Hlitner

Have no clue. Only use iPhones

Absolutely! I also suggest that if you told you are covered it is wise to ask for the written reference to the coverage. The devil is in the details.

We have found that the pros of renting an apartment/flat far outweighs the cons. Over the years we have rented apartments in several places within France (i.e. Paris, Avignon, St Remy, etc) and annually rent an apartment in Puerto Vallarta. Rentals allow is to get much larger (and nicer) places than a simple hotel room. Our rentals always include a full kitchen, several rooms, etc. In Paris we have been able to rent a large flat in St Germain des Pres (an expensive neighborhood for hotels) which was fantastic. In St Remy de Provence we rented a large flat within walking distance of the town square. Our Avignon rental was truly amazing with a large modern apartment including our own private rooftop patio (with view). All these rentals cost us much less than a decent hotel room and a fraction of what a suite (which would have been much smaller than the apartments) would cost. The biggest con is finding the ideal flat, dealing with the specific arrangements necessary to access the place, etc. We only use rentals for a week or longer (many of the best rental properties have minimum number of days or weeks). I do understand that many travelers prefer the "hand holding" they get at hotels and that is simply a personal choice. But for longer stays it can be difficult to justify the cost of a hotel and the lack of facilities such as a kitchen. And instead of being in a 200 sq foot hotel room we are generally in a flat of over 800 sq feet. Another issue is parking! In many places, we look for flats that have nearby free parking (except in Paris where we do not want/need a car). One of my fondest memories of or 2 week rental in St Remy was walking to a local boulangerie (every morning) to buy some fresh croissants/pastries. I also fulfilled a strange "want" of walking down a French street with a fresh banquette under my arm :). Hank

I think we need some clarification of the Medicare issue. If you have basic Medicare (Parts A and B) and perhaps a supplemental, you are generally not going to have any out of country coverage (except in a few circumstances such as being enroute from the mainland US to Alaska and get sick/injured in Canada. However, for folks that have Medicare Part C Plans (often called Advantage Plans) you may or may not have some out of the country coverage depending on your specific plan. For example, our Aetna Medicare PPO Plan (a Part C plan) does provide coverage for emergency/urgent treatment outside the USA. In fact, we recently collected on a claim that occurred while we were in Mexico. Aetna paid our entire claim less their standard $100 Emergency Room deductible. Hank

We also use Facetime (for voice and video calls) with no problem. But this is only an option if both parties are using Apple devices. Whatsapp works on any phone which is always a nice backup for us. Hank

We actually switched to T-Mobile after talking to some HAL staff on the Prinsendam (who all had T-Mobile). But we do always leave our phones in Airplane Mode with Wifi enabled. We also buy (or get free) onboard WiFi/Internet. We can than text from our phones which is free since it goes through the Internet and not Cellular at Sea. As to phone calls, it depends on the cruise line. On some cruises we can make VOIP phone calls using WiFi. WhatsApp is a decent option (for connecting with folks) over the Internet. Since we have not been on HAL for some time (HAL cancelled our last 3 cruises) we do not know if HAL's onboard Internet blocks VOIP options. T-Mobile works in over 200 countries so we use it when ashore (or close enough to land to connect to a land tower). No way do we turn off Airplane Mode, when at sea, as we do not want to take a chance on the device connecting to the ship's Cellular at Sea system and perhaps doing things in the background at a great expense. While it is possible to manually shut down all the background stuff on a device, it is a little complicated and one always wonders if they forget to turn something off. You can find nightmare stories about folks who inadvertently ran up bills of hundreds and even thousands of dollars because they turned off airplane mode and their devices did things in the background (such as upgrading apps). Hank

You can simply walk out of the port, to the main street, turn right, and then cross the street to the local bus station from where you can catch the local bus that stops at Eagle. They have two stops along that beach and you get off at the one that best suits you or ask the driver. The bus costs about $2.60 (one way). Hank

We have always thought the Lido coffee was pretty bad. That being said, we prefer a full bodied coffee that tastes like coffee, not weak dishwater. Depending on the HAL ship, the coffee we have had in the MDR is somewhat better. In the interests of full disclosure, most cruise ship coffee is not our cup of tea (coffee). But there are exceptions. MSC has decent coffee in their Yacht Club restaurant (we have never dined in their regular MDR). And Seabourn will deliver French Press coffee (in the press) on request, and it is quite good. Their regular coffee is so-so. Princess also has pretty decent coffee at their International Cafe where it is brewed in small carafe batches. Hank

I will again mention that it is at least a 1 hour drive from Cannes to Monte Carlo. If one does it along the coastal route it would likely be about 1 1/2 hours (each way) because this route involves many smaller towns, lights, and traffic. For folks wanting to simply go to Monte Carlo (from Cannes) we think the best way is to simply take the train. There is a regional "TER" train that spans the entire coast including Cannes all the way to Menton. That train has stops in places like Antibes, Cagnes sur Mer, and Nice before getting to Monte Carlo. It is a commuter-type train with no reservations and runs quite often. One can walk to the Cannes train station in about 30-40 minutes (from the tender pier) so it does make sense to try and get a taxi. It is the same in Monte Carlo (the train station is too far from most tourist areas) where using the local buses or a taxi makes sense. Hank

We have, several times, done something similar in Europe (not with HAL) and it was never a problem. But in all cases we did request, far in advance, permission which was always granted. Great to hear that HAL granted your request. We have done similar things in Europe and, like you, always made our request well in advance. Of course the downside is that the ship would miss the port where you return to the ship and this can happen for a multitude of reasons. When we did this kind of thing we always had a "Plan B" of how we could catch-up to the ship at another port. But such is the life of adventurous independent travelers :). Hank

I think a bigger issue (other than a wave) is whether the design/engineering of the exploration ship was reasonable. Cruise lines have followed a long trend of enlarging windows and putting more balconies (with sliding doors) on relatively low decks. But on the Viking ship they used a design (somewhat similar to the so-called Infinity Cabins on Celebrity) that allowed the relatively large windows to be opened (from the top). There was a reason why port holes were designed with small thick panes and routinely used on lower decks and in forward cabins. On the old Prinsendam the port hole cabins (on the forward lower passenger deck) even had large steel shutters which would be closed and secured with two large bolts in the event of rough seas. But the large windows on the Viking ship are on a relatively low deck. One wonders whether the large size and split panes (so they can open) as well as a frame designed to allow the windows to open, was a good idea given the expected itineraries of the vessel. We will all need to wait for the results of a decent independent investigation to know the answers. But it does not take an investigation to understand that these windows failed, in a catastrophic way. Hank

WOW this thread reads like a hypochondriacs dream list of cures :). Is suppressing a cough a good thing? It is a question you might want to ask your physician or, even better, a pulmonologist. Nyquil? I wonder how many folks have read the list of its inactive ingredients: Acesulfame potassium Alcohol 10% Citric acid D&C Yellow No. 10 FD&C Green No. 3 FD&C Yellow No. 6 Flavor High fructose corn syrup Polyethylene glycol Propylene glycol Purified water Saccharin sodium Sodium citrate My goodness, a bottle of Jack Daniels might be a healthier solution :).

The reality is that Uber (for 2 persons) is usually no more expensive than a shared shuttle service and means you do not wait around for others and do not need to make extra stops at the port. Taxis are generally a lot more expensive. But since Uber uses time of the day/surge pricing it is hard to give an exact estimate. We recently took an Uber from the port of Miami to FLL and I recall it was about $34. Hank

I think the Venture and soon to come Pursuit do not have an "Observation Lounge." It looks like the closest thing on the Venture is their Constellation Lounge. There is also no Thomas Keller Grills on the two exploration ships. As to the App,......well Seabourn's app is about as good as the apps on most cruise lines which is to say "bloody awful." Hank

I cannot even think ahead to 2024 much less island excursions :). To use a good TV quote, "patience grasshopper." Hank

Ok, you want thoughts? If you arrive at 8:30 it can take hours to get everyone tendered ashore. Every ship has their process and priorities when it comes to tendering. If you can somehow make the first tender than you might be ashore by 9. But more likely it will be sometime later. There are no large shore-based tenders at Cannes so you will use the ship's tenders. As to a 4 hour tour to Monte Carlo that makes little sense. With little traffic it will take at least 1 hour in each direction to make the drive. And that would be using in the inland A8 (a major highway) which is the fastest route, but also my least favorite since you miss the fun of driving along the coast and using one of the Corniche roads (between Nice and Monte Carlo). So your tour might actually mean nearly 2 1/2 hours of driving and only 1 1/2 hours in Monte Carlo. Also keep in mind that the Changing of the Guard (at the Palace) is at 11:55am and a very popular tourist attraction. DW and I are not fans of Monte Carlo, but the Changing of the Guard Ceremony is where we would take folks if visiting the city. It is a long way to drive for just Monte Carlo. You might want to consider arranging for a longer tour that includes a visit to Eze Village (located between Monte Carlo and Nice). And we also suggest a visit to the NIce Flower Market (this should be done in the morning) which could be done on the way to Monte Carlo. If I were taking a tour group I would drive them from Cannes to Nice (Flower Market) and then along the coastal road to Monte Carlo. After MC I would drive them on the Middle Corniche to Eze Village (for at least an hour visit) and then back to Cannes. If there were more time we would also consider squeezing in a short visit to Antibes. Hank

We have done cruises with 9 sea days in a row and another with 14 out of the first 16 at sea. In our world we actually loved the sea days and resented getting to the ports :). But, we have also seen some other cruisers who were hyper after one day at sea as they hated sea days. Bottom line is that it all depends on the individual. DW and I would probably enjoy a 2 month cruise with zero ports 🙂 Hank

No clue about booking a cruise through the canal. We once transited that canal on the Prinsendam. My memory is waking up as we entered the canal with a loud "Oompah" Band playing outside my porthole (the band later came aboard to put on a concert. What is interesting is that the Prinsendam had a beam of 32.3 meters and the canals maximium was 32.5, When we were in locks it felt like being in a floating coffin. When we were low in the locks all you saw were dark walls. Hank

I do not know the corkage rules (we never brought wine aboard). But on SB they do have a decent wine list of quality wines and we ordered several decent bottles when dining in the Thomas Keller grill. But you cannot get these high-end wines by the glass. Hank

I do not recall if they were pouring a NZ Sauvignon Blanc at the Observation Bar (our normal hang out) but they did offer that (and perhaps another) in the Restaurant and Collonade. When you go to your chosen bar the first evening ask for a sauvignon blanc from NZ. If they do not have anything than you can ask the bartender if they can possibly keep some at that bar. It is very likely that your wish will be granted. One thing we have learned about SB is that if you want something, just ask. If your request is reasonable and can be done, you will likely get your wish. Hank

If we had a week, we would probably rent a car and explore the region. Another possibility would be to take the train or drive to Berlin for a few days. Hamburg is a nice city but we would not want to spend a week in that place. Hank

You might want to look into renting a "pocket WiFi" which are readily available and a popular option in Japan.

Our experience is that they do have a pretty good selection of many premium booze brands. This has been somewhat mitigated by shortages and deliveries that miss the ships. When we were on the Ovation during a 27 day crossing, we ran out of many popular Bourbon brands after about 1 week. At one point Wild Turkey was about all that was available in the Observation Lounge. They were able to get some additonal stock/brands once we reached Europe. We have never been overly impressed by the Seabourn's "wine by the glass" selection. Drinkable? Yes. Premium? Generally, no. Hank

A question for you "O" experts although I realize we are talking about a ship that has yet to sail. Do folks think booking a Concierge Verandah on the Vista worth the extra money. I should mention that we do not generally use room service. Hank