3rdGenCunarder

Siting here, shaking my head. I hope they don't move you after you made a good-faith effort to release the triples.

Good advice!. Some excursions may be limited and if there's something I absolutely want to see, I book in advance. Your touring sounds a lot like mine. I do some ship tours, some non-ship tours, and some, as you say, wanders. On my Britain cruise on QE, I wanted one port to be an easy day, so I did a ramble around Greenock. Found a lovely church, interesting small museum, several "homage to James Watt" sites, and a great yarn shop. The only thing missing was an ice cream stop because the place I expected to go to was closed that day. I learned long ago not to try to see everything in one day. I think of a cruise stop as a chance to sample a new place. Some places are a one and done, but you never know what place will speak to you and call you back. Who knew that we would like Reykjavik so much that 15 years later we would do a land tour driving all the way around Iceland? It was DH's favorite trip of all the places we went.

I had 7085 the year after I had a corner aft. The corner aft was larger, but oddly arranged. I loved the bathroom in 7085, especially after the one in the corner aft, which was pitiful--smallest shower I've ever seen on a ship. I didn't like that the TV was over the sofa.

I have never had soot or smoke issues in an aft cabin, even deck 8. I used to sail in cabins toward the aft on QE2. When she was accelerating out of port, the vibrations could shake your fillings loose! But vibrations never bother me, it's a sign that I'm riding on a powerful machine. I think the pod ships have less vibration than the old direct-drive ships. Shimmy can be annoying, but I've rarely had to deal with that. What I don't like is the cavitation, which was an issue on K'dam. It didn't cause vibrations, it caused banging. In a "following sea," the ship would pitch and when the stern hit the water, it slammed down with a jarring BANG! The randomness of it made the banging more annoying. Ordinary pitch is rhythmic and I don't mind that at all. Never had that slambang on a Vista. Only on K'dam. I love the view of the wake, but never again on K'dam. Just looked at my journal from my second time on K'dam, midships. I wrote about annoying shimmying on that trip. I swear, that ship has the worst ride of any I've been on.

I'm satisfied with the balcony cabin I have, but I'm going to be haunting the website around final payment hoping one of those wonderful aft balconies opens up.

Cruise lines have always dangled that hope of an upgrade when they sell guarantees. Sometimes people are lucky, sometimes not. You were lucky that they were able to move you. I don't do guarantees, either. To me it's worth the cost to know where I'll be.

The ABCs are great! Curacao is my favorite because there's a lot to do beyond the beach, although the beach is good. I like to snorkel, and last winter I had a fantastic snorkel in Bonaire. I wanted to jump ship (and I really like Eurodam), stay overnight and do the snorkel again! Great snorkel with turtles in Curacao a few years ago. I think Aruba is better for staying at a resort. There isn't a lot else to do. Oranjestad is kind of sad. The waterfront street is full of malls and designer stores, built for the cruise tourists. Go one block back and the locally owned stores are mostly empty. Like Martinique, Guadeloupe is a department of France, not a colony or territory. And it, too, has good infrastructure. We were in Guadeloupe in a winter after a hurricane. Except for some stumps in the botanical garden where damaged trees had been taken down in the storm, the islands appeared to have recovered completely.

I've been thinking about this thread. I understand not wanting to be moved randomly, but is the limitation on cabins for 2 such an issue for people for making bookings now that we know the policy? I understand booking a quad inside to get the space--some inside cabins can be very small. But unobstructed OV and Veranda cabins are all pretty much the same. Except for the unloved metal verandas, the cabin is the same inside. Balconies are the same size with a few (2 per ship?) double length and the deeper deck 4 balconies. But aren't there doubles on deck 4? There are lots of OV and Veranda doubles to choose from. So why is having a triple or quad important if you're only 2 people in the cabin?

I'm booked on a Caribbean cruise (11 nights) for this winter. For months now, it has been nearly sold out while other cruises are not. HAL offers this one on its own or B2B with the cruise before or B2B with the cruise after. Cabin availability varies when I do dummy bookings for these variations. There are no midship verandas for my cruise, but there are plenty on the B2B combo with the cruise after mine. So is HAL offering fewer cabins on the 11-night cruise to give the longer (more $$$) cruises more availability?

There were "on your own" excursions on QA in May. Definitely Glasgow and Edinburgh. I don't think there was one for Inverness.

I was on the third cruise. There was no seating other than the heated loungers, so I guess the seats that @Clewgarnet saw were added at some point. On every cruise where I've bought the pass (Cunard and HAL), it's been busy the first day, probably people who bought the $50 day pass deciding if they want to convert to the full pass. Once that settles down, it usually isn't too crowded. I did buy the pass on QE last month. They said I had to sign up for specific times, but after the first day they didn't check. Since the only way in is with a thermal suite key (unless someone opens the door for you), they don't check once you've traded your room key for a thermal suite key. I thought QE's Mareel staff were okay. Not especially friendly, but I never felt ignored when I arrived to check in. The first day, the woman said I looked familiar. That's happened before. I didn't remember either woman, and I do get to know the staff. I think they use that as an opening to chat with a customer and suggest other spa options. Nope, just the thermal suite, thank you. I love QE's spa! It's large, has natural light, and the heated loungers have their own separate quiet room. Relaxing on a heated lounger while you watch the snow-capped mountains of Alaska go by is wonderful.

That's what the K'dam deck plan shows. The unmarked Neptunes are doubles and the ones marked with a circle are triples. The description of the Neptunes does not mention a sofa bed as it does for non-pinnacle ships. I checked HALfacts but no comments about sofa beds in those midship Neptunes on K'dam.

Isn't 100% capacity calculated on all bookings being double? So triples and quads bump that up over 100%.

I know, it does mean taking a closer look before you make your decision. But if you're looking for consistency, well, you won't find it with HAL.

It depends on the ship. If all Neptunes are triples or quads, the deck plan usually doesn't bother with the symbols for all the suites. On Eurodam, for example, the description for the Neptunes in the key says that the suite has "a sofa bed for two persons." Only the triples have the symbol for triple added.

They're getting around the breach of contract issue by giving people notice about a potential change in cabin if they've booked a cabin with extra beds. But I agree it's a lousy way to do things. Pay extra to get the cabin of your choice, as long as HAL decides you can keep it. The only way for us to avoid potentially being bumped is to book only double cabins if we're couples or solos. Don't book a triple and you shouldn't get moved. From playing with a few dummy bookings, it seems some online inventory is being managed, at least for balcony cabins, where there are doubles, triples, and quads. A single or double booking shows me double cabins. I have to enter 3 or 4 people to see the triples and quads. For Sig suites and Neptunes, it's letting me see all Neptunes, even if I say it's for 2 people.

And they didn't make you book a time? When I checked it out on the first day of my cruise (May), I noticed how small it was and that there are only 8 of the heated loungers and nowhere else to sit. I asked the young woman what happens when there are more than 8 people there at a time. She said they manage capacity by making people book a 2-hour time. I did not buy the pass, not because of the time limit but because the place was so small. And when the pool was bubbling, the room was too noisy. I didn't feel like it would be relaxing. It was disappointing because I love the thermal suites on QE and QV.

That's surprising. On the smaller classes, all Neptunes sleep three or four. K'dam has only the triples you list and no quads. Maybe HAL has seen that families have been less inclined to book the more expensive cabins, so K'dam's design reflects that?

I don't remember seeing the crepes on the a la carte menu on QA or QE recently, but they definitely were available. On both cruises, I ordered crepes Suzette for the table for the last night. I think I ordered them the night before. If there's something on the alc menu you think you will want, don't put off ordering it for too long. The menu changes after the first week.

That feeling is why I won't go back to Verandah on QM2. I don't feel that way about lunch at Verandah on QE.

The sauna adjacent to the ladies changing room on QE has a sign that says "appropriate" attire must be worn. Apparently, for quite a few ladies, skin is their idea of appropriate attire. It's the first time I've seen this happen.

Mariner status seems to have no clout with HAL. I don't know how many people use the website vs TA or PCC. I don't think the website will show you a quad that is booked by two people. Not sure about the systems TAs use, but perhaps if people call HAL to make a booking a HAL agent can see that? More likely, it's about placing quad and triple guarantees, which is why people who were bumped tend to find out fairly late.

This has been annoying me for a while, but then I realized we have always paid more to choose our own cabin. HAL has moved that decision step farther down the process. It used to be when they showed available fares, the guarantee option (usually with nonrefundable deposit) was shown at the same time as whatever promo fare was available, with the promo allowing cabin choice. The guarantee was always less expensive. Now, the choice is in two steps--no frills or promo. Next step, whichever option you selected, is where HAL shows the price difference between guarantee and choice. Somehow, that makes the cost of choosing feel more expensive. I wonder if HAL has done this to make people less inclined to spend the money on cabin choice. The more guarantees they sell, the more control they keep over where people are placed on the ship.

I don't get it. If I do a search for veranda cabins for my January cruise, very little is available now, only VB and VQ. The price difference on the page where you choose a category shows the VQ as $660 more for an 11-day cruise. $60 per day for a yoga mat (which I wouldn't even use???) Fortunately, my VC is a double, and not a connecting cabin or an accessible cabin, so I think I will be okay where I am.