dsrdsrdsr

Currently on Oriana in Catania due to change of itinary allegedly because of bad weather ...

I think bad weather is a more likely cause for the reason, rather than being just to annoy you.

If you don't believe the cancellation was weather related, do you have any other ideas?

I'm pretty sure that P&O wouldn't refuse to treat or evacuate you if you didn't have insurance, but they would send you a bill later. And the point of these forms demanding that you have insurance and asking whose insurance it was, is (I suspect) to remove any possible defence of "I didn't know, you never told me" from anyone who would rather not pay the bill.

Thanks, Keith. I was trying to avoid getting two cards but that's probably a good idea, one mine, one for DH. With each of us having a card from the other.

 

I knew I would want 2 cards to take I just hadn't though far enough ahead to think about the fact that I wanted them both to be no transaction fee cards.

 

Since I'm asking do debit cards generate a transaction fee or does that also depend on the card? Trying to figure out a way to get cash once we are there without having to carry a lot of cash (£a or $s) with us. We get a decent discount for paying cash for lodgings but that, of course, requires I have cash.

I wouldn't worry about the need to have both cards with zero transaction fees. After all, if your only zero-fee card is Amex, and you either lose it on Day 1 or else find that no-one in the country can be persuaded to accept it, then even if you spend say $2,000 outside of the USA, you're still only paying $50 or so extra fees. Which is a sum you prefer to keep, of course, but not worth running the extra mile to avoid - especially as it's a very small chance you'd have to pay it.

In other words, a "Not paying attention tax".

 

My favourite American writer once said "it is the duty of every intelligent person to take advantage of a fool".

Maybe he was right?

Only if you have a failsafe way of identifying those who are fools as opposed to those who aren't very bright or have minor mental handicaps. Remember that while it may be a sin to be foolish (St. Paul pointed that one out, so it's not a new idea) it's no sin to be not very bright.

You think that's bad? My parents once took me on a picnic. How gross is that?

One duty free bag doesn't count as hand luggage. It's to encourage people to buy from airports.

On our 2nd cruise, we arrived in Venice but our luggage didn't. This was a time when women packed an entire suitcase of shoes. (your shoes had to match every outfit)

 

We tried to make the best of the evening. We went on our own for a walking tour of Venice. Like our luggage, we got so lost. We wandered the street & finally got back to our hotel. Once in the room, I got on my knees & prayed "God, if you intended for me to enjoy the trip please let my luggage arrive". Prayers answered at about 11 o'clock. Luggage was delivered.

If I'd been God, I'd have delivered the luggages and then let you fall off the balcony as a punishment for wasting my time. :rolleyes:

I once flew from the UK to Green Bay; the plane to Chicago made it on time, but the Green Bay plane was cancelled. After waiting for a seat on all other planes, and failing, I had a free night in a Chicago hotel; but without my luggage, which had made the transfer to another flight and had made it to Green Bay without me.

Face to face speech at mealtimes.

I have had this issue with P&O in the past and it is nothing to do with different T&Cs. We missed 2 ports of call on Princess one the cruise lines fault and the other weather related and without any prompting from any passengers we received a letter to our stateroom saying port fees/taxes for both ports of call will be refunded to our onboard account. When this happened on a P&O cruise I enquired about reimbursement of port fees/taxes as because we hadnt berthed they would not have been paid and should be reimbursed to the customer who had paid them in the cruise fare. They initially waffled at great length and then tried to say that customers didnt pay port fees/taxes as these were paid by P&O out of their own pockets (laughable). Amercian cruise companies sell there cruises at a price + port/fees/taxes where in the UK it is included in the cruise fare and states such in brochures. When this was pointed out they then said that it was not company policy to return port fees/taxes at any time and even though customers are charged they are kept by P&O to boost their profits. IMO another charge that P&O do at customers expense just to boost there takings and are really heading to the bottom of the barrell with regards to cruising. Strangely you cannot blame Carnival because Princess is also owned by Carnival and they do reimburse port fees/taxes it is obviously a decision taken by P&O senior management.

Different laws in the UK and the USA. In the UK, cruise fares per brochure are the contract amount and that's what you pay, with little option for the cruise line to cancel, make significant changes to, or surcharge. If one port is taken out and a more expensive one substituted, they can't charge extra; if it's cheaper, they don't refund; if you miss out altogether, they don't refund the port fees but they also don't charge extra for the extra entertainments (if any!) or for the extra food you eat and the extra fuel the ship uses.

But back to the OP, it's not true that lifeboats don't have toilets - in fact, they all not only have toilets, but they're fully portable and can be flushed with the ample supplies of salt water available. This versatile device is sold under the trade name "bucket".

Do you routinely leave home without a single piece of photo id?

 

Have you never been asked for id when making a large cc purchase in a foreign country?

 

Have you never been carded?

 

In some countries one can be arrested simply because one is not in possession of suitable photo id.

 

If arrested, how are you going to prove to the authorities that you (typically) have a treaty right to contact your embassy?

 

Seems to me that a DL or any other sort of suitable photo id is subject to loss, damage or theft. Replacement is just as difficult.

1. Yes, of course. My passport is the only photo ID I've got - and Britain isn't a police state, so I don't need it.

2. Only once, and it was only $20 (US), and when I hadn't got it they sold me the stuff anyway.

3. I had to look this one up. I honestly had no idea that Canada went in for that sort of practice. Soviet Union yes, but not Canada. Fortunately the UK doesn't, you can walk the streets here with little danger that the police will stop you at random and no danger at all that they will arrest you because they can't prove who you are.

4. Not in the UK.

5. I guess I've just been lucky so far. Do most cruise passengers get arrested at some point in their lives? I hadn't thought of it as much of a risk, frankly. Are there a lot of foreign countries where the police capture Englishmen and leave them in the cells for want of a passport? (Canada maybe?) Because if they've got that sort of police, then I have scant faith that a passport would do any good. They'd probably steal the passport instead.

You're quite right that replacing a driving licence would be as hard as replacing a passport. Harder, in fact, while I'm on holiday abroad. However, you have to take into consideration the fact that if I don't have a driving licence, I can't drive a hire car; if I don't have a passport, I can't get home. When I'm on a cruise, getting home is more important to me.

In France, carried the passport for the rest of the day - would need to go through passport control again when returning to the ship.

 

In England, I had my driver's license - as a just in case. We were on a ship's excursion, so all that was needed was the ship's id card. I'm assuming that if returning to the port independently, there would be the need of some sort of photo ID to confirm a match for the ship's ID card [no access to the shipboard photo database]

Not usually, not on any line I have used anyway. Certainly not in Europe. There aren't many ports scrutinise everybody's passport so far as I know, and they know the ship doesn't let random strangers board.

What did you carry as id in place of the passport?

ID isn't usually necessary. I know who I am; my ship's pass will let anyone else know who I am if I can't tell them. And if I've been arrested, I doubt that being able to prove photographically who I am would make any difference - they still won't let me go.

I changed terminal twice in quick succession at Heathrow, having been misinformed about my departure terminal. Each change took 40 minutes including security. Can't remember which terminals, but it was the BA departures to USA vs. American Airlines departures to USA.

If you get an inside cabin on a ship with plenty of public lounges, you won't need to spend any time there at all. My sleeping pattern is entirely different from my mother's, but we easily manage to keep out of each other's way.

I think that this experience would have been extremely distressing for anyone, let alone a young child ...

Not necessarily. I was on a Llandudno tram once where the tram roof corner shattered a bus window and mirror, all over a family sitting in the front corner. They didn't appear distressed at all, they seemed happy enough that they weren't hurt but didn't bother making complaints or asking for compensation. They just treated it as one of those things.

Obviously everyone's different. Sang froid isn't given to us all.

From memory, Cruises & Maritime run a shuttle bus from Victoria Coach Station in London. You could presumably get a bus from Newcastle to Victoria.

And if you like smaller ships and finances are a concern, Cruises & Maritime and Fred Olsen both run smaller, older ships. Not many balconies though. I don't know Viking, but I prefer C&M to (for example) P&O for the smaller scale of the operation.

On the delayed cruise and quite frankly do not think the compensation is enough!!! The main selling point of this cruise was the 36 hour overnight stop in Amsterdam. That is now just 6 hrs on Tuesday as we now go to Zeebrugge first on Monday instead of on Tuesday. I appreciate that its a technical issue and P & O have to change the cruise length to get Oriana back on schedule however the highlight of this short cruise is now missing.. I really do not understand why we could not have stayed on the original routing and at least had all day in Amsterdam on Monday as we should have.

We are a group celebrating milestone birthdays and quite frankly the whole thing is now ruined for us before we even embark.

The whole thing has been handled poorly so far and we still have no clue about embarkation times as emailis different from what was said on phone.

Wont be booking again!

If the whole thing is ruined, get onto P&O post haste and explain that the 36 hours in Amsterdam was the sole reason for booking and that you wish to cancel with a full refund. If they agree that there has been a significant change to the itinerary, significant enough to change the whole tenor of the holiday, they are bound to refund you.

Of course, they may not agree. The cruise title is "Netherlands and Belgium", I believe, and they're still going to both. It's only the secondary description that gives the 36 hours in Holland.

Hmmmm....food poisoning is a bacterial infection/problem; once you ingest these very toxic bacteria, no matter what the amount is, there is a toxic reaction. The suffering less concept is suspect because of the toxic effect of those bacteria.

 

Can you tell me what research the 'myth' is based on; it seems anecdotal? Also, never have heard/read this before.

The body can deal with 50 toxic bacteria more easily than it can deal with 50 billion. It's a common theme with all poisons - eat less, don't be so ill. And of course the other side of it applies with bacteria, viruses, whatever - not everyone is affected the same way. You can catch a cold from someone at the office, he had a cough and a sniffle, you're laid up for 3 days.

The myth isn't based on research, it's based on various posters on page 1 saying that food poisoning always and always means diarrhoea, two days in bed, desperate illness, etc etc. It isn't true, you can get food poisoning that makes you sick and you recover quickly.

Current wisdom from many health professionals is that drinking fruit juice is about the same as drinking a soda. That includes your definition of fruit juice, meaning in other words, orange juice.

I find it helpful, when I hear of "current wisdom from health professionals" recommending we don't eat certain foods, to carry on eating the foods anyway. Then when they change their minds yet again and put your food back on the approved list, you're already doing it right!

(dsrdsrdsr, I'll be reporting your "old age pensioners" phrase to the constabulary's political-correctness department ;p)

 

JB :)

I've never yet heard of anyone refusing their old age pension because they didn't like the name! But yes, I realise there are people who think "old age" is an insult and refuse to use it.

In looking at the admittance fees for some of the places I hope to visit, I noticed some have a "concessions" rate. Is that a Senior Citizens rate (over 60 or 65?)

 

Thanks

 

Sandi

Old Age Pensioners' rate, correct, but the age can vary between locations. It used to be traditionally the age that you could collect the Old Age Pension, but the courts in their infinite wisdom declared that while it wasn't illegal sex discrimination for the government to pay pensions to men and women at different ages, it was illegal sex discrimination for organisations to use government retiring ages as the guideline. So it moved to 60 or 65. Now that retiring age is creeping up, you may find the odd place that goes for 67.

Either way, as more and more places asre relying on pensioners' money (pensioners being the ones with the most free time, and in many cases the most spare money) the pensioner rates are getting less and less generous. By and large.

This is an exaggeration no? Sure the bank or they could also save for a trip.

Maybe a slight exaggeration, because I've never tried changing Norwegian Kroner into Dollars in the USA (or anywhere else). But my point was really that the only thing a Norwegian can do with US Dollars is to take them to a bank and exchange them. Only the most touristy of tourist shops takes US cash, and the tour guides don't spend money there.

I wonder what will happen if I hit P&O for $12,000 which is the cost of two business class return airfares, SYD - LHR - SYD on Cathay Pacific which I have paid for, plus a few hotels and car hire in UK?

That would depend on which country's law your contract with P&O is under. I suspect it would be Australian law, in which case I wouldn't have a clue; but if it's under UK law, you would have a clear breach of contract on their part and so you should be able to recover consequential losses which are reasonably foreseeable. And obviously if they knew you live in Australia, it's foreseeable that you would have to get here. In their mitigation of losses, they could point out that you are doing other things in the UK so your flight costs should be allocated between your various activities; if you decided to come anyway and did something else, then they wouldn't have to pay.