kitkat343

On 5/22/2024 at 5:14 PM, nini said:

 

Thank you so much... mystery solved. Water transport for us, for sure!

It was many years ago I went on this cruise (the 3 year old we took is now 13 and taller than me!) but the ferries ran direct to Vassa until 10 am, and then at 10 am resumed their normal total loop.  You'd need to check if that's still the case, but it might be.

It was really lovely seeing Stockholm from the water, so I'd highly recommend a ferry at some point.

On 5/21/2024 at 5:34 PM, ontheweb said:

Before the season started and it became evident that the ship was going to skip Isafjordur, we (sailing on the Prima) booked a private excursion that really sounded interesting. The small tour operator informed us due to her costs there would be 5% not returned if the ship did not make it there to port. We agreed as it was not that much.

 

And then the ship kept skipping the port. When I kept telling her that I really did not think the ship was going to let us get off, she then at one point said it sounded like we really did not want the tour. Cancelling would have cost us all our money. I told her no we really wanted it, but doubted it could happen.

 

And then we finally got the notice that the port was officially cancelled, and I forwarded it to her. She then wrote back that since it was not weather causing the ship to not port there, she at first intended to keep 40% of our money. (If she had done that, I would have filed a complaint with the credit card company). Then she said she cooled off and decided it was also not our fault. She then said she was keeping 10% instead of 5%. The difference really was not enough to make a complaint about. Plus, I felt sorry for her as a small businesswoman whose season was being screwed over by NCL (and Iceland not finishing the dock). Oh, she did offer us a discount (I don't remember what %, maybe 5 or 10, if we booked with her again.)

I have a lot of sympathy for the local vendors that lost out on other opportunities all season, but in Europe there are some private tour operators who don't offer refunds at all.  So she needs to decide on a refund policy and post it on her website/include it in her informational email and stick to it.  Her moving refund policy would have made a real mess for people trying to get reimbursed from their travel insurance if her refund policy keeps changing.  

I'm considering planning a late trip to Iceland and might be too late for organized tours - did you feel your independent ones worked well?

I think the only "cost" associated with the no show versus booking as a single is that some cruise lines allow you to get double points when booking a double cabin as a single passenger.  However, ships are sailing fuller these days and if the overall lifeboat capacity is reached, if your daughter's cruise is initially booked as a single, then she might not be able to add a friend later.  So you are better off adding a friend at booking and changing the reservation or no showing the friend later.  As noted above, all taxes and fees will be refunded on a no show and as long as the original passenger remains the same, RC is good about letting you switch (I think pretty late but am not certain of the exact date).

21 minutes ago, Scoundrel2 said:

Does anyone know how NCL handles a situation where one of the booked guests dies before the sail date?

I have 3rd party insurance, but my question is more about if NCL has any provision for not changing a fee due to death.  I'm hoping they would at least give the full sailing price as FCC.

If you got the FCC, it would be double dipping to then get a refund from your travel insurance.  But it seems highly unlikely travel insurance wouldn't cover a death, so I think at least as far as the finances with the trip are concerned you are in good shape.  So sorry for your loss.

We've run into the same thing with our kids.  RC will not let them book excursions their insurance has limited the ages for.  You need to use your own judgement and determine if it is safe for them, and if so go on tripadvisor and find private tours that will duplicate the ship tours.  With kids, please be very cautious and do not ever try to override safety height/weight restrictions on rides or waterslides, but sometimes the cruise lines get their limitations wrong.  For example, some cruise lines don't let young children do any excursions with water.  But there are dolphin touch programs in which you sit in a platform with 2-3" of water and the dolphin comes up and you pet it.  That may be inhumane for the dolphin, but a 1 year old sitting on a parent's lap isn't in any more danger than they are when they take a bath in the tub so you can book that excursion privately.    

And we took a prearranged private tour in Belize, and they took us cave tubing and to the zoo and it was quite lovely.  We've sailed all over the world  with kids (St. Petersburg, Cartagena) and safely prearranged private tours everywhere, but Brazil would be one of the few destinations we'd take a ship tour or skip.

In Germany, you might want to consider the Schwerin castle if you are there on a. day other than Monday (we were there on a Monday so I can't personally recommend the Schwerin castle but you can look into it).  Warnemunde is a lovely town to walk around.   We had a 3 year old so didn't even consider making it to Berlin.

Talinn.  If you have mobility issues or kids, take a cab to the top of Tompea hill and wander around.  Otherwise you can walk to the top of Tomepea hill and then wander around the beautiful historic town.  Really an unexpected highlight for me.

Stockholm.  Get to the Vasa asap.  If you dock in the city, the HOHO boats might take you directly there prior to 10 am  (you'd need to check their schedule).  After the Vasa, there are a lot of lovely museums and interesting sites  in Stockholm.  You'll need to research what you are most interested in and make a plan to see that.   

Helsinki there's a public tram (used to be 2/3) that can take you to the rock church (Temppeliaukion ) and is a lovely ride around the historic parts of Helsinki.   You can pick it up near Market Square.  In Market Square, you should visit the stalls selling food and souvenirs and can take a ferry to Suomenlinna.  Nice ferry ride, nice fort/park to wander around.  I think there might be a feed reindeer experience near Helsinki but it might not have been around when I visited 10 years ago or I just missed it.  

21 hours ago, Eno said:

I’m on the May 10th cruise. Hubby had to have Flam for the train.  

It's a great train and I hope you have a lovely trip!  Just get there early to get good seats - most seats have a good view but a few don't so you want to line up a little early.

Please note that this year the seasonal road in Geiranger is opening today, May 16th, so sometimes mid may can work out!

If parents don't want to supervise their kids, they should leave them in the kids club.  The kids will be perfectly safe (and most kids will be really happy).  There are other lines that only close their kids club for one hour breaks at lunch and dinner - if the kids are driving people crazy all over the ship, then I'd recommend that you mention wanting more kids club hours in the post cruise surveys (currently RC kids clubs close from 12-2 and 5-7).  The parents should do their jobs and watch their kids (especially around the water) but some of them won't and the cruise line employees really don't get paid enough to deal with angry entitled parents, so if the kids clubs were open for more hours hopefully the parents who want to relax can put the kids there.  

2 hours ago, hallasm said:

 

Personally I would chose May 17.

Weather-wise, there aren't that many differences from May 10 to 17 - roads to viewpoints in Geiranger are probably closed throughout May.

The road to the highest viewpoint opens seasonally between Mid May and early June.  Our cruise left May 18th and we missed the Geiranger road opening by 2 days.  The other viewpoints in Geiranger were really lovely though.

I'd also vote for the May 17th date, with Olden, Geiranger and Flam having been my 3 favorite ports in Norway.  Alesund is much beloved on these forums, but I didn't have the chance to visit.  Have a great trip!

12 hours ago, Dobbers said:

We got our tickets from a guy stood just outside the ship, bus transfer was included.

You need a clear day for this trip or you won’t be able to see anything.

This is true.  We couldn't see anything from the furnicular in Bergen, which was fine since our kids still loved the ride and the playground on top but if we had paid the prices of the Loen Skylift for this  it would have been really disappointing.  It is a really expensive excursion if you can't see much.  I just have no idea if it ever sells out completely.

On 5/10/2024 at 1:04 PM, richard_london said:

Pleased the situation has been resolved.  I know a couple on a Cunard cruise I was on and they were doing back to back cruises, and for the second cruise they were bumped down from their balcony to an ocean view down on 1 deck (this was on the QE) because Cunard had a big (as in number of people) travel agency booking joining the ship.  They were as livid, as I'm sure you were.  So I don't think you are an isolated incident.

On 5/11/2024 at 8:45 AM, MCC retired said:

By comparison, Princess has a very generous move over program. I answer those e-mails immediately.

 

I completely agree . Princess often overbooks but offers ever increasing benefits for those who accept these "Move Over" offers until resolved. Cunard as part of Carnival Corp should do the same?

This,  Absolutely this.  It's totally fine for a cruise line to overbook as long as they are planning on taking responsibility when there are too few cancellations.   All you have to do today is send out an email to all of the balcony cabins and whomever contacts them first to take the offer gets it.  Even the original offer to this couple would have probably been sufficient for someone on this cruise - I'm sure someone on the ship would be happy to take a 50% refund in exchange for a downgrade in cabin (they could also throw in some free specialty meals to sweeten the offer easily).  Or offer someone a FCC.  There could also be people whose work situation changed or family situation arose and they'd want to cancel but didn't due to the significant penalties of cancelling late who might be fine with just cancelling the cruise altogether.    

4 hours ago, Alegeeter said:

Had the same question after the drama from this past season- summarized in the revolt post reposted above.

 

I think what all of us on a Star cruise in 2025 are worried about is NCL keeping Paradise Bay on the posted itineraries in their website and then changing it right after final payment, or even right before sailing like they did last year. Like others have mentioned, I wouldn't be upset to miss it if due to weather or some unforeseen reason we cannot get there. Keyword: unforeseen. However, if NCL knows the ship can't get there because of laws and limitations and are holding out on telling customers now who are

booking this trip because of Paradise Bay, that doesn't sit well with me. We are all looking for a little reassurance after what happened a few months ago before we commit to spending thousands on a cruise and flights.

In response to one of the other threads about cancellation after final payment, a poster stated that they no longer book NCL cruises in advance, and only book close to sailing at a discount price so if the itinerary changes after final payment for a nonemergency reason they won't be upset.  This seems like a really wise strategy to consider about booking with NCL, but  unfortunately, with a bucket list trip like to Antarctica, the last minute airfare prices would make it extremely difficult to utilize this strategy.

3 hours ago, kearney said:

Great idea... we are still 3+ months away... today is a good day for DH... so we are on again...but I need to have a plan should that change.

So glad!  I hope he is able to make it and you both have a wonderful cruise, but if not please go by yourself and enjoy.  Your conscience is completely clear.

I know the OP is aware of this, but for others please note:  

Please make sure you review this prior to booking:  

Call RC and see what the status of the handicapped rooms are.  The other rooms may have already been released depending on how close you are to sailing.  IF they tell you to keep the room, when you board you can go to the front desk and leave them a message telling them you'd be willing to switch if someone is injured while on the cruise or contacts them telling them they need a handicapped cabin.  You didn't try to deliberately game the system, so if RC cannot redistribute your cabin you should just keep it with a clear conscience.  

The one way cruises leaving from Vancouver have stronger itineraries.  Doing a roundtrip from Seattle saves you the longer flight from Anchorage though.  

 Traditionally, HAL and Princess had the strongest programs in Alaska, and Princess is a great family line for if the kids can go without waterslides.  Princess brings puppies on board to play with, and has a naturalist to teach the kids about Alaskan wildlife.  We were really happy with our princess cruise.

RCL might be another good line if your kids want waterslides, and lots of other kid amenities.  

I'd be cautious with NCL because of the itinerary change issues but its totally up to you.

The most important amenity you need to consider is if you require drop off care for your child.  If so, for 18 month olds all Disney ships and most RC ships have a fee based nursery (the only RC ships without a nursery are Jewel, Adventure or Explorer of the Seas®.).  Hours are not guaranteed (but I think you can book Disney ahead of time).  Cunard has free childcare for children aged 6 months -23 months from 6 pm to 11 pm, but their website states that this service is not guaranteed on all Cunard voyages.  Please note that the Cunard kids drop off kids club starts at age 2 (along with Carnival) but Cunard allows babies from 6-23 months to attend daytime kids club sessions with parental supervision.  Precovid, Princess also allowed children under 3 to attend the kids club with parental supervision (you'd need to confirm if this is still the case).  Princess did a really good job of helping my 2 year old play and complete the daily arts and craft activities so we just needed to be in the kids club but could sit in a chair and read.  Princess has a great kids club and is a really good option to consider for families with young kids.  Older kids might miss the lack of water slides, but it's a great family line for younger children.

The other amenity to consider is a splash pad.  Please note that most ships do not have splash pads that children in swim diapers can safely use.  All Disney ships have splash pads.  The following RC ships have splash pads that children in diapers can use : Adventure, Allure, Anthem, Freedom, Harmony, Independence, Liberty, Oasis, Ovation, Odyssey, Quantum, Spectrum, Symphony and Wonder.  

The other option is to wait until your child is 24 months, and eligible for free drop off care on Cunard or Carnival or (I think P&O).  Please note that we have sailed Cunard twice with children, and it is a very formal line.  

I would strongly recommend booking private tours with a young child so you can control the itinerary.  Just carefully check their refund policy prior to booking, especially on NCL since there have been issues with itinerary changes after final payment so you'd need to make sure the private tours are refundable.  

My three favorite ports were Geiranger, Olden and Flam.  You'd get two of them on Cunard.  Flam is really lovely, but on any of those days you might have tough weather that makes it hard to appreciate the spectacular beauty of Norway, so on the Cunard cruise you have two shots at clear weather so you would be able to appreciate the most beautiful fjords.   If you do chose the HAL cruise, make sure you plan to do both the Flam railroad and Stegastein Viewpoint (if the weather is clear you can go to the viewpoint.  You should do the railway either way - we went with some rain/cloud cover and the railway was still lovely).

I've sailed Cunard and HAL twice (heaven help me both times on Cunard and once on HAL with small children).  I don't necessarily recommend either line for kids, but if you aren't crazy enough to bring kids with you on those lines, Cunard  is a lovely line with excellent food.  I actually prefer Cunard to HAL.  They do generally  take formal night quite a bit more seriously on Cunard than HAL, with dress codes applying to most of the ship, but I throw on an ordinary black dress and given the fact that I am chasing small kids no one said anything (on the second Cunard cruise I went all out and put a sparkly silver belt that did not match my ordinary day dress at all but at least was an attempt at the black tie required for Xmas/New Years Celebration). 

This is a pretty good itinerary.

And the thread title is hilarious.  

Hopefully all the nudists will have a. great time!

36 minutes ago, hallux said:

 “Never before have we ever missed catching a ship on time at a port. So we are not someone who abuses the system.”

The ship doesn't know if they're on-time people or habitual 'offenders'.  They took a risk, they calculated incorrectly, they eventually got back to the ship. 

 

Right.  It's not about abusing the system.  It's about the fact that sometimes the ship has some slack in its schedule and can wait for latecomers and other times (port schedules, tides) there is no slack in the system.  I hope that a ship will wait for passengers when it can, but when they can't they need to go.  I only take ship tours when I can't avoid them, and if I ever miss the ship on a private excursion it will be my responsibility and I will understand they can't always wait for me (or anyone else) if its the first time or the 100th time I'm late.

 I was only late once on my first cruise (the tour operator chose to wait for a family that was late instead of starting our tour on time, and was calling the ship tours operators as we were out to gauge how much time we had to return.  The ship tours were running late too, so they weren't holding the ship for us (we returned late but before the ship tours), but if we had missed the ship it would have been our fault.  We travel with kids now, so we book private tours for just our family and return with plenty of time to spare so barring an emergency this should never happen again to us but if it does, it will be our responsibility to meet the ship at the next port or make our way home.

35 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Here are the reasons they gave on our Prima cruise from London (Southampton) to Reykjavik

 

Before the cruise they cancelled Zeebrugges for Brugge saying there would be an extremely low tide of 1 foot.

 

During the cruise they cancelled Isafjordur, Iceland due to the dock not being ready yet. They did this every single Prima cruise this past summer.

 

And the port after Zeebrugges was Amsterdam. They told us we would also go there later in the afternoon on what had been scheduled as the Zeebrugges day. That also got cancelled according to them for rough seas.

Currently, the Icelandic government is stating that they hope the dredging work will be completed by this summer.  The Prima is scheduled to dock there again, so hopefully either the dredging will be complete soon or NCL will arrange for outside tenders if their life boats can't be used for tenders.

4 hours ago, N-8 said:

I was going to start perusing cruise lines boards to see if they are having similar issues. Not bailing on NCL yet but there seems to be trend of them cancelling/modifying stops right close after the final deposit is paid. 

I primarily view RC, Princess and Cunard's forums and their cancellations (as far as I can tell) are  due to emergencies.  RC is actually currently having a rough go of it - they had a ship home ported in Baltimore, which obviously needed to be moved through no fault of theirs, and another ship is currently experiencing a very significant propulsion issue, and they have cancelled all stops in Labadee (RC's private resort in Haiti) for safety concerns.  Not NCL "safety" concerns like cancelling Costa Rica and adding Acapulco, but legitimate level 4 state department travel advisory we need to evacuate all nonessential personnel safety concerns.  While I may question the ability of RC's top brass to make good decisions in terms of where to invest their money in building a private resort, none of these cancellations concern me about booking with them.   The cruise ship contracts need to have flexibility so cruise lines can prioritize safety, and I fully support all of RC's decisions in redeploying their ships.  But I don't support how NCL has communicated with their customers and I certainly would prefer a reinstitution of a fuel surcharge over cancelled ports for fuel efficiency.     

20 hours ago, tammyjw305 said:

We do not dock in Olden, but dock in Nordfjordeid instead. The tour that I found went to Briksdal, like those from Olden, but from Nordfjordeid. This tour's meeting point only looks available in Olden. Let me know if I'm wrong. Public transportation sounds good for the affordability; however, I would also be concerned since you mentioned the availability/full buses. 

 

Tammy

I travelled 7 years ago, so my information on the public bus may be totally out of date.  7 years ago it sometimes filled up and left tourist behind.  One other option is to contact Olden Adventures and the company John Bull mentioned and ask them if they have any tours/transportation from Nordfjordeid when ships dock there.  

Please also note that the Brisdkdal Glacier has been hit hard by global warming, and might not be the best destination if you are looking for an amazing glacier.  I was very glad to have gone, as the bus ride there was lovely, there was a troll car to get us most of the way there and my 2 year old was able to handle the short remaining hike to the glacier.  It was a beautiful hike and a very lovely spot where the glacier was, but if you are expecting a huge glacier you might be disappointed.  If you are expecting a minor glacier, you might be very happy.

Also, I went to the Loen Skylift 4 days after its opening, so there were no ship tours running there then, but it definitely is no longer a secret and I've read on these forums of people talking about possibly there being lines on clear days.  It was quite spectacular (even thought it was a little rainy/cloudy on the day we visited) but I don't know about the current crowd level there.