TriumphGuy

6 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

A travel consumer group we follow just did a summary of some major travel insurance providers.  They pointed out that MOST Major travel insurance companies do NOT provide coverage for declared epidemics which would now include COVID-19.  These policies apparently include Allianz, Travel Guard, Berkshire Hathaway, Generali Global Assist, etc.  Even our own travel health policy makes it clear that although they do include medical coverage during epidemics, they may deny claims if one travels to an announced infected area and does not take steps to immediately evacuate if a "warning to leave" has been issued by the US Government.  

 

Since policies can vary folks need to carefully read the policy being careful to look at fine print parts like the definitions and exclusions.  

 

Some folks have been shocked to learn that their cancellation policies might exclude cancellation related to an epidemic.

 

Hank

I read through our policies (US Fire Gold) and nowhere did it even mention the terms "epidemic or pandemic". The terms "Travel Advisory and Travel Warning" are listed in the Definitions but they apply only to evacuation due to Terrorism, Natural Disaster, Hurricane Warning.
One easy way to drill down in your policy is to use the "Find" feature in your pdf reader and look for keywords such as described above. Saves a lot of time.
I can't see where they would deny medical treatment coverage or medical evacuation due to illness. It is not a cancellation policy, (although it does provide some cancellation coverage) but we did not buy it specifically for that.

2 hours ago, kazu said:

 

I suspect that once the testing is done in the U.S. there may well be a lot of cases there too.  After all the other countries are testing 1,000’s a day and the U.S. has only tested around 500 (from the last report I saw - it may be up now).

Hope you, your DH  and your Mum stay safe.

 

I sort of suspect that this thing has been bouncing around the US and Canada for weeks, if not months. I'm wondering if a lot have had it and never knew it or experienced mild symptoms. Since testing has been virtually nil and even now is sparse, how would we know?
I have no data to back this up; it's just a nagging feeling I have.

This pisses me off to no end. No excuse! None.

If you're over 65 and haven't had your pneumonia vaccine shot(s), now would be a good time to get them. Won't prevent the coronavirus but could help prevent bacterial pneumonia from complications.

Always a good idea anyway for Seniors.

1 hour ago, jacksonx said:

I am scheduled to go on the Nieuw Amsterdam ship out of Fort Lauderdale on April 4th to Spain April 17th.

We booked it through HAL directly, including the flight back.

 

I'm trying to figure out if this will be canceled or changed in some way. Details are sparse from HAL directly.

 

If Spain becomes a Corona virus target, would the ship go elsewhere, or would they potentially cancel the 13 day cruise entirely? Will HAL help with the flight back as it was booked through them?

 

Definitely still looking forward to the trip, but also don't want to be in Quarantine for a month!

You're not alone in wondering what's going to happen. We are booked on Nieuw Statendam for April 19 departure, 14 day Fort Lauderdale to Amsterdam. We made our final payment on January 20, two days before the coronavirus was made public.
Like you, our greatest fear is being held in quarantine or stuck somewhere. We are retired, but that doesn't mean we want to spend three weeks in isolation, especially in a foreign country.
Right now we were planning on traveling Amsterdam to Paris on the Thalys train, then renting a car to spend a few days in Normandy. We made our cruise reservations through an online TA, flight reservations through HAL direct, train, car rental, hotel and airbnb independently.
Hopefully HAL will do the right thing and not endanger their customers if the virus really takes off.
On a separate note, I got my second pneumonia vaccine shot yesterday, always a good idea anyway and who knows, may help prevent complications if I should catch the virus.

Whatever method you use just be sure to black out or better yet, cut out your account number on the financial statement. I always use an razor knife to physically cut out the account number.

I've used Faxzero with success for both Princess and HAL cruises. You get a confirmation from them so you know it went through.

The other alternative is to go to Staples or Office Depot and send a fax from there. That works too.

19 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I feel for you.

 

We’re in the same boat - paid and this virus had not been heard of at the time and we disembark from Civitavecchia and fly from Rome to Galicia.  

I’m waiting as you.  If it’s risky, I’ll forfeit the money but if it’s localized, then we’re going

It’s nerve wracking but what can we do?  

Not much, I'm afraid. I'm hoping that HAL will do the right thing and cancel  or offer another cruise at a later date, if it comes down to the wire and Europe cannot contain the spread.
I contacted my doc today to ask about the second pneumonia vaccine shot I'm supposed to get after my 66th birthday, (which is in May, after the cruise), and whether he thought I should get it now. He said he would order it for me.
Not sure it will do any good, but can't hurt.
 

We're booked on an April 2020 TA to Amsterdam. Right now I figure there's about a 50/50 chance of this cruise actually taking place to anywhere in Europe. I just hope if they cancel we get some notice, as we have extended travel plans to France after the cruise.

We're way beyond final payment at this point. (final payment was about 5 days before the virus became public knowledge).

My bigger fear is that we will not be let back into the US without a 14 day quarantine. Nothing would surprise me at this point.

7 hours ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

We got off the Rotterdam two weeks ago, and we were able to use our router for 32 days with no problem.  Don’t know if this makes any difference, but we had the premium wifi package.

Does your router support bridge mode? It's my understanding the router has to be in bridge mode to work. Which make/model do you have?

Thanks

7 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I will not get into actual pricing on this board but "free" is usually anything but.  You might want to take a look at how much your cruise costs today, without the beverage package.   And no, the SBP does not include anything delivered to your cabin.  Of course you can always get anything at a bar that is included and bring it back to your cabin.

 

Hank

Hence the quotes around "free".
We booked this about a year ago. When they had the promo for the SBP, I called our TA and asked if I could get it, as it was about a week after we booked.
The TA was able to get not only the SBP for both of us, but a "free" dinner for two in the Pinnacle Grill, a few hundred bucks of OBC, some courtesy OBC from the TA, and a welcome plate of chocolate covered strawberries. (ok, I like strawberries)
Yes, I could probably get it cheaper now, if it's not sold out, but overall I'm happy with the deal we got. And we got a good deal on Premium Economy seats with Delta and Air France.

Does HAL do a "Behind the Scenes" tour"? We did that on Princess (Ultimate Ship's Tour) when we had OBC to burn.

Nice problem to have!

We gave up on Princess because last year they removed the only decent chair in the standard balcony cabins, fleet-wide. No place to sit comfortably. This was a non-starter for us. We only book balcony/verandah cabins.

If you book mini-suites and up on Princess, it shouldn't be an issue for you.

Hopefully HAL's coffee is better than Princess' coffee. Princess' room service coffee was so awful we brought along a jar of Trader Joe's Instant on our last cruise to doctor it up. It's like they waved some grounds over the pot and called it coffee.

Our first HAL cruise is in April, hopefully the coffee is drinkable.

This whole situation is horrible, for all involved. Passengers, crew, HAL, everyone.
I am concerned where this will lead in the coming months,  especially with Spring Break cruises coming up. What about Europe? What will happen if it takes off in the Caribbean or Europe? Will countries just refuse all cruise ships indefinitely?
We have a 14 day TA coming up in April on the NS. I don't want to get quarantined. Not sure what to do. I am afraid it could happen.

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

And yet another Corona thread...

And yet it's a good question and a concern.

Off topic a bit but can someone briefly explain what the "new regulations" are and how they affect HAL sailings beyond 2020? We would love to do an Antarctic cruise, but it would be something we'd have to do in 2021 or 2022.

Thank you.

This is very worrisome. I feel for the passengers and crew.

This does not bode well for any ship or cruiseline in the coming months.

I tried this, turned off mobile data, connected phone to my home network, works fine EXCEPT.... phone says "checking subscription status", which indicates to me that the phone checks with Verizon to verify. Once verified it works fine.

That's not something I want my phone to do at sea. 

I will look into the travel router. 

OP here, it will not work with my wife's iPhone for the above reason. I think it will work with my Samsung Galaxy 7. Will test and report back. Thanks!

Does anyone know if using a phone as a hotspot will allow other devices to use internet on board? For example, if my wife buys a plan for our 14 day cruise and enables the hotspot function, would she be able to share that connection with my phone or laptop? 

Thanks.

I was adamantly opposed to Kindles for a long time. Then, I discovered how useful they are on a trip (of any kind) and somehow lugging books around no longer made sense. Especially with the luggage fees and weight limitations of the airlines.

Plus my wife appreciates it because I can read in bed without the lights on. My Kindle Paperwhite has a soft backlight which is adjustable, works just fine and is easy on the eyes.
Our last Princess cruise, I took a stroll through the library and it was pretty pathetic, very few books. I was glad I loaded up the Kindle and didn't rely on the ship's library. 

Would it make a difference depending on what level of  booking (Business, Premium Economy, Economy)? We reserved our flights last summer when we booked our airfare through HAL, (Delta/Air France) We booked Premium Economy and were able to pick our seats to FLL and return from Paris to Chicago. Just made our final payment last Monday. 

1 hour ago, willow949 said:

We do the same thing and pay early so we can pick our seats or upgrade. You can’t get seats until air is paid and I want to know well in advance!

I was able to pick seats months before our final payment. Delta and Delta/AirFrance. But we booked Premium Economy. Maybe that makes a difference?

Just made our final payment today for our cruise in April. 

I just made the final payment for our upcoming April cruise (paid to TA) and when I went to check our info in HAL's website I found that all our previously entered information is gone. This will be the THIRD time I've had to re-enter all the in the passport info, next of kin, etc. 

Has this happened to anyone else?  I don't want to enter credit card info until shortly before the cruise for security reasons.