Northern Sights and Mickey's MAGICal Delights-1st Baltic Cruise-June 12,2010-Pt 2

[MJGirl]

Were they attempting to book two excursions in one day? We ran into this issue when we booked as well. We booked a morning excursion and then tried for an afternoon one as well...and it didn't come up as available when we tried to add it...come to find out, DCL has a 2hr window they require between excursions, so you can't book one that returns at noon, and try for one at 1:45 because there isn't the "2 hr" time slot between the two excursions. I wonder if this is what you were experiencing since another guest said they show only one excursion actually sold out. It may be worth looking into if you rearrange or re-prioritize you may find you can still get the ones they'd want.

They must have relaxed this a bit for St. Petersburg. They allowed me to book a tour on day 2 that goes to 5:00, and then book the 6:30 ballet.

 

[sbell111]

Just got a call from DCL ... Due to tidal conditions, we will be leaving Stockholm at 1:00 pm, so the Best of Drottningholm excursion has been cancelled. Bummer ... My daughter loves the theatre, so we were both looking forward to this one! Has anyone else heard of any other cancellations?

MJ

Wow. That's not going to leave much time to enjoy Stockholm.

 

[dietcokefan]

They must have relaxed this a bit for St. Petersburg. They allowed me to book a tour on day 2 that goes to 5:00, and then book the 6:30 ballet.

It does seem odd...we booked Panoramic Stockholm and then attempted to book Ice Bar/Old Town and when we looked for it on the excursion list it wouldn't come up or show available at all for us to book...so we just determined then that we would do our own HOHO and forget the whole thing. Later, the next day, we were looking to see what had actually "filled up" and the only thing that had sold out, or filled up on our cruise was the Glassworks excursion, and we wondered then why we couldn't get the Ice Bar/Old Town. Then we heard from another guest that they ran into the same issue on another day in Oslo and were frustrated and called DCL directly to get the answers and were told about the 2 hr window and how the system wouldn't show it available because of the time frame constraints...seems odd to me because you'd think they'd want to book it and get the money from whomever they could. Ultimately it would be the guests fault if they missed it, but I suppose they have their reasons.

 

[gydell]

It does seem odd...we booked Panoramic Stockholm and then attempted to book Ice Bar/Old Town and when we looked for it on the excursion list it wouldn't come up or show available at all for us to book...so we just determined then that we would do our own HOHO and forget the whole thing. Later, the next day, we were looking to see what had actually "filled up" and the only thing that had sold out, or filled up on our cruise was the Glassworks excursion, and we wondered then why we couldn't get the Ice Bar/Old Town. Then we heard from another guest that they ran into the same issue on another day in Oslo and were frustrated and called DCL directly to get the answers and were told about the 2 hr window and how the system wouldn't show it available because of the time frame constraints...seems odd to me because you'd think they'd want to book it and get the money from whomever they could. Ultimately it would be the guests fault if they missed it, but I suppose they have their reasons.

Since we are now leaving Stockholm at 1pm they probably canceled all the afternoon tours.

 

[DL1957]

Since we are now leaving Stockholm at 1pm they probably canceled all the afternoon tours.

I am at work so they may have left a message for us. Our Stockholm excursion is suppose to leave at 12:45!

 

[rotary2808]

Just got a call from DCL ... Due to tidal conditions, we will be leaving Stockholm at 1:00 pm, so the Best of Drottningholm excursion has been cancelled. Bummer ... My daughter loves the theatre, so we were both looking forward to this one! Has anyone else heard of any other cancellations?

MJ

Can they really predict tidal conditions this far out?

 

[DL1957]

I am at work so they may have left a message for us. Our Stockholm excursion is suppose to leave at 12:45!

Well just went into our reservation and the time has been changed to 8:45 returning at 1:00 so looks like we are ok!

 

[MJGirl]

Can they really predict tidal conditions this far out?

I called Disney and they said that "In order to arrive in Dover on schedule, they would have to leave Stockholm at 1:00 pm."

 

[WVMD]

Just talked to DCL - our tour now starts at 0730 and doesn't include lunch. It's cheaper too.... No big deal - just hate that we only have 5 hours in Stockholm.... We're doing the historical Stockholm and Sigtuna tour...

Virgil

 

[sbell111]

I called Disney and they said that "In order to arrive in Dover on schedule, they would have to leave Stockholm at 1:00 pm."

We are bolting from the ship in Dover to catch the train to Paris Disneyland, so I guess I fully support leaving Stockholm a bit earlier.

 

[Rogillio]

I called Disney and they said that "In order to arrive in Dover on schedule, they would have to leave Stockholm at 1:00 pm."

That's kind hard to believe. From 4:30 pm June 21 to 8 am June 24 is 63.5 hrs! Leaving at 1 pm instead of 4:30 buys 3.5 hrs or about 5% of the port-to-port time. Seems like they could pick up the speed 5% and easily make up that time.

This is not directing this at you MJGirl, I'm just a little miffed about this. Earlier you posted the early departure was due to tidal conditions? Was that tidal condition in Dover or Stockholm?

I don't think we're getting the whole story from DCL. I'm kinda ticked that they cut our port time from 9 hrs to just 5.5 hrs. We just bought the HOHO tickets recently and I'm not sure that is such a good deal now.

~Mike

 

[MJGirl]

That's kind hard to believe. From 4:30 pm June 21 to 8 am June 24 is 63.5 hrs! Leaving at 1 pm instead of 4:30 buys 3.5 hrs or about 5% of the port-to-port time. Seems like they could pick up the speed 5% and easily make up that time.

This is not directing this at you MJGirl, I'm just a little miffed about this. Earlier you posted the early departure was due to tidal conditions? Was that tidal condition in Dover or Stockholm?

I don't think we're getting the whole story from DCL. I'm kinda ticked that they cut our port time from 9 hrs to just 5.5 hrs. We just bought the HOHO tickets recently and I'm not sure that is such a good deal now.

~Mike

I understand where you are coming from Mike ... That's what they told me ... I think the issue might be that if they wait too long, they won't be able to get out due to the tides, and then we won't make it back to Dover in time. I'm just guessing though ... I tried to find something about tide times on the web ... but to no avail!

 

[DL1957]

I understand where you are coming from Mike ... That's what they told me ... I think the issue might be that if they wait too long, they won't be able to get out due to the tides, and then we won't make it back to Dover in time. I'm just guessing though ... I tried to find something about tide times on the web ... but to no avail!

The message that was left on our answering machine was that due to the size of the ship that have to leave earlier to get out of the port. To me it sounds like there is a window that they need to get out during and it they miss it they can still leave on the same day but later and not make it on time to Dover. They have lots of guests with airplane reservations booked based upon getting in to Dover at a time that allows everyone to get their planes starting with a 1:00 pm departure. Too bad this was not thought out before and folks like us could have booked later departure times.

 

[Meum]

I guess the time changes and stuff is all part of being on an inagural trip?!

How are ya'll so lucky to be getting phone calls from DCL? Is it because we booked through a travel agent that we aren't getting the scoop?

Oh well, I gotta go check our tour reservation now. We were hoping to do a tour in the morning and wander around on our own in the afternoon. I guess now the question is do we want to do the tour at all? And just when I thought all the plans were set in stone!

Thanks for the updates!

Marianne

 

[carolmb]

That's kind hard to believe. From 4:30 pm June 21 to 8 am June 24 is 63.5 hrs! Leaving at 1 pm instead of 4:30 buys 3.5 hrs or about 5% of the port-to-port time. Seems like they could pick up the speed 5% and easily make up that time.

This is not directing this at you MJGirl, I'm just a little miffed about this. Earlier you posted the early departure was due to tidal conditions? Was that tidal condition in Dover or Stockholm?

I don't think we're getting the whole story from DCL. I'm kinda ticked that they cut our port time from 9 hrs to just 5.5 hrs. We just bought the HOHO tickets recently and I'm not sure that is such a good deal now.

~Mike

I know what you mean...I was trying to decide between the Stockholm Pass which includes some of the museums and just the travel card which covers the public transportation. Now it is back to the drawing board to figure out what to do. We may now do the HOHO bus to get an overview of the city and go to the Vasa museum.

 

[dylan'smom]

...How are ya'll so lucky to be getting phone calls from DCL? Is it because we booked through a travel agent that we aren't getting the scoop?

Wondering the same thing! We booked with points, so similar to a TA & don't seem to get the timely info...big difference!

...Now it is back to the drawing board to figure out what to do.

Definitely...time to review & re-do. Really a curious thing...way too short a time there!!!

 

[2bundles]

I am so disappointed about the 1pm departure. We had a Palo res for that night and I cancelled it a few days ago as I thought we would be in the Archipelago!!

Stockholm was one of the ports I was most looking forward to. Didn't they know this stuff before now?

 

[DL1957]

Wondering the same thing! We booked with points, so similar to a TA & don't seem to get the timely info...big difference!

We also booked with points and got the call from DCL.

 

[Traveling Tinkerbell]

We booked first day and still haven't been called. I am very disappointed with the short time we will have in Stockholm. We were going to buy the Stockholm Pass but glad we hadn't done that yet. I don't know what we will do now - do a short DCL excursion or go to Vasa and walk around a little bit.

 

[rotary2808]

It seems like the people who got calls had afternoon tours in Stockholm. Did anyone get a call that didn't have a tour affected by this?

I'm kind of surprised that our tour wasn't changed b/c it's going to be cutting it close to get back for the Magic to leave at 1. We're doing one of the Old Town tours (can't remember the full name), but it ends around 12:30.