Mark_K

On 1/18/2020 at 11:27 PM, hiccups said:

That is correct--you can give cash to any crew member.  If you'd like to tip extra to your cabin steward, you can give cash, or if you have onboard credit, you can go to guest services and request a form for extra tips.  Your cabin steward is the one person on that form you can specify tips for--otherwise it is housekeeping or dining staff in general.

The butler, also.

12 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

 

You can get as much lobster as you want in Luminae. You can also order the preparations from Blu (on ships with a shared kitchen) and MDR if you prefer them.

There must be a limit, after all they have to have enough leftover to chop up for the next cruise’s day 1 lobster roll lunch. 😉

Fortunately, it’s a Sunday morning which should mean light traffic, but still it’s close to an hour drive. Even with walk off you would need close to a best case scenario to make it.

if you can’t change the flight, you should be thinking ahead about contingency plans for missing it.

9 minutes ago, skivoodoo said:

Thank you both. While I know it’s not the best Lobster in the world it’s part of our tradition. 🦞

We are in Retreat so I’m also curious to try the Luminae version to see if it’s cold water. 

if I remember right, it was out of the shell, poached, and not very flavorful.  I didn’t ask where it came from.

The ship actually gets into Vancouver at 7:30, so they have plenty of time to get everyone off the ship.  They may start boarding at one, or they may start it earlier.  It would be unusual for them to alter the departure time.

On 5/28/2022 at 12:53 PM, KKB said:

We were surprised that drinks were NOT included on NCL's "private island."

 

They were when we were there if you had the drink package.

40 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

I know of at least one example of Oceania not refunding port fees when a port was missed. That’s because it’s all “baked in” when it’s one price. I can totally see Princess doing the same thing when this happens in the future if they go to that pricing scheme. 

Silversea’s cancellation penalties are also calculated on the total cruise price since their is no delineation. Of course, their T&C still allow them to raise their price if taxes, fees, etc. go up.

We are at 21 days until embarkation, I got an email today saying they were shipped.

YMMV

When we did it, the connoisseur hosted a get together around the fire pit at McKinley with drinks and appetizers, a happy hour at Denali, and a special dinner at Fairbanks. This was pre-COVID,though.

2 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I like the idea of a bath but in 15 years of living in my house I’ve taken a bath maybe once.  I think we had a tub in our Beyond SS but we never used it.

 

I am nervous about the Millie SS as I heard and have seen that Kelly ripped out a lot of storage in bathroom and cabin.  It looks like Aqua has a little more cabin storage.

Only sailed it once, which was after the change, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. But it was a 15 night cruise in a Sky Suite, and I don’t recall having trouble getting everything stowed away.

21 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Regarding S-class, I see Eclipse, where I was in Aqua, has not been renovated yet (fortunately) so deck 16 is Solstice Deck, available to anyone?  And it still has Michael's club?

 

I suppose when it is refurbished, deck 16 will become the Retreat Sundeck?  And Retreat guests will suffer Kelly's wrath when they go into their cabin to find all the storage removed?

They may have seen the error of their ways regarding Kelly.  This was posted recently about a Constellation refurb:

6 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

Are you sure about that?  Because the deck plan shows a hot tub on the Millennium Retreat Deck.

 

Celebrity Millennium Deck Plans | Celebrity Cruises

It has a hot tub.  I think markeb linked the M/S together and shouldn’t have.

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

I know one of my cruises, the taxes and fees are $500 each and Panama Canal cruises are over $700 pp.  The actual cruise fare is a bargain .. it’s all the extras that really add up.

Interesting, we did a Canal cruise on Celebrity 2 years ago and the taxes/fees were less than $400.  
 

Anyway, it will be nice to see them all included in the advertised price.  I imagine the luxury lines that already included them in their prices are happy about it too.

With four days on land I wouldn’t worry too much about only two ports and not getting a real taste of Hawaii.

I would worry about the sea days if you really don’t like them. I would worry even more about a r/t cruise where you get 8 sea days.

17 hours ago, Fishwife2016 said:

Did you pack them in your suitcase?  When it came to taking them on and off the ship for ocean use can I assume you carried them at that point?  Thank you.

Amazon would be happy to sell you some inflatable pool noodles.

14 hours ago, TRLD said:

Have seen cases where a cruise line have rejected 2 b2b cruises on two different ships with the first having a starting point at a US port ending at a foreign port, then on the same day boarding another ship from the same line going to a different US port. While one would not think it is a violation  both times it did not clear review. Both times it involved Vancouver, primarily because there are not many ports where this situation would be possible.

 

The intent of the law is to prevent passage between US cities on foreign vessels. It would be very easy for a cruise line to work around the law running routes from LA to Vancouver, the use a different ship to go from Vancouver to Hawaii or Alaska with one cruise ending or starting on the same day. Basically working around the intent of the law.

 

With such a connection with an over night stay, no problem, with 2 different  lines same day no problem, then with same day 2 ships same cruise line have encountered a problem twice. In both cases talked with the department responsible (this was back before covid) when one could actually get call escalated to the responsible department.

 

Very few cases where timing could even come up for this to even be tested.

 

Have tried to get a definitive answer from CBP and all I can get for an answer is that it depends. Might be that the cruise lines themselves might want to avoid getting to close to the line of violating intent of the law even if it does nor violate the specific general interpretation.

Maybe it has something to do with the US CBP being right on site at Canada Place and Canada allowing the US to have jurisdiction over cruise ships departing from there to US ports.

12 hours ago, Senga said:

Definitely have never seen caffeine-free Diet Coke which would be our preference.

Mine also.  On our last cruise I switched from Jack and Diet Coke to Jameson and Sprite Zero just to avoid the caffeine.

29 minutes ago, mahasamatman said:

 

False. It would have to be a different cruise line.

You may be right, but that’s never been my impression, and it is The Passenger Vessel Services Act not The Passenger Cruise Line Services Act. 

There’s a limited lunch menu, which includes a Luminae burger, shrimp cocktail, a couple of wraps/sandwiches, and a chicken Caesar salad. They mat alert you that some items will take a while.

Mainly, what Rudy said. Also, there were a couple of special events for people on concierge tours. A happy hour one night and a special dinner another night.  Ours also made the arrangements for us to leave a day early.

On 5/9/2024 at 2:07 PM, memoak said:

Just to note once you stop in Victoria casino closes for the rest of the cruise

Just to clarify, for cruises stopping in Victoria the last night, and then ending the next morning in Seattle or Vancouver, the casino remains closed because the ship never gets back into international waters.  For other cruises visiting Victoria, the ship can open the casino as soon as it reaches international waters.

5 hours ago, waltd said:

Well not really.   One currency the crew hated when traveling in Europe was the Ruble.   Of course that was years ago.  The Ruble was worthless.

In New Zealand last year we could not get change for the US dollar on board.    I think it depends on where the cruise might start from.   

Even the Russians hate the ruble.

9 hours ago, Tudy said:

We, too, were able to keep our wine with us. I think they are more lenient in certain countries and if the cruise is specifically labeled as "Wine Cruise."

 

Not that Celebrity is known for it's logical reasoning, but if you think about it, if you have a drink package, any wine of your own that you drink is wine they don't have to pay for. 

 

Also, if you have a drink package, you do not have to pay a corkage fee.

The ability to bring wine back on board used to be the actual policy on a cruise designated as a Wine Cruise.  Maybe the spirit of it is still alive, even if the policy isn’t.

Yes, I’m waiting, no I don’t have an idea.
 

Particularly waiting for August, 2026, cruises around Iceland, northwestern Spain, or the western Med, at the time of the solar eclipse.

Cunard and Princess have already announced theirs.

19 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

We cancelled a Alaska cruise from San Francisco  because there were no Primcess people that could help us . Many phone inquiries are directed off shore to the Phillipines & although nice people they do not have knowledge when it pertains  to parking & transport conncetions for Handicapped people 

 

 In general we found that there is inadequate cruise parking structures & then transport to the ship on pier 27 Embarcadero . Thus ,we won't drive from San Diego to San Francisco with hotel ,meal & das expenses which are quite high to a city that has inadequate parking for cruises . It is a shame that such a beautiful city has such bad   accommodations in their parking structures & then extremely high parking prices . 

 

 In general ,we see this lack of parking a determent to the future of cruises starting from San Francisco 

It’s unfortunate it hasn’t worked out for you, but from your post it sounds like you find the whole San Francisco port situation unsuitable for you. So, even a different cruise line, or a more helpful Princess, wouldn’t have mattered.

Princess does have an Alaska cruise next summer (2025) round trip from San Pedro.  You might want to look into that.