BiggDawg

Any perception of the Leonardo Royal Southampton Grand Harbor  Hotel?

The First Mate has her eye on that one (or the Southampton Harbour Hotel, but due to obvious differences I'd like to please hear from some experienced visitors).

As a mentor once told me, "There is no substitute for personal reconnaissance. (He was talking about his experience on the beaches at Normandy, but I got the point!)

10 hours ago, BlueRiband said:

See pages 10-13 of this menu of services:https://www.canyonranch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/menu-services-canyon-ranch-spa-fitness-QM2-web-4.pdf

 

Thanks for that.

I also found current price list (always helpful!) on pages 69-70.

14 minutes ago, Bell Boy said:

 No you don't need to buy the pass for the entire voyage. My suggestion is ( on QM2 transatlantic crossings ) just buy a pass for about four days ( a pass for a couple of days gives you a reduction from the Daily rate) 

Also keep your eyes open for ad -hock Canyon Ranch deals (occasionally  in the daily program)

I get the point, though apparently 4-days is not an option.

The "Menu" that BlueRiband linked, above, says 1-day, 3-day and 6-day options are offered.  BIG savings to go multi-day (3-day is less expensive than two 1-days, 6-day less expensive than three 1-days or than a 3-day plus a 1-day).  I'll probably go for 6-days for the First Mate. Me, I'll be in Churchill's...

"Spa club?"

What is this "Spa Club" to which you refer?  News to me.  How does it work, what does it include?

Many thanks.

3 hours ago, Underwatr said:

Being able to carry it isn't a hard limit, if you can drag it!

Is there a place to stow my wheelbarrow after embarkation?

9 hours ago, Denny01 said:

We are booked (first time on Cunard) for the 21N QM2 TA-Norway-TA cruise in Aug 2020. I checked the Cunard website but didnt’ find the info, so asking: what is the daily gratuities for QM2 Britannia BZ SR class? Thanks in advance.  

 

Looking forward to this.

 

Den

"Search" is such a useful tool...

1 hour ago, MCC retired said:

Seems that Cunard is not listing all lecturers until much closer to the sailing dates.

{snip}

The crossing has been virtually  sold out for months . No need to hurry I guess ? 

I have a close friend who does media lectures from time to time on a couple of other lines, more Caribbean out of Florida.

He says that he is surprised Cunard even shows the list of lecturers this far out, that he usually doesn't get booked until about a month before a cruise.  If we were to know farther out than that, he says we are lucky, and of course always subject to changes, additions, and cancellations.

I'll be patient until it gets closer.

13 hours ago, Jasalth said:

I was going to say you generally have to look at reviews of things with a grain of salt, but then I googled my online TA for reviews, and they have a 3.9 to 4 star rating most places and that place the competes for your cruise business has them at a 99% rating with over 1000 reviews.  

 

{snip}

 

The best question I have for you is how needy are you after you book? Do you like to change things, or want them to book things like your airfare and/or hotels and excursions? If so, then I would go with someone who is considered reliable. 

 

If you book like me and are pretty much doing it for the OBC then you can get away with pretty much anyone who can make the booking. Even though we aren't booked until 2020 right now,

 

{snip}

 

The only thing I really look for is to make sure they don't charge fees for bookings, changes or cancellations. In truth I went through 4 different TA's before I decided on the one I liked. Its just like finding a hairstylist or any other service. Sometimes its good, sometimes its bad, but as long as you get to the end result you want without to much problem, then there is always next time to change

Nope, no booking fees. No cancellation fees from the TA, though they never said "No fees," just that they never said there were in any of the documentation.  i copied the "Terms and Conditions" so I have in writing that they did not say there would be fees.  I don't actually expect to cancel, but of course you never know.

I have never used an online TA except once for flights years ago from the place that sounds like you went around the planet.  They do, of course charge booking fees, but they had a better price than I could get direct, and I just have never gone there again.  I have always booked direct with the airlines, or the cruiseline.  I am considering this solely for the discounts and the OBC, as you guessed.

But, what threw me was that I did google them, never having dealt with them nor known personally anyone who had.  The reviews were not of the Google or Yelp variety, but what popped up was BBB, and of course all complaints.  But then, who writes the BBB unless it is a complaint?

I did, as everyone has suggested, take the reviews with a grain of salt and I bit the bullet.  I went ahead and took my chance, and the cruiseline has already confirmed back that everything is consistent with what I thought was going to be the case.  So, if there are any problems now I can cut past the TA, should I need to. 

I guess sometimes you just gotta' pays your nickels to take your chances, I am expecting this to work out.

BTW, since I booked, both the TA and the Cruisline directly have upped the entry cost for the same voyage by $125/person, the online TA discount has evaporated, and the OBC has gone away for now.  I got them all, but had I waited it would now cost me about $700 more to get the same accommodations, so as long as everything continues to work out I got a great deal!

5 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

Unfortunately, for some reason, it looks like the 2019 guest speaker list that used to be at that URL has been replaced by an old list of speakers for 2016-2017. Very odd.

 

Here is a copy of the 2019 guest speaker document for QM2 that I previously downloaded.

CU_QM2insights.pdf

40 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

I have to confess that I just copied the link from one of your posts, it shows the 2019 list on my phone but I've just checked on my desktop and it shows 2016-2017 !

Very odd indeed

I get the 2019 QM2 list on both links, but to be sure the file attached by blumarble is the list for 2019.

1 hour ago, LuckyStar said:

I go directly to the cruise line now after having tried every online TA out there.  First, most all of them charge a cancellation fee, the cruise lines do not IF you book a refundable deposit.  I have had great online TAs but the companies policies are what is bad.  I don't spend that much more by booking directly with the cruise lines. 

Directly with the cruiseline was where I started.

However, the difference from the line directly is a one class upgrade ($100/person) at a $125 per discount, plus $250 onboard credit.

That's $700 for the two of us, which is a noticeable amount, for sure!

Okay, so I'm not looking for a TA, I understand the rules.

But, I have a problem.  I have decided on a particular cruise, it ticks off all of the boxes.

And, most of the sources have a better deal than the cruise line's own website:  No surprises there.

But, one particular online TA, that I had elected originally selected, had a better upgrade, lower price, and more onboard credit than most others.  It's worth about $400 per person for the spouse and me.

But, before committing a bunch of $$, I checked for reviews of this site, and they came back less than stellar, to be gentle.

Now, I understand that a lot have to do with mismanaged expectations, "I didn't get a refund on a non-refundable deal" or "They didn't give me as much as I wanted, when it said clearly that I was wrong in the fine print," etc.

What I am concerned with is how much should I believe those, or where can I trust?  I don't want to use the cruiseline's own site, since that is the absolute worst deal I have seen.  And, unfortunately, I do not live near a face-to-face office of a TA where I can go in and look at them.  The big travel sites, like Exp and Orb just seem to dump me to cruise agents that seem to work out of their houses independently once you get past the fancy company front. And those seem iffy.

So, where can I go that I can trust? Or can I trust the big Dot-Coms that have less than stellar reviews from the disgruntled?

The PH suites on the Fantasy class aren't on the website. They are a deck above Lido and have windows that overlook Lido.

I would rather Carnival offer a couple of packages for the duration of the cruise. Maybe a beer and wine only package, another that maxes out at 10 per day, and up the current Cheers limit to 20 per day. Maybe that will make people happy.

...

If I order 2 bottles of liqour, can we make drinks in our room and take them out on the deck or to eat with us?

...

• We agreed that bottled liquor was for consumption
  in the room ONLY,
  and;
  
  
• We would
  NOT
  carry drinks into any public areas of the ship.
  
  

As much as I could give a long description of all you need to know about Nassau, what to do, excursions, beaches, restaurants and so on, you will find out all about Nassau on http://www.iqcruising.com/ports/cari...sau/index.html and more specifically about all the excursions (with cruise price comparisons) on http://www.iqcruising.com/ports/cari...xcursions.html

I just ordered a 12 pack of water yesterday to be in the cabin when we arrive. There was no tax. Just $2.99. It has already showed up on my credit card as $2.99.

This is not correct, it is $2.99 total regardless.

Hey everybody - - it looks like the issue has been resolved. I checked this morning and the FTTF logo is back as well as the PRIORITY. Also, the Boarding Pass now has our Status back instead of just the N....

Yes, yes it has! And they are.

Just checked our docs again... platinum status is still missing from the luggage tags. Have a few weeks for Carnival to solve the glitch but am bumping the thread hoping for updates :)

 

Whoah!

I just checked the luggage tags online and everything was gone!

I mean, the color code, the Priority label (actually it wasn't "Priority" but it meant the same), everything except the booking number and the cabin reference.

Fortunately I have the originals...

But I didn't get the boarding passes or luggage tags for the other two cabins. I hope this get straightened out before the cruise (in a week and a half).

 

She said half the crew including her had major respiratory infections. I was young and shallow at the time. Two months later I was still getting medical treatment. Hmm..,

All my cruises say "N" as well and priority is missing. Coming from an IT background the "N" could actually mean null. Could be the result of a code change (and poor QA) or it could be a database pull problem where those areas aren't populating properly because Carnivals system couldn't query a database to receive the latest update. Something similar happened to me with the VFIP newsletter showing the incorrect Red status. It took an escalation to their IT team to fix the problem with the database pull.

 

This definitely looks like a database and/or application process problem to me and hopefully they fix it soon.

Just got off the phone with carnival and they don't know why it is doing that, they said they are "escalating it" and hopefully will be solved soon.

Another added mystery (or aggravation): our luggage tags no longer say "Priority", but the ones we already printed do have that label.

Just looked at the boarding pass I printed 2 months ago and the one now showing and the N/Y pertains to Transfer Services. N=no transfer, Y=yes transfer.

I would assume that Troublemaker and his wife will both get to the ship in the same way, yet they show different letters: y and n.

Y- yes

N-no

 

But for what? No idea. Is it possible that Y is the first designated person on the booking?