CDNPolar

This is a discussion that my Husband and I have often because we read on the Insurance forum here on CC some nightmares of claims and collecting. Now we don't know the circumstances and like most stories, there are three sides... The insurance company, the claimant, and then the actual story and events somewhere in the middle. We did have a very clean and simple claim with Arch Insurance in the USA as Canadians when we cancelled a land based trip that was to take place this past January. We followed Arch's process to the "T" and had all the doctor statements, reports, and forms as requested. We actually never spoke to a person at Arch as it was all done online and the ONLY thing that delayed our claim was waiting on the completion of one physician statement where the doctor was delaying us... (not intentional on the doctor's part). We completed the online submission and had a cheque in the full amount in less than 30 days. It was quite simple, and we had been preparing for a long battle... Yes, we want to know the history of claims to know if the insurance company is easy to work with. We do attempt to know their policy language inside and out, and we are generally under no illusion of what they do and do not cover, so we just want to know that if it is an actual covered reason that they are going to pay out and hopefully quickly. We can talk about tour companies on here right? I know that we cannot name TA's... We are looking at a land based tour with a long standing tour company in the USA that starts with the letter "C" and their Canadian travellers insurance is done through TuGo.

Yeah - thanks.... I was, as the title of this thread suggested calling it "ToGo" not TuGo and I searched "ToGo" and found nothing. I just remembered the name phonetically. Now I do see that there are lots of posts about this company. Actually from my research to date, I am quite interested in their annual plan for two reasons: 1) You can choose on the annual plan the trip cost where as with Blue Cross annual they limit you at $5K pp unless you add an additional top up contract. 2) TuGo only has a standard 60 day pre-existing condition requirement with an option to buy a shorter (7 day I think) period. Blue Cross is 90 days.

Yes avoid spring break, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas and New Year. These are all party times on Caribbean cruises with sometimes huge family / friend groups. This is my experience anyway. Longer definitely count out many families especially if they are during school times. Although I can understand your "stuck on the ship" concern, I don't think that would be the case unless you are doing a trans-atlantic type cruise where you have 5 or 6 sea days in a row. There are always things to do on the ship, and believe me you spend your time moving between meals a lot of the time!

I cannot say with certainty that this can be done, but you are not changing the names of the travellers, just the cabin pairing of the names. I would think that this is your best and easiest solution. The fact that you don't keep that arrangement once onboard no one will know or care.

The pre and post add ons are a very interesting one to me. We are NOT necessarily price conscious, but we do our diligence on pricing. We were looking recently at a pre in London before the British Isles Explorer. We were only interested in the 2 night because we have been to London before and don't need that much more time there. This is all in CAD $$. Two nights are $1,899.00 pp. There are NO tours included, it is all self discovery. There is a Viking Host, but we can decide what we want to see on our own. Essentially, for transfers and two nights hotel and 2 breakfasts we are paying $3,798.00. Believe me, we can stay in the same hotel they put you in and pay for our own breakfast and transfers much cheaper than that. I personally don't see what value this brings ME booking through Viking other than some convenience for us and profit for Viking. Double this price pp and get three nights, one dinner, and 5 guided tours of various landmarks. Basically 8K for 3 nights in London.

There is generally one person on each side that is the "Wine Steward" although the other servers will serve you the included wines. We get to know the Wine Steward on the first and second day to know who we will chat with especially if we have the SSBP. Also know that if if you are just drinking the included wines and the included white today is a Chardonnay and you don't like Chardonnay, don't be afraid to ask if they have a different included white as they always have for us when we ask.

Could be Canadian, but I know Americans that have the same language in their policies and they are not buying from Canadian insurance companies.

You are so right! Thanks for the correction.

Hey fellow Canadians, Some time back someone in the Canadian forum mentioned ToGo Insurance as a good option for Canadians. I have done a search here on CC for "ToGo" and nothing has come up. I find that their rates are reasonable and their stability period for pre-existing conditions is only 60 days. Question is, has anyone actually made a claim with ToGo? Were they good to work with? Did they pay out quickly and efficiently? Rates are one thing, but the ease of working with the insurance company is more of my concern.

We use a camera backpack that has one of the openings that is against your back, if wearing on your back, or against your chest if you are wearing in front of you. Most people have things to carry other than the wallet and passport, so the backpack comes in handy, and if you put your valuables in the "backdoor" pocket where the camera gear is intended to go, it is safe unless they lift your entire backpack from you.

We have travelling as a couple, and I have for business used Viator many, many times and have been very happy with them. As mentioned they are a consolidator and reseller and they are owned by TripAdvisor. Often the tour end location is not where the tour starts. This is just how it is sometime, especially with walking tours as the tour may start close to the cruise terminal for that convenience, but will end a distance away. I have always known that the end point could be different and so we have arranged our tours with that in mind. It is all there in black and white for you to see, and if you are not looking closely then the assumption that it will end where it starts will catch you off guard for sure.

Viking Ocean ships all have free self service laundry.

The stability part of policies is something that I am really focused on now. We buy an annual package. Our annual package expired April 5th. This is JUST for TC/TI and does not include medical. This policy enforces a 3 month / 90 day stability period against the renewal date each year which means any pre-existing conditions must be stable from January 5, 2024 to April 5 2024 or the pre-existing conditions will not be covered during that policy year. I had a medication change mid-April- the medication was stopped because I have been stable for 3 years and in my doctor's eyes I don't need the medication now. Because of this, I would not not meet the stability requirements for the entire policy year. Because of this we are delaying the re-purchase of the annual plan to mid-July so that I will be past any pre-existing condition stability period. Crazy that you have to dig in so deep to understand what is covered and what is not. Many people in my circle of travelling friends don't understand that the stoppage of a medication or reduction or increase of dose makes you "unstable". Now, in response to your statement that adding to a policy changes stability - I have to investigate that...

This may have been your experience, however if you read the policies, they explicitly state that you must call the insurance company before seeking medical treatment unless it is impossible to do so. This is only one company that we have used but every medical policy I have read has this statement using similar language: I would say that you were lucky that they did not have an issue with this. The statements always include the word "may" and be denied. So they have the ability to deny a claim if you don't contact them first.

I am happy if it curbs users. Quicker transit for the rest of us. Frankly we are at a point in life where if it is convenient, we pay for it. For those in the know, we have a HWY 407 Transponder but might only use it once a month. However, if we can get there via the 407 over the 401 you bet I am going to pay the toll.

With Viking we have always "engaged" with the Crew to a larger extent. With our Cabin Attendant(s) we try to engage with them on day one and then try to chat with them whenever we can. Same with the servers in the dining rooms, and the wine servers. When we find a team in the Restaurant we ask for them nightly by indicating this to the Host in The Restaurant and nightly we get to know them and again, engage with them. We find that we have a better experience when we actively engage them in conversation and generally interact with them. I know some don't want to engage in conversation with the Crew and that is okay too. For us any decline has been more in the menu and food side of things. Not a lot, but it is like "shrinkflation" you don't notice it blatantly but it is there if you look.

I agree with you on your points. We would likely cancel our future bookings and move to Oceana.

...and could you even hear the announcements? How many times have we been in busy airports all around the world and in most areas of the departure lounge you cannot hear anything that the gate agent is saying.

I may be a pessimist but I believe that nothing is free - today. I just got contacted on LinkedIn to attend a full day conference in Toronto. Looks like an amazing line up of speakers and topics. Could not find the price for the day anywhere, but assumed that it would be in the range of $600 to $800 for the day. Went back to the person inviting me - oh and she just connected with me on LinkedIn the day before, and she is from overseas - and she indicated that I would be her guest and that it would cost me nothing. Why me? You don't know me, so what value am I bringing? This would be an expensive event to put on. There is a scam of some kind tied up in this invitation. Nothing is free.

You are suggesting that the onboard booking bonus or credit was up to $2,000.00? We have booked a number of future cruises while onboard but never, never have we seen a credit that is this big. Generally it is a $400 pp past guest discount, 6 months payment (which we always get anyway) and an OBC of a couple hundred for the cruise we are on. This may add closer to $600 in savings over booking off the ship. Do you have more intel on this? Unless you are counting in Free Air but that is available to anyone booking on or off a ship? Like @Squawkman indicated, you can only do this on an Ocean Ship and not on River.

This is perhaps too personal of a question, but are you going to buy Viking when they IPO?

Curious what you want to suggest?

Yeah, it may be harder for your Mom but I have read that others have achieved the SSBP when their adult cabin mate did not drink. You should have organized the cabin occupancy (on paper) as you and your mom and your sister and stepdad. You would stay in your preferred way - you and your sister - but for the booking and the SSBP you would have no worries this way. The other way to look at it is that the SSBP is nothing special. You still have access to everything Viking sells in liquor, wine, and beer, you just pay for it as you go. Since you get free / included beer and wine with lunch and dinner, and if these are ok for you then you have to justify spending $25 per day above that in other drinks. A lot of Viking drinks are only $8.00 or less. Let us know how you make out.

Interesting YouTube on Viking's potential IPO and what it means for you and me. I don't necessarily support this opinion, but it is interesting to see this guy's opinion.

Be careful on expedition type cruises, and if there are any "high risk" activities. The typical - emphasis on typical - medical plan does not cover injury from zip lining, scuba diving, rock climbing, parasailing, etc. You can buy insurance for these, but the typical policy does not cover these types of activities.