Vagabond Knight

So, now that I sent ONCE AGAIN sent them the medical summary with the diagnosis and the detailed treatment and medication list, and the receipt from the infirmary showing it was paid, and the onboard account showing it was paid, and the credit card statement showing that the onboard account was paid, they email me today saying they're continuing assessment of my claim but they now want the full medical report. Maybe they thought that would trip me up, but I did already have all twelve pages scanned and ready to go in case they got that ridiculous. I actually think this goes above and beyond what I should have to submit and is an invasion of my privacy, but I'll play their little game for now. We're buying insurance today for three more cruises, and you can be assured that we are NOT buying it through IMG.

Excellent! I haven't been so fortunate. Last week IMG asked me to send the proof of medical treatment, diagnosis, charges and payment, which I'd already sent them when I placed the claim a month ago. I submitted those documents AGAIN and also wrote another note asking how they'd managed to lose the documents that I'd already sent. Crickets chirping....

My husband and I are also craft beer aficionados (and home brewers). We have been to Alaskan Brewing on a couple of cruise stops but the last one was 2016 and so I don't know if things are the same there or what may have changed by now. We went to the brewery itself and not the public house. If it's still the same, you wouldn't take kids to the main brewery because there's no food there AND they'd be bored to tears. Alaskan Brewing beer is wonderful, especially their smoked porter, so it sounds like the public house would be a good stop for you. If you will also be visiting Skagway, make it a point to go to Skagway Brewing. Their food was amazing when we visited, as well as their beer. They moved to a larger location a few years ago and we can't wait to see it. Hope it retained the warm and friendly character of the old location. It's one of our favorite stops in Alaska! We also took some kind of gold dredge excursion in Skagway that bored the heck out of us, but we got through the boredom encouraged by the fact that there was tiny nanobrewery onsite or nearby that we planned to visit after the tour. I have forgotten the name of the brewery, but it was awful. They had four beers on tap and one taste was worse than the last. We try to be supportive of small breweries, but we couldn't even bring ourselves to buy a "pity pint" there.

We have taken MANY private excursions over the years from various sources such as Viator and Shore Excursions Group, and individual companies such as Cosol Tours in St Lucia, Joe Banana Limos in Italy, and Harv & Marv Whale Watching in Alaska. The private tours have always been much better than the ship's tours and often less expensive. We've never had an issue, but we always have trip insurance to back us up. There are many reasons a port can be missed. Many have already been mentioned, and another is if the ship has to divert due to a medical emergency. I see the vendor's viewpoint as well regarding no refunds since many small businesses would be financially harmed by last minute cancelations. Personally, we would not hesitate to book an excursion from an external party as long as they've been around for a while and are highly rated, but we'd also ensure that the funds (and any possible trip interruption) are covered by our travel insurance. We would have missed out on many extraordinary experiences if we'd restricted ourselves to excursions offered by the cruise lines. We recently took a four cruise 47 day trip with 20+ ports and I think only two of our excursions were through one the cruise lines.

Wow, that would be kind of crazy since it affects EVERYONE on a very direct and regular basis. 😲

I have not been on the Mardi Gras yet (going in a few weeks), but did transatlantics in both directions (Port Canaveral - Barcelona) a couple of months ago on the Freedom. The ship was old, tacky, depressing, and the food was terrible. We would never sail that ship again. However, what we also learned was that we probably don't ever want to take a cruise on ANY ship that's going into or coming out of dry dock/refurbishment. They had contractors onboard working on the ship on the way over AND on the way back. Some passengers were treated to drilling and hammering near their cabins through the night. We had to walk over cables and extention cords in the hallways. There were guys in the hallway with masks on pulling down ceiling tiles. None of the washers and dryers were working for days on the way back because they hadn't finished installed the new panels. There were plumbing issues and flooding in some cabins and hallways. Some of the hallways outside cabins on at least three of the floors had a strong smell similar to animal urine on the way back... don't know if it was from a solvent used in the refurb, or due to something being opened up that hadn't been opened in years, or a glue of some kind, or what. There was paint overspray on balconies that hadn't been cleaned up yet and plastic hanging off the edges of newly installed windows.

The inflation numbers that the government claims do not match what I've experienced personally. I'd love to know what's gone down in price over the last couple of years enough to offset the 35-40% increase I've seen at the grocery store.

Agree. The segments that actually contained cruise information were somewhat helpful, though when I actually did want to grab some specific information it went by too fast. No biggie, I can do online research with the best of 'em. My issue is that far too much time was spent on one of the employee's life story and on asking about everyone's favorite destinations. What someone did when they were a kid, or the favorite port of a cruise line employee, does not influence which cruises I take. Please just give me the destination descriptions/pic and the juicy details on itineraries.

I did contact Steve at the Trip Insurance Store and he's checking into it for me. His reaction was, "Why didn't you contact me when you needed to file a claim? I would have helped." Honestly, it never occurred to me to involve the insurance broker. I figured once they helped you find the policy that suited you and sold it to you, they were done. Pretty impressive that he feels compelled to follow through and help his customers with claims. I would imagine that's not what the majority do. Funny you mention filing a suit. I've only ever sued anyone once, and that was a homeowners insurance company that "didn't act in good faith." I had very detailed documentation and, though it took a while, I won and it cost them FAR more than it would have cost them to simply do what they were supposed to do at the beginning.

I am dealing with a claim right now from IMG/itravelinsured, also purchased from Trip Insurance Store and I'm getting extremely frustrated. I got sick on the second cruise of a 47 day four cruise trip, and the ONLY expense I'm trying to recover is the part of the charges from the ship's infirmary that were not covered by my regular insurance... no excursions, no trip delay, no loss other than the rest of the cost of the medical charge. I filled out the form and provided them with the medical documentation and receipt, the cruise itinerary/invoice and proof of payment (credit card statement). The auto-reply I got when I submitted the claim said I needed all receipts for the entire trip. I called an talked to a customer service rep who said that just the information for that one cruise should do it. Then another email after that said I need that info for the entire trip. What??? I'm now scrambling to come up with invoices from the other three cruises and travel items, all of which were not affected, and I have to send ten credit card statements from three different credit cards for pieces of the trip that we purchased over a period of eight months, plus the final folios for each cruise. This makes no sense whatsoever. How would the two cruises after I got sick affect payment of the illness on the second cruise? I feel like they're trying to make this a hardship and hope that I give up trying to collect from them.

I very much like the idea of some quiet public areas, free of phone conversations, especially (but not limited to) those using speaker-phone mode and free of music coming from phones or personal speakers. The Elks Club member who mentioned their club having a rule that people were supposed to leave their club's bar area to take an incoming call or make a call had the right idea. I doubt that any of us are opposed to someone texting (without sounds on), taking photos or browsing the internet or cruise line app with sound turned off. However, having to listen to loud video calls with someone's grandkids, or a remote work call laying into an employee who missed a project deadline, or a video game, or a YouTube video of people laughing at others doing face plants doesn't make for a very relaxing time when you're in quiet relaxation mode. Yes, some of it's just common courtesy and there's no way to prevent all of this all over the ship, and there shouldn't be anyhow... sharing fun stuff with others a great way to spend some of your vacation time... but there should be at least a few areas to get that true quiet relaxation time without having to hole up on your stateroom. It should be somewhat easily enforceable if only restricted to a few specific, well-marked areas.

Sorry, but that's not a problem with the title, that's a problem with reading comprehension. Apparently, the OP needed to title the thread "Just a Question: Would you support "no cell phone" AREAS on Ships?" Unfortunately, I'm not sure it's possible to change the font size and color on a thread title.

I shake my head at the number of people who carry on phone conversations while in a public bathroom stall with uh, bodily function noises happening and toilets flushing all around them. I don't feel like that needs to be a "quiet space," but personally I feel it's kind of disrespectful to the person on the other side of the conversation. 😒

It seems that some read the thread title as "no cell phone areas" instead of "no cell phone" areas. OP was not suggesting a ban in all common areas, but rather a few quiet "escape" areas. If someone needed to be available by phone to work or family at all times during their cruise, they would simply not hang out in those quiet areas. Sounds reasonable to me. You'd still have your stateroom and most of the ship to be available and in touch if you need that constant audible connectivity.

Getting a reminder from the cruise line may be nice but should not be relied upon. It's ultimately up to the customer (and/or their TA) to remember to make a payment on time, using whatever method works best for them. My husband and I use a Google calendar to keep track of activities, appointments, vacations, birthdays, etc. and whenever we book a cruise we put the payment deadlines and the $ amount on the calendar and set an email notification and pop-up notifications that alert us prior to the deadline.

Having done Aqua for a number of cruises, I would answer NO. What we enjoy about Blu is the fact that it's smaller, quieter, and has such personalized service when you're there for the duration of the cruise (just a wee bit better than the MDR since Celebrity's MDR service is also very good at dinner). That, and breakfast. Making it a pay-for-dinner specialty dining option would not entice me because the only advantage we'd retain is the smaller and quieter aspect of Blu. We would no longer have servers with whom we had a "relationship" and who knew our preferences, and obviously the breakfast advantage would be gone. I enjoy the food in Blu, but I don't find it to be any better than the MDR.

That would be marvelous! TIA

Has anyone taken the Celebrity excursion "Small Group: San Gervasio Mayan Ruins with Local Historian?" It's offered on our "Connie" cruise in March. Pros? Cons? Worth it or not? Thanks!

We were on the Escape this week out of Port Canaveral, Florida and had all our MDR and specialty dining booked ahead for dinner each night. All went extremely smoothly with no wait. Just a couple of minutes wait (< 5) when heading to MDRs for breakfast or lunch (no reservations).

I love me some rockin' & rollin' on a cruise ship! It's the rapid jigglin' that's weird and uncomfortable, but thankfully that's finally gone. The chandeliers in Savor or Taste, wherever we were for breakfast, were really dancing this morning when we were jigglin'. 😁

Yes, whoever said that "Free at Sea" was extremely misleading was absolutely correct. They could call it "Freedom at Sea" since you're free from deciding if you think a particular cocktail is worth the price to you, you're generally free from signing charge slips if you get something that falls within your plan's price range, etc., but the name of the program implies no cost when the cost is actually quite substantial. Would like to see NCL and other lines be up front about what you're getting for what price, but I guess that will never happen. In my dreams they'd only be allowed to advertise the starting price of the cruise by using a number that included all non-optional service charges, port charges, taxes and "gratuities."

What the heck is this constant jiggling motion tonight with the ship? We're midship and it's driving me crazy. Can't read, can't get to sleep. I love when a ship is rocking, but this is more of a quick wiggling motion that does not feel like normal ship movement.

We did our first NCL cruise in October on the Dawn. My husband made all the dining reservations online ahead of time. The first night, we went to the Venetian at our "scheduled" time, gave them our name and said we had a 7:30 (or whatever it was) reservation. They told us there are no reservations unless you have a large group. My husband whipped out his phone and showed them the screenshot of all our dining reservations for the week (which included both MDRs and specialty restaurants) and they acted kind of snippy with us, insisting that there are no reservations in the MDRs. Asking "Then why was I able to make reservations online?" and showing the screenshot did not impress them... they just looked at us like we were crazy. The food was excellent on the Dawn for the most part, but the reservations (or no reservations) thing in the MDRs was confusing and rather annoying.

Ship - Dawn Deck - 8 Stateroom # - 8082 Stateroom Category – OK (Obstructed Oceanview) Starboard or Port Side - Starboard Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Absolutely not. 1) There are storage/work rooms for the crew next door and across the hall. 2) The first couple of days when everyone is getting used to the ship layout, people are often talking loudly outside the door while trying to figure out whether they're lost or not, due to the room being on a turn at the end of a somewhat confusing hallway. 3) The lifeboat outside the window (which is right next to the bed) also serves as a tender boat, so at tender ports you tend to be awaked by loud whirring motors and banging as the crew prepares the tender and lowers it into the water around 6:15am. 4) There is a crew catwalk right outside the window that provides access to the tender/lifeboat, so there would often be crewmembers talking right outside our window, or going into the boat to clean/check it, or hanging out in it on break. One day, some crew group held some kind of meeting in the boat. Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No Balcony View - It is an obstructed view and so you're looking into a tender/lifeboat unless you're at a tender port and the boat has been lowered. You do get natural light into the room however, because when the tender/lifeboat is in place, it has windows that line up with the stateroom's window. The window in the tender/lifeboat is not clear enough to see through, but do pass daylight. Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - N/A Was wind a problem? - N/A If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A Any specific problems with this cabin? - 1) Read the comments regarding the room not being quiet. 2) The layout of the room is awkward because, other than the bed, everything is based in the same small area. If someone's accessing the drawers, you can't get to the closet. If someone's accessing the closet, you can't get to the bathroom or drawers, etc. 3) There is a fold-down bunk next to the master bed that makes getting out on that side a serious challenge if it's not folded down since it obviously needs to stick out from the wall. Seems it would hang over the bed quite a bit (we didn't open it) when folded down. 4) A metal cot (for the 4th person) is under half the master bed and so you cannot store suitcases under that side as we'd normally do. 5) The stateroom supposedly accommodates four people, but we cannot imagine how four people could possibly co-exist in there. It seems that when the cot for the 4th person is brought out it would block the way to the bathroom and make it near impossible to move around the cabin. 6) One of the drawers would absolutely not stay closed unless you jammed a folded up piece of paper into the side of it. 7) With the catwalk next to the window, there is no privacy since crew members were right outside the window surprisingly often. Any other comments? - Pretty convenient to quickly get to the mid-ship elevators or O'Sheean's.

We've decided to take the Bee Le Havre bus over to Honfleur when our October cruise stops in Le Havre. Does anyone have any wonderful restaurant recommendations for lunch in HonFleur?