Fairgarth

On 8/25/2020 at 6:55 AM, bluemarble said:

there is no longer an "Alaska" destination to select on the Cunard website when doing a voyage search.

Curses!  We live in Vancouver and had been eyeing a 10-day Alaska trip next summer.  There are lots of 7 day voyages on other lines but 10 days has a lot of appeal, is rare and we like Cunard.  Especially since it was Vancouver - Vancouver and we would need two taxis rather than two flights.  Ah well, c'est la vie!

18 hours ago, 1982CruzStart said:

They may not have received any direct funding from the government since being privatized but they continue to receive preferential treatment to the determinate of the Canadian taxpayer and competitors including other Canadian airlines. 

If they did, indeed, receive preferential treatment it was obviously hopelessly inadequate.  The privatized Air Canada went bankrupt.

3 hours ago, 1982CruzStart said:

i would probably have less animosity towards AC if my tax dollars hadn't kept the airline afloat for many years.

Complete rubbish, not true.  Air Canada was privatized 30 years ago and has received no taxpayer dollars since then.  I can't be sure - somebody else chip in? - but even as a Crown Corporation they managed to keep their heads just above water and did not receive any tax dollars.

7 hours ago, PORT ROYAL said:

 

Dino's were made extinct by climate change.  

 

 

 

 

 

Well no, dinos were made extinct by an asteroid that hit the Yucatan.  Which massively changed the climate.  So who do you want to blame?  Let the asteroid off the hook?

9 minutes ago, uktog said:

Haha They are going to glow a bit, they are docked in Rosyth adjacent to the nuclear sub berth

I really shouldn't but I can't resist, sorry, very sorry.  For some reason, this reminds me of that very old joke:

First prize:  one week's holiday in Glasgow

Second prize:  two week's holiday in Glasgow

Now would y'all get back on topic......

9 hours ago, uktog said:

One of the biggest obstacles is that any buyer who goes to Edinburgh will be so disappointed- the ships are in Glasgow.

 

Aye, indeed.  OTOH, to alleviate their disappointment they could bid on four Fred Olsen ships that are parked in the Forth.

8 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Are you including those Scottish guys who occasionally wear skirts to dinner?

Och aye, for sure.  My skirt outfit cost a muckle mair bawbees than my tux.  It's a great conversation starter, especially with the ladies (but no wi' the laddies).  Eat yer hert oot, jealousy......jealousy......

Yes.  I overheard the maitre d' being kind but firm.  He said they had five jackets to lend out but they were all gone.  (Britannia main dining room (with one 'n') on a crossing)

23 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Princess is probably looking to dispose of R-3.  .... and she might be available for next to nothing at this point.

If I was Azamara I would grab it.  Assuming the condition was tolerable.  When they went from two ships to three, that was an overnight increase of 50% in capacity.  You don't have an overnight increase of 50% in a loyal cohort of passengers.  This time would be an increase of only 33% in capacity.  Look at Seabourn.  They went from the triplets to five new ships in the space of two or three years.  From a fleet total capacity of 1200 passengers to 3174, almost three times as much.  How do you staff them?  Where do you find that huge increase in passengers so quickly?  Too much, too soon?

On 6/12/2020 at 4:08 AM, lindylooellalouise said:

we really enjoy Cunard grills experience and the formal nights.

In that case, I think you need to stick with Cunard.  Celebrity is noisy, music everywhere and you can't get away from it.  Most annoying at times.  We filled in a comment card and even got a call to our cabin from the cruise director.  'Very sorry, but Miami says we have to do it.'  The Queens are quiet in comparison and fellow passengers are considerate, sophisticated and friendly.  We would go back on Celebrity but adjust our expectations.  With a much bigger fleet, they can offer so many more itineraries.

9 hours ago, uktog said:

 

1.  Given that the final. cruise payment is to the travel agent, I’m assuming it’s them I name on the the dispute.

Could be wrong but I doubt it.  My understanding is that the agent acts simply as an agent i.e. they never took title to the goods and re-sold them.   Not like a shoe store.  They have no contract with a credit card bank and cannot accept payment in their own name.  They have never, ever had your cash.  They get paid a commission by the cruise line after VISA has billed you.  (I'm guessing again, but I assume that when Azamara refunds you in full, they reclaim commission from the agent.)  Your card statement should show the billing from 'Azamara'.  If it actually shows 'ABC agent', then that's different.  So there is no point in going after the agent.  They don't have your cash and never did.

3 hours ago, Madam33b said:

 

Needless to say should I ever cruise again it will be with Regent Crystal or Viking who have all given refunds 

Azamara will be last on my list

 

Horsefeathers!!  Good luck with that one.  We are still waiting for our Crystal refund.  Check the Crystal forum and see for yourself how many of their customers are just as mad as Azamara's.

On 3/22/2020 at 4:13 PM, Bookish Angel said:

Caroline Alexander’s The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition

 

I second that.  I was given it and have read it three times.  What a manager and leader of men!  They all got home.  I'm now of the opinion that Scott was an upper class twit who was out of his depth.

Further to....interesting piece in CBC News website today.  It seems to be common that Canadian banks are stonewalling on chargebacks.  If pushed, they will finally agree to 'open a dispute' with the airline.  So you have to wait and see if and when you actually get your refund but they are not processing chargebacks.

So let me speculate here.  In normal times, a credit card company might pay an airline for 100 ticket sales a day and have one refund.  So they deduct the value of the refund and pay the airline the balance.  So what happens if the credit card has a daily total of 100 refunds and one new ticket sale?  They haven't a snowflake's chance in hell of getting money back from an airline so they try to choke off their own customer.  Yes?

21 hours ago, klfrodo said:

I'm not sure of Canadian laws.

If you were in the US, you could just file a "charge back" on your credit card with the credit card company you bought the tickets with. The credit card company would immediately credit your account and then investigate with (in your case) Lufthansa.

Thanks for the suggestion.  We contacted our credit card issuer.  They tried to fob us off by suggesting we file a claim with our credit card insurance.  I can't see that this is an insurable event but it would relieve them of doing any uncompensated work.  In the end, they said they would 'raise a dispute' with Lufthansa.  They did not say they would charge back, at least, not yet.  They advised that it could take up to 90 days to resolve.

We had the opposite experience.  We were booked on Aegean for ATH - FRA on 14th April.  Our cruise was cancelled so we cancelled our flight.  It was not cancelled by Aegean.  We called their 24 hour line from Canada.  We got our refunds fairly quickly, minus a 75 euro charge each.  Lufthansa, OTOH, is a fish of a different kettle.  They cancelled their flight into Dubai and indeed, Dubai closed their airport to all flights the day before we were due to arrive.  We called Lufthansa and requested a refund but are still waiting.  We never got the service we paid for, if we never get a refund is that theft?

You have to go in with the mindset that the ship is the destination.  If you would rather be off the ship, then this won't work.  We have done six trans-Atlantics on Azamara, Seabourn, Celebrity and Cunard so obviously the first one did not put us off.  On these crossings, the cruise director earns his/her keep like never before.  So you won't get bored.  We also found on Azamara that we met lots of compatible, friendly folks and had a very social time.  Small ships are much better for this.  The north Atlantic can get rough but your route is so far south, you should have smooth sailing.  From Florida to/from Lisbon/Barcelona/Rome we had good weather every time.

On 4/30/2020 at 6:34 AM, SargassoPirate said:

 

We all have Schrodinger's Virus now.

Because we cannot get tested, we can't know whether we have the virus or not.

We have to act as if we have the virus so that we don't spread it to others.

We have to act as if we've never had the virus because if we didn't have it, we're not immune.

Therefore, we both have and don't have the virus.

 

That is brilliant!!  Very clever, thank you.

3 hours ago, nordski said:

That has to be one of the best replies I’ve ever received on this forum, and I thank you for it!

 

 

 

 

 

How kind, thank you!

Some nice people invited me to go curling and I would have been up for the 'wee dram'.  I had to politely decline, however.  I can't skate.

On 4/5/2020 at 12:54 PM, nordski said:

There must be some terrible dust problem in this room, having trouble with my eyes while Queen Elizabeth I 

Aye, aye, yer richt enough.  She is Queen Elizabeth l of Scotland and Queen Elizabeth ll of England.  Lang may yer lum reek.

I did it a few years ago with Wadali Cats.  You would have to check current info.  Have also done  Adventure Antigua, same trip.

16 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Not worried about catching the virus. I am worried about cruises to nowhere, getting stuck on a ship for 14 days in quarantine and having to spend another 14 days before getting back to my home country. 

Exactly!!  

Nicely done, thank you for that.  We have had a couple of trips on QM2 but were slightly dubious about QE and QV.  You have laid those fears to rest so now we'll keep a lookout for something suitable.  

You are assuming that weather will never be a factor.  We cruised with folks from Toronto who always flew in day of.  Then there was the Xmas Eve when a major snow storm blew through......  I have also been stuck in Chicago in summer (not heading for a cruise) when wave after wave of thunderstorms swept through the airport.  American and United each cancelled 500 flights.  So it's like gambling.  Nine times out of ten you will make it.  And on the tenth what will you be thinking?

This is quite a long beach with only Miller's and Beach Limerz on it.  I have to say that the beach is largely deserted most of the time.  But this is very interesting just the same.  Beaches in Antigua are public.  Even the wretched Sandals cannot stop the public from using the beach at Dickensen so what is going to happen here?  Maybe the club will be off beach behind a fence, like Sandals, but RCCL won't like it.  OTOH, given that the beach is quiet anyway, there would be no point in people suddenly flocking there if they can't get into the club.