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PrincessPete

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About Me

  • Location
    Rustington, West Sussex
  • Interests
    Travel, theatre, football
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Princess Cruises, Cunard,
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Caribbean

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  1. Hi all, does anyone have any advice about what to do on a Sunday in Hamburg. We are on an MSC cruise shortly and understand all the shops are closed on Sunday. None of the ship tours outside of Hamburg particularly appeal and we did want to see the city center. Can anyone help with advice if museums or anything similar is open on a Sunday please. Any help greatly appreciated while I’ll also try online. Thank you very much. Kind regards Peter.
  2. Thank you so much, "showingdiva" for your most helpful reply which is greatly appreciated. Kind regards. Peter
  3. With several family members, I am on the Euribia Northern Europe cruise on 15 March. We are experienced cruisers but not on MSC large ships and are finding their website difficult! I would be most grateful for help from those who know. EMBARKATION: It says when we check in shoreside we get a cruise card which gives access to the cabin but elsewhere says you get the card in the cabin (how do we get in the cabin 😀.) Can you please clarify where we get the card? It then says we activate it (to make onboard purchases) with a c/c number at an onboard machine. So can someone please confirm whether we get the card shoreside or in the cabin and that we do have to activate it at a machine onboard as suggested? (I have always registered a c/c shoreside previously but realise things change). SHOWS: Can you only book shows etc onboard? MSC APP: I have downloaded the app but it does not recognise my booking ref which I will deal with, of course, but what is the app used for onboard, please? Does it work well? Hope my queries all make sense and I will be most grateful for any help. Thank you.
  4. I ought to start this post with full disclosure that I have had an issue with Ambassador since the company was formed – the same people who were in charge when CMV collapsed started a company in the same premises as CMV were based, using their databases, while at the same time owing millions. I'm sure they acted within the law and many other companies have gone bust and restarted with exactly the same kind of operation in the same way as Mr Verhouning has in the case . After that full disclosure, I have to say that I would not book a cruise on Ambience under any circumstances. The Christmas 2022 cruises were cancelled due to technical issues. There was another issue during the summer this year I believe with its moorings and now the ship is in for yet another extended dry dock with major repairs to propeller shafts. While it might make business sense for Ambition to take over the Ambience cruises, ask yourself how you would feel if you were one of those affected – as per the postings here. Ambassador have developed a good reputation for very friendly staff and I understand, fairly reasonable food, but the issue is that Ambience is such an old ship. 32 years into its life it is likely to have many more mechanical issues and doubtless more cruises will be cancelled in the future. The ship was on its way to the scrapyard, metaphorically, if not literally, when Ambassador bought it, and whilst they have praised themselves for the new fuel and environmentally friendly system they have installed the ship is still on its last legs. With further disclosure, I would say that I had a very enjoyable cruise with CMV on Astoria, but I will be giving a very wide berth to anything Ambassador do in the future. Yes, even new ships can break down, but let's be honest there's far more chance of it happening again to Ambience than some of the brand spanking new ships and the price difference between Ambassador and other lines does not justify the risk. Others may/will disagree which is fine!
  5. I meant to add that I have tried to submit a contact form to MSC asking the same questions as above - it always says "an error occurred, please resubmit" Getting through to someone on the phone has proved impossible hence asking on this site. Thanks again!
  6. Good afternoon, I am reasonably computer literate but have struggled all day with the MSC website. I have a booking for one of the Euribia Northern Europe cruises embarking at Southampton and am trying to establish full details of the shore excursions and to book some. The same applies to the theatre shows in the evening which I believe you can book. I have searched the website extensively (using the booking reference and the Voyager Club number) but although I can find minimal details there is nothing that actually allows me to book anything. Then the screen page keeps "greying" out. As an aside, I am particularly keen to establish if there is an "Amsterdam on your own" tour (effectively just a shuttle transfer) when we are in Rotterdam. Any advice on how to proceed would be much appreciated and thank you in advance. Kind regards.
  7. Is the immortal Hughie Taylor still around? He was as “recently” as 2018 on our last Oriana cruise. I know he was a bit of a “Marmite” Cruise Director (as they were called back then), but in our many meetings going back to the mid/late 1980’s we always found him very pleasant. Also, does anyone remember Bill Allison. He really was superb and took part in big productions such as “Me and My Girl”(Sea Princess 1986).
  8. I guess it depends on what way round the British Isles the ship goes. If it is Southampton, Dublin, Scotland, Le Havre, Southampton for example, i.e. clockwise then clearly a starboard cabin would be best as land will always be that side. Anticlockwise then the port side would be best. I’m hoping this is not too simplistic an answer, and I’m not trying to be clever, but I can only assume that is the information you are looking for. Having said that, for a lot of the cruise you will be out of sight of land anyway I guess? Hope this helps. Kind regards. Peter PS: for what it’s worth my daughter and and son-in-law are just returning tomorrow from an Emerald Princess Round Britain cruise which has been a fantastic success in all respects. (They are in an inside cabin though so that does not help in answering your question 😄😄) PPS: I think I’m right in saying that most Round Britain cruises go anticlockwise heading to Dublin, Belfast and then on to Scotland etc. Perhaps someone can correct me if I’m wrong.
  9. We were looking at an advert today for the cruise in September advertised as “Canada, Greenland and Iceland.” That is indeed factually correct, but the one visit to Iceland is an “early PM” arrival to Reykjavik. There is no reference to a late departure (which does feature on another itinerary in the same advert) so I can only assume that it’s a late PM departure, meaning just a very few hours there. The previous 7 days have been at sea (albeit the first two are spent cruising the St Lawrence River). My point is that surely in the 5 of those 7 days which are spent heading east, they could sail a fraction of a knot quicker to arrive in Iceland for a whole day? I can also only agree with the posting (on a different question) about the lack of “experiences” available on Ambassador, and this very short time in Iceland, which could clearly have been increased, is another example, in my view, of poor planning. I know a poster said you could book independent tours but there should be at least the option to do “experiences” from the ship, with the added comforts that brings re not potentially missing the ship. Despite one good cruise on CMV I still have my reservations about Ambassador, particularly with the numerous reports of air-conditioning problems. I know it is an old ship but surely they had enough time in the many months of refurbishment to sort out their problems. My final observation (sorry I seem to have veered off my original topic!) is that until they introduce freedom dining, as opposed to fixed times only, then it’s not for us anyway.
  10. Indeed Presto2, Ocean Village 2, under an earlier name, was Crown Princess (which, as an aside, we had a great cruise on when she was part of Princess Cruises in 2000) and she was indeed a sister ship to Regal Princess, now Ambience. In fact not so much sisters as TWIN sisters as Crown Princess and Regal Princess were identical, certainly in respect of the structure, just with slight differences in decor. So you are absolutely right! Sadly Ocean Village 2 (which had later names and finally became Karnika) was scrapped while Regal Princess lives on as Ambience.
  11. Being a previous CMV passenger (on one very pleasant “Astoria“ cruise) we are inundated with brochures and flyers from Ambassador cruise line. (I am sure you will know that, despite leaving numerous companies with £millions of unpaid debts, the previous CMV owners, who now run Ambassador, managed to afford to buy the mailing list from the liquidators – and indeed now rent the same old CMV premises in Essex). One of the brochures is for the 120 night Grand World Voyage in January 2024. When studying the itinerary I see there is just a single overnight stay - in Mombasa. From my knowledge of world cruises (which is restricted to brochures, never having been on one) I have never seen one that does not include overnights in such iconic ports as Sydney, Cape Town and Singapore. I would think that most world cruise passengers would welcome an overnight stay, at even just a few of those special ports they visit. I also see there are six ports with either very late arrivals or early afternoon departures, again cutting down on the available port time. Just seems a bit strange to me and would be interested in any other opinions. Kind regards Peter
  12. Thank you both and apologies again as I should have been able to find that myself!! Kind regards. Peter
  13. Hi, apologies as I am sure the answer to my question is somewhere on this highly informative forum but I can not find it. The query is this - we are currently booked on a 28 night Caribbean cruise in November but due to a possible medical procedure in a few months do not feel that a round trip across the Atlantic is a good idea. Can we transfer to a different (later) cruise just by choice - in the absence of any confirmed medical issues at this stage? If so would the cruise have to be of a similar value or can we go "cheaper" and for a shorter duration. Obviously at this stage we have just paid the deposit. We did book through a TA so will be checking with them but wondered if someone on here knew the answer. Many thanks for any help. Kind regards. Peter
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