Hi,

We had a fantastic time - just as everyone said we would.

Good food and drink and good company. Glorious weather.

We weren't upgraded but the cabin was fine for both of us.

Ayesha was excellent - we did all the ports on our own and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Jean and Steve

Welcome home Jean & Steve, so pleased you enjoyed it

Sorry if this has been covered before but with all the talk of DF on board can anyone tell me whether you can purchase booze (and ciggies) on the Opera for consumption in your cabin or is it the "Saturday Rule" on all MSC ships?

hi, i went on the opera in may and purchased bottles of spirits in the duty free shop on board. there was no problem taking them to the cabin. I also purchased bottles from shore and although they scan your bags they do not take it off you.
They sell spirits and martini etc in the shop on board but not wine or beer so i would buy it from ashore,
joe

Thanks joeandkev, nice to know that, providing my tickets arrive, I can have my apre's dinner slurp en suite...so to speak. Save me smuggling a bottle in disguised as some form of medical drip feed that I have to have on the hour!!

Unfortunately there are pickpockets in most of the places we tourists go.

My friend and her mother had a camera stolen heading into Naples from the Melody. They were crossing a road and a man leaned across my friend's mother to ask my friend the time.

She noticed he had a newspaper draped over his arm to disguise the fact he was rummaging in her mother's bag. Her mother didn't feel a thing, so it was lucky my friend worked out his game before he got more.

Usual rules apply - don't carry more than you need, be aware of the risks, but don't let it spoil your holiday.

On subject of drinks, on Armonia I brought drinks on board from ports and drank in cabin (chilled in minibar!) no problem, though didn't try duty free shop.

Is anyone awake

no posts for a full day

we need some good old fashioned humour back on the site

where is everyone

have the DE stopped people posting now
or has everyone gone on holiday and left me on my own
only 45 days to the flight from heathrow

Hi MIke

only 45 days to the flight from heathrow

Keep on counting! Not long now.

(You should still be counting sheep at this time of the morning!)

I'm only here as my 'puter is playing up and I'm trying to sort it before I go to work!!

I think everyone is waiting to see what DE are going to offer or just waiting ........ and waiting ............and waiting.

But we are still here to help when we can.

Alli

Fear not Mike,
We are still here! Still waiting around to wish you Bon Voyage! Heavens we are almost in to August already! It will whizz past and before you know it you will be running around like a daft thing wondering who pinched your packing time! Well that's what happened to me anyway! It is also now in to the holiday period so undoubtedly a lot of people are off sunning themselves! This month will be very quiet on the confirmed DE cruise front too. We don't have anyone going until the end of August now! There are only 2 intrepid sailors on the high seas until Monday and then nothing for the following four weeks!

The silence from the DE is deafening isn't it! There has been no movement on the New Cruise front since May which is very rough on those waiting for news. Let's hope that the Express starts contacting people like they promised in their recent spate of letters - we will see!

Have a good weekend everyone!

There is now another twist in the Rise / DE story. Over on the thread titled HELP! Anyone got advice4me on latest Rise Travel fiasco Somebody has written about a phone call received from Rise yesterday saying that "because their original application was over the 40,000 application limit" they do not qualify for a £10 cruise. The Rise sales person said that this 40,000 limit was stated in the original T & C's of the offer. Instead Rise have offered a cruise costing over £450.

Two questions. I thought that the DE were now taking charge of the promotion , so why are Rise still phoning people with cruise offers ? Also where did this magical figure of "only 40,000 applications" appear from.

Note to mod. Sorry if I have duplicated the other thread topic but I thought that this deserves a greater airing over on here.

I will look for the article with the terms and conditions and see what it says. I do'nt remember a limit only'a cruise for every reader' unless they are saying the DE only has 40,000 readers. Not surprised after this fiasco.

RT consultant then told me that because I was applicant number 40000 +++ on the allocation list, I was too late for ANY cruise under the original offer (either for £10 or for £110 including joint cabin) in either 2005 or 2006 and that under the Ts&Cs I would have to pay for the upgrade at any time I went.

taken from a post by Barneydog on 28/7

I understood that to mean that since he was applicant number 40000+ he was too late to get a £10 cruise under the T & C's. This is utter nonsense. I still have the original T & C's and there was NO limit placed on the number of applicants - the only limit was the date applications had to be received by them and Barneydog's application was obviously received in time otherwise Rise would not be offering him a cruise of any kind! The question is why (in view of what we have been told overe the past three month) Rise are still offering cruises at all! Are we to understand that the contents of the letter from the Express telling applicants that they have taken over the promotion is a cosmetic feature and that indeed Rise will still be handling the promotion? Perhaps a statement from both companies would clear up this sticky question!

Now to the actual offer that Barneydog received! Barney, you didn't say which ship you were offered? Was it one of the big 4? (Opera, Sinfonia. Lirica or Armonia?) People who accepted sharing on these ships have generally paid between £150 and £200 each (this excludes stranger sharing arrangements made by Rise) These supplements were for sharing an inside cabin so perhaps £400 for an outside cabin isn't as outrageous as it sounds. I agree it isn't a £10 cruise but those of us who accepted cruises on these ships have paid supplements. I know for a fact that people who applied for 2-4-1s on these ships paid between £550 and £650 per person and I met one couple who upgraded to an outside cabin who paid £900 each. Not much of a bargain I agree since the cruises could have been bought on the open market for less! HOWEVER, the original advertisements did quote a price of £1,144 for 2-4-1s (£1,244 from Scotland)

No she didn't say I was too late for a £10 cruise, although she did say that the promotion was nearing its end. She said I could have the £10 cruise plus pay £100 supplement each to have my partner share my cabin (who also collected tokens for a £10 cruise) but then said that the Tc and Cs stated that everything was subject to availability and that as inside cabins were no longer available either in 2005 or on any cruises in 2006, I would have to pay a supplement for an external cabin.

So it was still 'technically' the £10 cruise but with 2 extra costs added, one of which I was prepared to pay and the other which I wasn't. I pointed out that the cruise she was touting costs that anyway, bought off the net!!!

I actually posted the Ts and Cs way back in February and Luci has kindly directed me back to them as I couldn't find them. I have printed them off and am studying them carefully before I contact the DE.

Ali

(You should still be counting sheep at this time of the morning!)

Just noticed the time on the post and it looks like the clock on the HT server is an hour behind the rest of the UK

It was just after 6am when i posted (at work )

going for my euro's soon and all of my clothes are ready in one place just to dump into the suitcase
Mike

I know folks are trying to help, but I don't want to sidetrack the problem. Can people read my earlier posting "HELP! Anyone got advice4me on latest Rise Travel fiasco" referred to above carefully as it's starting to turn into Chinese whispers. I didn't say she said no more than 40000+ were eligible. She said because I was so far down in the "first come first served" list, being applicant number 40000+, I had to understand that by now there was no inside cabin allocation left for either 2005 or 2006. She didn't say I was disqualified. Merely that I would have to pay extra. I won't of course.

Talk about moving goalposts! I wonder how anyone from any travel agency say that there are no inside cabins available for 2005 OR 2006! Assuming the cruise you were offered was from MSC, I know for an absolute fact that they DO have inside cabins available between now and November/December for 7 night cruises. Perhaps in this instance they mean that there are no inside cabins available to them in particular!

It is all academic really, since you applied for a £10 cruise and this is what you should be offered, albeit that you might agree to paying a supplement for a higher rated ship. We will all be waiting with bated breath to see what response you have from the Express!

Hi Barneydog
The postings (including yours) from the T+C thread are now on page one of this thread!
A scanned copy of the FAQ and T+C and promotional material can be downloaded from http://www.pembs.com/ht/tandcs.doc (thanks to 'atwales').

Which cruise were R*** offering you?

Suggest you contact the DE as others have said.

Peter

They were offering me an MSC cruise, but I didn't get as far as finding out where, as she went through all the supplements first and I said NO, not interested.

Barneydog

You will also find details of the T&C's in the Useful Info topic at the top of the main Cruise forum page.

Mike C

You will need to change your HT clock. Go to your Profile, link at top of the page, and change your clock to GMT +1.

luci