alc13

Thanks for your update, @Oahucruiser.

We were unimpressed with Crystal and Silversea. High end hotel food, in all honesty. The best food we've had on a cruise ship was on Hapag Lloyd. Also, very good caviar.

I don't think anyone realistically expects Michelin star cooking on a cruise ship. Totally different mindset in the kitchen. But the food can be delicious nevertheless.

We've done so-called luxury lines and been underwhelmed (Crystal, Silversea). All-inclusive just meant mediocre wines for free, and the butlers were indistinguishable from cabin stewards (we never have any special requests). The sea day lectures tended towards idiotic. Admittedly we've always been in the Grills on Cunard, but that offers the closest to a truly luxurious cruise experience we've found, given everything else available to see or do on board those beautiful ships. We have a Seabourn cruise coming up in December (totally itinerary driven) and I expect it to be comfortable; but given the relatively low cost of the cruise fares I don't expect it to be luxurious, at least according to my understanding of the word.

Lovely analysis @Pushpit. Methods, results, conclusions. Do/did you work in the sciences, by any chance?

So perfectly said I'll just quote it. Thank you, MrsPeel55.

The Ports forum on Cruise Critic is helpful for learning about ports that are mostly served by cruise ships. And then the usual online sites like Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, and so on, for larger ports, will help you sort out what you'll want to see. The tour aggregator site Viator will probably have information about tours in your ports that would be very similar to the ship's excursions, and those have customer reviews.

Hilarious!

I didn't get one either. I guess I'm saved a few points rise in blood pressure because I would hate the freezes and keystroke issues.

Yes, good luck to all those in the path of Idalia. Mr ALC's two sisters are here visiting us from the Sarasota FL area. They were due to fly home Wednesday, but the Tampa airport has been closed and isn't expected to reopen until Thursday. Here in Maine we depend on generators because of frequent power outages (forests and elevated power lines don't mix well). Can't say enough in favor of them.

Call them back and ask for clarification. Their definition of "comparable" may be different from yours. And good luck!

Okay! At least I'm not missing something. Thanks for the help.

Ah, other way around. The person who made the referral saw the credit posted on his/her end. I figured because I was new to the Seabourn website I just wasn't looking in the right place.

Thanks for replying! I wondered about the OBC from the travel agent, too, but she said it would only be on the invoice at the moment. I'm actually asking about the friend's referral award. Thought someone on this thread might know how it works on the receiver's end.

Sorry if this is a doofus question, but I just don't see the credit anywhere. Hoping someone can help me out. I suppose worst case there will be some record once on board?

Do these appear somewhere in My Account on the Seabourn website?

On the subject of language, Google Translate has an image reader in it, so you can translate signs and menus when you need to. The first time I visited Japan, about 20 years ago, I had a paper map to help me navigate the town I was in. I put my finger on the map location when I started and traced the route as I walked, so I wouldn’t get lost. Google is a big help these days.

Absolutely, a Suica or Pasmo card is a must. Another invaluable item that we used throughout the trip was a pocket Wi-Fi. We got ours from Ninja, who have a storefront in Haneda so we could pick it up when we arrived in Japan. And incidentally, Haneda is much closer to Tokyo and Yokohama than Narita.

We planned to take a train from Yokohama to Tokyo after our Apr Japan cruise, but ended up being unsure about finding a train that would also take our luggage. I’m sure if we’d gone to the station an agent would have helped us sort it out but we decided to do the easy thing and took a taxi instead. Once in Tokyo, the subways and buses take you anywhere you need to go. But it is an incredibly complex system and a navigation app is invaluable. We found Google maps to be terrific - it even identifies the number of the exit to take at the destination.

Really, now I want to know how it's decided. On our Japan trip in April we thought we might get a window, based on stateroom grade and loyalty status. But we were seated one table in from the window. Then it turned out that the couple next to the window were continuing on the 2nd leg of a longer cruise; they asked to be moved to a window table after the first leg and were accommodated. So asking sometimes works.

Exceedingly well said!

I'm sorry the OP had a bad experience. For what it's worth, we've had a couple of disappointing experiences in QG - one with a butler and one with a maitre d'. Fortunately both experiences were one-offs, and didn't lessen our preference for Cunard over the other lines we've tried.

@ceilidh1 - fabulous review, wonderful photos. We were on QE in April so it was fun to see so many pictures of the ship. A small point, but it has the most gorgeous carpets of any public space I've seen! The Irish duo were on board then, too. Mr ALC loved them so we saw them several times. Lots of fun. Sorry you had such bad drinks service. We always look forward to cocktails on Cunard. Some great bars on those ships.

I'm coming to the same conclusion. They want a different demographic. Unless people in their 30s-50s start embracing formal wear, the existing ships might be enough to satisfy those of us who like to dress for dinner. How they will differentiate themselves from HAL etc remains to be seen. Or maybe the market for that kind of experience is far from saturated, in which case a new and pretty ship with plenty of dining options and good itineraries will sell itself easily.

I have the same question. Does anyone know?