3rdGenCunarder

Same opinion, same reasons. The only minus for me is that I get a spa pass and it's a long hike to the spa on the large ships. I was on Eurodam this winter and it seemed sooo much farther to the spa than it is on the Vistas. The sizes of the balconies vary on the Vistas. I think they're less varied on the Signature and Pinnacle ships. I like deck 7. The only deck I would avoid is 8 because it's under the aft open deck and you might hear chairs being dragged around. I've been on 8 and it hasn't bothered me, but some people say they are bothered by noise.

I'm having that problem now. I have several booked and with no travel during Covid, I lost the knack of juggling them.

I may have to do that. How close to sailing did you book the cruise? I tend to book early before tours are definite. In my four cruises to Alaska (2 in June, 2 in September), I haven't had the opportunity to do that boat tour.

The machines have an "extra rinse" option, or at least they did when I was on QE in June. As much as I try to conserve water, I want to make sure the soap is out of my clothing. You can use less soap than is recommended by the instructions--I've often thought the powder scoops were larger than necessary. I do that at home (I don't use pods for that reason). When Cunard had pods full of powder, I would break one open and use just half of the soap, especially if I was doing a small load. There are, or were, settings for load size.

I wish people wouldn't do that. Early fixed is the most popular (Hal demographic and all that), so to take that option and not use it is rude.

HIA with the gratuities usually comes up only as an early booking bonus. I'm not sure what constitutes "early." Maybe 2-3 months after the cruise is listed.

1. Is the "starting at" price for your cruise, or is it a more generic description? Sometimes a cruise will go right to Juneau and offer the Tracy Arm cruise from there. (I don't know if HAL does this, but I've seen it somewhere) Longer boat ride could mean more expensive. 2. It's possible that it could be cancelled. I think there's an issue in the spring with not disturbing baby seals on the ice floes. But if the tour boat can't go because of ice or seals, the ship won't, so booking the tour would make you miss something better on the ship. 3. Depends on the boat they use, which depends on the vendor. 4. It probably sells out. I haven't been on a cruise where it was offered, so I haven't done it. But it gets rave reviews from people who have.

I would have been fine without the tub, giving more room to the shower. The layout of the room was odd. TV over sofa, and bed facing the sofa took up about half of the room, near the windows. The rest was the desk on the inside wall and two small chairs and a coffee table under the window on the side wall. It felt like they didn't quite know what to do with the space. I've also been in one of the Neptunes along the side of the ship. That room was large, pleasant, and had a great bathroom. BIG difference from the SB to the SA.

The corner afts on the Pinnacle ships are not as nice as the ones on the Signature and Vista ships. I did not like our corner aft on K'dam. I don't remember the shape of the room being odd, but we had a side window, which was nice except it put the TV above the sofa. The only way to watch TV was from the bed. The closet space was disappointing, and there was no dressing area like on the Vistas. The bathroom was terrible. No shower over the tub and a stall shower that was tiny (smaller than a phone booth!).

The spa is managed by an outside vendor, so pricing and discounts are not up to HAL to decide.

I love having a balcony in Alaska. It's good insurance against rainy weather. On my last Alaska cruise, I did go up to the bow (Cunard opens the bow on QE) for a while on the day that had good weather, but I was grateful to have the shelter of my balcony on the rainy day. The pea soup is famous, but I'm not a fan of pea soup. DH and I used to order room service coffee for the times we did glacier watching on our balcony. I liked being able to go out and watch Alaska go by for a while, then go into the cabin to warm up.

I've seen the two Sydneys mixed up, too.

A lot of the photos com from stock houses, like Getty Images. If a photo has a mistake in its tags, like Stavanger instead of Alesund, a photo researcher can end up using the wrong photo. I saw some spectacular versions of this when I worked in publishing. We were doing a Virginia edition of some textbook, and the photo researcher told me she found a "stunning" photo of the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. I thought, wait a minute. That is not stunning. The bridges are all low and plain. Sure enough, she found a different Chesapeake Bay bridge. Definitely a great picture. Only problem, is it was in Maryland, although the photo was tagged Virginia, as well as Bridge, Chesapeake, etc. NOT a good choice for a Virginia edition. It was just luck that I had been over both the Virginia and Maryland bridges, and I knew the difference.

That reminds me of the comment the captain of QE2 made when she did a tandem sail with QM2. He made a lot of jokes at QM2's expense, like QE2 could go faster than we are now, but QM2 can't keep up. His best comment was that the people on QM2 had the better view. I was on QE in Alaska this June. I love Cunard, and that ship most of all. But I felt a twinge of longing when I saw Zuidy at Glacier Bay.

That's just wrong. ☹️ (not your math, the facts)

Good for you, finding a replacement holiday. "Paris is always a good idea." (Sabrina) I agree that Cunard should have given people on the cancelled crossing first opportunity to book the Coronation cruise. You're probably right that they were looking to grab new customers, but they need to think about keeping the ones they already have.

It seems the new rule is 3 gala nights in 14 days, unless you're doing a B2B of two 7s. Then it's 2 for the first cruise and 2 for the second. There should be more! I still follow the old rule of three levels. Formal (gown) for gala nights, and any other sea day that isn't gala is a semiformal (cocktail dress). Port days are more casual, depending on when I get back to the ship, but even then I'm more dressed up than many others. For me, dressing up is part of the fun of cruising.

More excursions have surfaced. Not on all cruises yet, they seem to load them haphazardly, not in any order. For Escanaba, in addition to the two included tours, there are two premium tours. I think they're overpriced (not unusual for ship tours), but they're interesting. One is a boat ride along Picture Rocks, a beautiful stretch of Lake Superior shoreline. The other is an afternoon of alcohol. Two wineries and two breweries. I thought I would want the boat ride because of the photo ops. But the coast faces NW, which means the best light would be afternoon, not morning. So now I'm thinking I will book the tasting tour. Even if the wine isn't to my taste (I'm fussy), I can always find a beer that I like.

HAL rolls up the sidewalk, so to speak, around 11PM.

If you go knowing the entertainment may be minimal, HAL is the one I'd recommend, mainly for smaller ships and better service. But more than anything, I would compare itineraries. One or two glacier viewing days? is there a port with good whale watching? (Juneau or Icy Straight Point) Do you want to go to Skagway to take the train trip? (Skagway has dock problems and will probably take fewer ships).

I remember the lanai cabins. I was never in one, but I walked the promenade deck often. I don't recall noticing that the chairs were picked up every night. I do recall seeing home-made laminated signs on a pair of chairs that said they were "Reserved for Lanai Cabin 0000."

Note that if you have the beverage package, it does not cover drinks on HMC. Those will be charged to your account.

I agree that Cunard had no choice but to cancel the WB TA. And that forced the cancellation of the EB as well. And as a Carnival shareholder, I appreciate that they're tying to bring in some money. But for the people who had their crossings cancelled at the last minute with poor communication from Cunard, seeing the Coronation Cruise pop up so quickly must sting. Cunard should have offered that cruise to the affected passengers before sale to the general public as a "save your vacation" option as an alternative to the 20% FCC.

I thought only those already onboard continuing to NY were able to stay onboard. Were some people arriving to begin their voyage allowed to board the ship in Southampton?

Another thing to think about is where your medical coverage is good. I don't know about Canada's system, but many people from the US are surprised to discover that Medicare stops at the border. Also, although it's a remote possibility, you could need help getting home. It could be as little as needing a whole row of seats to prop up a broken leg. After I saw that, I paid attention to that part of insurance coverage. After DH's fall and complications in England, our insurance flew us home air ambulance. That could have cost over $100,000 (US).