DEL67

Happy Fool:

I agree with you.  3/12 hours from docking to flight departure does not seem enough time, especially when it takes 45 minutes to get to the airport.  NCL booked us on a 10 AM flight s we had thought about taking an NCL transfer.   However, I am wondering if a pre-booked taxi would be a better choice than an NCL transfer since you have to wait at the port for the bus to be filled before they leave. 

We will be in Ashod in April and plan to visit a friend in Jerusalem.  From my research, a bus is the best way for us to get to Jerusalem.  However, i have not been able to find some information about the port shuttle. Specifically:

   - Where does it go?  The terminal or the Sea Mall?

   - What hours is it available

  - How often does it run?

  - What, if any, documentation do we need to board it, both leaving the ship and returning.?
   -If it goes to the terminal, are there taxis there that will take us to the bus station?
 

Thank you for any information you can provide.

It all depends on what you are looking for.  If you want a big, new ship with all the new features, tee Pride is not for you.  If you want gourmet food and speciality restaurants , again the Pride is not for you.   

This year, the Pride offered interesting itineraries, at good rates. I was pleased with the service I received.  I did not enjoy the food, but still thought I got great value.   I hope by next year, they will improve the food at least back to where was last fall and they need to fix the tender situation which was a major issue for an itinerary with 5 tender ports.

Carnival has been very late in posting excursions for the Pride.  I am on the July 10th sailing and they only posted excursions for some ports in mid- to late May and   they still have no excursions for the one port on the itinerary change they made in late May.

Therefore, I assume that they will be posting excursions for your cruise in the nest few months.  However, you may want to do as many of us have done and find private ones.

Did you or anyone you knew on the Pride use a proctored home Covid test on the Pride? 

I was on the Pride last fall and the internet was very poor so I am concerned about relying on it to get Covid test results for returning to the US. 

So far, Carnival is not offering tours in any of these ports and I have been unable to find tours. 

Portree does not seem to have availability.  The companies in Greenock do not seem to be offering group tours the day the Pride is in port.  And I have not found tours from the new Dublin cruise port. 

I know I can take public transportation into Glascow and Dublin, but would appreciate any suggestion. 

Looking for options to cruiseline transfers.  Are there any shuttles or private transfers that cost less than the ship for 2 people?

tracie17 - I too ordered the tests for reentry to the US through Princess for our cruise a few weeks ago.  However, I did not need them because Princess offered free testing on the ship for those passengers returning to the US after disembarkation. 

The cabin steward took swabs the morning before the end of our cruise and printed reports were sent

our cabin in the evening.

A  update on our ongoing "discussions" with Celebrity through our TA.

We can not take one of their lift and switch cruises because of scheduling and we can only get OBC.  I checked other Celebrity sailings and found that the ones that interest us cost twice what we paid for the Infinity for fewer days. Therefore we had our TA ask Celebrity for any other options.

About 3 weeks ago they asked that I provide options that would be acceptable to us.  I sent them 5  options: return the money we paid them, transfer our FCC to RCCL, and do a lift and switch to one of 3 different cruises.  They immediate!y rejected 3 options leaving lift and switches on one of 2 cruises neither of which really interest us, but at least we would not lose our money. They misunderstood one option (purposely?) And did not comment on the last one.

I clarified the option they misunderstood.  They responded yesterday rejecting that option and saying they would discuss the last one, an upgrade to an outside on an April Apex Caribbean cruise. They gave no indication when they would decide.

When I sent them the options an outside on the Aoex was only about $100 pp more than our OBC.  Now even an inside is more.  Therefore, if they reject that option, I will have to pay extra for a cruise that does not interest me just to use the OBC.  Meanwhile airfares are rising increasing the cost to us.

After reading other posts, I realize that we are not alone.  Given Celebrity's poor customer service to us and others, I will think twice before booking with them again.

Celebrity has put us in a bad position with its move of the Infinity Easter sailing.

We can not do the lift and switch option.  My daughter is a teacher. None of the choices match her spring vacation

We paid for the Infinity cruise with FCC  from 2 other canceled Celebrity cruises so we can not get our money back.  We also have a large OBC from our Visa card which we had applied to the sailing.  According to the current deadlines we stand to lose it all if we do not use it to book a 2022 Celebrity sailing by 3/31. And we already have deposits on summer and Xmas trips.

Our only option would be a Celebrity Caribbean cruise in April, but Iwe can not even book one until we receive the FCC.  From past experience issuing our FCC could take up to 90 days which would be too late.

Our TA contacted Celebrity to see if their is any flexibility, but Celebrity has not responded (no surprise) and from my previous experience with them flexibility is not something provide.

Hopefully our TA will get them to issue our FCC quickly.  Otherwise we stand to lose thousands of dollars.  

Is any company running a shuttle from the Tampa cruise port to the airport?  if so, how much is it and how often does it run?

5 hours ago, nlktx49 said:

Is the "gift" the luggage tag? Just want to know if it's worth finding Pixels just to add to my collection of the gift luggage tags! Also, is the gift different for Platinum?

In August on the Miracle the Platinum gift was a luggage tag that was not even worth bringing home.

I sailed on the Miracle earlier this month.  Since ny passport renewal is “in process” I used my birth certificate and drivers license.  The rep who was checking ids and vaccination certificates was concerned because the name on my birth certificate does not match my married name even though my maiden name is now my middle name.  Luckily I brought my marriage certificate which resolved the issue.  
 

I do not know if the rep was new or whether I really needed my marriage certificate.

Last week, I charged funds from my account to my Player's Bank in the Casino.  These charges which went against my OBC.   At the end of the week I cashed out what was left in my Player's Bank..

I was also on the 8/10 sailing.  True, the weather wasn't great, but none of the days was a complete washout.

The staff varied from experienced to obviously new, but all were friendly and helpful.  The ship was clean and comfortable.  The food varied, but for me was in general a bit bland.  I thought that the shows were good, especially the first, 88 Keys.

We did not pre- book anything for Skagway and the first tour companies we stopped at did not have anything of interest to us because I did not have a passport (its being renewed.)  However while we were shopping we found another company at the Alaskan Fairytales store on Broadway that said I could use my birth certificate and photo id for the Summit tour.  The tour was a great photo opportunity and our driver/guide provided a lot of interesting information about Skagway, the gold rush and the area in general.  In addition, we got lucky because the sun came out so the visibility was much better than on the earlier tours.  

We had booked a ship float trip in Juneau,  However it was cancelled at the last minute so onshore we found a whale watching tour with Juneau Tours which was great.  We saw quite a few whales, the staff was friendly and knowledgeable and the boat was clean and comfortable and less than 50% full.

For us, the highlight was a kayak tour that we booked online with Ketchikan Kayaks several months ago.   We not only got to go kayaking, but also saw a sea lion, harbor seals and bald eagles and learned about the local marine life from our guides.

In April we took a mask required river cruise and, although we would prefer not to, had no issue with wearing masks.

If yo need a hotel, the IBIS Budget Central Auckland  is reasonable and  about 10 minutes from the pier.  One downside is that it is in the middle of a steep hill.

I took the Supershuttle to get there since it left me at the hotel door unlike the Skybus which has specific stops along major streets.

e were there in Dec.  Many people from the ship went into Christchurch from Akaroa.  We wanted to take a Black Cat Harbor cruise so we stayed in Akaroa to see the Hector dolphins. 

Since the Harbor cruise was only 2 hours, we also booked a local tour which was just okay.  The one part of the tour that we really enjoyed was the Giants House, the home of a local artist. She has created an interesting garden of large, colorful mosaics that were somewhat reminiscent of Gaudi.   In addition, because we were on the tour, we got to meet the artist and go into her home. You can reach the Giants house yourself by walking around the harbor and then going up a side street (the tourist information at the pier will tell you which street.)  It is about a 20 minute walk,  Note:  The driveway up to the house and garden is very steep.

If you do not want to make a decision prior to your arrival, there will be anumber of vendors at the pier selling both local tours and ones into Christchurch.

Yes, we have an email from HAL giving her  permission to disembark in Hobart

On 9/25/2019 at 7:50 PM, Chiliburn said:

Unless you’re disembarking I don’t think you will have any immigrantion process as the ship does it .

HAL will require you to have a Australian visa before you embark and they do the rest.

 Just walk off but there will be a bio security dog and possibly a bag search.

That leads to an interesting question.  My daughter will be disembarking that evening as she has to get back to the US for work.  We assumed she would have to leave the ship about 2 hours before her flight.  Do you have any idea how much extra time she should allot for immigration.  Note:  It will be New Years Eve which may complicate things.

Hobart will be the first Australian port on our HAL Noordam itinerary so I assume we will need to go through some sort of immigration. 

Does anyone know approximately how long it will take?  We are planning a private tour so I would like to know when to tell them to pick us up.

Thank you

We are taking our first P&O cruise in April.  The Britannia is due to dock at 6 AM in Southampton.  I need to make a bus reservation so I would appreciate knowing approximately what time can we expect to be off the ship?

Thank you

On 1/7/2019 at 7:00 PM, Bob++ said:

 

Since no one else has mentioned it; I wonder why you are staying near LHR the night before? Are you a late arrival? If you are not too late, it would make sense to travel down to Southampton the evening before.

Thank you all  for the information. 

Bob"

Our flight is scheduled to arrive at LHR about 5 PM the night before the cruise so I had planned to stay at an airport hotel and go to Southampton early  in the morning, leave our luggage and walk around South Hampton until our designated check-in tome.  However, now that I know that the luggage handlers do not start until 11:30, I need to look at other options.

There were several "themed night." One was a white night, but I do not remember the other. The Mediterranean night was only in the dining room where they had an Italian night also.

You do not register your credit card at check in like most other cruise lines.  Instead, they have a machine next to customer service desk.  One of their reps will assist you if you have difficulty.

Tips were automatically charged to our account daily.  We did not try to remove them so I cannot answer your question.  However, we did give extra tips to our headwaiter and cabin steward, both of whom provided outstanding service. as well as a smaller one to our waiter.

Our etickets in late Dec stated stated that guests booking through MSC USA get get bottled water (still or with gas) in the dining room at lunch and dinner.