lori A.

We were on a cruise a couple of years ago when embarkation day was Easter Sunday.  We did attend Easter mass on the ship.  If memory serves me correctly, it was held around 4:00 or 5:00 and we missed sail away that day, but could hear the thrusters moving the ship.  The priest had to pause a time or two during his service because of the noise level.

This overcharging happens to us frequently.  We ask for our final bill the morning of disembarkation, and sure enough when our credit card statement comes, there is a charge from HAL.  We then contact them to find out what the charge is for.  They almost always say it is a mini bar charge.  Well, we ALWAYS have the room steward clean out the mini bar, but they continue to try and charge us for items we don't use.  This happened on our Feb/Mar cruise, and although HAL has given us written confirmation that we indeed should not have been charged, they also stated it would be a minimum of 8 weeks before the credit would appear on our statement.  To date, no credit has appeared.

I have brought mine onboard every time we sail and have never had a problem.  It will plug in around the desk just fine.

We are doing at transatlantic in a couple of weeks which starts in FLL and ends in Civitavecchia.  It has several port stops in Spain.  Do we need to fill out the SPH entry form?  All of the above questions seem to relate to either beginning or ending a cruise in Spain, and we just have four port calls.

Thank you for your input. It is an UNESCO sight, so probably quite interesting, but still trying to decide if we want to be on a bus for 4-5 hours.

We will be stopping at Montevideo in December and are looking at several options. For those of you that have been there, what are your pros and cons of the following excursions: 1) Colonia de Sacramento, 2) Punta del Este, or 3) city highlights.

We are leaving in a couple of weeks for our first river cruise on the Danube with an extension to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We are sailing with Gate 1 on the Amadeus Royal. This will be our first experience with Gate 1, and so far, it has been smooth sailing. We actually received our documentation 7 weeks before sailing (which was a nice surprise as I was expecting 2-3 weeks before sailing), and we have seat assignments for all of our flights except for a short flight between Budapest and Frankfurt. We are using our TA that we always use, and maybe she has been the one to take care of all of this for us, but we have not run into any problems.

Thank you, Accent, for the quick reply. Glad to hear the wines served with dinner are palatable. Also nice to hear that the walking tours aren't too vigorous. We took my parents to Paris last year and they managed to walk around the city (a bit more slowly than they used to), but did fine. With regards to Nuremburg- walking down hill is a LOT easier than walking up hill. Getting excited with less than three months to go! Thanks again for answering my questions.

Marigold-

Actually we are doing the Danube cruise with Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. We tour for 9 or 10 days and then are on the river cruise from Nuremberg to Budapest. My parents are going to Prague for a couple of days and then will meet us in Nuremberg for the cruise. Since we normally ocean cruise, it will be nice to see some of the interior of Europe.

Accent,

Thank you for the positive review. We are doing their 17 day tour/river cruise this September on the Royal (and my parents are doing the Prague to Budapest cruise). We, like everyone else, were a bit nervous about the river cruise, but loved the itinerary with the 17 day trip. Since this will be our first river cruise, I have nothing to compare it to, so I am sure I will be impressed.

Can you tell me if Gate 1 offered tours for people that are physically fit and also tours for those that might need a bit more time to get around than others, or did everyone tour together in the mornings?

One more question: are you allowed to bring wine that you purchased during the day to the dining room at dinner? If so, do you know what they charge for a corking fee? (How are the complimentary wines that they serve with dinner)?