GottaKnowWhen

Who said anything about work tools? And even if I were working on my computer onboard (been there, done that) who says I would need to be in contact with anybody else via WiFi, Internet, whatever? I take my laptop because it is my one and only computer. At home, it is plugged into an external monitor and bridge with multiple drives, etc. When traveling, with one external SSD drive, I can download, post-process, share and store my photos and when back home, no duplication or steps to fuss with. I also maintain/update my financial files and correspondence on my computer. And my files on lodging/transportation/excursions/cruise/railway information for past, present and future travel. In short, computers are useful for and used for other than work. Stan

So, Cruise Tour, not a Cruise. Stuff happens with shore excursions all the time. If you book a Shore Excursion through the cruise line, they may get cancelled (been there, had that happen) and you'll get a refund. They cannot control natural events and local conditions and local providers. A Cruise Tour is nothing more than a cruise plus additional 3± days of shore excursion. Stuff happens. On your own or through an agent it is possible (quite easy in fact) to rent a car and drive. It is possible, quite easy, to book a train ticket and travel. It is possible, quite easy to book helicopter flights to see bears or glaciers or whatever. It is possible, very easy, to book hotel rooms. It is possible, quite easy, to book air travel. It is even possible to book a 7-day cruise. It might be easier for you or your agent to go the low-effort way and just buy a package, e.g. through Celebrity, with ship and air and hotel and sightseeing but then you are stuck when stuff happens. Now that stuff happened to the Tour portion of your Cruise Tour, I cannot imagine any reason why you couldn't just reassemble a similar package and get on with all of your dream trip. Stan

It will not fit. It does fit into the top of one of the drawers. When the cabin is being cleaned the door is always blocked, very unlikely anyone could get in, search, find, grab the MBP. I take mine, reasonable precautions ok but no need for excessive worry. BTW, I also take my iPad and often leave it in the cabin and have never locked it in the safe. My only incident was when I left it on the table out by the pool bar. It was over an hour before i could reclaim it in lost and found. Stan

I would really like to see ship, sailing date, and cabin number assigned before I give much credence to this story. Looks like pure Sunday evening trolling for entertainment…

Update/correction on my earlier post. If I did in fact make a flower order for our June 2023, I cannot find any record of it. Nor can I find the option on Bon Voyage pages. I must concede that the flowers are no more. Stan

Did you ever get a confirmation from Celebrity after your deposit? Maybe they never got your deposit? Did you pay your agent and trust them to process the deposit? It is very hard to believe you had a confirmed cabin and then had it go missing.

Well, close! Two hotels on the Argentine side. But the first, hotel A, was near the downtown area, maybe 10 miles from airport. First night. Our time in the area Included the day trip from hotel A to Brazil, next day. Then time in/around the town. Still that next day. Then second night overnight in hotel A. Next morning, taxi to Melia, hotel B, early check in. Off to tour the Argentine upper falls area plus some down lower. Overnight there at hotel B. Next morning, early afternoon some more exploration on the Argentine side, then taxi to the airport for the flight to BA. FYI, our hotel A was Selva de Laurel, a nice comfortable place. [Our story actually got a bit more complicated. Bad weather in BA, our flight back there was cancelled. The driver who had dropped us off at the airport was still hanging around, he made some calls, found us a low-cost hotel to stay that night, took us there, hotel C, got us back to the airport the next morning for our replacement flight. You should hope you don’t need hotel C.]

I have yet to see any reason to go off to you tube to learn about anything beyond simple home repair issues like replacing the valve stem in a bathroom shower faucet or cutting a compound mitre with a table saw. If I want information about travel in general, cruising in particular, I will read a book and/or read commentary on Cruise Critic. Stan

Just to clarify, we have stayed on the Argentine side except for our day trips across to Brazil. And just in case you think of renting a car and driving yourself… Note that on the Brazil side, there is a walking path that starts about a mile downriver from the falls. A driver/ guide can drop you there, meet you when you get to the visitor center near the falls. It would be much less convenient if you drive yourselves! Stan

And you can see my recommendation in #23. Sounds like a fun trip, enjoy! Stan

Two cabins, one inside, one a veranda across the hall. Keeps the cost lower. Use the veranda cabin for your together time, but you’ll have separate space, two bedrooms, two persons per bathroom, for the down time. Stan

I’ve been to the Foz three times. I endorse most of what Wrk2cruise said. For our most recent trip, we stayed in smaller more reasonably priced hotel closer to downtown Puerto Iguazu for two nights. The first day we had a private guide who picked us up, took us to the Brazilian side (and retrieved us several hours later.) The cab from airport to hotel came back for us the second morning, dropped us at the Melia hotel, from there we spent the day on the Argentine side, overnight at the Melia, then the cab returned for us in the afternoon to go to the airport to fly to BA to board our cruise 2-3 days later. By the way, reasonable fluency in Spanish is a plus. However you do it, go to Iguazu, spend time on both sides, don’t try to squeeze in a quickie before or after a cruise. Stan

The policy is the same, the implementation varies ship to ship and even day to day. Specifically to the OP’s question, I have bought wine at port stops in Italy and France, I have made sure the scanners knew what I had, and just had a “ so what “ shrug in response. Another day, another ship… who knows. Stan

I’ve had similar experience this year. Entered one 9-day and two b2b cruises, five legs total in 2023, received OBC for all within a week.

They can definitely help. I have borrowed the use of one of their desktops in the iLounge for doing some file transfers.

Sorry! It has become a “tradition “ and I have no choice but to continue. 🌹💐🌹

Our first cruise 10 years ago happened to be over Valentine’s Day. I ordered flowers then and for all 20 or so cruises since then. Have always used the Bon Voyage Gift option, most recently for last December (Solstice) and this coming June (Infinity). Also have used that option a few times to preorder wines. Stan

Update on my refund... On 22 March I sent my request to Hurtigruten US office. On 27 March they informed me that my refund check would be mailed on 30 March. Today, 4 April I received my check for 40% refund plus the promised €25/pp per meal for our time in Hamburg after the airlift from mid-cruise. I think they were very responsive and deserve several thumbs up! Stan

Back in the day I was in a college fraternity and we had the occasional loud boisterous party. As I grew older I realized that having a good time did not need to involve a lot of whooping and hollering and public drunkenness. I have avoided Carnival and other low-end cruise ships in order to avoid that sort of atmosphere. I continue to hope that Celebrity will maintain an atmosphere of some decorum and that the louts will go elsewhere. We'll see... Stan

We never go to the theatre onboard because of the noise level. Well, maybe very occasionally if it looks like a really good show, but then we sit in the back row and find we need to leave after 5 minutes or so. Music in the Grand Foyer is sometimes ok, we would like to watch as well as listen but often need to move back around a corner to be able to tolerate the noise. Thankfully the solos and duos in the Ensemble Lounge are usually quite pleasant to listen to. On the Solstice last December I mentioned the noise to the Cruise Director, twice. Once while we were standing in the Grand Foyer barely able to hear one another given the loud music. His reply: “Oh yeah, I have heard other people mention some about that. Do you have an excursion booked for tomorrow or getting off on your own?” Huh?!? Totally did not care. Oh well.

Sorry, what is a BKB? From the Hurtigruten siting and the comment above, I am assuming a Norwegian coastal? On my recent trip I used a medium format, 645Z, with a variety of lenses. I was surprised to find that I virtually never used my wide lens (35mm, 28mm equivalent in full frame), most often used my 55mm (=42mm) and 200mm (=160mm). When I needed wider, it was more convenient to compose a pano and stitch in LR later than to swap lenses. Stan

Thanks @oakridger I'll post more information on Refunds etc when we have a final resolution. Meanwhile, I did revisit my Norway gallery. Some images added, a few deleted, captions added to provide rough location information. Our last cruise stop was in Trondheim, the next day was our airlift to Hamburg. The last three images are from our after-cruise visit with friends in Lüneburg, about 30 minutes outside of Hamburg... Stan

I like my photography, and if I see someone carefully composing a scene I will respect their attention to their shot, I will pause (briefly) so as not to intrude. But owning a video camera or making so-called influence videos doesn’t mean that someone gets to dominate a location. After five seconds, I’ll continue on my way and if that is in their way, so be it. Stan

Recently back from a Hurtigruten cruise (NOT the classic coastal cruise, but a Northern Lights 2 week "expedition" from Hamburg to Nordkapp and back). We didn't go into many fjords, but the coastal scenery is spectacular! See the link to some of my photos in my sig below. I have yet to finish editing the last few batches of images, but there are plenty here to give you a flavor of the scenes. Stan

I am recently back from a two-week Hurtigruten trip: Hamburg to Nordkapp and return. Except that we didn't return via ship because the ship had mechanical problems and after limping along for a couple of days, on day 11 they chartered some planes and airlifted us to Hamburg. Put us up in a nice hotel, offered reimbursement for meal costs through the "end of the cruise" on that Friday. They offered a choice of 60%FCC or 40% Refund. I choose the 40% option. I had booked through the Seattle office. The other American couple onboard had booked through the Global or Norway site. They are also choosing the 40% option. It will be interesting to see if/when the refund shows in may account, and to see if there is a difference in speed of processing etc. depending on where we booked.