Jump to content

jimdee3636

Members
  • Posts

    844
  • Joined

Everything posted by jimdee3636

  1. @TLCOhio Good points (as always) about inherent mechanical and systems problems with older ships. But apparently ships---like cars and, I suppose, people---don't necessarily age at the same rate. Case in point: the two Sea Dream Yacht Club ships, which entered service in 1984 and 1985, about ten years before the Silver Cloud. Although I've never been on either Sea Dream ship, I occasionally check the CC Sea Dream boards because I have a friend who often sails on the line. I have rarely, if ever, heard or read a complaint about the condition of those ships. Our one time on the (pre-expedition) Cloud was similar to yours, Terry. We were in the most far-forward starboard-side Vista cabin, and the noise when they dropped anchor (which was early each morning on a port-intensive Caribbean cruise) was deafening! We did, though, put up with it and otherwise had a great cruise. Jim
  2. @Victoria2 Does the "fluid pricing" also work the other way? In other words, if the initial demand for a just-announced cruise is weaker than Cunard had anticipated, is it likely that the price will drop?
  3. @Sasksilver That's a nice itinerary. I've been to almost all the ports, and I'd happily go to every one of them again. And the price---less than $2,000 in U.S. dollars---is quite reasonable. Congratulations! jim
  4. I'm married and usually cruise with my wife on HAL, Oceania, and Cunard, but Princess is my preferred line for when I cruise solo. The other lines I mentioned are either too expensive for solos (i.e., 75-100% single supplements) and/or too "couples oriented." Of course, every cruise line involves compromises of one sort or another, and for me that means I have to pay for specialty dining on Princess most nights. Others may disagree, but I feel that, on Princess, every specialty restaurant on every ship is head-and-shoulders above the MDR experience on the same ship. But it's a price I'm more than willing to pay because having a nice dining experience is one of the high points of my day. Anyway, I think Princess can be an excellent and reasonably-priced choice for most solos.
  5. @spinnaker2 I'm going to live vicariously through you! My wife and I were originally booked on the Reykjavik-to-Halifax portion of your cruise but had to cancel because of an unexpected surgery I had to have a few months ago. I'm fine now and we probably could have re-booked, but we just didn't want to risk a medical relapse in the middle of nowhere. I look forward to your updates. Jim
  6. @deck chair Thanks for the useful and very specific suggestions. My wife and I have booked Britannia Club on the QA for a 14-night Northern Europe/ Baltic sailing next June and July. On our previous Cunard cruises (QM2 and QE), we have had tables for two, late seating, in the Britannia dining room, and we want to be sure we get a table for two in Britannia Club. As an American, I'm used to tipping, so I'm not averse to "showing my appreciation" to a Maitre d' who can "get the job done." Thanks again. Jim
  7. @knotheadusc Thanks for the information. The bus transport makes the whole thing a lot more appealing. Jim
  8. A question I have about the cruises that start in Oban: how exactly do you get there? If I'm starting from the U.S. and flying to LHR, then what? It looks like Glasgow is the nearest major city to Oban, but it's about 100 miles away and there doesn't seem to be any direct air connection between the two places. There's no way I'd rent a car (I'm not going to risk my life trying to drive on the left side of the road), so is taxi service the only way to get there? If so, it would make an already-expensive trip a prohibitively-expensive one. Thanks for any insights and suggestions. Jim
  9. It makes me want to go! https://quirkycruise.com/hebridean-princess-cruise/ Jim
  10. @whylion It's good to know that, at least on the Inspiration, the expedition people spoke English. But were the "regular" crew members (servers, bartenders, room attendants) able to communicate in English? Jim
  11. I recently got hit with a $500.00 non-refundable cancellation penalty from Silversea on a cruise that was over a year away. However, I can apply it to the cost of any other Silversea cruise I might book over the next four years, which does take a bit of the sting out.
  12. My wife and I are four-star with HAL. We've taken six transatlantics over the years, three in each direction (although not all on HAL). In our experience, only Cunard changed the clocks during daylight hours, which seems bizarre to me. As for when to dine, on every HAL cruise we've taken we've always done "main" (i.e., late---usually 8:00PM) fixed dining, and have always requested (and gotten) a table for two. We have always heard that on HAL it is much easier to get a two-top at the late dining time compared with the early fixed dining. (I've never done anytime dining on HAL, so can't comment on that). Jim
  13. @pookel I'm sure others will have suggestions about ships, destinations, and such, but I'm writing to applaud you for your positive attitude. After such a tragic and unexpected loss, many people---especially women---go into a shell, in some cases never to emerge (I know people like that). You're still young and you obviously still want to enjoy life. With your attitude, you'll do fine no matter what specific choices you wind up making. Good luck! Jim
  14. It's one thing when, say, your next door neighbor makes a careless mistake about some geographic fact, but when a cruise line makes that mistake it calls into question their competence and their attention to detail. I've seen cruise line brochures state that Portugal is on the Mediterranean (it's not), that Bermuda is in the Caribbean (it's about a thousand miles away from the closest part), and that the ship will travel east from Iceland to reach Greenland (just look at the damn map!). When a cruise brochure or website is wrong about one thing, it makes you wonder what else they're wrong about. And that's not what you want potential customers to be wondering about. Jim
  15. Yes, and doing the B2B eliminates the need to fly to Quebec City, which for most Americans is very expensive and involves inconvenient flight times. The money you save on air would pay for the entire NYC-Quebec part of the B2B. Jim
  16. https://www.seabourn.com/en/us/find-a-cruise/e5m09a/5513-9-day-morocco-the-straight-of-gibraltar Seabourn also spelled it "Straight" (not Strait) of Gibraltar in a print brochure. This does not inspire confidence in a cruise line. Jim
  17. I don't know if anyone else has had this experience, but about eight months ago I applied for the HAL card and was immediately approved. However, my initial credit limit was only $2,000. I have a very high credit score, and my other credit cards have limits of up to $30,000. I specifically applied for the card because I had a $9,000 HAL final payment coming up in two weeks and I wanted to put it on the card and get the benefits, as well as getting benefits for future HAL bookings (I'm four-star with HAL and sail at least once a year with them). I couldn't get the customer service agent to increase the limit, at least not without filing all sorts of special exemptions forms and such. I couldn't be bothered, and I cancelled the account before I ever got the card in the mail. In my opinion, it was short-sighted on their part.
  18. Although this thread is about QG service, and I've only sailed in Britannia class (on both the QM2 and QE), I agree 100% with Victoria2. On our 21 night QM2 sailing in 2019, we had pre-dinner cocktails every single night in the Chart Room, and always sat at the bar. By the third night, our favorite bartender would smile at us as we walked in and would lift a bottle of Tanqueray, in effect asking "Two of your usual martinis tonight?" I did indeed feel like we had joined a club.
  19. @Stumblefoot You sure as hell did a lot of work on this! Thanks! jim
  20. @ClipperinSFO I'm looking forward to your review of the Europa 2. Have a fun time! Jim P.S.---We've been on Cunard's QM2 and QE, and are booked on the still-being-built Queen Anne for a 14-night Baltic/ Scandinavia cruise next June and July. It will be our first time in Britanna Club. The Club dining room on QA looks much nicer than on the other Cunard ships, and the cabins are in better locations.
  21. @reedprincess What you say makes sense, except for one thing. Princess requires the medallion. They---not you, not me, not anyone reading this---came up with the idea. They should bear the cost of their business decision. (And yes, I know that if they don't charge for it directly, they'll charge for it indirectly---burying it in the cruise fare or whatever. But what they're doing is to clearly shift the (unwanted) cost to the consumer, which I think is poor practice in every respect).
  22. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/three-year-cruise-life-at-sea/index.html It turns out that the woman featured in the original cnn.com story (see April 23 post, above) has cancelled, as have a lot of others, amid turmoil and employee defections at the cruise line.
  23. @RyanJCanada I'm wondering what currency you used when you made small purchases in Greenland (such as the ice cream cones for your kids) Greenland is some sort of an administrative "district" of Denmark, but Denmark doesn't use the Euro (I think the krone is their currency). An ice cream stand in Greenland wouldn't take credit cards, would it? Jim
  24. @flhokie You say that the "speed of service" in Sabatini's was a problem. But do you mean it was too fast or too slow? Jim
  25. @cruiser3775 Not only did you get a good deal, you're getting the dreaded long flight out of the way at the beginning of your trip. It's much easier to enjoy a cruise when you don't have an eleven or twelve hour flight facing you on disembarkation day. Jim
×
×
  • Create New...