iancal

We came close to booking an Alaska cruise a few weeks prior to departure this past summer (we live near the departure port). The price was so low..almost cheaper than staying at home.

 

I the end we passed. It was an older ship that had poor reports. The cruise review section was not that complementary. The final decision was when DW stated that if it rained often she did not want to be stuck on an old tub with worn out cabin amenities. That did it for me....we passed on the opportunity. No regrets. Better to wait for something we really want and know that we will enjoy.

Absolutely. I have an IT background. Forever drilling into my spouse and adult children just how insecure Facebook is..and all of the other sites.

 

We are not paranoid, just careful. We shred all hard copy personal and financial data that we no longer use. It amazes me how many people seem to go out of their way to advertise that they will be away from their homes etc.

 

The decision to list a home town or location is a personal one, not really anybody else's business or concern.

Notwithstanding all of the comments, I have do doubt that the cruise lines would want to avoid any liability or litigation stemming from an error in their process to identify known offenders. That is if they actually did it which they do not.

 

I suspect that they have enough challenges in simply checking on crew backgrounds at time of hire and again periodically thought the employment period.

I hear you ducklite! That was my life when I was working. A table for two was wonderful. It is also when we decided to skip most formal nights in the MDR.

 

Now that we are retired we have a different attitude to it.

We have cruised from Barcelona, Rome, Istanbul, and Venice.

 

Rome is not a favorite because of the port location. The others are all about equal for us.

 

I think it really depends on the flights from your home airport plus any pre or post cruise plans that you have. We typically do open jaw flights, ie fligh into one city and fly home from another.

We remember a sixty cent dollar.

 

If oil keeps dropping, and it might in order to destroy Putin's economy, the CAD keep going down. Simply a case of balance of payments and demand for our dollar.

We will not book a ship that we do not like. Most especially if it is an older ship with a history of poor maintenance, A/C, or plumbing problems.

We select our ships carefully based on our personal preferences. The ship is often as, or more important to us than the cruise line.

 

We are glass half full people. We follow the 80/20 rule and we do not sweat the small stuff. But, we are also very flexible travellers.

 

The only thing that we insist on is a cabin with proper HVAC, plumbing, and an assurance of travelling on a ship that is not past it's sell by date in terms of general condition or amenities.

We have had a number of cruises that met our expectation of perfection. But that expectation is a personal preference issue.

 

Never, ever had a bad cruise or one where we got off the ship and said to each other never again on that ship or that cruise line. We do not expect all cruise lines and all ships to be the same. And for us, it would be boring if they were.

 

We board an RCL ship in five days and a Princess ship in Feb. Will they be perfect or as memorable as our first cruise? Don' know that but I do know that we will have a great time on board. Even with the cutbacks!

We get OBC's on every cruise that we book. Our TA rebates some of the agency commission back to us in the form of an OBC. It usually works out to 8-10 percent of the commissionable fare. Sometimes a bit better if there is an agency group on the cruise that we can tag onto.

 

We sometimes get OBC's from the cruise line in addition to those that we get by booking with a TA.

CAD is going down...no question about that.

I think the only screening they do is to make certain that the final payment credit card charge gets approved and the credi card hold amount on boarding is also approved.

 

Besides, the number of offenders on these lists only represents less than 20 percent of offenders.

I would say that their style is 'traditional cheap'. As long as it is from the fifties or earlier and costs very little HAL seems to go with it.

 

It will not be long befofore the Adagio Strings become the Adagio String or perhaps a CD.

We just booked seats on a Vueling flight from Palermo to Rome for next Tuesday so we are about to find out how the service is.

 

The price was right. I notice that it is a codeshare with another airline but Vueling is the operator.

No it will not impact our next cruise.

 

BUT, it will greatly reduce our US travel and cruise purchases. Other options become more attractive. This winter we will go to Thailand and Malaysia instead of a Caribbean cruise, Florida, or Hawaii trip.

 

We did a fair amount of cruising when our dollar was high, the world economy poor, and cruise prices inn USD were at all time lows. Currency has a huge impact. We delayed a trip to South Africa for a year. Their currency dropped and it saved us a fair amount of money.

Usually the same for us. a 20 inch roller each and a small satchel. Length of cruise or travel does not make much difference for us. We pack for seven days and do layers. Our next cruise is on the 29th. We have been doing independent land travel since early Sept..this is what we have for luggage. Essentially carry on.

Turkish Airlines used to have a program for those connecting in Istanbul on long haul flights. You either got a free hotel room or an escorted tour of Istanbul. It is one of our favourite cities.

Great choice. The Solstice class ships are wonderful.

happygran...our experience on our recent Celebrity cruises has been exactly that. A 6:45/7:00 reservation.

 

Same table every night, same staff. No waiting.

It is unclear to me why these have to be mutually exclusive options.

 

We think that Celebrity does it right. Fixed and open seating in the MDR. Plus two and often more dining venues that are not only open seating but do not have a formal dress code on formal evenings. Celebrity does not have the edge on smarts. On innovation ..perhaps. Innovation is where HAL drops the ball big time. This is very much evident to those who cruise on other lines.

Some people like to believe that HAL's, or most other mass market cruise line, MDR is fine dining.

 

The tables are set nicely, the food is presented nicely. But in the final analysis this is banquet food through and through. You get some great meals, some not so great, and lots of mediocre ones in between. I have no doubt that they plate as much as they can in advance. Just consider the volume..it is pure assemby line.

i do not think that traditional diners have anything to be concerned about.

HAL is not exactly an innovative cruise line. A massive change for HAL might be moving the traditional dining times up or down 15 minutes. That in itself would probably result in a mailbag or two full of customer complaints.
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We very much like St. Lucia. And Grenada.

 

Not interested in St. Thomas any more. Not a shopper and it is overrun. They have a growing crime problem that the locals and the cruise lines are desperately trying to keep out of the news. Lots of dollars invested here.

If the discussion turns to politics, religion, or sex we tune out. Or just leave.

 

We find the right wingers, those to the right of Attila the Hun in their political or religious views, to be the most obnoxious when they insist on attempting to start a discussion. We run, not walk for fear of saying something very rude and offensive to them.

We definately like choice-not only in venue but also in time. More and more we are be getting turned off by the MDR. We don"t eat at the same time every night at home or on vacation.

Many of the MDR's have become very noisy with poor service and mediocre food dressed up a little. Far too much clanging and banging especially if you ar near a serving station. HAL is no exception and simply does not have the choice of venues, formal and informal, that some others cruise lines/ships have. Perhaps this will chance with the new build. Hopefully they will see the light.

I think the challenge for HAL is that other lines have moved forward to respond to customer preferences in this area. There is a definite trend in this direction if you experience other cruise lines.