kastke

9 hours ago, CFLRetired said:

Thank you all very much.  I just booked a Panama Canal cruise.  

We will also be on the Radiance for Panama Canal in Oct 2024. Booked this morning, We sailed Radiance in 2018 for Alaska, and the bow was a great location for the glacier viewings, It will also be a great location for viewing both sides of the canal at same time. 

We took an Alaska cruise in 2018 when my husband was about 14-15 months into 2 years of treatment for his cancer. Did both land tour and cruise. Exhaustion was his biggest issues from his treatments, so we made sure to keep our afternoon schedules mostly free. He pushed himself for excursions, rested in the afternoons, and was able to enjoy the evenings. 

Enjoy your planning, enjoy the cruise, but definitely leave enough free time in your schedule for taking naps! They're good for you!  

1 hour ago, dswallow said:

 

I read it. Just saying, one vacation vs another and the difference is because you don't want to take a test, well... I simply turned the words around and said the same thing.

No, you did not say the same thing at all. I am not risking spreading infection while hiking and exploring canyons and mountains with no one but my spouse.  Quit being a jerk and go flame someone else. 

8 minutes ago, dswallow said:

 

You know you can reword that a bit and it takes on a whole different meaning...

 

"Instead I can go on a US vacation someplace that doesn't require getting tested, then I can spread the infection around during my entire trip without interrupting my vacation."

 

RT-PCR tests are really very accurate with positives. They can produce false negatives. And in the case of a negative, you could test a second time and possibly be OK, and even if not, Royal Caribbean provides a full refund if you test positive for COVID-19 in the approximately 2 week period prior to the sailing date.

 

 

Perhaps you didn’t read that I said we were fully vaccinated.

Are you aware how much vast open land, national and state parks, there are in the United States that can be explored and visited with barely even seeing another person, and you can still mask and social distance safely if you do encounter other people. Less risk of spreading infection than even being on an airplane.
 

I haven’t seen anyone else in this thread flamed for stating their dealbreaker to cruising. I’ll thank you to accept my dealbreaker as it is. I’m not getting Covid tested to leave the country or to get on a ship. 
 

My dealbreaker = taking a Covid test before boarding and at debarkation. We are vaccinated. I’m not taking the chance on a false positive test forcing me to miss my vacation or quarantine somewhere for two weeks before going home. 
 

There are plenty of destinations in the US to explore and vacation at until the Covid test requirement goes away. We did it last year safely with driving trips, and have more planned this year, both flying and driving. 

1 hour ago, Cigar King said:

We're thinking about it, but, the flights are terrible for us.

Presuming you are still traveling from IL, we have seen the same issue with flights to Barbados in the past.  I love these new itineraries, but I won’t book a flight that connects through Canada, having to go through customs after the first leg of the flight. I’m looking forward to seeing more feasible connection opportunities. 

42 minutes ago, orville99 said:

So, for a family of four - you, your spouse, and two children, your total "tad" for public health care is ~$28,000. Before I retired, our health insurance (DW and me) was the best plan available in the U.S. (often referred to as a Platinum plan), and the full cost was ~$14,000, ~$3,600 of which was our out of pocket costs, with the rest covered by the employer. Our eldest child - Family of four - on the same plan from the same employer - was exactly the same cost as ours.

I don't know anything about Platinum plans, but I think I can do you one better. Before I retired which was just last year .... Total medical insurance premiums thru my employer for my husband and myself were $2750 a year, with a $500 deductible and $2500 out of pocket max including the deductible. This was a BCBS PPO policy which covered any and all preventative visits and tests at 100%, no deductible. My husband went thru 2 years of cancer treatments and it never cost us a penny over $2500 each year. It was a great company to work for. We were extremely fortunate! 

5 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Mine Does:

 

Is that your Supplemental insurance plan?

Original Medicare does not cover outside the U.S. medical care.

8 minutes ago, FOXTROT said:

We waited 30 days after our symptoms stopped. Not good enough for son & daughter in law. They are both nurses & recommended our doctor. They also say how good the doctors in their hospital are. All the doctors say the same as you. We are supposed to have them over for dinner on Wed. Ten weeks since our symptoms stopped. This all could have been averted if Celebrity had taken a few simple precautions. The same precautions they implement on ships that have norovirus cases. No instead the Capt. lied to us twice a day.  

It’s a tough situation all the way around. I understand your frustrations, and also understand your son & daughter-in-law’s position. Would an antibody test relieve their concerns? My granddaughter lives several states away, so we didn’t have to make that tough decision of when we felt safe enough to visit again. Love her dearly, but my husband is also immunocompromised. 

On 6/9/2020 at 8:49 PM, FOXTROT said:

We tested positive 2 months ago. Have tried to be retested(to see our grandkids). Doctors say no, we are cured. There are not enough tests for this. 

My 22 year old granddaughter also tested positive. She had a fairly severe case, but did not need to be hospitalized. She also has never been retested - she was told if she self-quarantined for 14 days after all symptoms were gone, she would be fine. Which is what she followed. That method doesn’t help anyone who tests positive, but is asymptomatic, though. 
 

We spent 3 days in Copenhagen after this Transatlantic. We purchased the Copenhagen card ahead of time, online, and had it sent to our house. It was good to have in advance. Did not have to concern ourselves with finding where to buy it. 
 

We also stayed at Hotel Bethel, which John referenced above. The location is excellent, hotel was nice. There was remodeling going on while we were there, so a few small inconveniences construction related, but nothing drastic. I would not hesitate to stay there again. 

26 minutes ago, dodgestang said:

 

 

But to put it bluntly....I don't want to lift/shift until after a cancel happens.  ....so I want to make sure I protecting my room choice hence the reservation and not just wait to do a lift and shift after formal notice of cancel.

My understanding is once Royal announces a cancellation, lift and shift is no longer available for those sailings. 

3 hours ago, oceanlovinmama said:

..... I have worked more, for not a penny, in these past 2 month because of all the refunds, FCC's and lift and shifts, than I did before.... 

Actually, since the cruise line is protecting your commission, you are not working “for not a penny”.  You are just doing more work to earn your money. 
 

I was a salaried employee before I retired. My pay was the same, whether I worked 40 hours or 60 hours. Too many of those 60 hour weeks might have made it seem like I was working for nothing, but I was not. No different for sales reps/travel agents. Some commissions are easily earned, some you have to work your tail end off to earn. 

2 hours ago, Bailey & Sophie said:

 

My uncle stormed Normandy. He was in the first round of men. He never talked about it. 

I get that. My dad was on an aircraft carrier that was bombed twice; he was off the coast of Japan the day Japan surrendered. He would never talk about the war either.... until after 9/11. That was a turning point for him to make sure his grandkids and great grands knew the history. 

17 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

We had the Blarney Castle excursion through the ship

Obviously, this was a morning excursion, and it was still chilly

Admission to the site was included in the excursion, but we had to wait for the site to open

It opened at 9am

 

 

We did the Blarney Castle excursion also, but with a private tour. We must have arrived there shortly before you, as I see myself in the picture of the other line (right hand side). My red hair is usually an easy telltale mark! It was great getting to the Castle before the lines, and thoroughly enjoyed our time exploring the gardens. I did kiss the stone, but Bill did not - he wouldn’t have been able to get up easily either. 
 

We had lunch in Kinsale, then had the driver drop us off at the Church in Cobh,  explored the area, and walked back down to the port, saw the Titanic Memorials and Museum. It was just a great day all the way around. 
 

Dorothy 

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

It is absolutely a hard rule. They gave as an example of moving a  to a 3 day and it is not allowed. 
 

you can call and try since it’s a holiday cruise.  Maybe they will make an exception 

I know you say the number of days is a hard rule. We currently have a Vancouver to Hawaii 11 night booked for Sept 2020. The ONLY Vancouver to Hawaii route currently offered in Sept 2021, or the 4 week window, is a 10 night cruise. Do you think they would honor that switch? 

I’ve never wiped down a cabin, probably won’t do it in the future. 
I’ve always carried hand sanitizer in my purse and my car. I spent far too much time at softball games for my kids and grandkids, breezes kicking up baseball dust and some parks with porta-potties but no hand washing stations made that a necessity years ago!! 

5 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I'll give you my thoughts. I enjoyed Serenade but we had a very port intensive cruise with only one sea day. It is a beautiful ship and I would sail again for the right itinerary. But we really prefer ships that have a Royal Promenade. Also, in my opinion, the pool deck and pool on Radiance class ships is just too small for the number of passengers the ships carry.....

I agree with all the above. I do enjoy the Serenade and other Radiance class ships, but we also like the Royal Promenade. We sailed Vision for a B2B Southern Caribbean this winter, and that ship has a much larger, and nicer, pool area than Radiance class. However, other than for the pool area, I would not want to sail a Vision class again. Just too small for me. 

5 hours ago, Erica@cruisecritic said:

Jumping in as the family expert from Cruise Critic's editorial team! 😉

 

Is this your first kid? 1.5 year olds are all kinds of energetic, and it's hard to know at 8 weeks the personality of yours. Will he be the kind of kid who happily sleeps in a stroller through a show and play happily with whatever toys are at hand, or will he be like mine who at 1 was trying eat the decorative rocks in the atrium, spent endless hours pushing a walking toy up and down the cabin hallways and would only nap in his pack n play. I can tell you the latter is exhausting, and 2 weeks with nowhere to go would have been torture. YMMV -- which is why I recommend getting to know your kid before booking a long cruise with no ports. Some will handle it gracefully, and others won't.

 

This. 
 

My youngest daughter, at 18 months old, was a runner, climber, and LOVED the water. Had NO fear. There’s no way I would have known at 8 weeks old how her temperament would be at 18 months. She would not have been content with the kiddie splash pool, she would have wanted to be in the main pool. Not allowed if a child is in diapers. It would not have been a fun vacation for anyone taking her on a cruise at 18 months old. I also am not the type that would go on a family vacation with my children to put them in a day care or nursery. 
 

We were also on this TA.  Since you’re doing the review in real time, it will coincide with pictures popping up on my phone in memories. Thank you! This will be fun to follow along! 

We used one in February, and lost one for later this year. 

When the virus issues started, we knew we wouldn’t be taking our next 2 cruises due to husband is immunocompromised. I cancelled all cruise planner items and the cruise with refundable deposit and we have received all those refunds. We currently only have $900 “in play”, which I could get $700 as FCC if I cancel now, but don’t know if we’ll ever get to use it. Cruise is a repositioning Vancouver to Hawaii, before Serenade heads to Australia. Waiting to see if Alaska season gets cancelled completely, or Canada or Australia announce port closure extensions. Any of those happen before our final payment, we’ll take the cash refund, otherwise I figure we are out the money. I consider us fortunate that $900 could be our total loss! 

1 hour ago, PTAngel said:

I am 70+ & a type 2 diabetic.  The diabetes is controlled with medication.  I don't know of anyone over 70 that doesn't have some kind of issue.  This whole doctor note thing makes me feel like a second class citizen!  This is not fair to me or any other person that age.  

I have read so many times that no one knows anyone over 70 yrs old that doesn’t have some type of medical issue. I find that very sad and discouraging. My father took NO medications at all until he was 93 yrs old when he developed a viral heart infection. He was meticulous in taking care of his health and weight. Ridiculously meticulous. 
 

I appear to have my dad’s genetics. I’m grateful for that. Neither I nor my husband take any prescription medications either. We’re not 70 yet, but late 60’s. We won’t cruise anymore if we have to produce a dr’s note every time once we turn 70. I will be very disappointed if the rule is not relaxed by then, but there are plenty of other ways to vacations. 

6 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

... I read that the stimulus check is a refundable tax credit advanced from your 2020 tax return and “is similar to other refundable tax credits, like the child tax credit”.  My interpretation is that there will be a tax credit that will be calculated on our 2020 tax return because the stimulus check should be based on 2020 income.  If it is equal to your check, it is a wash.  If your check is more than you should have received because your 2020 income is higher, you do not have to repay it.  If you do not qualify for a check based on your 2019 tax return, but lose your job in 2020 and do qualify for a check based on your lower 2020 income, it will be added to your refund on your 2020 tax return.  

6 hours ago, Blizzard54 said:

The one-time payment — which the IRS is calling an "economic impact payment" — is technically an advanced tax credit meant to offset your 2020 federal income taxes. 

 

Based on what I found it is considered a tax credit. Does not need to be returned and not considered income.

I believe both of these statements are partially accurate. It will not be considered income, but my interpretation is there will be a true-up on 2020 tax returns to make sure you receive the correct amount based on 2020 income.
“Refundable” tax credit means if one’s income is so low that they have zero tax liability at the end of the year, they can still receive the credit. Some other credits only offset owed taxes. 
 

If your 2020 income is high enough that you will be in the phase-out portion of the credit, but you received the full $1200 payment, I believe you will have to pay back the excess you received when you file your 2020 return. On the other hand, a couple that has a baby in 2020 would be entitled to the $500 dependency payment, but won’t receive it now. That should be trued up when the couple files their 2020 return to give them the additional $500.

I am a recently retired accountant, more on a corporate and payroll tax level than personal income tax, but having done a lot of research in Federal tax codes, that is my best guess interpretation. 

I cancelled a refundable deposit Nov 2020 cruise on March 11.  Saw this morning that the credits were posted to credit card yesterday, so took about 3 1/2 weeks. Longer than originally told of course, but at least they are processing the refunds.