WestfieldTraveler

On 10/31/2021 at 3:23 PM, slidergirl said:

I've always stayed at the Hilton FCO that is attached to the airport.  If you are an HHonors member at a level that gives lounge access, it had a nice evening setup of foods and a nice morning breakfast.  Now this was pre-CoVID, so I don't know how it is now.  I do know some lounges drastically changed food & bev offerings.  I'm HHonors gold and I was always treated well - I seemed to get upgraded each time.  I liked that 10 minute walk to the terminal first thing in the morning - it got me going for the day.   It's a flat walk through the parking arcade.  

We're looking to go from the port to likely this hotel (airport Hilton) with up to 3 bags of luggage (if we can't reduce it to two for our transatlantic) plus a carry on.  Upon arrival in Civitavecchia, we would hopefully find a cart or just wheel the luggage to the train, change in Rome (unless there is a direct train) then once off the train find a luggage cart to wheel our luggage to the hotel, and hopefully use the same cart the next the morning to get the luggage to check in. Is this a reasonable thing to hope to do, or will there be obstacles in our path like stairs, etc?

Our other thought is if there is a shuttle service/bus normally available (aside from the cruise ship transfer) to take us to the airport dropoff, then find a cart and go to the Hotel from the departure dropoff. Any opinions welcome!

On 1/30/2020 at 3:56 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

It should be showing you up to 100 rooms in any given category, but sometimes it does glitch and only shows 15 rooms. And the way I find out the total is simply clicking into each category and totaling them up I wish there was an easier way, but that is the only way I have found.

Hi,

after watching the pricing craziness of my 2/2 Bliss cruise (and condolences on all the cancelled cruises) a "tool" like this will be even more valuable in deciding when to book after cruising starts up again - pricing models are likely to be crazy for a while. 

In trying to figure out how to best count them up myself I find that one can "copy" (select) the column with the room numbers displayed for a category, then paste it into either an Excel or Google sheet and seeing the number of rows that are taken up, and divide by two.  At least better that going 1-2-3...

If you have traveled to  China recently and are cruising soon  you may want to check your email for what I just received  - cut and pasted below:

Yeah, personally I found it hard to believe too, including the steep price reduction that I looked at with envy booking over a year in advance. But I have not seen even a few cabins listed when I check, so I’m just wondering where they are hiding them. Maybe for a lot of people over-bidding for upgrades?

For the 2/2 sailing they have been “sold out” for weeks, and aside from the occasional price tracker email, the only cabin listing I have seen was a post by somebody from Casinos at Sea. Personally, I think they just reduced the price too low to sell out early, and then as cabins become available they just jack up the price to take advantage of whatever demand is there.

On my upcoming bliss 14 day nyc cruise, the BA category dropped $650 pp between final payment date and one month later when I was able to beg (they were just offering upgrades) a $325 obc for the cabin. Then the price went up for about another month to above what I paid until sellout. All the balcony and mini suite categories dipped as well.

Next time I might just wait to book..

You maybe able to book them in advance the cruise via the online cruise planner as well of there are advance reservations remaining  

On 1/18/2020 at 10:59 AM, PistolPete13 said:

 

I’ll post all the daily activity sheets next Tuesday when I get back to the office and have access to a scanner.  

 

Keep checking back on this thread. 

Thanks in advance from those leaving on the cruise on Feb 2nd - always like to tweak the plans and which reservations I may want to change (not that everything will be repeated on the same day).  

As this is a bit old, just asking if it is currently possible to drive up and drop off someone giving luggage directly to a porter while I circle around to a nearby (ha!) parking lot (yes, I know the pier parking will be so much more convenient)? My main interest is that my wife not have to handle the bags, just wait until porter takes them.

Also, for NCL, can that person typically wait in the line to check in saving a place for me to come back to after I park the car?

If you want something to look at, or have some extra time, I would recommend any of the name brand hotels in Jersey City near the hudson, as you get nice views from several or just walking along the river is scenic. Or you can hop on the Path train to get in and out of the city. Best for those just flying in as parking there is still expensive. Short Uber/car service ride to the port from there.

I'm wondering if any of the posters saying the speed will be half of what you would get otherwise based that on actual experience on a ship? I could imagine if multiple people use it the throughput may go down but even just one device? And any experience paying the extra money for the better service? 

For some good background on the history behind the show, the below seems to sum it up well

http://www.playbill.com/article/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-real-queens-of-the-six-musical

On 12/21/2019 at 4:06 PM, Capt_BJ said:

Use Google Earth to generate a geographic of the area and save

 

Print - in large format if desired - if you don't have access to a large format printer try Staples or the like .... they can print BIG

 

then get out your sharpie!

 

OR

 

import graphic to paint or something similar and draw lines add words, pictures anything you'd like and THEN print . . .

 

IME every cruise I've taken in the last 10 years there was SOME FORM of itin' map on the web site .... copy and print . . . I often copy and put in Holiday 'newsletters' .... dreaded Holiday newsletters!

 

well, strike that ... I just pulled up a random RCCL cruise as if to book and NO MAP ...... so my DIY applies. altho I'd say this is new ...... and perhaps not COMMON to other lines  ... example

 

Neat map - is this what you are able to get out of just using Google Earth? I'll probably play around with it myself, but did you use any particular setting?

There could even be a calculation of how many cabins to hold back for the bidding process as I'm sure there are a few passengers every cruise that really overbid.

for a 1am departure definitely rent a car - we were able to rent one being picked up at the port and then dropping it off at the airport. Did the swap market at the stadium (already did the memorial and PCC before the cruise) and headed back to the airport as we had an earlier flight.  You could also see if buying access to one of the airport lounges was worth it.  Check out the below guide: 

https://www.sleepinginairports.net/guides/honolulu-airport-guide.htm

And is there anything else I should expect to reserve before we board besides Jersey Boys?

As for the things you can only reserve onboard,  the folks in one of our cabins will be boarding earlier than the others - can they do reservations for all of our cabins some way once onboard?

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

On our last couple of cruises, NCL would not let us book our older teens/adult children under 21 in a connecting cabin.

Hmm....from the below link on the NCL website it would appear that type of booking in a connecting cabin  is explicitly allowed, although things sometimes depend on the country you are booking from.

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-faq/age-requirements

Depending on the age of the kids, you can try booking them in an adjacent non-suite cabin (usually allowed), and then just get extra keys for the adults who will really sleep in there. Then, the adults will have the "suite" priv's and usually if kids join them it does not matter.

Just in case of flight/weather problems you can usually rent a car one way so you don't have to drive back as well - National has good one way prices. On United you can check to see if the status of the arriving plane that you will depart on, which could give you a heads up on problems if you can do that on your airline. Also keep in mind that if it arrives late the same crew might be flying it out in the AM and as such it may be delayed taking off,

But I would say the risk is low anyway - enjoy the cruise!

Just make sure the onboard account is set up correctly - I think $500 is the default limit so you probably want to change that.

And have her phone set up for wifi calling (airplane mode, connect to wifi, correct phone settings) if supported by the carrier, so any calls or texts will not be charged at the on-board rate. Depending on what you do at ports, you may want to have her enable international roaming if they will not be with you all the time (like on an excursion). And of course make sure the know they have to be on the ship at least an hour before it sails, along with setting watches for the ship's time.

And remember to have a good time!

Just make sure the onboard account is set up correctly - I think $500 is the default limit so you probably want to change that.

And have her phone set up for wifi calling (airplane mode, connect to wifi, correct phone settings) if supported by the carrier, so any calls or texts will not be charged at the on-board rate. Depending on what you do at ports, you may want to have her enable international roaming if they will not be with you all the time (like on an excursion). And of course make sure the know they have to be on the ship at least an hour before it sails, along with setting watches for the ship's time.

And remember to have a good time!

will pin something to this post...maybe

Otherwise known as summer intern error, or whoever was filling in for the person on vacation this week. Got it for our October Oasis cruise! 

Ok, maybe I'm dense (normally don't gamble) - so for a slot pull does everyone share in the proceeds, including a jackpot, or do you keep your own winnings with just getting the extra prize  if you are the biggest (or lowest - but don't a lot win nothing) winners? And assuming the cashier can split up the winnings do you get that in cash or on a room account?  I'm also sort of confused as how you would accumulate a pot of winnings if you constantly  changed cards in the machine (or do you not put in a card at all?)

And I imagine that any non-us person would do to avoid taxes in case of a big win - correct?