Seacruise

Just called to book the 41 day Singapore to Miami cruise, was told I can only book the first two legs to Barcelona, the third leg to Miami is unworkable at this point because of the dry dock scheduled. Was told the drydock would be in Miami, but no one can book the Barcelona to Miami cruise. Aren't there people already booked on the 5/7 to 5/20 cruise? Has anyone else heard anything? A few minutes ago the website was still showing prices starting at $717 for said cruise

When RCI sent the ships to China there was a uproar over work being done while the ship was underway. Casino was changed etc. along with other venues.

This could be another case of that and cabins being blocked for workers.

Your links are too big to work Havingfun2010

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The Canal is open for trips from the Med in the day time and the other way at night. This is how the Canal rule makers control traffic. It is their rule

This is no longer the case.

The new canal opened fully last year and is wider and deeper.

We did the Suez in March on the Legend and were 18 hours behind that freighter that the Pirates grabbed. Talking about an interesting time.

Oh yes and the Sand Storm in the Red Sea the day before we started the transit was also interesting.

I was on the last Voyages of the Legend OTS and the Chief Engineer explained it this way one night in the Diamond Lounge as to why.

Each cabin has 2 outlets and the electrical system feeding the cabins is built for those two outlets. If everyone brought (not that this is going to happen but sections of the ship could have this problem) a power bar and it has 4 outlets you have now changed the number of outlets in your room and changed the electrical flow to your cabin. Doesn't matter how small that flow is but it all adds up down the line. He pointed out that even if every 3rd cabin did this it would cause a greater electrical flow on the system causing the wires to get warm/hot and the possibility of a fire. That of course is the last thing you want on a ship.

He said that most power bars are made in China and are questionable at best. He pointed out to the charger knock-offs Apple had problems with a few years back as an example.

It is just easier to take them at boarding than risk a fire.

He said it is no different than your house and using multiple plugs into an outlet. How many times do we hear of this as the cause for house fires?

Google Chrome is changing to HTTPS and the new HTML 5 is rolled out and Flash becomes a thing of the past. The new standard starts in January and we are seeing some websites that no longer work with Chrome.

Also remember that the RCi site is like 20 years out of date as per the CIO press release this past week.

Let's see website 20 years out of date and new HTML 5 coming out what could possibly go wrong.

 

Why can´t cruise lines pay the crew a decent wage instead of using cheap - untrained - staff from Eastern Europe - Asia and India.

So exactly where should they get the crew from?

It certainly wont be from the USA. NCL has been there and done that in Hawaii and gave up on that NCL America experiment except for the one ship they have now.

The next question is if you try and put American Standards on the cruise industry are you willing to pay for it?

Just asking....

I don't know, but that makes a lot of sense! I'll go with it on the list, unless someone else finds out info to the contrary.

So here is the next question:

Where does Keith Williams go when he is scheduled to return? :eek:

I know stop the tough questions....

Donna,

You have listed on the Legend OTS

Keith Williams October 19 until January 15, then Chris Brown should be returning Jan 15 to cover Keith's break again.

Since most breaks are 8 weeks, do you know if this will this mean Chris Brown will be closing down the Legend on it's final Voyages?

The last two voyages are March 3 from Singapore and March 13th from Dubai then the handover to TUI?

Thanks

Ship - Explorer OTS

Deck - 7

Stateroom # - 7139 Forward

Stateroom Category – N

Starboard or Port Side - Centre

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Carts heard above room starting at 5:00 AM.

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No

Any specific problems with this cabin? - Yes. This cabin was added during Dry-Dock 2015. The closet is NOT a normal closet as they added an additional 8 inches of wall to the back of the closet so hangers have to be turned 90 degrees so the doors can be closed. They also put in a wall to cover a pipe that was in this space prior to the addition removing more space.

The bathroom does not have any glass holders on the wall so you don't get any glasses in the bathroom because it would be a safety hazard to leave them on the counter.

The sink is also missing a soap holder so one must put the soap on the counter. If there is any motion one must play find the soap when they return to the cabin.

It should be noted that the P1/P2 cabins that were also added in dry-dock also have this bathroom problem.

The cabin is narrower than other CAT N cabins making it difficult to get into bed when the beds are together.

This cabin is lacking in space we had to use a suit-case as drawer space.

Any other comments? -

The plus to this cabin it has it's own AC unit so if you turn it down colder it blows cold right away.

The other plus it has a true fridge that keeps things cold. In fact we had an ice build up on the back coils.

This cabin was in a good location otherwise.

We had this cabin on 24 Day Transpacific cruise and it was a problem storing clothes.

I have not been able to access Cruise Critic since last night on my computer. I am getting a malware alert from Webroot and it is denying me access. No problems on Tapatalk., which I am using now. Webroot is installed on all of my devices, but only the desktop version is having problems. Is this happening to anyone else?

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Isn't this just a little over the top when you post this name for your thread?

Cruise Critic blocked on my computer.

Cruise Critic did no such thing, your malware program by your own admission did.

As mentioned it could be a false positive.

so when I board the Indy tomorrow

How do I test the speed:confused:

speedtest.net

It is May 01 on Exoplorer OTS and no voom. Told not to expect it before the end of the cruise May 16th.

Ping is 823 ms

download .04 mbps

upload is .06 mbps

We will be in Papeete on a Sunday. I was hoping to get some things from the market near the ship. Does anyone know if it will have any stalls open?

We were here last year on a Sunday. Part of the market is open until 1:00 PM and then all closes including the internet cafe. It does not matter if a ship is in or not everything closes.

Not much else is open period as well.

It would appear Anna Bass has changed jobs again to a Make-up Artist.

http://annabass4.wix.com/anna-bass-mua#!about/c1va9

We just went through this and were locked in at $1.10 exchange until about 2 weeks back. The rate was changed to $1.41.

We did mange to pre-pay our tips and managed to buy $2000 US onboard credit for our 24 day cruise.

Phil

The Norwegian Dream had a really neat feature where it could lower it's front mask and "Flip" it's funnel to the side to clear bridges along the Kiel Canal.

http://cdn2.shipspotting.com/photos/middle/6/9/4/319496.jpg

Phil

We just did a cruise on Zaandam and had a Vista Suite and NO DOUBLE days. Mariner Society is standing firm on the fact that we never paid "FULL" brochure fare. Any discounted fair does not qualify for double days this includes fare drops and upgrades you pay for.

I have argued this since returning in December and they will not budge on this and I have been cruising with HAL for 31 years.

Oh yes Concierge is just a fancy word for Front Office and includes 4 items. Making reservations for Dinner, Pinnacle, Shore Excursions and movies.

I can do all that on the phone so I didn't see the use of this service, it just was a middle man.

If you are in Neptune suite you have your own Concierge in the Neptune Lounge that I trust does much more.

Phil

I was one of the first to do this with HAL many years ago.

Contact Ship Services and tell them when you will be on board.

Buy yourself a ocean bio-gradable urn. Place the ashes in this urn. Include the stainless steel tag. You can carry the urn on board the airline BUT check with homeland security and the airline. I put the urn in my checked luggage and Homeland opened it and checked the ashes and failed to close the bag or container properly. With the change of the pressure in the cargo hold the ashes got spread throughout my suitcase. NOT happy, and that is why I recommend you take them on-board the plane.

HAL in the past has done the spreading of the ashes at Sunset off the stern in international waters.

The Captain gave us a certificate on Rice Paper with the name of my Dad, date and time and the latitude - longitude and signed by him.

HAL provided flowers free of charge for this and closed the deck to others while we did this.

Hope this helps.

Phil

Punta Arenas is a tender port and the tendering takes some time.

Our group organized on the ship and left on the same tender. Therefore, when we arrived in port, we were ready to go.

Our group was there, it was the two people that were added to our group while we were on the cruise that didn't show.

Yes it is for the time being a tender port but at the time we got off the ship we were doing open tendering.

I have just returned from South America cruise Dec 24th and used SouthExcursions for a tour in Punta Arenas.

My experience with them and Stephanie was less than stellar.

Booking the tour was not a problem. We received information that we out tour to Otaway Penguins was about 5 to 5.5 hours.

We had an email that said this name would be with their guide. The first indication should have been someones name not on the tour (who booked last minute and we had no idea was on the tour) was on the card. We spent time asking around in the port.

Once we had the right group it was down to a case of waiting for 2 people to show up. 15 minutes goes by then 30 minutes and still no show and our guide calls the office and Stephanie says we must wait for the people. 45 minutes now and many in the group are now not happy because this is cutting into our time when we return to visit the market.

Once again a call is made and one of the group gives Stephanie an ultimatum that if we don't leave now we will all cancel and expect a refund as this was not as described.

The tour itself wasn't bad but arriving back at the port area just over 3 hours had passed makes one wonder did I get what I paid for?

Phil

You seem to be portraying Carnival Cruise Lines & Carnival Corp. & PLC as equals.. Carnival Corp & PLC happens to own Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Seabourne, Princess Cruise lines, Windstar, P & O, Cunard, Costa & Aida as well as several tour operators & hotels.. (If I've left some company off please forgive me)

 

Carnival Corp & PLC does not post their Cruise Lines staff except their Board of Directors...

 

Carnival Cruise lines may post their staff, but Carnival Cruise Lines does not dictate policies for HAL.. Each cruise line decides it's own policies..

 

All of the Cruise lines under Carnival Corp. & PLC are autonomous & have CEO's or Presidents..HAL's CEO is Stein Kruse.. Each Cruise line, which comes under the Corporation, sets their own basic policy's regarding their Crew, Hotel Charges etc. while also enjoying the perks of the Corporation such as getting fuel at a better price & even an infusion of $$$ when necessary..

There are many that would disagree with you that each line decides it's own policy's. I am one of those.

Please tell me why then Carnival moved Vista Class ships that were scheduled to be built for HAL were transferred to other brands then if they are autonomous? That wasn't the doing of HAL but was done by the parent company Carnival.

Have you noticed the increased use of Half Moon Cay by Carnival?

Ask yourself why only 1 new ship is currently being built and there is no option that I have seen for a second? Yet other brands have been getting new ships.

There has also been a shift too in Management with Stein Kruse taking over a new Holland America Group consisting of 41 ships from Holland America, Princess, Cunard, Seabourn and Carnival Australia.

The new President of HAL will be Orlando Ashford on December 1.

Oh yes HAL sold Windstar in March 2007.

Soon there will be the loss of two Statendam class ships and many are sure it will not be long before the other others follow. It is well known that as early as 6 months ago HAL had 3 of this class of ship for sale and two of them will be transferred so what will come of the third or the others.

Phil

Okay I have read this and wonder about it it because it is dated March 2008. I know from these very boards I read who my Captain and fellow Officers etc. were for my Med cruise in 2009.

It could not have been very well enforced maybe till recently.

It is interesting that the Parent Corporation Carnival posts all this information for many of its staff.

Thanks

Phil

That is still my understanding that they don't want lists published but could you post a link to the thread you reference?

 

Who is "they"?

This is still being done on many of the other cruise line forums so what makes HAL different?

I just used choice air two weeks back booking the Century to Sydney. No problem what so ever. I then went on the airline site and upgraded my seat.

Phil

As a ship the size of Oasis has never made a TA before, nobody will be able to answer your question.;)

So how did it get from the shipyard to Florida? :rolleyes: