grandma*knows*best

Dear Paul Gauguin cruises:

Please don't do anything!!

Dear Grandma:

Posting negative stuff is ok. It's the way it has been presented and the relentlessness that bothers people plus all the negativity toward the ship on other forums.

Anyone else find it strange for a person who has taken 5 cruises (according to the profile) to have over 10,000 posts on Cruise Critic?

 

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I just don't like it when people post their experiences/impressions on this forum and are immediately told by a certain poster that what they experienced didn't happen and then are harassed mercilessly.

About the number of postings and number of cruises take, what does one have to do with the other? :confused:

Many have complained of noise and vibrations. Maybe you are comfortable sleeping with your door unlocked, and open--I am not. Not to mention it would have been too humid to be comfortable.

 

Considering that another poster who was on the same cruise had many of the same comments about the ship as I did, I believe it was Paul Gauguin having an off week, not us.

Ducklite, don't you know that you are not allowed to post anything negative about PG on this forum, :rolleyes: I suggest that you ignore the bullies/shills and continue sharing your experiences. Thanks!

?..I have rarely seen prepaid rates for Marriott hotels in the USA unless they were booked through a third party (which is like consolidator tickets for air).....

FYI, my husband and I stay in Marriott hotels quite often and it's common to be offered a pre-paid rate when booking through Marriott.com these days. I never take it.

Be warned you could be waiting in line for an hour just to get into the Anne Frank House.

I look at quite a few articles they post but usually skip straight to the reader comments section. I find the way other readers pick apart the spelling and grammar to be particularly amusing. In the articles themselves I often see "your" instead "you're" or additional apostrophes in decades, acronyms and greengrocer's apostrophes abound plus horrific spelling mistakes in general.

 

I got curious about the journalists behind the shocking journalism and sure enough you can pick up Twitter and social media accounts for most of them easily and they're young kids.

 

What's embarrassing is the Daily Mail is apparently the world's most read online paper now. Given the awful content and journalism standard that's a sad state of affairs, IMO.

 

 

 

....

One of my favorite recent articles was about the baptism of Swedish Princess Leonore and how she is fifth in line for [to] the thrown!

Just did a round trip Houston-Frankfurt-Johannesburg on Lufthansa and they have real cutlery for the main meals in Coach - and wine included. You aren't going to get that in coach on United!! :D

I'll take UA E+ seats and plastic silverware any day over Lufthansa's very cramped economy seats.

OP - think carefully before booking an international flight on Air Canada Rouge. There are many complaints about them:

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Travellers+when+switched+Canada+rouge/9824614/story.html

The seats sound miserable.

We did not try our MC, which is not a Chip/Pin. So we are not sure if the toll collector would accept that card. As usual, AMEX is near useless for most day to day use except in major hotels and high-end restaurants. We seldom even try to,use our Amex since not only is it usually rejected, but we see no reason to pay Amex their 2.7% when our other cards charge zero.

 

Hank

 

 

 

 

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I have used my AMEX card all over Europe and it has never been rejected at the places where it is accepted, which are almost all large department stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. I try not to use at as much these days because of the foreign transaction fee.

LOL Ine. Good to hear you are again safely home. Not a major problem for us since we always carry enough Euros for contingencies. But since you bring up the Netherlands, we have a previous issue with Holland. While in Rotterdam we once tried to purchase a train ticket with our old fashioned magnetic strip US credit cards. The train station could not accept our card (we got cash out of a nearby ATM) and they told us that only the Amsterdam Station accepted the magnetic strip cards. One of these days (perhaps in another 5 years) the US will join the rest of the credit card world with all Chip/PIN cards.

 

Hank

My experience the last time I was in Amsterdam was that they did not accept our magnetic strip cc at the main train station.

I have a true chip and pin Mastercard issued by USAA, which works well in Europe except in places which won't accept US issued cards (so far, this is the Norwegian Postal Service).

The Daily Mail has a habit of dredging up old stories and presenting them as new. I believe half of their writing staff are high school dropouts.

Knee Defenders have been around for many years, and, as noted, are not allowed by most airlines.

If you are only considering these two airlines, I would go with JetBlue. They have assigned seating and better entertainment.

We did a transcon on Jet Blue last Oct. At the time I booked the fares, I read on their site that they start boarding from the rear to the front. I chose seats in the first section to board to be sure we had bin space. Even though the first checked bag is free, the bins were full by the end of boarding.If I can find the info again I'll come back and post a link.

JetBlue boarding order:

Boarding order

Boarding details

JetBlue offers pre-boarding/silent boarding on all of our flights for customers needing assistance.

Silent Boarding must be requested at the gate prior to our general boarding announcements.

Silent Boarding includes boarding first and assistance with stowing belongings.

Boarding procedure

Silent Boarding – those customers who have requested or identified as needing assistance in boarding. Customers must present when boarding begins.

Priority Boarding for Mosaic and Even More® Space customers that have purchased upgraded seating

Pre-boarding for families with children under the age of two and customers needing additional assistance

General Boarding – Offered in 5 rows increments beginning at the back of the aircraft

Any remaining customers

Unaccompanied minors

Customers are encouraged to remain comfortably seated until their row is called for boarding.

I agree with the poster above. It will be an enormous pain; leave this curling iron at home!

Unlesss you have Emirates points/miles you are going to be out of luck as they are not in the Start Alliance (As united is.) ...

FYI, UA is part of the Star Alliance, not the Start Alliance ;)

OP, I am a UA 1K and I can tell you that it is going to cost you miles and money to upgrade to business, if upgrades are even available. It's getting a lot harder to upgrade these days. If you chose UA (I would), then you should at least buy up to Economy Plus and if you really want to fly business, you should consider buying business class in the first place.

........

 

We can fly from Rome to Newark (which I said I would never use Newark again as a U.S. entry airport again) and then get a single one way ticket to Tampa. ....

 

Grandma "knows" Best - we are coming to your (and our) favorite city for our 50th Anniversary!!

Just wanted to add that on May 25th, I flew OSL-EWR and breezed through customs/immigration with Global Entry. It literally only took the time we spent to walk off the plane, stop at the GE computers, and walk out through the GE line.

I would like to see a photo of the chickens on top of luggage, not what they left behind!

Logical to me --one person travels with FF miles--the other does not.

Yes, this is logical, but again, you need to carefully read the original post. The issue is finding a FF ticket for the return. If you can only use FF miles for your outbound trip and not the return, this solution won't work.

Did you check AA's redemption rules?

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/main.jsp?anchorLocation=DirectURL&title=redeem

Once in South America, my DH's suitcase was badly ripped by the wire cage of chickens that was on top of it. That was not the only problem! :eek: :( Can you say "new suitcase" in another language?

:D

Do you have a photo?

I think you are making a big deal out of nothing. No one stole your Samsonite logo; it just fell off. It probably caught on something. The airline will not compensate you in any way for this, so good thing you didn't waste time with a claim. Just contact Samsonite and ask if they can send you a replacement. If the bag is new, you might be able to replace it.

I think it's pretty far fetched to imagine baggage handlers stealing logos from bags so they can be attached to counterfeit suitcases!

Barcelona to the US via Istanbul sounds awful to me. But I know people do crazy things to save a few bucks.

Great for accumulating FF miles.

How about getting one roundtrip free ticket and buying one roundtrip ticket? We do that all the time.

I don't think that would work; OP's problem is the availability of a FF ticket for the return flight.

OP, you can simply buy 2 one way tickets home, but you may just want to buy RT tickets and save your miles for another time or try and use them to upgrade (if upgradable tickets are available). Buying one way international tickets is very expensive.

My husband and I travel internationally several times a year and I have found that it's pretty hit and miss as to what cards will work where.

I have a chip and pin card issued by USAA which works fine everywhere, except in the places where they will not accept US credit cards, which was a post office in Oslo last week. This is the first time anywhere I have not had a US card accepted.

You can generally use a card with only a magnetic strip, although some places do not want to accept them and you can't usually use them in ticket machines (such as in the Paris Metro, as another poster mentioned), gas pumps, at smaller businesses, etc.

Always have cash on hand; your magnetic strip debit or credit card and 4 digit pin will work fine in ATMs.

Use a card which doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee and always notify your card issuer of your travel plans.

This is nice, but speaking as an army veteran, married to a 30 year army veteran, and the mother of a 24 year old Air Force airman buried in a military cemetery, it would be great if instead of thanking veterans for their service, having sober thoughts or taking pretty pictures, people would take real action to honor veterans. How about contributing to organizations which help military families, contributing to veterans groups, volunteering, hiring veterans, etc.? Don't forget in 10-20 years when the medical care for veterans reaches staggering amounts, to support continued government funding for their care.

Actions count far more than words.

I did this once at IAD - no problem.