airbusdrvr

We are going on a 10-day Greek Isle cruise in October on Azamara. Are there any of the following ports that have not to be missed scuba diving?

Corfu, Argostoli, Monemvasia, Crete, Santorini, Rhodes, Ephesus and Mykonos.

I just saw this on a Celebrity Cruise group. I realize Havila ships address some of their concerns, but are we really unwelcome in some ports?

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/norway-anticruise-poster-campaign-b2125605.html

Thank you for the above information.

We are looking at the 12 day cruise on Havila next February. The only thing that is holding me back from booking is the issue with the still undelivered ships and the sudden 50+% drop in Havila’s stock price over the past few months. Some research indicates Havila may be in financial distress. If I do book, I will make sure my trip insurance covers financial default of the cruise line.

Just curious, why go and look for trouble while you’re on a cruise? There can’t be much legal monetary gain going to Haiti. Plus, you’re on your own with no backup resources, not smart.

I sent Sand Dollar an email and yes, they still do the Scuba excursions for RCCL. Sadly Dive with Martin has moved from the Cruise Pier.

Is Royal Caribbean still using Sand Dollar in Cozumel?

We are in the same situation, final payment is due August 30th for Harmony in December. Now I just found out 2 days ago everyone over 12 must be fully vaccinated and one person in my family can not get the vaccine due to a health condition. Our dilemma now is do we cancel or pay and hope the fully vaccinated rule changes after Nov. 1 which I do not think is likely. My understanding is we can do a lift and shift up 48 hours before the cruise but must sail between April22-October22.

1 hour ago, Empehi said:

There is more to the DL than drinks. What about the specialty coffee machine? How about the morning continental breakfast and the evening snacks? Come on three drinks .... a coffee or two at breakfast and then what do you have .... one drink ( and what if you want a soda after a day off the ship?) Then no drinks.

 

Doesn't seem like much for D and D+ loyalty.

 

Good point! We may have one adult beverage in the DL and many times dw drinks water and I will have a diet soda. To us the DL is more about socializing with fellow cruisers than getting a drink. We have met several friends that we keep in contact with after the cruise. To us the DL is the major perk, not the "free" drinks.

This could be a game changer along with the vaccine. A physician friend of mine said this was coming a couple of weeks ago, and now news outlets are reporting on it.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-oral-covid-treatment-yields-trial.html

https://www.foxnews.com/health/covid-19-pill-preliminary-testing-dr-marc-siegel

5 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Everything in this paragraph is pretty much false; whoever told it to you is reading off of some mis informed script or is just making it up as he goes along.

This was told to me by a 16 year full time travel agent that specializes in cruises whom I trust. Carnival publicly stated they were disposing of 18 ships last September and RCCL has publicly stated they would be disposing some smaller ships. So please inform me and the rest of us what is "pretty much false" in what I was told. 

I just re-booked Harmony for this December, and three items surprised me. I could not use my credits as a deposit, the deposit is non-refundable and I had $700 in credits($500 from my cancelled cruise and $200 from missed port on last cruise). I was told I can't combine both credits for one cruise, but the agent said he would try to get the $200 missed port credit added since it was't a cancelled cruise credit.

He said there is a huge pent-up demand for cruising and Carnival is disposing 24 ships and Royal is disposing 5 ship, so when cruising gets up and going full swing don't expect many cruise deals. It will be economics class 101, low supply and big demand equals high prices. He also said, yes new ships are coming but there will still be a sizable net lose of cabins to sell for at least the next 4-5 years. 

3 hours ago, BND said:

The addition of emerald is what made us have to wait one additional cruise to make D.  Timing is everything lol.

 

We have never worn any of our pins either.  In fact, I accidentally threw out our D pins on the cruise we received them on as they were in a stack of papers.  Our D+ pins are still attached to the cardboard they came on and are in a drawer somewhere.  

I met a P a couple of years ago in the CL and he was a rather interesting character. DW and I were doing a b2b and he was getting on the ship for 8 weeks. He mentioned that he was wearing his P name badge and some people would make fun of those wearing their P badge. He said his P name badge was the most expensive piece of jewelry he owned and he was going to wear it, for most P's I'm sure there is no truer statement. I'd probably wear my P badge too if I ever got to that level.....which is looking very unlikely at this point. 

18 hours ago, cruisegirl1 said:

 
 

You ask people about their specific accommodations? Why do you care. 
 

I guess if they offer the information to you, that’s another story. But I’ve never gone up to anyone and said  “hi my name is  Xxxx   I am a XX level member of the crown and anchor program and I am in XX type of cabin. 
 

M

To answer question #1 is No, and I don't care where they are. I chat with P's all the time in the CL and SL and I stand by my statement. To insinuate that I go up to fellow cruisers and say  “hi my name is  Xxxx   I am a XX level member of the crown and anchor program and I am in XX type of cabin" is insulting.

15 hours ago, Mapleleafforever said:

Ok, my apologies.  I just get sick and tired of people who only ever book inside cabins and don't spend an extra dime onboard who moan about their freebies not being enough. 

I would say 50%+ of the P's I've spoken with book an inside cabin, they rarely complain about not enough freebies though. Is it true that HA has a dollar based loyalty program instead of a point(day) based program?

Quote

 

1 hour ago, LXA350 said:

 

Again all of us can contribute to a safe cruise experience once it will commence again and it is so smple and shouldn't even be explained. Please wash your hands often and espcially before entering any food venue wash them very thoroughly and in addition disinfect them at a Purell dispencer!!!

I was on Allure back in January. What really irritates me is when people walk into the Windjammer and are told to please wash your hands or use hand sanitizer by the staff greeters and they do neither and walk right in. I think the new protocol will be wash your hands or you do not enter. 

As I can clearly see, this can be a murky legal scene when there is a personal injury from a fellow passenger. We know there is probably at least one or more accidents on a cruise each week were one passenger causes a serious injury to another passenger. My wife is a stenographer and hears personal injury depositions every week. Most of the depositions are legitimate lawsuits but some make you scratch your head that an attorney would even take the case. As I stated in my op the two scenarios I listed just got me thinking and sometimes I think too much😥  

Here is another scenario I witnessed. Day 2 a lady in a motorized scooter got on the elevator and ran over a woman's toe that was wearing flip-flops. The woman let out a big "Owww" and the woman on the scooter profusely apologized for running over her toe, the other woman luckily was fine and told the woman in the scooter no problem. But as you can see this could have went in a totally different direction. It's not the cruise lines fault that the woman on the scooter ran over the woman's toe. So what recourse would the woman have if her foot was severely injured from being run over by someone on a motorized scooter? We know this type of thing happens everyday on cruise ships where one guest accidentally or intentionally(fight) injures another guest. Land side in the US you would have lawyers lining up to take your lawsuit if you are injured by someone else's fault. 

On our cruise last week there was a man holding 5 seats on the 4th row in the theater and we were seated on row 6 behind him. About 5 minutes before showtime a man and his wife walked up and started to sit in 2 of the seats and the "seat hog" told the man these seats are reserved to which he replied that they(the cruiseline) specifically say you can not hold seats. The "seat hog" stood up to block him from entering the row and acted like he was going to punch the guy. The guy with his wife must have sensed this because he told the seat hog "you better enjoy it because it's going to cost the hell out of you". By now several people are watching and wondering if there is going to be a fight. Mr. Bully Seat Hog backs down and the man and his wife proceed to take a seat. About 10 minutes after the show started the seat hog got up and left because no one showed up for the seats he was holding.

My legal question is if the seat hog punched the man with his wife and he wanted to press charges what jurisdiction would the crime prosecuted under? What if the man with his wife wanted to sue the seat hog for personal injury? Would he have to sue him under Bahamian law since the ship had a Nassau registration? This just got me thinking when the man told him he better enjoy it.

Nassau is one place it's better to just book through the ship. The main reason as others have said is the long drive to and from Stuart Cove's. It's a 45 minuet drive on an average day and last September it took us almost an hour and a half to get back to the ship due to traffic. We got to the ship 25 minutes before the all aboard time and that would have been a nail biter if we weren't on the ship's excursion. 

A large part of the marine park in Cozumel is closed until January 2020 as marine biologist study the reef. It is due to coral bleaching or some other type of disease harming the coral. Some are blaming the hotel and cruise ship industry others say not. Do a search on marine park closure in Cozumel, lots of info.

Somehow missed the prior thread on this topic.....sorry.

On 1/15/2017 at 7:28 PM, Host Clarea said:

US Department of Public Health rule.

Once in international waters and RCCL ships are Nassau registered what jurisdiction does the US Dept. of Public Health have? Do they or don't they? I don't know.

But I do agree with keeping babies with swim diapers out of the pools..... and drunks too! Last cruise some drunk guy barfed in the pool and it was immediately closed for the remainder of the day. A ship's Officer told me the pool had to be drained and then cleaned and sanitized before it could re-open. 

I used insure my trip for years but now that we cruise 3-5 times a year and take a couple of other trips outside the US I started to use American Advantage Mastercard(several others have same benefits also) to book my trips and it covers trip cancellations for most reasons. I then purchased an annual Medjet Assist policy for the medical evacuation insurance. I ran the numbers and this was the cheapest way to go if you travel on a regular basis.  

We got off Navigator on Friday and we missed CoCo Cay due to hurricane Dorian. My biggest disappointment of the entire cruise was finding out the steam & sauna rooms have been removed. There are several nice additions and several not so nice changes to Navigator since coming out of refurbishment last April. The entire forward section on deck 11 where the fitness center was located is all staterooms now. The pools are packed like sardines due to more guest and no noticeable increase in pool size.

Hooks specialty seafood restaurant is incredible(best crab cakes anywhere) BUT at $49pp w/ gratuity its not worth it imho. The portions are way to large and we were both stuffed before the main entree arrived. I could barely eat half of my whole lobster when it arrived and dessert was out of the question. A couple sitting next to us agreed it was way to much food even for a hungry man. RCCL should really revamp the pricing structure at Hooks by charging less and serving smaller portions. Hooks would be real revenue generator if they offered oysters, crab cakes and chowders a la carte  at the bar in Hooks. 

All things considered I think we'll pass on Navigator for future sailings unless they offer an incredible deal.

Going on Solstice next week and need to know if you can bring liquor(Baileys) instead of wine when you embark?