pm

On the last day I also discovered the soft serve bar had fantastic milkshakes with proper icecream for I think $2.50. Try paying that for a milkshake ashore. Hadn't bothered before thinking they were the usual thickshake which is all I've ever managed to get in America.

The coffee was not very good and I heard lots of people complaining about it. We Aussies are serious about our coffee.

Were only available at the International cafe and they were totally overwhelmed in the tiny space.

Special orders rarely turned out as ordered. It got just lost in the queue.

We have a friend who uses them because they can get cabins that aren't allocated to Australia.

He's had no trouble whatsoever. You just need to be happy with the bottom line after the extras have been added

Just checked our Cruise personaliser, and the Coffee package is AUD $51.21 for 15 drinks. Cruise Oct 27 2019 on Golden Princess.

The blood alcohol apparently was .19

6 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Have not read anything about another lock problem (yet). But traffic was halted on the Danube yesterday as a barge had blocked the river at Straubing due to a technical fault. During the afternoon another ship was able to free the "Misandro". Traffic resumed soon after that: https://www.pnp.de/mobile/?cid=3361269

 

notamermaid

 

I guess you don't need the details, just the fact there is a delay 🙂

They were happy to have more time ashore

According to a travelling friend the Viking Gullveig was delayed in Regensburg because of a lock problem upstream today

1 hour ago, voluntr57 said:

5 days from Melbourne to Adelaide (Phillip Island, Port Lincoln, Kangaroo Island) on Golden Princess 27 Oct 19 from $549 on their website. Make sure you're signed in to see that price otherwise it shows as from $909.

Thanks voluntr57. Booked a short break

I have a drinks menu somewhere if I can dig it up later.

We had the Brindiamo package that cost us a reasonable sum but it was pretty restrictive.

We were stuck with it as we didn't want to fork out any more money.

A lot of stuff wasn't included and we finished up thinking we would have been better to just pay as we go.

Hubby ordered aperol and then added 7up to make his aperol spritz.

There were also fancy coffees that weren't part of the deal and had to be paid for separately.

Doesn't really matter who you insure with but it's definitely a case of reading the T&Cs and applying it to yourself.

The credit cards all use normal underwriters same as the  paid insurance companies.

I've now acquired a pre existing condition and have a to pay a fee on top of the free insurance with CBA.

It was all clear and straightforward. The CBA one is with Covermore.

Haven't ever thought of a nurse to accompany you back. Wonder if that's normal?

50 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

They are having lots of good deals now, so they must have gotten over the issues.

They've always had good deals but as usual it didn't apply to Aussies.

Now some local agents have become involved things are looking up.

The contact on the Costa site says Perth time but I think it was actually Shanghai as we both had a lot of trouble understanding each other and this wasn't just a one off call.
Our original cruise was to Norwegian Fjords and Costa cancelled it and booked us on a different ship that didn't actually go to Norway so there was quite a bit of backwards and forwards to cancel the new cruise and get on a similar one that actually went to Norway.

I'm always mainly interested in ports visited and Costa have some good cruises to different places with their repositioning ones being great value.

We had trouble booking it because it was pretty unknown to Aussie agents and there can be big price differences in the location you book it through.

Finished up using the 1st mob and I think it was also a good learning experience for them. Our agent was impressed with the value and different places they visited although he did earn his money on that booking as Costa weren't  easy to deal with

We travelled on he Mediterranea last year so will try to answer your questions

1. Smoking's not allowed on balconies thereare a couple of designated smoking areas.

2. Foods ok but not exciting

3. Free water isn't supplied at all except from the fountain near the theatre.

    Americans get it free as part of their package.

4. Activities are ok although a bit geared to Europeans.

5. There was afternoon tea although not as elaborate as other lines.

Our tour was northern Europe out of Hamburg and it turned out to be 90% German speakers but I think this was a bit unusual.

We only met another English speaker couple on the second of last day.

We shared our table with a couple from Denmark who had English as a second language.

Our cabin was fine. Nice even.

Cruising kirby it's not nicely spelled out like the American site. You have to search for it on the Australian website. It just gets a passing mention in the SE build update.

Yes it's the Pacific crossing. The guru says it's from Tokyo to Vancouver

It's the Millie

The PDF for the new insurance is up on the CBA website.

This is the insurance we use so were interested to check the new conditions.

https://www.commbank.com.au/latest/changes-insurances-included.html

Many thanks for this. The price was honoured and we managed to grab an ocean view cabin for $5999.

 

 

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Great news Jill. Well done!

That was a truly special special.

Will teach me to watch CC more closely

 

 

London To Sydney

 

15 October 2018

 

47 Nights

Astor

 

Twin From $2,520 pp

This price is insane!!!!!!!!

Thanks Embl Sure was insane!

Don't expect anyone actually manage to book this as I doubt it would have been honoured.

Looks like someone made a mistake and made the two for one price the total cost.

Would have grabbed it but was too late seeing the post