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It was on a third party website I use that I can't mention because of Cruise Critic restrictions. I was looking at a Celebrity cruise and the Guest Options page was presented by the cruise travel website, not Celebrity but it is Celebrity's rule that I posted. Does that make sense? :confused:

 

It also had age restrictions.

See that is even more interesting that a third party site will highlight certain T&Cs but if you are booking on the Cruise Line website it is really hard to find and if anywhere T&Cs should be clear as day is on the company website.

I'm browsing some cruises doing mock bookings to see cabin availability on a big cruise travel site and on the "GUEST OPTIONS" page, there's an 'i' in a blue circle that says PREGNANCY RESTRICTIONS. This is what it says, "

Pregnancy Restrictions

 

Pregnancy Restrictions: Celebrity Cruises cannot accept guests who will have entered their 24th week of pregnancy by the beginning of, or at any time during the cruise or cruisetour. A physician's 'Fit to Travel' note is required prior to sailing, stating how far along (in weeks). your pregnancy will be at the beginning of the cruise and confirming that you are in good health and not experiencing a high-risk pregnancy.

I've never noticed it before. But there it is.

That is interesting, I have been through the websites I used to see if things look different but I don't seem to be getting the guest options you are getting:rolleyes: how far into the booking is it? Though the fact you said you never noticed it before still suggests it is not designed to be front of mine;)

Whenever we do something for the first time we have an idea of what we think the experience will be like but usually reality is different. Sometimes it is better:D sometimes it is worst:eek:

When you completed your first cruise what expectations or misconceptions did you find needed readjustment in one way or another? What did you learn about cruising that could only come from experience:confused:?

While I can't comment specifically about this woman's case as someone who was researching their first cruise I don't feel that cruise companies put T&Cs front of mind on their websites:confused: I found it really convoluted to find the T&Cs page. It usually involved clicking through multiple pages and an almost Where's Wally like seeking for tiny obscure links hidden in a bunch of other hyperlinks.

Being a seasoned traveller I have learnt to seek out T&Cs but I can understand how people with little travel experience who are cruising for the first time might not think to check this stuff:rolleyes:. While it is easy to say it is the responsibility of the potential cruiser to seek T&Cs I do think cruise lines could do a bit more to make it accessible and front of mind. Really all it would take is one clear hyperlink on the itinerary page:D

I'm going to get a little sciencey here;p So your liver cannot store alcohol. It metabolises about 90 per cent of the alcohol you drink, (the rest is excreted through your urine and sweat). Your liver can process about 10g or a small drink an hour, any remaining alcohol circulates in your blood until it can be broken down this is how ‘blood alcohol concentration’ is assessed for drink drive limits. Eating before drinking can help absorb this excess alcohol.

So by that logic if you have a small drink (so think the equivalent of one shot) once every hour you are unlikely to get drunk, therefore less likely to get a hangover but will still get the buzz. So pacing yourself is probably the best advice:halo:

Please DO NOT give port answers that boutique ships visit. I really dont want the ..........well when I was on the MV Massively Expensive we stopped at......

The reason MV Massively Expensive can stop at different ports is because most of the time they are smaller:o. The fact is the bigger the ship (which generally are the cheaper ones) the less harbours they can physically fit into, so by that logic there are only so many places those ships can stop at. There is the option to completely terra firm a place to fit a large ship and it has been done on a smaller scale for certain cargo ports, however it creates a silting problem where the mud from the sea bed clogs up harbour entrances costing millions to clean out every year, not to mention it has devastated the local fishing industry, destroying the ecosystem:eek:.

Unfortunately if you feel you have exhausted all your port options you may have no choice but the smaller ships since they are probably the only one that can fit in the remaining harbours;)

You mean besides being surrounded by the ocean and unlimited booze ?

Whatever makes you happy;p

I know some things might be cruiseline specific or the sum of all the little things;) but what do find is your favourite thing on a cruise ship?

It would have been much better, IMO, if the OP had simply asked which ports we did not enjoy going to.

Just to clarify the reason I wrote the question the way I did was because I didn't want it to just be about ports people dislike but also the second part of my question what ports do people think cruising is not the best way to experience certain destinations. For example I have been told many times by cruisers that you just don't get the full Barcelona experience on an eight hour cruise stop. I guess I wondered if others felt the same:D

In my mind the question read one way but others seem to interpret it differently:confused:. Perhaps it was a poor choice of words:o but there isn't much I can do about it now;p, it is what it is I guess:')

Turkey, in its various manifestations, is one of the major civilisations of the world. The islands in the Caribbean are just pretty and sandy and not much else.

Both have there own attractions, but to write off Turkey merely highlights the ignorance of anyone who holds such a view.

 

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Being a history freak I feel an obsessive compulsive need to chime in on this one;p In defense of the Caribbean the Taino themselves were a major civilisation of great economic and military power.:D They unified the island states into one empire and controlled the coastal trade around Central America. Unfortunately colonisation didn't think their achievements worthy of preservation and ripped up their cities, temples and technological developements:( but you could argue the European takeover was another manifestation of a major civilisation. Though I have to add I do love Caribbean food, so for me it ranks as a foodie paradise:cool:

I think Turkey and Caribbean are very different and comparing them is like apples and oranges besides the question is about personal preference, so in the end no one has to agree with each other;), (though if Turkey has so much to offer perhaps it fits the second category of my question in that it is a cruise destination better visited by other means than cruising?) but it is interesting to see the destinations that keep being repeated in some of the answers. It seems some places may have an image problem:o

I used to ebay so I could sell and buy but ebay are now evil so I don't do that anymore :)

I know it is off topic but calling Ebay evil seems a little extreme:o. I would love to know your reasoning:)

Not sure if you are giving me the ''Business '' or not but there are many false stories that stick around for a long time. In the 70s many thought and said that the great lakes had no fish in them ,they did and still do. Also in the 70s and 80s had tons of scare stories about ACID RAIN and how it would wipe out all fresh water fish in the U.S. 30 years later fishing is better than it has ever been. The end of the world is always out there for those looking for it.Take it from an old guy like me when ever some says something is a crisis it almost never is.

It is true a lot of false stories stick around but this has been researched for nearly 20 years and the conclusions have been all identical. If a result can be consistently repeated that would usually make it a fact. As for calling it a crisis, that is harder to say:confused:. The fact is plastic consumption is only increasing, so the patch is not going to get smaller plus the micro plastics have already made it into our food chain not to mention chemicals from plastics have been found in high concentration in the flesh of fish and that just doesn't seem like a good thing:o. Maybe it isn't crisis but I feel the world would be a better place with less plastic in our oceans:D

THIS is what prompted me make the OP. I now understand that the real problem is microplastics and the pictures that are published of the Pacific Garbage Patch are misleading. Why do they (advocates) do this? I think it works against them in the end. People read about this Texas size garbage patch and see the pictures and are horrified - then when real life experiences (i.e. cruising through It) fail to confirm what the pictures show, people doubt the whole thing. Global Warming advocates are guilty of the same thing. Instead of focusing on the fundamental problem, they tend to publicize the most extreme (and graphic) predictions. When an individual's everyday experience fails to confirm these predictions, the whole topic loses credibility. I sometimes think that the best way to stymie the acceptance of real concerns is for advocates to use alarmism to raise awareness.

I feel it is less the advocates who do this and really the news. You will get this detailed talk by a researcher that goes for an hour and some news person will take one line leaving out all the context behind it and then it becomes alarmist news:eek:

I would suspect the same with these pictures. They all come from news sites or bloggers rather than researchers themselves. Even the whole size of Texas thing, most ocean researchers refer to density but for a news article four particles per square metre is not as interesting as "the size of Texas". In saying that we as the audience don't chose to watch a hour long discussion on the plastics pollution of the ocean. We chose to wait for the news bullet points and we will only tune in or read if the headline is intriguing enough:')

I watched a documentary about researchers at the patch and they say that most of the plastics that end up in the gyres are "new plastics" so they haven't had time to break down yet. They were saying that what is needed is for a reduction in "new plastics" coming into the gyres as that would see the process of reducing micro plastics in the ocean.

What is really needed is for us humans to stop using disposable stuff:( We buy so much stuff that we use for a year before we swap it out for the latest greatest thing, or because they are so badly made they break too quickly:o. And don't bother with biodegradable plastics, it turns out they just breakdown into micro plastics quicker:loudcry:. Also polyester clothing worst contributer to micro plastics next to manufacturers plastic pellets that are the raw ingredients in plastic goods:eek:.

I hate all this doom and gloom stuff. Does anyone try to reduce their plastic waste? I try to bring my own cup to coffee shops, and bags to shopping centres, I also have reduced the amount of clothes I buy especially after realising how much stuff I have hardly worn! Saved me a ton of money, can go on more holidays;). I know this stuff is probably superficial but I don't really know what else I can do:o

I admit I am a food and drink snob;p when I am on vacation I drink less, but in saying that I don't drink much when I am at home. I know a lot of people who drink a bottle of wine a night. It takes me a week to finish a bottle:'). Getting drunk or even buzzing has no appeal to me at all:cool:

I am a quality over quantity person. The products I buy are usually of the higher price range and I generally drink straight up spirits. These brands are usually double the price in tourist places and never included in drink packages if even sold on ships at all and I generally do not enjoy cocktails as I usually find them too sickly sweet.

I will sometimes have a glass of wine or beer as with these products price or brand have little effect on taste but since both drinks aren't a favourite I am happy to not have them at all;).

However when I travel to a new country I love to try the local beverage of choice or a unique drink they make in that community:D

Just phoned MSC on +1-877-665-4655 and they said that they would accept a 500 euro note onboard a Mediterranean cruise in Europe. Thanks everyone, for all your inputs and advice!

Well that is good to hear(y) Looks like problem solved:D.

On MSC, in Europe, everyone will be billed in euros. So I will use it to pay my bill. They will have to accept it, right?

Legally businesses should probably accept it (though if the ship is registered in a non EU country maybe it is not subject to EU business rules) but if the on board MSC staff refuse to take it what can you do:o? I suppose you could try refusing to pay your bill till they accept your notes:confused: Maybe contact MSC customer service and find out what their on board policy is for 500 and 200 Euro notes. Maybe contact your hotel too, just so you can be prepared.

I know in this case this is a passanger but I was once told that cruise ship crews transporting drugs for syndicates is actually quite common. That the crew don't get as thoroughly checked as passangers (though I don't know which ports they were referring to:o) and they sneak their drug loads through whatever cruise ships are loading or unloading. I've always wondered if this is an urban myth;p or if there is any thruth to it:confused:

I would say your best bet is to break it at a bank and do it soon. While it will still be considered legal currency by the end of the year it is meant to be officially phased out, and they already stopped printing them two years ago. I have my doubts any cruise ship will accept notes that are disappearing from circulation. Even at the banks giving 500€ notes entails a lot of bureaucracy (bring all the ID you have and maybe some tax file numbers), that cruise companies may be reluctant to go through such a process, not to mention some banks charge a 0.15% fee for processing 500€ notes.

Have you ever been on a cruise where you thought the route or ports of call were not very good or perhaps you thought certain places were not suited to cruise style travel and are better visited in other ways :confused:

I am the exact opposite when it comes to travelling:p. I always bring items that I feel are disposable, that way if they are ruined or lost it won't bother me:cool:. I am always digging into the back of the wardrobe looking for the older stuff I don't care about any more. Unless I need a specific item I don't already own I avoid bringing any thing new;).

Now That is interesting. Where do I find that as I can not see a promotions folder on my Gmail, only my Inbox, Sent mail, Drafts, All mail, Spam & Trash. All the rest are my private ones I installed.

My Gmail has Primary underneath which is Social and underneath that is Promotions. That is where I find all my commercial subscriptions are automatically placed:cool:.

If you can't see Promotions try going into Settings - > select your email address - > manage labels.

Maybe you need to sync Promotions with inbox?

I noticed you said you have Gmail, so I am wondering have you checked the Promotions folder? I find all my advertising goes in there.

Wow you went through a lot of trouble to make that rant. :)

 

I book all of our cruises direct with the cruise line, no middle person.

Sometimes you need to get things out to be able to move on. I totally get the need to write a rant;). If you really want to make it official there should be some agency in your country/state/region that should handle accreditation of travel agents, usually through them you can make a complaint.

I have a general rule of never putting anything I'm afraid of losing in checked luggage. Would it suck to lose your clothes:o? Yes but I can always buy new ones;) As for travel insurance it would be foolish to go without it. $89 sounds expensive but if you got really sick and needed medical evacuation than the costs would sky-rocket:eek:.