ExArkie

There is another thread that discusses the credit, starting on the day it was announced. Several people report getting it applied to existing bookings, but not everyone (I love consistency). I attempted to get it added to a 2025 transpacific booked well before the offer was announced. I called twice (don't get the answer you want, hang up and try again) and was told both times that our TA had to make the call to request it, even though others reported that not to be the case. She did and was told that HAL was applying the credit (1) to cruises booked within 30 days of the offer being announced and (2) to persons who linked their Mariner number and AARP number on the first day of the offer. The time limit did not apply in my situation, but some people on the other thread reported having it applied to cruises booked well before the 30-day period. I tried an e-mail and got the reply that it was good only on new bookings. At that point, I decided that since our sailing is still offered at the same price, still with the Early Booking Bonus HIA, and the cabin next door to the one we had chosen was available, it was easier to cancel the existing booking and rebook the same sailing if I wanted the AARP OBC. Side note relevant to the original point of this thread: The AARP credit can definitely be applied to 2025 sailings. It was automatic. It sounds to me like HAL was unprepared to answer the question about existing bookings during the first several days/week of the offer and allowed quite a bit of variation in how it was or was not applied. Seems to be more consistent now that it is for new bookings only. However, the investment of a phone call might bring you luck. Go for it. Let us know if it works. (Just curious, I spent way more time on this than the OBC was worth.)

Did you find T&C from Cunard? I searched their site and didn't find any explanation of the restrictions or limitations of FCD. I did find a site, updated this week, that discusses FCD for various lines: https://www.travelmarketreport.com/Cruise/articles/Onboard-Future-Cruise-Booking-Policies-by-Cruise-Line Their information on Cunard says: "Other related rules: Future Cruise deposits expire four years from date of issue and are fully refundable. Not combinable with custom group quotes, Cruise Night, Net/Net Fares, Flash, Travel Advisor, Interline, Incentive, Negotiated, Friends & Family, Lowest/Value Fares, Short Sales promotions with promo RG*, Sailing Soon savings, and other fares offered inside final payment." No idea what "promo RG" means, there was no footnote for the asterisk.

According to the terms, the shareholder must own Carnival stock at the time of sailing, although no cruise line has ever checked on ours to verify that we do still own stock. Of course, if you sell your current 100 shares and buy back another 100 shares before sailing, that would meet the terms. However, looking at the stock’s performance and expectation charts, buyback probably wouldn’t happen before November. (Not to mention the issue with wash sale rules on income tax)

Lately, I have been coming back to this thread only after the photos have been identified. This time, I may have the timing right for once. This is, unless I am badly mistaken, taken from the Piazzale Roma in Venice. I believe that the building houses the local tourist information office, and the People Mover drops you off in it. You come out (or go in) at the far end of the building under the flat awning.

It is also worth pointing out that on Queen Mary 2, the spaces set aside for Grills passengers are not all in the same part of the ship. The restaurants and lounge (comparable to the Neptune Lounge on HAL) are at the rear of deck 7, aft of the buffet restaurant, and the Grills deck is a small area aft on deck 11. The "ship-within-a-ship" seems to be even less relevant there than on the Vista class ships where the restaurants, lounge, and deck space are actually all together. Back to the original post, thank you @Ready2go11 for your mini-review. I think your observations on Cunard are pretty accurate (ten sailings with them, nine of which were transatlantic) and it gives me a good idea of what to expect on HAL for our booked transpacific. Our one previous HAL trip was very disappointing in terms of food quality and service, so we are hoping (expecting) vast improvements, based on these boards.

I'll be having my usual (daily) 5:30 PM "I feel completely foolish" glass of wine this afternoon, if you'd care to join me. Seemed it was occurring with me at much more frequent intervals, so why not embrace the concept?

As did my version. I was given a “practice question” to be answered using the keyboard, and was told to do so in the instructions. This is where I discovered it was necessary to continue on the laptop. A minor inconvenience at worst…but one more thing to be irritated at iOS over. (Disclosure: I learned computer programming decades ago using hexadecimal machine coding. The commercial operating systems from both Apple and Microsoft both have irritations.)

To be fair, the only "glitch" I encountered was that the iPad won't let me have a keyboard if it doesn't want to give me one.

From my experience, Cunard does still have formal nights (a.k.a., “Gala Nights”), although their frequency and number have decreased over the years. I am also told that the UK-based lines P&O and Saga both still have formal nights, but I have sailed on neither. We were on Seabourn several years ago and there was no tie required for any night. There appears to be some degree of increased pressure from the cruising public for Cunard to relax their dress code even more than has already occurred. A dozen years ago, our transatlantic had three formal nights (dinner jacket, tux, or dark suit and tie), two informal nights (jacket and no tie), and two semi formal nights (jacket and tie). Last year, there were two Gala Nights (same as previous formal nights) and five Smart Attire nights (dress shirt, no jacket required). So, formality appears to be generally on the way out even there.

One correction to your otherwise accurate post: “heavy water” contains the H2 isotope, deuterium, and not the H3 isotope, tritium. The production facility in Norway was trying to produce deuterium-containing water for use in a natural-uranium fueled nuclear reactor as compared to the US approach to use natural water and enrich the concentration of fissionable uranium in the reactor fuel. Basically, a theoretical difference between Fermi and Heisenberg over the most efficient method. (For the military response to this theoretical difference, see “The Heroes of the Telemark” Columbia Pictures 1965) If you need more details, I can loan you my text book from my nuclear reactor design theory class, because what I said above is about as deep as my comprehension goes these days. (The class was “a few” years ago and I actually have never worked in reactor design.)

Point taken. We were in suites on our two Celebrity trips, so did not experience their main dining room. I was comparing Celebrity Luminae to the specialty restaurants on Oceania, since that seemed to be the applicable level, according to both lines’ marketing. We only had breakfast in the Celebrity buffet, so no direct comparison there. We ate once in the main dining room on Oceania and found it to be totally untenable from a food quality perspective. I would not try to compare it to any other experience we have at dining at sea. Their buffet was much better than their main dining room. I have also heard of a drop in Celebrity food quality in the past year or so. Since our last trip on them was pre-pandemic (I think I mentioned that?), I did not mean to suggest that our experience is comparable to their post-shutdown performance. Sorry if I gave that impression.

Not tritium. The radioactive species in the released water is an isotope of hydrogen that is present in the form of water: both are H2O, the regular version is the H-1 isotope while the contaminant is the H-3 isotope. Reverse osmosis will not filter water out of water. Having said that, the tritium levels in the water being released meet the international standard for water quality and will be further diluted in the ocean. In order to see a significant increase in risk from radiation exposure, one would need to drink a lot. The IAEA (disclosure: I consult to the IAEA, but not on this topic) reports that the concentration in water being released is “well below” the operational limit of 1,500 Bq/L (Bq is a unit of measurement showing how much radioactive material is present). The WHO drinking water limit is 10,000 Bq/L. The concentration of tritium in water collected and treated for drinking shipboard is almost certainly going to be indistinguishable from the normally occurring concentration of tritium in natural water. Sorry, acronyms: IAEA = International Atomic Energy Agency, a part of the United Nations, and WHO = World Health Organization.

I’ll be the contrarian and state that our one cruise ( transatlantic ) on Oceania was seriously underwhelming. This was Spring of 2022, so a lot may be attributed to the continuing learning curve after the extended shutdown, but the food quality was mediocre at best, except for the Asian restaurant Red Ginger and the grilled lobster tail/prawns in the buffet. The meal service was never “excellent” - we were happy when it rose to “adequate.” Dining room sommeliers, except for one, were seriously uninformed about their own wine list and generally just recommended whatever the most popular selling wine happened to be. Add to that the incredibly poor communications and customer service before sailing, largely related to entry requirements for the Bermuda stop…that they ended up skipping anyway (long story, I can track down the Roll Call if you want the “as-it-happened” version). The ship itself was lovely, our cabin was great (penthouse), the room steward and butler did a wonderful job, and we really enjoyed the string quartet, as well as the trip overall, but very little they did convinced me they are worth their current pricing, particularly when the area they tout the most (food) was much weaker than what we had in the Celebrity suite restaurant. My experience with HAL is several years old - we generally only board ships to cross oceans, but we did HAL to Alaska about a decade ago - so I would not offer a direct comparison. I can do so after our transpacific in 2025 (why would you want to wait that long for me?) Our two Celebrity crossings were wonderful experiences, both pre-pandemic so possibly not a direct comparison to today, either. Since the restart, we have not found any of theirs to be at a price we are willing to pay.

They don’t actually have commercial service into GLS, do they? Sorry for the digression… Considering the cost and logistical aspects of flying into a small airport on a transatlantic flight, it is most likely LHR or LGW would be the destination. You should be able to specify either as your terminus.

Personal issue, other people will be in different situations: If the approach is to “status match,” i.e., Cunard will grant you reciprocity to the highest level that you have earned on any one of the connected lines, that probably won’t do much for me. I have higher status on Cunard than the others. Celebrity and RCL seem to take this approach. However, if there is a combined loyalty program, wherein one would combine points from different connected lines into a single program level that is recognized by all of them, that would be an advantage. In that case, if we were to sail Seabourn again (one TA on them so far), we would get some benefit from having given Carnival Corporation money through Cunard and HAL…we’ve only been on three of their brands.

I started the survey on my iPad (that's where I read the morning newspapers and check email thereafter) and got to this page before it froze on me. The touch-screen functionality was not there; the directions said to use the keyboard to type the applicable letter. Evidently, the coding on their survey page did not tell the iPad that it needed to bring up the keyboard for a response and I have never found a way to convince it to give me a keyboard when it doesn't want to. I moved to the laptop (Windows 11, Firefox browser) and was able to complete it easily using the keyboard. I did not try clicking the buttons directly.

I made it two votes at "Strongly Agree"

If one has not specifically told the company not to do so, it is legal in the US for them to sell your mail address. Refer to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

My wife’s first TA was the SS United States in the late 1950s when her father was transiting between duty stations in Germany and the US. She was three years old, so doesn’t remember it.

As I recall, walking from the Mayflower Terminal into the city is not allowed, so shuttles would be necessary.

Thank you. I went back to try again and, when I moved the slider, there was definitely a minimum amount it would accept. Most were much more than I would consider appropriate for the cabin, but that’s probably a personal preference.

I have never bid on an upgrade; having booked a cabin we really want (aft penthouse on Jade, where the Haven isn’t much of an upgrade), I don’t plan to do so this time. However, I did look at the offers. Based on the format and description in post #3 above, all of the dollar values shown above the slider on our bidding page are $0. Does this mean the minimum bid is $0? Plying with it, some dollar value has to be entered to get an assessment (poor, good, etc.), so I assume one has to bid something above $0. It is tempting to bid $3 to see what happens.

Not if you're on a transatlantic... Sorry, that's where my mind went. We generally only get on ships to cross oceans, and don't do many that have more than one port, so that was the first thing I thought of.

Recommend the Web site Rome2Rio .com - it will give you pretty much all of the available means for travel between any two locations. I've used them numerous times to evaluate my options, then went to investigate further on the Web site for the applicable company (train, plane, whatever). Depending on where in Paris you want to go, the options may vary. Into the city itself, the train will go to Paris Gare de Lyon from Marseilles. From there, you can get pretty much anywhere else in the area by metro, train, taxi, bus, etc. If you need to go to the airport, might be easier to fly from Marseilles to Orly or CDG, as the train journey would be a bit involved. Still doable, but it will require some navigation skills. My personal experience was a train from Marseille Saint-Charles to Paris Gare de Lyon. Direct trains are about every hour and a half or so and take around 3 and a half hours station to station.

Ours is a 15-day sailing (well, technically it is 16 days, but HAL evidently has a problem accounting for crossing the International Date Line). The reservation system is showing $299 for a length-of-cruise spa pass. By the way, to all HAL experts contributing on this thread: thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. My wife and I are infrequent cruise customers, doing occasional ocean crossings and only a few of the “classic” routes (Norway, Panama Canal, and Alaska), with only one HAL trip about a decade ago. This thread has been very useful in learning what to expect.