jimdee3636

@cruiseelady I hope you'll post a review here---even just a short one---of what it was like to go solo on an MSC ship. I, for one, would be interested in knowing. Thanks. Jim

@Cruise Withdrawal This does not inspire confidence, but maybe it's not surprising. As I understand it, OAT is a sister company to Vantage, which has also had a lot of bad publicity for their shady business practices. Personally, I wouldn't touch either company with a ten-foot pole. Jim

@Libbyyell My experience with the Princess site is that it's easy to determine the single supplement (if any; sometimes there's none). Pick the cruise you want and do two "dummy" bookings, one for one person in the cabin, one for two. Let's say that the rate for two people in a cabin is $1,000 per person, and the rate for a single person in a similar cabin is $1,200. You have a 20% single supplement (sometimes expressed as 120% of the per-person "double" fare). With HAL, you're right: it's not so easy to determine the solo-occupancy rate, sometimes not even possible. However, it's usually 75% or more than the per-person double fare.

@Loritd If I were you, I would keep the Club Class mini-suite, which is clearly what you wanted until your sister and brother-in-law announced their plans. Why should you change your plans because of them? It's not as if the only time you'd ever see them onboard is at dinner.

The beat goes on. But for once, it doesn't seem to be Ritz-Carlton's fault.

@natshala I agree in essence with @cruiseejthat Silversea is technically correct in that it did disclose the terms of the booking contract before you signed it (which you don't dispute), but that the policy itself is punitive and outside of industry norms. As someone who previously sailed with Crystal, you seem to be an ideal candidate for Silversea's marketing efforts, but what did they do? They lost a potentially valuable customer for life. And for what? The 15% deposit they pocketed would likely have been exceeded many times over by what you would have paid for future cruises. It's bad business, plain and simple.

@cruiseej Yes, September 8-20, 2023 are the dates. It's good to know that most of the landings in Greenland will be "dry" ones. I'll be 76 at the time of this cruise. I can hike on dry land for hours (I do it here in the mountains of Arizona all the time), but I don't relish slogging through water up to my knees with a pack on my back!

@cruiseej Thanks for this information. If they're still renting them out when our Greenland cruise sails we'll rent them and be done with it. I normally wear size 10 or 10 1/2 shoes, so they should have ones that fit. And I know I'd never use them again, so why buy them and have all the packing headaches? By the way, our cruise also begins in Reykjavik, has six Zodiac stops in Greenland, and continues on to several ports in Atlantic Canada before ending in Halifax. I'm not sure if that's the same itinerary as the one you did, but it sounds exciting! Thanks again. Jim

@Warthog01 Others may disagree, but I would wait until close to the final payment date before doing anything. Your wife's condition may well improve markedly by then, in which case you could feel confident in going forward. But if it doesn't, you can cancel the booking with little (if any) penalty, and hang on to your money until she makes a more-complete recovery. As others have correctly pointed out, the pre-existing condition exclusion will render meaningless most travel insurance policies---at least as far as your wife's condition is concerned. I hate to sound negative, but as a lawyer I dealt with insurance claims people for many years and I know that the first thing they do when a claim is made is try to find some way to deny it. And an "exclusion" is the easiest way---they'll say it's right there in black-and-white language. If you don't mind waiting between now and September, try to put all of this out of your mind and focus on your wife's recovery. But if you're torturing yourself, cancel the cruise, get your deposit back, and look forward to less-stressful travel when your wife's condition permits it. Good luck! Jim

@highplanesdrifters You said something earlier about "luxury exploration ships" providing waterproof boots to all guests for possible wet landings on Zodiacs, but I wasn't sure you meant that Silversea provides such boots on the Cloud. Can you please clarify this? My wife and I are booked for a Greenland-intensive Cloud sailing in September of 2023, and all the Greenland landings are via Zodiacs. Thanks. Jim

@Ethereal Cruiser In addition to reading, and posting on, this Solo Cruisers board, you should also look at the boards for the specific cruise lines you're most interested in. If, for example, you're interested in Holland America (HAL), there are always (if you scroll back in time) threads on the HAL board with a title like "What is it like to cruise solo on an HAL ship?" I've only cruised solo on Princess (three times) and NCL (once), but I've taken cruises with my wife on five or six other lines---mostly on Cunard, Silversea, HAL, and Oceania. The only one that, from my observations onboard, is not good for solo cruisers is Oceania. It's way more "couples oriented" than the others. (Of course, others may disagree, which is why reading a range of opinions on these boards is a good idea). Have fun! Jim

Correcting myself: I should have said Charles V. I don't mind being wrong, but I hate being careless!

@highplanesdrifters Regarding your "quiz" about the mosaic in the first picture, the inscription seems to refer indirectly (in Latin) to a King Charles. I'm going to guess it's the 16th century Holy Roman Emperor Charles I, among whose many accomplishments included overseeing the Spanish naval explorations (and often conquests) in the Americas. However, the ship appears to be from an earlier era, so I'm probably wrong. At some point, tell us the answer: you've piqued my curiosity.

@highplanesdrifters I'm looking forward to your postings. We've only been on the "pre-expedition" Cloud (which we loved, despite its age) but are booked on a Reykjavik-to-Halifax Cloud expedition in September of 2023. Have a great time!

Princess has recently re-deployed the Diamond Princess to San Diego, and is offering solo rates for California Coastal, Cabo Getaway, and Mexican Riviera cruises that are almost as low as the per person two-to-a-cabin rates---seemingly in all cabin categories. I'm not sure how long the ship will be based in San Diego, but for those who live nearby or can get there easily this could be a very good opportunity.

It's often pointed out---correctly---that those who post on Cruise Critic are only a tiny percentage of those who have taken cruises. But CC "regulars" are often people who cruise more often (sometimes a lot more often) than the overall cruise population, and are typically the "go to" people for cruise advice and recommendations from friends, relatives, neighbors, and co-workers. In that sense, CC regulars can, and often do, exert an oversize influence. I'm saying this because of the many people who say that Silversea and other lines can't be bothered by what a "vocal minority" of cruisers say. If that's true, the cruise lines are foolishly shortsighted. Most of us aren't so blindly loyal to Silversea (or any other line) that we won't take our business elsewhere if things deteriorate.

Holland America does a lot of these partial charters. Usually you don't even notice them---a few dozen knitting enthusiasts who get together in some otherwise-unused meeting room---but occasionally there'll be a larger group that will take over popular venues at popular hours. One such group---a highly-regarded jazz tour company called Jazzdagen---had what I felt was a good way to defuse the inevitable resentment. Every morning from 9:00AM to 10:00AM on our ten-night cruise, they had an open-to-everyone jam session in a bar near the main dining room. Let me tell you: these were great musicians and singers! Every morning after breakfast my wife and I would be entertained for an hour; it became for us one of the highlights of the cruise. There was still some grumbling heard from those whose favorite late-night venue was unavailable, but in general people appreciated the goodwill gesture that Jazzdagen (and HAL) were making. Too bad this kind of thing isn't done more often.

There's a person on the Holland America board who, every two months or so, posts an exhaustive list of upcoming full and partial charters on HAL ships, including the names of the groups. I'm assuming she gets her information directly from HAL, but I don't know if Cunard would be as forthcoming. Full charters, of course, aren't much of a problem (unless your previously-booked cruise is now unavailable); you simply can't go on one if you're not part of the particular group. But partial charters are often a nightmare, especially when the so-called luxury lines do them. Silversea, which like Seabourn and Regent has basically an open bar policy onboard, has sometimes chartered half or more of the ship to companies wanting to reward employees for meeting certain sales targets. According to people I once met on the Silver Spirit, one seven-night Caribbean sailing was overrun with drunken car salesmen and their spouses, all of them apparently determined to guzzle all the "free" alcohol they could. Not exactly the high-end experience the other poor souls expected.

Thanks for the clarification.

It's not totally refundable. We recently booked a Cloud expedition cruise for September of 2023 as a D2D. Our deposit was about $4,700 (25% of the total price). If we cancel prior to the final payment date, we forfeit $250 of the deposit. I'm not wild about that, but it's better than forfeiting an entire P2P deposit.

@ceilidh1: I just want to say how much I've enjoyed your postings. You have excellent powers of observation and description, you take great pictures, and you have a nice sense of humor. I hope you'll keep doing these again on all your future cruises. Thanks!

Stumblefoot: But how late can you "back out" the transfers, air, and the rest of the D2D inclusions? Can it be any time up to the final payment date? My cruise (on the Cloud) is not until September of 2023. I'm booked as a D2D, but I keep hearing on these threads that SS air is often horrible in terms of routing and flight times. It's starting to feel like whatever I do will be wrong!