Fairgarth

17 hours ago, Addielove said:

Does anyone know if you can order more than one entree on the QM2?

You can also get extra helpings.  On a crossing, my English buddy liked the lamb chops and the liver (on different nights, to be clear).  Without much prompting, our waiter brought him a double-sized portion.  The only downside was the ribbing from the rest of the table.

Two French airlines went bust in the last couple of weeks and ceased operations:  Aigle Azur and XL Airways.

Sorry to pour cold water but.....Vancouver to Venice requires a connection in Toronto.  Toronto to Venice is on Rouge.  That means there is no Business Class but it does have Premium Economy.  Not even close.....You might want to consider long haul, non-stop e.g. Vancouver - Frankfurt on AC or Lufthansa in Business, then take the short haul to Venice, even in economy.  Have not tried Lufthansa but AC's long haul Business is very nice.  With genuine lie-flat seats on an overnight trip, you should survive better.

Well.....don't know if this is relevant but anyway.  We came off a cruise in Bayonne last week.  Line ups?  Pah!!  There were no officers around, we walked up to a screen which looked like a mirror by reflecting our face image.  It took a photo and we walked out.  10 seconds maybe?  We're not American but there was no need for passports for anybody that we could see.

Or you can spend nine nights and never make it to North Star due to high winds, maintenance down time or being ashore.  Good luck.  You'll need it.

16 hours ago, fbgd said:

Heathrow is slot restricted and BA won't waste slots operating to every hole in the hedge.

Exactly.  And Schiphol isn't, I assume.  So if the Brits have decided as a matter of public policy that the Dutch can have the jobs, economic growth and tax revenue, that's their business.  So be it.

On 8/28/2019 at 2:04 PM, scottbee said:

 

and of course single runway wonders like LGW and SAN - (and yes I'm aware while LGW technically has two they can only use one at a time).

 

 

Reminds me of an incident at Gatwick many years ago that was almost a disaster.  Gatwick has one runway.  The taxiway parallel to that can be used on rare occasions as a runway.  The taxiway parallel to that is a genuine taxiway only.  So yes, there are three parallel strips.  The runway was closed at night for repairs and an aircraft was landing.  The two pilots knew that the runway was closed so they should land on the taxiway to the right.  Which they did, except that they were now too far to the right on the genuine taxiway which is where they landed.  Murphy's Law, alive and well.

Latest news on Norwegian is dire.  They are now trying to sell some of their slots at Gatwick and the banks are withholding credit card sales.  I've seen that before - when an airline hits a rough patch and really needs the cash, the banks starve it to death.  Won't be long.

50 minutes ago, TickleKat1 said:

I think if I were to go in a direction I would want to go from Europe to The US... preferably Southampton to NY... of course minus hitting an iceberg.

Quite right.  Westbound, you get 25 hour days instead of 23 hour days for the same fare.  Unlike Mark I loved the production shows but then I can't claim to have seen them again and again.

BTW, may I gently point out that it's generally agreed that Southampton to New York is not a cruise, it's a 'crossing'.

You will have the run of the ship and may never realize that some small part is blocked off for Queen's Grill.  This is not covered in the lifeboat drill but enquiring minds want to know:  what happens with that iceberg thing?  Is it Queen's Grill first, women and children next and goodbye patriarchy?

1 hour ago, Zach1213 said:

 

Sure, but LHR traffic numbers are a hell of a lot different now than back in the day. In 2018, for example, LHR had over 120,000 more aircraft movements than 30 years before. That's a 120,000 increase in aircraft movements, not 120,000 movements in total. The third runway will only increase that, and associated noise, traffic, etc. Even with a third runway back in the day, there wasn't anything near the number of aircraft movements they have now, and that number would only increase as more slots are allocated with a third runway.

Quite true.  The airport needs a huge increase in movements which seems to annoy some people but has already happened at Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt who are busy stealing Heathrow's lunch.  KLM, for example, serves 16 British airports, a lot more than British Airways ironically.  Do you think these people are going to Amsterdam?  Heathrow employs 77,000 people most of whom must live within commuting distance of the airport so who is complaining about noise?  People who bought their houses before 1946?

4 hours ago, scottbee said:

 

A good example of this might be YYJ (Victoria BC) where there are three runways at roughly 60 degrees apart. If you look at old maps of LHR, you'll see it was originally like this too.

 

Indeed, and now we have this huge, ongoing battle about building a third runway at Heathrow.  Heathrow HAD three runways, for goodness sake.  I've taken off on the third one many years ago on a BEA Trident.

3 hours ago, RJChatsworth said:

Can anyone please point me at any intercontinental carriers who offer a genuine one way fare that is half a return fare?

Sorry, not intercontinental, but trans-Atlantic I believe would include Aer Lingus, TAP, Turkish, Icelandair and Norwegian (who, according to rumour, may be on the brink of going bust).  Could be others.  Air Transat?

Dear Katie,

In March my husband and I booked a Cunard 108-night world cruise, which was due to depart in April 2021.

The above is a copy and paste from the Telegraph article referenced by the OP.  It is the original letter from "ST, Derbyshire" to the Telegraph's 'consumer champion'.  At no point does the Telegraph article mention 108 nights or a departure date.  I don't know if the date is accurate or not, but clearly it came from "ST, Derbyshire".

Just beware, y'all.  I have read the article in The Telegraph.  The couple paid a deposit of GBP 4104 in March for a cruise in April 2021.  The husband turned ill and they decided not to set out on a 108-day voyage.  Their agency told them that the deposit was not refundable and that their contract required the balance to be paid taking them up to GBP 27,350.  That's the legal contract and The Telegraph did not dispute that.  Alternatively, their deposit could be transferred to another cruise of equal or greater value.  Read the fine print!!  Once it hit the press, Cunard relented, refunded the deposit and released them from the contract.  The Telegraph says they got lucky this time.  And, as The Telegraph emphasized, buy insurance.  Now!!

The Telegraph headline was dead accurate BTW:  "Cruise doesn't sail till 2021 - but it won't refund our 4k deposit."

I agree with Solent Richard.  We have used UBER several times in Ft. Lauderdale, New York, London and Nice.  Easy, no problem.

Now I'm intrigued....the Air Canada website shows Layout 1 and Layout 2 for the Rouge A321.  Right enough, Layout 1 has Business seats 2 and 2, with Economy 3 and 3.  Layout 2 is all Economy.  I have to assume the airline has changed equipment since you booked.  Very unfortunate and most annoying.  Small consolation, I know: Toronto - Quebec is a short flight.

I just had a look at AC flights from Toronto Quebec in October.  They are all Air Canada Rouge.  That may not have been true when you booked.  Now, half of them have Business Class and the other half are all economy so it obviously depends on which is your connection.  Rouge is Air Canada's attempt to compete with lo-cost carriers.  Frankly, I'm surprised to see that on YYZ - YQB.

Danke, Mein Herr, for your review.  We sailed out of Hamburg in October.  That was a memorable experience.  Like you, we had all the little boats sailing around us.  It was some anniversary so we were treated to a fireworks display from the shore.  Then the captain slowed down since there was an aircraft landing at the Airbus factory.  He did not want an A320 slicing off our funnel.  We had 400 Germans on board.  They were charming and polite and fluent in English, just like yourself.  Some of them loved to sing, joined the choir with the National Symphony Orchestra and sang with gusto for "Last Night of the Cunard Proms" in the Royal Court Theatre.  I'm happy to know you enjoyed the QM2.

I joined the choir on the October 16th crossing.  My, that was one of life's memorable experiences!  200 people joined up and we split into two since there were two performances of "Last Night of the Cunard Proms".  'elf and Safety demanded that we all sign some legal waiver for going backstage so that was a bit of a logistical nightmare.  Since we sailed out of Hamburg, there were 400 Germans on board and many of them love to sing including, with gusto, 'Rule Britannia' and 'Land of Hope and Glory'.  Good for them!  Anthony Inglis was great, such an enthusiast and patient with us amateurs.  For the performance the theatre was packed, much waving of flags and everybody on and off stage having a wonderful time.

20 hours ago, Yoshikitty said:

In my opinion, the long waiting lines partly are a result of many people not showing up at their assigned boarding time - so everybody arrives at around noon time.

We boarded in Hamburg in October.  We had a boarding time of 3:30pm and like good little children we showed up at 3:15 expecting a smooth and quick process.  Ha!!  Good luck with that one!  Did Cunard tell a whole boatload of people to show up at 3:30?  It sure looked like it - there was a long Disneyland snake of people lining up.  Got to the cabin at 4:30.  It was our first times on Cunard so we were distinctly unimpressed.  No other cruise line had ever given us a boarding time so we - naively - expected that by spreading boarding out there would be no waiting times.  Even without a boarding time, no other cruise line had ever made us take that long to get on board.  Once on board, things improved considerably and the crossing was great.  Having studied queuing theory many, many moons ago, I suspect the Cunard problem is that the customer contact time is far too long.  Do they have anybody in management who knows how to look into this stuff?  Do they care?

You will find a card in your cabin with your table number on it.  Take that on your first trip for dinner since it speeds the process of getting everybody in.  Britannia is on two levels so Murphy says you'll be at the  wrong one.  Relax, easy to fix.  If you don't like your table mates, speak to the Maitre d' afterwards and he will find you a new spot.  If eating in Britannia, get there on time.  You can't just wander in very late and foul up the system.  Other than that, eat anywhere you like, when you like.

Ship's currency is USD.  However, I found that your on-board charges are billed from Southampton - in USD - and my US bank slapped another 3% on my VISA charges since it was billed from out-of-country.  Currency exchange.  What exchange, exactly?

Have a great time, it's a memorable experience and you'll get stories to bore your grandchilden with.

I got excited when I saw treacle pudding on the menu.  It isn't.  It's syrup pudding, they don't know the difference.  Good though, you can just hear your teeth rot.

We enjoyed #133, Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre at $34.00 (Pays d'Oc) .  It was better than some of the more expensive wines we tried and therefore good value.

29 minutes ago, Jeffrey1950 said:

• As it happens my sister who lives in Airdrie just mentioned to me how Glasgow Airport has changed.

Sorry, that didn't come out right.  It's Edinburgh airport that I detest.  As do all those folks posting reviews on Skytrax, so it's not just one of my foibles.  Edinburgh airport may be OK if you are making a connection although I imagine their connecting traffic is near zero.  But if you arrive by air and leave by ground or arrive by ground and leave by air, it's a nightmare.  It's a classic case of something the Brits are good at:  "Why be difficult when, with a little more effort, you can be bloody impossible?"

1 hour ago, fabnfortysomething said:

Glasgow airport is bigger than Edinburgh and may have more choice

Aye, it used to be but not any more.  Edinburgh has more passengers and more destinations now.  Awful place, expansion has been most unkind.  It's now my most unfavourite airport.  Whoever is the airport manager should be taken out and ....oh, never mind.