CoralReef

If you have 2-3 nights, I would spend them in Rome!

Muster drill was 7:45 for us, and I would suggest planning on an early or late dinner. I had read that people were allowed to start dining, go to the muster drill, and return to continue their meal. However, when we tried to get seated in Blu at 7:00, we were told that no seatings were allowed until after the drill. I was starving by the end of the drill. I wish I had either booked an early dinner, or had a substantial snack earlier.

This is really an oddity. I hadn't thought about "what if the trip itself is canceled by the trip provider". Not good!

 

GeezerCouple

I couldn't agree more :-)

Try Medjetassist.com. They offer an annual medevac package with hospital of choice.

I'm not sure what their age cutoff is, though, 80 might be too old. When my dad turned 80, we basically accepted that we could only travel with him to US locations where his Medicare was valid.

If you do qualify, do an online search for a promo code, which usually knocks off a significant amount.

Thanks, maddycat.

So no experiences with this scenario? I will post my results.

It is not too late. Most trip insurance covers pre-existing conditions if you purchase within 10 days of making the first non-refundable payment.

IMHO, you can't afford *not* to get trip insurance that covers medical evacuation. If your insurance covers medical treatment out of the country, you are very lucky. But I bet it doesn't cover medevac, which can range from $10,000 to $50,000. If you are young and healthy, you can take your chances, but think about what a $50,000 helicopter/medjet evacuation would do to your bank account.

Any advice or experiences would be appreciated.

Here's the situation: on June 19, I put down a deposit on a Silversea cruise. I promptly (next day) purchased trip insurance through M.H. Ross, in order to have pre-existing condition coverage. The cruise was pricey, and I also insured the cost of the business class airfare we anticipated buying.

On July 14, Silversea cancelled the sailing. They offered a full refund of our deposit, but I am out of pocket $734 for the trip insurance. I have requested cancellation of the policy from the company. Has anyone ever done this? If the insurance company won't issue a refund, do I have any recourse with Silversea?

Thanks for any suggestions or experiences you can share.

None that we've seen in three visits. It's not a long pier.

You lucky dog, you will rule either one. Coki if you like to snorkel, otherwise Magen's is more scenic.

Yes, $20 pp, and the umbrellas are more like little tents. They provide 270 degrees of sun protection, and have windows you can roll up and down for the breeze. Nicest "umbrellas" ever!

I never knew the name, but if you get off the ship and turn left, it is only a couple of blocks away, just past Fort Frederick. You can see it from the pier. There might be nicer beaches if you are willing to travel, but this one was perfectly fine and had every amenity we could ask for.

Fort Fredrick, Victorian Danish architecture, shopping plaza, cute little park with tons of iguanas, nice beach with paddleboard & chair/umbrella rentals and good food + wifi, local shops. All within 10 minute's walk from the pier.

So, west coast Pacific snorkeling is not always the best experience... deep dropoffs, often very cold, especially in winter. Not always a lot to see compared to the Caribbean. One exception is Islas Marietas, about 45 minutes north of PV, which has a great variety of fish and coral.

An excellent tour operator is http://www.ecotoursvallarta.com . For December, you might want to look at their whale watching tours, which we enjoyed even more than the snorkeling. But they also go to Marietas.

Cabo has decent snorkeling at Santa Maria and Chileno. Both have strong currents and rocks to either side, so you must be a decent swimmer to get out to the reef.

We stayed there in March 2014 and it was great. Almost too nice for a pre-cruise stay, really deserved a few days. Short, cheap taxi to pier.

BIL's corner room photo:

We had a great time in Helsinki.

We took the Celebrity shuttle into town, then took the ferry to Suomenlinna sea fortress, which has a fascinating history and is also very pretty. Great place to walk and let kids run around. The ferry ride was beautiful.

George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones author) wrote an interesting short story ("Under Siege") about the fortress's importance as a historical turning point. The ferry ticket also included some info about the fortress's significance. You can hire a guide if you'd rather not do any background reading, but either way it's well worth a visit.

We also enjoyed trying local dishes at the market, and strolling the Esplanade, which is kind of like a smaller version of Barcelona's Las Ramblas.

If you like beaches and shopping, option 1. Nature and hiking, option 2.

We are option 2 folks, but have been to all these islands and loved them, as well as Summit. You really can't go wrong.

We did the tour with Royston and would recommend him. He was great, knew all the best photo ops and did quite a comprehensive island tour. We talked with people who did the volcano hike through the ship, and they had fun, but the hike was the *only* thing they did.

St. Kitts is a beautiful and interesting island, and you can see so much more on a private tour. Since you are in good condition, I suspect you would be frustrated at the pace set by the ship tours.

Traveling with Royston, we also hiked Bloody River (by special request), stopped at Romney Manor, took pics at Black Rocks and Timothy Hill, and circumnavigated the whole island. We saw so much more than the people on the ship tour, and Royston still had us back at the dock an hour before sailaway.

My mom had a nifty collapsible wheelchair that we got at Costco for $129. Airlines were happy to gate check it, so it was no trouble to bring with us.

I doubt if you could beat that price for multiple rentals, even if they were available. Plus, your family member would have it available for future use. It's a handy item to have; other members of our family have used it several times.

Some cruise ships do have a limited number of loaner wheelchairs, if you fill out the Special Needs form on their websites. But my recommendation is to take your own. It's not expensive and you can count on it whenever necessary.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I started to look at the tour companies and wow......$250pp is alot. We are 8 people and if we wanted to see the greatest hits (amber room, etc) most economically, which and who would you recommend.

Thanks again.

If you want to see the Amber Room, you really must book a tour. Not only is the palace that contains it far from the port, but when we visited, the entrance line was hours long. At the front of the line was an SPB tour employee holding a spot for our tour group of 16. We all walked right in with no waiting. Did I feel a little guilty -- yes. Did I refuse to enter... nope. Same story at many other major sites.

You will be in St. Pete such a short time, and for most of us it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. My advice is to economize in other Baltic ports (all are easy to DIY) but bite the bullet in SPB and pay what it takes to maximize your time there.

OP:

PS and BTW,

Virtually everything you see for sale in SPB can be bought for less in Tallinn. True for amber jewellery, matrioshka dolls, Faberge eggs, lacquer boxes, embroidery, and military medals.

The only exception was fake fur hats -- they were cheaper and more widely available in SPB.

You are right, the last stop was the only truly dedicated shopping stop.

We used SPB and were very pleased. They took care of everything including visas, lunch, admission to various sites. We even had a short stop for shopping after lunch on the second day.

That's it for the shopping?! Where did you stop for potty breaks, if not at the gift shops?

We did the SPB Deluxe 2-day tour, were also very pleased, and had the following shopping opportunities:

3 souvenir shop bathroom breaks on day 1; 2 on day 2

St. Isaac's gift ship

Hermitage gift shop

Vendors outside Hermitage (best prices)

Church of the Spilled Blood gift shop (most unique offerings)

Catherine Palace gift shop

Vodka shop at end of day 2

Plus the little mall going in to the ship

A few added pieces of information to help you decide.

Pro independent:

- St. Petersburg does have dual English/Cyrillic signage, at least in the central city.

- We visited the Metro on our tour and the system appeared to be very easy for English speakers to use.

- ATMs are everywhere.

Con independent:

- Read up on the visa red tape and cost. It's ridiculous.

- Believe me, you will get plenty of opportunity to shop on the guided tours! I'm sure the tour companies get kickbacks.

Re the evening option: bear in mind that you will lose several time zone hours between the beginning of your cruise and SPB, plus start touring early in the morning, plus the tour days are long. And that's on top of whatever lingering jetlag you are still feeling. We had toyed with the idea of an evening tour, but were so tired that night, there's no way we would have been able to do one.

Hope this helps with your decision.

Interesting about the automatic credit...My Captain's Club welcome letter on Summit on the backside had printed instructions, to clearly turn in the coupon. Wonder if they are trying to electronically "load" benefits, or perhaps they have a front office manager who is very forward thinking and reconciling Captains club members to internet usage and proactively crediting off the minutes on particular ships when they see a member sign on...?

 

What ships were you on?

Had a similar experience in March on the Summit, our first cruise as Select. We were entitled to a free wine event. I totally forgot about that, signed up for the around-the-world wine tasting without using the coupon, and was not charged. I was very impressed!

Yes and yes.