Stuart Suss

I have read conflicting answers to this question. I book a voyage with a nonrefundable deposit. The price of the voyage for an identical class of stateroom drops prior to the final payment. I wish to reprice the voyage. Is this a cancellation and rebooking for which I forfeit my nonrefundable deposit, or is a repricing permitted without forfeiture of the deposit? Thank you.

I found a voyage for which double occupancy bookings offered a choice of staterooms: Inside guarantee, [Standard] Inside (select your own stateroom, lower decks) or Prime Inside (select your own stateroom, upper decks). On the other hand, a single occupancy booking did not offer an Inside guarantee, only offering the two options to select your own stateroom. Is that a mistake which can be corrected? If I booked by phone, directly with Celebrity or if I booked through a travel agent, would I be able to receive a single occupancy price quote for an Inside guarantee stateroom?

I am in the 4th day of the June 14th Island Princess voyage. Food is average. Entertainment is average. Customer service is inconsistent. However, there have been no broken pipes or flooding or water shutoff or any similar issues. I am disappointed. I was looking forward to kayak service between the staterooms and the dining rooms based upon the posts in this thread.

I have had several positive experiences with SAS (rideSAS.com).

Yes, the Coral Way Trolley provides free transportation to and from Dodge Island and your cruise ship. Please be aware of the following which is based upon my actual usage in December of 2021. Study the location of trolleys on this map. The arrival time for your trolley may vary between 15 and 45 minutes. https://publictransportation.tsomobile.com/webtracker/webtracker.htm?labels=false&tkn=81E39EC9-D773-447E-BE29-D7F30AB177BC&lan=en The best disembarkation point on Dodge Island is Stop #45 at Atlantic Way and North Cruise Boulevard. From there it could be as much as a 20 minute walk (NCL) or a 30 minute walk (Royal Caribbean) to your cruise terminal, assuming you are transporting (rolling behind you) only one suitcase. For the journey into Miami, the best embarkation point on Dodge Island is Stop #47 on North America Way. You are shaded from direct sunlight and the trolleys pause there for several minutes before starting the return journey to Coral Gables. You can meet the Coral Way trolley at either the Vizcaya or Brickell Metrorail stations and at any other stop along the way. Allow for 1 hour and 15 minutes travel time if you board at Stop #1, Giralda Avenue. There are hotels in Coral Gables which are easily accessible from Miami Airport by either the #37 or #42 southbound bus from the airport bus terminal. These hotels are near the Publix Market on Douglas Road. It is an easy walk from these hotels to the Coral Way Trolley. Please be aware that this is the free Coral Way Trolley NOT the Coral Gables Trolley which is a different service.

In the past, I never paid attention to shore excursion booking or prices. I always booked shore excursions with private entrepreneurs at the destination. Now, with $50 shore excursion credits, the situation has changed. I am aware that the $50 shore excursion credit is a marketing ploy. It is similar to cruise lines which raise the cost of a beverage package from $150 to $200 one week, than offer it on "sale" the next week for 25% off of the new $200 price (which is also $150). I understand that the cruise line may increase the price of a shore excursion by $50, then offer me $50 off the higher price. The following questions arise from my recently completed New England/Canada cruise. 1. When booking shore excursions online, prior to departure, some stated prices did not show the $50 discount until you had almost completed the booking process. For other excursions, the stated, online price already reflected a $50 discount. Why the difference? Was this merely a poorly coded web page? 2. Very few shore excursions were available for booking online, prior to departure. My booking was at the last minute, so I assumed that the other excursions had already sold out. Yet, after boarding, the shore excursion desk booking form offered many more options than those offered online. Does NCL hold back shore excursion space for those who book after boarding the ship? When should a passenger book a shore excursion in advance of departure and when should a passenger wait until boarding the ship, when all of the options are known? 3. I noticed that some excursions were priced at less than $50. With the $50 credit, those excursions were free. Does NCL assume that there are two persons in every stateroom? Therefore, with the $50 credit limited to one passenger per stateroom, this becomes, for a couple, a buy one shore excursion at full price and receive the second excursion free. As a solo passenger, did I stumble into a windfall benefit? 4. Boston offers a "Duck Tour" which enables you to travel one time around Boston in an amphibious vehicle. If I booked the tour directly with the tour company, online, the senior citizen price would be $40 plus another $4 in taxes and fees. If you were not a senior citizen, the price would be approximately $10 higher. NCL offered the tour for the list price of $89!! After applying the $50 credit the price was reduced to $39. For those at a certain level of Latitude points, there was another 10% credit for a total cost of $35.10. So there was either a $9 or $19 savings for booking the Duck Tour through NCL. However, NCL's offer was limited to one, morning departure time, even though the Duck Tour departs on several occasions each day. Who was actually offering the discount, the Duck Tour company or NCL? Why was it limited to one specific departure time? 5. Similar questions for the Hop On Hop Off Trolley tour. If booked directly with the company, the price was $60 with a 10% discount for booking online, in advance. NCL offered the Trolley for the list price of $55. After applying the $50 credit the price was reduced to $5. The $5 price was only available for the 9:30 am departure time which was sold out despite three trolleys being at the port, ready for passengers. On the date of our visit to Boston, it was pouring rain at 9:30 am. The trolleys run all day. I wanted to take the trolley tour later in the day when the weather forecast predicted dry weather. NCL refused to sell me a departure at any other time than 9:30 am. The trolley company was happy to sell me a different departure time, but I would have to book directly with them and forfeit any $50 shore excursion credit. Who was actually offering the discount, the trolley company or NCL? Why was it limited to one specific departure time? Thank you for your advice and assistance as I look forward to planning future cruises.

Was the showing of the World Series on the Prima a unique arrangement made for a ship departing from Galveston and likely to contain a high percentage of Astros fans, or is the World Series available throughout the NCL fleet?

Replying generally, and specifically to posts #19 and #28. I just completed an NCL Canadian Maritime cruise. NFL Football, yes. No baseball. Even when 8 teams remained in the playoffs, there was insufficient passenger interest to make any requests to show baseball. However, my AM radio was able to pick up WFAN throughout the North Atlantic and either ESPN 1000 from Chicago or ESPN 1050 from New York for most of the journey. I had to be willing to sit outdoors, in the cold, in a quiet area of the ship, in order to listen to the games. My AM radio was able to receive signals from several 50,000 watt AM stations from around the U.S. Unfortunately, many were not broadcasting post-season baseball. I am aware of a passenger mutiny similar to that described in post #19. In 2017 NCL was not carrying the Astros-Dodgers World Series. In Aruba we met a Carnival ship which had departed from Galveston. The Astros fans were sufficiently indignant about the absence of World Series coverage that Carnival made a last minute decision to purchase rights to the games.

I visited Ephesus on a cruise ship excursion offered by a private company, Ephesus Shuttle. The service was high quality. The tour guide was excellent. There was no pressure to visit a carpet store or any other store or restaurants. Options for those who wished to shop or eat were presented politely. https://www.ephesusshuttle.com/tours/mini-group-tour-1-option-with-terrace-houses?tur_id=22 I wholeheartedly agree with the others. Pay the surcharge ($10 from this company) to include a visit to the Terrace Houses.