stockman41

My wife and I have been on over 32 cruises and always buy trip insurance. In reviewing what other people say about their trip insurance I notice that they usually say it was good or they got a good price. What they forget to say is that they never had to file a claim.

The true test of how good your trip insurance was is if you had to file a claim and it was handled in a professional manner. Trip insurance companies make large amounts of money because of what they charge for a 2 week cruise or trip is extremely high considering how few claims are made.

In 32 trips we have made 2 claims. One a number of years ago for some luggage damage which was handled perfectly by TravelGuard.

On our last cruise on Celebrity's Holy Land Cruise in Oct. 2014, we used Roamright Trip Insurance which was recommended by a friend who never had to submit a claim but thought the premium was fair.

I have to recommend you avoid this company. We had prepaid for 3 days of tours in Israel. On the second day my wife and I had eaten at a restaurant and as we were returning to the ship we both felt kind of sick. It turns out we just had some minor food poisoning that caused mild diarrhea.

We had to cancel the third tour day because it was a private tour with 6 people in a minivan and with no toilet facilities available we had to stay in our cabin on the ship. We were not sick enough to have to visit the ship Doctor and we had brought over-the- counter medicine which was sufficient to handle our problem.

We submitted a claim to RoamRight for the $250 cost of our lost tour. I even included a letter from the tour company stating the cost and saying in writing that we had to miss the tour because of illness. The tour company could not refund us the money because the driver and tour guide had been promised a minimum amount of pay.

RoamRight refused to pay because we did not go to the ship Doctor which would have probably cost them an additional $150. That was their excuse not to pay. We would have gone to see the ship doctor even if it wasn't necessary if I knew they wanted that receipt. Then they would have probably come up with a different excuse.

Did you know that medicare will not pay for doctor visits out of the US. Trip insurance companies know this but if you have a ship doctor bill the trip insurance company forces you to submit it to medicare and then wait for a rejection letter to send to them. The trip insurance company knows a lot of people won't go to the effort to do this and then they never have to pay. If you do go thru the process then they have the use of the claim money for at least 2 months which is the time it takes to submit a medicare claim that will be rejected.

So I learned the hard way about this RoamRight company and will never do business with them again!

Viking final payment dates are really a joke. I have been on 31 ocean cruises on all of the major cruise lines and they make final payment 90 to 120 days before sail date.

My wife and I decided to try river cruising and we did have a wonderful time on Viking's China trip last year. Being our 1st river cruise I didn't realize other river cruise lines had final payment dates within the 90 to 120 day window. Because we booked this cruise about 7.5 months before sail date I just paid the total and did not complain.

Now I received a book showing that Viking is building an ocean cruise ship to start sailing in spring of 2015. I had my TA hold a cabin for a May 30, 2015, sailing date and then found out they wanted the total payment by Dec of 2013. I first thought it was a mistake in the year assuming they meant Dec 2014 which would still be 5 months before sailing date.

I was mistaken! They actually wanted total payment almost 18 months early. I refused to do it and walked away. Why should I have to tie up 13K for 18 months. Especially since no other ocean cruise line requires this. Since I want a more luxurious cruise I will wait for Oceania to announce their 2015 cruise schedule.

Viking will lose a lot of business with this policy!

I am writing this in June of 2013. Wanted to book a cruise on their new Ocean Cruise Ship named the Viking Star. The cruise is for May 30, of 2015, yet they want full payment by Dec of 2013. This is crazy to have to tie up 15K for 17 months before the cruise.

We are going on a Celebrity cruise in May of 2014 and final payment is not due till Feb of 2014. I can't pay for 2 cruises at the same time especially when one is 17 months further out.

We go on Oceania and they don't require final payment until 120 days before cruise. We did do the Chinese River cruise last year but booked much later so the final payment date was a lot closer to the cruise date.

Come on Viking! Wise up and start being more competitive with your competation.

My parents will be on the same sailing! Their airfare was arranged through Viking so their transfers are included...

Viking wanted $100. per person for both airport transfers because we purchased our own air. I have done this with cruise ships and you wind up on a big bus, sometimes waiting for others flights to arrive if their arrival time is close to yours. Then the bus sometimes stops at 2 or 3 other hotels before getting to the one you are staying at.

For $64. per person we have hired a private car with english speaking guide to take us to the hotel in Shanghai and from our hotel in Beijing to the airport.

1. We were planning on taking for my wife and myself, one large suitcase each. For the inter-china flights we were going to take a small carry-on piece of luggage. Now I am worried that this will be too large and not allowed. We could take a backpack instead but wanted more room to carry home souvenirs. Do we need to take the backpacks or can we use the carry-on luggage pieces?

2. We are going on the June 1st, 2012, tour from Shanghai. We are going on the non-stop United flight from Chicago at around 10:20AM, on May 31st. Looking for any other couples to share a limo from the airport to the hotel. Anyone interested?

It was not followed when we were in China in May (we did not go on to Hong Kong), but our guide explained to us that if the security folks were in a bad mood, they could enforce that weight limit as well as the one-carry-on per person rule. On our three intra-China flights, those rules were not enforced.

I wasn't concerned with having more then one carry-on. I didn't know that some people actually had more then one. Did you see a lot of people having more then one carry-on?

I just wanted to be able to use a small suitcase as my carry-on instead of a backpack because it will hold more.

So I guess the 11 pound limit is not exactly followed. We need the larger size to bring home souvenirs from our trip.

We are going on the 6/1/12 Imperial Jewels trip from Shanghai to BJ. I have a question regarding carry on luggage on inter-china flights. We have 2 choice. Each of us use a backpack with small wheels or we have small suitcases with dimensions of 21"x14"x8" which have 4 wheels and hold more then the backpacks. would these be allowed as carry-on or do we need to use the smaller backpacks? Appreciate any answers I get.