GeezerCouple

We usually get private tours, for both cruises and land-based trips. That's for two reasons. First, I need to rest frequently, and also can't keep up with a fast-walking group (or medium-walking!). Second, we want to customize the itinerary, and also have the ability to say something like, "Oh, this is wonderful, let's stay here longer and skip <whatever>. Can't do that with others! But we've also a few times just gotten off the ship, looked for a taxi, and arranged a half or almost full day of something like, "A tour around the entire island", or "... and please include a couple of nicer hotels we could take a quick look at for when we come back for a longer visit", etc. We've asked to be taken to "a beach with the most gentle surf, please" - and that worked out *very* well! I guess we've had good luck, but the drivers have turned out to be wonderful; that's not guaranteed, of course. Arrange a fee before you get into the taxi, either per hour or 'for the day, until <time>" or such. Arranging a private tour in advance allows you to arrange what you want to see, etc., so that's ideal if possible. Have fun! GC

Welcome to CruiseCritic. Are you able to look at a complete Deck Plan for the QM2 and look at other cabins in the same category? Can you ask your TA to help you find a better cabin, whatever that means to you, from what is available? The TA should be representing *your* interests in selecting accommodations and the cruise in general. Is that not happening? GC

The type of insurance we get, with the coverages that we want, requires that we include ALL non-refundable costs (and also includes the initial deposit even if that was at one time refundable). So we sometimes try to make hotels "guaranteed to a credit card" (and cancellable such as within 48 hours of arrival) but not actually "paid" to keep the insurance costs down. In some cases, it's the full non-refundable airline fare, too. In other cases, if there's a "change fee" or "cancellation fee", then that's all we need to insure. We try to use awards for wonderful premium international flights (best use of awards ever! 🙂 ), and then it's just the fee to return the awards to the account. Yes, any pre-paid but refundable costs do not get included in the total needing to be insured... for *our* policy type. Make sure that you understand how *your* policy works, etc. GC

This is such a good idea! A similar trick that this reminds me of: I have an allergy to a food that could be confused with other items. So now, we take a card (several, of course) that has photos and the word "Allergy" in English and in whatever language we expect to encounter. Now, every time we show it, the person (waiter, chef, etc.) suddenly opens their eyes, smiles, nods, and clearly communicates they understand. Usually, with that level person/staff/crew/etc., they know some English. And yes those bright colors,,,, perfect! Maybe next time, we won't have to take turns so often when a buffet is relatively crowded! Thank you! 🙂 GC

Oh yes... that "modern music" can be VERY strange indeed! 🤣 GC

Any update on the status of Maud, or expected return to service? Thanks. GC

Thanks so much. Do you have a link or brand name? I can't quite read what is printed on the curved back. We were just looking at the Able folding rollator mentioned above: https://ablelifesolutions.com/product/space-saver-rollator/ For *both* of them, do the legs or knees hit the seat when walking? That looks to be a problem, but it's hard to tell. Has anyone here used or tried both of these? And what about stability? It looks like the "Able" rollator *might* (?) be a bit more stable, because the weight from the hands (and thus body) is a bit closer to the person, and also a bit more "over the back wheels", whereas the other has the weight right between the two pairs of wheels. I don't suppose there are any suppliers who would have both in the store so one could compare? (that's a long shot!) It might be difficult enough to find one at a time "in person" to try before ordering...? Thanks again! GC

Sheesh, you'd think everyone would *know*! You do NOT wear your bathrobe to any dining area. Nope, NO bathrobe. There's no place to hang it up, so just wear your pyjamas without the robe! 🤣 GC

It may depend upon the ship, the DR staff, and the kitchen staff... especially the more senior ones who set the standards, and enforce them. It can also be important to impress UP FRONT if cross contamination is a SEVERE problem. Did you speak with head staff and make this clear? We (DH actually) did not have a problem on HAL, just before Covid appeared. But as I've mentioned, we also kept being proactive, and *every* meal. We'd remind the person seating us. We'd emphasize it to the person taking the order, and then, when *anything* was served, we'd emphasize, "This is the GLUTEN FREE version or <name of item>??" Also, we often find a particular waitstaff member or crew who are clearly more serious about their job. At that point, we ask the Maître d' to seat us there/with that waitstaff in the future, and mention why. We noticed on our HAL cruise that there were a few times when we were seated at what certainly appeared to be a two top that was not quite "in" that section, but more like "across the aidle". And the same waitstaff worked there with us. It was very much appreciated. We also made a point to complement the waitstaff to the Maître d' "early and often". That tends to get good service, too, and people who do pay attention, etc. But it all depends upon the actual people at the final stages... And unfortunately, "gluten" isn't something one can instantly detect. Otherwise, I could be DH's official "taster". 😉 We've found food service in assorted places to be quite responsive, if we spoke with a senior person. And the biggest surprise/treat was that in Italy, where DH was expecting to need to avoid most pasta? EVERY restaurant had GF pasta, and usually a nice selection. They just needed a bit of extra time. And in some restaurants, the GF bread or rolls was *better*, and I would then ask for it, too. GC

This was our experience, both for ship medical center treatment, and also for any other overseas medical care or related expenses. We paid, made *sure* that we got actual itemizedreceipts showing services provided (not just charge card slips), and then submitted the itemized receipts along with the claim form. This can include taxi fares, costs for a physician to come to the hotel... whatever. But receipts are required. (The insurer has the right to protect agains fraud, after all.) However, if the cost is likely to be prohibitive, and perhaps interfere with or delay treatment overseas, some insurers will try to make arrangements either to guarantee payment or to forward some money (e.g., by wire). But it might still be necessary to provide a hefty "up front" sort of deposit. We always travel with several charge cards that. combined, have a high credit limit. The *last* thing we'd want in the middle (or at the start of!) a medical emergency is to have time wasted while "payment arrangements" are getting sorted out. And in some locations, that IS what can happen, unfortunately, GC

I didn't mean to be totally discouraging about insurance if you've already made the final payment. When is your cruise? You should probably still call TripInsuranceStore, as they may still have a policy that would work for you (but without some of the coverage one gets by starting the coverage earlier). Also, although we do not ordinarily suggest the cruise-line insurance (several reasons), if that's what turns out to be best at a relatively late date, then you might consider it. Note: Most (not all) complaints about travel insurance claims involve either: 1) the event that caused the claim was never covered in the first place; or 2) there is a problem with sending in *all* receipts and in some cases (for some medical claims - not all) allowed the insurer to look at medical history (which would have been disclosed in the terms and conditions in case it might be relevant). TIS don't try to upsell. 3rd party insurance will cover you from the moment you leave your house until the moment you walk in the door (e.g., if there's an accident en route to the airport, etc.). Enjoy your trip! GC

Does anyone have any recent first-hand experience on HAL with whatever might be replacing Lincoln Center (short or long term)? Many thanks! GC

We strongly agree with the suggestion to call www.TripInsuranceStore.com But CALL them. There is a lot that isn't included in the online information, plus they can help figure out what *you* might need, which could be very different from what we, for example, need. Also, please browse through the Travel Insurance section of CC: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/ The mods may move this there soon. But the other posts have a plethora of discussion and recommendations and reports of experiences. This is what we just posted there:

We have used TripInsuranceStore.com also, after learning about it here on CC almost 10 years ago. And good thing, too. Our first trip with insurance, a very expensive trip for us at the time (er, times have changed! 😉 ) needed to be cancelled less than 2 weeks prior to our planned departure due to a medical emergency. Fortunately, our discussions with them (and lots of Q&A while we learned - pretty fast - about travel insurance) helped us to get the right policy, and all of our expenses were refunded in cash, about 2 weeks after we submitted all of the documentation. (In this case, we were more concerned about the medical issues, so we didn't deal with the documents for a while, until some of the emergency level issues were under better control). Our policy through TIS was with Travel Insured. Importantly, we've since had several other claims, including another large one. All of them were paid promptly. We have zero complaints, and we'll continue to get this policy, from TI, through TIS. There is no extra charge for using a broker. TripInsuranceStore has policies from several vetted insurers, and they can discuss your situation and help you figure out what types of policies might be best for your specific circumstance. But CALL them; don't rely upon the mini-summaries online, or even longer online summaries. Have a professional talk to you. Not only will you have questions, but they will probably have questions (e.g., any pre-existing medical conditions? frail family members not traveling with you? etc.). Time can be critical. The best choice of policies is usually available within10-20 days of your FIRST payment for the trip (such as the deposit, refundable or not). Differences depend upon state of residence. But even later, there are probably good policies available, until the day of final payment anyway. Our only complaint is that we needed to file travel insurance claims several times... 😞 But at least we got paid every time, and promptly, including for the large claims. GC

Ouch. 😠 Yes. I meant even our TA could NOT get that same fare we had found, Ah,.. if CC let us edit "later"... (even if it was only using strike-throughs so no original content was removed... Thanks for the catch. The only reason we ended up getting that fare on real tickets is that we knew our TA pretty well. So when we KEPT insistiing that we were really seeing that, he believed us (enough!? 😉 ) to call the airline. So don't be put off if the TA can't even see it. If necessary, just HUCA (hang up call again) and hope for better luck with the next agent! It made a BIG difference in our situation, so we were very grateful. GC

We've had this situation. In one case, surprisingly, even our experienced travel agent could "get the routing/pricing" as a single fare. So he called the airline, and apparently it took a bit of time to convince someone that there was indeed a fare "showing" for those connecting flights. And then... he was able to book us, at the fare we had seen, which was a very low fare1 So just in case your TA says it isn't showing or can't be done, have them call the airline and sort of "insist". My guess is that both our TA and someone at the airline did indeed look at matrix to "see it for themselves" before trying to deal with what might have been a wild goose chase. And I also don't know if there are sometimes flights/routings showing in matrix that really cannot be ticketed...? We thought for a while that we had found one, but with a bit of time and effort, it turned out to be a valid fare. GC

Right... the Riviera is scheduled to transit the Suez Canal in May? 2024? ??? GC

I forgot to mention that we ALWAYS travel with a bunch of GF snacks... things like power bars or snack bars (all individually sealed). We bring a bunch along in suitcases, and we always have a couple with us for excursions, in case there's nothing suitable to eat. This would at least get him through the day, til we get back. Do tell them - if this is correct (and what you just described suggests it is) - if they need to be careful to avoid cross-contamination, so the kitchen(s) know. GC

Welcome to Cruise Critic! Please contact the Princess "special needs" group and have this information added to your reservation. As soon as you board, see someone at the main dining room and tell them you have celiac disease. (Stress that it is "celiac disease" and not just a dietary preference. These days, there should be quite a few GF options, and they'll be marked on the menus. In some cases, chefs will be able - and willing - to make something that is not usually GF, but make it in a GF version. They'll need advance notice, of course. DH has celiac disease, diagnosed very late in life, so we've only recently been getting used to this. There are so many GF choices on regular menus these days (even lots of GF pasta in Italy!! 🙂 ). However, he ALWAYS tells the waitstaff that he NEEDS Gluten Free because he has CELIAC DISEASE (emphasizing some words!). And when he is served, he *always* asks, "This is the GLUTEN FREE <whatever>, correct?" I also keep an eye out to make sure he doesn't reach for bread of a roll from the wrong basket by mistake, for example. If you look at the day's menu and see something you like, there are sometimes easy ways for them to make a small order of something in a GF version, depending upon the recipe. Enjoy! GC

Thanks for mentioning this. It looks like it could be handy in several situations. Question: Does the seat get in the way of the legs/knees? Because it's more of a triangle instead of a cube shape, the seat can't go on "the far side". GC

Yes, taking a photo is an *excellent* idea! Then not only will you better remember exactly what she looks like "today", but you'll be able to show it to others (including Security) if you get separated. Something else, longer term, might be to consider an "ID bracelet", the kind that can be engraved. Sort of like a MedicAlert bracelet, but with contact info, such as your phone number and a special e-address, or something like that... just in case... GC

We just discovered "you" and your posts. Very nice! I don't see a way to contact you by email (and one possible way on your website isn't functional... it leads to the "404" error 😞 ) Could you perhaps contact us at our email below (in our signature)? We are starting to need to deal with more of these issues. [We had been booked on this same cruise, for 2020, so it's nice to "follow along". We booked while we were on the Noordam, in December, 2019. Well... within a month of our arrival home... the world changed... I had been carried off the plane with what turned out to be an extremely bad case of RSV, which we'd never heard about then; now just about everyone knows about it. I was on oxygen for 10 days, and still haven't quite recovered. We did *not* want to risk getting Covid (or the flu, or another round with RSV)! So it's extra nice to see your videos. We still have hopes of being able to do this cruise... or at least get to Hawaii somehow.] Looking forward to looking at more of your videos. Thank you! GC

Ships don't do "bed checks" to make sure each passenger is sleeping in their assigned beds. 😆 When we have some changes, we just ask Guest Services for extra keycards, so each person has their own card(s) to get into whichever cabins they need to get into. The extra cards have never had "charge privileges"; they are just "door access". For charging, the original keycards have been used. Our cruises are with family, so we don't need to track "who spent what", which makes it easier in terms on not worrying about which card is used for which charges. The bills all end up being paid by us 😉 , and most is paid before the cruise, of course. ETA: I just read Essiesmom's reply above. We've never had a problem with getting extra key cards, including when no one is "changing beds". On cruises or in hotels, we *always* want the others to be able to come into our suite at any time. (For the occasional time we don't want company, we'll just bolt the door.) No one at any Guest Services has given us any difficulty getting extra keycards for our suite, or extra cards for the others' rooms. They obviously do need to have the permission of the occupant of any room where extra keycards are given out. And we've never "asked" Guest Services to "move guests". GC

This is one of the ways that using airline awards make a *huge* difference! 🙂 We flew specifically to Newark so we could experience that then-longest non-stop flight, Newark to Singapore. That route didn't have F, but it had Business class, and we had a *very* comfortable flight. One could fly on Singapore in F, from JFK to Singapore instead, but that makes a stop in FRA, so it takes longer. That's the route that has (or at least, had) their inviting F class suites, although I'm not sure if they still allow ticketing using awards for that. They have a "Book The Cook" option, so we ate VERY well indeed, and we slept well, too. I just took a quick look at Business class on the Singapore airlines website, on that non-stop from Newark, and it looked like approximately $10k per person round trip, depending upon dates. Another site showed that other airlines were somewhat less, but they took much longer, varying with the routing and length of connections. (F, from JFK to Singapore, is about $23k round trip.) GC

Exactly. I think that's part of this topic! There can be times that one wouldn't know "how" a situation would be handled IF it occurred... until it occurs. So if one learns that a cruise line IS handling something in a way that one finds inappropriate, yup, make other choices. The same "conditions" could be encountered by different ships/cruiselines, but passengers may not be able to determine in advance how the <whatever> would be handled. Indeed, in some cases, some passengers may not even have thought about <whatever> happening... until it does. There can be some ways that ships/cruiselines handle unexpected problems that give one a sense of how well they consider the passengers' experiences (including, but not restricted to, costs and safety) vs. their own bottom line. Then one has that information for future decision making. And over time, there may be some patterns that emerge... That can be far more informative than single events. GC