Toofarfromthesea

Lately I have been having success with the Incognito page. This is on a Samsung Chromebook running Chrome.

Just like a good tea, whether it be afternoon, high, cream, or an international version, this is a lovely thread.

Hmmm, I have an upcoming 1/13 17 day cruise where I've already made the final payment and pre-paid the grats. I wonder if I can get the free grats promotion and a refund on the grats I've already paid. I may just have to give my TA a call.

This whole thread brings back such memories of our afternoon tea at The Ritz London. One memory is of a family of eight at a nearby table. They were beautifully dressed, and there was a little boy of about age 6 who was wearing a better suit than any I've ever owned. In my head I was thinking that the dad must be in the House of Lords and buys his bespoke suits on Saville Row.

On my 17 day 1/13 Koningsdam I bought it and it said 14/20, and was $299 US, FWIW.

Is the whipped cream an Australian thing, because I hadn't heard of using that before.

You can always make it yourself: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/257734/chef-johns-clotted-cream/ I've never made this, but a few years back we did an afternoon tea for a special occasion and I made the cream cheese for some of the little sandwiches.

Hmm, on the home page screen it seems to tie the free crew appreciation to a nonrefundable deposit. It says "nonrefundable deposit offer - up to 45% off fares + Free Prepaid Crew Appreciation. Are you sure that adding the free crew appreciation didn't convert your deposit into a nonrefundable deposit? Unless, of course that was what you intended.

There is a search engine (not a TA) called Cruiseplum. If you go to that site click on Search, and then Detailed Search in the upper right corner. It will ask how many passengers and then your country. Obviously specify 1 passenger and then your country - US or Canada. Then a multipage list of cruises will appear with a column on the left where there are a lot of filters . Scroll down that list to Lines and Cabins and click the > to select Holland America. There will be suites and balconies listed, but below them is an Oceanvew category. Click the > symbol and a list will open up of the various Oceanview cabin types with their letter codes. Scroll down to the item Single Oceanview (OO) cabin and check the box, and on that big list will have been filtered down to a list of the sailings on which this cabin is available. You'll have to go elsewhere to do your booking as this is strictly a search engine. But you'll have all of the information you'll need to tell your TA, or HAL directly, exactly what you want. And if you find one you like you can click the "I" all the way to the right it will show a lot of info on that sailing including the base fare, port charges and tips with a total and per day, not just for (OO) category but for all categories. There will also be a lot more ship/sailing info. And if you click on the Book link it will take you to the page on HAL's site for that cruise. You don't have to book there - you're free to see if your TA of choice can give you a better deal. I hope you find this helpful. As a newly solo traveler this will become my first stop in picking a cruise.

I booked one of the OO cabins, not realizing what it was although I was a solo cruiser, on my upcoming Hawaii cruise. I just thought it was the cheapest Ocean View. But when I bought Club Orange I got upgraded all the way to a D category cabin, which would have cost more than $1,000 more to book initially. Dumb ignorant luck.

Where do you come down on the great debate on whether you put the clotted cream on first and then the jam or first the jam and then the clotted cream?

I researched all of this when we did a pre-cruise stay in London. But I think the use of the terms in less formal settings like a cruise ship or anywhere here in the States is unlikely to follow the real definitions. And if memory serves, isn't there another type of tea called a cream tea? I think I saw that listed on some of the Cotswolds' day trips I researched. But since we were going to do the afternoon tea in town we picked an outing that included a pub lunch. IAC, our afternoon tea at The Ritz London, was a highlight of our stay. Despite the high cost.

Just out of curiosity, what's his objection to a river cruise?

I feel very fortunate that my limited cruising experiences (4 ocean, 2 river since first one in 2017) allows me to enjoy what a cruise has to offer without lamenting how it isn't as good as it used to be because I never experienced how good it used to be.

I knew there were corps that owned multiple lines but I didn't realize Princess & HAL had a common owner. If all or some of them are using the same service provider for their websites then they should do a better job of negotiating performance levels and standards with financial penalties for nonperformance. Or get a better service provider. In today's world your website is the face of your company. One that works properly and efficiently presents a competent face to customers. And probably saves you money on customer service because routine tasks like booking dinners and excursions, buying onboard services, buying upgrades, etc. should be easy to do online. But what we seem to have, in an era of Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Stupidity.

It is interesting that there doesn't seem to be a standard length of time for a courtesy hold. At least i've been unable to find one for HAL.

Why do you call the experiences of people who work or have worked for cruise lines misinformation? And don't specify what it is you are calling misinformation, or which post? Or are we just stirring things up?

There's a difference between someone sharing their thoughts by saying 'this is what I do' and someone sharing their thoughts by saying 'this is what you should do.' "We "watch" the MDR menu on the stateroom TV when getting ready for dinner......Always fun to figure out what we are about to go enjoy....." falls into the former category. "Enjoy the freedom of no phone onboard......It's liberating. Not required nor needed for a fantastic cruise! We have the "shakes" for a day or two and then it passes and we feel fine and function fine. " falls pretty close to the latter category. Just a thought.

To be fair, I was on the Princess forum and people were grousing about their technology failures too. It is too bad that cruise lines don't just outsource their technology to a competent third party company.

It's great that you enjoy freedom away from your phone. Other people don't. It's not a one-size-fits-all world.

I haven't seen anything on HAL's website or any of the various websites that discuss dress codes that suggests that smart casual requires that men wear long sleeve shirts. Do you have a reference for that or is it just your personal interpretation?

I think limiting the number of bookings that can be held long term with a $1 deposit on each is a good idea and one I would like to see HAL adopt. IAC I don't agree with the notion that just because HAL lets you do something, that doing it is not wrong. HAL lets you order multiple entrees in the MDR, but ordering 5 entrees and taking 2 bites of each would still be wrong, I'm my eyes. Even though HAL allows it. As the Good Book says: All things are permitted, but not all things are of benefit.

Not really. If you put a $2 deposit on a variety of cruises, or particular cabins on a cruise, only planning to use only one it blockcs those cruisers and/or cabins from other people who want to book those. It seems a little selfish to me.

This is encouraging to me as I will be sailing solo for the first time since DW passed, and I enjoy meeting people. I hope I have as much success on the CO as you did.

As we used to say when we had an open house for friends and family at Christmas, 'If you go home hungry it's your own d@mned fault'. LOL