Algebralovr

Not sure if I can mention the company, but one of the big 3 cel phone providers in the US has an international calling plan that has no added fees.

 

It works in 120 countries, texts are free, and calls are 20 cents per minute. It even works on Celebrity cruise ships (I think 50 cents per minute) Best deal out there. Even get unlimited (albeit low speed) internet/3G on your phone for no extra.

 

You can do online banking anywhere from your phone, since it is the same phone you have at home, and it is secure.

There is no problem at all in mentioning T-Mobile as a phone company. The names we are to avoid are the names of travel agents.

On my last cruise, we ordered an inexpensive Moto E phone, a smartphone running android, for $130. It does 3 G, but not 4G LTE. It worked everywhere we went. We texted all over for free, and calls were a reasonable price. I was thrilled to have it.

There were a couple of places where it cost extra to text or call, but it was good to have the phone in case we needed it.

There is a thread entirely about cruising with a service dog. Go to http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=585728&page=626

The cruiseline should provide you with forms from what I understand, but it sounds like you will have a unique experience. Please go to the disability forum and read the service dog thread, and ask lots of questions there so that you know what to expect.

I called Celebrity on Sunday afternoon about not being able to see my reservation and was told it was a known problem and to try again in about 2 weeks.

For some reason, the page at Celebrity that has the available sailings continues to show those package deals for Canada to those of us nowhere near Canada. I even received an email about them!

I'm on Reflection and not at all worried about the groups of neighbors from the north. There are plenty of available cabins on Reflection that are outside the Canada blocks. Just keep looking. I usually sort by date, and the available sailings show up first. Be aware that prices are fairly high this year. I also saw that the Midwest expects higher than normal snowfall this year. Makes me glad we'll be spending two weeks on Reflection.

Besides contacting your bank to let them know where you will be, also ask how much the fee will be for using it out of the country. Is your card the new chip and Pin style? Or is it chip and signature? Or no chip at all? If it is not chip and Pin, there may be places you cannot use it.

I also recommend you take a debit card to use to get cash from ATM as needed. We got the best transaction rates when using our debit cards. Make sure to let the bank k now where you will be.

We have cruised with friends and family. With the friends, we did our own thing during the day, and ate dinner together most evenings. A few times, they had other things they wanted to do, and we ate independently.

We also cruised with family, my mom, sister, and our two young adult kids. I arranged a number of excursions, after checking to see who was interested in going. Mom always went with us, sis and kids only part of the time. Mom seemed to hover, which we need to figure out how to handle before the holiday one next year.

The University of Missouri has spring break common for all four campuses. It is usually the last week of March, this year is March 22 - 29. My local school district is the same time.

We do not have time off for Easter as that is a religious date and as such has no relationship to the secular calendar.

USAA travel insurance is through TravelInsured, not Travel Guard. If you go through USAA you get a slightly better price than if you go directly to the company

We started using them a couple of trips ago. I always buy the middle policy. For a small fee, you can pay up to make the medical primary and with no deductible. I believe it was $25 per person.

We have not needed to use it, but we almost did. Air Canada took care of us, though, and no insurance needed.

I do like the way I can purchase when I book, then, as I add non-refundable costs, I can call to increase my coverage.

Regarding an excursion to Disney, or any of the Orlando theme parks, I would make other plans. Unless you are on a cruise that arrives to PC at 6 am and does an overnight, allowing you the full day, you really only get a short time in the park. If you want to go to Disney, make plans to go to Disney, stay on the park grounds so that you get extra Magic hours, and enjoy the entire place.

As for the lawsuit, the people who filed it are entitled abusers, who think they should be entitled to special treatment. They want to be able to line jump all the time, always going instantly to the front, and too bad to all the people waiting their turn. I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way. Disney came up with a nice way of arranging it, kind of like a special fast-pass. You get the card, then send a representative to the ride you want to reserve, then go back to that ride at the appointed time. It means you do have to wait your turn, but you don't have to wait there in the line if it will cause problems. The lawsuit filers don't want to wait their turns.

I really hope it gets thrown out of court.

I agree with Lsimon! The TA sold you the cruise, and now the TA cannot deliver. If Celebrity had not cancelled, you'd be going. This is one situation where the TA needs to suck it up.

Have you considered Amtrak?

I have been so disappointed in airfare that I even checked Allegiant prices. They fly out of an airport just outside of STL, really close to my mom's house. She offered to keep my car, plus drop us off and pick us up. But, it would have meant flying into Sanford - Orlando instead n of FLL, on Thursday instead of Friday for our Saturday cruise, and going home on Sunday day instead of Saturday. By the time I added in bag fees (they even charge for a carry on), two car rentals, two extra hotel nights, extra meals, tolls, and an extra day off work, it wasn't much cheaper than flying someone else.

Now to watch and see if it goes down further.

I finally bought our flights for February. When the schedule opened, the leg from STL to FLL was running well over $300. I usually pay under $200. Today it was $266. Southwest is one of the few that provides a non-stop from STL to the FLL - MIA area.

Finally paid $451 round trip for each of us. I got his with points, paid cash for mine. If I see a better price show up, I'm more likely to use the credit than he is.

If I had bought back in March on AA, I think I could have flown for a little less, but once you include bag fees and the hassle of 7-9 hours of travel time and plane changes, I'm happy to pay just a little more. Allegiant could have gotten me to Orlando, but a day earlier, required a car rental from Sanford, FL to MIA/FLL, then a day later. The savings would have been eaten up in the extra hotel and car rentals.

My travel agent considers the two lines quite equal. All she does is cruises. She is definitely a Holland cheerleader. I'm pretty sure she is also a smoker.

When she realized just how badly I react to smoking, she recommended Celebrity.

We pretty much always book way ahead. In 2011, we booked Eclipse for Feb 2012, a 2D room that we gave about $900 per person for. The prices dropped after final payment, but our TA recommended we stay in our booked room (she was right as it was on the hump with a huge balcony). We came home and booked C3, which we paid about $1050 or $1100 per person for, to sail on Reflection in Feb 2013. We paid $1700 per person to sail 11 nights in Feb 2014. Then they came out with 123GO. We were lucky enough to have it added at no additional cost.

Then we booked our Feb 2015 cruise, a C2 for the price of a C3, since we booked on board. I think we paid $1139 and it has gone up to $1249. That $1249 seems to be the normal price for the room we want at the time we want it now. We do get the "free" beverage package, which I probably would have bought anyway.

We took the ship's general tour of Santorini in June 2014. I think we had about 45 minutes in Oia, but it might have been more. We were on the first bus to arrive, and then we went to the winery. Our guide encouraged us to listen to her as she pointed out the sights of note, then we had some time to walk around. We had time to do a little shopping, use the restroom (0.5€ each I think), then back to the bus. We had to stand in line a bit at the restroom and there were 5 of us.

She told us to please be prompt so that we would be among the first at the winery. Being first at the winery meant the refreshments were untouched, no lines, and we had places to sit.

We went early in the morning, and weren't hungry as we had eaten breakfast on board the ship. I think we had to be in the theater about 7 am.

All good things to consider. The biggest advantage I feel I have is the flight leaves RIC early enough so that if I see a large delay or cancellation, I can make other arrangements. Also looks like there are plenty of other flights at our connection to FLL. Ideally, I would love to fly in a day early and stay a day later, but we do not have that luxury, so I will most likely have to take my chances.

..

Even that isn't a guarantee. I was supposed to fly out of Madison, WI at 6:30 am, connecting through Chicago's O'Hare about 8, to arrive in Indy at 11am a couple of weeks ago. The plane I was supposed to fly on had mechanical issues and the flight was cancelled. The airline could not find sufficient seats, even by interlining people, to fly everyone out that day. I ended up driving to O'Hare with a couple of other people. The airline had rebooked me on a connection that was to leave at 1:20. It got backed up somewhere, and finally left O'Hare about 2:45 and I arrived in Indy after 5 pm.

This was in the summer, with no storms along the way.

Thank goodness I really didn't have to be anywhere that day. If I had been trying to get to a cruise ship, I would have been a total wreck!

 

The latest (since the information that you linked to) is that it has changed again and the OBC can be applied to your current cruise or the future cruise.

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I'm glad to hear you can now get OBC for the future cruises.

Using a different card on board should not have mattered. Your cruise line screwed up. Most lines would have credited your account for the canceled excursion, and if there was a balance, would have credited the registered card at the end.

What does your final statement from on board say?

I agree with the rest - don't email, call the cruise line.

What is a COS? Is it yet another privileged that gets to board ahead of me?

 

One thing I like about SW is the people with young children do not get to board first but between group A and B. Now if we can do something about the allegedly handicapped people who get pushed up to the boarding area in a chair, walk around the boarding area w/o any problems, and then sit down in the chair and get pushed up the boarding ramp before group A.

 

Some of them are obviously handicapped but if they can walk around the boarding area, they can also walk up the ramp to the plane.

 

DON

Not necessarily. My DD spent a couple of months in a wheelchair. She could walk short distances, but could walk or stand for more than a few minutes. She was encouraged to walk when she could, however, so that she would not lose muscle control and balance.

We pre-boarded her in June, and she was assisted onto the plane, but did sometimes take a few steps while waiting for the plane. There is no way she could have walked all the way down the ramp to the plane.

People who pre-boarding are not allowed to sit in the exit row, which has the most leg room. Therefore, I don't really care.

Sorry, but unlikely. The chocolate martinis are above the max on the Classic package. They are offered on the premium. The cost to upgrade is about the cost of one chocolate martini per day.

That alone is why I upgraded.

They have switched to OBC now, rather than OBC on the cruise you booked. Info is located at http://www.celebrityonboardcruisesales.com/#cruisenow

Did he offer you OBC for the current cruise on the Royal ship?

We've stayed in that one, as well as the 17th St one and liked plantation better. Just rent a car, looking for a discount coupon code. There is a mall close by, and plenty of places to eat nearby, but a car will definitely help.

Also consider that you can update your policy now with additional non-refundable costs. We did that in May, about 3 weeks before a trip, when we added a couple of tours that we pre-booked and our hotel.

My understanding is that with secondary coverage, you submit to your regular insurance, then any additional costs are covered by the travel insurance company. So if you have a $3000 deductible on your regular insurance, then you submit the EOB that shows the regular insurance didn't pay that first $3000 and the travel insurance will reimburse it to you.