free from work

1 hour ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

How can an older withdrawn  policy cover the current Covid situation with all its complications?

 

It is a "premium" policy which was downgraded for new cc holders several years ago but retained some elements for existing cc holders. If you close the CC account you can't keep the travel insurance. 

Jim 

3 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Jim, that sounds good if it's TRUE.  I assume they did confirm it covered quarantine ashore, if so I would suggest you ask for confirmation in writing for complete peace of mind. It would appear to be a very rare beast!

 

As you are the only person so far to have been told you are covered would you mind sharing the name of the underwriter in case they have other policies we may be able to buy.

 

Thank you.

Good idea about the written confirmation. 

It's underwritten by Aviva. If you look at the M&S bank website the have a FAQ section re covid cover. 

I will stress again that this is the withdrawn policy only available to historic cc holders so I am not sure about the current policy arrangements. 

Jim 

19 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Actually most of them offer some form of Covid cruise cover. Barclays were one of the first to do so and were highly praised by Which?

 

The bank policies tend not to cover missed ports, excursions etc but have been widely praised for the rest of their cover.

 

Unfortunately none of them appear to cover the offloaded negative test situation - I checked RBS/Natwest, Halifax/Lloyd's, HSBC and Nationwide - all a resounding no.

We have travel insurance through our M&S CC (the old Premium Club cover). I have checked his morning and anybody insured on the policy is covered if their travelling companion tests positive but they test negative. 

I didn't check about the missed ports or excursions but at the moment I am not too worried about them. 

Thanks for all your efforts. 

Jim

9 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Not bothered about places being excited I just want them release their programme so Cunard release theirs. For some reason Cunard never release their programme until after P&O and I wanted to book for 2023 onboard QE when I go in November so I can get the $800 OBC they give you for booking onboard. Doesnt look now as if their programme will be released until I have disembarked the ship so will miss out so instead will have to either look at another cruise line or land based holiday.

We are on Ventura 23/11 - 5/12 this year as a first P&o cruise. I am looking to book a September 2023 cruise from Southampton while onboard. Is there usually an additional incentive for discounts or obc?

Jim 

14 minutes ago, GOQ said:

Very true.

 

I very much realise I am getting older and after loosing 20 months of happy time because of "going nowhere covid restrictions" I don't want to risk loosing anymore holiday happy times.

 

I have currently 6 cruises booked for the next 18 months 4 of them on P&O: Ventura, Iona, Arcadia and Britannia. I am really looking forward to Iona next February, it will be my first really big Mega Ship.

 

So maybe see you on Ventura next month Jim.

Yes hopefully we will have lots of fun in the sun. 

Good luck with all your plans.

Jim 

9 hours ago, Issyalex said:

There were 3 shows a night in the theatre and other venues. Masks had to be worn in the theatre but not in bars, restaurants etc if seated. 
 

there was a shower over the bath. 
 

your right life is too short to wait. Go and have a fab cruise and make more memories. 

Thank you. We will do our best! 

Jim 

46 minutes ago, Issyalex said:

There was just over 1700 passengers onboard Ventura. We had a superior cabin plenty of room and a bath for hubby to boot. 😂

Thank you for the information. We only do showers. Seems like there should be plenty of space onboard. 

Looking forward to the speciality dining. Hopefully the shows etc will be available. 

We plan to enjoy ourselves come hell or high water. 

Life is too short to wait for guarantees. 

Jim 

58 minutes ago, Issyalex said:

We disembarked Ventura yesterday.

 

From parking our car to being onboard it took approx 2hrs. We had to show our vaccine certificate, boarding pass, health deceleration and passport. 
 

Food choice was very much reduced and repetitive in both MDR and buffet. Smaller portions served in MDR  which I preferred, food well presented and tasty. Service was a hit or a miss, some nights it was very slow and other nights it was like being in a fast food joint. Staff served you in buffet. 
 

Entertainment was not up to their usual standards and again repetitive. 
 

Public areas were kept clean. Passengers wore their masks 99% of the time and if someone wasn’t wearing a mask or not wearing it correctly they were quickly asked put their mask on by senior staff.

 

At all our ports we were able to get off independently. Locals in Spain and Portugal were wearing their masks in the streets as well as in shops. 

 

At disembarkation no one asked to see our PLF or vaccine certificate. 
 

It was so nice to be back onboard and to feel somewhat normal. 

Thank you for your summary of life onboard. 

Did you get any information on the ship occupancy level for the cruise? 

We are on Ventura 23/11 and since we booked last week, only a couple of Superior Balcony cabins are now available. When we booked there was plenty of availability in all grades except Suites.

Jim 

1 minute ago, Les_ldh said:

Never rely on your phone for important documentation, always print it out to take with you.

 

I am on the same itinerary on Ventura, but 3 weeks earlier, and we have one celebration and two formal nights all on sea days.

Les.

Thanks for the information. We were only expecting 1 Celebration and 1 formal evening. DW is back to the drawing board for outfits! Not too much of an issue for me. 

Have a great holiday. 

Jim

Thank you for the prompt replies. They will certainly help keep stress levels down during preparation for boarding. 

I will also be able to book specialist dining with confidence for DW's birthday which is on a port day without worrying about clashing with the formal nights. Hopefully it will open up before sailing as per the recent video by Ollie Smith. 

Jim 

Hi. We have just booked our first P&o cruise 23/11/2, 12 night Southampton /Canaries RT on Ventura. Do P&o just do Gala/Formal nights on seadays or will they squeeze one in on a port day? We have sea days 1-4, 9 & 11 which would be great for 3 formal nights which we think would be best or could they add 1 on a port day to make it up to 4?

Following today's outage on the NHS app for vaccine status has anyone boarded recently using a printout of the QR code? We were intending to just use the app but don't want to be left in Southampton if there is another problem during embarkation. 

TIA

Jim 

On 5/16/2020 at 1:09 PM, cruiser man 60 said:

Italy is reopening borders and most EU countries are following suit over next month or so, U.K. Residents still have right to travel unrestricted in 2020 but U.K. Have advised against international travel at present.

some hope for tourism this year if we can get out of U.K. 

https://www.dw.com/en/italy-to-allow-unrestricted-travel-starting-june-3/a-53461107

Not quite an accurate status report. 

At the moment only England has unrestricted travel. Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland are still in lockdown and most tourist destinations are begging people not to visit. The Lake District for example have no boats, no toilets and no shopping. Many seaside resorts are also giving the same message. 

On 5/16/2020 at 1:09 PM, cruiser man 60 said:

Italy is reopening borders and most EU countries are following suit over next month or so, U.K. Residents still have right to travel unrestricted in 2020 but U.K. Have advised against international travel at present.

some hope for tourism this year if we can get out of U.K. 

https://www.dw.com/en/italy-to-allow-unrestricted-travel-starting-june-3/a-53461107

Not quite an accurate status report. 

At the moment only England has unrestricted travel. Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland are still in lockdown and most tourist destinations are begging people not to visit. The Lake District for example have no boats, no toilets and no shopping. Many seaside resorts are also giving the same message. 

4 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

It seems as if, in general, refunds from Azamara are coming more quickly now - maybe they’ve got their act together, with the obvious exception of some early cancellations like that of  Baynanno1.

By way of comparison, we were due to go to Greece on 6th June. We had an email from Jet2 a while ago that our flight there was cancelled and that we could change to a date next year, but that if we wanted a refund we should wait until they got in touch with us. We wanted a refund so did nothing. Today we had an email from them saying they were initiating a refund to our credit card and we could expect it within 28 days. We didn’t need to do anything - no online application, no telephone calls etc. So long as the money arrives within their timescale, this seems to be very good customer service.

We were due to holiday with Jet2 28 March and received the same email 16 March. Refund received 07 April without any contact from us. I hope you have the same result we did. 

12 hours ago, nordski said:

 

 

 

But it’s not just seniors who are exposed to potentially negative terms. In terms of covid, an epidemiologist here referred to children as “germ bombs”. Descriptive, and maybe it will prove to be somewhat accurate, but it does make one look at grandchildren rather differently. 😄

 

At the moment I would love to give my own little "germ bombs" a massive hug. 

11 hours ago, nokewood20 said:

General comments cause me some concerns. I’m a U K customer, waiting for money refund for fully paid fares for 2 cruises cancelled by Azamara with a deposit on another, final payment due late May. Bookings and payments were made through a TA. Am I ATOL protected if Azamara got into liquidation?

 

You could be ABTA protected. Your TA should have given you a certificate when you booked. Go back to your TA and check who they are regulated by. You might find that it is easier to claim from your TA than Azamara. 

16 minutes ago, dorts said:

I am booked on a 14 night MSC Seaside sailing next March 2020 departing Miami. I booked this cruise via my TA and it is advertised as such on the MSC Website (one cruise). However, it appears that you can also do either of the 7 nights rather than the full 14 nights. The cruise does return to Miami in the middle so I am confused as to whether I will be classed as a B2B passenger and have to do all that it involves or can I simply treat this day as another port day and relax/sightsee? Also, the app is offering passes to the thermal spa for the entire cruise at £147 GBP - will this likely be for my whole cruise or just the first 7 days and will I need to get a new guest card? This may also apply when it comes to other things like the trio dinner package and fun pass - my planner outlines the full 14 nights without any mention of B2B so are these extras for use during the full 14 nights? Anyone have any experience of this situation? Thanks!

We did 14 night on Seaside and this was one cruise. You will have to exit the ship after the first week, we spent the day in Miami but if you would rather they can arrange for you to get straight back on but there can be a bit of a wait. You get a special pass to avoid the new passenger queues if you go out for the day. Assuming you are keeping the same cabin for both weeks there is nothing to do there you keep the same keycard. Just treat it as another POC and enjoy the day. Sorry but no experience of the other issues. 

1 hour ago, uktog said:

Unfortunately this serving non package products and passing them off as premium wines/spirits was happening on Pursuit before and we highlighted it in mid and end of cruise surveys.  

Unfortunately not only on Pursuit. It happened to us on several occasions on Quest last summer. We could tell the Sav Blanc served for the Premium Package was the included wine because for the first time with Azamara we found it undrinkable. 

Just now, Gettingwarmer said:

How do you prepay the service charge? I see nowhere on the uk site to do this. 

We did it through our travel agent but others have telephoned their local (national) MSC office and asked for a full prepayment figure. 

Interestingly there is another thread on the main MSC board which is discussing the DSC being mandatory now and no longer optional. 

37 minutes ago, Beamafar said:

 

Aw, Jim ... how is my highlighting it sneaky?  (Just kidding  )

Hi Bea. 

Hahaha haha. 

I think I've just confirmed that men (specifically me) can't multi - task. However the drinking Malbec and cooking the steak went well. Only the CC posting suffered. 

Jim

Just now, Beamafar said:

 

Hi Jim ... That's right - for bookings made after the introduction of the new packages.  MSC has grandfathered in the old packages for those who booked before then (though some of the included items have been moved into higher tier price ranges - eg we had the Deluxe package on our recent cruise.  Hendricks gin used to be included in that;  it's now in the Connoisseurs' Collection, so now only the Premium+ package includes it.

Phew! Thank goodness for that! With everything that's going on I thought I'd missed something. However your highlighting the change to the Hendricks is definitely sneeky! 

However going back to the DSC, we are on a Grand Voyage and decided to prepay them due to the potential of the pound tanking and saved £200 against what we would have paid had we waited until the end of the cruise, so at the moment perhaps savings can be made. 

Jim

Just now, Beamafar said:

 

The included drinks package for Aurea bookings is now the 'Easy' package - a downgrading on the previously included 'Classic' or 'All-Inclusive Restaurant & Bar' package.

 

It was a 'sneaky' change, just as the changes made to the DSC are.

Hi Bea. 

This is for new bookings with existing AIRB packages still being honoured? 

1 hour ago, KlausM999 said:

In Germany there will be no change, there is a judgement from BGH that the final price has to be fix. 

But for sure, we will be cruising for the last time with MSC in April 2019, because we dont like all these tricky changes (Aurea Package) without Information. We are glad that our booking will honor the old package, but we hate all this neccesary conversation with MSC.

Hi. Really sorry to hijack this topic but what are the "tricky changes (Aurea Package)" which you have highlighted? 

Jim 

On 2/12/2019 at 5:19 PM, gymfreak said:

Quote .  I ordered a particular rose wine and whilst some waiters would bring the bottle and pour my glass, one or two would just bring a poured glass and my card back.  We quickly twigged I was being served the standard rose but a zero charge was being booked to a more expensive wine so would send it back - of course there was a big delay as they found the one I had ordered (hint hint the previous glass could not have been from that bottle) What a disrespect for a guest who’d paid for a package experience.

 

We have just debarked  from Pursuit and regretfully this is still happening on some occasions when ordering from a package.

 

Last June on Quest the standard wine, I hate the word Complementary, was the least palatable we have had with Azamara so we upgraded. On more than one occasion we were brought the standard Sauvignon Blanc instead of the one we ordered. 

Although we had them changed we are currently voting with our £ and have nothing booked with Azamara. I find it hard to believe this is just lazy staff. 

1 hour ago, sidari said:

Always worth having a copy of the packages with you and if they still argue ask for the bar manager.

On Divina recently we had no issues with the Deluxe and on the second leg the Classic.

We are on Musica from Durban to Venice April 2019 in Aurea with the All Inclusive Bar and Restaurant package (booked well before November 2018). 

Can anybody provide a link to a copy of the package we have booked that we could print off please? I have a link to the Mediterranean bar menus but only CC and won't have Wi-Fi on board.

TIA. 

Jim