3rdGenCunarder

It's sad to hear this. When surveys ask "would you recommend this cruise to friends?" I always think, well, depends on which friends are asking. But for the first time, I cannot imagine recommending HAL to anyone. What would I say? The plus factors are that they aren't megaships with 6,000 passengers and the itineraries are good. I have two HAL cruises booked, both on the remaining R ships. I booked them for the itineraries, both port intensive. I will go knowing that I may spend a lot of my onboard time reading. If the entertainment is good, that will be a bonus.

It's deep enough to stand in front of the side jets. It's great for walking to relax tired muscles after a long day in port.

NO! You shouldn't throw anything overboard. But you could hide things, like maybe leave them in a corner somewhere. Small things could go into the "used towel" bin.

Just when you think they can't screw up another part of the trip, they find a way!! 🤬

Supposedly, LC will be on various ships on the mainstage, but not all the time. Kind of like Cantare. Which ships and for how long remains to be seen.

Yes, Chicago is what made me choose AQV. I really hope the cruise is good enough to make up for the planning drama. I wouldn't do this cruise on ACL because I had a terrible cruise with them (Columbia/Snake rivers). I don't want to pay Viking's prices. I don't want to be out of options!

Around that time, I met someone who was in one of those cabins and she was very unhappy (kvetching in the launderette). There was a stretch of hallway about 8-10 cabins long where the vibration was noticeable.

Call your insurance company and ask. Policies vary, so they're the only ones who can give you a reliable answer. Does your insurance include cancel for any reason?

You need to try Cunard. There always are some kilted gentlemen on gala nights.

Normally, I would say don't bother, because not many people dress up for gala nights. But it's a special birthday, so if you want to dress up, do it. Nobody will look at you oddly because you're dressed up more than most people. You'll likely get some compliments on how nice you look. Consider having dinner in the Pinnacle to make it more special. I know that a lot of people don't want to miss the Gala menu, but I don't think it's all that special. The ambiance of Pinnacle is worth missing the "special" Gala night menu. I think the photographers set up around the ship on Gala nights, so you could have a formal portrait done as a nice memento of the day.

My insurance DID cover because we cancelled, not Cunard, so we got nothing back from Cunard. My point was that, although the overall trip was interrupted, neither cruise was interrupted, so we were reimbursed for "cancellation" of the cruises, which paid 100%, not "interruption," which would have paid more.

I agree. She can't get to NY and back in time for the next scheduled departure out of Soton. I think that's Norway? Too much of a domino effect, and too may schedule details to change.

The "trip" commences on the date you specified in your insurance. DH became ill in England before our first of two cruises. We had a few days in England, then a HAL cruise, then a day or two in England, and then QM2 home. Because the individual elements of the trip weren't interrupted, our insurance paid for the cancelled cruises (100%) but not interruption (150%). Interruption is worth more than cancellation because the extra covers the costs of re-working the interrupted trip.

Thanks for the update!

Four weeks. There was always a 3-week gap in the schedule after the 3-week cruise. So instead of two 3-week cruises, there's now a 2-week and a 4-week.

At some point, HAL may stop selling HIA for a cruise, or the specialty restaurants will be overbooked. I've seen posts about people having trouble booking Pinnacle because of limited availability of time slots.

A long time ago, in NYC security was after check-in and priority mattered from the beginning. But now, security always seems to happen first. And I've never seen priority lines for security when it's the first step. The good thing about FLL is each ship gets its own terminal, so there's no sharing of security lines. Vancouver can be awful if ships are sharing. In FLL this winter, I checked in around 11:20, and the non-priority waiting area was full (despite being 4-star, I was group C with a check-in time of 11:40). After I checked in, I went to the woman who was handing out boarding cards. She held out number 19, and I told her I was priority, and showed her the boarding pass. I got a priority card and was sent upstairs. Even at that early hour, I was priority group 2. It didn't matter because all the priority people ahead of me had just boarded. So if you are supposed to get priority embarkation and don't get it, ask.

Yes, that's what happened, although the schedule had a blank space for a while as they figured themselves out. They should have had their replacement plans settled before they did the cancellation. The 14-day itinerary is good. A nice change from HAL's usual Caribbean offerings in the winter. (But the 21-day was better)

As I read this, all anyone gets for a cancelled voyage is the refund. The 20% FCC is extra, not required in the contract. I'm not saying that's a good deal, but Cunard doesn't have to do that, much less do anything more. Terminated early includes travel expense, but whether that's to the original final port or home is up to Cunard to decide. Just as the odds are with the house in a casino, the wording is with the cruise line in the contract of passage.

Go for it!!!

People who book in the US are not required to buy travel insurance. That's done as a separate purchase. HAL offers it as an option. I don't know if Cunard does. In the post-covid startup period, I believe Cunard required insurance for UK bookings, but not US bookings. Coverage options in the US vary greatly, depending on how much coverage you want. I always buy independent insurance to be covered for medical emergencies and return to home if needed. I think my policy would pay for to fly me home (or pay some of the cost) as "trip interruption," if I were in the UK, expecting to board the ship to go home.

Has anyone having to pay for a flight back to the US (or anywhere else, for that matter) contacted their travel insurance to see if that will pay for the flight? Insurance won't pay the cost of the cruise because Cunard is giving that back. But maybe this counts as "trip interruption" or something like that.

What time does the ship sail? I would expect Group A to be the first to check in. Have you tried the port of call board to ask how strict Barcelona is about assigned times?

Good for you! I think there should be more "gala" nights, too.

If you're going right home after the cruise, take a carry-all bag of some sort to stuff the formal clothes into. I don't worry a lot about how I pack going home because clothes are going to the cleaner or in the wash, not back into the closet.