oskidunker

Princess owns some of the better hotels. 

Yeah,  maybe one a year

But people love to pile on San Francisco.demand for houses is higher than most other places but prices are high. Weather is great. But I never go into SF. Live about 19 miles south of there. Not much crime where I live. 

Crystal is cruising again. 

I like Oceania but they have started cutting time in ports shorter due to bull crap ecological concerns. Be aware. They do not, however, require the final payment 6 months or more in advance. Some of the food is better, not the Lobster, however, i like Viking Living room a lot and the Tea. Also wine by the glass is not bad.. The two lines are similar  in what they give you as well as price. 

I wonder if they would let you board in SF?

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/alaska-cruises/los-angeles-to-vancouver-REG240501/?sr=%2Fcruise-finder%23time_frame%3D2024-5%26marketing_region%3Dalaska%26sort%3Dfeatured%3Adesc%26page%3D1%26pageSize%3D10

1 hour ago, ropomo said:

Oceania has cruises that start and end in San Francisco. 

The only cruise on Oceania leaving from San Francisco is a 20 day to New York. If there are others, please let me know. 

1 hour ago, duquephart said:

 

Crime?

Crime is worse in Puerto Rico and Columbia

Would be great if Viking would do this. I think Princess fills their ships. Would seem to be a no brainer but there must be other factors

Its the experience on  the ship that is most important. After 25 cruises on Princess over 25 years, we switched to Oceania and Viking as they provide what we want. I was very loyal to Princess. We greatly anticipated all our Princess cruises, especially loved The Grand when our kids were young. The mega ships ruined everything we liked. Long lines for dining, poor service, long waits to get on and off the ships. Less port days, less time in port, overcrowded show lounges, bad food. There are more. We were sad to leave Princess but what fun experiencing new lines! 
 

customer service is bad everywhere. Best to try and do everything with a travel agent and let them deal with the dogs barking and chickens crowing. United Airlines is a nightmare, far worse than any cruise line.  I doubt anything improves-as they  continue to try to stay in business by cutting costs. Maybe Ai will improve service, I hope so.

The whites were always good. We did not care for the reds. They have a few reds by the glass that are reasonable 

3 hours ago, bluemarble said:

An update on the Welcome Aboard sparkling wine offered in our Britannia Balcony cabin upon embarking QM2 today. We received this "Two Truths" Chardonnay Pinot Noir NV from South Eastern Australia.

 

Not sure the skull on the label provides much of a warm welcome aboard fealing, but maybe that's just me. I"m no expert to offer any sort of informed opinion as to the quality of this offering compared to Pol Acker or the other recent alternatives.

 

 

What an awful label.looks like a teen age joke. Ridiculous. 

As this is part of a world cruise, perhaps it might be more likely to not sell out. What do you think?

Right now on 1/22 ft Lauderdale to  San Francisco we are quoted$3999 pp for an unobstructed balcony plus port charges with $275 pp on board credit  pp if booked before June  28. Seems high for a cruise with three ports but  I have no experience with Cunard

50 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I am constantly amazed at the reviews, which seem to be of completely different ships from the ones I encounter. We on are on QV in a few weeks so I shall be interested to see how awful it is. As a general comment, a reviewer’s entire experience often seems to be coloured by quite minor things going wrong in the early stages, which ruin the whole holiday for them. On the other hand, if super efficient IT is important to you, don’t book Cunard.

Would care less about IT Wife might. 

11 minutes ago, neeuqdrazil said:

I'm booked on this segment of the world voyage, and I'm really looking forward to it. It's mostly sea days, which is what I especially enjoy on Cunard (why I've mostly done TAs). There is a (mostly quiet) roll call for this segment, and a slightly more active roll call for the full world voyage that includes at least a few folks who are only on board for segments. 

 

Your experience will depend on your expectations. Why won't you cruise on Princess anymore, for instance? 

My problem with Princess, after 25 cruises over many years, is the size of the ships and the bad food. Everything is dumbed down and cut back. The ships are so huge that there is not enough dining room space which translates into huge waits or booking a 5 pm fixed(sort of) dinner in advance . A recent thanksgiving cruise was a nightmare. Have tried Oceania and  Viking and liked them both but we missed not dressing up as neither has formal nights. 

31 minutes ago, Craigrlewis said:

I think only you can decide 

 

The problem now with the internet is information overload

 

For every review that is glowing for a ship/hotel/train/airline/play/book/movie etc. one does not have to look too far to find a critical review

 

On these boards you will find die hard fans of the relevant provider and first timers who swear they will never do it again and then first time and repeat users who swear they will use no one else

 

I would say go and enjoy it and if you don't enjoy it then really you are no worse off and can chose never to use Cunard again

 

We have now undertaken 17 cruises on Cunard and it works for us.

Thank you!

We are thinking about booking this for next January. Most of the Cunard reviews on Cruise Critic are bad. Any personal opinions  on this and the itinerary in  general would be appreciated. Since there are not many ports we would mainly go for the formal nights and the food. Also we live in San Francisco. Princess , who we wont cruise on anymore, seems to be the only Cruise line out of here. 

Please read this. 
 

https://clark.com/travel/best-cruise-payment-option/

My issue, and the reason I will use a credit card, is for the protection if something goes wrong. During the pandemic I had  a cruise cancelled and did not get the promised refund from another cruise line after 4 months.nSo I disputed it with Chase and got the money back. 
 

as far as I know, if you use ACH you have no protection and nowhere to go if something like that happens again . I do  not buy cruise insurance so that would not be an option.  

Thanks. I would be booking business. 

If you buy your own air and it is non refundable would be difficult. 

The problem with dynamic prices is there may be other cruise lines with better deals. People that pay last minute airfares usually have to fly on that date. Maybe business.

My guess is its on volume . Less than 10% without volume. Again a guess. 

How does this help? If you have lectures at 6:30, everyone shows up at the dining room at 7:30. We ate at6:30 and no one was  there. Our friends who ate at 7:30 said dining room was full and took 3 hours.