dolllover

Thank you!!!! Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to everyone.

I'm cruising on the Westerdam this Sat the night before Christmas as well. This is my first Hal cruise. If I love it I'll be booking more with Hal. Getting excited it's almost here!

First off, there are no Antarctic ports on this type of sailing, known as a "drive by." You will only see the continent from a distance but never go ashore.

 

Honestly, I would compare the cost of an expedition cruise to Antarctica before making a decision. Undoubtedly, it will be more expensive but the experience will be night and day, honestly.

 

3 years ago we did an expedition trip (on Ponant). 13 landings on the continent in 7 days. You actually stand next to penguins, elephant and Weddell seals. We were took a zodiac to a landing on a huge ice floe in the middle of the Bransfield straight, where no humans (but one penguin) had ever walked before.

 

As I said, it will be more expensive, but shop around. Make sure you get the total price of the Celebrity trip for a non-guarantee cabin including all fees for comparisons. Then do some research to compare the experiences.

 

 

Hope this helps.

I just checked the Ponant website and others going to Antartica and starting is 10 grand a person. I'm spending 12 grand total including everything plus insurance for 14 days. We are also planning on spending a week before the cruise exploring Argentina so it should be a great trip.

I'll be cruising with both these companies next year. I'm looking forward to comparing these two companies with each other. One may get my future business

over the other.

I have news for you any river cruise can turn into a bus tour due to high water or low. A risk I'm willing to take to cruise these rivers.

Thank you for your review and pictures!

My TA said it was port congestion. Since that is the case I'm happy about the change.

I was happy to book Antartica for Jan 2019. My in laws wanted us to book the Ireland/Iceland trip with them for 2018 but I would rather do Ireland in spring or fall.

My TA got back to me after talking to her Celebrity sales rep and was assured the Reflection was not chartered.

Thank you for your review. Looks like a fabulous trip.

My 2018 April Ultimate Caribbean cruise on the Reflection isn't showing up on the website. I'm hoping it's not being chartered out. I sent my TA an email about this. Should find out tomorrow what's going on.

No, the bait was a special culinary themed cruise with onshore meals and food and wine tastings that morphed into their regular Rhone itinerary.

I would have been pissed and felt cheated if that happened to me.

Man I would love to book that trip but have to wait until 2019 lol. Can only do two trips a year due to work. Going to the Caribbean and Hawaii in 2018. I really love Alaska and want to go back someday.

I would speak up about this to the captain or whoever is in charge.

I was originally planning to book a Tanzania "Great Migration" safari with andBeyond but on studying the detailed daily itineraries we felt the long game drives day after day would be too exhausting. That's why the AMA cruise sounded so good (only one all-day game drive off the boat) -- they also offer versions that include Kruger or Tanzania but again those seemed too much for us.

That concerns me as well. My DH has pretty bad asthma but medications keep it in line so a big part of me wants to go with the Ama version. It does look like a great trip .Good to know one has to book early for that one. I guess it will be 2019 for us if we go with Ama since they are all booked up.

This trip sounds tempting but will probably be going with Tauck land based Tanzania : Serengeti to Zanzibar.

Thank you for taking the time to post your review. Glad you had a good time! Everyone I know that has used Viking had a great time as well and encouraged me to book a cruise with them. Because of my friends excellent experience we booked a Prague to Budapest cruise in 2017.

Just put together a recap video of our great cruise!

 

[YOUTUBE]J1lDQ1JIXtY[/YOUTUBE]

I'll be doing this exact same cruise in 2017. Thanks for the awesome video.

When the river boats can't cruise and the cruise turns into a bus tour, the cruise line should either cancel the cruise of give a significant refund.

No they don't . At the bottom of my cruise info with Avalon it's mentioned they may have to go with a bus tour if there is a water level issue.

Calling out Avalon for not bending the rules to make an exception is the issue here. Avalon is not at fault here. If one wants to protect their investment in case it is not possible to travel due to whatever circumstance, the answer is to buy insurance, not to expect a company to change their rules for you. This appears to be what most responding to this thread believe.

 

And I am not sure what airlines you book or what class of service you fly, but I do not agree nor is it my personal experience that airlines will give you a credit for future travel without insurance just because you get sick. Other than Southwest, I have not had that experience and even then, illness has nothing to do with it.

It was Delta and it was in coach. Had to have surgery and got a credit for a future flight. I did not buy insurance. I'm not going to eat the loss without attempting to get a credit.That would be stupid. I buy insurance 99% of the time but the one time I didn't it was nice to get the credit.

People denigrate Viking all the time here so I don't see a problem with calling out Avalon in this situation. I buy insurance all the time before every trip but for Avalon to double dip and not honor a future credit for another cruise is unfortunate due to the OP's circumstances. They have months to fill up the ship. Even airlines will let you rebook due to illness without buying insurance. You don't get your money back but can rebook with another flight at a later date.

I find this line to be very pricey for what you get. It seems that it does not include excursions. I would rather book a pricey Galapagos cruise that includes excursions.

The only one that should not be on the same playing field in the OP's question is Viking!

We know you dislike Viking. You mention it often LOL. I booked my first river cruise with Viking because several of my friends cruise this line and are very happy with them.

Tauck is very pricey so I'm not surprised they would be considered one of the best.

Thank you for posting this. I'm interested in doing this cruise in the future.