Todd R

Thanks again for the replies and thoughts folks! Probably no need to chime in on insurance issues at this point. It was pretty much a shot in the dark to understand if we could get any refund of costs for a partial trip. Figured that was probably a no-go, but thought I'd ask. At this point, we will either make no claims if we try to go on all or any portion of the trip, but will obviously make a claim if we don't go due to the recent surgery. I've read through the full documentation on our insurance as well as the claims documents. I don't imagine there will be an issue as the surgeon has told us that recovery would be 4-6 weeks and my wife should stay away from work for at least 3 weeks. Still, one never knows with insurance companies. I'd hate to find out that major surgery 3 weeks before travel isn't a covered reason for trip cancellation. That said, we might start getting cancel for any reason insurance going forward. It really might be a very last minute decision on whether to go. Appreciate the insights on what it is like to travel from the folks who had surgery themselves. Recovery has definitely not been linear, but DW is feeling much better consistently, which is what is making her consider whether she'd want to go. 4 days ago it seemed impossible, then something to consider, and guess we'll wait and see what 4 days from now brings.

Thanks for the feedback folks, esp kazu with your unfortunate direct experience in this. We do not have insurance through HAL, nor cancel for any reason. But trip cancelation is available when there is a "medically imposed travel restriction", which the surgeon said they have no issue signing off on (which should tell us something). Time is not on our side, as we need to leave in 5 days, and yes -- from the U.S. Really, the air travel is about our only concern. If it was in our backyard, then a chance to recover on board ship would seem great. Sorry, didn't know the lingo but it looks like a collectors trip is the right phrase. One booking number, treated as one 14-day cruise, but is actually two 7-day cruises. We got a very good rate for the 2 weeks, so I doubt there is any reason to try to have it re-booked as 2 trips. Getting some money back on port fees wouldn't hurt, so that's something to look into. I've already got a call in to our PCC, waiting to hear back.

Hi all, Been lurking for a long time, but never posted. This has always been a wealth of information for us as we've cruised, so hoping to get some insights. We are scheduled to take a 14-day B2B around Norway starting next week. Unfortunately my wife needed last minute surgery scheduled a couple weeks ago. She's recovering slowly but still is weak and is convalescing. We're still trying to decide if we want to go ahead or not with our cruise, which we might skip entirely. If we do decide to go, she is leaning towards only going for 7 days, as 2 weeks is seeming like a lot at this point. Although it would help from a recovery standpoint to start on the second week leg, we are leaning towards trying the initial 7 day leg as it is our daughter's 16th birthday the first week, and we'd like to celebrate on board. Any idea what we should do beforehand? Should we contact HAL and let them know we will not continue on the second 7-day leg of the B2B or should we just let them know once on board? Is there any chance we can get any kind of future cruise credit for the second leg that we will miss? We have travel insurance through an outside company. We should be able to get a full refund of all our travel expenses if we don't go on this trip based on the recent surgery. If we decide based on her recovery to only go 1 week, is it possible to get travel reimbursement for changing our flights to accommodate 1 week (not Flight Ease, changes look to be on the order of $1000). Any chance we can get reimbursement for the second cruise week which we'd be skipping? If so, do we need to work with HAL to have the trip charged as 2 separate cruises rather than a B2B? Is this even possible? Sorry, lots of questions, thanks much for any insights! Her health is obviously most important. She's doing much better and the surgery was successful, thankfully. We thought we would just skip the cruise, but after 2 weeks of recovery she's going pretty stir crazy and the idea of continuing her convalescence aboard ship sounds like it might be just the thing.