Hi BY-TOM-AMM-FCA (interesting nick!) and Anstruther thanks for your replies.
B-T-A-F - I dont think those flight details are correct - After I read your reply I contacted Olsen's and they tell me that the flight from Stansted is direct to Miami - no nipping to Manchester for other passengers (phew!) They also tell me that it'll be with Monarch (which fills me with dread as I only ever seem to find bad reports about them!) The woman I spoke to said they only find out flight details 8 weeks before departure. I did point out that it's less than 8 weeks now but she said "
we expect to get them any day now - keep calling"
anstruther - I'll make sure I do a cruise review when I get back - but that wont be much use to you as we'll be getting off the Balmoral on 24th as you're getting on! I've checked out the public rooms and it looks as though there'll be an Internet room - so I'll probably try to get online at some point and let you know how things are going and what you can expect. We can compare reviews when you get back! Do you have your cabin numbers yet? We're in 9092 on Bridge Deck - looking at the deck plan the position of that's changed since we booked! You say you're going from Edinburgh - New York - Miami - is this something you've sorted out for yourselves? Or is this an option Olsens gave you? We did look into finding our own flights so we could fly in comfort but it was just too expensive.
It feels as though we've had one niggle after another since booking this holiday - starting with our adjoining cabins being changed. The couple we're going with now have a cabin on the other side of the ship! They wanted to cruise in a very small, intimate ship - we weren't aware that Olsens were enlarging it until after we'd booked. (I've been teasing our friends ever since about this Cut and Shut ship they're dragging us onto!) We were also told when we booked that there'd be a premium cabin on the aircraft and although they weren't taking bookings for it at that time we were assured that we'd be put on the list for the upgrade and be billed for it when details were released. As my husband is over 6' tall and both our friends are...hmm... how can I put this kindly.... shall we say "
a little on the rotund side" having that bit extra space on the aircraft makes a
huge difference. Even I struggle on long journeys and I'm only 5'1"! We're now told that there aren't any upgrades. Had we realized there'd be non available I doubt we'd have chosen this trip.
Looking on the bright side, the ship will be pretty much brand spanking new when we get on it after it's refurb which will be lovely. I've read this week that work on the interior is still going on as the Balmoral heads towards the UK and that the three-day schedule of inaugural events to welcome the ship to its U.K. home in Dover, including a lunch for past passengers on January 27, has had to be cancelled.
Netty
PS have just called Olsens again - 7 weeks and 1 day to go and still no flight details so still unsure abotu booking a hotel the night before we fly.
I've just been on the Olsen web site and notice that Balmorals inaugural cruise to the Canary Islands (which should have gone today 30th January) is cancelled because of "technical problems" which have just come to light after her major refit. Her next scheduled trip out is a 29 night cruise down to Miami then the next time out is the cruise we're going on. (BL004) It would interest me to know what compensation the Inaugural cruise passengers have been offered - I bet you it's money back plus a discount off their next Olsen cruise. I have to say that'd not impress me at all! 
Hurrah! 
