sanger727

But your opinion is based on a lot of assumptions, which are not necessarily true. Alot of the CD's job is behind the scenes.

Obviously. But Germany may have a similar law. My point wasn't the OP can't do what they want to do. I have no idea what the laws in Germany are. But the OP pointed to the example that you can miss the ship and catch back up. My point was just that that isn't always true, and if there is cabotage law being broken, it may come with a heavy fine.

No, on big cruise ships a CD is needed to manage the entertainment staff and a lot of guest facing activities. They are part of management, the show-y part that people see is just one aspect of their job. On very small cruises - like river cruises, they are still needed. They just become the main guest facing person. On very small cruises, there is one shore excursion offered at a time that you can either take or not take. And there is one option offered for meals that you can take or not take. So the CD is the person who advises guests on what their agenda is for the day, what time meals are, what time excursion are, etc.

There is no reason someone would need to be a licensed driver for this. almost certainly they mean photo ID. I've been to all of the locations listed in the description and nothing was needed aside from a passport.

Well, yes, obviously missing the ship to spend more time in port would not be covered by trip insurance or taken to kindly by NCL. But, there have certainly been instances where someone legitimately missed the ship due to unforseen circumstances and were either charged the PVSA fine or advised they could not catch up to the ship if it would violate the PVSA.

Like what time dinner is or what time to be ready for the shore excursion tomorrow? This specifically is on a very small cruise ship where there are no dailies; just a daily briefing from the cruise director.

I am not going to try and pretend that I know German immigration/cabotage laws. But the assumption that if you missed the ship in port and would simply re-connect in the next port is an incorrect assumption. In the US, for example, if you missing the ship and/or reboarding violates the PVSA; you will first be charged $700 for the fine. And there is an excellent chance that they will not let you re-board. Cruise ships are allowed to be funny with letting people change the itinerary, even if it's as simple extra immigration paperwork. I would think that you would have considered this before you booked the cruise and if you wanted an extended vacation in Germany, you would just take a land trip to Germany.

That has not been my experience. My experience is that when the port time ends at 5, all aboard is at 4:30. OP, it really depends on how long you want to get ready for dinner. If port time ends at 6, you all aboard will usually be 5:30 if its not a tender port. I try to get back an hour before all aboard, so would plan on being back by 4:30. If you just want to shower and change, a 6pm dinner time would be fine.

Should the sale be phrased as - "Cruise prices were better a month ago, but you can't get that price anymore, so you already lost out on the best prices of the year."? That may be more honest, but doubt it would sell any cruises.

Yes, the cruise director position is necessary. I've been on tiny ships (10-40 cabins) - and even they have a person designated as the cruise director. The Captain is in charge of the ship. The Cruise Director is in charge of the passengers. Our CD's made sure everyone had the proper documentation for the cruise, knew what time activities and meals were, and were in general, the main contact point for passengers on the ship. On larger cruise ships, obviously the CD has a much larger area of responsibility so has staff and customer service as the go between. But whether or not you have someone MC'ing shows and making announcements, you have a cruise director.

Only the most inexperienced traveler could be naive enough to not realize that canceling a trip would forfeit a portion to all of monies paid. The OP could have been booked on a land trip with non-refundable air and hotel and get nothing back. The grand scheme of travel, 50% back isn’t that bad. It’s hard to sympathize with someone who doesn’t take personal responsibility to know what they are buying and instead just blames the company for selling it to them.

What port was that in? A US citizen does not need a passport to travel to Hawaii, I don't see how they could possibly stop someone without a passport from entering a port area.

The issue is that cruise line's don't usually define a suite the same way as a hotel. Most of your lower level suites will just be a bigger room; not have a defined separate sleeping space. To get into a 2 bedroom cabin will cost significantly more than two rooms.

Guarantees are sold to fill out any sailings with rooms that were not chosen by the cruiser. So likely, they found that the verandah cabins were selling better than Concierge, so they upgraded you so they could put another verandah cabin on the market.

NCL has allowed this for a long time. I didn't actually realize that Celebrity didn't. It is much more convenient to make reservations ahead. On NCL you can make a reservation for as many people as you want pre-cruise without paying as long as you have a specialty dining credit available.

It's curious that someone who has been on cruise critic for over 15 years is unaware of standard cancellation policies that every cruise line has.

Are you a US citizen? The only thing a US citizen needs to take that cruise is a birth certificate and a valid photo ID. Rushing your passport off and hoping it gets expedited in time is an unnecessary risk. You don't need a passport at all to board. You just need your passport to fly back home if something happens.

Think of the price of a cruise as a package. You are paying $X to get FAS and $400 OBC. Next month the cruise may be 400 lower but not include the OBC. So yes, if you want to re-price to the new lower price, you also get the new lower promotions.

Not at this point. This issue has well evolved from the fact that Oceania had a cruise to a country that is now in a war and choosing how to most fairly re-route/compensate the passengers. Agreed, that is a very hard decision and a shared issue with no real "fair" outcome. The problem is that they created a whole new issue by offering a solution (FCC) to many passengers, and then refused to honor that offer. That is a bad faith business practice and has nothing really to do with the current conflict. It has everything to do with the trustworthiness and integrity of the business.

There has always been a general rule that you can't take food to go from any of the dining rooms. The reason being food safety and a concern that you would let something sit out too long and then eat it and get sick. I understand that this is nonsense in the light that you can take food from the buffet or get room service delivered. But we've tried to take food to go and been told that. So, I suspect this rule also applies to dessert in a specialty restaurant. Maybe they have been cracking down on it lately so fewer servers are willing to circumvent it?

That's not always true. NCL does truly offer 3rd and 4th guest free sometimes. So the price for 2 is the same as the price for 4, plus port fees and taxes obviously.

This. They have amble proof that the suspects stole the artwork. But with it being on a cruise ship they have to work out state vs federal prosecution. Also, they need a representative from the Art Gallery to be willing to go to court to prosecute. If the art gallery recovered their items, they may not be willing to send someone to Baltimore for the trial.

You can also arrange a Oia tour on your own. There are many tour companies right off the dock in Santorini that will take you by boat to Anthinios, bus then you to Oia. And then they have buses leaving at regular intervals to return to Fira.

This is a complete guess, as is any other suggestion. I would expect them to cut the tour short as opposed to start it earlier. They have pre-booked the tour vendor's times and arranged for transportation already. Keeping it as close to the original times would be the most convenient.

we planned a last minute outing on a cruise once. We had plans to tour independently and then the rest of my group opted to stay on the ship for the day. My DH and I checked out the excursions available and whale watching was the only thing that interested us, but it was sold out. They put us on the waiting list and the evening before we were informed that we could go on the excursion. So yes, I don't know if they do a waiting list ahead of the cruise, but they should do one on the ship.