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I'm trying to share this as widely as possible, as I, and a few friends, have been burned recently. eShakti, who used to be one of the top customizable clothing brands, has effectively gone out of business. My experience: I ordered 6 items in early December of 2023, with a delivery timeline of 4 weeks, which should have been LOADS of time before departing for my Panama Canal cruise in late January 2024. I finally received 3 of the items in April, and the other three have never been made or delivered. I was told that, due to the delay, they would cancel the other three items and send me a refund. That refund never arrived. On their website, it shows that all 6 items were included in the shipment that came to me. I've sent multiple emails, left multiple voice mails, submitted comments through their website, and received no responses since late April. Other friends and contacts have reported similar experiences over the last ~12 months, and if you search online, you'll see posts from former employees explaining the current situation (their factories have all shut down, they've laid off all of their Indian and American employees, and, at least until the last few days, were still accepting orders (including taking payment) on their website. They seem to be no longer accepting orders, with an error message on the website that says they are unable to process payment due to technical issues.) I was previously a HUGE fan of eShakti, and recommended them to a number of friends - I've got a number of items of clothing from them, including some of my favourite Gala night frocks, and I'm really sad that they've gone the way of the dodo.

Yes, the cabins have both UK and US plug sockets.

If this works for you, fantastic! I prefer the overnight flights, because I can doze, if not fully sleep, on the flight, and generally arrive with enough energy to make it through the day, go to bed slightly early (9PM or so), and then be on UK time when I wake up the next morning.

Definitely recommend going nonstop if you can at all swing it. Especially with only a short time in between arrival and embarkation, a connection increases the likelihood of issues, both in terms of potentially lost luggage (if you're checking anything) and missed flights. But if you must do the connection, since the first flight is domestic, you shouldn't need to arrive more than 2 hours in advance, but I'd want to make sure that you've got a long connection time in between, since you may need to switch terminals, and your luggage (if any is checked) needs to get transferred (which, depending on the airport in question, you may need to collect and re-check). I'm a big fan of overnight flights to the UK (I'm also on the east coast), arriving relatively early in the morning, which gives me a full day in London before heading to the port for embarkation.

I had to do this type of packing earlier this year during a Fort Lauderdale-San Francisco cruise in Jan/Feb, where I left from Toronto (with negative temps), then up to 30C+ in Aruba/Panama, then cool (~10C) and rainy in SF. Layers are your friends. Luckily, I was able to leave my big winter coat in the car, and my partner brought it back when they came to pick me up on my return.

You might want to check in the Roll Call for the trip.

I'm on Cunard, and they're offering both a bike and a hike option.

The one I'm doing is a hike, rather than a bike, thankfully - I am not sure that I'd be good on the bike, so I'll just enjoy the walk. 🙂

Can I ask which website you took the above screenshots from? I've booked a 'rail trail hike & beach' excursion for next March, but based on the description, it's going past Fort Scaur, which is at the far end of the island - from the above, it looks like it's zone 17.

Completely unrelated to the topic of this thread, but which port did QV dock at in Bermuda? The itinerary says Hamilton, but I don't know if that's actually where we'll be docking, or if it's a 'New York/Brooklyn' situation.

I believe the OP was looking for B&Bs (bed & breakfast) not Airbnb, which is a self-catered thing. There are B&Bs, but they can be harder to find. I googled for B&Bs in Fort Lauderdale, and a few came up (including a number of Airbnb pages, unsurprisingly).

My parents travel to Barbados every winter for 2 months from a cold-weather country, and generally have someone come by and start their car and drive it around a bit, at least every few weeks, to avoid the battery discharging. It may not be necessary, but it does avoid nasty surprises when you get home (assuming you're not leaving your car at a parking lot at the airport/cruiseport.) If you are leaving your car at the airport/cruiseport, make sure you have CAA/AAA/local equivalent membership so that you can get your battery boosted when you get home, if it's discharged.

I can't speak to QM2, but on QV earlier this year, early in the morning (think 6-8AM) the pool was relatively quiet, so more 'serious' swimming was feasible (as opposed to floating around). However, as mentioned below, the pools are very short (much shorter than it looks from the photos), so swimming laps was quite difficult - more time spent turning than swimming. I saw one brilliant individual with a leash - one end around their waist, the other end around something on the edge of the pool - so they were able to swim 'in place'. I'm planning to find one before my next cruise to try out.

Make this YOUR vacation. Enjoy the run-up as much as the cruise, if that's your style. (It's mine.) Plan as much, or as little, as you want. Pre-plan everything, fly by the seat of your pants, or somewhere in between, depending on what brings you joy. I like to plan out the days leading up to, and the days after, the cruise, but leave the on-board experience relatively open. (But most of my cruises have a lot of sea days, which require less planning overall than port-intensive cruises.) Figure out what you need to make this an enjoyable trip, and line those pieces up early. If you know that you want to go for dinner at a specific specialty restaurant one night, book that as early as possible. And bring your flexibility. Ports get missed, excursions get cancelled, menus change, restaurants close unexpectedly, something gets messed up on the ship, but if you're flexible, you can still make the trip wonderful for yourself.

My parents frequently drink white port & tonic in the summer - because port is so much lower in alcohol than gin, it makes for a more 'drinkable' cocktail.

For boarding, I usually pare it down to a minimal tote-style purse (but I'm also not generally doing hot weather cruises, so I'm not going and jumping into the pool as soon as I'm on board). I keep meds, jewelry, electronics (phone, ebook, tablet if brought, earbuds, and appropriate chargers), and my knitting. Plus paperwork, of course. For flying, I usually have a few more things tucked in there, as well as having a carry-on suitcase with clothes, etc.

Oh, I'm aware, but living somewhere where I effectively have to fly to cruise, airfare is a big part of my cruising budget.

I'm paying almost as much (about $300 CAD difference) for my flights for my next Transatlantic (Toronto-FLL, then UK-Toronto) as I am for a balcony cabin on a 2-week cruise. And if I wasn't getting the airfare through the cruise line, I'd be paying almost 50% more.

I ate in my room because I was trying to minimize my potential exposure to covid before getting on a ship for 2+ weeks. (I'll be doing the same thing next March.)

I stayed at the Hyatt on 17th earlier this year, and it was lovely. I arrived VERY early (just before noon, when all of the previous night's people were checking out and waiting for port shuttles, and I think there were 4 ships in that day, so it was VERY busy), and the desk very happily stored my luggage so that I could go out and do my running around. I'm a walker/public transit rider, so my idea of what is walkable might be a bit skewed, but the Publix was easily accessible, there's a CVS on the corner (turn left on 17th off the street the Hyatt is on), and a Starbucks in one of the strip malls across 17th. The breakfast was quite busy, but I got my food and took it back to my room.

I've just booked the HUB Marylebone for my 2-night stay in London next March (I feel most at home in London in Marylebone, so the fact that there was one there is perfect for me.) I didn't even realise that this was an option! (I've stayed in a YOTEL, which is a similar concept, from what I can see, and it was perfectly reasonable.)

I've not flown Copa, but my colleague loves them. (His wife is Colombian, so they fly down there a couple of times a year, and always fly Copa from Toronto.)

I stayed at the Hyatt Place off 17th earlier this year, and it was lovely, but with a per-night charge of twice what Holiday Inn Express is charging for next year's one-night stay, I couldn't justify it.

If you plan to visit more than one of the 'Historic Royal Palaces' (Tower of London, Hampton Court, Banqueting House, Kensington, Kew are all in/around London), it's worth it to purchase a membership to HRP - you get free entry, and can just walk in, rather than having to wait in line.

I've sailed 3 times on QM2, and once on QV (plus twice on HAL's Zuiderdam, which is ostensibly the same ship design as QV), and I have to say that QV is definitely my favourite ship. QM2 holds a special place in my heart, with her quirks and odd little passages that go nowhere, the absolutely glorious Carinthia Lounge (although the recent trend of doing trivia in there morning and afternoon does reduce my appreciation of that space), and the magnificent spaces. She was also the first ship I was ever on. Zuiderdam, while being ostensibly the same ship design (Vista class) as QV, can't hold a candle to my beloved Vicky. I think the best way to describe it is that QV looks out to the sea, while Z wants all of the attention directed inwards, onto the ship. The lounges and bars and public spaces on QV all have vast windows that aren't curtained (there's a strange passageway on Z from the main lobby back to the MDR that goes past what used to be Lincoln Centre Stage, and it's as if you're in a hotel - there's no sense that you're on a ship at all.) Plus, as mentioned above, she's a happy ship. The crew all seem to be happy to be on board, and, at least in my experience, make an effort to get to know you.