jimbo1683

On 7/3/2022 at 1:59 AM, Thaxted said:

Sport coats are no longer mandatory on non-formal nights. As the Cunard website explains, "Smart attire simply means a dress shirt and trousers, skirt and a top, or a cocktail dress." 

What on earth is a 'sport coat'?

1 hour ago, njguy_south said:

If the whole of Carnival corp. goes bust, then our economy will have tanked, and everything will be worthless!

It has tanked...

2 minutes ago, John Bull said:

Its not really worth worrying about - this isn't some little Caribbean island.

 

Ships turning around in Corfu on your day won't affect you - the vast majority of their passengers joining or leaving will be travelling direct between port and airport.

 

And Corfu gets a lot of land-based vacationers, so passengers of a couple of ships on port-of-call visits will not add greatly to the throng. Except maybe on a saturday, the main turnaround day for land-based vacationers - they'll be joining the bun-fight at the airport and the rest of the island will be relatively quiet.

 

JB 🙂

Ok. I was thinking really about how many people could be squeezing through the narrow streets and getting in the way of my camera. Ive not been to Corfu before but have been to Mykonos where the difference between a ship being in port or not has an immense impact on the experience you have on land. Appreciate Corfu is much bigger though.

I found a schedule and can see there are days where there are no ships and other days where there are 5 ships with combined capacity 8.5k.

How can I find out what ships will be in a certain port on a particular date?

I'll be in Corfu in September and I hope to visit Corfu Town on the quietest cruise ship day (unusual to be trying to avoid ships on this forum i know) so am trying to find out what the port schedule looks like - where could i find that?

1 minute ago, hallux said:

Book any venue of either type that you wish.  At the a-la-carte venues your only restriction should be a single entree, other courses can have multiple items ordered.  Some items have an up-charge if you're using a SDP credit.

 

I' thought I responded to a thread on this exact topic recently (I mean, it comes up, A LOT) but I couldn't find it.

Thank you. I've actually just realised its the Pearl, not the Joy. The description of the cruise states the Joy but the title of the cruise states the Pearl! No wonder I couldnt find the cabin number recommended.

I am planning to book a short 3 or 4 night Bahamas cruise in Jan/Feb from Miami. The fare i'm looking at is Free at Sea which includes Speciality Dining. I'm a bit confused though because I have looked at the speciality dining venues on the Joy and virtually all are a la carte. So how does the included speciality dining work? Is there a max value per meal, or is it limited to venues with a cover charge rather than a la carte?

14 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Our favorite cabin on Coral is an Ocean View. B731 (B728 is the same). It's an aft cabin and the window faces out onto the aft observation deck that goes clear across the back of the ship. There are loungers on that deck and it seems not many people go back there so it's kind of like having a gigantic balcony cabin. It's only a few steps from our cabin door to the outside door. I've tried to look into the cabin from that deck and, during the day, I can't see anything with just the sheer drapes pulled. (At night we pull the heavy drapes.) We will gladly book that cabin over a balcony and it is obviously less expensive. The window closest to the wooden door is our cabin window. Absolutely love that cabin. Getting ready for dinner we will take a drink out on the deck and watch the dolphins playing in the wake.

 

That looks a really lovely spot to sit

1 minute ago, D&N said:

Possibly. It was just thick enough to spread over the jam.

Not sure if they added icing sugar to thicken, it was quite sweet.

My wife describes the serving as 'quenelle' shaped on a tiny rectangular dish.

How very strange. I've had afternoon tea without clotted cream at home but never been anywhere that claims to serve a traditional afternoon tea to paying customers that hasn't served it with clotted cream!

On 6/17/2022 at 8:31 PM, exlondoner said:

1. No. And the meal is tea, not high tea, which is an entirely different meal in the UK.

 

2. Yes.

 

Enjoy every moment.

The meal is not called 'tea'. It is of course 'afternoon tea'. The phrases 'afternoon tea' and 'high tea' are frequently used interchangeably in 2022 regardless of the historical differences.

5 hours ago, D&N said:

I should also say, and this did not surprise us as others had pre-warned us.

Although the Afternoon Tea was very nice, the one aspect that let it down badly was the absence of clotted cream for the scones.

Scones, jam and cream are very nice, but clotted cream raises the level to a celestial experience.

What was the cream if not clotted? Whipped double cream?

On 6/17/2022 at 2:50 AM, Senga said:

Certainly not to that extent but our next door neighbours on the Grand Princess boarded in November and are staying onboard until October.  He said it’s cheaper than a retirement home and you wake up to a different view every day.  Afraid I’m too much of a “material girl” to deal with such a small place for that long.

Why do old people make these pointless comments - "cheaper than a retirement home" - he doesn't nees to be in a retirement home if he can go on a cruise for a year

So, for example where the article says "5 7day Queensland roundtrip cruises", they're going to do the same cruise five times?

On 6/11/2022 at 10:02 PM, Flatbush Flyer said:

Sorry for your spouse’s health issue.

This is a somewhat complicated issue, particularly since you’re not in the US.

In general, because this happened recently, you may be subject to what’s called a “look-back” period. And if the issue occurred during that look-back period (X days [usually 3-6 months] prior to the purchase of your insurance policy), you cannot claim anything related to that “pre-existing condition” unless you have secured a PEC waiver (which requires policy purchase ranging from within several weeks of your paying your cruise deposit all the way up to the day of final payment).

From what you describe, your wife now has what most insurers would consider that PEC. So you need a PEC waiver policy that is allowed for purchase up to final payment date. I’m not sure about outside of the US but, the cost here (at your ages) would easily be at least 10% of the cost of the trip. 
As regards that PEC waiver: If anything changes (diagnosis, meds, treatment, etc) regarding her issue within the lookback period and you don’t have a PEC waiver, you’re S.O.L. on making a claim. 

So get with a travel insurance broker ASAP to discuss best strategies. I recommend InsureMyTrip.com but do’t know if they can sell to non-US folks.

 

I honestly dont think this is a relevant comment for UK insurance.

35 minutes ago, MJC said:

We will be on Cunard for the first time this fall. This thread got me interested in the drinks available. Being from the US, I have to ask about squash and cordials. In the US a cordial is a sweet alcoholic drink, like Grand Marnier (which we would have after dinner), but from my reading I think it's different in England? And I have never heard of squash. Any advice? I am willing to try anything at least once (even the much maligned Pol Acker). 🙂 

In everyday usage squash and cordial mean the same thing in England: a concentrated fruit drink which you dilute with water. Wikipedia says that there is a difference between squash and cordial in the concentration of the fruit juice, but I'm not sure many people would know that and the terms are used interchangably.

  I can't say I've ever heard an alcholic drink being referred to as a cordial in England.

20 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

I suppose one answer could be the number of bottles open in the number of locations pouring times the number of ships at sea, coupled with the need to enforce their use. 

It's just a normal way for a bartender to serve wine on land, doesn't make sense why they din't do it on ship

9 hours ago, Reina del Mar said:

Sorry to say but I am under the impression that in UK , we are only allowed to make one change to bookings, even with the £100 admin fee.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

Would be interested to know if you are able to make additional changes.

Thanks. I didnt realise it was one-time only but i've just read the Passage Contract and I think you're righg. However what I'm not sure about is whether I have already made an 'amendmemt to contract' or if i have cancelled and booked under a new contract - i was given a new booking reference and my shore excursions were cancelled and refunded.

I'll have to call.

7 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

Maybe on the Princess site

Is it?

I was hoping simeone could describe what they each are.

2 hours ago, Dunk said:

Contrary to what some folks have said, it's not the same thing. The Enclave is in the Lotus Spa, but they are not interchangeable terms. I think some people may confuse The Enclave with the thermal suites, which are on Grand Class ships. 

So what is Enclave and what is Lotus Spa?

8 hours ago, Kynance said:

Although the border and immigration authorities of the respective countries on any itinerary may require a physical passport inspection, in practice Cunard will be sharing details of the passenger manifest with these authorities for immigration and security purposes, so the inspection also takes place virtually and information on passenger movements will therefore be available to host authorities. This will be done to comply with the legal requirements placed on Cunard. If Cunard is required to notify the host authority of anyone who failed to rejoin the ship following a port of call, or had to leave the ship mid-cruise, for instance for a medical evacuation, all of this data will be held on host authority systems and will be used for their purposes, as necessary. 

 

I'm not convinced by this explanation as the same would be true of airlines and their passengers, negating the need for immigration at airports which of course is not the case.

13 hours ago, exlondoner said:

 

Well, that is very interesting. When we went on our Canary Isles/Lisbon cruise, Cunard looked at our passports at Soton for ID purposes, but nobody checked them after that. They weren't stamped in or out of the EU. So there is no evidence we spent five or six of our 90 days there. Very mysterious.

Oh mysterious indeed

34 minutes ago, smilesonfaces said:

Think what you like. Testing can’t last forever. 

Theoretically yes it could. But I'm not a disease expert so i will just wait and see what decisions are made.

I have a cruise booked this time next year for two  people. I booked about 9 months ago for a club class mini suite with princess plus.

Earlier this year the cruise reduced significantly in price and extras such as onboard credit and port parking became available. For £50 ($60) pp i switched to the new fare saving us about £700 ($860) total.

Now the fare has reduced again, albeit not by as much (£370 total). The new fare also doesnt include parking but it does include the same OBC. Parking will cost me £95 so the difference reduces to £275 total. I then need to pay the £100 admin fee to switch fares so I'm down to a total saving of £175 which - because I have a cabin I want - leaves me feeling it's probably not worth switching at the moment.

How likely is it that the fare will drop further? If it dropped further I would probably switch, but obviously the more times I need to pay an admin fee the less benefit I'm getting.

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

The major institutional investors couldn't care less about what a few hundred people on this forum are moaning about.

Bookings are healthy, assets are in place,  but the debt is high. That is what matters, not someone moaning about the app not working ! 

The stock markets are down. Investors are loosing confidence. It's not just Carnival.

4 minutes ago, smilesonfaces said:

Exactly. I have been supportive of both testing and vaccinating  but now two  years have passed. Time to move on. Testing is no longer necessary. 

Ah another armchair expert. Leave that conclusion to an expert - a confined ship out of easy reach of land and substantial medical care could well mean that testing remains necessary no?

Im sailing Southampton - Zeebrugge -Rotterdam - Southampton. How/where does passport control happen - when going ashore in Rotterdam and when returning to Southampton?