GeezerCouple

Yes, it can get tricky. Q: Is a tip to a bartender at popular [aka crowded] bars a tip or a bribe? Is it as a simple thank you (adding to their income; we appreciate the service, can afford it, and we want to share kind of thing)? 🙂 Is it to get free drinks, be it now or later? That latter sure seems like a bribe, and it's the owner/management who are losing out, far more than other customers in this case. Actually, that's probably a bribe/theft combo, a twofer! [I won't even mention when someone "shares" their drinks package with someone who didn't want to pay for the package or for any individual drinks, so we can pleasantly dispense with that, eh?] Or is it a thank you aka bribe to get faster servive later, when it is crowded, hoping for a repeat performance then, too? No one "isn't getting something" [apologies for that grammatical monster!], although others may, as a group on average, wait a bit longer. And no freebies are being offered on behalf of a non-participating owner/etc. Or?? GC

I am *not* commenting on the pool area "day beds"! However, the "bribery", aka tipping, described is NOT the same as tipping cabin attendants, or not in any way that we have experienced. A tip to a cabin attentant is, in our experience, offered AFTER good service has been provided. Yes, that might include some "extras" ("more towels please" or "can you make up the cabin by [time]?" or such), but - importantly - it is NOT at the expense of others. Last I understood, if we want extra towels each day, some other passengers are NOT being left without fresh towels that day! What is so unfortunate about the "pool deck day beds" (or any other location) is that while the chairs are being saved, NO ONE is able to use them. They remain in place, unused, while others would have enjoyed using them. The comment above about some pax offering other pax the chance to "borrow" "their"(?) lounge chairs while they went to salsa...? That had a double benefit; it probably wasn't entirely altruistic. They knew (hoped!?) that when they returned, they *would* get those chairs back. Had they just up and left...? "Not so much...!" Have there ever been sign up sheets for situations like this? With an X-hour maximum? That's probably blasphemous to suggest...? The closest thing I can think of like this was at a squash club, where sometimes there were courts empty and available, but other times there were many waiting. There was a time limit for any sign-up. Plus, if the court remained empty something like 10 minutes past the "reserved time", it was up for grabs. Fortunately, squash is sometimes referred to as "a gentlewoman's game" 😉 , so the "taking over of the abandoned court" did not result in a rough free for all. [But that was years ago; times have indeed changed. 😞 ] GC

I'm very glad they had travel insurance, and hope it was a good policy. However, this is an example of why everyone should *always* read the Terms & Conditions of any insurance policy (any *contract*, actually!). Almost always, it will be clear that one must pay expenses and then submit supporting documents for reimbursement. (RECEIPTS can be essential!) Whereas US hospitals and other medical providers have arrangements with most insurers, "ships" or other overseas/offshore facilities and providers very likely have no such agreement. How would they know who to bill? How would they know they'd ever get paid? I remember in one hospital in a high-tourist location, while DH was being seen in the ER, I was escorted to the billing office. There were signs on the wall to the effect of: "We will ONLY accept payment arrangements with the following travel insurers: <list> ALL other bills must be paid in full before discharge." I just handed over one of our charge cards, and went to be with DH, who was basically stable. Had he not been stable, I would have said, "Fine about the billing, but please send a billing dept rep *here* while I stay with DH, and I'll make the payments..." (In "true emergencies", where the patient is NOT stable, and we've had a few of those, the medical care comes first, and then "Billing" starts to show up. In some overseas locations, they won't let the patient leave without payment or arrangements. Worse, in some cases, they apparently won't *start* treatment until they've got a credit card or such... 😡 We always travel with a few charge cards, with a high total credit limit, just in case something like that would happen.) GC

And maybe spend a few of your vacation days (or a few *extra* vacation days?) at the other port, such as Barbados. I think there was one that went through the Panama Canal! That would probably add a lot of time to your trip, however. Enjoy! GC

I just Googled something like "cruises starting in Aruba" and got this: https://www.cruisecritic.com/find-a-cruise/departure-port-aruba And it's from CC 🙂 There are probably others if you search CC directly. ETA: They don't seem to go directly to Florida, but you could still spend those extra days on a cruise instead of in Aruba and fly home from Barbados or wherever. GC

Oh, the Lofoten! Yup - those look like really close quarters! 😲 We've heard so much about that ship. I knew they were going to retire it, but not when. That was Hurtigruten's oldest ship, IIRC. It looked a LOT different than their other ships! That must have been a really special trip, and quite the opposite of "luxe"! When I told DH that we were going to spend 12 days on a ... ferry... well, images of the Staten Island ferry no doubt rushed into his mind. 🙂 Then I had to start showing him photos to "prove" it wasn't anything like that... yes, a bit spartan, but still special. If we hadn't known about the "ferry" aspect, we'd never have realized it. But it was so interesting to sail into so many tiny little ports... it was all so beautiful. [We thought we'd really miss room service, but by the second day, we forgot all about it. I have no idea if their newer ships or their expedition ships have it.] We have photos at the Norway-Russia border, and it was a bit worrisome back then... now? I'm not sure we'd have taken that excursion (if it's even offered; I think Norway has closed that border). GC

Ah, memories!! 😀 Our Norwegian Coastal Round-Trip was on the Trollfjord. We loved the name of the ship! However, although the Trollfjord can indeed "fit" through the Trollfjord... it's not possible in the winter. It would still "fit". The concern involves snowy avalanches falling onto the ship - not good. There's no way for a ship to get far from a side, at least not without, er, somehow climbing up the other side! But we did turn and "face into" Trollfjord, and we (the passengers) all gasped. No one in the group with us, in the wonderful forward observation area, could believe the ship could ever get through, regardless of season. But that is the only time we wished we weren't there in the winter. Otherwise, we wanted to see the snowy landscapes. And the Northern Lights. It was all beautiful. That was one of our all time favorite trips, even though almost all of our other trips were more "luxe" (from a bit to a lot). GC

It sounds like you did not have that waiver of the pre-existing condition exclusion (that triple (?) negative means that pre-existing medical conditions are covered, as long as the affected person was fit to travel the day the insurance was started). Unfortunately, that probably means at a minimum that the claim might take extra time (and how much extra time!?!), and worse, the claim might be rejected... Also, the definition of "pre-existing medical condition" can be very different with travel insurance that in other uses most of us are familiar with. That can be a good thing for some, but a "not good" thing for others... Do you know if that was the reason, something to do with a pre-existing condtion? Because we *always* get that waiver, we have no experience with the claims process with that type of policy. It may not have helped this time, but in the future, you might want to consider buying travel insurance through an agent or broker. Then you have someone helping with the process. At the least, that could help make the claims process faster and less annoying. But perhaps they can word things differently or whatever such that some claims might be approved...? I'm very glad that you had the additional insurance through your charge card! GC

Another positive experience with Travel Insured. 🙂 Actually, *several* other positive experiences, all with Travel Insured! Unfortunately, we've had to make several claims and a few of them were large. ALL of them were paid promptly, and without nonsense. It might have helped that we always buy our travel insurance through www.TripInsuranceStore.com - Many others here on CC also do this, and that's how we learned about them (thanks to some wonderfully helpful CC members!). There was one time when the notice that our claim was approved took a bit longer than usual, so we called TIS. It turned out that although our claim was due to a medical emergency, there had just been a couple of hurricanse, so *all* of the travel insurance companies were swamped. They made a call on our behalf, and our claim was paid. That still didn't take long anyway. However, none of the other claims needed any intervention. NOTE: We are always very careful to include ALL of the necessary documentation, which means there aren't assorted "back and forth" communications. And we learned to get RECEIPTS for EVERYTHING! (This is so important.) All of it goes in together. (I didn't get a receipt for the *tip* for a taxi fare, and that was denied. The amount was so small, I never bothered to complain.) GC

When is your cruise? Can you call the special needs group? Can you tell from the floor plans if there seems to be room for a rollaway? Good luck! GC

Yes, to all of the "any meds, valuables, etc...." But we strongly recommend that those "irreplaceable things" ALWAYS STAY WITH YOU, including on the airplane... not just when you board the ship. We have a carry-on that includes the meds, and one of us almost always has a "hand on it". We also have smaller backup supplies elsewhere, including some true emergency supplies in a purse and/or pocket. (When we were younger, we never thought about these things. That was then, this is now. We feel fortunate that we can still travel, even if it isn't quite the same as before. 😉 ) GC

Regardless of the cruise line or ship class/category, DO seriously consider an itinerary that includes Hubbard Glacier. I have no idea how frequently ships don't actually get in to see it up close and personal. However, IF the rest of the itinerary is similar enough, choose one that does have that possibility. We had no idea what a treat we were in for! We had gone to Glacier Bay, and that was nowhere near as spectacular as Hubbard Glacier was... at least for our cruise. We got quite close, much closer than to anything in Glacier Bay, and we were fortunate (no idea how much this part can differ from time to time) to experience incredible calving! It was amazing! Beyond amazing! The ship stayed there for quite some time, and the Captain kept the ship slowly spinning so that the view from every part of the ship kept getting another view of Hubbard! Obviously, it would be great to walk around and keep the Glacier in sight (!), but all of the scenery was beautiful there. It was one of the high points of not just that cruise, but of all of our travels. I'm sure some of our experience there was just pure luck, but that's what travel often is about... finding something unexpected and very special! 😁 If you have a balcony or ocean view, try to get a cabin on the "land side" if you are going on a one-way trip. The scenery on the land side is wonderful. We went in late May, and we wanted to see more of the "snow-capped mountains" (this was before our winter cruise along the coast of Norway 😉 ), and it was wonderful. We also specifically wanted "northbound", as the scenery just keeps getting more and more wonderful. 🙂 Enjoy! GC

We wanted to mark them "our way", so we could quickly know which card went with which place. I assume we could have had the 'special' markings like colors/categories/whatever if we wanted them. We just wanted plain cards (and the use of a permanent marker for a few minutes!). One of the times we did this was on NCL. RM

Interesting. I'm not sure it's worth the staff time and potential for problems, but... I don't work for the cruise line! 😉 When does your cruise start? And can you tell if your category of cabin, or similar categories, are still well available? GC

One can get extra key cards (at least on some cruiselines or hotels!) without having connecting rooms. On ships, the extra cards don't have "charging privileges"; they are just used for entry. And they tend to be fairly blank (usually not color coded or such). We'd use a permanent marker to indicate which was for which cabin or suite... something like "Nana A" or "RC", so we weren't constantly fumbling and trying card after card from a small stack. 😉 GC

It may not be a matter of "how much someone wanted to pay." Chances are the cost to them was "regular", but the cruise had fewer cancellations than expected, so they didn't have space for all of the "Guaranteed" cabins that they had sold. Rather than getting a [deservedly!] bad reputation for cancelling on "guaranteed" passengers, they do what is necessary to free up the needed accommodations. That's most likely what has happened. RM

Welcome to CruiseCritic. You need to ask the cruiseline. If the cruiseline/ship is running the excursion, then from your guest documents, they'll know exactly how old you are. So IF at the last minute they bump you and don't give you a refund, you'll have no recourse. OTOH, if you are using an independent operator, I suppose you could, er, "pretend". However, I would not recommend that. But I might contact them (either way) to ASK if participation would be allowed. GC

Thanks to both napria and FetaCheese, for mentioning FlexiPax. I contacted TripInsuranceStore to ask about this particular policy. We have always purchased coverage through TIS from Travel Insured, and had excellent service including prompt payment from TI. Of course, we certainly wish we hadn't learned how the claims worked... *IF* we hadn't needed to file any claims in the first place! Anyway, it looks like that new FlexiPax may be suitable for us. I'll probably check further, but it seems that if they had offered FP in the past and we had gotten that, we'd have saved money on the premiums (definitely) and we would still have gotten the same amount back for those claims that we had filed. That latter I'm not 100% sure about yet, but it's definitely worth checking further. And as long as we can still purchase the policy through TripInsuranceStore.com *and* get their claims assistance for the occasional times we need it, that should work well. And again, MANY thanks to the various CC members who, back in mid 2013 helped us learn about both travel insurance in general, and TIS specifically... That has saved us so much money, given the claims we've had. (We'll never know if any of our claims would have been denied because they were due to pre-existing conditions, because we always got that waiver so there were no such exclusions. My opinion is that at least a few of the claims would at least have been looked at very carefully. And that probably would have meant all the time and effort of having medical records inspected to verify whether there were pre-existing conditions or not. I don't see how we would have had claims paid within 2-3 weeks if they'd needed to comb through our recent medical records. And a few claims might have been denied...?) And the timing learning about FlexiPax is good. I think we are about to plan our first "real trip" since late Dec, 2019 - finally! 😁 We have really missed traveling... a lot! Thanks again for mentioning FlexiPax. GC

We've been able to get this type of coverage through TripInsuranceStore in the past. We only got it once... we made reservations but really thought we would NOT be going; I'm forgetting why we handled it this way. In any event, we ended up going - surprise! So we needed insurance that didn't exclude pre-existing conditions. The main "problem" was that we have always (before this and after this) gotten CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason), and this "final payment" date for travel insurance didn't provide that choice. Fortunately, that was one of our trips where we did *not* have a claim! 😁 I don't know if that policy is still available; that was pre-Covid, so a few years ago. GC

We haven't used Cruisemapper. Does this give different information than the Arrival and Departure times stated by your cruiseline (Celebrity in your case)? GC

Welcome to posting on CruiseCritic! 😉 You've been a member for quite a while, but if you don't post, you may not be familiar with the various sub-forum topics. Here is a link to the "Travel Insurance" section: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/ You'll get more eyes that are familiar with travel insurance if you post your question there. This post might get moved there, but in case that takes time, just re-post. And here is a link to the list of other topics for your future reference. Do you have Medicare Advantage, or a Medicare Medigap/Supplement? As for your question, you'd need to look at *your* specific Aetna plan, in case it differs from others. What does it say about coverage for medical evacuation? Also double check how much regular "medical coverage" you have out of the USA, separate from any "evacuation" needs. The bottom line is always going to include: What does *your* policy state about relevant coverage? GC

This absolutely happens, but I've only heard of it in writing, not by phone... but that certainly doesn't mean it couldn't happen by phone, especially if timing is tight. We had a *wonderful* offer once. We were offered a cruise in a different location (that alone wasn't a deal-breaker), a longer cruise, and a huge refund. It wasn't enough to make it "free", but my goodness, was it ever a bargain. Unfortunately, that was back when DH was more constrained by work about dates, and we couldn't make the switch. It was especially unfortunate, as it turned out that we needed to cancel anyway. How nice it would have been to get that other cruise instead! The cruise lines do this when they have been oversold, and the cancellations weren't what their algorithms had predicted. They usually do NOT want to cancel passengers who have paid in full, etc., for obvious reasons. So they'll start making offers to see if they can find some passengers who will, literally, "jump ship". 🙂 This is why they can offer "guaranteed" reservations when a cruise may appear to be sold out. It may indeed be sold out at that time, but they know from their history that some passenger DO cancel, and some quite late. (We were among those who had to cancel at very last minute, due to MIL's sudden hospitalization. OTOH, we stumbled across a last minute availabililty that must have been from someone else who had a late cancellation: We got an Owners Suite for a pittance, at a time when we had just cancelled a land trip so we were "ready to go!!".) As for the "offers to switch", they cruise line will keep upping the offer as they make it to others until they get someone to bite. In many cases, these offers may be made to more than one person and it would be "first come", etc. Keep in mind that cruise lines do NOT want to have ships sail with empty cabins. They are "perishable" (much like fruits!). Once that "sell/sail by" date is past, there's no possible revenue... Hotels have similar situations. We've occasionally "bargained" for a nice upgrade by offering something towards a luxury suite, which in our case then not only got the hotel "more money from us", but it allowed them to re-sell "our" room to someone wanting it but not wanting to spend more, etc. GC

We just received an email, and it looks to be legitimate (not obviously from some bad actor), asking for "feedback": " We're sorry that you have decided to cancel your reservation with Oceania Cruises. We understand that your time is valuable and would greatly appreciate it if you would take less than two minutes to complete this two-question survey questions regarding your reason for cancellation. START NOW THE FINEST CUISINE AT SEA®. CURATED TRAVEL EXPERIENCES. SMALL SHIP LUXURY. " Except... we haven't had a reservation with Oceania for several years. We haven't had any cruise reservation since our last cruise in Nov/Dec, 2019. We haven't re-started our globetrotting; we've barely made it to the supermarket! [I was critically ill, carried off our flight home in Dec, 2019. Not Covid; that wasn't a well known thing then. But it turned out to be a BAD case of RSV, and I am still (!!) recovering.] Is this perhaps an email with some malware (I did NOT click to "start now", obviously. Or are their records soooo screwed up? Inquiring minds, etc... Thanks. GC

We took an Alaska cruise several years ago (time out from Covid years, alas), and Hubbard Glacier was by far The Highlight Of The Trip. I have no idea if we were there during a particularly active day, but the calving... it was phenomenal. I'm not sure how much closer any smaller boats could have gotten (safely). We stayed there for what seemed to be a very long time, with the Captain slowly rotating the ship repeatedly so everyone had several chances to see Hubbard without even needing to move. And then, heading out, the ship seemed to veer off to the left, where there was only a tiny narrow channel. We were all assuming that the ship would soon head to the right again, where there was a lot more "space", the way we had arrived. But no...! It was a very odd feeling... with jokes galore about "sucking it in so we don't get stuck!" and such. I have no idea if that is the "way out" that most ships take, but it really added a nice touch as we were leaving. We spent some extra time in Seward, and took some great excursions there. And then the beautiful train ride to Anchorage. We lucked out again, and saw a nice bore tide coming in. It was one of our favorite cruises, one of our favorite trips including land. GC

Please make sure the cruise line is notified, through their "Special Needs" section (might have a different name, depending upon cruise line). There may be some special assistance available, but at least, in case of emergency, they'll know your friend if among those who may need special help. There may also be special devices available, or even special cabins. Enjoy! GC