Dylandude

2 minutes ago, Dylandude said:

Thank you Mrs f. Do you have any contact details?

 

I found him. Thanks again

23 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

We booked tour guide Gus for December 

He will pick us up at cruise, tour and take us to airpirt

Thank you Mrs f. Do you have any contact details?

On 6/23/2019 at 9:30 PM, Lunenburg said:

You could talk to Marcelo at DoBrazilRight.   He arranges a lot of cruiseship tours and might have a tour guide available. 

Thank you for the tip. I will check Marcelo out.

Can any one recommend a private tour in Rio?

We have been before, so can skip the main sights.

We also need to be in the airport by 15:30 latest for an 18:00 departure

So ideally we are looking for a private tour from 09:00 with an airport drop off.

The cruise line does an airport drop off combined with a tour, however it doesn’t drop off until 17:00

The original post by  WhitlocksEnd was relevant, I did read it not long after it was posted when the TA was named.

I have been reasonably successful with upgrades over the past few years, however last year I uncovered a situation which highlighted a failing and why the named agent may not be participating.

We normally book using 1 of 3 TA’s, two are US based, the third US based but with offices overseas.

The cruise in question was last year, and one month prior to sailing there were plenty of unsold staterooms and I had not heard anything concerning the offer of an upgrade. My upgrade application had been logged at the time of booking one year earlier.

Two weeks prior to sailing I contacted Nicole at LVC and was told an offer of upgrade had been made to my TA two weeks earlier.

I immediately contacted my TA to query why they had not passed the upgrade on.

The TA now quite embarrassed at being caught out, did get me an upgrade and I didn’t question how.

What I did question was, (and it took a few phone calls to push for an answer) why was the upgrade offer not forwarded to the customer.

The answer was, at $398 for the upgrade the TA was getting no commission so they decided not to participate and make me the offer.

This therefore raises the question, at the new highly inflated upgrade prices do TA’s get commission? If they don’t then the situation we encountered last year will happen again.

Tomorrow, 25th July Pursuit is due in Douglas I.o.M so they will be taking her out on a shake down cruise later. Hopefully they won’t break anything [emoji33]

 

 

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That's because Captian Carl wants to nip home for a change of clothes!

Thank you all for your replies, I now understand the TA has explained this in much the same detail.

It's a pity they couldn't have done that at the outset.

A relation of mine recently booked a cabin on Journey for cruise in October.They booked as a solo traveller and paid 100% surcharge for single occupancy.

Three weeks after the booking a friend has indicated they would join my aunt on the cruise and share the cabin.

With the 100% surcharge in place I would have thought that the cost would have been split 50-50, but no.

With no change to the cabin originally booked (except for the extra passenger) the TA is adding approximately 10% to the combined fare.

How can this be correct?

I have only seen one person drinking a pint of Newcastle Brown over last few days. Not surprising really as it’s not exactly the beer of choice in the U.K. never mind on a cruise ship. I guess the crew bar will have to get rid of it !

Azamara are really tied in with Heineken.

Heineken own Newcastle Brown, they also produce the dreaded and disgusting Royal Club Tonic, maybe this is a trade off, discontinue Royal Club bring on Newcastle Brown.

It's great to see a dark beer being made available, it's just not one I like.

As per the original title of this thread, "Anyone on Journey now" (or Quest for that matter).

What is the Tonic water situation?

Is there any sign of improvement in quality?

Will I still have to bring on my own supplies (Hopefully FT, probably Schweppes) in 3 months time?

There was a pianist on Regent a few years back called Lyndon Davies who was the outstanding.

Friends saw him this year on RCI's Serenade of the Seas playing to packed audiences every evening.

When we saw him a few years back I always thought his talent and personality would be a great fit for AZ

I have a slightly different question to ask in relation to the horrible Royal Club Tonic.

We have a upcoming cruise on Journey and have a large OBC, one consideration for spending the OBC is upgrading to either the Premium of Ultimate drinks packages.

Whilst I have no issue with the Gordon's Gin that is served as standard, upgrading allows us to enjoy Tanqueray, Hendrick's and Tanqueray 10 (we'll pass on the Bombay).

 

Should we upgrade and get on board to discover Royal Club Tonic is being served do we have the right to ask for a cancellation and refund for our upgraded drinks package?

The justification is simple, the Gins will be ruined with Royal Club.

I appreciate the upgraded packages offer an additional wider selection of drinks, however it is the better Gin selection that would be the driver in making the upgrade choice.

I guess the answer to your question would be a rather blunt NO.

You do make a very valid point though, if you have paid for goods or service you are dissatisfied with you should be entitled to a refund.

Perhaps Bonnie could clarify this.

Riocca makes a very valid point, if Royal Cola was served instead of Coca Cola, it would be unacceptable, so why should G&T drinkers have to accept an inferior tonic.

Whilst I prefer Fever Tree, I accept sourcing it world wide could be problematic, which shouldn't be an issue with a Schweppes.

Either of these tonics would be a dramatic improvement over the vile Royal.

---As I said I've entered and no question about a handicap, only 3 related to golf and Azamara visits.

It's in the small print

Golf handicap also required, oops

We were on the Eclipse in April/May. I found the strength of the Lavazza in the buffet varied from day to day and even from pot to pot on the same day. At times it was excellent--as good at that found in Al Bacio, which was a happy surprise--and at other times it was as weak as dishwater. YMMV. Good luck!

This is common across the cruise industry. It is because the water pressure will vary from time to time around the ship.

What subject(s) did he lecture on?

Is there any way we can see the pix on Phil's fb page?

Is there a link?

I think they will be on par with P&O

Hopefully not

There was a similar thread to this about a year ago, and I remember one post were the CC member relayed a story from one of the Azamara Engineers who had told them that RCCL would not be interested in any of the remaining R ships even if they were offered to them.

The reason I recall was that the oil the R ships run on is effectively 'dirty' oil and restricts access to some port of call for environmental reasons.

midwestchick,

To my knowledge, Richard Branson has put his brand to :

Aeroplanes

Trains

Virgin Media- telephone, television and wi-fi

Talking about a cruise line

 

Richard Branson is also a balloon enthusiast, but I'm struggling with his interest in High Street Travel Agents.

His Virgin Travel group sell Virgin packaged holidays. They are as professional and proficient as any other part of the Virgin group.

Their brochures are a bit bright and aim to promote a real holiday fun factor.

No plans to change any of our overseas travel. Changing you plans means the terrorist win.

Agree

Just discovered that Adam Simmonds and Robert Thompson are on board for the 30th August Med cruise. Can I expect the MDR to be transformed? What usually happens when Michelin star chefs are on board?

Don't hold your breath on the MDR menu being transformed.

Most likely the chefs are on board for cookery demonstrations, which will definitely be a step up from some of the more standard cookery classes.

I am intrigued by their presence, as Celebrity haven't been near celebrated chefs since the days of Michel Roux. Those were the days when Celebrity's food ruled the seas!

This is a rip off. We were caught with this tax when we cruised out of Malaga with RCI in 2015.

It's basically a tax on tourists to help offset the country's deficit.

Compare this to the forward thinking of the Republic of Ireland's government.

To encourage tourism, spending and visitor numbers to Ireland their Government removed Airport Duty Tax despite having a crippling deficit.

I cannot believe that no-one has discussed Hapag Lloyd lines two luxury ships Europa and Europa 2, which are universally accepted as having the finest cuisine at sea. The Berlitz cruise guide describes the Europa 2's cuisine as per below

 

You might want to read Carolyn Brown's (the CC Editor in Chief) review of the Europa. Early in our cruising life (we have been cruising for about forty years) we learned not to pay too much attention to Berlitz...but each to their own. Perhaps if we were fluent in German we might consider trying one of Hapag Lloyd's ships, but such is not the case.

 

Hank

 

 

I think you will find that the Hapag Lloyd ships are dual language, with everything being in German and English.

As far as independent cruise guides go Berlitz is probably the best

You can do self disembark at any port. AS long as you can and want to carry off your own luggage.

The last time we were in San Diego (4 years ago)the port authorities did not allow it. My understanding is, it not everywhere that allows it.