mapgirl34

Thanks so much. That helps a lot!

'la ora na everyone, We are getting ready to set sail on Star Breeze through Tahiti/Tuamotu. I may be completely misguided in assuming I can spend many of my days using the ship's watersports platform. Can anyone shed some light on this? From my short time reviewing the forums here, it seems like you have to book snorkel tours to get the best snorkeling. Does that mean where the ships anchor is no good? Common sense tells me the water must be deeper and thus not as clear where the boat is, so I should expect to do more paddleboarding and above water sports than snorkeling, but it would be lovely to hear from some of the regulars here. Thanks!

Thanks for this post. For those of you who've completed your trips, how did it turn out? I'm going Feb 4 (2024) on Star Breeze and I'm really considering using the watersports platform for most of the days it's available. Since we go to quite a few atolls, obviously I'll get off and stretch my legs on the islands. But I'm curious for those who've already completed your trips, what did you love about any specific tour? Can you help explain to me why I should book a snorkeling tour vs jumping right off the Star Breeze and enjoying the day where we're anchored? Thanks again!

I'm late to the party, but I just used a $500 gift card on my upcoming Celebrity cruise. The agent at Celebrity told me that there used to be a limit on gift cards but there isn't one anymore. It is convoluted in that 80% gets applied as gift card and 10% gets applied as a discount on the cruise. For anyone interested, I buy my gift cards on Raise and there's a promo code: TRIP right now for 3% off travel cards. It was $436.50 for a $500 gift card. Here's my referral link to save a little more: https://geta.raise.com/CJACOBS9280

For those who have cruised Norway or those planning Norway, I can't get over the cancellation policies for private on-shore tours. I've read a few reports of folks who didn't get their money back for a pre-booked tour because the ship changed course and they didn't go to the port as expected. I understand that I can't change the policy of Norway. I'm just a bit befuddled by it. Example below is what I'm seeing just about everywhere in Norway. And yet, I went to Honduras in April and booked a tour that only required cash on arrival. What is everyone else doing to avoid these cancellation fees? I have notes on what I want to do in each location and I'm just hoping that I can walk up to a tourist center and book same day. I've also checked and most of our port days, our ship is in the only one in port. So if we can't book on arrival, we'll walk around the respective towns instead. It's either risk losing the entire payment for tours or paying double the price for much more crowded and shorter tours through the ship. Cancellation more than 7 days before: 100 percent refund Cancellation less than 7 days before: 50 percent refund Cancellation 19 hours before, or less: No refund Interested to hear what others are doing or have done. For reference, we are on MSC Preziosa in August. In Molde, I'd like to rent a car. In Honningsvag, I'd like to do the bird safari tour. In Stavanger, I'm interested in the Lysefijord cruise. Thanks for reading.

Thank you for both suggestions!

Anyone? I'm looking at renting a car to do the same, but we only have a port day 1pm-9pm. All I can find are cars at the airport and expensive taxis to get to the airport.

Hi everyone, We're caught between a rock and a hard place. We're cruising to Norway including Svalbard, and offship excursions are slim, since it's a small port and two ships are there that day. After speaking with many tour companies, I learned that the ships buy up the excursions forcing passengers to do MSC excursions. My choice is (same price) offshore adventure that meets 2 hours after docking, but cancellation fee starts at 5% (standard for the location) and goes up to 100% cancellation fee within 2 weeks, or book with MSC, which requires 80 people to participate in order to operate. We like both excursion options, but we don't typically do ship options simply because of the crowds. The offline one is a risk of losing the money if for any reason our ship doesn't make it to port, or if we're late and can't make the tour, but there would only be 12 people on that excursion (the main pro). Vs the MSC option which I would assume would get 80 takers (their ships carry 4000+ passengers), but I won't know until we're there. If they cancel, I assume we get our money back (we'll probably be fighting for a refund as we always do with MSC), but more importantly, what if it cancels and we end up getting to do nothing or get moved to a less desirable tour? I guess my questions are, has anyone had experience with getting a refund from an MSC canceled excursion? Does it become OBC? Have anyone experienced a Norway cruise where the Svalbard landing was canceled/late due to weather? Thanks in advance.

Thanks guys! Now at least I know where to look for my OBC.

Can anyone tell me where I can see OBC either online in my booking or on the app? I filed for the stock OBC last week, still haven't received an email and I've been checking my reservation, but I don't know where to look. Also, the stock is in my traveler #2's name. Would that explain why I can't see it? Does he have to log in to see it on his side? We're in the same stateroom. Thanks in advance!

lol, I came online for the same reason. I just found the sloth tour on TripAdvisor with Roatan Getaway Tours. So I'll be following to see what people have to say.

Oh my gosh, what did you do? Was there insurance onsite you could buy? Did you grab another policy online via your phone?

Thank you for such detailed results. It may work out that the $30 airport test will help us get home at the end of the trip. Though we connect overnight through LHR and I was looking at testing options there also. Do you know if we need an appointment for airport testing? As for the beginning of the trip, I think we'll have the same problem we're having in the states. Testing must be done less than 48 hours prior to boarding, but results arrive 2-4 days. So I hope to test right at that 48 hour mark before we fly, and then pray for results. My brother-in-law is a pharmacist and says results are coming much quicker now, but in the case of us not getting results in time, I assume the PCR tests (that's what's required per the ship) in CPH are the same 2-4 days? So it won't really help us to test once we arrive in CPH either. I need to do some more digging to find PCR tests that provide results in 1-2 days. One more question for anyone... are cruise ships providing testing for those having to travel back to the US? We are on MSC.