hobbsie65

20 hours ago, elklemi said:

Called yesterday to book Treasure Islands for January and after 5 Star Clipper cruises my date does not have the 0 single supplement which is a big disappointment.  And to add on they did have $500 OBS but since I am single I only get $250. So be sure to double check your dates to see which trips have the no single supplement.

what date John ? we are booked on the 1st February so we will just miss you 

On 1/23/2023 at 5:38 PM, elklemi said:

Glad tp be of help, Drink of the day was 5 euros, and I only drink beer which was 3.5 euros to 4 euros as I recall, others who drink wine or spirits were saying drink prices were reasonable.  We did have a sea day which was 3rd full day, nothing real dressy but some did dress up a little for Captain's dinner and they had a pirate one evening and heard some dress up for that.

Cruise director was Axel Melchior and he is from Costa Rica but myself with others did not feel like he gave a "feel" for our stops and seems like everything was geared for excursions from ship.

Wishing you all a great time.
 

 

Thanks John for the review & I hope you are well. I was just about to book this cruise next February but after reading your review we booked the treasure island cruise again as we loved the itinerary last time.   

40 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

I disagree, lots of people read the documents as they usually know that the devil is in the detail and insurance companies are better that most for using confusing small print and then using it to decline claims.

They are declined because people don't read the documents & are not covered - nothing to do with 'small print'. I handle about 20 claims a day & my company underwrite about 60+ different company's so I have a little bit of experience in this 

I am a travel insurance claims handler & spend most of my day explaining to people what is & what is not covered while they are arguing with me after declining a claim - no one reads the documents & blame everyone else for this 🙂 

Sorry if this has been asked a thousand times - apart from the Aft balcony cabins please could you tell me the other best ones for larger balcony size. I looked at E136 / 135 but I think these are quite overlooked. Many thanks

5 hours ago, coops14 said:

The OBC promotion has finished and been replaced with free stateroom upgrade. I’ve been checking the prices of a few different cruises. All of them have increased with this new promotion.  For example yesterday, the price of the 16 day grand European Explorer for a balcony cabin for 2 people was £4046, plus £300 OBC. Today, it’s nearly £6000 with no OBC for exactly the same cabin. I wonder if the next promotion will be half price plus and premium packages, but Princess have already increased their base price, so it won’t be a good deal at all. 

I was looking at a back to back yesterday which had $800 obc included. Today £500 more & no obc. I don't like paying a non refundable £1100 deposit so far out so never booked.  

On 8/18/2023 at 5:47 PM, 76jxbarne1 said:

 

Made a Prime Veranda booking in February 2023 on Celebrity Equinox TA Lisbon to Buenos Aires leaving November 21^st, 2024. Received email this week advising the cruise is now cancelled due to the vessel being relocated to Port Canaveral FL to serve the Caribbean. We are Diamond + with RCL and this would have been first cruise on Celebrity. We are seniors living in USA and were so looking forward to visiting South American ports. Thought we had a great price for the two of us at a total of $2,669.78 and with a total OBC of $450.  Very disappointed with the cancelation terms limited to the return of our $900 deposit only and meager offer of $200 OBC toward a future cruise which are now way overpriced.

Does our original $450 OBC carry over to any future cruise booking or is it forcible forfeited?

No - you will only get the $200 plus whatever promotion they are offering when you book the new cruise. 

I lived in Greece for 15 years - the tourist season ends mid to late September so much will be closed on the smaller islands. The weather can be a bit cold/wet - more so in the north (Ionian islands) Athens is busy all year as are the larger city's like Rhodes town, Chania etc on the islands. We had a house on Corfu for 10 years & I hated winters - damp/wet so we used to spend the winters in Goa or Spain but we love Greece. 

On 5/29/2023 at 3:59 AM, luv2bcruzn said:

We already have one cruise booked and are looking at possibly booking a second being a back to back. The 1st is booked thru a TA.

Are there usually any extra incentives to booking a b2b; either with TA or cruise line? 

I booked a back to back to back a few months ago & got £100 discount on each cruise but the big plus was only one deposit not 3 for all the cruises even though they have separate booking numbers. 

5 minutes ago, Psoque said:

Hi.  I see that there has been no activity here since early May.  Is it the case that there just aren’t enough people to keep this going?

SC are more niche than the big lines so activity was never that busy on here & also many people are repeat guests so questions are less. 

Sorry to hijack this post but I am looking at doing something similar except on the Solstice 2025 from Hawaii to Vancouver. The difference is (going by 2024 itinerary) the Alaska sailing will be from Vancouver back to Vancouver (7 day cruise) so I presume that would be fine as we will not be disembarking in a US port. The Celebrity sales team seemed to think this was fine but I know the UK office are not clued up on this sometimes. 

4 hours ago, Ladyshopper23 said:

Just had various emails about this offer on for the next few days. I'm struggling to interpret the cancellation rules in conjunction with this, as what I can find states that if you cancel with more than 91 days notice, then you lose your deposit. Does that mean you only lose £1, or does it mean you have to pay what you would have lost under normal circumstances with the usual deposit?

Wondering if anyone knows the answer before I give Princess a call to check. If it is genuinely only £1 you lose, I might make a couple of speculative bookings for next year, which I can then cancel in plenty of time if I can't get Avios reward flights to tie up.

I did this last year & only lost £1 when cancelling. I just booked another today under this promo & 50% off Princess plus fare. 

5 minutes ago, janecambridge said:

Recently back from the star clipper. We concluded it really needed a good upgrade/makeover. Some  passengers woke up one morning very early and their cabins were ankle deep in water. Leak overnight from top deck around the bridge. Rotten wooden floorboards and rain! 
Our  cabin was quite dated, tatty and rusty in the shower room. 
The tips: You really are obliged to leave tips for cabin stewards and waiting staff. They get no wages and rely on the tips as their ‘salary’. I find it quite disturbing that we have to do this, especially when passenger numbers are low. Others on the ship get a salary and nothing from tips.! 
Only 2 of 4 tenders were good enough to use. This led to cancellation of beach bbq. A real treat normally and especially for the staff who love to get off the ship for a change. 
This and some more has made us think about using star clipper again. 

It is quite normal for the crew to have there salary 'topped' up by tips - I worked on cruise ships for years & that was always the case. I think the non tipping culture in the UK & Australia makes it difficult & that is why P&O included tips as do MSC I think from the UK. We just included our tips in our bill & slip the cabin steward a little extra. I don't know how many clipper cruise you have done but they have always been a bit basic although we think the experience far outweighs that but flooding in cabins is no fun but I had this on much newer large ships as well. They do need to watch it though if standards are slipping but we go back for the sailing experience & to meet like minded people of all nationalities, most of whom also have a love to travel & try new experiences. 

1 minute ago, mahdnc said:

I am not surprised that the Falkland Islands were added although my understanding is that it is a hit or miss port due to weather.

I think the Falkland's are more miss than hit tbh. We will cancel & do Patagonia by land spending a month going from Santiago finishing in Rio. We just booked a back to back to back from Singapore to Vancouver for 2025 so happy to mix it up with a land adventure as well. 

5 minutes ago, Shiba_Lover said:

Maybe we are getting close to an itinerary.  I went to look at something on my reservation - and it is not available now (other than the number with no info).  So perhaps they are in the process of loading the new route?  <hopeful>

3 minutes ago, gerelmx said:

Itineraries for January 4, 18 and February 1, 2025

There are no more published Between December 2024 and March 2025

My cruise is the 15th February 2025 which has now been removed - waiting for the update & new itinerary before deciding if to cancel    

22 hours ago, Cotanomore said:

Just read that there are themed party nights on the Royal Clipper.  Does anyone know what a few of the themes are?

Only Pirate night but not many joined in - after dinner most people hang out by the bar & socialize. We have met some great people from all around the world on our Clipper cruises - it is nice having such a nice mix of nationalities.

7 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

If they repeat the itinerary for 2024 it will be released with the Canada/NE sailings, which have not yet been announced. Look for something in Q1 of 2023 as far as a deployment announcement for these sailings. Alaska and Europe summer 2024 are coming out this week/next and 2024 Canada/NE and summer Caribbean sailings should be next batch after that. 

Any idea when the SA itinerary's will be released? Looking at a Celebrity cruise in 2025 but rather book with Princess. 

8 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

LA is the opposite direction the ships needs to go. The ship now needs positioned to sail from Fort Lauderdale and New Jersey. 

Any idea what ship will be doing the SA cruises 2024/2025 ? I am looking to book one when they are released in a couple weeks time hopefully 

11 hours ago, elklemi said:

Wow so good to hear from you all and hope you all are doing well and hopefully travelling all over the world. I will never forget you all and I had such a great time with you all and hope you all have trips planned now that covid is waning.  thanks so much for saying Hello!

I just got back from New York & we have a few trips booked next year including another Clipper cruise out of Italy. We promised ourselves that when we hit 59 years old (2024) we will take 6 months off work, pack 2 bags & travel around the world so that's the plan. We also want to retire at 63 & take a world cruise as that's something I always wanted to do. I hope we cruise together again one day - I am sure we will find another beach bar to enjoy a few beers 🙂 

4 minutes ago, elklemi said:

First of all the lady told me that at this time they no longer require trip insurance for covid altho she recommended that we do purchase this, we will receive an antigen covid test at the port at no cost to us before we board.  The biggest thing is not requiring the covid insurance but while checking for same it is not expensive so I may purchase anyway.  This is for January sailing from Costa Rica.

Hi John - I hope you are keeping well & glad to see you taking another Clipper cruise. We are both fine & send a big hello 🙂 Paul & Mel (we sailed with you from St Maartan just before covid)

Holland House Hotel - good food, luggage storage & on the beach with chairs. We always use it before/after cruises 

18 hours ago, PeterGavin said:

All done! Bit the bullet! The 50 Degrees North team in Melbourne helped a lot - Booked 17th September, 2023 Round Trip, on Castor. Living in Australia/NZ adds to the degree of difficulty when booking - a 24 hour flight is just the beginning! Have to be able to pull together a lot of other items to make a trip worthwhile... not just the one cruise! HAPPY now!

I am waiting to book also but the site can not accept UK bank/credit cards atm. They have held a good cabin for me so once fixed I will press the button 🙂 

On 10/12/2021 at 2:38 PM, hallasm said:

Hope they will solve the issue soon.

Got an email today - they are aware of a problem when they switched servers for the website & have held a nice starboard midship cabin for me until it is fixed & I can pay them. I am saving about £5k over Hurtigruten so very happy & the ships looks wonderful. 

10 minutes ago, hallasm said:

Have you contacted Havila? They consider the UK as a major market, so it amazes me if their on-Line payment system can not handle UK credit cards.

 Phone UK: +44 3455 280 026 or contact form

https://www.havilavoyages.com/about-havila/contact-us - they respond very quickly.

I called them & they sent the screen shot to the IT team - unfortunately they can not take payments over the phone. When we make a payment the bank sends us a text with code which we enter on the payment screen - the Havila website lets us do this but once we enter the code the payment screen crashes. Hopefully the IT team will get it fixed.