3rdGenCunarder

Yes! Cancellations happen. Cabins are reallocated. Sometimes when there are overlapping itineraries, some cabins are assigned to one itinerary and different cabins are assigned to the other one. This keeps Cunard from double-booking a cabin by mistake.

Sometimes they show a whole category as sold out to temporarily block bookings while they assign guarantees, bid ups, and (maybe) upgrades. Once that's sorted, the category is unblocked if any cabins are left.

Given Annie's lack of interest in Cunard history, I don't suppose she offers the QE2 cocktail? (QE this summer) or a Mary Picford? ($11.50, can't find a picture of it)

You can try doing a dummy booking on the Cunard site and see which cabin grades show as available and which are sold out. You can poke around looking at different areas and decks, but it may not show you everything that's available. If there are a lot of cabins available, the site may not show you only all of them. If you see just two or three, that usually means those are the only ones left. As for upgrades, I agree with @david63. They're rare, especially now that Cunard has started offering the bid to upgrade process. If they can make money from an upgrade, they won't give it away. If you're a week out, I would expect to see a cabin number soon. Check your booking online. Also check your luggage tags. Sometimes the cabin number shows up on the tags before anywhere else.

But the relaxation lounge isn't for people who just got out of the pool. On the Vistas, the pool area has conventional loungers and the ceramic loungers are in a separate quiet room with floor to ceiling windows. I was surprised to see how small the thermal pool area was on QA, given that she carries more passengers than QW or QV.

Also, some tourist places close down after Canadian Thanksgiving, as its the unofficial end of tourist season. I remember a tour to Louisburg on a late fall cruise and it was only partly opened, and some of what they had opened was probably just for our tour. The other thing is colors don't all change at once, so you can see a mix of fall colors and green. On top of that, Canada has a lot of evergreens. Early October in Sydney (2016) and in Saguenay (2022).

To go back to the topic of HAL not getting any new ships, that could change. Sometimes Carnival Corp shifts a newbuild from its originally intentioned company to another. The first time Cunard was supposed to get Queen Victoria, the order was changed, and that ship went to a different line. I don't remember now where it went, but it was another few years later that Queen Victoria arrived.

I know the ending you mean for that, but there's another one that goes, "...come sit by me." I always thought it was Dorothy Parker, but I looked it up recently, and it was Alice Roosevelt Longworth (Teddy's daughter). I haven't spent much time on other cruise line boards here, other than Cunard. But occasionally, I have seen some snark on other boards (and I won't say, either). Another part of CC that is very friendly and helpful is port of call boards. Some of those boards are frequented by locals who are great about answering questions, even if the question is asked over and over and over again.

Yes, my TA did it. I've done self-initiated upsells before and didn't have a change in booking number but that was quite a few years ago, maybe not even on HAL, so I didn't know if it would still work that way. I'm just happy that I don't have to keep checking the website to see if an aft becomes available. I've been looking every few days since I booked it in June.

I got the new cabin!!!! The price was lower than I expected, probably the Mariner discount for this weekend's sale. When I checked availability, I didn't sign in for special prices. I would have been happy with the price I saw, but I'm even happier with the price I got. CO was a good suggestion. But the price increase to go up from VC to VB was less than buying CO. At the time I booked this, there weren't a lot of cabins available, and no afts, so there was no point in doing the CO upgrade to go from VD to VC. At this point, with even fewer cabins available, CO is probably sold out. I am happy to report that I kept my booking number and deposit. So I don't have to change the insurance. I don't have to rebook the extras--my HIA tours and dining are still there, as is my thermal suite pass. The only change is the new cabin number and a new price for my final payment.

You're right, I tried in a new window and the cabin is still there.

And when he calls me back, I'll cancel the dummy booking and the cabin should show again.

I know. I'm not hesitating, just curious. I'm waiting for my TA to get back to me. Meanwhile, I'm sitting on a half-done dummy booking. Not sure that will "hide" the cabin.

He has to, HAL won't talk to me. I'm wondering if it becomes a new booking because that will mean changing my insurance to reflect the new booking date.

I'm booked on a cruise this winter in a verandah cabin. I wanted an aft wake-view, but there weren't any available. I've been haunting the site, hoping one would pop up and today one did! It's a higher grade, so this is an upsell. I'm fine with the new, slightly higher price, but I'm curious about the process. Since I'm not chasing a lower fare, do I need to cancel and rebook, or can my TA just move me to the new location and HAL will change the price on the booking?

Thank you for asking that! Our friends and cruise buddies were martini aficionados and were appalled at the number of strange drinks that were going by the name "martini." If it doesn't have gin and vermouth it is NOT a martini. Okay, maybe vodka in place of the gin. But that's the only substition before the drink becomes something else.

No, I didn't use the spa on QA. I looked at it on the first day and decided it wasn't for me. I love the thermal suites on QA and QV, but not QA. The thermal pool is too small, the room is too small, there is too little seating, and there is no natural light. After I saw that, I didn't bother to look at anything else. Sorry I can't be more helpful. I think my feelings on the thermal suite on QA are almost on a par with @exlondoner's feelings on the Grills Lounge. 😜

How lovely that they honored crew members at the Senior Officers Party! They used to do that occasionally back in the days of QE2. I remember one captain saying to us because you're family, we want you to see some special members of the family. Or words to that effect. There was a change of captain between my cruise and yours. No announcements/speech of any kind at the Senior Officers party on my cruise. I liked the Australian Fizz.

Considering how popular loungers are, this seems an odd decision. Is there alternate seating taking up the space produced by the missing loungers? Tables and chairs maybe? Or just empty space? I understand how you feel about paying so much extra for the cruise. It makes you look at value for money differently. I hope your Alaska cruise will exceed your [very low] expectations.

It's one of the things I dislike about the Pinnacle class (HAL has three of them). On the plus side, the obstructed balconies are less obstructed than on other ships, being blocked by only the top half of a lifeboat. That gives the room more light and less of an orange glow.

That's right. They seem to be strict about arrival times for non-priority passengers at Southampton (queue outside the building). For Priority, you just show your boarding pass, walk in, and go right to check-in. After that, you either wait in a designated area if they aren't boarding yet or go directly to security and then onto the ship. I aim for arrival at the terminal between 11:30 and noon. That usually means a little while sitting and waiting, but I don't mind that. On my past 2 cruises, QG were called around 12:30 and PG maybe 5 minutes after that. Then Diamond after another 5-10 minutes. Platinum after that, and I don't know if Club is in the Priority area or not.

At least they used her first name. My husband was involved with a few local organizations and when the city had events for combined groups many years ago, wives had only the husband's name, as in Mrs John Doe. We would see friends at these events and she and I would say "Hello, Mrs. John Doe" and "Hello, Mrs William Smith." We called it being Mrs. His Name.

I am so sorry you have to deal with this. I sail solo, and treatment like that would pretty much ruin my cruise. EVERY passenger should be made to feel welcome!

I think that's a larger alc menu than I've seen in PG.

It's a lot of years since I was on Princess, but I remember liking how they alternated sides in the buffet. One side would close maybe 45 minutes before the end of breakfast, leaving the other side to serve the stragglers. Then the closed side would reopen to start lunch early, while the breakfast side would close to get lunch going. So there always was some food available, sometimes different meals overlapping a bit.