brgreens

You know, one would think that an outfit like RC could figure out exactly what to allow and not allow. They sure know that passengers are trying to be proactive in addressing their needs for charging a lot of devices. 

It could be as easy as "no device with any surge protection; devices which only expand the number of outlets are acceptable". But I'm just a little ol' Pre-Gold noob. What do I know?

Reading through this entire thread, I keep wondering how RC could have done this better. The extreme (which I thought OP was getting to) would be to dry-dock for a week while getting Solarium back in business. Extreme wouldn't begin to describe it.

How far in advance do the lines announce cruise dates? How far in advance do people start booking? We booked ours about 10 months out, and I thought that was overdoing it.... until I heard about a 1-2 year runup for some. 

If they pulled the ship, that's Xthousand passengers who either have to be refunded or rebooked, and where would that happen? On top of all the other booked-up ships? How about the many hundreds of crew?

It stinks, and I would not want to have been in OP's position (and hope I won't be in May). But it was/is a fair topic for discussion, so here we are.

We'll be docking in Geiranger, Norway on May 17 next year -- and May 17 is Norway's national holiday. I've seen lots of travel content elsewhere about how much they turn out for parades, and how shops get closed.

Has anyone been on a Norway cruise during this time frame, and what was your experience with the port? Wondering if there will be any difficulty doing excursions or shopping and dining.

Couldn't find anything helpful in the Cruise Compass library.

It's back up, but .....   The landing page where they promote the sale-of-the-day on "cruise favorites" is gone. And The Key is nowhere to be found.  Weird.

44 minutes ago, wordell1 said:

Gratuities are semi mandatory.

You can either prepay or be charged a daily rate per person based on the rate for your room (suites are higher)

You do have the option of going to guest services onboard and have the tip charges removed.  There are some who do this and tip individuals directly, and other who do this to avoid the tips entirely.  You would not have this option if you choose My Time Dining.

THIS. My confusion was that "prepaid" and "opt out" are at entirely different times - before sailing and during sailing. 

We had not planned on opting out, just took advantage of locking in the slightly lower rate beforehand.

Thanks for the clarification. 

I was looking through info on the app, and found this (to me) conflicting info for our cruise:

Guests who prepaid gratuities prior to boarding will not have a daily charge onboard. 

Please note that guests using My Time Dining may not opt out of gratuities.

We have gratuities prepaid, and have selected My Time dining. So ... which is it? Or both? 

Along the same lines(-ish) -

Is it feasible to disembark at Southampton, and make it to Heathrow for US-bound flights the same day? Most of them cap at around 2pm for the latest, avoiding the dreaded "+1".  We are still a ways out, but trying to get arms around what's reasonable, time-wise.

(Mods, drag this elsewhere if necessary. )

We're planning the 7-night fjords cruise on Anthem in May 2023. I have to say that what got us to even start thinking about it was the host of YouTube drone footage from pros and amateurs alike. (continually picking up jaw from floor)

So.... I did a lot of reading and it looks like Norway is pretty strict about drones with cameras (even small ones), and they require both a license and liability insurance. I mean, we're talking about maybe $200-300 just to be allowed to fly it. And don't even talk about how particular they are on the actual flight restrictions.

Does anyone here have any experience or comments to share? 

First time to cruise since we got married 38 years ago!