Firepath

Thank you. This is all so sad.

USA Today is reporting that a crew member on Infinity has sadly died from COVID19. I couldn't find anything here. Apparently there are no passengers on board. What happens when the crew gets sick? I hope anyone else sick gets the help they need.

1 minute ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

I broke down in tears when I saw her in the channel -- safely home.

Glad I'm not the only one crying happy tears through this.

I'm getting conflicting information. I have an Alaskan cruise scheduled for the end of August. I see on X website that they have extended Cruise with Confidence thru Sept 1, 2020,

so my understanding is I have until the end of July (30 days out) to cancel and get FCC. However, I've seen at least two posts on these forums today that said Celebrity is cancelling all cruises thru Sept 1. Am I reading this wrong or is someone over-reacting? I realize they could cancel future cruises, but I haven't seen X state for sure that they will.

Whomever takes them in should get all future cruise business, and whomever turns them away doesn't ever see a cruise ship in their port. 

Years ago, I worked for a major insurance company. When there was a disaster, we had to go. If anyone got called up for jury duty, they had to go. The company thought was that you can't just benefit from the system. You take the good with the bad. Ft. Lauderdale and Florida in general receive much benefit from the cruise lines and tourism. Now is their time to give back. It might not be pleasant but it's the right thing to do.

Isn't good news good new regardless where it came from? I'll take it.

If anything good comes from this I think it will be how people are helping each other and the creativity and talents that are showing through. It seems like so many individuals and businesses are saying thind like, "I/we can do that," "What if we try this?," and "maybe  that would work." I'm not very creative or good at thinking outside the box, but I'm glad a lot of people are. I find it encouraging amongst all the bad news.

Is it possible that any ships scheduled for renovation later this year could have that done during the no- cruise time instead? Or is the schedule firm with no working around that?

23 hours ago, TMaine said:

We met Rick Steeves on Reflection a couple of years ago. 

Ooh! I just saw that episode. Were you in it?

I know NCL is offering FCC for cruises cancelled within 48 hrs. of sailing; and bookings now thru 9-30-20, if cancelled, get FCC that can be used up until 12-31-22; Celebrity's offer is on cruises thru 7-31-20 (mine is in August), and FCC to be used by 12-31-21. What are the other cruise lines offering as incentive to book, or not cancel if already booked? It seems like the 48 hr. cancellation period is pretty standard across most lines. 

I'm 60, husband 70. Our next cruise isn't until August, so we're not cancelling; yet. The fatality rates for older persons here https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/  are pretty sobering though.

I’m out of town now so can’t get my hands on them for a few days but I did post the first 2-3 days with my review in the Hawaii thread.

I have them from the end of last October but not this year’s.

Not Europe, but Hawaii was very nice in October.

I know you said you're looking at a short cruise, but I wanted to comment since you mentioned Disney Cruise Line. Our first cruise was on DCL, 3 nights. I really liked it, but my husband hated it an swore off cruising. Now many years later, I convinced him to go on a Hawaiian cruise. We did (7 nights), were in a port all day, every day, and he loved it. We are planning our next cruise.

Equinox, May 23, 2021. 6 nights. Inside $625 + tax/fees, $50 obc plus 3 perks. I thought it was a great deal for outside of hurricane season, but hubby doesn't want to "plan that far ahead." ??? Big box internet TA.

OP here, we've been back from our POA cruise over 3 mos. ago. The MDRs had no prime rib but strip steak which was just okay. We thought almost all of the rest of the food was good though, despite the bad reviews. Maybe we just went with lower expectations. 

Thank you for your positive report and great photos! Reminds me of our trip last October. The POA really is nice and your review was spot on.

I'm afraid to even try a balcony as I know we could never go back to inside. That's what happened when our family stayed in a timeshare. Now we are so spoiled, we can never squeeze into a regular hotel room again.

On 2/7/2020 at 11:24 AM, fendersrule said:

I made the decision to fly the day of. Actually, a bunch of us made that decision last night.

 

Boise in April has very good weather, much like everywhere on the west coast. I can't see weather making any impact.

 

Usually when stuff is delayed, it's only delayed for a short period of time. Being that we've booked a flight that arrives at 9:02AM, we have lots of buffer room if we allow 2 hours to get to Long Beach port. So that serves as a semi-decent backup plan. Funny we talk about this, as my girlfriend's flight that she's on RIGHT NOW just got delayed.....for 30 minutes. That would be nothing based on the amount of buffer time we have for cruise day.

 

It's a calculated risk that has an extremely high probability to succeed. The whole point of this cruise was to "go for cheap". So that's what we're doing.

 

I managed to get 2 other groups, all first time cruisers, to go as well. Two of them are flying from Seattle, and Two of them are flying from PDX.

Fendersrule, we are flying from BOI next August to Seattle same day, leaving around 7:30am for a 4pm cruise. I think we'll both be fine. Even if your flight is delayed or cancelled, you have other options to get there. I usually have my options written down and with me just in case.

We did POA last October for our 30th and really enjoyed it. There are some recent trip reports over in the Hawaii forum. I recommend you read through there.

There's a cruise early in 2021 that I'm thinking to book for myself and spouse, but there's a possibility that I'll need to take our adult daughter instead (long story). If that happens, can I just "switch" passengers on the booking, or would I have to add one and cancel the other? Or if I just add her because all 3 of us are travelling, would adding her just be at the current rate, and us two stay the same with all the same perks, or do we all need to cancel and rebook?

Do you purchase the cruise line's insurance, what your TA offers, independent coverage, use credit card travel coverage, self-insure?

My TA recommended not purchasing the cruise line's because if they went out of business, there would be no coverage. I know that's unlikely, but with some people purchasing cruises 2-3 yrs. out, you never know what could happen. Thoughts?

There was one night but it was completely optional. If I had to guess, I say maybe a third of the passengers were really dressed up, if that.