Hlitner

Have no favorite as my "wants" and taste does vary. There are mornings when I just want a simple cheese omelet and there might be days I want a Western or perhaps something with lox, etc. This guy loves variety. In fact I have long wondered if I could order some kind of omelet, on Seabourn, that has caviar as an ingredient. Just a thought :). Hank

This is an issue where one size does not fit all. One should certainly look at all the options (including EZAIR) and act accordingly. Having done an awful lot of cruising (all over the world) with Princess and other lines we have a very simple formula. For domestic flights (within the USA) we never use EZAIR as we can usually do as well on our own and will often choose Southwest (not generally available on EZAIR). For International, it is a different story. In fact, the EZAIR deals for international Business/First Class can be be amazing (we are talking about thousands of dollars in savings). With our international bookings (on any line) we also do a comparison of the cruise line deals vs doing it on our own. In the final analysis, for us, it comes down to who has the best deal. Hank

I, personally, would not leave home without it! And we never allow our Passports to drop below 6 months of validity. But that is us.

What we have seen on HAL (and some other lines) is that loungers/chairs in the shade are in great demand. If one does not mind being out in the sun, there always seems to be empty chairs (especially away from the pools and/or on a higher deck). Hank

WOW! I think you need to start making a list of your most important "wants." If you happen to be in Tokyo during Sakura (Cherry Blossom time) that should also be a consideration. Tokyo has an excellent public transportation system (both subway and a circle train line). You might want to read about "Suica" cards which can really be handy in both Tokyo and some other parts of Japan. DW and I do not like tours (we are very independent) but you might want to consider hiring your own guide for the day. It will cost money, but a decent guide will really help you maximize your time. Given what you say in your post, I would probably make a visit to Senso-Ji Temple a priority. I am also a big fan of Ueno Park which is where you will find many of Tokyo's best museums. A word about the Ginza district. It is a lively area with plenty of shops, department stores, restaurants, etc. But it is not where you find most of the "cultural places" that you will seek. So, if you are going to spend the day on your own, do some pre-trip homework about using the subway system. I again would urge you to consider hiring a private guide since Tokyo is very large and can overwhelm many tourists who are not used to dealing with sprawling cities. Many on CC like to use "Tours by Locals" but there are many other tour services you can find online. Hank

In 2018, Canon stopped making and selling film cameras :). My Grandchildren have never seen film and would have no clue as to what it is! I used to develop my own film....but that was back in the 60s and 70s. Hank

Not a problem on a closed-loop cruise. Hank

Given a choice we would choose one of the ships that has an all-weather pool. And we will never, again, cruise on the Caribbean Princess. Princess took their excellent Grand Class design, added another passenger deck (with hundreds of more passengers) and did not really expand the public spaces. As you can imagine, the ship can feel very crowded and just doing simple things like going to an evening show can become a fiasco. Hank

They still make those? ROFL.

What is the story with the tenders? One tender is just ridiculous and terribly inefficient. Why can they not launch more tenders. When we cruise the small Seabourn ships (450 passengers) they will often have at least 3 tenders in the water. Hank

I find your post interesting. It is about 15 miles between Le Havre and Honfleur, I would not be happy with a cruise line that cannot answer the simple question of "where are we going." Mt St Michel is an interesting place (assuming you can walk). If you get a chance to see Mt St Michel at night, from a couple of miles distant, it is absolutely gorgeous. We once drove to that area and spent a night a short distance up the road in a motel. When we left our motel room, after dark, to drive over to Mt St Michel for dinner, the sight of the town bathed in its eerie lights was jaw dropping. It also turned out that the town was empty at night, which made it all the more amazing. Hank

I think the best answer to the OP's question is that it depends on what you want to do with your port day. We have lived in PV for the past 18 winters (along with 10s of thousands of other Americans/Canadians) and do quite well without tours :). Some excursions, here, are quite good (such as the ones to Las Caletas) and others are a rip-off. Consider that if you just want to come into town (3 miles from the cruise port) a local bus costs about 60 cents and a regular taxi (caught outside the port area) probably costs about $8 (which you can split among everyone in the taxi). The taxis inside the port do cost a little more, but are still less then $10. Once in town, you can walk around just like thousands of other folks (it is very safe), go shopping, eat, etc. Hank

We would not buy air and possibly not deal with a cruise line that has such a silly rule. Agreeing to accept whatever flights the cruise line decides to give is not our way of international travel. Many lines (i.e. Seabourn, HAL, Cunard, RCI, Celebrity, etc) allow folks to choose their flights. If you cannot find satisfactory flights you simply book your air elsewhere or book with a different cruise line. The fact that you are saving $2000 + is certainly good incentive to accept, but keep in mind that cruise lines will likely not get you the best flights (or connections). Unfortunately, NCLH seems to have among the least consumer-friendly air program. We are soon cruising on Oceania (to Europe) and did not even waste our time with O (also part of the NCLH family) when it came to booking our return flights. There are times when saving money means you take your chances :). Hank

I do not get this "is trying to crack down." The rules of SOLAS mandate that the corridors be kept clear, for emergency purposes. "Trying" is not the answer. The cruise line simply needs to enforce its rules that scooters (and wheelchars) not be left in the corridors. I am surprised that Carnival has not been doing this in the past (it is the norm on nearly all the other lines we have cruised). There can be no compromising when it comes to safety! Hank

We agree with you. Just toughing it out is like being slapped, then turning your face and saying "slap me again." And finally saying thank you for slapping me. When once faced with a similar situation (on a different cruise line) we politely elevated our complaint up to the Hotel Manager. When not resolved (within a couple of days) we "suggested" they correct the problem or fly us home from the next port (and we were in Europe at the time) and refund the prorated part of our cruise fare for the unused days. Guess what. The problem was quickly fixed :). Hank

Having used cruise agencies (several) for over 40 years, we have no clue about what you speak. So lets go through some of what you say. We do not call a cruise agency and tell them things like "we want to book when there is a future sale" What most folks do is notice a sale (usually online or from a mailed promotion) and simply book online with their favorite agency (or you can call). The agencies we use (currently 2) do not want any part of airfare (they get no commission for air). And our agencies could care less about excursions. In fact, in over 40 years (and more then 100 bookings) we have never had any cruise/travel agent even ask us about excursions. Since we generally do not book excursions (we generally do our own thing) it is something about which we could care less. And none of our cruise agents has ever encouraged (or even mentioned) booking drink packages. For some cruise lines, our agencies might display (online) various pricing which includes available packages offered by the cruise lines. In fact, this is very true with lines like Princess where they have a basic fare, a Plus fare and a Premium Fare. All of them will be on our agency web sites (very easy to compare) and it simply up to us which to book. In terms of O, since their new pricing structure includes a credit for excursions, we did book enough (for an upcoming cruise) to use that credit. But we did all this on O's own web site for which we received confirming e-mails for each cruise line excursion. We did not involve our cruise agent/agency in booking excursions (why should we?). As to why we use a cruise agency/agent, there are a few reasons. 1. We save money! Most of the time our savings are in the 7-10% range. In the case of our O booking we were able to get pre-paid gratuities and a nice On Board Credit (neither available by booking direct with O). Another reason is that since we book many different cruise lines, using one or two agencies (to handle all of our bookings) makes life very simple. And finally, our favored cruise agencies are both members of large travel consortiums which gives them lots of clout! If something goes wrong with a booking or cruise, that clout can (and has been) very helpful. As far as sale fares, when they are advertised by a cruise line they are also available to cruise agencies. As a matter of course we always compare the overall booking package price we find through our favorite agencies to what it would cost to book direct! In far more than 100 cruises (with 17 cruise lines) we have never found a comparable or better deal by booking direct with a cruise line. The only exception was Renaissance Cruise Lines who would only allow direct bookings (and they went bankrupt). Getting back to O, we do find the issue of their $30 per person/day drink upgrade quite interesting. DW and I have had a few discussions about whether the package makes sense for us. Our cruise agency has never mentioned the subject and she could care less. If we do book the drink upgrade package we will do it on our cruise. As to your issue, "do cruise agents work for free" the answer is they actually pay us! In fact, with some cruise lines we might opt for a post cruise rebate as an alternative to taking a large On Board Credit. (our two favorite agencies offer the choice of onboard perks or rebates). Cruise agencies/agents get paid by the cruise lines (commissions, overides, bonuses, etc). Most cruise lines get over 70% of all their business through agencies! Hank

Yes, there is a draw bridge between the port and mainland. On many visits we have never seen that bridge open/up and imagine it is only opened on demand. It takes us about 45 min to walk from the port to the train station (and we are fast walkers). Getting a taxi, from the port to the train station, can be a bit difficult since many of the drivers do not want to take the short haul fares. That being said, being politely assertive (with the drivers) will usually get you a taxi. Sometimes the drivers of the larger taxi/vans will try and put together a full load which will also delay the transfer. We agree that 10am is far from guaranteed. Hank

Keep in mind that you can request ticketing at any time. The good thing is it gets you access to seat assignments (on some airlines). The downside is that once ticketed you have paid for your flights and your ability to change or cancel, without penalty, is gone, Hank

Keep in mind that on SB, everyone gets a suite (nearly all with balconies). SB also has no tipping and includes all drinks. Another thing we like about Seabourn is the ability to get caviar (any time) which is not something found on most lines. And finally, folks need to compare overall space ratios (tons per passenger). On our more then 100 days of SB cruising we have never had a problem getting a deck lounger, never waited in a queue, etc. We have two upcoming SB cruises (one in Europe and the other in Japan) that are both costing us around $400 per person/day! A comparable sized suite on O would be more expensive. One other thing about SB. They use an online air booking system (run by the same folks who handle Cunard, HAL, and Princess) that lets folks choose their own air (with no extra fees). Their air booking engine will often get folks Business/First Class for less then half the cost of booking direct. One is not constrained by dates or even gateways. So, for example, we cruised Seabourn from Miami to Monte Carlo. We then spent a month in Europe and ended our trip in Prague where we were able to book return Business Class (to NYC) for about $1000....thanks to SB. One thing that has kept us from booking O (in the past) has been the awful O air deals for Business Class (not to mention the O booking fee). In fact, on our upcoming O Vista cruise we booked our return Business Class air directly with the airline. Using O for air would have been more expensive. Hank

Once upon a time, cruise lines could dictate policies to cruise/travel agencies. But these days, the large so-called consortiums (i.e. groups of agencies) have so much clout that "dictating" policies is not a simple matter. Consider that one particular consortium has over 15000 "travel advisors" and generates more than $10 Billion in annual bookings. They have "clout" and use it. The cruise lines truly need these large consortiums so there is obviously give/take when they negotiate. Hank

I think your answer lies back with the Eisenhower administration. Around 1956 that administration, and Congress, made a commitment to build what we now call the Interstate Highway system. If they had decided to adopt and support some kind of national rail system, our current transportation system might be different. I lived in Japan during the late 60s, and while the US was busy building highways, the Japanese were busy building an amazing national rail system. Consider that the original "bullet trains" were already functioning (between Tokyo and Osaka) before the 1970 World's Fair (held in Osaka). That system was very similar to their current system (which is now thoughout much of the country). Today, Japan uses its rail system similar to the way we use our Interstate Highway system. To answer your question, I do not think that the USA is too darn big for good train travel, but simply decided to go a different direction. These days, building a real good passenger rail system would be cost prohibitive and would be blocked, at every opporunity, by various environmental groups that would give rail some lip service until they started with their usual steps of obstruction. A friend of mine used to run a very large international textile company. He is a true patriot and wanted to construct many factories in the USA. Instead, he built them in China, India, and some other countries. Why? He pointed out that in China he could have a new factory up and running within a year (China had actually built empty shell factories and adjacent cities for workers that were ready to go) while building a new factory in the USA would normally take about 10 years because of all the various environmental rules. The Empire State building was constructed in just 1 year! Today, the planning and construction of such a building would likely take at least a decade. One can argue whether our system is good or bad, but one cannot argue that our system involves lots of delays (leading to increased cost). Hank

We find both kinds of SB ships quite desirable and comparable. But if forced to choose our preference would be the larger vessels for a few reasons. We like the larger TK (now Solis) venue and the nearby bar area (with piano music). And the Sushi restaurant does provide a welcome change (although the new Sushi offerings on the smaller ships is a good addition. We have tried the Retreat on the larger ships and find no need to ever return! Hank

I could not help but note that you posted this same kind of anti-caviar troll a year ago, So, if this is March it must be your time to troll :). Always fun to read this stuff on CC. I will add that on the new Explora Journeys you will only find caviar in one of their 4 restaurants (Marble and Co) so you might prefer that line :). Whatever floats your boat :).

We have generally avoided rail in favor of rental cars. Trains are fine for getting between Point A and Point B, but other than pressing your nose against a window you miss out on everything between those points. A car also makes it somewhat easier to move one's luggage. Japan is also somewhat unique in having an amazing luggage shipping system. In that country, you can ship your luggage (many times done overnight) between two points and than take their excellent trains without the burden of anything more than some light carry-on. The cost of shipping is quite reasonable (last year we sent two large bags from Tokyo to Kyoto for less then $60. But, in Europe, we do think trains are very overrated (some will flame me for taking this position). Consider that you will seldom never find anyone to help you with luggage (in Europe). For some folks, just lifting their luggage onto some trains can be difficult and leaving your luggage at the end of the car (the storage method on many trains) does cause some security concerns (luggage thieves are not uncommon). There is also the issue that European trains cannot get you to many desirable places. Just consider a popular town such as San Gimignano where there is no train station. One would need to take a local train to the closest station and then wait for a bus or hire a taxi, just to get to this walled town. or consider that many of the best parts of France can only be accessed by vehicle (be it a bus or car). On the other hand, being able to take the train between London and Paris is fast, relatively easy, and convenient if one is just visiting those two cities or needs to move between the UK and the continent. Speaking of trains, as much as we love to cruise, I do think many cruisers are kidding themselves when they think its a great way to see a country. We have long suggested that our idea of a perfect trip involves both cruising and driving. So, for example, a long TA cruise from the USA to somewhere in Europe followed by a few weeks of driving can open up most of the continent. River cruises are also another option in Europe (and parts of Asia). Hank