lilly4350

On 3/14/2019 at 7:39 PM, BusyBea said:

We recently returned from a Panama Canal cruise to find that our credit card had been fraudulently charged $1675 by a hotel in Cartagena. The charge was made one minute prior to a valid transaction at a beverage kiosk at the port, Cafe Puerto Cartagena.  Normally I would have paid cash for our drinks, but my brain was on autopilot and I pulled out my card without thinking.  The clerk took my card and it was out of my sight for a minute or so. That is certainly where the fraudulent charge took place because my card wasn't out of my sight at any other time and we didn't leave the port area.  

 

I spent the last month+ convincing our credit card company that I was on a cruise and therefore didn't require a room in Cartagena. They kept denying our fraud claim because the chip was present even though I hadn't signed anything nor used a pin. Thank goodness for Google maps and date, time, and location stamps on our photos so we were able to prove we were at the port at the time the charge was made, not at the hotel four miles away.

 

I'm fairly well-traveled and am usually very cautious, but I was tired and let my guard down.  Valuable lesson learned and I hope this will help others keep their wits about them when they visit the Port of Cartagena.

  

Thanks for the heads-up.  We will be there in November and will remember to leave our CC locked away in our safe.

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

FB has it's good points and bad, just like any other forum but it does tend to get less knowledgeable queries and also some very interesting responses.

Totally agree with you.  I have had to unjoin a number of forums because the questions drive me nuts - and the same questions get asked regularly.  

eg.  What does cabin xxxx look like?  (Like all the others in that category!!!)

        Will I like the food on xx ship?  How would I know?

        And let's not get started AGAIN on the topic of what money to use in the islands, or tipping/gratuities

mmmm.. a repositioning from Seattle to Sydney would be nice on Ovation (are they going to do that ??) .. just needs to have some decent ports on the way down.

My thoughts exactly - would love to do the Ovation from Seattle to Sydney

Never.

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Wow. I haven't received one! I spent another couple of hours on the line with them today tho and they will not budge on ANYTHING. I taped the conversations this time (told them I was going too).

 

It went like this from Roland in customer service...

 

..........."the company did not perform any mistake by offering that cruise. When the sailing came out and it was offered to our guests it was not meant to be chartered however when a sailing for RC does not reach any high amount or anything else to bring the guest into the sailing then that sailing has to be cancelled. Another company sometime retake it to so that that way they can have it the full thing. Now in this case what rights do the company has well when ever you purchase a cruise you technically agree the the Ts&Cs

 

The company has the right to go ahead and cancel, amend, modify and provide certain options if are available to our passengers. ". "The company does not any have obligations to actually provide any options and they can just cancel it and tell you I'm sorry the sailing is not going any more and here is your reason. How ever we have provided two options in there. Now is there any legal terms in there that its been breaking, no not really like I said the company has the whole right to go ahead and make those amendments at any moment at any point."

 

Needless to say me and Rowland are not besties! I was than transferred to a more 'senior' member, Danny. No friends made there either. They just kept re-iterating the company's terms and conditions and totally refused to compensate for our lost airfares. I'm done with Royal Caribbean.

 

 

 

 

 

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You poor things. What a debacle! It seems that RC's (and your travel agent's) mantra is "Not much care and even less responsibility." I hope you can get a decent compensation and for all your wasted time, effort and money, and that once you finally embark on your holiday that It exceeds all expectations. You deserve it.

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Any CL who decide to cancel bookings made because they've got a "better offer" should be penalised heavily for doing so to discourage this practice. That includes any deviations in advance without good cause. (By that I mean catastrophes, political unrest, necessary unscheduled maintenance.)

 

My Venice cruise next year was cancelled by Silversea because they decided they'd expand the ships size. That sort of thing should be done with proper planning, not at a whim because a cheap slot has become available. The Silver Spirit is out of action and in dry dock for approximately 10 weeks with cruises already fully booked.

 

We did receive a satisfactory replacement cruise, though believe it or not no official explanation or apology and found out about it through reading it on CC. The booking simply vanished from my account as if it never existed. Luckily I'd not booked my flights or car parking and the hotel was refundable, but the CL did offer to reimburse any out of pocket expenses.

 

 

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Reading through the above comments and I can agree wholeheartedly. We recently booked a B2B2B on Mariner of the Seas - Singapore/Dubai, Dubai/Barcelona and Barcelona/Miami for April next year. Then RCL decided to cancel the last leg and put the ship into dry dock in Barcelona. First off, we read about it all on our Cruise Critic roll call. So we rang our agent - she claims she knew nothing about the cancellation. RCL offered a reasonable compensation though it hardly compensates for the stress and extra planning work we had to do on a trip that we though was already done. So here we were, dumped in Barcelona - a city we have never been to before. We had already booked flights and non-refundable accommodation from Miami to Australia. We were able to find a cruise that left Barcelona 2 days after we are dumped there but it only goes to New York which arrives too late for us to go to Miami and catch our original flights home. So then we had to find accommodation in Barcelona, book flights from NY to Miami, change flights home, phone booking agent and hotel in Miami and try and change our 3 nights accommodation there to different dates. Many phone calls and broken promises later, we finally have written confirmation that they have changed our accommodation dates.

We are still waiting for part of our compensation from RCL - the up to $AUS500 each for changed airfares (The Americans got $US500 and as most of our changes were in US$ it doesn't seem fair that we only get $AUD500). As we booked our cruises through a Travel Agent (who will not respond to our emails or phone calls) we cannot even phone RCL to discuss this issue.

So we are very frustrated and have spent many hours and many phone calls on this issue. This has been dragging on now for about 6 weeks. We also are frequent Royal customers but we are beginning to re-think our cruising choices.

We were interested to note that at Portside they were enforcing the check-in times. We had selected 10.30am. By the time we had queued to drop our check-in luggage, it was 10.45 when we joined the check-in queue outside the door to the terminal. We were immediately ushered through, but those with the 11am time-slot were asked to wait. Those with 11.30 were asked to sit down in the shade. After check-in we had probably 20-30 minutes to wait before our embarkation group was called.

Well that is good to know. Usually Portside is pure bedlam with everyone lining up whenever they felt like it. No one was checking check-in times the last time we went on the Aria.

Diane

Thank you. We have decided to stick with the tunnels. I expect that we may decide to visit Vietnam on a land based holiday at some point in the future, so there will be opportunity to see more then.[emoji41]

 

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Cruise lines that don't restock wines etc near the end of a season because they will be repostioning the ship and don't want to pay the shipping costs to keep her properly stocked until after the repositioning.

 

We're currently on Royal Princess, half way through a 21 night cruise. At the beginning of the cruise we purchased a 12 bottle gold wine package, allowing us to select wines up to $45 per bottle, and if we choose a higher priced wine we only pay the difference over $45. Sounds like a good deal? Read on ...

 

The MDR wine list contains 96 different wines. As of last night 22 of those wines are unavailable. Three times in the last two nights we have selected a wine in our price range and it hasn't been available. Last night we ended up having to order a wine that was dearer than $45 to get the wine type we wanted with dinner.

 

Royal starts the repostioning cruise on October 11th. Presumably wine stocks will not be replenished until she arrives in New York.

 

I expect that as our cruise and the next ones progress we will end up having to pay extra more often because the cheaper wines are out of stock. In other words Princess has sold us a product that is not fully available and that is bordering on fraud in our opinion. :mad::mad:

 

We are about to go to Guest Services to request a meeting with the food and beverage manager.

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I have a few friends on that cruise and all but one of them are very disappointed. The one that isn't is very happy to stay in Barcelona and have the other two cruises heavily discounted.

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Good that it is not until April next year. When we booked a great last minute special TA on MSC from Keil, Germany, in 2010, we learnt that it had originally been scheduled to cruise on a TA from Genoa, Italy. Many Aussies, who had booked the TA from Genoa, had to change their travel plans from Australia.

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That is the worst thing by far!

 

I am so sorry that you have been caused so much inconvenience. In cases such as yours, I think the Cruise Line should bring in a team to handle all the booking changes necessary. Did you get much notice?

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Wow....not so excited anymore....

 

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Everyone gets a different experience and if you want to see the tunnels, go see them. Otherwise you will always say "I wish we had....." Make sure you have your camera in hand - it will certainly be an experience for you. Enjoy.

Diane

Flowing from another thread there are a few things that seem unfair.

 

Now I try not to grumble, but a few things that bug me..

 

1. Selling a cruise and then cancelling because they get a charter offer

Tell me about it. We booked a B2B2B on Mariner of the Seas. Only to have RCL decide to change the place where they would do dry-dock. So they have dumped us all in Barcelona to find our own way home. OK so they have offered a reasonable compensation but we have been told we may not see that for approx. 8 weeks. Meantime we had to find flights/cruise from Barcelona to USA. So accommodation in Barcelona, another cruise booked with different cruise company, flights from NY to Miami (where Mariner was going), change our already booked Qantas flights from Miami to Brisbane, change our hotel booking in Miami (they keep saying they have changed it but it has not happened yet!). Plus the time and phone calls and stress that we have gone through making all these changes. Not happy, Jan.

There has been much discussion on this subject already, I suggest you read any of the Celebrity Constellation roll calls for December this year's sailings 7/12 or 19/12.

 

E-visas are not acceptable if your cruise includes Mumbai, you require a proper multi entry Tourist visa of whichever length your country allows, and must follow the application process for your country to the letter.

 

 

 

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See this is what confuses people because I've looked at the paperwork and documents directly on the Indian Government website and it definitely says that an eVisa is valid for 3 designated seaports (i.e. Cochin, Goa, Mangalore). That is copied right off the website.

 

Our group are from Australia, Canada and the USA and we are all going to apply for the paper visas through the relevant Embassies and Consulates closest to us to make sure we have no issues.

 

Did you have any biometrics done when you applied for your visa? If not, were they done when you arrived at the port? This seems to be the hold up arriving with the eVisa as they are doing biometrics for everyone. I'm curious if those that didn't visit ether an Embassy or Consulate and get biometrics recorded have the same issues when they arrive at the ports.

 

Jo

Hi Jo, we are on the same cruise as you. I am still totally confused about whether to get e-visas and full visas. I don't understand why e-visas would need to go through biometrics at the port when it appears the full visas don't need to.

I think I will ring the Indian Embassy in Australia and try and get some clarification.

Diane

Just wanting to know if anyone has made a claim with Fast Cover Travel Insurance. Their rates seem to be pretty good but am more interested in claims history.

I did Hong Kong to Singapore on Ovation last year. Conflicting information was sent several times but 3 weeks before departure I received the following -

 

Dear Travel Partner,

We are writing to provide you with important information regarding your clients booked on the November 23

sailing onboard Ovation of the Seas from Hong Kong to Singapore. Please provide this information, as soon as

possible, to your clients booked on this sailing.

Please be informed that we have some updated Visa and Tour information on the ports of call in Sanya and

Vietnam. We ask that you notify your clients of this important update

In addition, in order to facilitate the arrival process in Sanya we kindly ask all guests wishing to go ashore on one of our ships tours to please pre purchase their shore excursions prior to boarding. Please click on the link below or cut and paste it into your web browser.

Sanya - Port Of Call

 

Guests need to Pre Book their Sanya RCCL Shore Excursion prior to boarding via the Royal Caribbean

International webpage or by clicking or cut and paste into your web browser. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruiseplanner. Enter your reservation information and from the menu heading select "Before you Board" and "Shore Excursions".

 

All Guests irrespective of nationalities wishing to go ashore independently and have not purchased a RCCL Shore excursion will be charged a visa transfer fee of $25 on their onboard account. Guests who already have a valid Chinese Visa stamped in their passports are able to visit Sanya with a stamped passport copy only. No additional visa transfer fee required. Guests need to be advised that securing a Chinese visa in their country of origin could cost higher than the $25 fee charged onboard.

 

Guests who purchase an RCCL shore excursion are not required to pay the Visa transfer fee of $25.

 

All guests boarding in Hong Kong need to have in their procession a photocopy of their passport which

will be collected upon check in. (A service charge of USD $10 for guests not having photocopies in their

procession will be added on their onboard account)

Vietnam - Port of call

Ship will assist all guests to secure this visa upon arrival and will charge a one-time nominal fee of USD $6 to the guest’s onboard account. This Visa fee includes a processing charge by our local representative.

 

Guests wishing to stay overnight after 12 midnight ashore will be charged an additional Visa fee as follows:

 

All nationalities except United States Citizens: USD $ 28

United States Citizens: USD $155

 

Thank you for your assistance in notifying your clients about their sailing onboard Ovation of the Seas. As always, we thank you for your ongoing support of Royal Caribbean International.

 

Sincerely,

Royal Caribbean International

 

I did not leave the ship in Sanya and there was no charge. In Vietnam we were given landing cards by Vietnam officials. (our itinerary had an overnight stay). Our passports where handed back the day before Singapore.

:D :DThank you for this good information. At last someone who has experienced what I am looking for. RCI is not very good at giving out information and it seems that their phone operators just say whatever they like. My operator was adamant that RCI did nothing for guests at Sanya. But getting information 3 weeks before you leave is not really good enough, in my opinion:D:D

Diane

We were on a cruise from Shanghai to Singapore late last year. RCI obtained our visas for 2 days in Vietnam and they were only $6 per person. That is a huge price jump if it's correct.

 

I'm not sure about China. We did get a visa because we went early to spend time in Beijing first. I did find this information about Sanya but didn't go any further as we have decided to change the HK - Singapore cruise we have booked to a TP instead. This is a great site for info about China and I used it a lot (and booked all our transfers and tours) before our trip last year.

Thanks for your comments. I followed your link and thought the following comment was interesting.

A landing visa is available at ports in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Hainan, however, it is not guaranteed that a landing visa will be issued to every tourist. It is advisable to get a visa before departure.

I think the safest thing to do will be to get a Chinese visa before we leave. It is so confusing with the Viet Nam visa as everyone tells a different story. I think we will just suck it up and pay whatever RCL charges.

Check DFAT site if you hold an Australian passport. Lots of information there. They always post the disclaimer to check with embassy, but I have found info up to date.

Check if your cruise is still going to Sanya, it has been taken off some RCI sailings from Hong Kong to Singapore, 8 October sailing. I believe it is visa free for cruise passengers.

Vietnam, last two times I have cruised there with Princess and RCI they obtained visa and charged your on board account.

Can you remember what RCI charged? and for how many days?

What passport are you using? Potential answers depend upon this.

Australian

I am getting totally frustrated regarding visas required in parts of Asia. We are doing the Ovation of the Seas from Hong Kong to Singapore. First port of call is Sanya on Hainan Island in China. According to the Chinese Visa website, " Sanya is visa-free if you are on an organized tour of more than 5 people". Does this mean if I do a ship tour, it is visa-free but if I get off the ship and wander around, I need a visa?

I have tried to ring the Chinese Visa office and just go around in circles...... if you want English, press 1, if you want information, press 1......music for 2 minutes.....if you want English, press 1" GRRRRR!! I then emailed them and basically asked the above question - their response - ASK YOUR CRUISE COMPANY. I rang RCL, they said contact the Embassy.

Also RCL told me the cost for a visa for Viet Nam is $50. Is that $50 per day plus a booking fee? or $50 total. We are in Viet Nam for a total of 4 days.

Please do not give me advice unless you have the facts - that is, you have been there and know what the procedure is.

What is it about parents taking kids out of school willy nilly? You can't tell me they are all home-schooled. A parent with a child of school age has a responsibility to have the child in school IMO. A cruise to the Pacific Islands is generally not a high educational itinerary for most passengers. I can see why education departments are trying to crack down on kids missing school for holidays.

Perhaps I should duck and run now from all the parents/grandparents who do cruise with school age children in term time.

Couldn't agree with you more. We were absolutely astounded by the numbers

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