Ken the cruiser

I always wondered if our Medicare covered us while we're on a cruise. Here's what I found out. Original Medicare (Parts A & B) may cover medically necessary health care services on a cruise ship, if the ship you’re on when you receive the care is in a U.S. port or no more than 6 hours away from one when you get the services. That means the ship can be in the water, but must be within six hours of a U.S. port. Also, the doctor must be legally allowed to provide medical services on a cruise ship. Original Medicare will not cover any care you get on a ship that’s more than six hours from a U.S. port, even if it’s an emergency. Does Medicare cover you on a cruise ship? | UnitedHealthcare (uhc.com)

Looks like the potential for stormy weather isn't over just yet for eastern Canada. But hopefully TS Philippe will have cleared out of there by the time we fly into Toronto on Oct 14. Better yet, hopefully it veers farther to the East and disappears into the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

I’m sure others will join in, but my feeling is you’re going to have a great time!!

What are some of the things you like to do in the evenings and on sea days? That might help folks provide a better comparison. For us we haven’t cruised with HAL since 2019, but recently booked an April 2025 Panama Canal cruise on the Eurodam just to give HAL another look as we have grown tired of Celebrity’s jacked up prices and cookie cutter itineraries and needed a replacement line to book some of our future cruises with to go along with some of the itineraries we found interesting with PCL and NCL. One reason we’re giving HAL another look is because of their very fair prices for aft-facing cabins and awesome early booking packages. Another reason we’re checking them out again is because they have some awesome 3-5 week itineraries that Celebrity has no plans of even coming close to matching. Of course, it also helps that we’re 4 star Mariners and very much enjoy the unlimited free laundry perk! 😁 But we do know HAL has changed their entertainment offerings since we last cruised with them, so we’re keeping an open mind regarding their unique variety of entertainment offerings rather than expecting to see first rate production shows and guest entertainers in the main theater every night like we’ve come to expect with Celebrity, especially on their Edge class ships. My one suggestion is to keep an open mind and appreciate what HAL has to offer rather than instantly comparing them to your other favorite lines. I know we did just that when we went on a NCL Jade cruise last fall where we started having a much better time once we stopped wondering why NCL wasn’t doing things like we had come to take for granted on some of the other lines like X and PCL whom we have cruised quite a bit with since cruising started back up.

Actually, they changed our original cabin, which was the same on all 3 legs, to a similar cabin one deck lower on all 3 legs. So, as long as we're in the same cabin on all 3 legs, we're good.

For anyone interested. We sent our TA an email this afternoon asking about the recent cabin category and room change during the refare process. This was her answer. NCL made these changes. I had noticed the cabin category difference and that the cabins were all the same for all three legs, but I wasn’t sure if maybe someone else had changed the cabins prior to me refaring yesterday and it made sense that all three legs were in the same cabin. 😊 I hope this helps to clarify.

Rick Hoffman, who played Louis Litt on the Suits TV series, was also a guest entertainer in Celebrity Central on that 7-day Alaska cruise. As one might imagine, we had a great time on that cruise, both on and off the ship. But then we always have a great time on all of the cruises we've been on! 😊

I remember our first cruise with HAL on the Ryndam back in 2012 where the band sat on a mini set of bleachers on the back righthand side of the stage playing music during a production show. A memory I will always cherish and as one might imagine never experienced on any cruise since.🤣

Thanks! We saw Brent Nixon and his wife on our first cruise to Alaska on the Celebrity Solstice back in 2013 and still remember him acting out the movements of a seal on the stage! He is by far one of the best naturalists we’ve ever had the privilege of listening to on any cruise. 😁

Just looked at the Toronto weather forecast for the next 8 days. Enjoy the warm weather while it lasts as it looks like it's going to be getting a little wet and chilly there next week unless the sun decides to come back out.

There were plenty of specific cabin choices available today as well as the default "best available". In fact, I just noticed we also dropped from an MA category (on decks 11-13) to an MB (on decks 8-10). I also noticed our original cabin was not released as being available to book again either. But again, it's no big deal. I just thought it was interesting as this was our first time to refare an NCL booking.

Here's a fun fact we just discovered today, the day after our refare was completed which saved us around $2000 total. When doing a "fake" booking today, as I do every day while logged on to get the 10% MA discount applied, I noticed our cabin number had changed on all three bookings to one that is in the same relative location, but on the opposite side of the ship on deck 10 rather than deck 11 like our original cabin was. We're happy with the change, as the CB cabins are $50 pp cheaper on deck 10 than on deck 11, but our TA made no mention of it. Does NCL periodically change cabin locations during a "refare"? We've done a bunch of refares on a variety of cruise lines, but this is the first time our cabin number was changed without being asked.

Thanks! The weather is definitely looking more promising. This is the "Clouds" section of the Windy page. Hopefully, the weather continues to be clear up. 🤞

When someone says their food was served "cold", ask them if they were sitting at a table for 2 or a sharing table where there are usually 6-8 people seated. If they were at a sharing table, they are more likely to have received entrees or even soup that have cooled somewhat waiting for all of the orders for that table to be filled and subsequently being served. At least that was our experience when we first started cruising back in 2012 until we gave up on the sharing tables and opted for 2-tops.

"Our Princess cruise was the worst vacation ever. The ship was old. The food was worse than horrible. It's not that the taste was just bad night-after-night, but service was slow and the food was served cold every night. I'm not talking about warm, I'm talking flat-out cold! Everyone was sick and coughing. We both caught covid. They had people crammed together like a cattle car. They nickel and dimed us for everything. I'm not sure that we'll ever do a cruise again, but if we do, it definitely won't be with Princess!" All I can say is that has not been our experience on the various Princess cruises we've been on since cruising started back up. Well, maybe except for our July 2022 21-day "New Love Boat" B3B in the Med on the Regal Princess. That ship was packed with 400+ teenagers and young adults on each leg enjoying their graduation cruise, whom by the way were allowed to drink alcohol if they were 18. I have to admit, there were some pretty tight places on that ship we tried to avoid at all cost. Needless to say around 10 pm every night the internet got a little slow as they were all accessing their social media sites! 🤣 But you're right. We only cruise in Reserve Collection mini-suites or higher as we do very much enjoy eating in the Reserve dining room where all of our meals have always been served hot and tasty (most of the time).

Fascinating. We were just on the Diamond Princess for 17-days in July cruising around Japan and had a great time and the food was quite tasty! Now I will say we were in a Reserve Collection mini-suite and got to eat in the Reserve dining room every day, except for a buffet lunch on port days if we weren't on an excursion. Sure, there was a few folks coughing here and there, as is the case on any cruise. But nothing out of the ordinary. We're also getting ready to go on a 22-day B2B in less than 2 weeks on the Caribbean Princess, which includes a 5-day pre-cruise land adventure starting in Toronto, with the B2B cruise portion starting in Quebec on Oct 19 and heading down to Ft Lauderdale. In fact, I just started a Live From thread on the Princess forum which you are more than welcome to follow. But then in all fairness, we're a little slanted as of late towards Princess, as we have 10 future cruises booked with them through 2025 and only one with Celebrity, a Galapagos cruise this December.

The “refare” option basically involves applying current fares and/promotions to an existing booking rather than cancelling and then rebooking the cruise, which causes all kinds of issues if you’ve already purchased items such as excursions. What term are you familiar with that does the same function?

Thanks everyone! Our TA just seamlessly refared our 3 Oct/Nov 2024 bookings that make up our 30-day B3B saving us a little over $2000 total as well as gaining $200 more in OBC. Yay!

Good to know. It will be interesting to see if any changes are made in the “not so secret” daily suite gratuity charges, especially since CS and higher categories get a real butler and lowly sky suite folks get a steward.

Here's what the balcony of a S2 sky suite on the Edge looks like (as of Aug 2021), which of course is much wider than an IV cabin. Here's a picture I found on the Internet of an IV veranda balcony. If both cabin mates wanted to sit on the balcony together with the window open, they could also leave the doors open, as it would be a moot point it the AC was turned off. However, if one wanted to enjoy the "open window" fresh air on the balcony while the other wanted to sit inside the cabin and enjoy the cool air from the AC, then there would be plenty of room on the balcony for the one person. As far as the furniture goes, it appears to be the same for both category types on the Edge-class ships.

I'm just curious how much more someone in a sky suite, when compared to someone in an Aqua cabin, is going to have to pay for their daily gratuities when basically both categories now just get a steward, since room service can be ordered and subsequently delivered to any one on the ship. The reason I'm curious about the difference between the Aqua and Sky Suite charges is that both were "hidden" when the All Include charge was mandated on both category bookings prior to Oct 4.

But don't the gratuities disappear from the All Included fares associated with both the Aqua and Suite cabins? In fact from my understanding, the mandated All Included inclusion on Aqua cabins also disappears all together. Correct?

With the lack of an actual butler assigned, it will be interesting to see what the sky suite daily gratuity charge will be when compared to an Aqua cabin after October 4.

I'm not sure we'll be there, but you may want to introduce yourself over on the Roll Call thread and let them know you're coming. Revised/Separated October 19 to October 31 CB New England Roll Call - Caribbean Princess Roll Calls - Cruise Critic Community

I think there is more to it, especially with regards to the air pressure along with airflow within different sections of the ship, especially when its moving. Ever notice when you're walking down the hall when the ship is moving and hear a whistling sound from under someone's door that has their balcony door open? IMHO there can be no "whistling" when the balcony shutter doors are closed and the AC is allowed to stay on. That would be key. But then I'm just over here in the peanut gallery trying to figure out a way to give us folks who like to sit on the balcony feeling the elements while my DW likes to sit in the cabin playing computer games during our downtimes with the AC on while say cruising around in the Caribbean.