Gourmet Gal

DD, that combo works well for Europe to East Coast but West Coast, not so much. It’s nice to take a nap after mealtime plus there are fewer people in the cabin if one is hoping to keep a little social distance.

Have your TA check with them. Otherwise you’ll just have to call them yourself and ask.

It sounds like perhaps when you cancelled the return flight it could not be uncoupled from the outbound flight or something went awry and the entire reservation was cancelled. Someone dropped the ball if it was not communicated to you clearly when that return flight was cancelled. You booked Door to Door but with booking your own flight home it sounds like the D2D no longer applied. Have you checked that the sailing portion of your reservation is still valid? If you are not being understood by SS that you even have a problem then perhaps as mentioned someone can speak on your behalf to try to get it resolved. How stressful it must be for you. Best of luck.

There are several threads discussing SS Air. Perhaps try using the search function first. But quick answer is yes to your question about air deviation. Before booking is the timing and it seems that booking window has changed recently. It used to be 210 or 180 days in advance so you or your TA should research before then and be ready to make the requests. SS does not contract with every major airline so if you really have a preferred airline and route you may not always have better pricing with SS Air.

It depends how badly you want your preferred flights. I just spent about 4K more so we wouldn’t have to wake up at 2:30AM on a return from Porto. I think you’d lose the airport transfer.

Have you compared fares if you just have your T/A book your flights? There would be a credit back from SS for the unused air portion.

You can always just book your own extension at the same hotel…it’ll probably be less expensive. Have you checked the rate? Even better, book a hotel in another area of Paris.. so easy to cab or Uber between hotels.

No tipping is necessary.

One other note, willoL, has your husband considered asking his doctor about the patches for seasickness? They work really well for most people.

If it’s because of Covid, I hope it is because of their business practice. It means they're keeping an eye on it and making adjustments to mitigate the risk to passengers. Welcome to travel during a pandemic.

I would say Azamara and Oceania are not quite in the lux category. You should definitely be sure to book a suite if you require a third bed or an adjoining cabin, otherwise you will not have the lux experience you desire. As for HapLloyd, are you the only German speaker in the family? If so then the experience may not be as “enjoyable” for the rest of the family. And lastly, have you considered Silversea? You seem like you would enjoy having a butler and if DH would rather remain in the suite on formal nights, their room service is exemplary. However, there are also other less dressy dining choices available on formal nights. SS has several new ships that are spectacular. Good luck with that Nobel.

I’m not sure about your particular cruise but be aware that sometimes the ship moves on to the next town while pax are ashore. It’s too bad to miss out on some of the guided walks that you’ve paid for. Consider that you’ll be in a very different time zone and will probably be waking up extra early which may give your husband time for a pre-breakfast coffee…

It’s annoyingly complicated and doesn’t motivate me to consider SS for my next booking.

SS does not necessarily contract with all major airlines now and it is becoming increasingly difficult to book the airline of your choice even with paying a deviation fee.

SS has so many nice ships now with great food and service. It’s a shame the customer service off-ship is so bad. You really need a TA to assist with, ahem, navigating. FWIW my TA has reported 2 hour phone wait times on other cruise lines. Staffing is a problem everywhere.

I have also had mixed results with SS air. Recently the choice of airlines has been more limited than in the past and I was just not able to book a route that worked for us. I’m just not willing to wake up at 2:30 AM to make a flight at the end of a relaxing vacation no matter the savings.

Yes. There are a few so just don’t linger too long over cocktails.

Impressive.

I would have the TA check on this. What if you wanted to book a spa treatment or contact the concierge for dinner reservations? This seems unusual and not unreasonable to know what hotel you’re in. BTW, many cruiselines are not sending hard copies, just emailed documents and luggage tags seem to be given when boarding.

That’s good of you to communicate the sentiment directly but you know, there’s a tiny fraction of cruisers who research down to such a granular level. People here on CC do but a tiny percentage of cruisers have even heard of CC and many don’t think to follow on FB. I know there are other marine traffic and river info sources as well but the average pax is not going to bother.

I can say that on Tauck the excursions and activities for the next day are previewed during cocktail hour and when you return to your cabin after dinner there’s a hard copy waiting.

Let’s hope the pandemic is better by then but we’ve been here before. Just when there’s another variant making the rounds, masking is dropped and people relax thus spawning a new variant. I would say hope for the best, plan for the worst and find out ahead of time your options if you do test positive. The greatest stress would be the stress of that last test that would prevent you from flying home the next day, based on current requirements. If that requirement to reenter the US is still in place by then it won’t matter which cruise line you’’re on. The daily testing could be a blessing if there is an outbreak so you could get the quarantine over earlier in the trip and you would prevent the spread to others.

Masks were required on my flights this month. It wasn’t a problem at all.

Great! My DH finally tested negative after about 12 days.

They’re doing PCR tests? With saliva? Does the UK require PCR, not Anitgen?