jimdee3636

@The-Inside-Cabin I think you once said that, despite your CC "name," you're not sailing in an inside cabin. But have you met people on this WC who are in an inside cabin for the whole cruise? If so, do they regret doing it, or are they pleased that they can take several more cruises in the future with the money they saved? My wife and I have sailed in insides a few times without a problem, but only on short cruises, which we hardly ever take anymore. Even an ocean view cabin would be tough for a 128-night sailing. Jim

@rollie Another thing to be aware of is that there's a lot of construction going on in the airport area. Maybe it will be finished by the time of your cruise, but if not I'd anticipate a longer-than-usual trip to the airport. On the other hand, the San Diego airport is very close to the cruise terminal and cabs have always (in my experience) been plentiful. On balance, I'd say take a later flight or, as @FlorenceItalysuggests, stay the night and leave early the next day. Jim

@travelloverontario I think it was Frank Sinatra who said that, when your life is starting to wind down, you regret the things you DIDN'T do more than the things you did. Be brave and go. Jim

The "partial charter" problem extends even to high-price cruise lines. ("Full" charters are mostly irrelevant to the rest of us, because the charter group is taking over the whole ship). I follow the Silversea board (I've been on three of their cruises), and there have been major complaints about groups taking over a third to a half the ship. The biggest offenders are the "incentive" cruise rewards for, say, car salesmen and dealers who exceed their quota for the past year. Because Silversea is an alcohol-included line, most of these people will start drinking from the minute they get up in the morning to the minute they pass out at night, in the meantime taking over every eating and drinking venue with loud, obnoxious people who treat it as a Carnival cruise. Not pleasant for guests who are paying well over $1,000 pp/night for an "elevated" experience. As others have pointed out, the biggest problems, on any line, tend to be on Caribbean-based, 7-night cruises. I avoid them like the Plague. Jim

@secondtime This bothers me. As I pointed out previously on this thread, the law calls these kinds of contracts "contracts of adhesion," i.e., take it or leave it. I can live with such contracts if they're disclosed at the beginning---before you book the cruise. But for HAL to spring this on people shortly before the sail date, which is normally when you do the online check-in, is unconscionable and quite possibly illegal. Jim

I don't like the $2.00 deposit idea at all. What's to stop people with nothing else to do from making numerous "what the hell" bookings, e.g., booking nine or ten cruises for the same time period or destination and waiting until the final payment date to cancel all but one of them? Plenty of sailings will "artificially" sell out, forcing serious customers to either look elsewhere or wait until after the final payment date in hopes that something might open up. It just seems ill-conceived. Jim

@newbie202020 For whatever it's worth, I'm in a Club Balcony cabin on a June QA cruise (past the final payment date), and just yesterday got an upsell offer from Cunard, i.e., an invitation to bid on a PG or QG cabin. I declined to bid, but maybe you should have your travel agent inquire as to whether Cunard is entertaining upsell bids for your cruise. It's possible you may wind up spending less than if you were to cancel and re-book. Jim

@Tattycoram Like you, I'd love to see a H-L forum on this site, and like you I think it's absurd that Pullmantur still has a board (despite being defunct), and that Hebridean Islands Cruises has a board when no one has contributed to it in six months. But I'm afraid, for now at least, we're stuck with this. The good thing, I guess, is that there are English speakers who are interested in the H-L line. If we keep contributing to this "Other Cruise Lines" board maybe someday CC will reward us with a board of our own. Maybe. Jim

@kelliebiz Yes, you learned a good lesson. Tables of eight, even if you know the people already, are inherently problematical. You often can't hear what the people across the table are saying, so you either wind up shouting to them or ignoring them, being forced to speak only to those sitting next to you (who you may or may not enjoy speaking to). And most conversations involving multiple parties inevitably descend to the common denominator. When I cruise solo, If I speak to someone at a bar (or elsewhere on the ship) before dinner, and if I enjoy their conversation, I'll suggest we have dinner together---at a table for two. A two-person conversation (assuming the two people are compatible) are always more interesting than group conversations. You can truly get to know each other and discuss the topics that really interest you. Jim

@MyriamS It seems like you made some good choices. Be sure to let us know how it goes. Jim

@Bell Boy I like your description of Club dining. Although my wife and I enjoyed our late-seating dinners in the Britannia on the QM2 and QE, we opted for Club on our forthcoming QA cruise (Northern Europe and Scandinavia, June 30-July 14). Aside from the other Club benefits, we like the location of the Club dining room on QA---very close to the Chart Room---and what seems to be a bright, airy look to the room. Jim

@The-Inside-Cabin I've been checking out this thread on and off for over three months, and one thing that astounds me is, based on the many pictures of you and your friends, no one seems to have gained any weight since Day One. Most of you could pass for fitness instructors! I realize you all walk a lot but it seems that you don't deny yourselves anything in the food and drink department, either. How do you do it? Jim

I actually would be interested in seeing pictures of the resort you mentioned. Given the ever-increasing cost of cruising (especially for solos), a lot of people are looking seriously at non-cruise vacation options. Although there are obvious differences between cruise ships and all-inclusive resorts, there are also similarities. I'd love to know your impressions of the resort, and how it compares to a typical cruise in terms of ambiance, socializing, and cost-effectiveness. Jim

@rodndonna FYI: The Yacht Club on MSC ships has inside cabins, for considerably less than balconies. (I haven't sailed on MSC but I just checked out the YC pricing on a 7-night cruise out of Miami in November, and YC insides were $1,800 pp less than YC balconies, but with all of the YC perks). So maybe you can splurge while still keeping to a reasonable budget. Jim

@richwmn It's great that you're keeping the same cabin all the way to Montreal, but given all the free (and mostly favorable) publicity you're giving HAL, they ought to comp you the final segment! Jim