Adara

This is useful.  I was actually wondering about waiting to book KF when I'm there and can have an idea about weather.  I had been thinking in terms of just being out in it, but seasickness is something I'll also factor in.  With a few days to choose from, I hope I'll have one with calmish seas.

Thank you all SO MUCH.  Much to think about (and I'm so glad I made the right call with the extra days in Seward).  Looks like I should look into rental cars asap!

Cruise departs out of Seward early September.  I'm flying in Anchorage a few days early, taking the Alaska Railroad down.  Then I'll have a couple days to kill in Seward.  (Perhaps I miscalculated and should've put an extra day in Anchorage instead, but hotels are booked and it is what it is.)  So, Kenai Fjords.  What else?

I add the following restriction:  I'm not a hiker and not nearly as active as I used to be.  (Do not want to spend the cruise nursing my wonky hip and regretting pushing too hard before I even got on the ship.)  Any thoughts?

Any thoughts on the weather on THIS weird crossing?  Seward to Tokyo.  In September.

(I guess I'm asking because I'm wondering if I should ship my "Alaska" clothes back home when I board in Seward, or if I'll be missing that cold-weather gear.)

I'm a little confused.  Where is the elevator (or elevators) on this thing?  The deckplan on the Windstar webpage identifies "stairs/elevator" which isn't particularly helpful if you vastly prefer one over the other.  

(Dude on the phone said they were both elevators.  But the comments someone posted about the watertight doors near 244 blocking off elevator access had me questioning this.)

Longtime solo cruiser here and, oh my yes, I'm with the folks that hate the single supplements.  (Death to single supplements!)  And, by the way, if I have to pay for two people in the room even though there's only one of me, I damn well better get TWO chocolates on my pillow.

As for the dining alone thing:  oh hell yes.  On land, on sea, in a house, with a mouse ...   If I want to eat solo in the nice restaurant, I'll eat solo in the nice restaurant.  Reservation for one.  I'll read a book on my phone, or people watch, or just sit and think.  (And once, at one very lovely tea establishment, I was even offered a selection of reading materials to accompany my scones.)  Don't let them make you feel like you don't belong.  ESPECIALLY on a cruise, where you have literally already paid for a table in that nice restaurant (and with the single supplement, you probably already paid for a table for two!)

I have a similar question on Guaranteed Cabin (Suite) Chosen By Windstar - for Star Breeze.  I'm looking at a crossing (and it's currently on the Reduced Single Supplement list, so I'm not expecting it to be super crowded).  Is it worth it to play Room Roulette, or should I pony up the cash to get something specific guaranteed?

adara-you mentioned in your review that you went on avalon's optional excursion to versailles. If you don't mind my asking, what was the cost? We are going on this trip next year. We are doing 2 nights precruise in paris & are trying to decide which tours to do on those days. The optional tour to versailles would give us something to compare with some of the tours offered by other operators. Thanks in advance!

$78.

The answer is:

The crew celebrates; the passengers didn't. (I think one guy had a pumpkin tie.) The crew decorates the ship -- cobwebs everywhere, and so forth. What they do with the food in the dining room is adorable. They also wear costumes, although it is limited to bloody make-up and zombie looks. (If you're expecting someone dressed like a superhero, you'll be disappointed.)

On shore, it was ... odd. We were in Honfleur that day, basically for a shopping excursion. So, here we are, randomly wandering in and out of shops ... and then, trick-or-treaters appeared. They trick-or-treated at the shops. (Not all shops participated, but enough did.) Costumes were not what you'd see in the States. There were some recognizable characters, but they, too, had the death/zombie makeup. I nearly got mowed down in the street by a zombie nurse and a zombie Snow White. Fun experience, but different.

I don't want to duplicate foodpolice's review. But, I just returned from the same itinerary -- except it was about a week or two later and on the Tapestry II -- and I have a few things to add, based on different experiences.

FIRST: The luggage. OMG, the luggage. The materials that Avalon sends are adamant -- all caps adamant -- that they only cover porterage of one big suitcase per person. One 50-pound bag and a small piece of hand luggage you can carry. That's it; they mean it. They say it twice.

This would not work well for me. I e-mailed and asked if I could instead take, say, a 40-pound bag, a standard carry-on rollaboard; and a small piece of hand luggage. No response happened. I e-mailed my question on 10/27; Avalon didn't write back until 10/31 -- after my cruise had already departed. Based on my own stupidity in (1) not picking up the phone to ask; and (2) actually trying to follow the rules, I tried to follow their directions while still taking a suitcase I could lift into my trunk without breaking my back. I left several pounds of stuff at home. (I chose poorly and ended up having to buy a heavy coat during the trip, but no matter.) The point: When I arrived at the Hotel Pullman Montparnasse, I was told by the Avalon reps that they'd take (to the ship) all the bags I wanted them to take. Doesn't matter. "Would you like some more tags?" "Am I allowed more tags? Will you take more bags?" "We want whatever is the most convenient for you." An excellent answer -- which would have been a lot more excellent had I received it before I got on a plane to Paris.

SECOND: And, this is really the BEST PIECE OF ADVICE I can give for this cruise. Take your free time in Paris and go to Musee D'Orsay; then go across the street to L'Orangerie. You can buy a combo ticket. (The Avalon reps at the hotel can sell you a ticket to Musee D'Orsay that saves you waiting in line. I didn't ask if they would sell the combo ticket to both museums; they didn't offer.) Here's why: You will go to Giverny and see Monet's gardens. If you go to L'Orangerie, you can see a beautiful selection of Monet's Waterlilly paintings. A few days later, you'll be offered an excursion to Auvers-sur-Oise; the excursion is Van Gogh-based -- you'll see where he lived in Auvers, his grave, and several locations he painted. If you go to Orsay, you'll see some of Van Gogh's paintings from Auvers. Seeing the paintings of Van Gogh and Monet right before you see the locations that inspired them -- it can't be beat. I ended up doing this largely by luck, and I can't get over how much it improved those excursions.

THIRD: Do not be late coming back to the coach on shore excursions. The Normandy Landing Beaches excursion (at least the American beaches one) had three stops in the afternoon: Pointe Du Hoc; Omaha Beach; and the American Cemetery. There were two busses on this excursion. (Points to Avalon for that -- they always wanted us to have room to spread out on our busses.) One bus spent a half hour at Omaha; the other bus spent 15 minutes at Omaha. Why? Because two guests were 15 minutes late getting back to the bus at Pointe du Hoc. Now, honestly, I think the local guides could have handled this better and told Avalon as much in my comment card (I would have taken 5 minutes away from Omaha and 10 from the much longer visit to the Cemetery, in order to make up for the delay) but this did really bring home to me how much you are at the mercy of everyone else on your tour bus.

FOURTH: Random comment -- there's free wine at dinner. Assume that at least SOME people chose this cruise for the free-flowing wine.

FIFTH: I did the free half-day City tour of Paris. It was raining. There were two stops on the tour. One was a photo stop at the Eiffel Tower. (They expected us to all get off for selfies, but nobody did. We all already had our Eiffel Tower pictures. And it was raining.) The other stop was at ... honestly, I forget. There was something touristy there, but the tour guide was pointing it out as an option for pay toilets. The other (toilet) option was a cafe across the street, where you could use the bathroom if you bought a coffee. We stopped for something like 20 minutes there. Nobody wanted to get off the bus, although, eventually, two people ran across the street for coffee. I enjoyed nearly all of the shore excursions on this cruise, but we all agreed that the Paris bus tour was something of a non-starter.

SIXTH: I was in Aquarium class. The room was nice, although there wasn't a huge amount of space. I did not feel crushed or claustrophobic due to the window situation.

SEVENTH: There may or may not be an alarm clock feature on the TV, but I wouldn't use it. Which is to say, I TRIED to use it (IIRC, it would turn the TV on automatically), I ended up screwing up the TV's programming entirely, and the Engineer had to come fix it. (He was a hoot, btw.)

EIGHTH: I did the optional tour to the Palace of Versailles. It was run by two absolutely terrific local tour guides. (I'd had one of the guides in Auvers and wanted her again; I ended up with the other guide who was equally as good.) Versailles is so ... excessive, I think I would have actually felt a little uncomfortable there if I hadn't had a guide who recognized the excess of the place and mocked it (in a very French way). Full marks for that excursion; I recommend it. NOTE: you have a small amount of free time at the end of the excursion. We used the time to: (1) tour the Princesses' apartments; (2) get some hot chocolate at Angelina; and (3) see the carriage museum across the way. We were pretty rushed trying to cram all three things in and, in retrospect, should have done without the Princesses' apartments. (And perhaps gotten that hot chocolate to go, drinking it on the way over to the carriage museum.)

Thanks for the info.

(A few years back, I had a moment of shock when I found myself on a London Underground train and there were people in costume -- I had completely forgotten it was Halloween and was surprised to see it celebrated in Britain.)

So, I'm packing (well, to be completely honest, I'm just THINKING about packing, as I'll likely procrastinate this until the day before I go) for my Avalon River Cruise (Paris to Normandy) which happens to encompass Halloween.

And I wonder: Do I bring a costume? Would I be the only one if I did?

I've actually put Way Too Much Thought into this (considering the ratio of Americans to Europeans; thinking about the age ranges of people on the cruise . . . ) and I was hoping someone here might actually have the answer.

(I'm a solo cruiser, so don't want to miss out on the opportunity for, y'know, being seen as adorable and fun-loving. On the other hand, I don't want to get a reputation as the ship's weirdo.)

Just about to head off (this week!) on my first Avalon cruise solo. As others have said, they waived the single supplement on "Aquarium class." I would have preferred an actual window, but when you consider the 75% single supplement plus the additional upgrade charges, it would have pretty much been twice the price. (All things considered, I'd rather save the money for another cruise.)

Because the waived single supplement applies only to those cabins, though, I figure my best bet at finding other solo travellers will be my immediate neighbors.

I've done American river cruises solo (on a line that no longer exists) and really enjoyed it. The cruise was more geared to activity in ports, which seemed to invite a less sedentary/more outgoing type of guest (than ocean cruising) with the side bonus that everyone was super friendly. I travel solo a lot (being single) and the experience varies -- sometimes I've just had to be a bit more extroverted at the start of a trip; other times I've ended up just making friends with the crew.

Just reading this thread, I had to add two comments:

1. Upgrade for prior customers at sailing?? Ha! (Or at least, "Really? I never heard of that.") My second Windstar cruise was an unusual itinerary -- a quasi-repositioning type of itinerary they only did once a season. I booked it because it was cheap as hell and I'd loved my first Windstar cruise. They couldn't fill the ship. I kept joking that the ship must be bottom heavy because the B level was nearly full, but they only had people in, like, 4 of the A-cabins. (I thought, if it wasn't for those 4, they could have upgraded all of us and closed off the B-deck entirely.) My point: TONS of space on the A level, no upgrades offered to prior customers. I hadn't thought to ask, but it certainly wasn't offered.

2. Confusion in the office? Oh my goodness, yes. I was trying to book a single cabin. Now, Windstar's single supplement is 75% -- so I expect to be charged 175% of the per person double occupancy rate. But not so simple -- as a prior guest, I get a 5% discount. And they don't charge the single supplement on the taxes and port fees. During the booking process (don't ask), we spoke with two Windstar agents, our travel agent, and (indirectly) two different Windstar supervisors. Result: nobody knew how to calculate the price. Do they take the 5% off the base price, or do they take it off after they add on the single supplement? It varied depending on who was doing the math. And taxes were different depending on the base price. Everyone we spoke to calculated things slightly differently. It got worse (better?) when the first person we spoke to actually screwed it up, making an error in my favor, and everyone else was then trying to see what they could do to honor the price the first guy gave. It all worked out (although one supervisor promised a discount to make good on the error, while a second supervisor swore they couldn't do that so offered a shipboard credit), but I ultimately walked away with the distinct impression that as long as I was paying something in the general ballpark of 175%, their system would accept it.

I'm basically a Windstar cheerleader -- but really had to laugh at the whole experience. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who has concluded they're not entirely competent over there.

Yep. Definitely all better now. Thanks.

Every time I try to get the Windstar website, I get redirected to some French thing (persundress.fr). It doesn't happen for me for any other website, so I suspect it's them and not me. Still, can someone confirm?

Thank you both!

Hi.

Presently packing for my cruise on Riviera. (Excited!) The booklet o' info from Oceania informs me that my stateroom (Veranda, Deck 8) comes with 110 and 220 outlets. Also informs me (as I am, in fact, an American) that I can use my 110 American electronics without an adapter.

I also have some 220 stuff. (Particularly, a good travel hair iron I bought in the UK.) Are the 220 outlets British? European? I'm trying to figure out if I need to bring an adapter (and which one).

Bonus unrelated question: I assume that, when I get off the ship for a shore excursion, I will take some form of little plastic Oceania ID card with me (which may or may not also serve as my room key). Does anyone know if they can get wet without losing their programming? There are a couple of shore excursions which involve a short amount of swimming from a boat to shore, and I'm wondering if I can just cram that thing in a wrist wallet (where it will get totally soggy) rather than bothering with a dry bag.

In a day or two, I'm leaving on my first Oceania cruise. I'm travelling solo -- I'm going with my parents (who are, obviously, sharing a cabin with each other), but I needed a single room.

I've had other cruise lines be somewhat flexible on the single supplement. (Glacier Bay, in particular, was awesome about it. Then again, they're out of business now.) Our TA could get NOWHERE with Oceania on this; they were standing firm on the charge.

However, they were flexible in another way -- my parents had booked a Veranda stateroom, and when I told the TA I would take an Ocean View room to save on cost, the TA said her Oceania contact would give me a free upgrade to Veranda. The price with single supplement was still 200%, but since I paid only for the OV, the math worked out to a reduced single supplement on the Veranda room.

The takeaway from this: Oceania may be non-negotiable on the single supplement, but they may be flexible in other respects which would give you equivalent savings.

In a word, no.

Thanks! That's a good word.

As long as we're talking about laundry on O, does anyone know if there's a sound issue? It looks like my cabin is right next to the laundrette -- should I be concerned about laundry noise?