ExArkie

Or that one might be away from home we’ll before the trip. I used QM2 to return home a few times when teaching in the UK and Ireland. Always had a nice booklet waiting for me at home.

To be slightly pedantic about it (because that’s who I am), what you are describing are benefits granted through the Cruise Privileges Program, which is ongoing and long-term, available when using the unbranded Platinum (or higher) card. The offers are time-limited and have specific conditions attached (e.g., spend $xx at this certain vendor before the expiration date and get a rebate, extra points, or some other type of bonus). Offers may be made on any of the AmEx cards, including branded ones. The benefits are only with the unbranded card. My wife’s Delta Platinum AmEx card has received several offers from cruise lines (not NCL, to my recollection), but receives none of the Cruise Privileges Program benefits. There does not appear to be any discernible patterns on who gets which offers, but the Cruise Privileges benefits are well-defined in advance of being applied.

Cunard maintains programs in compliance with and certified under ISO-9001, the international consensus standard on quality systems management. Including in the items covered by the standard are myriad requirements for quality control of purchased goods and services, which themselves include a process for approving vendors in advance of purchasing from them. This is a time consuming process, which one assume Cunard would have followed to approve vendors in multiple locations around the world. However, if their approved vendor in one location is not able to supply them with goods or services at the appropriate time and they either do not have a secondary supplier (unlikely there wouldn’t be one in Australia, maybe not in some other locations) or the secondary supplier is facing the same supply chain disruptions (very likely), obtaining supplies is inordinately more difficult. They would not be able to drop by the local Costco - or similar retail outlet - and pick up what they need without sacrificing their standing under ISO-9001.

The Web site https://cruisedeckplans.com/ provides pdfs of pretty much all cruise ship deck plans. There is also an option for generating a pdf of just the decks you select (e.g., if you only want to see decks with public spaces). I believe both are available through the public site, but the member fee is small if one has to join for access to this feature.

I have stayed at the Lisbon Marriott several times, most recently last year - never booked through a cruise line, though, and I have Lifetime Titanium status (highest level) in the Marriott Loyalty program. Your description does not match my experience (not saying I don't believe you, one's experience at a hotel can vary widely from another's), but the hotel has been renovating rooms and public spaces over the past few years. In my visits after remodeling started, we were in the re-done rooms, which are quite nice. Sounds as though you were not. It is quite possible, even probable, that the hotel sold several rooms through NCL at a steeply discounted rate, and so decided to put those passengers in the worst available rooms. This does not make their actions legitimate. The hotel Web site shows a king bedroom as having one bed and a chair or small love seat. If NCL specified only that as the category, then it would not have automatically included a roll away. Marriott would have been reluctant to provide one under the discounted rate, but it sounds as if they eventually did. Only European outlets, as noted before, is standard in Europe, as is the lack of a clock in the room. The other items you noted are unacceptable in any hotel, regardless of the price paid, and certainly so in one that bills itself as "4-Star Accommodation" (refer to their Web site). You should write to the hotel directly with your complaints. Generally, Marriott responds to complaints with several thousand points in the loyalty program, which is unlikely to be of any use to you. However, they should be made aware that you found the conditions appalling.

I was curious on reading this, so I looked on the Navigator app for our upcoming Noordam trip (still more than a year away). The updated price for Canaletto is showing, but there is no menu. Actually, there are no menus being shown for any of the dining options, nor does the wine list appear. They were all there a couple of weeks ago when I last looked.

Silversea is owned by RCCL, or at least by the Royal Caribbean Group…not sure of their internal business unit structure.

From what I have read (we are on Jade out of Athens in September, so I have a vested interest...we did take the Free at Sea drink package, though), the prohibition on selling beverages in Greek ports appears to be exclusive to NCL.

We booked a 2025 transpacific. I completed the check in - although our passport expire in 2025 a few months after the sailing, so that will have to be updated next year some time - and the luggage tags were available to be printed immediately. This was done on the HAL Web site.

I know it’s time to upgrade when the apps start failing.

We received a free upgrade on our westbound transatlantic last December. I found out about it a few days before final payment, when I checked the booking to be sure all was in order. When it showed up, I contacted our travel agent, who had not been informed of the upgrade, either. On previous trips when we had been upgraded, Cunard sent a revised confirmation with the new cabin number. Evidently, they no longer do so.

My understanding is that the priority check-in/boarding for suites does not apply to Signature Suite (our booked category) or Vista Suites, so a slight correction above. If I am incorrect, someone should let me know…I would really like to be incorrect on this one.

Interesting. I just clicked the link at the top of this topic. The page to which that took me still shows a Disney ship under the Cunard heading. I went the long way to the page, i.e., opened their main page and scrolled down to the article, and found the same picture. If you saw Queen Mary 2 when you looked, which was presumably earlier than I did (I’m always slow) that means they replaced a correct picture with an incorrect one. Or maybe my Web browser is just playing mind games on me….

Makes me wonder about credibility when their example ship from Cunard is actually a Disney ship.

They did as of last December. We were upgraded to Q1 Balmoral Suite for a westbound TA (had booked a Q5), which came as a complete surprise. I have no idea about the boarding process, though, since had been on QM2 for the Christmas Market cruise immediately preceding the TA. We just waited in the Corinthian Lounge for a while, then went to the amazing, astounding suite.

I’m guessing glitch. After reading your post, I did a dummy booking for the cruise we have already booked with HAL: 15-day April 2025 transpacific. It showed the final payment due on January 27 without specifying a year, with the information button beside “refundable deposit” stating that the deposit would be refundable up to January 27, 2023, which was a few months ago. I’m guessing - without one shred of empirical evidence - that the intent is the deposit be refundable until the final payment date, which is consistent with their published cancellation policy. The Web site appears to have issues (imagine that, a Web site problem) when that date occurs after the current calendar year.

The posted rate to JFK last December was, indeed, $55. However, keeping in mind that this is the US, one also needs to factor in a tip for the driver. We ended up using the taxi in December due to a mishap with our pre-booked ride where the company could not get a replacement car to us in time to meet the schedule.

More information can be found by searches on Cruise Critic or the Internet at large, but the overview from my perspective - ignoring the general differences in the two lines, such as dress code - is that the Haven is a ship-within-a-ship concept, such that almost everything one wants on cruise ship is included in the defined, physical access-restricted area: restaurant, bar, pool, sun deck, etc. Aside from needing to go outside the Haven for entertainment, specialty restaurants, casino, gym, and shops, guests do not necessarily need to go into the non-Haven area of the ship. The Grills on QM2 consists of (1) a dedicated restaurant located on the deck 7, as is the buffet restaurant (i.e., not isolated from the rest of the ship), (2) a lounge/bar located just outside the Grills restaurants, (3) a concierge lounge (with snacks and soft drinks) on deck 9, and (4) a relatively small aft deck with a hot tub that is theoretically access restricted, but relies on the honor system (i.e., a sign and not physical barricade). I have not been in the Haven on NCL, but I have traveled in a non-Haven suite, which has more limited benefits and is not given access to the Haven areas. On Cunard, most of the time Grills guests are mingling with the non-Grills in the ship's venues, which does not necessarily have to be the case in the Haven. As for the more general differences in NCL versus Cunard, several people have already commented about their preferences. We enjoyed the two trips we did on NCL that were taken because of specific itineraries and pricing. The NCL approach gives an entirely different feel to the ship, whereas Cunard offers an understated elegance that NCL cannot match. Transatlantic crossings on QM2 will always be our favorite time on any ship.

Or incorrect charging…last time, we were charged for the drinks at an adjacent table more than once. Tracking charges was the only actually useful thing about the app.

Definitely being on the ocean. My wife and I prefer ocean crossings to the itineraries that have mostly port days…although some of the latter are desirable in order to access certain places (e.g., Alaska particularly Glacier Bay, Norwegian fjords, Panama Canal). For visiting ports/cities/countries, we prefer to go spend at least a few days in a single location, but it is the vast expanse of open water that cannot be replicated from a land-based location.

We were on a December 2022 TA on QM2. There was no “behind the scenes” tour offered, which was a shame because we ended up with US$1,200 in OBC that we could have used. On our pre-pandemic TAs, there was a free galley tour offered one morning that drew vast hordes of people. I saw nothing that indicated one was being offered last December.

There is, or at least there was pre-pandemic, a ferry from Trieste to a dock just below the castle. I think it made one other stop along the way and took about 45 minutes. Approaching from the water gave great views of the castle.

According to my wife, the main benefit in having me accompany her is because I have pockets to carry both cards.

Definitely for the Panama Canal. We were able to watch the system operation, both our lock and in the adjacent one, and see pretty much everything in great detail. We did, however, appear to be near a vent exhaust from one of the kitchens (this was not a HAL ship, by the way). The smell of baking cinnamon rolls first thing in the morning…before breakfast…was a bit disconcerting.

Actually, the Friday after US Thanksgiving is a pretty decent time to fly. Most people take the whole weekend, so the busiest flyings days post-holiday are Sunday and Monday. I’ve always found Friday easier for travel. Usually, the Saturday after isn’t too bad, but that is inconsistent.