Nurse.Laura

Hello all,

We are in a situation that, due to a death in the family, one passenger needs to cancel their trip.  I talked to my TA and he said that the increased cost was not a "penalty" or a "single supplement" but just the cost of having only one passenger in the room.  As such, he said that Allianz may not pay for the increased fare.  This excerpt, from their policy documents, gave me the idea that they actually would.  Has anyone actually experienced this?

2 minutes ago, trabeler said:

Rules keep changing... we were allowed to do on your own in all three ABC islands last week from the Connie (port stops on 8-10 January).  Might be good to have an independent option that is cancellable as a back-up in case the rules change again.

Yeah, this came out 2-3 days ago and unfortunately cause quite a scramble for us.  We were planning Bonaire Cruisers with snorkel stops sprinkled throughout.  We had deep sea fishing arranged in Curacao and it's quite a disappointment to miss that.  

4 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

You'll have no worries about the pool deck on Celebrity ships, I think it's the best place on the ship.

Totally agree!  On one sailing to AK, I spent so much time out on the pool deck, wrapped up in a fleece throw.  It was the best.

I've only been on Carnival once.  I was invited by a friend and we were on a 4-night sailing out of Galveston.  Would I go again?  I guess I would, at that price ($187 which also included our parking), but now I know what I would be getting.  

The food is better on Celebrity, and the dining room experience is a world of difference.  The bare tables on the Carnival ship felt like an Applebee's.  The super loud kitschy singing and dancing mid-meal is just not for me, but maybe that's not a Carnival thing and is more ship-specific.  

Even though the cruise was at a fraction of normal capacity, the pool deck party was nonstop and that precluded any time at the pool for me.  It was just very crowded around the pool and there were some Jerry Springer-ish moments.  I don't recall anything like that on Celebrity.  

2 hours ago, Pickels said:

If your cruise is fully paid for, and you cancel, you get an FCC.  The cruise line has your money.  Why not extend the FCC?  

I wish they would extend the FCC.  The likelihood that my FCC would go unused is high.  I had to have all vacation requests for calendar year 2022 submitted last October 31.  So unless some cruise magically fits into dates I asked off for already, I'm out of luck.  

I have been to Alaska on NCL and Celebrity (and Princess) and I think that NCL was fine for what I was looking for.  That was a solo trip and I wanted a very relaxed, do what I want when I want kind of trip.  NCL was great for that.  The entire Celebrity cruise felt much more formal.  The main dining room food was certainly better on Celebrity, but I took advantage of the specialty restaurants on the NCL trip.  Would I take a NCL cruise in the future?  You bet!  

Wow! There are some real jerks on there. Things happen, not everything will go the way you want it to. Being a confrontational, nasty jerk is not the way to resolve issues. On some of the complaints, their own description about how they behaved paints them as the one in the wrong. Boo to them.

I'm not sure about the quality of the self-serve soda fountains on NCL, but I've been burned buying the soda package on RCI. By the end on a 7d trip, I had figured out which fountain had the most passable soda. None of the machines seemed to be well calibrated and it was a waste of money in the end. I still ended up bringing a bottle or two back when we were in port.

This time around, I think I am going to be taking my soda on with me. Thanks for the thread letting me know how it's done.

Checking back to see how it went. I go on my first solo cruise next Monday.

Seven!