milkman55

28 minutes ago, ev8876 said:

Milkman55 - Did you book your flights to Canada last minute and just not use your original flights?

I changed from AA to Air Canada after I read about all the positive tests on the cruise.  It’s just made sense to not take any chances on testing since I knew they had a 10 day quarantine (really 12 days as the test day is day 0 and you don’t get the pass to fly until day 11).   We stayed in Amsterdam for 5 nights after the cruise and I was following all the issues that were posted on FB and CC.  My AA flight was refundable.

14 minutes ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

Across the United States people can travel anywhere they want, stay in hotels, fly, drive, train, whatever.  No restrictions.  No testing.  No questions.

Exactly why this pre-flight testing is crap.  Millions more fly without testing all the time within the US, yet our current administration thinks we need to be tested if outside the “safe” confines of USA.  I hate to tell them but there are a lot of places safer than the US in more ways than one.

Cruising will not return to normal until this testing requirement is dropped.

3 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

A friend was on deck 6 on the TA 

I guess you were lucky and didn’t pick pick for Random Covid testing

our daughter and husband were both pick to get tested 

Random Covid test by who?  Canada or Celebrity?

When we went through Canadian customs, I didn’t see anyone picked for testing (pink sticker instead of green sticker).  Also, what I read was they would contact you within 3-4 days if positive.  We were in the US at the Buffalo airport in about 2 hrs after landing.

We were on the Apex April 30 TA and saw people dropping like flies with Covid.  I think they announced 61 at one time, but I am sure it was much higher.  Never saw anyone with a deck 6 room key so that was the “Covid” deck.

Celebrity had the Infinity anchored off of Ft Lauderdale and dropping off Covid crew on their way into port.  We heard they dropped off about 60 crew from the Apex heading into port before the April 30 TA.  It’s hilarious that Infinity shows as “Green” status on the CDC dashboard when it is the hospital ship and not in service.  ALL Celebrity and RCL ships are now Orange (3%+ Covid) on the CDC list.

We were not rolling the dice on a Covid test and had no symptoms, so we didn’t test at all, flew to Toronto on Air Canada, drove across the border at Buffalo and flew home.  Canada has no pre-flight testing if you are fully vaccinated, but interestingly they require a mask on all flights and in the airports.

The other benefit is the Air Canada flight was barely 1/2 full and $1,000 cheaper than our AA flight for the two of us.  We had nobody else in our aisle of the plane.

We will not be taking anymore overseas cruises until the US lifts the pre-flight testing for fully vaccinated.  The sooner we realize Covid is another viral illness like the flu and get on with life, we would all benefit.  The  Norovirus has worse systems than Covid if you are fully vaccinated (unless you are immune compromised).

This was our first cruise post pandemic and will be the last until things get better.  Too many places we can travel in the US in our RV to worry about others having control over your life like we have read in this thread.

I just booked one way flights into Sydney and return from Auckand for our Oct-Nov B2B.  as has been mentioned, I could not get seat upgrades to the extra leg room rows without paying for the tickets, even though I could have waited until June at final payment date.  Choice Air told me the airfare was still refundable except for $200 cancellation fee even though I paid for the tickets before it was necessary.  Two days later, the American system was updated showing the tickets paid and I selected the extra leg room seats.

Its a great deal if you are fine with whatever seats are assigned, but to get the seat of your choice, you have to pay for the ticket or at least that is how it works on AA.

Great tip to call in.  I usually lookup the flight I want to take and call them.  I got a nonstop from Austin to Heathrow that was not listed on their website.  Sometimes the website tends to feature flights that have too many connecting flights.

I have also found the best deals on one way flights when we have a TA or TP.  Got $187 from Madrid to Austin and $310 from Austin to Rome.

Always use ChoiceAir when cruising for many reasons.

Also when traveling to EU countries, be aware of the compensation for delayed flights.  I got my flight for free because it was late by 4 hrs and AA paid $1400 for the two of us for the delay under the EU rules.

We are on Reflection now and have been since Oct 12.  We dined at Murano twice and Tuscan and Qsine once.  I would only recommend Murano.  Qsine and LePetit Chef is definite a gimmick deal which I would skip.

We didn’t go to The Porch as we generally eat light at the lunch hour.  The Lawn Club looks good, but we are not much into steaks as we can get that anytime at home in Texas.

The MDR was fablulous and we enjoyed all our dinners and the great staff.  We are back on Reflection Feb 8 and only plan to go to the MDR.

We were on this Infinity Cruise this past January. The room is not that big of a deal as you will want to be up front with the Narrator who will point everything out as you go. Be prepared for some early mornings.

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If anyone has a company where many people need GE, with a minimum number you can get Customs to come to your offices and enroll everyone who applies in advance. We enrolled over 150 people over a two day period and they flew 3 agents out to conduct all the interviews. Of course this was back when the program was just getting started and very few had GE. Now it may be difficult to assemble a large group that has not already enrolled. We use our GE several times a year and saved us many times on tight connections.

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We just received our check for $1400. Only took a couple of weeks after we filed the claim. I am still in shock as I have never seen anything like this in 40 years of flying. If anything, I would say the EU compensation is a little too heavy handed. We got all but $200 of our RT airfare back for being delayed 4 hrs 45 min. I think I will keep the money anyway :)

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I have contacted AA with a complaint about our recent (May 27th) delay

 

Sorry to tag onto your post milkman55.

Your inbound flight to DUB was the plane we flew home on that was 4:45 late. I understand that the EU penalties apply to flights IN and OUT of the EU.

You send an email to American customer service at AACustomerRelations@aa.com.

I just received confirmation from AA they are sending payment (allow 45 days for receipt...haha). Anyway it’s a great outcome.

I am sure this has been posted at some point, but this was my first experience with a delayed flight from the EU. We were delayed 4 hrs 45 min from Dublin to Austin, TX which resulted in our spending the night in Philly.

I saw a small sign at the check in counter that mentioned the compensation, but no details. I Googled the topic and was amazed at the compensation offered for delays starting at 3 hrs.

End story is we received $1400 for the delay. Since we only paid $1600 for our RT Dublin tickets, our net cost was $200 and a less than comfortable night in Philly also paid for by the airline.

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We were on the Eclipse for both the Norway cruise and the Iceland cruise right before. We didn't encounter any illness during both cruises. Sorry to hear you had such a difficult time. Unfortunately, that is a high risk with cruises. Our friend who we cruise with a good deal, seem to always encounter some illness.

As others have said, we did pretty much the same cruise on Eclipse last August and highly recommend the itinery. I would also second the recommendation for SPB Tours for your shore excursions. They are fantastic and we used them in every port (discount for multiple bookings).

I also second the Norway add on if that is on the cards. We just returned from a B2B on Eclipse sailing to Iceland and then Norway. Norway was the best.

That is correct, very similar concepts. Basically food stations split between different courses and cooking styles.

Self serve except for carving stations.

We only eat there for breakfast and generally use the MDR (Main Dining Room) for lunch and dinner, but you could certainly eat in the Oceanview for all meals.

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Since Aug 2017 we have cruised 35 nights with RCL and 42 nights on Celebrity on 6 different ships of various classes.

Celebrity food service is much better in pretty much every respect except for the bread which has already been noted.

The MDR is a much higher consistent quality on the main course.

In my opinion, the Oceanview Cafe beats the Windjammer in every category (except RCL has bread pudding at every meal [emoji3]).

We are presently on Celebrity Eclipse since May 10th and I can say we have enjoyed every meal in the MDR.

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We have been on Eclipse since May 10 and were very disappointed to see the Corning professionals replaced with the pay to play venue. What we saw was about $150 for a 20 min session to make what amounted to a paper weight.

No comparison to the works of art created by the Corning staff.

We have been on all the Soltice ships with the glass show and it was always our favorite show. We didn’t spend more than 15 min checking out Hollywood Glass to see that it was nothing more than a money maker for Celebrity and nothing like the show we were accustomed to with Corning.

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Just to be clear, any liquor you buy on board is held until you disembark. Same for anything bought at any shore excursions. You can bring the two bottles of wine on board per cabin.

Just realize this is a vacation venue and rarely do you get a bargain on drinks or anything else for that matter.

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We always opt for self disembarking to avoid the crowds. Just have to get up early. We arrived last year in Barcelona on a transatlantic cruise and there was a mass of taxis waiting in an organized fashion right outside the cruise port building. Took 5 min, but this was at 7 am before the "organized" disembarking commenced.

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Our understanding is RCL has the dispensers and only provides tubes to Diamond or higher classes. We have requested tubes from the room steward on a few occasions and they were provided. The room steward told us about the Diamond and higher rule. We also sail Celebrity in addition to RCL and they always have tubes in the bathroom of shampoo, conditioner and lotion no matter what the class.

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We were just on the Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona TA on the Equinox. Great cruise.

We stayed 3 days in Barcelona and rented an 3 brm apartment on AirBnB for the four of us which worked out to about $75 per couple per night. There are lots of housing options in Barcelona. You can also use Trip Advisor to find accomodations in your price range.

You can take the train to the airport and save some money. The subway system connects with a separate train that goes to the airport. We took a cab from the port to our apartment and it was about $20 euro.

Don't know about the prohibition on extension cords because I have had the room attendant provide these for me in the past for my CPAP which is over by the bed where there are no plugs at all. I now carry my own 15 ft cord with me to plug in the CPAP.

Otherwise, plugs are very limited given how many tech devices we carry. I take a multi charger with my cruise pack that charges 5 phones/iPads/kindles and will plug into the euro outlet leaving the US plugs for other uses.

We did the self-disembarkation off Allure at FLL in January and were at the airport by 8:30 am for our 11:20 am flight. We always pack light and can handle our own bags.

Basically two choices, go early and handle your bags or take it easy with a mid-afternoon flight and use the baggage service RC offers and let them get your bags to the airport.

Also, we use a pre-booked shuttle which costs $10 and picks us up right in front of Customs.

We just did Bernard's tour #1 in mid-Jan off of Allure. Just OK, packed 11 people in a regular 12 passenger van. If you were in the back you had to basically crawl back there.

Not a lot of pretty scenery except on the French side along the coast. The shopping was pretty lame and so was watching the planes on an over crowded beach.

Some may like it, but we will pass in the future.

We just booked our first transatlantic cruise on the Equinox for April of next year headed to Barcelona. We will have six days at sea to explore all the suggestions. Retiring at the end of the year and we already have two cruises booked in the next eight months.

One of the shows we really enjoyed on the Soltice was the glass show, so glad to hear they have that on the Equinox as well.

We were in Barcelona for a day during a Med cruise a few year ago and really loved it, so going to spend a week there once we dock.