3rdGenCunarder

I don't know, but perhaps they block the HC cabins on the website so you can only book through a TA or PCC. It's tricky because they can't ask for proof of need (hipaa rules), but they can ask you what accessibile features you need. I remember years ago seeing posts like "I scored a BIG room by booking a HC cabin!" from people who admitted they didn't NEED it, just wanted the space. Boy, did that get some angry responses, and rightly so. Perhaps HAL has realized that they should control the HC inventory more closely. Please note, I have no reference or data to site for this comment. Only that I haven't seen anyone brag about booking a HC cabin without any need for it.

So, problem solved. You've got a cruise booked. And since you like Celebrity better than HAL, it sounds like a good solution, even with the Uber.

This discussion is all semantics. Booking a guarantee is almost always less expensive than choosing a cabin, any way you say it. I just did a dummy booking for a week in the Caribbean on NS in 2024. The only category that did not have a difference between the guarantee price and the lowest fare to choose a cabin was obstructed verandah, probably because there are so few of them. The difference in price increased with the cabin grade. ($30 to $385) I can't see the advantage fare, but I chose the cruise only, no HIA. I selected verandah, "from $1014" pp. From, as in $1014 or higher. A regular balcony (not obstructed or spa or aft), was $1114 pp. When I chose that price, I had two options. If I let HAL choose my cabin, it would be $1114. If I wanted to choose, it was $1174. You can see that $60 difference as a fee to choose. That gets you choices forward or aft. For another fee ($180) you can choose something midships. For another fee ($60 or $120), you can choose midships on a different deck. OR, you can see it as HAL's pricing structure. They charge more for a cabin in what is considered a better location. I've seen the same thing in hotels. In my example, if I want to be in a midships cabin on what HAL considers the best deck (5, Gershwin), it's going to cost me$1354 pp. If that's more than I want to pay, I can choose a different deck and save $60. Or go forward and save more. Or take the guarantee verandah and sail for $1114.

(I think Hank's comment was sarcasm, not a real suggestion.) And opera isn't amplified!! That's one of the joys of opera, no tech between the singers and the audience. Just trained voices and a space with good acoustics. I think LC were the only musicians on board not amplified.

I hadn't thought about it, but you do see new faces every day that way. I subbed for two years while I was going for my masters, and then I was glad to go back to regular teaching where I had my "usual suspects" every day.

Yes, you have to check the deck plans carefully because HAL has so many different ships. I don't think there's a bad Neptune on a Vista ship. But moving above that, you have the risk of getting the SQ. I think HAL is calling some of those forward cabins with small balconies "spa cabins" to make them sound better than they actually are.

Ugh! Thank you SOOO much for dredging up a memory I thought I had truly buried in the back of my mind!!! The HAL Cats did what a lot of rock and rock-ish groups do, substitute volume for quality.

Another vote for HAL. HAL has the better itinerary. Not a fair comparison, since it's a longer cruise. But getting to see Montreal and Quebec City as well as Saguenay make that itinerary a winner. Another consideration is NCL's stop at Bar Harbor will likely be a no-go for Mom. It's a tender port. And the walking is difficult--uphill with narrow sidewalks.

@shippmates, I'm sorry for your loss. I lost my husband five years ago tomorrow after 46 years of marriage. We all know it gets better, but it never gets completely okay. Cunard does a good job of arranging tables for solos. Twice, I've been at a table with other solos. Once there were four of us. Last time, it was 8. I don't know how HAL organizes tables, but I've always been lucky with table mates. Last time I was with two couples who loved theater and art museums. HAL couldn't possibly have known that when they seated us together, but it worked out beautifully. @Loreto, go into the fixed dining with an open mind. If nothing else, a shared enjoyment of cruising is a good start for conversations.

The secret (or not so secret, really) to a guarantee is to look at the potential "better" cabins to see if what HAL considers an upgrade is a bad cabin in your eyes. Once you get up to signature and neptune suites, it's a pretty safe bet you'll be okay with your cabin.

I will admit that I travel for the destinations. But when cruise offers NOTHING by way of entertainment that appeals to me, I do feel that I haven't been served enough "gravy." I don't want to destroy my hearing on the music walk and I'm not thrilled with Step One. If Eurodam hadn't still had LC last winter, I'd have nothing to do after dinner but go to my cabin to read or watch a movie. That's pretty sad.

You can get an "amen" from me on this. I have never been impressed with all those names. (BTW, you left out Dancing With the Stars) Sometimes it makes me feel like HAL has no confidence in its own name. Why do they need to trade on someone else's name? HAL is one of the oldest lines in existence. Can they not market experience, itinerary, service? The other line I sail with a lot is a bit older than HAL and all of their MANY house entertainers are just that. The band in the pub may have a name, but it isn't a Big Name that's licensed to Cunard. The Lincoln Center group were the best classical group I've ever seen on a cruise. But HAL could spend some money on recruiting good musicians and it still would probably be less expensive than licensing a name.

That's a tasting that could result in sales if they do it early in the cruise. On my last Cunard cruise, the World Club tasting was on the last day because we didn't have many sea days. All the wines were on the wine list, but unless you could drink a whole bottle on the last night (I travel solo, so that wouldn't work for me), there wasn't much incentive to buy.

The handful of SCs on the Vistas do the same thing. Nothing wrong with them, just a different price.

ding ding ding! It makes for good press, but I wonder how many of those bookings will be kept.

I agree that standards come from the top. I have been in well run Pinnacle restaurants and one that was run very poorly. It was on one of the Vistas maybe 8-9 years ago. Breakfast was a shambles, with incomplete orders most mornings. One morning, my main never arrived. At another table, a man had to wait until his pancakes were absolutely cold before he got any syrup. It got so bad that DH and I had breakfast in the MDR one morning and THAT got the manager's attention. I got a phone call later that day apologizing and asking us to please give them another try. When we went back the morning after that, the manager sent a waitress over to apologize for any problems that had occurred. She had never been our waitress and should not have been sent over to talk to us. That's the manager's job.

I like to do fixed dining, because I get to know my table mates. Open dining means introductions every night. In all my cruises, I remember only two unpleasant companions, and many more very pleasant ones. On my cruise this past winter, we were seven people at a table for 8. One couple didn't show up every night. The rest of us sat with our menus for a few extra minutes and then decided we should order. If the others arrived late, their meal would catch up to ours. The waiters are good about making things come out right.

HAL can spin their data plenty of ways to justify their decisions. I agree with @latebuyer, the space could have been put to use during the day. Oh wait, there is no need to use that space during the day because HAL has almost no daytime programming! Not a unique concept. Cunard's Grills restaurants are open for lunch every day. But I can't complain about HAL not having the MDR open for lunch on port days. A lot of people do go off the ship for some part of the day. Instead of having the MDR open for lunch on port days, they should extend the time that the Lido is open for people who get back to the ship too late for the usual Lido hours.

Try to think of it as a discount for being willing to give up the opportunity to choose your cabin.

That sound like my father! Learning and understanding are the antidotes for fear.

DH said our trip to Iceland (circumnavigation by car) was his favorite of all of our trips. It's difficult to go there and not become interested in geology, even if you never were before. I remember that eruption. My BFF got a few extra days in Rome because her flight home was cancelled. The owner of the farmhouse that was shown in all the news pictures cashed in on his fame by establishing a museum about Iceland's volcanoes and that eruption. It has one of the best explanations of volcanoes and the interactions between fire below and ice above I've ever seen or read.

Even if you aren't susceptible to peer pressure, it's just so nice to be dressed for the occasion. It makes the evening feel special.

Ice cream is available at lunch and, I guess, at dinner. I was on NA's sister, Eurodam this past winter and there definitely was ice cream at lunch. I don't know what kind of cones they had, as I generally get ice cream in a dish to avoid drips. I think the nacho bars are gone from all ships, probably a result of covid safety. But the buffet has a taco station with all sorts of ingredients. I loved the guacamole, although the Texans I met said it was too mild for them! The buffet is set up in stations, so it's a good idea to take a walk around and see what appeals to you. They do post menus at the stations and also on the Navigator app. There's always an Asian station, Italian (pizza and pasta), "Distant Lands" which can vary in its offerings, and a carved to order roast with veg, etc.. Great salad station, and they build your salad for you, so there aren't a lot of people touching the ingredients! My go-to lunch is a nice big salad, and then I go to the taco station for chips and guac.

On our PG crossings on QE2 in 2003, we were allowed to use the QG lounge. And on QM2 in 2016, we used the lounge (mainly for tea, as we preferred the Chart Room for drinks) and the grills terrace. I was not impressed with the Grills Lounge on QE. It was just a bar with short hours and rather unpleasant bartenders. On HAL, the Neptune Lounge lacks a view, and the bar is a limited "honor bar," but there are nice snacks all through the day, Harney's tea, and a coffee machine that makes any specialty coffee you could want. I'm going to give QA a try. With my misgivings based on HAL's Koningsdam (too crowded and not enough shady outdoor spaces), I've upgraded my booking to PG, hoping to use the covered deck space on the sea days. I agree that the PG cabins on QM2 are much nicer than the long skinny ones on the other ships. I don't care about a tub. I'd rather have a decent sized shower. And it looks like I won't have to walk through a closet to get to the bathroom. I found that strange on QE.

I also got the impression that the eastbound is not on Cunard. Luggage Forward should arrange to pick up at a hotel and send the bag with the "posh frocks" to the ship. I've done it in the past from a London hotel to Southampton. If the EB TA doesn't end at a UK port, the shipping would be more expensive, but still should be available, especially given the length of time between crossings.