GeezerCouple

Sure, it is definitely *possible* that you chose the same 4 digit (was it 4 in your case?) code the previous occupant chose. But they are gone. What's the chance they told the steward what it was "just in case the next occupant happens to select the same 4 digit code"? Really? The point is that YOU selected that code. It doesn't matter if someone else used it 1 year ago, or on the previous cruise. YOU selected it; YOU changed the code for your current use. Full stop. GC

[emphasis added] Right! YOU selected the code. That is, YOU changed it from whatever it was before. GC

?? Well, how did you select a combination...? That's what we are all referring to... selecting a combination to use. What are you referring to? What did you do differently the last time, vs. all the previous times you used a hotel safe? How else could a hotel in-room safe be used? There obviously can't be a combination posted on the wall next to the safe... 😱 GC

If you did *not* set a combination, how did you know what it would be? GC

I forgot to mention above a big benefit of 3rd party travel insurance, *not* linked to any specific vendor or portion of the trip. A good travel insurance policy will cover you the moment you leave your house... until you return home. Get in an accident en route to the airport and miss that flight, and spend the day dealing with the accident? Have a problem from the airport to the cruise ship? And there's no issue of whether the cruise line "wants to accept liability" for an accident on board, or not, etc. No need for bickering about which coverage should handle it (or worse, none of them). Just make sure that you meet any conditions for the coverage and that any types of coverage you want are included in the policy you get. That's what a good travel insurance broker can help you with. GC

Usually there is a way to leave a message, and yes, they are very good about calling back, especially if you make it clear it's not one of those spammy calls! Send an email and request a call. They should be good about that, too - and have been in our experience. Not sure why there is no way to leave a message. GC

Right. I assume in any supplemental charge specialty, there'd likely be a charge, or at least for the mains. But for the "included meals", I've never encountered that, and... let's just say that when there is something I really enjoy eating... I'm not shy. But I haven't done that on HAL, so I didn't know if that would indeed incur a cost, which was why you were mentioning the small portions. I'd actually rather see small portions, and ask for more (or order double to start with), than to see the huge volumes of food that don't get eaten just removed from tables. GC

Contact www.TripInsuranceStore.com But CALL them; do not rely upon the short online summaries, as those simply can't explain all the details or try to match with what *your* issues are. The CFAR is a problem in some states, but they can help you with whatever is "next best" if that works. We've used TIS to purchase quite a few policies, and we've also had some claims - all of which were paid promptly. They are a broker (no extra cost to traveler) and work with several vetted travel insurers. GC

[emphasis added] It seems that you have answered your own question when you asked it. You've given 3 different cabin situations that you want to avoid. Chances are that others might want to avoid some of the same locations, meaning those are among the more likely to be available for the guarantees. It's obviously up to you, but it's not clear why you are asking. Only you know if NOT risking any of those three types of cabins (and maybe some others you haven't thought of just now?) is worth the money. You'll have those accommodations for the entire cruise. We tend to be fussy about locations and types of accommodations, so we try to book far in advance while there is a good choice. (OTOH, on my first two cruises in the 1970s, I had an inside, with metal bunk beds, and I fell in love with cruising instantly! 🙂 I was also younger then (!), and had much less money...) GC

What happens if one asks for "more of <whatever> please"? Or even a double-sized portion if you know (from before, or seeing other plates?) you'd be wanting more? GC

Thanks... I had no idea they were that long! Just before Covid, we took the then-longest flight, from Newark to Singapore, but at least we were eating and sleeping the entire way (thank you awards! 🙂 ). It was actually a wonderful flight; the food was incredible, with their "Book The Cook" choice. I cannot imagine doing that without a flatbed, even when we were younger. And certainly not these days, with our aging bodies! However, we have also wondered if the war has changed the flight path and thus the length of the flight. We enjoyed watching the flight path, noting as we went right near/over Moscow, and continued through Russia, and then we noticed Afghanistan a bit to the south of us, etc. There is another "NY area to Singapore" on Singapore Airlines, but that one, from JFK, stops in FRA, so any NY-Singapore flight time on that one would include a stop. I still find it a bit mind-boggling to think of these planes in the air that long, on the routes without stops. GC

I thought this was about 19+ hours, approximately or just slightly more than the Newark to Singapore flight. GC

It can be a bit tricky, depending upon the country. We always go to the country's OWN website, and don't rely upon, say, what a USA-based group says. I start by Googling something like, "medicine restricted in <country name> for tourists", and then go through the first few items that pop up. Make sure you don't stop on a section that is meant for importing/commercial purposes. Those rules can be completely different. And keep in mind, most "routine" meds don't need special permissions (or get banned), or not restricted in normal doses (Sudafed aside...). But there can be some where the total you bring in might be restricted. For Japan, I simply sent them our long list of what each of us takes or *might* take (meaning, we want to keep it with us), and in less than 24 hours, we had a reply indicating the maximum amount we could each bring. IF that's a problem, perhaps your physician could write one refill with a larger dosage each day (?). Then the labeling would match, but when you get back, you could skip the next refill, or such. We've never been fully inspected, but we want to be okay IF we are. It could be something random ("Congratulations, you are TODAY's inspection!" Heh.). Or someone could have had a bad breakfast... Also, we do have some meds that are or might be restricted, whereas many people don't. GC

Right, but it's only the original formulation of Sudafed, the one that is still OTC, but now it's "BTC" (Behind The Counter 😉 ) in some (many? all?) states. That means, one must ask for it, not just grab it off a shelf. The "new" formulation is okay. However, I wouldn't want to have to explain that to some entry level border agent, on the off chance it became an issue. ) Unfortunately, for us, that older formulation is what really works for us. Fortunately, we got through a couple of weeks in Japan without needing it. GC

There is a lot (a LOT!) of discussion about this on the "Disabled Cruising" section of CC: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/114-disabled-cruise-travel/ We've posted in considerable detail there about using very small ziplocs, but NOT "per day/dose", etc., as in the link above. We put ALL of MedA in one, all of MedB in another, etc. Unless we already have the little bags from previous trips (likely, except for a new med or if the old ones are a bit tattered), we ask the pharmacist about 2 weeks before our trip to give us new "official" sticky labels. That turns those bags into "official containers". How do we know this? Several years ago, one of the hospital outpatient pharmacies dispensed one of my Rx meds that exact way. Bingo! That means they pack flat, very little empty space inside or between the round containers, etc. And that's especially important now that CVS has stopped using the smaller amber plastic containers. One Rx, even a month or three amount, might take up a tiny fraction of the container space nowadays. 😞 AND... we double check any requirements of EVERY country. Their rules can be very different, more strict or less so. In at least one situation, an very frequently used OTC med is *totally* restricted: NOT allowed, not even with special permission. And we keep copies of the actual Rx scripts, plus a letter from the physician explaining that <name> needs MedX for medical reasons; ditto for any injection supplies. We keep copies of all of this on our laptops *and* in the cloud. We've gotten advance permissions a few times from other countries. It's easy and fast with email now. "Better safe than sorry", and especially with some countries... GC

When we've gotten extra cards for others to be able to enter our suite if we are out on another line, those cards were blank. We used a marker to write something like, "Grandma" rather than the number, in case it got lost. GC

I wonder how well Vantage is *really* handling these cruises that they claim will take place (per the above quote from them, to their "Valued Guests"): https://consumerrescue.org/cruise-fiascos/vantage-deluxe-world-travel-customer-complaints/ Per the link above, from a consumer advocate: "Attention Vantage Deluxe World Travel customers: The news isn’t good if you’ve got a trip planned with this tour operator. The unfortunate reality is that you might not be going anywhere. Since the beginning of the pandemic, my consumer advocacy team has been fielding a heavy volume of Vantage Travel complaints. But recently, the number of pleas for help from customers of the troubled tour operator has skyrocketed.........." And it looks like the travel insurance sold by Vantage, what appeared to be an Allianz policy, is a policy that Allianz only *processes"... for Vantage. Then, if the claim is approved, Vantage pays... or not... 😡 And this seems to be a problem that was occuring several *years* ago! I had never heard of them until noticing some of the posts here on CC. And then the email from ConsumerRescue showed up today, about Vantage's "issues". What a mess. What an expensive mess, it seems... GC

Another strong recommendation for TripInsuranceStore! But *CALL* them. There is no way the online summaries can adequately convey the details that may be needed for the various "what if's" for each person, for each trip, etc. And most of the complaints when claims are denied turn out to be because the claim was not for a covered reason. Steve and his associates can help you figure out what *your* insurance needs are likely to be, by asking some questions or by listening to what you are saying. And... they can help with claims if desired. All but one of our policies have been with Travel Insured, and ALL of our claims have been with them. All of those claims (including some large claims) were paid promptly, without nonsense. The "deadline" to purchase to get the pre-existing conditions covered can be as short as 10 days; it's not always 20. Insurance is regulated by the states, so there are differences in the policies or even whether certain types of policies can be sold. Again, make SURE that you understand what *your* needs are, and speaking with someone like Steve is an excellent way to get a good match with the policy you purchase. GC

For future reference, if there is enough advance notice, what would YOU want to request? That is what you should request! 🙂 If they can arrange it, they will. It worked for us, for both a soft drink and a bottled water. (We gave them plenty of time, and also double checked that they still had the request, still with plenty of time to go.) GC

I would recommend getting 3rd party travel insurance (not from Holland or other cruise line or travel vendor!) and include the entire trip in one policy. GC

Yes, TIS. We have used them for almost 10 years since learning about them here on CC. And we have had several claims, ALL paid without any nonsense. Also, the folks at TIS (Steve, mentioned here often, is the owner) will help you if there is any difficulty with a claim. For our first claim, I sent our claim form to him for proofing before submitting it. He made one editing change. We sent the form in, and in about 2 weeks, we had a check for the full payment for the last minute cancellation of a big trip. But CALL them. Don't just read the online policy summaries. There is too much "fine print", and each person's needs are likely to be slightly different. Let them help you select the policy that fits *your* needs best. (And no extra charge for using their services.) GC

This is but one example of why it is so much better to CALL rather than email. With a phone call, they could perhaps ask a single question to clarify if what you want is what they can offer, or not. Or you could ask for more details about exactly what you want. It's also faster than back and forth emails that might not even get at the best underlying solution. GC

That would be okay, if the quality of the performers was still very good. However, the reports here do not seem to include just what you describe. The reports (and we have no idea what the "true plans" are, obviously) are that there will be no way to predict when - or even on which cruises - there will be serious classical music performances. If there is a good chance that our cruise might NOT have them, well... we can accomplish that on a line/ship we prefer (namely, Oceania's Riviera, for starters). But the amazing classical music had us convinced we'd found a new home for many, if not necessarily all, of our future cruises. Those musicians were, much to our surprise, excellent. To have that (predictably) while at sea? "Priceless!" 😁 However, there *are* some cruises we take on various other lines, due to the itineraries, so we are not saying, "Never again, HAL". But HAL has dropped off our "try to book with them if there is a choice" list. HAL can fix that, of course, for us and apparently for some others... 😉 Those performances really made HAL special. GC

Please contact www.TripInsuranceStore.com - but CALL them; don't just read the short policy summaries which cannot capture all of the fine print, etc. I'm not aware of "home country" exclusions for the types of travel insurance we get, but insurance is regulated by the states, so it could be different between your state and ours. However, the people at TIS will know the details; that's what they do! And we hope that both of you enjoy your trip! GC

This is so disappointing. Just before Covid arrived, we had our first HAL cruise, an Auckland to Sydney itinerary. We booked it on relatively short notice because of the itinerary, thinking that HAL was a line that we might like (at least, not on our no-sail list!). I had read here on CC about the "Lincoln Center" plans, and that definitely intrigued us, given we are serious classical music lovers. (We have been taking Italian opera lessons for the past few years... having never spoken Italian other than an occasional "Ciao!") And we LOVED it. Unbelievable. I'd arrive early with a book to get two good seats (the room was always overflowing - didn't that tell someone something!?), and DH would arrive closer to the start time. The musicians were wonderful, as were the music selections. Heavenly! We decided we'd found a new home on the sea! And then... and then... 😡 We will no longer look *first* at HAL, unfortunately. That excellent classical music (regularly performed, not an occasional add-on) put HAL in a class of its own. Something we could count on... What a disappointment! GC