ciana

I agree that everyone needs to determine their own level of comfort with travel. Insurance is just one of the considerations that people might wish to take into account. I personally would make sure I knew what coverage I had or didn't have with the current Canada Travel Advisory.

We are suppose to cruise in Jan 2022 but it's not looking good for that cruise to go ahead as it is from Capetown. Saw an interview on CBC yesterday with Martin Firestone re: insurance. He says Canadians will not have any medical insurance coverage as our Government still has a ban against non-essential travel and a ban on all cruising. As long as it's in place no insurance company will pay for any issues arising from covid. I checked with ours about our cancellation insurance if we make the final payment -- they told me no we would not be covered. Another set-back! We will probably be home this winter -- no way we will go without insurance! *sigh*  I will keep watching and hoping for things to improve!

I have seen people at the purser's desk arguing loudly that they had never been to a certain bar so wanted the charge removed from their folio... BUT.. they had a drink at the show on more than one occasion.. and the listed bar was where the attendant got the drink from and that can vary. You need to keep track of things yourself.. don't be one of those unreasonable people. I get a print out of our charges every couple of days.. otherwise I won't remember where I was when 🙂 In over 25 cruises we have only had once where we had a problem and it was a double charge by mistake from the medical office and was quickly taken care of.

BTW -- I want to mention that Princess was outstanding throughout our problems. Either Dave or Don from Princess called us at the hospital every 2-3 days to see how we were doing and answer any questions we might have. Both were great! We had been very happy with our medical onboard. The fall had occurred on a private tour in Puerto Montt, Chile and had seemed quite innocuous at the time -- just a trip caused by his toe catching the edge on a protruding rock. So Princess had no responsibility for any of it. Nonetheless they continued to call right up until we came home. It was very much appreciated! Best piece of advice they gave: do not agree to pay for anything that your medical insurance won't cover, no matter how inexpensive, ie $100 for an extra therapy. If you do, it may void your policy!

7 hours ago, dog said:

Please share what company, type of Policy you bought. What Province?

 

For those who asked... we are in Ontario and have a Group plan that we belong to. Allianz were the underwriters that covered our costs on the 28 days in Lima. For cancellation we have some but not enough for big trips so we also purchase top up insurance from either TIPS/RBC --- the only two we could find that did top up. Most companies want you to cover the whole cost with them.

Just an FYI -- we never knew what the hospital costs were not the air ambulance costs. Once my husband was in hospital Allianz took direct control of treatment and working with doctors there. We felt we got outstanding care in Lima-- although no one spoke English where we were. What we did pay up front however, was about $20,000 -- that was for care on ship, 5 hr ambulance ride ($1700 US in cash), my hotel, meals, etc, 17 days we missed at the end of cruise, etc -- it sure added up! It was about 5 months for all the reimbursement to us was complete. We were very pleased with the outcome and my husband was fine after a number of months of outpatient treatment here at home.

We are Canadian and our health coverage is for in country only. We buy extra insurance for cancellation and out of country medical. Thanks goodness we do! On one cruise my husband fell and injured his leg..blood clots formed. We spent 6 days doctoring on the ship, had a five hour ambulance ride into Lima, Peru and then he spent 28 days in a hospital there.  I was in a nearby hotel. He had surgeries and skin grafting.  He could not fly home commercially as he needed to be completely flat. We were flown home by air ambulance. He then spent two more weeks in hospital in our city. Our insurance covered everything medical, as well as the costs on the ship and my hotel costs. Needless to say, we highly recommend getting insurance coverage!!

Where is Capt Todd McBain? We quite enjoyed him on the Diamond last April in Asia.

We had received an email from Princess and Captain Tuvo on Sept. 17 about our January 24 South America sailing. Maybe the people that booked the Island later than that didn't receive it. I haven't sailed with him before but from all reports he is very well liked!

Steelers36 -- we're also on the 60 night Island Princess this month. When I looked at TW the fine print says only credit cards with an US address. We are Canadian so that doesn't work for us to order on-line. Right now we are planning to go to TW on the day we arrive in FL and hope they will keep our box(es?) until the next day when we can pick them up on the way to the ship. Ideally we could avoid this we knew that the Gold Wine packages would be available. Any insight about the Island on packages? Our last Princess cruise was on the Diamond last April in Asia and no wine packages were offered.

Cheers,

Cheri

Interesting-- on our last Celebrity I got a bottled orange juice and a bottle of water just outside of the breakfast buffet. We were told that my Classic beverage package only allowed one drink at a time and if I took both I would be charged for one of them. So I left the water behind and got it later.

Have previously used a US on-line agency for many years (12 cruises). Our booking always showed up on our credit card as "Celebrity" or "Princess" cruiselines- so no problem that way. Positive -- got good perks and extra OBC which is why we stayed with this TA. Negative - agent was not responsive, sometimes took 3-4 days for him to get back to me; would not pursue price drops; change in USD-CAD exchange rate one time meant that we had to pay $2000 more than we had anticipated at final payment:o

Decided to switch to Canadian TA -- and glad we have. Now have 2 cruises booked which have both had price drops. In one case our original price is still lower than the price drops and in the other the TA went to bat over a big drop after final payment and we are very happy with the result!

Does anyone know why the change is being made? It appears that Valparaiso is a much better choice for tourism so I'm wondering what has prompted this apparent change.

Thanks

Cheers!

Same problem here. Can't sign in on chrome, explorer or safari with desktop or ipad. The cursor turns to a hand over the sign in prompt but nothing when clicked on.

Ditto!! Today is the first time I have not been able to log in.

Thanks for your great review! We were on the same cruise! We enjoyed it very much! In fact, we took the tea picking shore excursion too so maybe we met. Lots of good memories!

Cheers,

Cheri

I was VERY impressed how well the Princess site worked when we took our first P cruise in May 2017. No problems booking excursions, or adding OBC. It took very little time to navigate what to me was a new site.

Second that! Cruised Princess in April (Asia) with another one booked for January (South America)- have a Celebrity TA cruise this November. There is no comparison in websites! Princess is excellent! It is totally functional and everything is easy to find. The other cruiselines need to follow the Princess model!

We are using the ship's transfer from FLL to MIA in November -- it is $30pp. (no tour) I considered Uber but I've read that they are not allowed into the port so you have to take your luggage with you and go out. Also people had problems finding their Uber driver, especially with many ships in port at the same time. It doesn't sound like people on this thread have had those problems though -- can one or more please comment about their experience. Thanks

I totally agree with comments posted here! The new website is an absolute disaster -- and the developers were probably paid a lot of dollars to create it! The old website was easy to navigate -- but this one is totally not user friendly!! I hope someone at Celebrity is reading this thread. The website is a mess!(n)

Yes we are Canadian and the visa process is difficult! Some members in our group had to submit bank statements and 2 years of income tax statements in order to get the visa. While we waited in the Consulate office for our turn -- 2 different couples had their application rejected. They argued about it but still were turned away to come back another time. I wasn't sure what they hadn't completed correctly. The Brazilian Consulate in Vancouver seemed to have different requirements than the one in Toronto-- but you were only permitted to apply to the one based on where you lived.

Our visas are only good for 5 years -- not 10.

In addition, we had to pay an Argentina reciprocity fee (approx. $100CAD) but that is good for 10 yrs and it was easy to get as it is done on-line. I don't think the US has to pay this.

Thanks for some idea of costs for Carnival. We went to the grandstands on our trip in November and thought we would love to come back there during Carnival time. Private tours are always an option as long as it's not on the day the ship sails -- traffic would be a nightmare!!

We were just in Brazil in November. I agree - the Brazilian visa is a nightmare !! It is not for the faint of heart to apply. It can often be rejected. We almost gave up! Since we have it now, it is good for 5 years so we thought we might look at going back to Rio ( which we quite liked!) on a cruise. Celebrity is offering one on the Eclipse in 2019 but if the shore excursion is too much $$ we will look at doing something different. Thus we are trying to get a ball park figure on what might be charged for the shore excursion to attend a session of Carnival. It looks like the Eclipse will be docked in Rio for 3 days. We won't look into it any further if the cost of the shore excursion is beyond us.

Anyone with any idea as to possible cost??

HI -- we are considering a Celebrity cruise during Rio's Carnival but wonder what kind of cost (ballpark figure) would it be to do a shore excursion to the event?

Thanks for your help!:)

HI We did the same thing when we were on the Celebrity Silhouette a couple of years ago- September 2014. We started up the walls at the entrance near where the taxis from the ship left us off (Pile Gate). We did the whole circuit, came down and walked through the main pedestrian area (Stradun) to the other entrance area and then proceeded out to the cable car. We took it up and had a nice lunch there -- views were wonderful! It is very doable on your own. You can buy cable car tickets at some small stores but you must have cash or you can wait and buy your tickets right at the cable car entrance - credit cards were accepted. We thoroughly enjoyed our day! Have fun!:)

We are heading to Dubrovnik in September. Can anyone give us current information as to whether we can use euros/credit cards or should we make sure we have Kuna with us? Thanks! :)

We are also looking at going with Ramses tours. How did you pay them at the end? In US$..and if so, did you carry all that money with you for the two day tour? I'm not sure I want to carry all that cash.

Thanks for your help.