fragilek

Though selecting a specific cabin can be more costly for someone requiring an accessible cabin such as my self, booking a guaranteed rate in anticipation of being assigned and or switching to an accessible cabin is always a big risk. It generally doesn't work out.

I didn't plan it that way when we booked there were no disabled cabins left I even phoned to check in case they just weren't on line. So as there were none I took any (gty). I now wish I hadn't and had booked an actual cabin as I would now have been allowed to switch - lesson learned . Annoying thing is I had a disabled cabin on a sailing later in the summer (booked as soon as they came out) but due to a change in uni start dated for my youngest we had to cancel that one thus had to book the new earlier cruise late ie the gty one).

Are you from the US or Canada? The ability to change cabins within the same category without incurring an additional charge unfortunately applies only to bookings made in North America.

The cabin I want has been release as I can book it through expedia, but I am booked in the UK so that is probably why I can't do this.

Seems absurd as now anyone non disabled can now book this cabin and I would have reserved it if it had been free when I booked - at that point it was only a few hundred dollars more to choose a cabin v the gyt one now it's a mega difference (this was my first RCI booking and only my 3rd ever cruise so I never really understood that the price would change so much or that more cabins could come back up for sail). I have even tried contacting the special needs team as I have had to request shower seat and they confirmed to change in the same cat would cost me $1600 after a few emails this was their final suggestion email back from them

"Many thanks for your reply.

I do apologise about the inconvenience regarding the cabin change.

We will be happy to request a shower stool and mini refrigerator to be

available in your stateroom for the duration of the sailing. Regarding the

scooter, a couple of weeks before the sailing I will contact the ship to

check if they are able to store this somewhere for you and bring it to your

stateroom when needed since you will also have a wheelchair with you, I do

not think there will be a problem, however I will send you and email if and

when I get confirmation.

You will be able to change cabin up until 7 days before the sailing,

if the price is lowered you can contact us to process the change.

Please note that the cabin doors on standard staterooms onboard the

Rhapsody of the Seas are 28" wide.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us."

I wish there was a package for so many drinks in the day - that allowed sharing - say pack for 10 per cabin or per party per day- that would really work for us ;)

I agree too, I booked a cruise from San Juan for August is was more expensive with the half price second passenger thing than without the discount as the price of the first passenger had not been inflated.

 

Sick of the UK ripoff too, I just booked a cruise from venice for October, it was over £600 ($900) more on the uk website than the French one. It would not allow me to book using a uk credit card so I rang up, they tried to get me to ring the rip off UK centre instead. I said I wanted to pay in euros and they had to allow me to book using the french prices due to EU law. The thing is most UK guests wont realise their are different prices elsewhere. The USA website tends to be cheaper too and I have paid in dollars before because of this too.

I used the usa TA before but didn't know about the french site can you post a link thank you so I can check price against it

I'm curious about 1 thing - I will explain why below - how do you know the other guy wasn't also gay and actually spoke like that?- here is my reasoning

When I was 25 I had 2 girls aged 4 and 1 - in an emergency I also had to look after my friends 2 children aged 5 and 3 months - I had 4 kids in my car under 6 and I had no food nappies etc so had to go to the supermarket - that sets the scene- I drive in very harassed to the shops and I am just about to pull into a parent and baby space when a beautiful very young model looking blond girl in a convertible car speeds into MY!! space ahead of me - NO KIDS!!

- It was a bad day (my friend had been taken it to hospital and was very ill) - I flip - storm out of my car and march over to her just as she takes of her shades off and opens the door- I am furious by this point and just when I let rip - She swings the door open and I realise she has NO legs! - she apologized for taking a baby space because there were no disabled ones left and offered to move her car - I declined her offer and shrinked away - I wished the ground could have opened up and swallowed me - lesson - NEVER JUDGE unless you are there and have ALL the facts.

Check it every day. After you've been assigned a stateroom you can call and have it changed to any stateroom still available in that same category.

 

We upgraded to a Guarantee Neighborhood Balcony on our upcoming Oasis cruise. We changed to the guarantee on January 12 and it was assigned January 23. We were assigned a C1 Central Park balcony. I called and was able to get it changed to our prefered deck and our prefered bed placement. We like the bed by the closet.

 

Good luck,

 

James

I have been assigned by cabin a few weeks back (1 week after booking and 4 months ahead of sailing)- I phoned to change to a diff cabin in the same cat as I have ms and it is playing up so I wanted to change to a disabled cabin that had just become free ( I am in a wheelchair)- but I have been told it will be an additional $1600 to change to the same cat room.

I am booked on the 7 night rhapsody med cruise in July. Where can I find info about which days are formal and info re white or black dress code - I am new to RCI and do not know anything re these dress code other than seen on here.

If I pre order 4 bottles of wine from the gifts on rci web and select to the dining room are they all given to you on the first visit or do you get list of what you ordered and then choose. Do we still have to pay any sort of tip over and above the charge at the time of buying.

I am still messing about with the idea of doing this and just paying for a couple of cocktails on top v's going for the beverage packages .

calculations so far

Beverage pack premium for me (cocktails!) and select for DH = £450 then the soda for girls= £72 total £522 - $767

4 wines (+2 carry on) =£90.40 ($132)

then-

embark day and 4 port days- 2 cocktails +2 beers = 4x$40 =$160

2 sea days 2 x 4 cocktails+4 beers = 2x$80 =$160

total $452 plus 2 x soda pack =$105 thus $505

Not sure I would manage any more than 2 cocktails on a port day and may not manage 4 on a sea day either - but I may try:;)

So looking at it on paper I should probably not bother with the package- if I have calculated things right.

With the new bar prices what range of cocktails can are still under the $12 cut off .

Also are there any decent wines still under that price (esp spanish reds and new zeland whites any brut sparkling wines (cava) .

My DH make buy the cheaper wine and beer package - are there any drinkable wines under the $8 esp reds

You will be breaking multiple rules:

 

Drinks from the drink package cannot be shared.

 

You are not allowed to give alcohol to underage guests.

We are in Europe so not underage- I would never break that rule - here or abroad - even when my dd was 20 and we went to the US she did not try/taste anything. And my youngest will get her first drink from us on her 18th in line with the law.

If they are not allowed a sip of mine that is fine - I just want to know I don't break the rules- It's a bit of a shame as my 22yr like to at least get the opportunity to taste the odd one even although she can't get one

I am thinking of getting the drinks package for myself and my husband (he may just get the beer/wine one). I was also planing the soft drinks ones with cocktails and juice for my my 2 girls 22 and 18. We are all in one cabin.

My question is - when I but a cocktail I usually allow my eldest (or previous us holidays and probably would allow both to have the odd sip/ taste of these.- Now I mean sip as my eldest has medical issues which strictly limits how much she could have. An as my youngest will only be 18yr then I would only let her have a taste.

Can I still do this if I have the drinks package or will I be breaking rules.

If that is true I wonder if they were already aware that this would be the case. I would be surprised if the sailed there without discussions with the Mexican port authority first. If so I would not be surprised if it in fact picked up some CDC experts/ carnival bosses to aid with what must be growing concern among the other passengers and to assist with docking procedures when it gets back.

Everyone was allowed off the ship in Belize except for 2 people... the lab supervisor and her travel companion. Let's work to not spread false rumors... the lab supervisor is board 1 days out from POSSIBLE contact with specimens.

has anyone been able to confirm this. Belize (you can find this google Belize channel 5 news) claim that they did not let anyone off the ship. Carnival claim they did. UK sky news news also describes that ship was stranded off belize but gives no further details. Someone is not correct. I have tried to find the ship on the coz webcams but can't it also ships own cams are not working (at least not for me). Has anyone got any other info about where it is now. or any links to working cam in coz or on the ship.

What baffles me is that the CDC think someone handling a lab sample is at risk- (unless an accident happens with a sample). I was a lab worker - and know this should not be the case- Labs handle potentially dangerous material all the time (HIV, HEP,Meningococcal , TB, ANTHRAX, and even Ebloa - that's how vaccines are made). No travel bans have ever been placed on Lab workers in the past.

I can only guess that either there is a mistake about what this person does - may be they take the bloods for testing- or there was an issue at the test site that has now come to light.

Right.

 

Of course those 4000 pax and crew on the dream can't wait to see what will happen to them when they reach port

 

Will they be let off?

 

I am hoping that somehow her blood sample is currently being tested so they know the answer by debark

 

Omg the first noro cruise will be a delight!!

 

Seriously thinking if canceling for January.

 

Of course I will always be able to rebook at rock bottom prices in late December but if they are rock bottom by then that means we have wised up to this problem and are staying home.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Unfortunately even if a sample has been sent and comes back negative the protocol for clearance is 2 negative samples 72hrs apart

there is so much misinformation and evidence of people testing positive after exposure, albeit so far health care workers.

differing info about incubation periods and suggestion that there are more than 1 strain of ebola.

facts will help. facts and no attempts to minimise the potential of further infection. vomiting on planes/ships is not uncommon. we all need to be cautious.

different incubation periods for any virus (same strain) is not uncommon - this is due to differing immunities of patients and of how each persons body responds to attack - nothing to do with the actual virus

There are several main strains of Ebola (active in the last 25 years) however, this one is so far only found to have been caused by one strain. On saying that the further away from source it travels then the more likely it will be to mutate (but this is a single strand RNA so should not become airborne)

According to all reports, the person is not showing any symptoms, so is not contagious. So, no, you can't be a carrier without contracting the virus.

Just to get the science correct-

This has nothing to do with ebola on this ship but researches are working to clarify if you can have the virus and be non symptomatic- at the moment the majority of evidence points towards this not being the case but in July a few studies did suggest this to be possible (some antibodies have been discovered in the blood of people who have never shown signs of having had the virus)- further work is being carried out in this area at the moment - More info should be available by January which will clarify this. However, the current thinking is that these people were exposed to very low levels of the virus , and probably from a previous outbreak. Scientist are actually looking at this as a positive and are investigating the immunity of these pre exposed people as a way forward in combating ebola. The thinking is that this cannont happen in non exposed regions

From John Heald

 

John Heald Good morning. ......We are in close contact with the CDC and at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board.

3 mins · Like

Yip after they tried to get them off and failed....As the last part only gives half the true picture it leads people to question the rest of the statement.

I wish organisations would be more transparent - I think we could have more faith in them then.

However, if this person is an lab worker the risk should be minimum as they will be completely trained in biohazards (I am a former lab scientist).

I wake up and read that this and I am PO'ed. This is the type of hysteria we should expect. I read the "news" report and questioned the level of threat, but who knows until there are details. The first ship with Noro will be fun!

As I said before - My info came direct from Belize - from an interview shown on TV with a rep of the MOH (put out later than the original gov one, to justify why Belize will not aid the US) - SO not hysteria- I also said that as there are 2 diff versions - the US and the Belize one we would have to wait until the ship docked to find out the correct one. I object to being accused of hysteria when I am only reporting facts that others seeing only the US news reports may not have access to. I think you will even see in the other thread that I stated depending on her job she may work with these sort of biohazards every day so ebola may have not been an issue to this person.- we have to wait and see

I think this may depend on what her job was . If a nurse/ doctor or care assistant who does not routinely work in this sort of environment then it should have been a given not to travel both by the cdc and also through their own common sense.

However, if she is in fact a lab worker she may routinely work with bio hazard materials. Some researchers work in that environment every day (with stuff far worse than ebola, and there are no rules about what they do out of work unless they have had an exposure .

So we may need to wait to find out which this person was. Although I would still argue that the CDC has failed in this current out break wrt the nurses/ contacts of the ebola patient.

Belize stated in their government press release that she was NOT displaying symptoms - https://www.facebook.com/GOBPressOffice Have you even read it or are you just regurgitating alarmist misinformation without checking your sources?

Channel 5 Belize reported that it has:

“Confirmed with representatives of the Ministry of Health that they have indeed received a report that there is at least one passenger on board the cruise ship, Carnival Magic, showing symptoms similar to that of the Ebola virus. According to the report made to MOH, the person exhibiting the symptoms did not come ashore today. The ship is reportedly carrying 3652 passengers and a total population of 4633 persons.

Further quotes from Channel 5 NEWS are

“The ship was scheduled to leave Belize en route to Cozumel this evening at 5pm. However, it is still anchored in Belizean waters near State Bank Caye.”

“We have also have confirmed that the Belize Coast Guard has been deployed to prevent anyone from leaving the ship; including the Belizean pilot on board.”

There were other live streams of this interview with the MOH rep was shown, I have family who watched it!!! - so perhaps you should delve a bit further before you accuse people of making stuff up!!

And for an all round take on what is happening I would recommend that you source info further afield that what your US government and news streams are feeding you.

As I said at the moment there is conflicting info and that the only way we will know for sure is when the ship docks.

I fear that this person must have some sort of symptoms as if not I believe that she would have been just left in cabin quarantine on the ship. I do not think that the government would risk the mass hysteria this will cause to get her and her partner off the ship and then to return as fast as possible when Belize refused - Belize sated in their government release that she was displaying symptoms, they have also apparently refused to allow their own pilot back off the ship into Belize (I would say that if true that speaks volumes to what Belize knows to be going on). I think more will be relieved when the ship returns. We will see them walk off - no suits, no fuss/ info for the other passenger = all ok or either the suits on or blocked of views, other passengers given info out = They think there is a real risk.

I do not have another cruise booked until next summer - but I must admit this situation does rattle me.

Thanks everyone-

We have taken on board what has been said - so now

We will probably still go to st paul de vence for the girls to have a quick look, I will just find a cafe near the car to sit in while the others explore more (or if none just chill in the car reading for 1hr. But most of our day will now be in Antibes.

I have found a company that will hire us a car for a full day a Livorno delivered to the pier - so now investigating if we will try and drive to Florence or instead to Pisa and then Lucca or the Pisa and the beach - but best thing is I will be able to decide on the day depending on how I am feeling (driving in Italy is not an issue for my dh - we have family there and driven in it many times- although having been there we would not drive in the center of Rome!!).

I need to investigate parking in Florence/ Pisa/ Lucca.- I have a blue badge so that may help park closer to things.

Rome - given the advise here we will probably bite the bullet and just pay for a private tour (especially as we will have saved money in Cannes and Livorno by hiring a car.)

Athens - seems like I can wait until we get there and see how I feel. goo know about the lift at the Parthenon - thanks

Ephesus - I will not go as advised - rest day for me (I will probably be quite happy to chill- Are there any beaches to go too near by).

Salerno- I know as suggested I should give Pompeii a miss- but I can't its on my bucket list and the reason we choose this itinery-and its probably now or never for me - But I may look at doing the other site Herculaneum if its flatter- But I will do one of them!! - Its the last day of site seeing so if I need to I can spend the next see day in bed- But I am going even if I need to crawl lol

Hi - I have to decided which of the amazing places on our cruise not to do

Back ground - family trip me dh and 2 dds 22yrs (cruise is graduation gift) and 18yrs (cruise is her 18th birthday gift)- I have MS so due the heat(summer cruise) and my mobility issues I will have to limit the amount of sightseeing we can do (although I will use my chair/scooter where I can and sticks when I need to). That's where the problem lies our cruise is Barcelona,Cannes, Livorno for Florence, Civitavecchia (Rome), Athens, Kusadasi, (for Ephesus) Santorini Salerno (for Pompeii).

My DH and I have been to Barcelona, Rome and Ephesus in the past (before MS) but the girls have not but we have no problem redoing them with the girls.

Now I will not manage the pace of doing all these places full on so will need to miss a few of the main sites out and do more relaxing things instead. We have discussed the possibility of the girls doing tours of Rome, Ephesus and Barcelona without us - but we have decided we would rather stick together as we live in the UK they will have chances in the future to revisit anything they miss.

Now the big question what should we do and what should we miss- Also what else can we do near by that is more relaxing if we miss a main site out.

So far we will probably hire a car in Cannes and drive to a few small towns- st Paul de vence and Antites.

Would like to do either Florence or Rome (Rome may be favorite with the girls)- What else can we do near Livorno- can't hire a car for full day at either as its sat car 9-2pm) (Livorno) and sun for Civitavecchia.

We like the look of Cinque terre but not sure if this is easy to get to from that port.- If not easy what else would people recommend for either Livorno or Civitavecchia

Need to choose to relax in either Athens or Kusadasi -which should we miss the main sites at - what else to do at each

How easy is getting about Athens in a wheelchair- What about Ephesus - are there paths now - I went in 1989 so has probably changed a lot.

We plan to do Pompeii - may hire a car for a morning (sat so only open unit 2pm) to make getting there as easy a possible for me so that I can struggle around the site at my own pace/ sit out instead of trying to keep up with a tour- and then fall into the car for the return - does any know if there is any parking

Thanks for any help

Ok I hadn't thought of this - this may be a problem for us - we planned to purchase 4 bev packages for our cabin-

me - the basic alcohol one

DH - the beer and wine one

both DD's the replenish one

Problem 1

Now I have MS so my husband would go to the bar for me and usually our dd's (although they can go with him if needed). but me walking and carrying a drink about :eek:

Problem 2

One DD is diabetic and if she go lowish my DH or other DD would run and get a

non diet drink for her - if just at the start of a low this drink can be a treat smoothie or frozen drink (she can only have them if she is low) - but she would not go and get it as she would be seated with me to wait in case her bloods go any lower. Will my DH not be able to do this (my other DD is not always about all the time for her to run with her card)

Now not sure the drinks packages will work for us :confused: