Dancer Bob

I'll take the middle road here. Briefly, to avoid posting many pages: For the limited range of music Cunard plays (and dancing with the same partner), all you need is keeping time with the music, good posture and a few basic figures. A good teacher, not necessarily a great one. It's easy to get carried away with things like heel lead, especially when a teacher's background is competition. But I agree, learning the basics wrong is really bad. I don't know of any videos which can teach you the real fundamentals of good posture (which is really part of good health) and keeping time. Personally, I had a lot of wasted time and dead ends because I did not know to ask for a “Bronze Medal program”. But that's for when you decide “this is a lot more fun than sitting drinking” (drinking and dancing do not mix). The two syllabuses I'm familiar with are DVIDA and ISTD. Both have pre-bronze which is much simpler. A teacher/studio which won't say which syllabus they use isn't a deal breaker, but look carefully at what their present students are accomplishing. To adjust to different partners, expect about 3 years to feel comfortable across a broad range. Since you're dancing in a social environment you do also need to learn good etiquette (which is not much more difficult than stand right, walk left on the escalator), floorcraft is the technical term.

As of 3 weeks ago, the airport bus information to St Charles was correct. Assumption- for the train, each person can handle their own luggage. There isn't much luggage space on TER trains.

Haven't heard of "in the style of" before (I shudder to think what that may be), but the rest has been going on for at least a decade. In fact, I recall a band leader a good number of years ago, was playing so may Quicksteps even the English were saying "Enough!"

"Step off your long haul flight and be done"? Clearing Customs in YYZ? Not likely. There are far more connections YUL-YYZ and likely to have space available, than FRA-YYZ.

I recently was on Sky Princess. I watched the video and checked in at the muster station as per instructions. EVERY PERSON ahead of me was at the wrong station! Most did not know either their cabin number or their station letter! I can only imagine what an utter disaster a real muster would be.

Last I heard, hosts pay $30/day. They also provide their own costumes (believe it or not, costumes don't include dance shoes!). They get air included if over 30 days- not many serious teachers can take that much time from the studio, and it definitely skews towards over 60. While they can escort tours, for guys over 60, starting early in the morning and dancing til midnite, that's a very long day. For a long time, Cunard has ordered hosts from a US agency. Last summer, Cunard ordered two hosts for QM2 World Cruise, I've seen no posts as to what the situation actually is. I've heard 2 hosts are being ordered for some but not all QE cruises. Ballroom-cruisers' posts suggest a UK agency may be being used as well. Cunard's music is closely controlled by corporate HQ, and it's not nearly up to the standard of a real dance venue. Very limited selection, often off-tempo. Often 6-8 minutes long (real ballroom is more like 3 minutes), which limits the number of dances in each set, which doesn't sit well with the single ladies.

Given the parameters set by the OP and lack of knowledge of their luggage and physical capabilities, (not to mention the current French political situation) I would be wary of recommending the train.

Left for FLL on Monday a couple of weeks ago. Fast and as painless as 4 AM is going to be. Came back yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. Held on airplane, then Customs packed solid (I wasn't the only person saying "NEXUS is the best $50 I ever spent").

Also, have you researched how to get from MRS, which is at Vitrolles, north of Marseille, to the cruise terminal, which isn't at all convenient to SNCF St Charles? Marseilles is one port where I do use the cruise line shuttle to the ship.

I consider 24th to be the absolute latest to risk. I estimate 25% of my trips, if I were traveling same day as cruise, I would have missed the ship. A T3 to T5 connection in LHR, the MCT is 90 minutes, it took me 87 minutes recently. KLM YYZ-AMS is pretty reliable but I had a NCE connection cancelled, resulting in a 7-hour layover. With any of these, you are going to be completely exhausted for your first three days on the ship.

Gerry, that link goes to Costa UK, in GBP. USD quotes from Costa USA tend to be rather expensive- I've comparison shopped in euros from Costa France. Unless the OP has decided on Europe for sure, airfare is going to eat up any cost savings. As well, if the OP didn't like the food on RCCL, he probably won't like the food on Costa, For unilingual English-speaking (and not a dancer), singles activities can be hit-or-miss. If you're looking for highly-structured, as in herded to dinner like 8-year olds from the kids club, NCL is a good choice.

Can't speak to ATL, but ORD- a nightmare, well over 2 hours with NEXUS and just carry-on. AMS for sure.

By "return" do you mean flights both ways through ATL? Which airlines would actualy be operating the flights? Have you checked to minimum connecting times? One hour three minutes seems pretty tight unless you have a high risk tolerance.

Depends what you mean by "do". I can walk Las Ramblas to Placa Catalunya in 1/2 hour. But to savour the experience, including Gothic Quarter- full day.

JP Morgan may have CLAIMED to want to make crews work harder, but what evidence do you have that his real motivation was not simply to avoid paying wages? What numbers establish that lines like Seabourne have low wages? Most reviews gush about the service on premium lines, there's a logical disconnect here. In the EU, a mandatory service charge is commonly either shown separately, or included in the price. I've been told EU lines have to comply with EU labour laws. It's my (also anecdotal) understanding Cunard changed registry to Bermuda not so "Captains can perform marriages" but to dodge UK wage increases. I might have phrased it differently, but I think I agree completely with Hlitner. I once reduced gratuities on Cunard because I was so disappointed in the restaurant. I then found the buffet was outstanding, it was a major headache to reward these people.

OP stated their specific circumstance is YWG direct (FLL?) and Carnival would book them on the same flight rather than the infamous overnight connection in YYZ. Europe is irrelevant. As far as domestic, I'm not sure about the current status of preclearance at YWG.

Milonga could mean Argentine Tango, which is typically a dance done with partners who don't switch. The others could be either, but I suspect mostly line dancing. European cruise lines have much more emphasis on actual dancing, rather than the excuse for heavy drinking and drunken stumbing you see on American ships.

I vote with the small van tour. Just getting to & from Gare St Charles in Marseille isn't convenient. The TER trains to Avignon Centre are usually but not always on time. DIY is a bit ambitious for a port stop.

Last time I flew out of BCN it took more than an hour just through Immigration, and that was without 100's of other cruise passengers trying to do the same thing. I can't recall how much in total to the gate, something like two hours (pre-printed boarding pass, no checked bags, but including a stop for coffee). Switching to day of sounds like a high-stress choice.

What kind of dance experience do you have? Can you tell from the daily planners what kind of classes they were? If they were on deck, they were probably line dances structured without partners.

Most advice is to fly one if not two days early, but a direct flight does change the equation. If it is day of cruise, I would definitely go with the Carnival guarantee.

Cruise lines buy the cheapest flights they can, which usually means inconvenient. If you're flying in day of cruise, viable options are unlikely. Bad enough for a YWG non-stop, but what are they promising to get you home if you've made it to YYZ? The cruise line is the airline's customer, not you. There may be a whole bunch of other prople in the same situation. While it implies FCC never expires, that hasn't always been the case in the past.

Unfortunately my information is more than a year old, but Costa has always had numerous buses, both to Nice Airport and to Nice Gare. I have taken the transer to Nice gare several times. I have no reason to believe that won't be the case in 2024, but it is still a bit early for confirmation.

The YYZ Airport Authority is now proudly boasting that it's no longer the worst airport on the planet.But they're also proactively managing expectations over Christmas, warning that it will be very busy. In January, I suspect weather is more of a consideration, if the inbound from YYC is on time you'll be OK, but I doubt you have many alternatives for SJU. It was reported a while ago that the Airport Authority is now requiring reporters to request permission 24 hours in advance, they promise to respond "quickly", but even then, will be required to have a minder. I've heard nothing recently, whether reporters are lying low to avoid being branded a troublemaker.

Last week in southern France not far from the Spanish border, it went below freezing overnight, three nights in a row. But at least none of this $%^& snow and sleet I came home to.