Shmoo here

I was "encouraged" to empty my open, filled, water bottle onboard. I was told they couldn't confirm that it actually had water in it.

I find it interesting that I'm still getting emails from Vantage, when I can't contact them.......

I know that some cruise lines require a reservation made directly with them have a time limit for moving that reservation to a TA, but I believe changing TAs isn't limited.

Typically, yes. But you have to ask the first TA to release the reservation. Sometimes that comes with a cost.

I hear you. We've really enjoyed our past Vantage trips. Thankfully, we've only got our deposit paid at this point and not thousands.

I can't say whether your ship was damaged or not, but, according to cruisemapper.com she's been in the same port for at least 2 days now. Also, I did some looking around online and it seems there is some construction/modifications going on around 90 Canal Street in Boston currently. https://www.commercialcafe.com/pdfs/93BEB5D1-57F7-4ED4-B05B-907DD9181935

I rather imagine they've received a LOT of emails. I don't really understand tech-y stuff, but I'm thinking someone at Vantage was able to redirect all emails to an independent account, and it's going to take a while before he/she gets to all of them.

I got this email this morning (same as yesterday's email)

No daily temperatures/health checks.

I got an email apologizing for the outage. And said we can send an email.

My husband (who knows about such things) says it sounds like they (the supposed construction going on) cut a cable.

What sorts of comments? I received an email (well, 2 actually) from Vantage this morning and I was trying to call them and got a Verizon recording saying "this party is temporarily unreachable".

When we cruised in February masks were not required. But they were suggested inside and in close quarters outdoors.

Depends on the cruise and/or the cruise line. Some cruise lines require passports for all passengers, regardless of legal requirements.

Thanks. Now I just have to convince husband we need a cruise.

Would it be better to book online, or via a phone call tomorrow?

Here's a link to the employee handbook. Scroll down to the "Tipping Not Required Policy" section. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2597164-tipping/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-56025003 And I quote: "All ships have the Rewards for Excellence (RfE) Plan which consists of Hotel Service Charges and Beverage Service Charges. If a guest chooses to adjust out of the RfE Plan and instead provide cash tips to an employee, the employee is required to turn in this cash to their Department Head so the money can be added to the RfE plan. Any "tips" received above and beyond the guests standard amount may be kept by the crewmember.:"

This letter was posted some time ago here:

Not really my experience. We had already taken 3 Vantage trips before COVID hit. We had a Tulips cruise booked for March 2020, which we had to change. We chose a different itinerary since we had to pick one in 2020 to change to. Later we were able to change that to the tulips cruise in 2021. Well, obviously, that one didn't happen, either, but we moved it to 2022 and it went off then. I will agree actually getting hold of a real person (that can actually help you) on the phone is a challenge, and can take time, but I've always been able to get things done eventually. We've always (except for the initial change on our 2020 cruise) been notified of changes via email, as well as the notice section on our online reservation page. As to your "All communications with Vantage staff start from the premise that they are in the right and you are the problem." comment I've never encountered that.

OK, an update on our twice changed/moved Vantage trip. First, a little background. We booked an Ireland trip while onboard our last Vantage trip. The Ireland trip was removed when they decided to redeploy the ship, so the trip was changed to a Norway coastal cruise (with a nice additional credit incentive to make the change). Then, in March, we were notified that the Norway coastal trip was longer available and we were moved to a "similar" cruise. Vantage finally called me back (2 phone calls and 2 emails later). Offer was - we would pay no more than the price on our current booking, including already applied credits (in spite of the fact that the new cruise was about $3000 more per person), plus they would give us an additional credit to change the trip. Sounded good so we took the offer.

Define "unusual". We've done Geo-caching.

Our first ever cruise was DCL. That one and all others were "without kids" since we waited until our oldest was 18 (so could stay home and watch the others) before starting cruising.

I really wish Vantage hadn't taken this turn. We really loved our previous Vantage trips, but since COVID (and I'm not saying that's what changed things) they just don't seem to care how they do things.

If you're interested in booking multiple rooms (needing everyone to be close, have same dining seating, etc), my suggestion is to use a travel agent.

Including our first DCL cruise, we've never had an issue booking the activities we wanted. Sometimes we couldn't get our first choices, but we always got something. There are lots of activities onboard the ship that do not require reservations, so you'll have a good time.