Dad2Cue

I just got the following notice regarding a cruise in Jan 2024 that says the following: Bahamas Tax Update The Bahamian government has implemented a change to their departure tax amounts for all cruise guests visiting the Bahamas on or after January 1, 2024. As a result, we will be updating your reservation with the new amount. Now my cruise is costing me $28 more.

It is hard for us to avoid flying unless we want to drive 2,000+ miles round trip. We would still need a hotel stay each way to break up the drive on top of $3.50 for a gallon of gas. All that being said, we still have 8 cruises planned for 2023 thru 2025. We now do B2B cruises so really only 4 cruises. Doing a B2B cruise cuts down on the travel expenses. We don't have to spend much once we are on the ship. Transportation, lodging, food and entertainment are mostly included at no additional expense.

More like $400 to $500 each way from Iowa which is further away than Michigan. That's per person and about double what it was one year ago. Toss in a rental car at $100 per day and roughly $250 per night for a hotel stay and it gets expensive in a hurry. The cruise itself isn't the bargain it used to be either.

This might be a deal breaker but I can live with the rest.

That's one of those things that "could happen" but I don't mention that to my wife!

Yes ... I have to admit Europe is more accessible by land and sea. Fifty years ago I did my best imitation of the characters in "The Drifters" by James Michener. I wasn't avoiding military duty though --- I was in the military. I love Europe but I'm glad I didn't have to storm the beaches of Normandy or parachute into France. Eastern Europe was somewhat off limits to me at the time I was in Holland. My wife and I adopted two girls from Romania later on in the 1990's.

As it currently stands we will be going all the way to Athens. That was my concession for my wife to agree to the TransAtlantic with a limited number of port stops. I would have been satisfied with getting off and staying in Barcelona for a couple of days before heading for home. Going to Holland is tempting because I lived there for 2 years. Holland seemed like home to me 50 years ago. I don't think our budget can afford another cruise so that might have to wait. However, I could justify a round-trip flight back to Europe in October for a TransAtlantic cruise home. I should look at a cruise home via the Arctic Circle but it could be cold. The logistics of traveling on land are daunting to me which is why we like cruising because there is time to relax. I guess this trip in May 2024 will test how many days of relaxation we can get from a long cruise. My wife thinks I don't transition well but I do all the planning so she doesn't need to think about all the things that could happen. We booked staterooms where the gym used to be. The staterooms on Voyager will be new and different. I couldn't get the same stateroom for both cruises so that might be a bit of a transition. My wife won't like changing rooms I'm pretty sure!

I'm excited about doing a TransAtlantic cruise B2B with an Eastern Mediterranean cruise. Except for an Alaskan cruise on Explorer many years ago I have never been on another Voyager class ship. We loved the Alaskan cruise but I wasn't enthralled with Explorer because I liked Freedom class so much at the time. I have now expanded my taste for Radiance class ships so size of the ship isn't that important to me. I think my main problem on Explorer was it wasn't well suited for Alaska in May. My question is whether or not Voyager will be good ship for a TransAtlantic and a total of 26 days of cruising. We enjoy 7 night B2B cruises but 26 days will be like B2B2B2B. Long cruises with many ports are enjoyable for my wife. I like the ship as the destination more than the ports so a TransAtlantic suits me well. The Eastern Mediterranean cruise is 9 ports in 12 days including Barcelona, Rome and debarking in Athens so my wife is thrilled. I know this is about personal preferences but I will be interested in any and all comments. Thanks

I like discounts and sales. I just know the price of a cruise is less when I enter my C&A number as compared to when I omit my C&A number. My C&A "discount" is always itemized so I'm happy with that. The discount appears to save me some money but it seems to vary depending on the cruise. I have a cruise that is getting close to the final payment date. I know my remaining balance was $500. When I logged on to make my payment I owed a balance of $486. I compared the numbers to my last receipt and the C&A discount was changed. All my discounts were changed for some unknown reason: CAS Balc Suite $350 instead of $326 30% Savings $1942 instead of $1950 Military Disc $454 instead of $456 I'm just happy that my Balance Due was $486 instead of $500

Was it a Delta problem or an A2S problem? My flight still shows up on the United website for the day before my cruise. Does A2S actually generate a reservation with the airline? I'm thinking A2S assigns a name to their allotment of seats. I guess the airline doesn't care who occupies the seat so maybe the airline put someone else in your seat. I have no idea how A2S works. I haven't even paid for my flight yet.

Maybe a B2B cruise is something to consider. If you go to the loyalty desk during the first cruise of the B2B, they can upgrade your status for the second cruise.

I was worried about flying into Houston on the day of the cruise. I sure hope you don't plan on flying into Amsterdam on the day of your cruise. My understanding is that Air2Sea contracts with a shuttle service of some kind . I'm wondering how seamless the transfer service will be for our cruise out of Galveston. Our plan is to fly into Houston (IAH) the day before our cruise. I was told that Air2Sea doesn't do hotel reservations. We plan on staying at an airport hotel because it would not make any sense to get a hotel in Galveston. The only thing we were told was that we would need to find our way back to the baggage claim area at IAH the morning of our cruise. There is supposed to be a "Royal Caribbean representative" with a sign who will direct us to the bus. I sure hope we will get better directions closer to the day of our cruise. I was told the last bus will depart IAH was 11 a.m. Something tells me it won't be easy finding the person with the sign and then finding our way to the bus.

This is especially true since I needed to find the flight I wanted on the airline website before calling A2S. I didn't really want to fly on the day of my cruise but that was all the A2S website showed. After booking with A2S you have to go back to the airline website to enter your frequent flyer and known traveler information. I also have to track prices on the airline website for any price decreases. I like that my airfare is included on my cruise invoice but not if the "refundable flight" comes with a cancellation penalty and A2S fee. I really want to give A2S a try and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. The quoted price on A2S was less. However, I won't get my first checked bag for free when I use my airline credit card. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion A2S isn't worth the hassle.

That sounds like a pitfall to me but don't worry ... A2S will rescue you. Going in the wrong direction and adding another stop in Newark, in the winter with lots of chances of winter weather, to get there might be out of Air2Sea's control.

My cruise is refundable. I assumed the $200 per person penalty was referring to the penalty for cancelling the cruise in addition to the flight. Do you have any idea what the A2S fee was in your case? They seem to leave out that bit of information in the policy as written. The information about my flight that I got from A2S says the my flight is refundable "with fee" but it doesn't disclose what the fee is. The airlines play this game with "flexible" and "fully flexible" fares. I hate future flight credits as much as future cruise credits but don't get me started. I have only cancelled a cruise during "cruise with confidence." Now I only book a cruise with a refundable deposit. I got burned once with a nonrefundable deposit. I didn't cancel the cruise but I changed the date. That was a $200 change fee but maybe it was $100 per person. I have no idea what happens if you cancel a cruise completely with a nonrefundable deposit. Do you lose your whole deposit or $200 per person or what?

As written, I think this policy could use a revision or scraped altogether. I elected to "pay later" but not this way. I didn't even provide them with a credit card number so I don't know how they would collect the penalty and fee. A $200 per person cancellation "penalty" and a "fee" on top of the penalty sounds really harsh to me. The flight I reserved was only $205 per person.

It seems you have to call them in order to do anything. I like my one-way ticket and since I haven't cruised out of Galveston before, I like that Air2Sea will provide some assistance if needed. I'm still learning the ropes with A2S ... what about the following that I found in FAQ. "What happens with the flight booked through Air2Sea if a guest cancels their cruise? If you are holding a refundable (with fee) flight reservation and need to cancel, you can do so at any time. You will be assessed $200 (plus the Air2Sea fee) as a cancellation penalty per guest; all other air money will be refunded." A2S said the flight was refundable but this negates any refund.

There doesn't seem to be any way to check the price on the Air2Sea website since I'm going one-way instead of round trip. I'm forced to do round trip and select the cruise ship and month. The only days I can choose are on the day of the cruise. They said I just needed to call directly and check with them. I had to take their word for it. The price on the airline website seemed to go down but the Air2Sea price was the same. The Air2Sea price was still less than what the airline listed. How do you check the Air2Sea price without having to call them?

It seems that you can. I got nervous too about arriving the day of the cruise. I rescheduled the flight to the day before and asked about the transfer to the cruise port. They said as long as I could make it back to baggage claim area on the day of the cruise, I would be transferred to the port. The flight on the day before the cruise was somewhat cheaper so I saved a bit going the day before. They don't do the hotel stay though.

I have ground transportation to the port reserved with Air2Sea too. Assuming my flight is on time and I collect my luggage and get to the bus ... everything is "guaranteed" by Air2Sea. Is this right?

I have never used Air2Sea because I would rather book my own flights a couple of days before the cruise. First time for everything because I'm doing a cruise out of Galveston which is another first for me. Is it true that the only flights that Air2Sea offers are on the same day as my cruise? I booked a one-way Air2Sea flight out of MIA to IAH on American Airlines the morning of my cruise with ground transportation to the cruise port. No worries ... right? I didn't reserve a return fight with Air2Sea because I plan to do the Space Center excursion with transfer to IAH. From IAH, I plan to go to New Orleans MSY on United Airlines. Can this flight be booked on Air2Sea too or does it have to be round trip to the same city that I departed from? Air2Sea says my one-way flight from MIA to IAH is guaranteed and refundable. What if I added on the return flight from IAH to New Orleans and repriced everything? Can this be done? I can't price it out on the Air2Sea website. It only shows round-trip fares to the same city. I can't seem to check for price drops on my one-way flight either. The only option on the website seems to be round-trips. I could book this same flight directly with American Airlines for a lower price but then I would worry about getting to the cruise port on time.

Same itinerary change on the Jewel southbound cruise in October. We will be skipping Bar Harbor and will stop in Boston instead. What is going on in Bar Harbor I wonder. I visited Acadia National Park a long time ago. I wanted to go to Acadia again but there is nothing wrong with Boston.

I'm not sure if this is pertinent or not. We were on a B2B cruise not too long ago. No covid test needed to board the cruise. We answered question #4 with "no" even though I have some of those symptoms all the time. My wife developed a runny nose and had "cold like" symptoms while on the first cruise of the B2B. We wanted to do the right thing and reported her symptoms. A non-monitored covid test was sent to our room with instructions to let the medical team know the result.. Fortunately my wife tested negative but she still needed to be seen by the doctor onboard. I thought for sure we would need to get off the ship since it was the last day of the first cruise of our B2B. My wife couldn't honestly say she didn't have runny nose, cough and sore throat 24 hours prior to the second cruise.. The doctor evaluated her and looked at her throat and said she had large tonsils. That was it! My wife wore a mask for a few days and her symptoms got better. We successfully completed the B2B.

This question came up on our recent cruise when we became Diamond Plus with 175 points. I asked the loyalty ambassador about the crystal block that I thought we would receive for getting to Diamond Plus. I explained to the ambassador that we didn't receive a crystal block when we reached Diamond level at 125 points because they were out of stock. I was confused because I thought the crystal blocks were awarded at the Diamond and Diamond Plus levels. The ambassador said that wasn't the case and the crystal blocks are awarded at the 140 point and 210 point levels. She added that "it would make more sense if they were awarded when a person reached Diamond and Diamond Plus" but that isn't when they are awarded. The good news was that the crystal blocks are now in stock across the entire fleet. The ambassador said she would be happy to order the crystal block that we should have received at the 140 point level. With the double points we received last year, we blew right by the 140 point level milestone so that wasn't too special. We decided to wait until we reached the 210 point level which should happen in 2024. However, I'm not sure we will be as excited about the 210 point level compared with being Diamond Plus though.

I have the same question. Maybe if this question gets recycled again there will be more responses.