ABG

Dare I say..... you are welcome!!!

Interesting idea for a thread about nothing in specific.... I can't say I really have been following it closely, but here I will toss in something to the mix based on my own little observations in 2009. While the hotel industry was certainly wheeling and dealing, the cruise industry was basically in liqudation mode. Low prices, huge shipboard credits, free air, free upgrades etc etc. Have any of you Aman-junkie / Four Seasons Fans / Lux Hotel Gurus made the jump in 2009 from land based hotel stays to some of the more luxurious cruise lines for your holidays? Silversea, Regent, Seabourn etc etc.

Can a Silversea experience match a Four Seasons George V stay?

Kagehitokiri

- oberoi zahra (27 cabins, from €870 incl tours and transfers)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...evason-ma.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...oi-philae.html
http://magazine.elitetraveler.com/el...4/?pg=113&pm=1
http://magazine.elitetraveler.com/el...02/?pg=81&pm=1

- FS explorer (11 cabins, from $1525 incl 2 dives/day and transfers)

maybe >
~ bora bora cruises / nomade yachting (20 cabins, from €1785 incl alcohol)
~ hapag lloyd's ms europa (204 cabins, from €665)

(small ship cruises)
(yacht charters, including those offered by resorts)

i enjoyed the seabourn crossing i did in 2006. (pride, 104 cabins) doubt it would stack up here though. heard from several pax that seadream had better F&B, especially caviar and champagne. also heard ms europa was better with better service.

seadream service and F&B seems to have dropped off, based on some reports i saw on cruise critic.

silversea is below top, but above regent. the new ship has a premium restaurant that you have to pay for.

2009 top berlitz ratings http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12954771-post1.html

the 2 cruises on my "list" - alaska (destination) & nomade yachting (mainly boat, but also destination)

hope FS ocean residences gets done. published min stay is one month though.

Ericka

I generally dislike cruising. I once had Royal Caribbean as a client and all I remember about one of my trips with them was standing in line....to get on, to get off, to eat, etc. At one point, I had to wait in my cabin to hear my "number" called so that I could then be allowed get in line to get off! And don't get me started about the crush of people at the pool. I know there are better cruise companies out there, but for me, smaller is the way to go.

I'm very attracted to the FS Explorer, the Amanikan, the Oberoi Zahra, Aqua Expeditions....and the Nomade Kage found looks neat. A boat shared with a handful of other travelers has a lot of appeal.

Anyone know of a similar concept for the Greek Islands?

Kagehitokiri

not similar, but only small options?
~ seadream 56 cabins
~ sea cloud 34+ cabins (not sure about current reports)

other
~ american safari cruises 6+ cabins
~ the world 165 residences (have found 1 private rental so far)

(all all-inclusive)

luxury

Wishing everyone a very joyous and safe New Year's Eve and a wonderful Happy New Year!! 2009 was a tough year for many, myself included, but I look forward to prosperous 2010!! Happy Travels!!!

ptrjakson

Congratulation for 5000th post .Great job by starting a new thread dedicated completely to hotels .

paul2

Happy New Year and happy travels to all in 2010 from a lovely snowy Dublin!

vuittonsofstyle

Happy New Year to all the excellent regular posters in this Forum! You helped to make my year even more enjoyable. Thank you for all the invaluable first-hand information and, of course, the smiles.

Vuittons

flamboyant 1

I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year as well.

All the best!

stimpy

Now that all that holiday nonsense is over with, back to work.

I just noticed what must be the 500th thread about Hong Kong luxury hotels here. I realize I'm asking the moderators to do some extra work here, but it sure would be nice to have master threads about Luxury hotels in the top cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, London, etc. The same questions keep getting asked over and over again and the people wanting the information could find it a lot easier in a master thread.

Merci

Kagehitokiri

in general i really dont like master threads/compilations. the tendency is to merge way more than is appropriate, in other forums.

i think the mods here do a good job of locking/etc when it gets really ridiculous.

people not searching (or having FT search problems, although doesnt seem too bad lately) will always be an issue, regardless of how threads are etc.

stimpy

I don't think so. If you look at the Starwood forum, the mods are very good about moving all new queries about a particular hotel over to the Master thread. That saves hundreds, if not thousands of query posts as all the info you need is usually in the master thread. In the case of Hong Kong luxury hotels, over the years here I'll bet there are over 1000 posts on the subject, and well over 50% of them are repeat posts. That is a big, big mess that should be attended to IMHO.

Kagehitokiri

i really cant say much more (TOS) than i disagree and IMHO master threads are more likely to become huge, unwieldy, and far too encompassing.

seems to me it would be better to simply deal with things like spam and totally unspecific open ended questions on an individual basis.

a huge strength of the lux hotels forum IMHO is that every post is not being moderated.

i also strongly think that reports should be able to be found by searching for threads started by x. not possible when everything is merged.

sometimes really important things warrant their own thread. again not possible when everything is merged, sometimes based on a single inconsequential word in a post.

stimpy

I'm not referring to spam, nor open ended unspecific questions. I'm referring to the 100+ individual threads here that say "what luxury hotel is best in Hong Kong?"

And I think we have excellent moderators here who would not blindly merge threads without a good reason. As you note, they don't over-moderate us now, so I don't see why they would if they tried just to coordinate some repetitive threads.

Non-NonRev

I generally feel that 'master threads' do more harm than good. Part of the problem is that narrowly-specific topics and (maybe more importantly) personalized voices tend to get lost under the sheer weight of a gargantuan thread that holds scores, if not hundreds, of posts. Nothing could be more discouraging than a particularly incisive, to-the-point posting being lost in a muddle of unfocused dross.

I think that fora such as SPG have employed master threads because of the unique qualities of the people who post there (and please understand that is not meant as condemnation or judgment). Of course, a lot of the problems revolve around the abysmal performance of the Search function - the idea that FT's new ownership would improve Search seems not to have come to fruition (although one can be hopeful for the future).

This forum has a unique combination of skilled, intelligently-restrained moderation, and a judicious measure of self- and peer- restraint amongst its members. If those factors change, master threading might need to be given strong consideration, but as we sit in January 2010, I would opine that we're nowhere near needing that change.