Thank you to everyone who looked at my blog over the past 2 weeks, and especially those from the Cruise Forum who answered my plea at the weekend, before my thread was removed. I have now won a place to stay overnight on her before the maiden voyage in October.
I'm really excited to be going on a Cunard ship, having never been on one. I want to see if they are really as good as everyone says, my expectations are high so I hope she doesn't disappoint me.
I will report back in due course and let you know what she's like and in the mean time keep reading my blog and thanks for your support.
Rabu, 25 Agustus 2010
Selasa, 24 Agustus 2010
How to avoid a noisy cabin
Did you know that as well as the standard lifts shown on deck plans, most cruise ships have hidden lifts and stairwells for crew use only. On Arcadia there are 9 additional elevators that aren't shown on the deck plans.
They are used from early morning to bring the sanitary trolley’s up and down between decks and can lead to noise for those around them.
Now there is no way of telling where on board these lifts, stairwell and storage cupboards are situated - not even the most specialist of cruise consultants would be able to tell you. However, I can tell you how to avoid being by one of these. Make sure you always have a cabin opposite you. When choosing an outside or balcony cabin, always pick one facing an inside cabin.
If you have customers opposite you, you will not have a lift and will be ensured a nice lie in the morning....although I can’t be held responsible if your fellow cruisers people are late night party people.
They are used from early morning to bring the sanitary trolley’s up and down between decks and can lead to noise for those around them.
Now there is no way of telling where on board these lifts, stairwell and storage cupboards are situated - not even the most specialist of cruise consultants would be able to tell you. However, I can tell you how to avoid being by one of these. Make sure you always have a cabin opposite you. When choosing an outside or balcony cabin, always pick one facing an inside cabin.
If you have customers opposite you, you will not have a lift and will be ensured a nice lie in the morning....although I can’t be held responsible if your fellow cruisers people are late night party people.
Kamis, 19 Agustus 2010
Are the rules for changing your cruise fair?
Cunard are normally quite reasonable with their terms and conditions when transferring cruises. They will allow you to transfer your cruise to any other cruise travelling within 12months of the original departure date, just as long as you are still spending the same amount of money with them.
To me this seems pretty reasonable, they retain your same level of business and you have plenty of flexibility to swap. However - what happens if you need to change your world cruise? Similar conditions apply, you can still transfer as long as you are still spending the same amount of money,and they do allow you to spread this cost across two cruises. However both of these cruises must be within 6 months of the world cruise date. To me this doesn't seem very flexible at all - if you need to cancel a 3 month cruise I imagine it is hard to fit in 2 long cruises (to reach the cost value) within 6 months. Which leaves you no choice but to cancel at loss of deposit.
I know they are running a business, and therefore have to have rules in place to maintain the business. It must cause all sorts of problems having customers cancel high value world cruises at a late stage. But I am sure there are better solutions for everyone. I would suggest that they cut off the transfer date earlier - ie 4 months before departure to give them plenty of time to resell the cabin, but allow customers to transfer to the following years world cruise. Or allow customers to spread the value to 2 or 3 cruises all travelling with 12 months of the cruise.
I don't own my own business though and maybe you agree with Cunard - I'd love a few comments?
To me this seems pretty reasonable, they retain your same level of business and you have plenty of flexibility to swap. However - what happens if you need to change your world cruise? Similar conditions apply, you can still transfer as long as you are still spending the same amount of money,and they do allow you to spread this cost across two cruises. However both of these cruises must be within 6 months of the world cruise date. To me this doesn't seem very flexible at all - if you need to cancel a 3 month cruise I imagine it is hard to fit in 2 long cruises (to reach the cost value) within 6 months. Which leaves you no choice but to cancel at loss of deposit.
I know they are running a business, and therefore have to have rules in place to maintain the business. It must cause all sorts of problems having customers cancel high value world cruises at a late stage. But I am sure there are better solutions for everyone. I would suggest that they cut off the transfer date earlier - ie 4 months before departure to give them plenty of time to resell the cabin, but allow customers to transfer to the following years world cruise. Or allow customers to spread the value to 2 or 3 cruises all travelling with 12 months of the cruise.
I don't own my own business though and maybe you agree with Cunard - I'd love a few comments?
Selasa, 17 Agustus 2010
Apply for your ESTA now and save $14
If you are travelling to the States you have to apply for an ESTA visa. Until now this has been free of charge however from 08 September the US Government will be charging $14pp for the visa.
The visa is actually valid for 2 years so if you are travelling within the next 2 years apply for your ESTA now whilst it is still free. In future you will be charged $10 to renew your application, so again my advice is that if you are going to have to renew - just apply for a new one before the 08th September and then you will have a full 2 years for free.
Once the charges are in place always check your charges before you apply - there are a lot of visa service wesited out there that will charge you more to apply for the visa. Never pay more than $14pp. The official US imigration website can be reached via https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html
The visa is actually valid for 2 years so if you are travelling within the next 2 years apply for your ESTA now whilst it is still free. In future you will be charged $10 to renew your application, so again my advice is that if you are going to have to renew - just apply for a new one before the 08th September and then you will have a full 2 years for free.
Once the charges are in place always check your charges before you apply - there are a lot of visa service wesited out there that will charge you more to apply for the visa. Never pay more than $14pp. The official US imigration website can be reached via https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html
Selasa, 10 Agustus 2010
Pre-pay your gratuities......and then pay more.
One of my customers happily prepaid her gratuities for Celebrity Equinox and was happy to do so as she understands the reasons for them and it saved her the hassle of paying at a later date.
However she was surprised that at the end of the cruise an envelope was placed in her cabin for additional gratuities. Whilst there was no obligation to pay she ended up paying an additional $11per day as she felt bad leaving an empty envelope.
Personally I think this was cheeky of Celebrity - you can't encourage customers to prepay the gratuities and then expect them to pay more. Apparently not everybody had additional envelopes and I'm wondering if they'd chosen her as they'd judged her character and knew she'd feel obliged to pay.
Has this happened to you with Celebrity or any other cruis line? If so I'd love to hear from you.
However she was surprised that at the end of the cruise an envelope was placed in her cabin for additional gratuities. Whilst there was no obligation to pay she ended up paying an additional $11per day as she felt bad leaving an empty envelope.
Personally I think this was cheeky of Celebrity - you can't encourage customers to prepay the gratuities and then expect them to pay more. Apparently not everybody had additional envelopes and I'm wondering if they'd chosen her as they'd judged her character and knew she'd feel obliged to pay.
Has this happened to you with Celebrity or any other cruis line? If so I'd love to hear from you.
Kamis, 05 Agustus 2010
Speciality Restaurants - I think they should be free.
Having just recently been on board Norwegian Epic I came away questioning whether cruise lines should charge for Speciality Restaurants.
One of my last land based package holidays was to a Sandals resort in Cuba. Being a 4* All Inclusive hotel my food in the main restaurant was included. However they also had 3 speciality restaurants. I was allowed 1 night in each of these restaurants during my 10 night stay free of charge - and could book more subject to availability. This is fairly standard to hotel holidays - there are sometimes a la carte dishes that you can pay for but generally you can dine in other venues as part of your holiday package.
This I feel is a much better way to run the system, cruise lines are alienating customers by charging for the privilege of dining in a smaller restaurant. It's great that with each new ship there are more choices of dining venues, but as they have a captive market I personally think its just a clever way to take more revenue on board.You've paid for food and service anyway so why pay more?
What do you think?
When you book a cruise holiday you pay a lot of money, but some of this is offset by the fact that your meals are included. However I do find it cheeky that more and more of the restaurants carry a cover charge to dine in them. On Epic - Cagneys Steakhouse charged a $25pp cover charge and then some of the dishes also carried a supplement. La Cucina, which whilst being an Italian restaurant was basically just a pizza and pasta place and again charged an extra $10pp.
One of my last land based package holidays was to a Sandals resort in Cuba. Being a 4* All Inclusive hotel my food in the main restaurant was included. However they also had 3 speciality restaurants. I was allowed 1 night in each of these restaurants during my 10 night stay free of charge - and could book more subject to availability. This is fairly standard to hotel holidays - there are sometimes a la carte dishes that you can pay for but generally you can dine in other venues as part of your holiday package.
This I feel is a much better way to run the system, cruise lines are alienating customers by charging for the privilege of dining in a smaller restaurant. It's great that with each new ship there are more choices of dining venues, but as they have a captive market I personally think its just a clever way to take more revenue on board.You've paid for food and service anyway so why pay more?
What do you think?
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