GeezerCouple

This was pre-Covid, so also pre-changes in liquid packaging (e.g., single use bottles, plastic, etc.) on board. However, we had requested specific soft drinks and bottle sizes, and *not* cans. With cans, once they are opened, they can't be closed to avoid spilling. And we "joke" that once an open container of liquids is in my presence, it will promptly tip over and spill its contents! 😡 So "resealable bottles" are really important, regardless of the contents. But that could be the "cardboard(?) containers" such as with some dairy products, where there is a screw cap on the side of the top. Anything that allows us to "re-seal" the container is fine. (Even on a night stand, if I have an open can of, say, Diet Coke... it is at serious risk... as are other items nearby...!) So for example, San Pellegrino is a favorite beverage at home. But they make those with resealable screw-on caps OR the old fashioned "beer bottle caps" that are pried off, and then can *not* be re-sealed to avoid spills/leakage. I fear we/I have a losing battle here, but as long as those types of containers that can be re-sealed somehow, we'll try our best to get them. When we had specific requests, we were sailing from the USA. I dont' know if it would have been more difficult sailing from other locations. GC

We've had excellent experiences with private excursions by using Google for "private tours" (or private tour guides, or similar wording) with or without including the word "disability". Then we email directly with the guides that show up. How well they communicate by email (timely, completely, etc.) seems to correlate with good experiences. And we also try to customize so we can spend more time at A and less time at B (or skip C entirely), etc. And we make it very clear what special assistance is needed. Our situation is different from yours, but we make it very clear. We also ask if the guide has any additional suggestions, given what we've described in terms of what to see/do and also special help needed or whatever. Sometimes they have excellent ideas once they understand what seems to interest us. For us, usually it involves using taxis more often rather than lengthy walking, and they make the route "work" for that given they know in advance. One of the best guides we "stumbled across" this way was in Rome. It turned out he had done his Ph.D. research in the private Vatican libraries. We had two trips with him, one for the "regular tourist sites" and the other for the Vatican. [Sorry... that was a long time ago, and when we last tried to reach him, it didn't work. So we can't refer to him specifically, unfortunately.] See how responsive each prospective guide is to your emails, and that should help with a good experience. (Note: We've never paid in advance, but IF we did, it would be using a major charge card AND having an email confirmation that shows the cancellation policies very explicitly.) There were a few times where DH was able to join the guide with something more active, while I waited behind, so he didn't miss out just because I couldn't do that particular <thing>. In one case, the guide took us by taxi to the "end point" of a cable car, left me near some shops with seating, and then they went back to the starting point. About an hour(?) later, I saw them in a cable car, as they approached the end of the cable car route near me. He had a big grin on his face. That worked well! Just make sure that you are very clear what limitations you have or what special assistance you need, to avoid misunderstandings. Note: Going private like this may not save much money (that depends, etc.), but at least the money is likely to be well spent! 🙂 GC

We haven't stayed at the Intercontinental since pre-Covid, so we aren't up to date on prices. However, it never seemed "too high", although it was more than most lower budget chains, etc. But the real draw was... if you stay there, ask for a room where you can see the ships. We had great fun the first time we sailed out of Miami and stayed there thanks to suggestions here on CC. I was up bright and early, watching the ships come in, and then leave again. And that was the day before we sailed, so I got to see it all again the next morning, watching "our" ship arrive. FUN! But that's probably the main - or only - reason we'd stay there. Otherwise, we'd look for a hotel with some other preferred features, etc. GC

So... what reports from the ships in the Totality area off Mexico? Was the sky clear? We flew to Montreal, changing plans at almost the last minute (well, 2 days) when the weather reports showed our initial plans weren't going to work so well. And yes, TOTALITY! And totally worth it! GC

On Monday, there's a total eclipse, and I think some cruise ships will be "lurking" off the coast of Mexico, where it is expected to have a high chance of clear skies. Is there a list of those ships, at least the "big ones"? I suppose there will be a bunch of smaller ones, too. Could we list the "cruise ships" that are expected to be in the area? Thanks! GC

We do NOT use charge cards for travel insurance because some of the restrictions apply to possible reasons we might make a claim. And other types of claims just aren't covered. Your insurance needs may be quite different. So just MAKE SURE that you read ALL of the Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) to make sure you understand what is, and what is *not*, covered. For example, pay attention to anything that might involve a medical claim (be it medical expenses or cancelled/interrupted trip) and whether pre-existing conditions are covered (or any claim due to pre-existing conditions). Also note the *definition* of "pre-existing conditions" in travel insurance is usually very different from what we usually think of in everyday life. This can make an exclusion more of a problem... or less of a problem... depending upon specific circumstances. ETA: You might also want to read the travel insurance section of CC: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/ and perhaps post there as well. GC

Why don't you browse and also post this question on the CC section about Family Cruises: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/28-family-cruises/ Enjoy! GC

It's not TSA we are concerned with. They've never expressed any interest in the "drug" contents of my carry-on, including the time they searched it with a fine tooth comb until they determined that the suspicious item on the x-ray was my bar of Dove soap. (Now, that goes in checked luggage, or on the top of my purse for easier access.) It's the authorities as we enter foreign countries that are of more concern, and some countries are of "more concern" than others...! GC

What we do is get very small ziplock type bags, and ask the Pharmacist to print out an extra "stick-on" label for each med. We give them something like 2 weeks advance notice so there's no rush during what might be a busy time. Then we stick the label on a little bag, and put the proper pills inside. Several extra nice things about this, in addition to not needing to take a ton of each med, or a big vial full of lots of air. (Our pharmacy stopped using the smaller sized amber bottles several years ago, so almost any number of pills leaves a lot of "space". And of course, cylinder shapes don't stack neatly...) In addition to being able to keep most extra air out, these little bags, when placed flat, just stack really nicely. Is this "okay" for Rx meds? We noticed this when one of my meds was dispensed at the local hospital out-patient pharmacy just like this! So... "Aha!" We said. 😀 And we started doing it for travel. We reuse the little bags until they look too tattered, so they are always "ready to go" once we get a set together. GC

Welcome to CruiseCritic! Here is a link to the Royal Caribbean section of CC. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/51-royal-caribbean-international/ There will be people there who are quite familiar with your issues. Enjoy you cruise! GC

The situation you are describing (needing wheelchair for those loooong walks airside, or even city-side) is usually what the airport wheelchairs are for. And they usually come with a "pusher". I use one for that exact purpose. We always list the request when we make the air reservation. Usually someone at a ticket counter, or checking baggage, will call for the chair. Or if we drop luggage at the curb, we can ask right there, and they'll get someone to come out with a chair. But it's always been a "chair and pusher" combo. I'm not sure why you want to avoid the terms "disabled" or "needing assistance", as that is exactly what the wheelchairs are for, a the least for "assistance", right? 😉 Also, when you have a chair/pusher, they can usually expedite passage through some of the assorted checkpoints, which is very helpful. The terminology on some airline check-in (or ticketing) websites is often "wheelchair assistance". You can request it online or by phone. Don't get caught up in the wording. I'm not sure how often they (the "powers that be", at airports) just lend out the wheelchairs. That could lead to wheelchairs being left at various places scattered around the airport rather than being returned to certain locations where they are ready for the next use (with the pusher). There may also be concerns about theft if they just let "anyone" walk off with a wheelchair (?). You might also ask at the Disabled Travel section of CC: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/114-disabled-cruise-travel/ There may be others there who are much more familiar with this issue. GC

[emphasis added] It's still the same answer, in terms of "wondering if [you] will still be covered if there is an emergency because the price is so low." "...If it's "is this worth the money": What *exactly* is covered, and what are the payments for those problems?..." You need to decide how likely some of those specific covered risks are, and what the cost is likely to be if that should happen... and then, could you cover those costs yourself or do you prefer to pay for insurance to help with any such costs? Some "situations" are covered by each policy, and those are written out in the policy, along with the coverage limits for the policy as a whole and also for that specific event/situation. Is the limit for a medical service capped at a low amount or a high amount (and what is "low" or "high" for you may be considered differently by someone else), and is that "enough" for *you*? Think of it in terms of looking at a car: "Is a car worth $XX,xxx?"? Which car is it? Is it new or used, good condition, etc., or...? One can't just say that some specific price is a "good price for a car" or if it's a suitable car for *you*, without knowing *which* car it is, etc. If all policies were identical (they are *not*), then making comparisons on the cost of the coverage ("high" or "low", etc.) would make more sense. However, it's more like, do you want to pay more for more coverage (higher limits, more events covered) or pay less for less coverage (which may or may not be enough for your own specific needs or preferences)? Policies can differ dramatically, so it's always important to read and understand all of the Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) of any policy you are considering. Speaking with a travel insurance broker, who deals with a variety of policies and insurers, might be useful to explore what coverage choices are available, and at what costs. GC

What do you mean by "legit"? If it's "is this worth the money", then.... what *exactly* is covered, and what are the payments for those problems? GC

First, I'm very sorry about your loss. ETA: And Welcome to CruiseCritic! I'm also sorry that your first experience with CruiseCritic is for such an unfortunate situation. Hopefully the future will include some nice cruises or other trips. Given what you've described, the possible problem I could see MIGHT be that you may have an obligation to mitigate the loss. Fot example. if on March 1st (totally fictitious dates!) you could have gotten a 75% refund from the cruise line, but by April 1st, it would only be 50%, then there may be a question about that extra 25% of the fare that the insurer might have been able to save, if your refund were larger. But there may be mitigating circumstances. Do look carefully at your policy AND at your cancellation dates/penalties, and try not to force the insurer to refund more because you delayed the cancellation. (I know that when we had to cancel that first insured trip, and IIRC, there was still a chance for a slight refund on the Saturday emergency. However, the doctor wasn't yet sure if we would be able to travel or not, given the sudden onset... would the condition improve or keep getting worse. And IF we could go, we definitely wanted to still go! So the doctor needed to see the patient on Monday to see if there was any improvement or the opposite. Alas, it kept getting worse, and became a very serious medical situation that we never dreamed of. So we cancelled on Monday, when the doctor said, "no go". He wrote that sequence on his insurance form. We got a full refund within about 2 weeks... and were SO sad to miss that trip! The only traveling we did for a couple of months was to and from various seemingly unending medical visits. And then, we still couldn't reschedule a real trip for a couple more months, because the travelers must be "fit to travel" the day the insurance is started. And he wasn't... yet. On the day that the doctor finally cleared him, I asked the doctor to write a short note on his letterhead (he used an Rx form, which was fine!) that "<name> is fit to travel without restrictions today, <date>". We went home, I called to schedule a new cruise and land trip, and the next call I made, almost immediately, was to start the insurance. And we had a *wonderful* trip, finally! So take a good look at *all* of the terms and conditions. We work with an insurance broker, and we've asked for their advice/suggestions a few times, and this - being our first claim - was certainly one of those times we wanted to make sure that we didn't screw something up by mistake. GC

And yes... Travel insurance involves SO many different types of policies, and so many different types and situations of the travelers, that there is no way all of the relevant information for *everyone* looking can be included. If someone wants to browse early on to get a sense of the general types of travel insurance, that's fine obviously. But I'd strongly discourage selecting a policy from just reading the online summaries. (And NOT only on this website: for ANY online travel insurance setting/website. The interactive Q&A, which can go both directins, can be invaluable help.) GC

Yes, the names/terminology can start sounding very similar and get very confusing. I just wanted to make sure you were likely to find what would be useful. And yes, Steve is terrific, a real gem. He's helped us *so* much, from when we were total travel insurance newbies to now. (Alas, we learned more than we would have liked to know, due to our several claims, especially the bigger claims. But he was always available to help, before or after the policy purchase!) And since the travel insurance policies cost the same to the traveler, regardless of whether one gets it directly from the insurer or via a broker (who gets a commission from the insurer, not the traveler), I don't see much point in *not* using the services of a good broker. And that's especially IF one ends up with a major claim, which can't be known in advance. We ALWAYS recommend CALLING and speaking with them. There is so much customizing possible, that they will often ask you questions in addition to answering your own questions. That's a big part of their value, especially early on. (Now? We ususally say something like, "We'll take the regular!" 😀 Or ask if there's anything new we should know about, or tell them anything unusual about "this" trip.) GC

We had that same concern about a child in a cabin with a balcony door. We were traveling with children with one toddler, a very active toddler who loved to climb. Balcony? OMG! Mom & Dad might not have been worried, but I would have been sick with worry (my specialty, alas!), and that would have spoiled the trip. We got them an OV cabin, with what was like a jumbo porthole (rectangular, not a tiny round PH). Turned out the toddler staked out the nice wide "windowsill" and spent much of his non-sleep cabin time perched there. 🙂 DH and I had a large suite, and we gave them a key to our suite so they could come and go as they pleased, so their small cabin was really just for sleep and naps anyway. For an older child and a balcony door for one of two interior connecting cabins, can't the door be fully locked by staff, so not even the adults could open it? If so, then I'd guess no worries about an older child trying to take a quick look on the balcony in the "children's cabin". GC

Depending upon when you prefer to dine, be it date/day of week/time, if it turns out you can't get anything that works, then take the "next best" time on the same evening. It's very likely that it's going to be a lot easier for them to juggle reservation times a bit on the same evening, than to try to add a reservation to a different "full" evening. Then stop by the reservation desk as early as possible on your cruise, of the actual restaurant (not at a busy time!) and explain, and ask if they could move you closer to preferred time, etc. GC

This reporting was pre-Covid, which could be either better now... or worse... However, on another online Forum, there was considerable discussion/complaint about this precise issue: If *anything* went wrong, it seemed that everything went wrong. No backups, etc. Just system disruption. IIRC, they didn't tend to have multiple flights between A and B, so trying to get on "the next flight" could take some time, and also depend upon whether there were even any seats available on subsequent flights, whenever they were. GC

Why don't you ask in the Travel Insurance section of CC: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/ And you may get some information from browsing through some posts there. There are limitations on the annual plans that wouldn't work for us, sometimes not even for a single trip. Also, keep in mind that IF one uses up the total, or comes close to it, when another trip is still to come, it may be too late to start a separate new policy for that next trip, at least one with all the features you might have wanted. GC

Could you tell us exactly which policy from which insurer you are referring to, and perhaps the exact sentence (or better yet, paragraph). This may not even apply to your situation. In some cases, and this does not apply to everyone, IF one wants to waive the exclusion of pre-existing conditions [and keep in mind that the travel insurance definition of "pre-existing condition" is almost definitely VERY different from what we tend to think of in that category!], then for most (but not all) policies with this, one MUST begin the insurance coverage within 10-20 days (state specific). So... if one doesn't want to pay for a huge trip cost that won't be paid for months or even years, then just choose the minimum amount... which is that first deposit. That starts the clock for you. As you make more payments for the trip, up the insurance for the payments-to-date, not counting that refundable bit anymore. If you don't want a coverage that requires the exclusion. then this issue may not be relevant anyway. GC

We've never sent any cash/cash equivalent in advance for a private tour/excursion. We *have* paid a deposit, or occasionally the entire amount by charge card, but ONLY if there was a very clear written and reasonable cancellation policy IN WRITING in a document they sent us by email, something other than a blurb on a website. And in that case, we try to use our Amex Plat charge card. Amex seems to have the best customer protections, and we figure the Plat flavor might be even better in case of a dispute (but we've never yet had a dispute 🙂 ). We've always found our guides by Googling something like "CityName private tours" or similar. And then we send a few emails to likely prospects. And then... we find out who is the most responsive and also willing to customize. That way, we can spend more time here and less time there, depending upon our interests. As we are finalizing the itinerary, we'll usually ask something like, "Given what we've been asking about, do you have any other suggestions about what we might want to include?" We also have no problem with "cash on the day", although we still prefer charge cards in case anything goes sideways (but we've never yet had anything go sideways either 🙂 ). Yes, that "trust factor" has been at the back of our minds, especiallly the first few times we arranged private guides. As mentioned above, we'd have really hated to be left standing there with no guide showing up. It would often be almost impossible to get an "on the spot" guide who was really good, or get someone on the spot at all! When there wasn't anything special, such as on a Caribbean island where there wasn't a specific site/sight for an extended stop, a couple of times, we've spoken with a taxi driver on the spot, however. Then, we usually ask to be driven around the island, and we ask about any special suggestions, be it "views" or "history" or whatever. On one island, we asked them to stop at 2 or 3 of the nicer hotels so we could take a look for a longer return visit. Once we had a few hotel names to look at, and another time, we left it to the guide. That worked very well, both times. In fact, one of the best was when, as we were leaving the first hotel on "our" list, the guide said something about adding another hotel he thought we might especially like. It was nearby, so we said, "okay, let's take a look". Well... That guide had really "heard" what we had been discussing prior to our arrival. That was indeed the very best, at least for us! That was a guide we had read about here on CC, too, or we wouldn't have found them. We don't join groups, so cancellations due to "small numbers" doesn't come up. It's "private", just for us, which also allows customizing. We have created groups a couple of times, in advance, from our Roll Call. Twice, it was in the Caribbean, when we chartered a large catamaran. In that case, it was expensive enough that "sharing" would be nice. It was also large enough that "sharing" with a small group wouldn't be any problem. And we had already figured out the "itinerary" so everyone knew in advance. Note: There's "trust" issues all around. On the best itinerary we ever found (for a cruise excursion) in the Med, we arranged everything a guaranteed it with our charge card. Then MIL had a medical emergency, and on short notice, we had to cancel... but we had the others in our group plus the guide...! So I scrambled, notified everyone, had the charge card switched to another of the group, and... they all went without us. 😞 That was also a dynamite cruise itinerary, one we've never seen again (althoough I've kept looking!). It took a bit of extra planning and emailing in advance, but it was worth it: the guides always turned out to be excellent. GC

That would vary with each ship (unless there are identical ships, which do occur sometimes), and also with the size of the ship. A 6,000 passenger ship probably has many more truly connecting cabins than a ship holding a fraction of that. That's why looking at the deck plans is what you need to do. GC

Yes, my point was that you want the connecting doors to be INSIDE both of the cabins. Our one unfortunate experience was with two immediately adjacent rooms (not a cruise, so thankfully it was just a couple of nights) but the the only way to get from one to the other was to go out of one, into the hallway, walk maybe 2-3 feet, and walk back into the other room. The fact that the two rooms shared a *wall* was obviously of absolutely no use (we don't travel with chain saws or such! 😲 ). Sorry for any misunderstanding. I don't think I used the terminology of "interior cabin", just "interior connecting" or similar. This has never come up before, and I've written about this many times, here and elsewhere. I'll be more clear in the future! Enjoy your cruise! GC

I don't understand your question. Needless to say, it depends upon what types of cabins or suites are on that particular ship. Whatever cabins or suites that are available (not already booked by others) should be available to you, same as for others. ?? GC