Willow1686

Amo mondo

I hurled caution to the winds and tried getting more info for you on the Dubai cruise; it says there are variable solo supplements so ring your travel agent to get a quote. This may be tricky from Hong Kong, but it's a possibility if you are still interested...

The sound you can hear is e, whimpering...

Sorry, that should have been me, but I'm still whimpering.:mad:

Divina 13 Dec 2014, $229 B1 Balcony guarantee, seven nights, Miami.

The sound you can hear is e, whimpering...

Fingers crossed.

 

Just bit an email about late deals including flights for the orchestra 7 night sailing out of Dubai. No idea what the final price for a solo would be as they are detecting that I'm not in the UK just now so want to redirect to their global site. Very annoying. There should be an option to tick a box to say I'm from the UK and will be returning to the UK! By the time I get back, ypthe offer will have sold out or expired:(

 

Nevr mind I'm enjoyingbthe flights of HK instead

I did a trial run on your behalf and ground to a halt; there are no cabins available for single passengers on this promotion. It may be different for you because you are a frequent sailor, but for someone clicking on the email and going through the booking process there's zilch.

Glad you are having fun in HK; a friend is in the Mama Mia touring show there and he tells me that they know how to party:)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/ebola-travel-ban-unprecedented/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

 

I think if I were to start mass hysteria and paranoia it would be about Hep C, tuberculosis, HIV, influenza, and pneumonia. All spread by direct contact, can have longer incubation periods, and together they kill MILLIONS each and every year. I don't think airlines or cruise ships scan for any of them.

 

I fly October 30 and board the Dream on November 2nd.

I think that's an immensely sensible attitude; last December I was on a cruise including The Gambia and Senegal, and my passport shows my admission stamps there. Since then I've cruised from San Diego without any more than the usual hassle.

Senegal has had one case of Ebola in the current outbreak; if they want to ban people who have been in West Africa then presumably they should ban me, even though it was 10 months ago, and I am perfectly fit, given the current claims about possible incubation periods far in excess of 21 days.

This is, in my view, downright silly!

I hope I am not being overly cynical about this, but I think the CDC is trying desperately to defend its own reputation, given that they seem to have been pretty sloppy about the measures they put in place when they knew that they had an Ebola case in Texas.

People are, perfectly legitimately in my view, critical about the apparent lack of sensible leadership, and the news that they are now not sure when the second nurse became ill -and therefore contagious- suggests that the CDC may have been making assumptions which may endanger a lot of people.

There's also the fact that Belize is a member of the British Commonwealth; HM Elizabeth II is, of course, a constitutional monarch but neither she nor the Belizan government jump when the USA tells them to, and the Belize government is clearly unwilling to let any possible source of infection into its remarkable and unique eco structure.

In the USA official statement it says that it is acting in an abundance of caution in wanting to repatriate the passenger; the Belize official statement says that it too is acting with an abundance of caution in refusing to allow the passenger to travel via their airport. It appears that they agree with both Alex and Sidari that there is more to this than meets the eye...

Related: Americans avoid air travel as Ebola spreads

 

I am not avoiding air travel. I will be flying to that war zone of Turkey (bordering Syria, Iran and Iraq) for our long-planned 'land cruise' on Tuesday.

 

It is not air-travel Americans should avoid, it is sex.

According to the CDC:

'Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes in, for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth) with. blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola.'

The problem is that once someone becomes infectious, and as the illness progresses, the body produces massive amounts of fluids as the virus attempts to leave its host in search of new ones. Trying to avoid those fluids is a great deal more difficult than it may seem, just as distinguishing it from Noro in the early stages is a great deal more difficult than it may seem.

I can certainly see why Belize might be worried, but I am sure that Carnival will do a great job sterilising the ship; it's a great deal easier to do that for Ebola than for Noro...

A very good point.

 

The graphs I have seen for Ebola point to it still growing exponentially. It is not under control at all. Transmission, however does require contact with 'bodily fluids'. Let me tell you in confidence that I don't do that sort of thing and I expect I will be safe on my future travels.

And neither do I; unfortunately sometimes one doesn't have a choice about being exposed, in much the same way that one doesn't have a choice when a very drunk passenger throws up in the lift. Suffice it to say that the only firm plans my daughter and I have made involve the Eurostar and the Paris-Venice sleeper train :)

I agree that they are hoping to do that; I suspect, however, that it's unlikely to work. There are many sophisticated people in the USA but the market as a whole seems to be more risk averse than in Europe. Add that to a fairly hazy grasp of geography and people will be convinced that Ebola must be rife in the Mediterranean because it's next to Africa.

Oddly enough, I was discussing this last night with my daughter, who's a doctor; the initial symptoms of Noro are pretty close to the initial symptoms of Ebola. I am happy to risk my neck doing water sports on a tall ship voyage but the prospect of being on board one of the mega ships with people who fib on the medical questionnaire looks distinctly unattractive.

I hope that there is contingency planning :D

Tigernut, did you know beforehand that an extra level of dressing was requested? I'd have been caught out otherwise!

It's worth bearing in mind that all good European restaurants demand a level of formality which goes way beyond the Azamara dress code, so if you want to dine out, be prepared.

As for the Monaco Yacht Club, I recently came back from a Star Flyer cruise based in Monaco, and two of my fellow passengers whom I got to know are members of Monaco Yacht Club; as members they were able to visit it during the day, before we left for the airport, wearing very smart resort casual. Evenings gear it up considerably...

And they are taking the more southerly route across the Atlantic which is an added bonus :D

I'm sorry you are having such rotten weather; I was on Star Flyer last week out of Monaco and we stayed overnight at St Tropez for Les Voiles. There was one thunderstorm at night but we had just about perfect weather for the entire week. I hope it improves for you...

As far as I know there is no discount for single - you have to pay for 2 per cabin. We recently had the offer of upgrade to YC if you bought a S3 suite. We are already in a suite so was going to try for it. Unfortunately, my mother could not get a cabin upgrade with single supplement so it made it too expensive for her.

Janet and Carl

MSC wouldn't let me book a Yacht Club cabin at any price for a cruise in the Mediterranean; they had made a policy decision not to allow solos in the Yacht Club.

They have apparently changed their minds on this but I was pretty miffed with them :D I ended up doing the last leg of a Fred Olsen world cruise instead of a MSC repo, had a back to back on the Aegean Odyssey with Voyages to Antiquity, and have just come back from a week on the Star Flyer out of Monaco visiting Les Voiles de St Tropez.

The Star Flyer is a real yacht - maximum 170 passengers - and I was utterly hooked on the tall ship experience, so my bank manager is still suffering. I do hope you all have a wonderful cruise, even if you're not in the Yacht Club!

I was on the Balmoral for the last leg of the world cruise this year, coming from San Diego, down the west coast and through the Panama Canal, round the Carribean and then across the Atlantic home to England; I had a great time!

It's not a big ship and it's traditional in its outlook; I agree with Parsman that it's a ship for grown ups. It's also a ship for people who enjoy being at sea; I get the impression with the huge new ships that they're designed for people who don't want to know that they are afloat :D

I'm in the 'some are past their sell by dates' camp on the cabaret as well; there was a very noticeable gap between the very good and the frankly pretty awful acts, but this is a very personal thing. I advise sitting at the back so you can make a discreet exit should the need arise.

I also enjoy the fact that there are no hard sell tactics; I have been on cruises where people would harass you all the time to buy things. It's not their fault because it's imposed by management but it's impossible to relax when people are constantly in your face; Fred Olsen doesn't do that.

If you're looking for interesting itineraries then again I would recommend the Balmoral; I very much enjoyed the visit to Acapulco where we were treated like royalty. The big cruise lines had dumped Acapulco because of perceived pickpocketing but since I live in a large city I automatically take precautions anyway; I find it difficult to sympathise with people who wander around with their wallets in their back pockets and then complain when they predictably lose their wallet. There were large numbers of the tourist police around and one very kindly stopped the traffic so I could cross the road; I doubt that I will ever again have that happen again :)

Skipper Tim

Strange as it may seem to you, the menus on Star Flyer are different for every meal and there are six courses at dinner with multiple choices. Admittedly, there are only 160 passengers, which makes inspecting said choices a great deal easier; it wouldn't be viable on big ships but it was exceedingly useful when careful reading of the English, French and German menus still left us completely baffled as to what it was.

Lots of wine helps just about everything...

I have yet to sail with MSC, having got very cross with them when they refused to allow me to travel in the Yacht Club as a solo at any price in the summer, but I've really enjoyed reading this thread; a lot of helpful information, together with good humoured repartee to those cruisers determined to go down to the garden and eat worms.

I've just come back from the Star Flyer, where everything is in German, English and French, though there are people from countries beyond that; I met a wonderful couple from Sweden.

It's therefore found an unique way of getting round the menu problem. They put out sample plates of all the main dinner dishes in the late afternoon so we can see what they actually look like before ordering! I thought that exceeding clever of them...

Well, this is very strange. I have just returned from the Star Flyer's Les Voile de Saint Tropez voyage, and nobody suggested that the crew rely on tips alone. We were given the suggested level of tipping and the choice of paying via onboard account or cash in envelopes separately for cabin stewards and waiters.

The only thing we were asked not to do was to tip in cash to individuals; the tips go into a pool to be shared out. Both cabin stewards and waiters were remarkably cheerful, and there was certainly no sense that they were worried about the issue.

I have been on other ships also with voluntary tipping where the crew did look worried as the voyage came to an end; it's not an enjoyable experience...

I am most definitely not a cheer leader for Azamara, but even I am shocked by Azamara's willingness to undermine Nicole with this nonsense.

I have absolutely no doubt that she has been put into an impossible position; the announcement was announced and yet, at 00.37, ie past midnight in England, nothing has appeared.

That really isn't fair to a new team member, building relationships with customers.is what it's all about. I'm so sorry that it's gone down the tubes...

+1

I am leaving for our cruise in AM and am anxiously awaiting the news. I hope it won't be 6 months in coming, like the last one :D

I am very far from being a cheer leader for Azamara but even I did not expect that there would be no statement issued, notwithstanding the promise to do so.i do hope that something will come through for you, paulchilli!

How exciting! As a small boat sailor, those sails look terrifying. I trust the guests are not required to hoist and set them.

 

Yes, let's hope for some sensible solo fares from MSC, even at short notice, in 2015.

Passengers are sometimes allowed to help :) depending on conditions but most of the hoisting is mechanised; there's an awful lot of sails to go up! We're spending the last two days in St Tropez because it's the regatta 'Les Voiles'; Thursday is a lay day so we can mill around with everyone else, and then there should be some interesting racing on Friday.

I do sympathise with everyone who has made different plans but would have liked the Repo if they'd priced it sensibly in the first place; judging from Skier52's bargain, MSC has got a very empty ship. We'll have to hope that they have learned their lesson...

Hi

I've a last minute booking on the Star Flyer doing the round trip Monte Carlo to Monte Carlo; I'm very much looking forward to it.

I'm aware that I need to take hair conditioner with me; can anyone add other essential items to the list?

Best wishes to all!

Thanks for flagging this up; I too am booked elsewhere, but, having done the itinerary in reverse, I would have been interested if they had been sensible about the pricing in the first place and refrained from excluding solos from the Yacht Club. :D

I have nothing at all booked for 2015 so I will join you in hoping that good sense prevails in pricing their repos next year. In the meantime I am preparing to grapple with Easyjet en route to Monte Carlo and the Star Flyer; Skipper Tim's exploits under canvas having fired my nautical zeal...

Well, I'm back! A little later than I intended because I stayed on for the next cruise; even with an amended itinerary people cancelled the Black Sea voyage in droves, thus presenting me with a delightfully economical opportunity.

I shall write about it elsewhere but I wanted to express my gratitude to you all for your invaluable advice re MSC and the Italian approach to queuing; we were in Santorini along with the Fantasia and a couple of other ships. You can imagine the vast hordes of people trying to get the funicular down from Thira.

I took one look and walked straight past them all to the ticket desk, waved my voucher, ignored a couple of complaining Australians, and was down at the quay ten minutes later :D

I'd probably still be there without your assistance...

We are booked on the Venice to Athens cruise. May be we can meet on board.

That would be great!

Well, I'm happy to say that we've got off to a great start in the King George Hotel here in Athens and I'm looking forward to boarding tomorrow; perhaps we'll meet on some occasion!