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new_cruiser

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About Me

  • Location
    Sacramento, California
  • Interests
    Small ship cruising and small group tours.
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Windstar

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. I the dental visit went well for you. Are you on the mend and back on the ship or heading back home?
  2. And all aboard is usually 5 PM. You should receive an email with a boarding document that has the all aboard time. When we did it, we used a private transfer from Panama City with a half day of sight seeing along the way. We went to Portobelo to see the Caribbean end of the Spanish Gold Route across Panama. The driver also took us to see the Gatun Dam which was interesting. Most of the stops are nature related (or Canal history/technology related). There is a lot of bio diversity in Panama and Costa Rica because of climate and because of the isthmus mingling North and South American species. The Windstar tours are usually not crowded and usually have quite good guides, but as a party of 6, you probably can do well booking your own tours.
  3. Travel insurance probably covers someone flying out to support you if needed. I think that's a pretty standard provision if you have someone able to do that.
  4. I expect you didn't know you were going to need a root canal when you booked your trip. Pre-existing exclusion usually applies to a condition that arose or changed within some number of days (e.g. 120 days) before you bought the insurance. Not something that happened after buying insurance. So, assuming bought the insurance some time ago, that shouldn't apply. As a matter of principle, I never buy insurance from a company I'm traveling with. I want the insurance to be independent of my travel carrier (airline, cruiseline, etc.). I had travel insurance when I had the broken arm, but they got off lightly. Kaiser covers emergency care internationally so I submitted my bills to them and they reimbursed all but the hospital copay I would have had for same treatment at home. United waived the change fee and fare difference. They even gave me the upgrade that was wait listed for my original flight.
  5. If I've added up the times correctly, you are around 6 days post root canal with pain and swelling that is getting worse and worse. I think the time for meek is over. If your cruise is 7 days, it will be almost half over by Marseille and you likely won't feel better right away. It's time to get medical attention on shore even if that means debarking early. If your cruise is longer than 7 days, you can catch back up to it when you feel better.
  6. I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing this. Is there any possibility of an earlier stop where you could visit an endodontist or even other medical help on land? I think I would worry more about the possible damage that may be going on from an unchecked infection. Possibly intervention other than a new antibiotic and pain medication is called for such as draining the infection. If it is much worse after 36 hours on the new antibiotic, it seems like that isn't doing the trick. Do you have trip insurance? It may be time to prepare to leave the ship to get medical intervention. I broke my arm on an excursion on the penultimate day of a solo cruise (on Star Clipper, not Windstar). These decisions are difficult. We didn't know it was broken and visited a clinic that wrapped it up and I reboarded, but looking back on it, I realize there were indications that it was broken. I debarked the next day and went to a hospital that the ship had arranged. Because it was a compound fracture, I ended up having to get immediate surgery and then stay in the hospital for 3 days for IV antibiotic before heading home. I hope you get seen soon for effective treatment.
  7. That's unusual in my experience. Perhaps it helps that our most recent cruises have been cool weather ones: an unseasonably cool summer New Zealand/Australia and a fall Venice to Rome. Someone in a singlet or shorts would have been pretty cold.
  8. For our Venice to Rome cruise last fall, we spent 5 days in Venice before boarding and 5 more days in Rome after the cruise. Arrive on board with most clothes needing laundry and debark with most clothes clean ready for the rest of the adventure.
  9. They collect passports on most cruises. For my Japan to Alaska cruise they didn't collect them until after the last Japan port because Japan requires you to take the passport ashore (though mine was never checked at those port stops.
  10. If they don't give passports back as a matter of course to all passengers because some might want to do this, you can let reception know your plans and pick the passports up from them the evening before or that morning.
  11. You can get a laundry package for $19 per day per double occupancy cabin ($9.50 if solo). It has to be bought for the full cruise. Star Collectors or cruises 14 days and longer include the package without charge.
  12. In addition to GeezerCouple's suggestions, there is also and Alaska section of the forums. Look in Ports of Call for Alaska. It is best to post questions about a specific area or a specific cruise line in the part of the board dedicated to that topic. You are more likely to get responses there. If you are tendering in the bigger Alaska ports like Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, then it probably means that all the docks are occupied - therefore a pretty busy day for the port.
  13. There is a range for dinner. No t-shirts and no shorts. Nice jeans are allowed (not ripped ones). After more than 30 years in the tech industry, we are pretty casual - mostly polos and slacks for dinner for both of us; sometimes nice jeans on a cooler weather cruise. But plenty of people dress up more than that (perhaps more women than men). So if you would be more comfortable being around the average dressiness of others, you might go a step up from that. Depending on season and location, you might want to bring something warmer for dining on deck (BBQ, Candles and, for the Star ships, the Grill).
  14. They did fine with my silk masks when cruises resumed after COVID and my bras have come out fine. Those are the most delicate things I travel with. I did send the masks in in a separate bag with a note on the laundry tag that they were silk.
  15. I don't understand the comments saying the tender stairs are rickety. I find them solid enough. They are metal stairs that can be collapsed and stowed when not in use but they are sturdy. I was on Wind Surf last October/November and we tendered at a couple of ports. Yes, they always do there best to make tendering efficient, but it gets challenging when the sea is a bit rougher. On our last cruise, there was one port where they kept having to pause loading or unloading because of the swell - late October in the Mediterranean. Most of the time it has been smoother than that so it's not common but it happens.
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