new_cruiser

Apparently in part because they want to offload some customer services like handling final payment reminders. 🤷‍♀️ More seriously, it may allow them to have fewer phone and on-line staff to handle booking and payment processing.

Anyway, in this case the TA didn't lose out on the commission because the passenger rebooked. As a matter of fact, they may have benefited because the rebooking was at a higher cost so probably their commission went up.

If the cruise is in early November than final payment is already due or will be due soon If your cruise is a closed loop cruise where you can use your birth certificate and ID instead of a passport, you would have that as back-up. If your cruise requires a passport and the passport doesn't arrive in time (e.g. not closed loop from the US or goes to a port that requires a passport even on closed loop cruises). then you won't be able to sail if the passport doesn't arrive in time. Did you submit for routine or expedited processing? Travel.State.Gov says that routine processing time is currently running 10-13 weeks not including mailing time. Most people seem to be getting their passports back within that time but occasionally it takes longer. The beginning of November is currently 13 weeks away. If you mailed it 2 weeks ago, that's around 15 weeks which is kind of tight. I'd be uncomfortable with that timing. You could the passport office to change it to expedited processing which is running 7-9 weeks. The fee for that is $60. You can also add 1-2 day delivery instead of standard mailing. I was in a similar situation except that I was just about to submit my passport when the cruise came up and the timing was even tighter. There is an Urgent passport process that you can use to get your passport with an in person visit to a passport agency office. You have within 14 days of travel to use the process if you haven't submitted the application yet and within 5 days if you have. If you are in Northern California, the closest Passport Agency is probably San Francisco. That's a more risky route if you have already submitted your passport application because there may not be appointments available. I had no trouble getting an appointment but I was calling 14-days in advance. Info on the Urgent process is here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast.html

It is your responsibility and you shouldn't expect anyone else to make you whole. On the other hand, a good TA should remind you that the payment date is approaching as a backstop. I'd probably change TAs.

To define "ALOT" more quantitatively, it takes something over 5 drinks a day to break even. Obviously the exact number depends on what you drink. 5 would be if you are tending toward the higher priced items. The wine and beer package is $55 per person per day and the higher priced wines on the menu have been about $11 per glass. Lower priced ones are about $8. The math is similar for the package that adds cocktails and other spirits.

But on many ships, the balcony cabins are on the higher decks so you can't do both lower deck and balcony. If you have to choose, I think lower is more important.

Some lines adjust prices often depending how a cruise is booking up. I had a cruise where I had booked for 23 days with a very good sale price on the cruise with a waived solo supplement. The cruise had a 13-day ocean crossing and a 10-day Lisbon round trip. By the time we sailed, the per person double occupancy price for the 10-day segment was more than I was paying as a solo for 23 days. It sounds like the 7-day segment is booking up well - the 9-day doesn't overlap the 7-day so that may be why it has better pricing than the 11 day. Not clear why the 7-day would be priced higher than the 11-day that includes it, but pricing anomalies do occur due to sales or because they figure they will get more revenue from people buying extras on board for the longer cruise - or just because pricing can be weird. One time my son was booking flights to Seattle and found that First Class was priced lower than Coach.

Windstar is the line I've sailed on most. Having sailed with them at least once you get 5% off future bookings and a Yacht club cocktail party (they have wine ready but you can get a cocktail if you ask for it) on each cruise. Also 5% off on laundry and wifi. Higher levels add some OBC and discounts on beverage packages and shore excursions. 4-star gets free wifi and laundry (but everyone gets free laundry on cruises longer than 14 days). 4-star is 90 points - 1 point per night for regular staterooms, 2 for premium suites.

Have you read the rest of this thread? Registering will be an online process and should be no big deal. The similar processes for Australia and New Zealand take about 10 minutes to complete online. Authorization normally takes less than 3 days - Ours arrived in a few hours of submitting online.

It isn't really a visa, it is a visa waiver program. It's all done on-line. New Zealand and Australia already have similar programs. For those, you use their app to submit an application and an email with the approval normally comes within 3 days. Ours came a few hours after we submitted them. The Europe version (ETIAS) has been 6 months to a year away for the past few years. Roll out continues to be delayed. So it happening in 2024 is possible but not a sure thing.

The two on Deck 6 have connecting doors to the owner's suites next to them. They can be booked with the owner's suite and the Star Balcony Suite next to it as a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom Grand Owner's Suite.

I agree with capriccio: It says in process so they must have received it but perhaps they sent notification that there was a problem with the picture and it went astray or perhaps their process has lost your application. 5 months is about 21 weeks which is approaching twice the 10-13 weeks that they are predicting for processing. With that length of time, there is a chance that something is broken and the passport will never appear without some intervention. Time to call and ask what's going on. Edited to add: This page has instructions for calling to get your passport in time for travel: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast.html This trip provides a reason to call and if it doesn't hurry the passport up enough, you have a work around but hopefully will get it in time for the next ones.

I've only done one cruise on Star Clippers so far (Thailand), but it was pretty stable. I didn't feel uncomfortable with the motion at any time. They have a lot of no solo supplement cruises which would be nice if your adult son wants to join you. Windstar's ships are a bit larger and their motor yachts have stabilizers so you could try those first to work your way to smaller ships. I've been on their sail ships multiple times and haven't had motion issues on them either.

Another advantage of sailing out of San Juan or other Caribbean ports like Saint Martin or Barbados is that they usually stop at the heavily visited ports on light days. You aren't in ports inundated by hoardes off multiple mega-ships coming from Florida. Some of these are on small ships so there aren't diversions like ice rinks or flow riders on board, but they usually have just one sea day and plenty of time in ports so you get your activity on shore.

10 days isn't long enough for a full transit departing from an returning to the US. 7 days is long enough for a full transit on itineraries that terminate closer to the Canal. For example, Windstar has 7 to 11 day itineraries that go from Aruba to Balboa Fuentes (Pacific end of the canal) or from Colon (Atlantic end of the canal) to Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica. I think Star Clippers has some too.

I don't think any is as inexpensive to get to by public transit as the Vancouver cruise port via Sky Train. As others have mentioned, Lisbon and Barcelona have similar distance between the airport and cruise terminal to Vancouver. In both cases, the cruise terminal is near downtown and the city highly worth spending time in so going early to spend some time in the city would be worthwhile. Athens isn't quite as convenient but not bad. Time/distance from the airport is about double. The port is about 11 km from Athens so a short taxi ride from downtown if you stay in Athens before the cruise.

Thinking about your post again, your travel disruption is more disappointing and of way longer duration of uncertainty than I have ever had to cope with. A more typical cruise disruption would be missing a port or two or a change of ports to deal with weather. To have nearly two weeks of a trip disrupted and not know for days whether part of the trip will be on or you are heading home, would be very disappointing and frustrating under any circumstances. I don't think you should feel that you are lacking for finding this hard.

I expect it is very individual. Similar to Calliope, I tend to be more stressed by difficult situations when traveling with my husband than when solo. I want him to enjoy trips so he will continue to want to go on some trips with me as I enjoy traveling together even though I also enjoy doing some trips solo so I can do just what I want. And larger groups with varying needs make it even harder. I broke my wrist toward the end of a solo trip in Thailand - a compound fracture that required immediate surgery and several days in the hospital and handled that fine. I even watched videos to figure out how to tie my shoes one handed for the trip home. I also tend to be more stressed if a problem is of my own making - like if I missed a flight through negligence. I can be much more laid back about handling things that were out of my control. I'm also happy to discuss the situation with other passengers for moral support and to share information and ideas.

It took me more than a couple of minutes button probably less than 15 minutes to submit each one. Each country had a phone app to do the submission you have to download that. The app says processing is usually complete within 72 hours. The acceptance emails came within way less than 24 hours.

Merrill Moabs come in low (hiking shoe) and mid (boot) height versions. Their wides were a better fit for me than the Keens I tried on.

For the specific example, they provided a free shuttle when we stopped there. In European ports where we weren't right downtown, they have usually had a shuttle.

As others have mentioned, not quite any two consecutive cruises. There are some cases where two consecutive cruises can't be combined. US law (PVSA) doesn't allow a foreign carrier to transport people between two US cities without visiting a distant foreign city in between. For example, one can't do a back-to-back of a cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver and one from Vancouver to Seward because that would go from LA to Seward without visiting a distant foreign port. Similarly, one can't combine a Boston to Montreal cruise with a Montreal to New York City cruise. Mexico, Canada and most of the Caribbean are not distant foreign ports, the ABCs in the Caribbean are the exception. Windstar has Star Collector Voyages. These are 2 or more back to back cruises sold with one fare. Generally, the fare for the Star Collector is lower than the combined fares of the component cruises. In some cases it is a lot less. The segments they package this way usually have few repeat ports. A Star Collector has one cabin for the whole cruise and free laundry. On time we did 31 days on back-to-back Star Collectors. They had a sequence of cruises around the Caribbean and Central America for 54 days. We had booked a 14-day Star Collector in the middle of that and had looked at the next couple of segments and decided not to take them. Then they had a great last minute sale on the next Star Collector about a month before our cruise so we added the 17 days - we had to change cabins between the two, but they made that pretty easy.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that 3 small ships were recently re-engined and updated. The Windstar Star ships were all built between 1988 and 1990. As part of the operation, each ship was stretched adding 50 cabins so they went from 212 double occupancy to 312 double occupancy - still pretty small in today's cruise industry. All the bathrooms in the original cabins were replaced. Work started on the first ship before the pandemic and completed on all ships during the pandemic. https://www.windstarcruises.com/starplus/

It was a luxury cruise line (Crystal) and it wasn't a closed loop cruise. It was a cruise from a Canadian port to a US port, not a closed loop cruise where a DL and birth certificate could be used. We did have our passport books with us just in case but passport cards were still pretty new to us and we wanted to see if they would work.

There are forums for these ports in the Ports of Call section of these boards. That's the best place to research whether an excursion or a DIY exploration of the town is a better fit for you.