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Underwatr

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About Me

  • Location
    Pennsylvania
  • Interests
    Travel, scuba, cycling
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Cunard
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Caribbean

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  1. Some agents may claim to provide better service such as periodically looking for fare reductions and proactively alerting you or rebooking for the savings. If you need to make any adjustments to your booking and have use an agent that agent must be the one to contact the line. Possibly a travel agent acting on your behalf may be easier for you to contact than a reservation person with the cruise line.
  2. As a US resident* I've found a low-cost travel agent (not really an agent I'd go to for advice about a line) who discounts a Cunard fare via a rebate of a portion of their commission. On my most recent booking his fare was several hundred dollars below the list fare (about 9% of the all-in fare with fees and taxes). I may be a little unique in that, particularly for Cunard I don't need much help from a TA (although he's also helped out greatly when things have gone wrong) so the savings has been worth it.
  3. I had the full range on my recent Caribbean voyage, from not being given a statement, to being given one and not being required to sign, to being reminded to please sign the copy (I think the last was a more junior waiter).
  4. I was on QM2 this November for the first time since late 2019. The "smart" dress exhibited by many passengers has relaxed considerably in the interim but I don't remember seeing any denim in the evenings. I generally don't pack denim for cruises, primarily due to its weight.
  5. I predict it will be its customary zoo, with passports scrutinized and scanned (and whatever other poking and prodding C&BP does to foreign visitors these days). It's only on the return from the Caribbean in two weeks that the agents will breathe easier.
  6. I'm pretty sure you can do it in the online My Voyage webpage once you're onboard.
  7. Just a reminder that not all coughs are COVID. I picked up "something" on QM2 (I disembarked the day you embarked - sore throat, cough, congestion in sequence over 4 or 5 days beginning just after disembarkation) and tested negative numerous times. The "Cunard Crud" appeared to be thriving also. No reports of COVID or Norovirus in the Captain's daily messages.
  8. I prefer the time changes to occur overnight but every trip someone reads the next day's Daily Programme before going to bed, sees the notice about "Time change tomorrow morning" and dutifully changes their clock immediately.
  9. For those going on to the Caribbean - if Midge Ure will still be aboard that segment (I seem to recall a mention of it from Cunard some months ago), his performance in 2018 was the best show I've ever seen at sea.
  10. I believe you may be in for another one, which passed up the US coast today (Monday). Lots of wind and a fair amount of rain and minor flooding.
  11. I don't know anything about current issues on QV but when I sailed between Los Angeles and Hawaii some years ago on her it would slam and bang in somewhat heavy seas. I prefer a forward stateroom and shoe would porpoise somewhat - we could feel ourselves rise and fall in the bed for the first couple of days out from California. She rode smoother when the weather and seas quieted down.
  12. There's a seasonality to passport demand. According to the State department, from late winter into summer, demand for passports is generally higher than other periods of the year. Since many people do their big vacation travel over the summer, passport demand (both first issue and renewal) is high from about March through August. Plus as we know the pandemic reduced demand for all travel, including international travel, significantly so we're seeing an overall increase in demand as people are willing to get on an airplane of cruise ship for an extended period. But I predict that we'll see turnaround times increase again in 4 or 5 months as the summer travel rush ramps up.
  13. The majority of cruises out of US ports (which don't permanently disembark passengers at a foreign port such as Vancouver or Southampton) are closed loop, because the PVSA requires that non-US registered ships transporting passengers from one US port to another US port must call on a distant foreign port en route. A distant foreign port is defined as outside the Bahamas, Bermuda, Central America, North America and West Indies. The port of Bonaire, Curacao and the Netherland Antilles are, however, considered as distant foreign ports. Currently, an exception is applied to Puerto Rico - passengers can be transported from a US mainland port to Puerto Rico without visiting a distant foreign port.
  14. Perhaps you misunderstand what I meant. You can visit foreign ports on a closed loop cruise (in fact cabotage laws require it), but you can't disembark ("check out") in a foreign port, or else by definition it's not closed loop. The recent NYC-NYC Caribbean voyage is closed loop since all passengers boarded at or before New York and disembarked at or after its return to New York. Thus, everyone arriving in New York from the Caribbean (aside from entertainers and perhaps a few crew members) will have cleared US Immigration prior to leaving New York on the ship. Clearing them back into New York after the voyage is much simpler than, say, a westbound transatlantic or a Quebec-New York voyage, where it can't be assumed that every passenger getting off the ship was legally present in the US at embarkation of that closed loop. It's also the reason why they don't make everyone get off the ship on Dec 8 like they do after a transatlantic arrival in New York, and is why Immigration only needed to glance at passengers' passports on Dec 8. Nit pick - the Jones Act covers cargo, the PSVA covers passenger vessels. https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-23?language=en_US
  15. You can stay aboard only if your arriving voyage segment is closed loop - for example, if you do the NYC-NYC Caribbean route and then continue on to Southampton the NYC-NYC is the closed loop anmd you aren't required to leave the ship on that NYC visit. It's because you're deemed to have already been cleared into the US at the start of that closed loop - whether it was upon QM2's arrival before heading down to the Caribbean or some other US arrival that you had made. Since there's ordinarily no embarkation point between leaving New York and arriving back in New York (unless you're an entertainer or perhaps a crew member - both of which are few enough to be managed as an exception) all passengers arriving in New York will have left via New York just under 2 weeks ago. Arriving via a crossing isn't closed loop even if you originally boarded in New York because a significant number of new passengers will have boarded in Southampton. The same is true for the current arrivals from Quebec City (when I visited in Quebec in 2010 is was a since 9 day itinerary out of New York). If you do a New England closed loop followed by an eastbound transatlantic I assume you'll be allowed to remain onboard but of course the Immigration staff has final say.
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