The Night Mail

[polybear]

5 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I had a look and I must say that I noted some omissions: they don't say in what class you are flown to your departure port nor do they say how big the ships are (both types of information must be somewhere on the website, but damned if I can easily find them). They also all seem to be humongous ships: the smallest that I could find (ultra-luxury category) was 750 berths, a whole lot more were in the 2000+ berths (at least according to Wikipedia).

 

Quite frankly, being one of 5,600 passengers and crew (Majestic Princess - the cruise above) or 3,560 passengers (Royal Princess - also the cruise above) doesn't feel very exclusive - no matter how much the ticket costs or how luxurious the cabins and suites are (although the cruise line's idea of luxurious and mine differ over a number of points. e.g. "Free WiFi". Seriously? "Free" WiFi a luxury? [and what's the point of WiFi on a luxury cruise?. Can't eMail wait?])

 

And as for flights to/from the departure and arrival ports - undoubtedly they stick you into economy (economy Europe - S America? NOT recommended!)

 

Quite frankly, you'd be better off arranging it all yourself. Some of the internationally famous Swiss owned travel companies are particularly bad (in my eyes) for putting together "luxury holiday" packages for Asian destinations at (mostly) high end hotels at a ridiculous per diem cost with only economy flights included. I once sat down and created the same "package" as the travel company, but including business class flights, at about 1/3 less expensive (if not even less) than WHAT the travel company charged.

 

I can't remember the last time I booked a holiday through a travel company (probably about 30 years ago)

 

Bear always uses Booking.com for hotels or apartments (usually the latter) as they have a useful little tick box option for free cancellation - which varies depending on the place booked but can be as short as a few day's notice; they have dozens of other tick boxes for parking, wifi, lift etc.

 

[SM42]

A very wet brickie has just left site.

 

Must be mad

 

Andy

[J. S. Bach]

Apropos of nothing, we are having a thunderboomer right now and so far 0.42" of pennies from heaven have accumulated.

 

EDIT: Now 0.50", and I think that it is moving on. A great thing as USPS (postie to you!) has two packages and a comm from the local election board for me. I suspect that it might be an absentee ballot.

 

EDIT #2: It is a new voter registration card, we were re-districted and the next election is 14jun22.

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by J. S. Bach
To do an edit and add some information.

[AndyID]

My mum loved to take me on cruises. Usually from Fairlie Pier to exotic destinations like Arran, Kyles of Bute, Campbeltown on magnificent ships like

Duchess of Montrose

Duchess of Hamilton

Waverly

Talisman

 

There was usually a band playing too and the food was excellent 😀

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 minute ago, AndyID said:

My mum loved to take me on cruises. Usually from Fairlie Pier to exotic destinations like Arran, Kyles of Bute, Campbeltown on magnificent ships like

Duchess of Montrose

Duchess of Hamilton

Waverly

Talisman

 

There was usually a band playing too and the food was excellent 😀

 

Well if you ever get back to Scotland you can book a trip on Waverly still, you’ll have do it months in advance though. I believe one of the Duchesses still exists as well although far from functioning. 

[New Haven Neil]

The trouble with cruises (other than being a 'busman's holiday for me) is you only get to visit the edge of counties, and then only ones with a seaboard!

 

NHN drags up one of his old tubs as usual.....avoiding the edges of Suez.

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

18 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

 

NHN drags up one of his old tubs as usual.....avoiding the edges of Suez.

A friend who used to be a pilot (not DH) told me that to aviate safely, one should always avoid running into the edge of the sky.

[Gwiwer]

22 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

A friend who used to be a pilot (not DH) told me that to aviate safely, one should always avoid running into the edge of the sky.

There is no edge to the sky.  

 

If the Earth was flat cats would have pushed everything off the edge long ago.  

[SM42]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Bear always uses Booking.com for hotels or apartments (usually the latter) as they have a useful little tick box option for free cancellation - which varies depending on the place booked but can be as short as a few day's notice; they have dozens of other tick boxes for parking, wifi, lift etc.

 

 

We were told off once for using booking.com. 

The hotelier suggested using it as a search engine and then call direct as you would get the same price and save them the 15% commission.

 

A policy we have used since for the UK and Poland and in many cases at non chain hotels have had a share of the saved commission as a thank you.

 

12 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

A friend who used to be a pilot (not DH) told me that to aviate safely, one should always avoid running into the edge of the sky.

 

It is generally accepted that flying is harder at the edges of the sky. 

The low level jockeys are therefore either v. good or mad.

 

The very high level guys ( flying near the top edge)  have at least a bit of altitude but less oxygen to sort things out.

 

Andy

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, SM42 said:

We were told off once for using booking.com. 

The hotelier suggested using it as a search engine and then call direct as you would get the same price and save them the 15% commission.

A practice I use and suggest regularly as admin of a South West Coast Path Farcebook group.  It's almost always cheaper to book direct.  The only down side is that a small number of businesses regard rooms offered to Booking.com as "exclusive" and will deny having the vacancy if you attempt to book direct.  I found one which even told me as much over the phone when "reminded" that Booking was still advertising several rooms vacant; "Those are only for web bookings, Sir" was the fairly terse response.  

 

Of interest and in a related topic I also suggest quite frequently that rail customers (who become passengers once they start their journey) should use a TOC or National Rail booking app and never one of the commercial ones such as Trainline.  The latter can charge hidden booking fees.  National Rail also has a "cheapest fare finder" option which is often as good as its word.  It locates the cheapest available fare for your required journey by date even if that is at the most ungodly of hours or requires several stopping trains and extended waits between them.    What it doesn't do is to offer TOC-specific bargains.  So the Southern online-only fares which are sometimes available for £5.00 between London and the Sussex coast (and vice-versa, also with railcard discounts taking that price down to a remarkable £3.30) don't come up on NR and can only be found within the Southern website.  

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

I always understood that it wasn't the edges that you had worry about when flying but the speed at which you hit them in particular the solid one at the bottom.

 

But never having experimented I cannot vouch for that. Perhaps Big H might be able to help.

[Northmoor]

9 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

A practice I use and suggest regularly as admin of a South West Coast Path Farcebook group.  It's almost always cheaper to book direct.  The only down side is that a small number of businesses regard rooms offered to Booking.com as "exclusive" and will deny having the vacancy if you attempt to book direct.  I found one which even told me as much over the phone when "reminded" that Booking was still advertising several rooms vacant; "Those are only for web bookings, Sir" was the fairly terse response.  

 

Of interest and in a related topic I also suggest quite frequently that rail customers (who become passengers once they start their journey) should use a TOC or National Rail booking app and never one of the commercial ones such as Trainline.  The latter can charge hidden booking fees.  National Rail also has a "cheapest fare finder" option which is often as good as its word.  It locates the cheapest available fare for your required journey by date even if that is at the most ungodly of hours or requires several stopping trains and extended waits between them.    What it doesn't do is to offer TOC-specific bargains.  So the Southern online-only fares which are sometimes available for £5.00 between London and the Sussex coast (and vice-versa, also with railcard discounts taking that price down to a remarkable £3.30) don't come up on NR and can only be found within the Southern website.  

There are many similar scenarios where it is better to book direct; events/experiences like Red Letter Days are a prime example.  Unless there are some short term special offers, it is almost always cheaper to book the experience directly with the provider, who gets 100% of your payment instead of the middle man getting a whopping percentage for their advertising.  I have seen local coach firms offering main line steam excursion trips which I've worked out are charging about £30-40 to ride on a coach for an hour to/from the train.

 

I'll also agree with your observation on NRE's site; I have a particular bugbear with Trainline who would not even allow me to work out journey details without signing up to an account, so that's someone else who can sell my name and address details then.....

[br2975]

On 22/05/2022 at 02:08, BR60103 said:

Came back via the streetcar museum (Halton County Radial Railway). We went as far as the ticket counter and found price was $20 each.

 

Must be 30yrs since I was there last.

.

They ran a car specially for two of us.

[pH]

3 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Well if you ever get back to Scotland you can book a trip on Waverly still, you’ll have do it months in advance though. I believe one of the Duchesses still exists as well although far from functioning. 

Both the Hamilton and Montrose were scrapped many years ago. The turbine Clyde steamer that still exists is the Queen Mary II:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TS_Queen_Mary

[pH]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

My mum loved to take me on cruises. Usually from Fairlie Pier to exotic destinations like Arran, Kyles of Bute, Campbeltown on magnificent ships like

Duchess of Montrose

Duchess of Hamilton

Waverly

Talisman

 

There was usually a band playing too and the food was excellent 😀

 

… and you could watch the engines on the paddlers.

[BoD]

6 minutes ago, pH said:

… and you could watch the engines on the paddlers.

Ah, but could you get the world famous CalMac curry and chips?

[pH]

1 minute ago, BoD said:

Ah, but could you get the world famous CalMac curry and chips?

Curry? In Scotland? In the 1950s/early 60s?

[Tony_S]

25 minutes ago, pH said:

Curry? In Scotland? In the 1950s/early 60s?

It is alleged that chicken tikka masala was created in Glasgow. Not sure when though. 

[polybear]

3 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

We were told off once for using booking.com. 

The hotelier suggested using it as a search engine and then call direct as you would get the same price and save them the 15% commission.

 

 

It does seem to this Bear that many individual Apartment providers are small, so for this Bear I quite like the idea of possible extra help and protection if you get to a foreign land and the keyholder is nowhere to be seen - what it they are taken ill, for examp!e?  Hotels are somewhat safer in that respect - and also easier to find their own website.

I wonder if an apartment booking made direct would still have a free cancellation option?

 

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

I always understood that it wasn't the edges that you had worry about when flying but the speed at which you hit them in particular the solid one at the bottom.

 

But never having experimented I cannot vouch for that. Perhaps Big H might be able to help.

 

Bear had a scary thought a day or so ago - a base jumping Hippo.....

[SM42]

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

It does seem to this Bear that many individual Apartment providers are small, so for this Bear I quite like the idea of possible extra help and protection if you get to a foreign land and the keyholder is nowhere to be seen - what it they are taken ill, for examp!e?  Hotels are somewhat safer in that respect - and also easier to find their own website.

I wonder if an apartment booking made direct would still have a free cancellation option?

 

 

It was suggested by our hotel owning advisor that by all means use such sites for booking abroad. 

 

Hence why we only use it to find somewhere to stay in countries we have a chance of getting by in should the worst happen.

 

But if you find a good place abroad you want to go back to, you can book  direct next time around. 

 

Getting help if it goes wrong might be giving such booking sites more credit than is deserved.

There are some horror stories out there such as  closed hotels still being advertised long after the booking sites have been advised.

 

 

The cancellation  policy is great for the consumer but a pain for the small hotels who suddenly find expected income being lost with little chance of rebooking the room. 

Worse still if a large party had booked several rooms and duck out at the last minute.

 

They have to be on the site to get exposure, but hate the conditions that come with it.

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, br2975 said:

Must be 30yrs since I was there last.

.

They ran a car specially for two of us.

They only did it to claim they'd run Rolley out of town🤣.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

It does seem to this Bear that many individual Apartment providers are small, so for this Bear I quite like the idea of possible extra help and protection if you get to a foreign land and the keyholder is nowhere to be seen - what it they are taken ill, for examp!e?  Hotels are somewhat safer in that respect - and also easier to find their own website.

I wonder if an apartment booking made direct would still have a free cancellation option?

 

 

Bear had a scary thought a day or so ago - a base jumping Hippo.....

 

Don't want to give you nightmares Mr Bear but he wears a tutu when he does that. So I've been told.

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Don't want to give you nightmares Mr Bear but he wears a tutu when he does that. So I've been told.

[SM42]

5 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

Nooooo!

 

You just can't unsee  things you know.

 

Andy

 

PS.  I don't think that parachute is going to be sufficient 

Edited May 23, 2022 by SM42

[iL Dottore]

12 hours ago, polybear said:

…Bear always uses Booking.com for hotels or apartments (usually the latter)..

 

I never use Trivago or Booking.com for the following reasons:

1. They are rarely (if ever) cheaper than booking directly with the hotel
2. They clobber the hotel with a fee for being the middleman - something that, for smaller chains and [especially] independents, can affect profitability (and perhaps survivability)
3. Far too often, when searching for - say - @polybear’s Executive Igloos and Spa, they will indicate “no availability” and suggest the Brown Bear Budget Den instead (whilst a hotel website check frequently shows availability)

I have never used Ryanair (and most “budget” airlines), either. Call me fussy, but if I want to fly to London, I don’t want to fly to “North London Airport” which is located somewhere in the wilds of Northamptonshire (OK, that example IS made up, but you know what I mean).

 

Having spent most of my life travelling for business, I reckon that I’m now travel-experienced enough to suss out the reality behind the glossy brochures and snazzy websites.

 

And the old adage “if it looks too good to be true, then it usually is” has never been more apt than nowadays.