ExArkie

It astounds me the number of times I have received an email touting security, even to the extent of saying don't click on email links, that include a link to click for more information.

Same here. I wandered down the rabbit hole of history and never actually emerged to try to identify the port. Actually, that has happened before on this thread, but this time I started from a position of total ignorance…as opposed to my customary state of slightly more limited ignorance in all areas. Thanks to D&N for the direction to a fun exercise in history.

We did one transatlantic on Oceania after the shutdown. Granted, it was still relatively early in the restaffing and retraining process, which indubitably had an effect, but aside from the Asian restaurant Red Ginger and the grill-to-order shrimp and lobster in their buffet, we found their food quality to be comparable to or worse than MDRs on Celebrity, NCL, and HAL. It was much worse than Luminae or Cunard Grills (those are the only two suite dining experiences we have had). I am told it was an anomaly, but that was our experience.

Good point. I already know that it is nonrefundable, though, since that is what it was from this TA the last time. However, I'll be using every bit of current OBC (and then some) since the Retreat package no longer includes daily gratuities.

First, thanks to everyone for pointing this out. I was not aware that one could see the OBC, so that helps. However, our OBC came from the TA and it shows on the site as directed above. We did not get any OBC from Celebrity.

The cake I received was not accompanied by anyone singing. Our server brought it, and was met at the table by the PG maitre d’, both of whom wished me a happy birthday in a pretty subdued manner. Nearby diners may not have even noticed.

I don’t know that they believe their customers to be stupid so much as they want people who write lengthy letters of complaint over conditions they have not yet experienced and who are asking for them to justify their cost-cutting measures to just go away. Not saying you were at fault for doing so, but your synopsis above did ask them to justify a lot of decisions that have already implemented and will only change if it costs them money. Having been assigned to respond to members of the public in similar situations, I was told not to engage in debate, to write a short response that did not imply follow-up would be welcome, and to reinforce the company position in as few words as possible. Sounds like you got that letter. So, no, I don’t think they believe we are stupid, just a nuisance.

No particular hassle, we just packed our bags, left them in the cabin, unpacked them in the new cabin. Would have been nice to avoid the pack/unpack, but if that’s the most inconvenience I experience with Cunard, we are well ahead of the game. Come to think of it, aside from having decks closed on occasion, that may actually have been the most inconvenience I’ve experienced with Cunard.

A few years ago, my birthday was embarkation. We had made no arrangements or made any note of that to Cunard. The next night, the server brought a “small” cake - enough for four servings, but we were at a table for two - as a birthday surprise. We were in PG.

Interesting that we did not get the hanging trolley in December 2022. Perhaps because we were moving from PG to QG, but we had to pack everything not our suitcases.

The port Web site can give you information about the terminal locations. https://www.porteverglades.net/cruise/terminals/ If you’re lucky, the ships will be close together. They may be quite some distance apart, though. See the photo on the page I linked to

Just tried this and got through to the details without error messages. They have account information (name, address, phone, email), CWC number, and contact preferences. Still nothing about travel history. I don't think it even indicated CWC status level. This was on Firefox, by the way, which is my default browser.

Could the security issue be related to the width of the River for passage into and out of the terminal? (i.e., damage to one ship in the area could block the entire channel) I'm pretty sure the NCL Breakaway routinely uses Manhattan - we saw her coming in while QM2 was docking in Brooklyn a couple of years ago. According to published information, Breakaway is 1,068 feet long, while QM2 is 1,132 feet, a difference of 64 feet. If there is a length limitation, QM2 must be just barely over it.

My only comment is that HAL is remarkably consistent in their remarkable inconsistency. For our booking, our Mariner number did default to our receiving the AARP benefit (during rebooking an existing reservation) and the Mariner early booking benefit. We were not eligible for the welcome back benefit. To me, it looks like sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Our TA assumed it would work and did no follow-up, but none was needed. Obviously, not your situation.

Hanlon's Razor: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."

I think the right answer on availability of early booking is “until HAL decides to end it.” I understood it to be within 90 days from launch, but we booked an April 2025 transpacific in March of this year with the early booking bonus. Just checked about price drops during the Black Friday event (it went down by $5…total, not per day) and early booking was still being offered 8+ months after we did our booking. We did get the Mariner OBC for booking within 60 (?) days of launch.

Thanks for clarifying. I haven't been in QG in any category on QE and the one time I was in QG on QV was before they remodeled the ship and added the cabins aft. So, perpetual confusion appears to be my natural state on anything regarding QG on those two ships.

Is this correct, that the Q4 suites on QE are the same size as the Q6? The information I have says Q4 is 45 square meters (484 square feet) and the Q6 is 49 square meters (504 square feet). That’s not a lot of difference and probably not discernible onboard, being a size difference of roughly an additional love seat, but the sizes are not quite the same. QM2 is a significant difference: Q6 is 36 square meters (388 square feet) and Q4 is 55 square meters (588 square feet), or a difference roughly equal to the size of an ocean view cabin on QM2.

For any passes/tickets that are on my phone, I always take a screen shot of the bar or QR code in case the signal is nonexistent when I get to where I need it. Screenshots can always be pulled up from a file folder, even when the signal disappears.

Perhaps customers with special expertise in an area - computers, professional services, hobbies, experience in the upcoming port, whatever - should be allowed to volunteer to do lectures. It'd be a throwback to the "golden" days of transatlantic journeys where there was no programmed entertainment and passengers just fended for themselves.

Is this the usual practice now (again)? For our B2B in December 2022, everything - including all of our hanging clothes - had to be put in suitcases.

We did this is December 2022, spent the Southampton turnaround day on board. The security guard at the gangway was a bit confused when we scanned our old cards but didn’t leave the ship. She finally caught on when we scanned our new cards. Must have been new on the job. My advice is to let the disembarking crowd thin out before doing this. We waited until just after the last time for departing passengers to make our way there. Essentially no wait, so we scanned cards and went to Carinthia Lounge for a coffee while the new cabin was made ready.

I have a couple of recent photos of my wife and of myself to use for this type of thing when necessary. For one check-in, photo A of my wife was accepted, but I had to try two of myself before my photo C was accepted. A few months later, checking in for a second cruise, my photo A was accepted, which had been rejected before. For my wife, photo A was rejected after having been previously accepted, but her photo B was accepted. In both cases, we had to submit photos to complete check-in (most recent one was in September this year). In both cases, they took photos of us when we arrived at the terminal. I have no idea what purpose it serves to require a photo for check-in.

We were on NCL first time in 2016. Seems that they were just starting to move away from flat rate specialty dining at that time. I do know that the FAS drink and dining packages for our May Norway fjords cruise did not charge extra gratuities when we booked, but NCL was doing so for later bookings on the same trip. The FAS specialty dining package also included enough nights that we didn’t actually eat in the MDR for the entire trip.

A reasonably close match I found to it was in Albuquerque. Pretty sure that isn't a Cunard port. Time to try a different approach...