canuck059

A few years ago, we bought OBC partly because of a favorable exchange rate on the Can dollar. Rather than register a cc, we used the OBC as a deposit against any charges.  When we went to Guest Services the last night to claim the remainder, they insisted they couldn't give it to us and a cheque would be mailed to us.  The only way they would have given cash back was if we had of deposited cash (rather than OBC) into our account at the beginning of the cruise.  My cheque eventually showed up 6 weeks later.  DH's required a phone call before it was mailed.

8 hours ago, llarsen said:

Hi! Thanks for the information.

Can you give me an idea for what time you took the train from Messina to Taormina-Giardini? And what time you returned? Also, did you walk to the Messina train station? Thank you!

 

The train station was about a 10 min walk from our ship.  We caught the 9:15 train to Taormina and arrived there at 10:00.  A bus was waiting in the parking lot at the train station and left ~15 min later.  We then caught another bus from Taurmina to Castelmola.  After admiring the view for ~30 min we walked down the Sentiero dei Saraceni back to Taurmina.  We wandered down the main street, visited the Teatro Greco and Villa Communale.  From there it was ~30 min walk back down to the train station.  We took the 4:10 train back to Messina and had enough time for a quick look at the Cathedral and clock tower in Messina on the way back to the ship for a 5:30 all aboard.

If you aren't interested in going to Castelmola, you would have 4 1/2 hours in Taurmina and maybe a bit more if you took a taxi back to Taormina-Giardini rather than walking.

We took the train on our own from Messina to Taormina-Giardini.  There was a bus waiting at the train station that we took up to Taormina for ~€2.  It let us off just outside the city gate Porta Messina.  On the way back, we just walked down the trail to the train station (You can see it on Google Maps....it starts just outside the public gardens).   Everything went smoothly and it was ALOT cheaper than the cruise line excursion.

 The schedule for the bus can be found here: https://www.interbus.it/taormina/  Search for Taormina to Giardini.  There looks to be a bus every 30 min.

I booked a cruise on the US MSC site in January and they have refused to transfer it to my Canadian travel agent.  I'm currently trying to get it transferred to a US agency but no word yet...

Can anyone recommend a tour operator that goes to Timanfaya? I will be in Lanzarote November 8, 2017 from 10 am to 6 pm aboard Rhapsody of the Seas. I am a little scared to rent a car- always nervous about a car breaking down and not getting back before the ship sails. Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

We used Blackstone Treks and Tours. Our group of 8 did the 'Discover Lanzarote Grand Tour' and we saw Timanfaya National Park, Cueva de Los Verdes, lunch at a viewpoint near Haria, a market in Teguise and a wine sampling at a La Geria winery. The island is very different from the other Canary Islands and well worth a tour.

A group of 8 of us did the 'Discover Lanzarote Grand Tour' with Blackstone Treks a couple of years ago. It was an excellent overview of the island and we never felt rushed. Our guide timed our tours of different sites so that we avoided the large tour buses.

Thanks. I've seen two ads - Huna Outfitters and Icy Strait Kayak Company - which seem to be the same company. Their website no longer is working. I've tried FB messaging but haven't heard back yet....

Susan

Does anyone know if there is somewhere we can rent kayaks in Icy Strait for independent paddling rather than a tour?

Thanks

When we took the 6:45am train for a Celebrity cruise a number of years ago, we arrived at the Anchorage train station to find that the cruise line had set-up so you could check your bags there and they would deliver them to the ship. We booked the train independently (not a ship tour) so were not expecting this but it was wonderful not having to deal with luggage in Seward.

We found the 6:45am train to be fine even if we had to be there early. We had flown in the day before so were still on east coast time!

Canuck059

I noticed that today when I looked at the exchange did seem better than current exchange rates. Does it go by the rates from when we booked it? Or does it fluctuate with the bank rates and change all the time

I believe it goes by the rate when you book it. There is an extensive thread here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2215730

You can also prepay gratuities and anything you can book on-line (specialty dining, shore excursions, etc) to get the same favourable exchange rate, and then have OBC for your other on-board expenses.

Susan

I noticed today on NCL website a section for purchasing gifts. You're able to purchase onboard credit gift certificates. Anyone ever use or buy these? Thinking of buying them for ourselves as a way to have some spending money by the time we get on board. Would love to hear from someone who has used them. thanks:)

You MAY also get a better exchange rate buying OBC than paying $US onboard... If you booked in $Can, and booked awhile ago when the exchange rate was more favourable. In our case, we can buy $100OBC for $119Can which is better than the bank exchange rate. We then use the OBC for all of our on-board expenses.

Susan

...(and counting on the ship to retrieve the passports prior to departure if the ship is missed). .

This seems to be a common misconception. When asked directly, the Captain on a previous cruise said they do NOT do this. It is not worth the liability of opening a passengers safe. And what if the passenger is actually on the ship but missed scanning in? Perhaps some cruises do this, but please don't assume your passport will be left if you miss the ship.

That said, at most ports you don't need to carry them with you. We feel comfortable doing so, after all that's what we have them for. When we went swimming with the turtles, we put them in a waterproof pouch around out necks which worked wonderfully. The pouches are available on-line or at any travel store.

Susan

Hi all,

 

I am aware that the Moroccan dirham is a closed currency so would need to get my cash whilst there.

Despite it being a closed currency, I have found currency exchange offices in Toronto ON Canada that have Dirhams so perhaps you can get some before you cruise.

Susan

I had organized a tour for 24 with BestofEphesus a couple of years ago. We had agreed to 2 groups of 12 but when we arrived they had sent 3 guides so we were able to have 3 smaller groups of 8. The guides were wonderful and very knowledgeable. The vans looked brand new. While we had a general itinerary planned, each guide tailored it to their group ie some wanted to go to the House of Mary, others wanted an authentic Turkish meal, etc. No one was interested in carpets, so we didn't go to the factory. In fact, when a man approached us about buying carpets, our guide quickly told him not to bother us! We had a series of misadventures that day from an accident blocking the road to Sirinse to a large demonstation at the port but our guides handled it all with professionalism and a smile. I would highly recommend this company.

Susan

In Barcelona there will be stacks of taxi's from 6am onwards - what time is your flight? I've found the NCL transfers in the past to be a bit slow to get moving... last year the NCL transfer was $30, but only for flights after 10:30am.

 

(I do only have experience of epic, which docks extremely early...)

The set price for a taxi to the airport is 39 euro for up to 4 passengers and includes the port, airport and baggage fees.

 

If you are in on an extremely busy port day waits between 8 AM and 9:30 AM might get up to 30 minutes in the taxi line. Earlier taxis are usually with almost no wait at all.

 

A transfer vehicle will be just about double the taxi fare.

Thanks for your replies. We are on the Epic and have OBC so even at $30US it will work out cheaper to wait and purchase them onboard rather than buy in Can$ if we decide to go that route.

Our flight is at 10:15 which I knew was cutting it close but there weren't any later flights that didn't involve a overnight in an airport somewhere along the way...and even that one will require an overnight stay before driving the rest of the way home the next day.

We are on a B2B so I'll check out the taxis on our changeover day but it looks like the best option would be to self-disembark as early as we can and get a taxi. I thought it might be less worrisome to have something pre-arranged but you're not making the NCL option sound any better.

Susan

Has anyone bought the NCL port to airport transfers lately? We have an early flight and some have posted that taxis are not necessarily available immediately early in the morning. The UK website is quoting £12o/w pp (~$25 Can); the EU site is quoting €20 (~$29 Can) but the US site doesn't have a price listed. When my TA inquired, they wanted $40 Can. At that much, I might as well book a private transfer. I was just wondering what the price would be in US$ if I waited until we were on-board to buy them. Thanks

Just curious if any Canucks have booked directly with NCL lately for 2016 cruises and what their exchange rate is? With the dollar being horrific, I'm just curious as to what NCL is now offering.

This week, I had the misfortune of NCL mistakenly cancelling my reservation. When my TA phoned to correct this, all they did was rebook. I now have a exchange rate of 1.19 instead of my original 1.11.

The ship personnel would have likely entered her cabin and retrieved her passport and credit cards from the safe if available and left them with the port agent.

Has anyone actually experienced this? While I was on a Celerity cruise, someone asked the Captain about this and he replied they didn't open passenger safes because of the liability involved if something went missing.

I paid my cruise in cad... I bought a 25 OBC 3 days ago and on my master card charged 25 cad.... So what you say about use is not true.

That's interesting. They did it the way I described when I bought OBC in March. Did you book your cruise earlier when the $Can was closer to par?

When you purchase OBC in cad... Let say I bought $100 and bought something on board for $10. Does the enhance rate reflect at time of purchase? So my balance would be approx $86 instead of $90 or it doesn't? I am confuse to when the rate takes in effect. And how often does NCL update their rate?

If you bought $100 OBC, you would be charged $110 Canadian (or whatever NCL's current exchange is). The OBC is US$. If you bought something on board for $10, your balance would be $90US. In other words, the rate takes effect on the initial purchase of the OBC.

I also purchased OBC today at $1.11 (the rate at which I booked back in April) and had confirmed that whatever I did not use would be credited back to my card at the same rate.

I'm not sure about NCL but on RCCL we did not link our credit card to our account ie it was a 'cash' account with our prepaid OBC. At the end of the cruise they refunded US cash (which we then used to pay for our after-cruise hotel, etc). This should work out better than crediting it back at the same rate.

Also, because it was a 'cash' account we could withdraw US cash from the casino without the 3% service fee anytime after the first night. Once you link the credit card, even if you are using OBC, you pay the service fee at the casino. (You can always link the CC after you have used up your OBC if you need more money)

Susan

We bought OBC for our RCI cruise this spring for the same reason and it worked out well. In our case, we had a 'cash account' on board meaning no credit card info was linked to the account. Not only did we get unused cash back (US$) the last night but because we had a cash account, we were able to withdraw cash at the casino anytime after the first night without the (3%?) surcharge. I don't know if this applies to NCL also but you might want to inquire so that you can withdraw cash for spending on shore, etc. If you deplete your cash account, you can always give them credit card info then.

Its rare that I would book a ship's tour now. As others have said, for the same cost or less, you can have a private/small group tour. The roll call is an excellent place to put together small groups (Someone posts a tour they are interested in and asks others to join to fill a mini-van), although I've had more luck with this approach with European cruises rather than Caribbean. Don't forget that tour guides carry phones and if anything unforeseen happens (ie road closures, demonstrations, etc.) they are quickly made aware of the situation by their office/other guides and are able to avoid the problem. Their business depends on them being able to get you back to your ship in time. One bad review will impact a lot of future bookings Do your research, check the reviews and have a great cruise!

When we booked Epic in middle of May (through a Cdn TA in Cdn$) the difference in the cost worked out to a rate of 1.19. That still seems to be true today. However, I just had my TA call and ask what the DSC was in Cdn$. The answer $14.39/day. That is a rate of 1.11. A similar thing happened with our RCI cruise this spring - the cruise price (and excursions) seemed to be adjusted closer to market value whereas pre-paying DSC or buying OBC was at a better (older?) rate. That said, I'm prepaying my DSC now in Cdn$ (at 1.11)rather than have it charged in $US during the cruise. I haven't checked whether NCL will allow me to buy OBC to spend on the cruise at that rate yet.

When asking NCL about the rate of conversion, I've found it works better if you phrase it as "How much is the DSC in $Cdn? or How much will it cost in $Cdn to buy x$ OBC?" rather than "What exchange rate are you charging?"

Does anyone know what week spring break is for school children in PR? Is it the week before or after Easter?

Looks like it is March 30 - April 3, 2015

http://www.dodea.edu/Americas/NY-VA-PR/upload/Puerto-Rico-2014-2015.pdf

Unless you were thinking of colleges/universities - week of Apr 4

http://gobluetours.com/puerto-rico-spring-break-dates/