Ngaire:

I hope I will be forgiven for my worries. You see, we are among the "move up' crowd from the mass market lines, in our case RCI. We left them based upon what we had read "on the boards", and in that case, all turned out to be true! And we began cruising Radisson, based upon what we read on the boards at that time -- which proved to be also true. I sense that I have become a negative influence on the boards recently, and (if you will recall all my posts from earlier) I certianly don't intend to be so! Let me say this: I have had very few problems with Radisson cruises, and the few that I've had have been taken care of in a fair manner. I, personally, have zero complaints with Radisson at this time!

My situation now is very much like it was regarding RCI in June, '01 when I read "on the boards" that there had been some changes in RCI's policies that I would not like. And there were too many such posts to disregard. And, they turned out to be true. So we booked no more with them.

Now, we have a 14 night PG cruise booked on Sept. 17. And we can't tell who is running the ship. Is it RSSC or is it GCT? Frankly, from reports received, we can't tell. And our "penalty period" starts in about a month. The cruise, as you know, is several thousand dollars for the two of us, plus air and overnights required by the distance. So I hope all will forgive me if I'm worried about making air plans using points or our dollars, and not knowing if Radisson will reimburse us if the PG also gets pulled from the fleet early, or is "chartered." And I beg forgiveness if I'm worried if we arrive onboard and are treated to a "GCT style" experience, rather than a "Radisson style" experience.

Can we all remember the days when I was accused on the CC boards of being a Radisson empolyee, because of my zeal for this line? Nobody has been a greater Radisson "cheerleader" than I have been. No, I don't think I am worried over nothing here. If any of you are in a position to have your cruise canceled and take a loss on your air or hotel and say "oh, well" then good for you. If any of you are in a position to book a Radisson cruise and get a GCT experience and say "oh well", then good for you. But we are not in such a position, and therefore are worried.

Thanks,
Richard