Ch-ch-ch-Changes!

 "There is nothing permanent except change." ~ Heraclitus of Ephesus, circa 500 BC

Notice how the size of his brain makes his forehead bulge!

The older I get, the more I think that most of the time those ancient Greek philosophers were onto something. Everything changes. We may wish it were not so, but none of us can stop change from entering our lives. 

And nowhere is this proving more true than with cruising recently. Every day I see YouTube posts complaining of itinerary changes--usually weather related--or reductions in services or food or entertainment, or ships that because of deferred maintenance have finally broken down badly enough to cause whole cruises to be cancelled. Sometimes with no notice until the passengers have already boarded!

However, we're getting plenty of time to adjust from Cunard. We've received two notices of changes of itinerary for our 2025 WC on Queen Anne & Queen Mary2. The first involves a port stop swap. Due to a change in how Australian authorities clear ships, now requiring an extra day, we won't be calling on Bitung, Indonesia, but instead will have Tauranga, New Zealand added to our lineup.  And all our northerly Oz stops will be pushed back by one day.

I'm fine with this. We've never been to Tauranga, but sad we can't check Indonesia off our bucket list just yet. (I'm taking it as a sign we'll have to go back!)

Then this week, we got a lovely email regarding our QM2 transatlantic from Southampton which will bring us home to the USA in a week instead of an over-the-Pond flight. Our berth in Red Hook (Brooklyn) will not be available on May 4th, so an additional day will be added to our cruise with a stop in Le Havre, France. Our 7 day crossing is now 8. Yay! 

Last time we were in Le Havre, we visited the Rouen cathedral and Monet's lovely house and garden in Giverny. Maybe this time we can swing a day trip to Paris. (Because of the distance involved, this would absolutely be a ship sponsored tour. We definitely don't want to miss the boat as it heads across the Atlantic!)

There is no extra charge for the additional day and Cunard has offered us an additional $50 OBC. 

I don't believe in fussing over itinerary changes. The passenger contract, which few guests ever actually read, stipulates that the cruise line may make those sorts of changes for any or no reason at their sole discretion. That's why we always try to pick cruises where the ship itself will be a satisfying destination for us. 

Cruising is like life. You make your plans. As much as possible, you make your choices, but you never really know what's going to happen until it does. At that point, you have yet another choice. 

Whine and complain or accept that it is what it is and look for the strawberry in the situation.  

Wishing you many strawberries...