Priscilla:

Windstar's ownership by Carnival is certainly a negative factor. It has nothing to do wih the fact that the "Carnival cruise experience" isn't what I like. It has to do with corporate culture. With HAL, another Carnival line, this corporation recently tightened up all of its liquor policies which, in summary, made drinks harder to obtain and costlier. While this corporation may have the right to do what it wants in this regard, the fact is that the changes were made with no notice to already-booked passengers, and with no opportunity for them to cancel without penalty. Many previously booked passengers were long time HAL regulars, who THOUGHT they knew what to expect. As a fellow lawyer, I'm sure you will agree that when one party unilaterally changes an executory contract, "it just don't seem right", regardless of any super-fine print relied upon.

We will continue to avoid lines owned by Carnival, RCI, and NCL for several reasons. One of them is these lines have a bad habit of making such changes detrimental to the passengers (or at least THIS passenger), even if made after booking --- all with no notice or ability to back out. This is like Radisson deciding to go to a tipping environment on our May cruise that has been booked for many months, without telling us in advance and letting us back out. Radisson, of course, won't do that. And that is one reason we prefer to do business with them.

Thanks,
Richard :) :) :)