catspaw1

JLawrence, please let me know how you liked the Nieuw Amsterdam vs Celebrity. We are doing a TA on Celebrity in November on the Silhouette. We booked with HAL $1 deposit for a 2 week AK cruise May 2026- OV as balcony & suite already sold out. Thanks

Nor sure but it should be primary although we do have the added protections under the Chase Sapphire reserve card. We get trip insurance for international trips for the added medical insurance - Evac mostly is what I'm concerned about.

Retired that price for a TA seems high unless it includes grat, beverages pkg etc. We are taking a celebrity TA in November- 3400 for both of us midship balcony cabin, classic beverages & wifi but no grat. Was yours a suite?

Retired, can't you reprise under their price guaranty? I checked our price & it had not changed. Deposit was now $1200 & we got the $1 deposit.

Cafe el bacio only has breakfast items like croissants. I liked breakfast in buffet- made to order eggs. If they have almond croissants, they are dynamite. We also liked the hash, & cut up fruit

Thanks! You have always given me great info so appreciate it. We have a midship balcony deck 7 & this is perfect for us so decided not to bid for AQ. Waiting for a good offer to see if we can book a restaurant package & upgrade to premium from classic. So far only 5% so we are not upgrading. If we get a good sale, we will buy though.

I think we did the hike up to Exit glacier 30 years ago but I don't remember it being a 5 hour hike. How tough is the hike? Miles? Uphill a lot? Walking on ice. I can walk about 5 miles day but recently in great smokey park we did an almost 7 mile hike & that wiped me out. We both go regularly to the gym. We are fairly active

Thanks Oakridger for the info. I certainly will. I'll also keep checking the price & cabin availability.

Yes the glaciers were receding even 30 years ago but it's definitely due to global warming. That's one reason we want to go now before they are all gone. I've heard exit glacier has receded far away now. It's so sad. AK was truly out last frontier but fast going away. We are going to an AK fishing/ bear lodge next summer. Wanted to add on a cruise but this one for 14 nights was only 1900 more than the 7 day cruise. Plus it's in May with no kids which we prefer. Hope we will like HAL again!

Sorry I didn't finish my response. Another 200 for both due 8 months before cruise. There was zero balcony & suites & only a handful of OV left. So we chose aft cabin level E with the all inclusive. I'll register with cruiseplum to see if prices decrease. We were in AK with HAl 30 years ago! Have been on Celebrity but we wanted a longer cruise & returning to Glacier bay was a must.

Yeah my TA just emailed that an additional deposit will be due 8 months before the cruise

We just booked today on the $1 promo- 14 day cruise may 2026 to AK. My TA didn't tell me when payment is due. I'll watch for price reductions on cruise plum. Does HAL have any spreadsheets like the Celebrity forum had that tells you info on your cabin choice? Would like to know how the noise is on deck 1 Niew Amsterdam if anyone knows.

Mindo looks absolutely great. Do you think 2 nights is too much there? We would book the whole trip on our own & get transport while we are there. Birding is best during dawn so that's why we would stay a few nights. We speak Spanish enough to get by. How did you get the tour? Thanks so much for posting! The chocolate museum looks great!!!

I just bought tickets for our November visit with the senior rate.

we took Uber back in 2019 as it was a lot cheaper than taxis. They will be out in the car park area on the side of the airport. Just ask if you can't find the area. Everyone knows it. We took Uber all over Portugal in 2019 for almost 3 weeks except for trains between cities. No issues.

thanks Terry that's exactly the reason i didn't want to post my email. I get too much junk email as it is! VWLmember- I post on tripadvisor under DianeER so just PM me there please.

do you use tripadvisor? If so, they have a private PM we can go though.

Bill is correct- Medicare covers in all US states & territories. Puerto Rico is a territory so is covered.

I did get this insurance for our celebrity Galapagos cruise for next year also. I also have my chase sapphire reserve card - not sure of their evac coverage. I believe my retiree benefits have no cap on international coverage but would need to verify. I do have government retiree benefits so that's usual much better health coverage. My secondary insurance is not with a medigap coverage.

I did get this insurance for our celebrity Galapagos cruise for next year also. I also have my chase sapphire reserve card - not sure of their evac coverage. I believe my retiree benefits have no cap on international coverage but would need to verify, everything is about reducing coverage these days!

good point & I'm not sure how this company does that. Sounds like a good plan to have skymed also. I don't worry as much in first world countries but do worry about third world countries. We were in Laos Cambodia & Burma years ago & was told never to get health care in those countries but get on a plane to Bangkok or Singapore. I do have health insurance while abroad from my retiree benefits & will check with them also.

We have booked a trip to Zaragoga based on your advice. Arriving from Madrid noon 11 November & leaving 13 Nov 830am- my birthday. Staying at the hotel where you gave me your advice in the central area. I'm not sure how to PM you so please tell me how. If possible we would love to meet up for a tapas or two if you have time. Thanks so much for giving us all your information. We are looking forward to visiting.

here's the coverage for an upcoming trip we booked with the big box store insurance. trip cancellation 100% of cost, Trip interruption 150% of costs, trip delay 2G, missed connection $1500, bag delay $200, ER medical exp $200,000, ER dental exp $1,000, ER evacuation & repatriation $200,000 & common carrier AD & D $50,000. Premium for 23 days, covering cruise cost only, was $222. So how does that compare with GeoBlue everyone? One of us- me -under 70 & my DH 72.

Thanks but what specific coverage- Evac? Medical? Trip interruption? Trip delays? I'll have to compare it to my Zurich cover more with cover more to find out more. Thanks for sharing.

We want to do a land tour of Sicily next year- thinking of a few weeks. Would love to get your insight on how to do it. How do I do a PM here on CC? I never did one. We were last in Italy about 10 years ago & absolutely loved it. Have always wanted to return & go to Sicily. Thanks