ilikeanswers

58 minutes ago, HWH said:

Yes!! I'd go to Asia and Australia/New Zealand. Living on the east coast of the USA, I've got no problem with an 8-hour flight to Europe, but I'm not ashamed to admit that the thought of a super-long-haul flight makes me uncomfortable, not to mention the fact that, since I'm still working, it's hard to take a vacation long enough to justify spending 3 or 4 days of it in transit.

 I am with you on the time limits. It is the long transit that will probably not see me return to the Caribbean or Scandinavia till much later in life. When you have such limited vacation days everyday really counts at I would rather spend it at a destination then getting to it. 

I think you misunderstood. When I say it didn't make it through the Spam filters I mean your email security is stopping  you from receiving the emails at sll. So even if they send you never receive. I had this problem with an email account despite being told an email was sent it never turned up in my account. Not even in the spam folder so I asked them to send it to a different email, and it arrived in my Inbox. 

31 minutes ago, chipmaster said:

1/2 as long but 3x the price, who would do it, that was what doomed the concord also.

 

Price depends on volume but when you move to faster than speed of sound efficiency and fuel burn go crazy, so even in the booming middle class the number of people that would pay premium first class to travel econ style is limited.  Limited market means low probability, it would be like asking how mainstream can suite only cruise ship be?

To be fair there has been a lot of changes to the technology since concord but the question is more about how much of a factor is length of a flght in determning where you travel. I have had converstions with people who say the length of a flight is a factor that prevents them from visiting or returning to certain destinations and I know for myself the length of a flight can be a determining factor. If the price wasn't an issue I would seriously consider a faster option especially for certain destinations that are so far away.

There has been some chatter that supersonic jets may make a comeback so flights that might take 16hrs could end up being 3hrs. I was thinking if that were the case and the prices were reasonable it would change a lot of how I travel. Europe would be a lot closer and the Caribbean which at the moment for me is like a 30hr flight if you included all the time needed to change planes would be much more achievable.

Would you change your regular cruising route if you could have shorter flights?

On 8/31/2019 at 6:51 AM, pinkpanther52 said:

Just watched a program on UK TV claiming  that Regents Seven Seas Explorer is the worlds most luxurious cruises ship!!

 

Agree or disagree??

Does it have to be ocean going because I have seen river cruise ships that are extremely opulent and the services IMO was up there in the luxury range. 

14 hours ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

Another problem with one way  to Tahiti is the cost of a one way flight back home and depending on the timing a possible day or two hotel stay .... and Tahitian hotels are pricey .

There are pensions and AirBnb style accommodations. We stayed in a one bedroom apartment for only 140 a night right in the town centre even had parking for our rental car.

It is a pity cruise ends on Thursday, I really loved the Sunday Markets, I would recommend anyone going to Tahiti to check them out if they can. Plus a tour through the Tahiti Nui interior I think is a must.

Maybe there was an email but it might not have made it past your daughter's spam filter. 

8 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

And.....?  Again, you bring this up with astonishing frequency. 

 

You are not the only author on these boards nor the only one who knows interesting others. You are just the one who mentions it most often.

Is there a problem if someone repeats something? Some topics can be very similar it might lead to people repeating themselves. 

1 hour ago, anankae said:

 

It's estimated somewhere around 200,000 people on the registry were added as children, the youngest around 8 years old.

As of last year the current number of children on the registry was estimated at about 90,000.

Is there anyone trying to fix the registry? I feel like I have heard of this problem for a long time, you'd think somone would have changed things by now. 

5 minutes ago, clo said:

I booked directly with O and have a super relationship (I think!) with the guy.  Would he be able/willing to tell me.  We cruising in three months and our "roll call" is minute.  Not that that really means anything.  But in light of this thread I do wonder if they'd cancel the cruise if there weren't a minimum number of pax.  Any experience or opinions are welcome.  Thanks.

No harm in asking, I would give it a go😁👍. In my experience they always had to check availability before booking so it does make me wonder if the staff who process bookings would have this information but I still would give them call. Let me know if you do get an answer🤗. 

59 minutes ago, clo said:

This is slightly OT but is there any site where you can find out how many people are booked on a specific cruise?

I was once looking if that sort of information was available for airplanes came across a website that said that sort of information for airlines, cruise lines and tour companies are considered industry secrets😕. They would lose some competitive edge if that sort of information came out before date of departure. 

1 hour ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

The Anti Tipping Society enacted laws in a few states that existed from 1904 to 1926, when they were all repealed as unpopular and unworkable. It never had any impact on European culture. Heck, it barely had an impact on home shores!  It was as much of a failure as prohibition was in 1920s and early 1930s. 

 

Not sure why you put any emphasis on a failed experiment that virtually no one remembers or cares about. 

But the Europeans who visited America brought the ideas back across the Atlantic they started I guess what today we would call lobby groups to eliminate tipping all over the continent (having visited Europe a lot I would say it was more or less successful😋) and with it came all these new ideas about work remuneration and theories about fair pay. Did you never wonder why Europeans stopped tipping?

Also my comment emphasis was more to do with the irony that tipping was originally a European custom. I just think it is quite funny that Europeans complain about tipping in America when historically it is their fault 🤣. You have to love the quirks of history 🤗. 

5 minutes ago, K32682 said:

 

The UK is responsible for Halloween not North America.

 

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Halloween

 

Let's not forget that tipping was a cultural practice imported from Europe😜.

Brief History of Tipping

A brief history of tipping

But America returned the favour by giving Europe the Anti Tipping Society 😉. Imagine if history had turned out differently. We would be on the opposite side of the tipping fence and this whole thread would be an inverted conversation🤗. 

9 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

I have never done that.Nothing that I ever wrote is available in anything except book or magazine form,as far as I know.

Oh I think you might have misunderstood. When I said "loading" I don't mean I make podcasts, I download ones others have made and listen to them. You give me more credit than I'm due, I'm not that talented🤣. 

I saw a video of a plane passenger who for a number of reasons ended up being the only passenger on a commercial flight and it got me curious if anything like that had happened on a cruise ship. Obviously not in the same extreme (one person on a cruise ship all by themselves imagine that! 🤣) as the flight but perhaps has a ship ever sailed for example at 20% capacity? Or would that be too low already? How low does the number of passengers have to be before they just cancel the sailing? 

17 minutes ago, clo said:

You can load them on your computer also.

I love loading podcasts. They are quite good for listening to on a cruise. 

15 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

I can't tell how many times I've recommended seeing the Roman forum and the Tower of the Winds (a fascinating building) in Athens.....yet so many cruisers go there and only see the Acropolis and the museum. (And then if they go again, they say there is nothing else to be seen there... )

I have noticed that a lot with Caribbean destinations, everyone seems to suggest once you have been a few times there is nothing left to see. I have travelled very little through that region so I don't know it well but it always makes me think about this yearly drive I do to this tiny outback town and every trip we have always found something to do that we haven't done before, so I'm always baffled when I read the comments here saying there is nothing to do in so and so place. It just seems a little unbelievable. 

2 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

Maybe you should read the whole thread where your fellow countrymen say they reduce the amount they tip for poor service, so seems hard to accept that there is never poor service and that people don’t still tip for it. 

My friend on his last day in Hawaii chose not to tip because of what he considered bad service (food took too long to come out, turned out it was the wrong food, server blamed him and the friends he was with for the error). They where waiting outside the restaurant for their Uber and the server having seen no tip was left came out screaming and swearing at them. They tried to walk away from her but she kept following them all the way down the street. Luckily they managed to get their Uber and got away. I have heard since that if you don't tip you should leave a 1 cent coin to signify you thought the service was bad. I don't know if this is standard practice, if any Americans read this I would love it to be comfirmed or denied. 

I think the best way to view tipping in America is always as a wage not an indication of workers performance. The abolition of slavery established tipping as a wage since restauranters didn't want to be paying freed slaves. The anti tipping movement really took hold in Europe in the 19th century and got rid of it as a wage. As Australians we probably imported that idea via Britain. It is most likely why the views on tipping are so diverse around the world and why people get so confused. 

Bringing it back to cruising it would seem the anti tipping lobby in America actually considers auto gratuities and prepaid tips as the better form of tipping as it limits peoples ability to reduce tips for reasons of the staff's race, gender, age, attractiveness, the fact they didn't laugh at a customers joke or refused a customer's s sexual advances. It is one of the reasons a lot restaurants now add the gratuity to the bill, so it creates a better environment for their staff. 

18 hours ago, Roz said:

 

That's a wonderful story about your father.  One thing I have observed is it seems like in our parents' generation, they got further in their careers without formal education.  My father barely finished high school (got drafted into WWII because he was 18), went to work as a free apprentice in an engineering firm after the war, and became a steel structural draftsman.  My mother became a diploma RN on an Army scholarship.  After a nursing career, she became head of medical claims for a major insurance company in one of their regional offices.  Now they want you to have a bachelor's degree to make lattes at Starbuck's. 🙄

 

Roz

I was once talking to a retired man who said he didn't even finish highschool and walked into a major department store, asked if there was any work and was put straight on the floor selling things. He said today to get that same job you now have to have some certificates in sales and retail and you have to apply properly for the job sending an application to a department that does all the hiring. The individual stores can't just hire anyone who walks into a store anymore😕. I have read a statistic that suggests about 70% of entry level jobs now require as a minimun some sort of tertiary education and that the rest will probably disappear because of automation and blockchains. It does seem getting your foot in the door is going to require more work than use to. Otherwise you can try your luck at becoming a YouTube star or Instagram influencer😜.

20 hours ago, marco said:

P and O , and Cunard both organise passengers' choirs, followed by a public performance. 

 

We were on a Princess cruise and they did this. A freind of ours participated and he said he would not do it again.  Too many rehearsals scheduled at times he'd rather be doing something else.

On Aranui they had a passengers dance performance that was performed on the last night of the cruise. The people who participated were really surprised at the amount of rehersals they had to attend during the cruise. I suspect if they had the cruise again they probably wouldn't sign up to this activity again😂.

1 hour ago, vozzie said:

One of the bottlenecks has been the ship internet. I know its via satelitte and I know everyone is trying to use it at the moment, however, the United Airlines (with whom we are trying to change flights with) website won't accept the old browser version the ship is using...so I can't access my bookings. It's frustration after frustration. Surely its not too difficult to update browser software these days. It only becomes an issue at important times, so surely they should be cognisant of that.

Is it possible to connect to the internet through your own device? That way you would have the latest browser and if it is a phone try downloading the app. If you are stopping in Mexico maybe you can use a WiFi hotspot while there?

I have an insatiable curiosity so I love a good lecture and I don't mind a cooking class in local cuisine. When I was on a freighter cruise we would go up to the top deck and watch the cargo being loaded and unloaded. Otherwise I like to just sit on the balcony and admire the scenery.

I can't speak for Canadian insurance but I know in Australia there can be a cover for "trip interruptions" and one of the reasons for trip interruption they will cover usually includes the loss of your passport. And from what I have read they say they will pay out for any loss of prepaid travel arrangements. They don't usually specify what travel arrangements but I would assume (I know a dangerous thing with insurance😝) that would include a cruise.

19 minutes ago, clo said:

We're going to be on Oceania in December where except for the spa, the rest of those things don't exist.  YAY.

If one wants to reduce their impulse buying it probably is good to travel on a ship that has less temptations😜. On the other hand those extras to help to reduce the base fare. It is kind of ironic that a ship with less stuff will generally cost more per night than a ship with a built in amusement park ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

necessity

1 hour ago, AmazedByCruising said:

 

Their research was certainly not "what do you want?" and a large percentage said "An ice rink!". 

They might have asked "would you think an ice rink on the ship would be cool", and many said "yes, why not".

I'm whining because they never asked "would you like to hear and smell the sea", to find that an even bigger percentage would say "yes, that would actually be nice". Certainly more than an ice rink.

 

To have 50+  cabins in one group, being responsible for each other's a/c reminds me of the hotels where 15 rooms shared one bath room. I'm willing to bet a lot that in 10 years new ships will have individual a/c that switches of when you open the door.

 

I think you are right to suggest that no one is asked what they want but I do think the main goal of cruise ships is to get people out of their rooms. If you are sitting in your room listening to the water smelling the air then you are not going to be spending as much money as some who will go to the ice rink, buy a snack or a drink maybe pass the merchadise shop and buy something or after all that physical activity they might decide to have a massage or book a spa the next day. People who leave their rooms are naturally going to spend more money because they are exposed to more temptations and advertising, if you stay all day in your rom the most you might spend on is room service.

19 minutes ago, AmazedByCruising said:

 

Exactly. Thank you. My next cruise will be on a more adventurous line than HAL or X.

Well I am glad you are finally looking at the alternative suggestions that the other commenters have posted. As you said you don't care about the destination or all the extracurricular activities so the alternative suggestions should work for you. I have to admit while we did it more out of necessity it was actually nice to have the balcony door open on Aranui. The sound of the water was very soothing especially at night lying in bed and it was certainly a new experience to add to the list. Plus I am not particualrly fond of the smell of cleaning liquids and disinfectants so it was also a nice luxury to be able to air room out of those smells after room service