new_cruiser

The article says that Wind Surf will be done in two phases, first in 2024 and then in 2026. So you will have the first set of renovations. If it is done the same as for Wind Star's two phases, the first is the public spaces other than the dining rooms and the second is dining rooms and staterooms. We were on Wind Surf in October-November and had no issues with it's current condition.

Actually, the Cruise Collectors (Windstar name for B2B cruises that are sold under a single fare) always include free laundry. Almost all of them are 14 days or longer anyway, but even if one was under 14 days, they have free laundry.

Our full transit was from Colon, Panama to Puerto Caldera on Windstar Wind Star - no dreary ports involved. (Well, Colon itself isn't delightful but we flew into Panama City and had a lovely private transfer with site seeing along the way.) Obviously, flights were needed at both ends. They also have full transits that go between the Caribbean and Puerto Fuentes (Panama City) since that has opened as a embarkation port.

There are actually a lot more than a couple but they are all quite small ships, I think only one is more than 100 passengers. Most are between 40 and 100. It's a different kind of cruise experience. The fares are a lot higher than mass market lines. Alaskan Dream Cruise, UnCruise, and Lindblad Expeditions all offer these cruises. It's on my bucket list to do one.

On a partial transit of the Canal from the East Coast, you miss going through the Culebra Cut - interesting because it's huge and building it was the biggest barrier to completing the Canal. So if one is taking the cruise in part to admire the engineering feat of building the canal, the partial transit misses a major part of that. We did a full transit in 2019 on and then did a partial transit in 2020. We didn't book the cruise for the partial; it was part of a 31-day cruise from Barbados to Cancun that was visiting a lot of ports we hadn't been to. I wouldn't want it for my only Panama Canal cruise but it was fun going through the locks again - especially because the ship, Windstar Wind Surf, has excellent deck space for viewing on decks 4, 5 & 6. Her masts are too high to exit the Pacific side so that trip was the only time she's been in the Canal.

My cruise was a round trip from Phuket, Thailand, 1998 IIRC. Most stops were beaches of National Park islands 🏝. So a very beachy laid back cruise. They don't currently have any Asian itineraries on their schedule. They have cruises in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Central America with some of each on the zero solo supplement list.

Some small ship cruise lines have cruises with reduced or zero solo supplements. Star Clippers usually has at least a couple dozen with no solo supplement. From their main page go to specials and look for solo ones. Windstar has a list of cruises with free or reduced solo supplement. Their regular supplement is 75%; the ones on the reduced solo supplement list have a solo supplement between 0 and 50%. In both cases, the deal applies across cabin categories and it isn't just last minute sailings on the list. When I did one on Star Clippers, there weren't any solo gatherings but there wasn't any need for them. There were so many solos amongst the small number of passengers, that you met them without needing a gathering. And the couples socialized fine with the solos. Windstar has started having solo meet-ups; I noticed them in the daily program on a recent cruise but wasn't solo that trip so I don't know if they were well attended. When I've been solo on the line, other passengers were sociable and I didn't feel a need for solo gatherings.

That seems like a good idea for the Barcelona end, but a night in Rome e is much more desirable than a night in Citivecchia so not attractive.

In case you haven't taken a Venice water taxi before, note that hotel docks are usually fixed docks, not floating. That means that the ease of getting from boat to dock or vice versa varies with the tide. We managed it (over 70 but reasonably mobile) but it was a challenge, especially the time when the tide was high. One woman on our Venice to Rome cruise last fall started the cruise in a wheelchair because she wounded her leg disembarking a water taxi. The boatman did help with getting the luggage in and out of the water taxi. The ride from the airport to our hotel was lovely. Our hotel was multiple bridges away from the Grand Canal so it was great to be brought right to the door of the hotel by the water taxi. I would do it again as long as I stay agile enough. But it's something to be aware of.

What you were told is incorrect. It is one device at a time per package. So if you each buy it (2×$35/day), you can each have one device connected simultaneously. Yes, you can buy just one package. I have done that. Is your cruise more than one segment (a b2b cruise)? We had a 17 day Cruise Collector once that we got last minute. The first segment had 3 sea days and I was still making arrangements for some ports so I wanted WiFi for that but didn't need it for the other segment so I just bought the package for the first segment. Also, with the newer system on the motor yachts you can get buy the package by the day. E.g. perhaps you generally don't need it on port days when you can use cellular data or wifi in a cafe, but you want it for a sea day. The sail ships don't have that system yet, you can only get it for a whole cruise segment on them. I expect they will get the new system in the announced upgrades.

Since the answer will depend on the cruiseline, it's best to ask this question on tge board for the particular cruiseline.

I enjoy St Maarten but I've only been on days when it isn't overwhelmed by having many big ships in port. A 7-day cruise leaving Florida on the weekend will stop at St Maarten mid week. There are a lot of those so it's too many people at once crowding the island with day trippers.

Falling short by $158 isn't bad. If you go for a policy with higher limits, it's likely that the policy will cost more. When buying insurance, I'm most concerned about it covering the big open ended costs - emergency flights home, medical costs (if not covered internationally by your regular medical insurance), loss of all or most of the trip cost. Over the years of traveling, I'm probably ahead even if I had to pay for a few high season hotel nights.

It's possible to do it using the urgent process where he goes to a passport office in person, but even if you live very close to one of those offices, it's not worth the hassle for a 4-day break. Florida can be chilly or can be pleasantly warm in February. You can go to the US Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico without a passport (check requirements - one thing I saw said you need a birth certificate and photo ID, but I didn't find a .gov cite to confirm that). Unless you want a booze cruise, I wouldn't recommend a 4-day cruise.

I'm happily married, but I go solo on a trip if I want to go but the trip doesn't interest my husband. There are single people who share a cabin with a friend or family member so they are double occupancy but not married. That's why "solo" isn't the same as marital status. Not that I approve of charging a solo more than twice the pp double occupancy rate.

It's true that a cruise ship is more stable than a fishing boat or ferry. I'm not convinced that there is much difference once ships are large enough to have stabilizers. I've mostly cruised on small (100 to 350 passenger) ships, but I've been on larger ships a few times and haven't noticed a difference. I've crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Tasmanian sea on small ships - the Tasmanian was a bit rough - it's known for it, but not that bad. Only some of the last day of sailing getting into Lisbon was rough. For most of the crossing, the captain was able to choose a path avoiding the rough bits.

If it's mild, you may not be bothered by it on a ship (unless conditions get really bad). The ships have stabilizers. I used to get mildly sea sick on small boats at times. On ships, I would take bonine and ginger the first day or two of a cruise and then be fine without it once I'd acclimatized. More recently, I don't need it even if it gets kind of rough.

You should ask on the Carnival board because this is about a specific cruise line's policies/procedures. (The post may get moved there anyway.) The cruise is past final payment so cancelations won't get their money back and are quite unlikely at this point so there's not much chance.

Most taxis we took in Rome recently didn't want to take credit cards. I haven't run into that on other recent trips in Europe and elsewhere. Also some small restaurants wanted cash. So I'd generally agree with you for most of Europe but not for Italy - especially taxis. Most other things accepted cards. All ATMs seem to charge a per use fee in Europe but I still find it the best way to get cash. I generally get 300 Euros at a time to minimize the fee. I don't mind if I take some Euros home because they'll get used on a later trip. If you don't want to do that and haven't prepaid your Rome hotel, you could use leftover Euros for part of your hotel bill.

If I understand what Yeah wrote, the TA offering the lower price is a different TA, not his. Then, if the price difference is enough to you to be worth the hassle and you trust that the TA offering it is legit, your only option to get the drop would be to cancel your cruise and book with the other agent. That will mean you have to let go of your current cabin and take whatever one is available from the agent giving you the quote. Also, there may be a risk that the rate disappears between canceling and rebooking.

I had a similar price drop due to a sale last December on a 23-day cruise collector shortly before final payment Windstar was going to reduce my fare to the new amount. But I asked my TA to check on the price if I upgraded to a balcony. It was still less than my original fare. So, I got an upgrade and a fare reduction. I was pretty happy about it, especially since I was solo on that trip under a reduced solo supplement and they honored that wit the sale price. Then the price came back up after the sale ended.

It's also worth checking the specials page of lines that you are interested in. They sometimes have a reduced or no solo supplement special so you can get any cabin on the ship for slightly more or the same price as the per person double occupancy rate. For anyone interested in cruising on small ships (by which I mean around 140 to 350 passenger capacity), such specials are frequent on some lines. Star Clippers almost always has a list of cruises with no solo supplement, currently about 3 dozen cruises are on the list. Such specials used to be rare on Windstar, but in the last few years they've had a list of cruises with reduced or no solo supplement. Currently, they don't have many with a zero solo supplement but many are 20% (meaning the fare is 120% of the per person double occupancy fare). I was booked on a Windstar cruise with no solo supplement last spring and it went on sale with a much lower price. I wasn't sure if they would honor the no solo supplement for the sale price but they did so I'm pretty happy with them.

On the couple of RC cruises I've looked at, the solo price was twice the per person double occupancy price for choosing your cabin. The big price differences (similar to what tge OP found on Celebrity) came because guarantee cabin rates disappeared when booking a cabin for one.

They have stabilizers and they ride pretty smoothly. We crossed the Tasman Sea from New Zealand to Australia last year (an area known for rough seas due to the currents) and it was fine.

Not correct. We had OBC from our TA on our last cruise. The statement of OBC that was in our room stated that it was refundable. We also had $600 in non-refundable OBC from Windstar that we made sure to use up during the cruise. The refundable OBC was used to pay our gratuities and the remainder was refunded to our credit card.