Dancer Bob

The last time I flew out of Barccelona Schengen exit took over an hour. Are you doing self-help debarkation? I suspect there's a good reason Cunard won't give you the earlier flight. What's your risk tolerance for purchasing a last-minute ticket for the late flight? 60%? 90%? 99.99%

You flew into Sao Paulo? Any comments on getting to the ship? We have a large Brazilian community here. I wouldn't disagree with "noisey".

Last time I flew from Barcelona, Schengen exit took over an hour. Rest from checkin to gate took about an hour. I'd be happy with this flight.

You only pay one set of port charges, so it's very surprising the total should be higher for1 than 2, unless a special promotion is involved, which is rare.

I'm on Diadema heading for the Canary Islands. Announcements are made in Italian and English, Portugese is in printed material only. I have two tablets, one from the US (proprietary OS, many apps don't work) and one from Mexico (most apps work). On Firenze last year, for both “app not available for your device”. IT Help had no workaround. Spoke to one of the English-language hostesses about this the first day (there are two on this trip), she said she is finding this very common with US phones. BUT- I was on Sky Princess in January, their Medallion app didn't work either (Canadian group; everybody had problems). US providers upgraded their networks to 4G LTE last year, I had to replace my US phone (which has never worked in Canada, for political reasons). Canadian providers did not want to spend the money, so Canadians now have obsolete phones which cannot roam in the US- I'm pretty sure there's a thread somewhere on CC about this. This whole thing is way more complicated than it appears, an equal mix of fat-cat greed, programmer incompetence, and crooked politics. The cruise lines are adamantly refusing to publish specifications about what hardware and software is required for these oh-so-wonderful ideas. I expect this will be catching a lot of people by surprise in the coming years as systems change.

At the present time, there is considerable disruption in rail service (RER) due to the political situation, I'd plan on an hour to get out of the airport, at least an hour to your hotel (varies wildly depending on location). Don't know how you handle jet lag, but I'd plan on dinner and then sleep.

I'm currently finding the biggest problem to be the two-factor verification that 13dwc mentioned (this happened in Mexico too). Make sure you have a second credit card from a different provider.

How many hundreds of people from your ship, and maybe other ships, will be heading to the airport, frantic to do the same thing you are? Even 1 PM might be stressful.

I'm on Diadema in a couple of weeks. We stay in the EU. A health declaration is required but a test is not. Are you sure your information is up to date? I always travel in an inside cabin. Buffet hours are much more restricted than on an American ship, but I manage fine. I was on Firenze coming back from Dubai last year. I was not very impressed, but the ship was only 1/4 full, obviously there was not the critical mass for Costa to provide all the usual services. There was still a concentration camp atmosphere. What's free depends on whether you buy the cheapskate, nothing-included fare. Water is available with meals, coffee in the morning. Most people think the Premium fare (whatever they call it now) offers better value. Policy can also change cruise to cruise.

SNCF has a very generous plan and is a prime target. The union is juggling between pressuring the government and losing the people who are going to have to pay for it- many don't even have full-time jobs. SNCF-Connect.com publishes schedules at 17.00 the day before. You have to go through several menus to get to Provence region. This is happening often enough they're getting xell-organised.

Another question that should have been asked- How many days early are you arriving? I was recently scheduled to fly into MRS. Due to delays and cancellations, I was re-booked for two days later, with no assurance that flight wouldn't be cancelled too. I was able to change to Toulouse only one day late. I had planned to arrive two days before my cruise (schedule changed, long story, not relevant here), I would have just barely made the ship.

Just got cut from Platinum to Gold, probably going to lose that soon. Priority boarding was one reason they had to start cutting points. In Savona, there would be hundreds for priority, it was less hassle to pick up a priority card, then go for coffee and board with the hoi polloi. If the restaurant wasn't busy I might end up with in effect anytime dining, but otherwise not much of value. Never used things like robe or pillows, I'm far, far more concerned over cutbacks to entertainment.

Don't forget politics. In January the French government raised the retirement age, which created a lot of unhappiness and disruption at SNCF. This last weekend for the entire weekend most trains were cancelled, sold out, or replaced by buses. Schedules are posted at 17.00 the day prior, which doesn't work for planning months ahead. Remote but possible are track washouts (Beziers 2019) and derailments (Carcassone 2022). You definitely need a Plan B which might not be advisable for the OP.

Dancing is movement in time to music. Check your dictionary. Ballroom dancing is even more specific. So there IS a written rule what you mean when you use the word. Further, the context of this thread is with a partner (posture) and in a social environment (courtesy); As i pointed out earlier, courteous does differ by place and time, so you do have to spend a couple of minutes observing. But it's no more complicated than "Don't block the elevator doors", which I would expect of any sober Cunard passenger.

The dress code is an excellent comparison. A few years ago I came to the stunning conclusion that what I'm wearing makes no difference to how the food tastes. But Cunard won't let me into the dining room even though it's my cruise. (My last time on QE the buffet was excellent, and more fun anyway.) If I head for the golf course with my tennis racket to hit my basketball around, they won't let me, even though it's my tee time. On just about all US ships, the focus is on heavy drinking and eating, with lowest-common-denominator entertainment, as well as cheaper than Cunard.

I'll take the middle road here. Briefly, to avoid posting many pages: For the limited range of music Cunard plays (and dancing with the same partner), all you need is keeping time with the music, good posture and a few basic figures. A good teacher, not necessarily a great one. It's easy to get carried away with things like heel lead, especially when a teacher's background is competition. But I agree, learning the basics wrong is really bad. I don't know of any videos which can teach you the real fundamentals of good posture (which is really part of good health) and keeping time. Personally, I had a lot of wasted time and dead ends because I did not know to ask for a “Bronze Medal program”. But that's for when you decide “this is a lot more fun than sitting drinking” (drinking and dancing do not mix). The two syllabuses I'm familiar with are DVIDA and ISTD. Both have pre-bronze which is much simpler. A teacher/studio which won't say which syllabus they use isn't a deal breaker, but look carefully at what their present students are accomplishing. To adjust to different partners, expect about 3 years to feel comfortable across a broad range. Since you're dancing in a social environment you do also need to learn good etiquette (which is not much more difficult than stand right, walk left on the escalator), floorcraft is the technical term.

As of 3 weeks ago, the airport bus information to St Charles was correct. Assumption- for the train, each person can handle their own luggage. There isn't much luggage space on TER trains.

Haven't heard of "in the style of" before (I shudder to think what that may be), but the rest has been going on for at least a decade. In fact, I recall a band leader a good number of years ago, was playing so may Quicksteps even the English were saying "Enough!"

"Step off your long haul flight and be done"? Clearing Customs in YYZ? Not likely. There are far more connections YUL-YYZ and likely to have space available, than FRA-YYZ.

I recently was on Sky Princess. I watched the video and checked in at the muster station as per instructions. EVERY PERSON ahead of me was at the wrong station! Most did not know either their cabin number or their station letter! I can only imagine what an utter disaster a real muster would be.

Last I heard, hosts pay $30/day. They also provide their own costumes (believe it or not, costumes don't include dance shoes!). They get air included if over 30 days- not many serious teachers can take that much time from the studio, and it definitely skews towards over 60. While they can escort tours, for guys over 60, starting early in the morning and dancing til midnite, that's a very long day. For a long time, Cunard has ordered hosts from a US agency. Last summer, Cunard ordered two hosts for QM2 World Cruise, I've seen no posts as to what the situation actually is. I've heard 2 hosts are being ordered for some but not all QE cruises. Ballroom-cruisers' posts suggest a UK agency may be being used as well. Cunard's music is closely controlled by corporate HQ, and it's not nearly up to the standard of a real dance venue. Very limited selection, often off-tempo. Often 6-8 minutes long (real ballroom is more like 3 minutes), which limits the number of dances in each set, which doesn't sit well with the single ladies.

Given the parameters set by the OP and lack of knowledge of their luggage and physical capabilities, (not to mention the current French political situation) I would be wary of recommending the train.

Left for FLL on Monday a couple of weeks ago. Fast and as painless as 4 AM is going to be. Came back yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Held on airplane, then Customs packed solid (I wasn't the only person saying "NEXUS is the best $50 I ever spent").

Also, have you researched how to get from MRS, which is at Vitrolles, north of Marseille, to the cruise terminal, which isn't at all convenient to SNCF St Charles? Marseilles is one port where I do use the cruise line shuttle to the ship.

I consider 24th to be the absolute latest to risk. I estimate 25% of my trips, if I were traveling same day as cruise, I would have missed the ship. A T3 to T5 connection in LHR, the MCT is 90 minutes, it took me 87 minutes recently. KLM YYZ-AMS is pretty reliable but I had a NCE connection cancelled, resulting in a 7-hour layover. With any of these, you are going to be completely exhausted for your first three days on the ship.