OnTheJourney

Just came back from this cruise. The weather was fantastic. So many of the crew and officers I talked to said it was the best weather they've seen down there in years. 2 "Drake Lake" crossings were more than I would have hoped for! We had a picture perfect day in both Port Stanley (also very rare from what I was told) and at Ushuaia. I had been worried ever since booking this cruise about the possibility of not even being able to call at Port Stanley since I know the weather can change quickly down there. All in all, a great cruise. The penguins at both Bluff Cove and Puerto Madryn were amazing! Again, incredible weather made it all the more spectacular. Our cruise director mentioned the one night that we were having better weather than they were having in the Caribbean. Can't ask for more - at least for a really good "drive-by" experience.

Definitely going to book that cruise sometime.

We took the 14 day Canadian Maritimes cruise in September 2016, and it was great. There is no more efficient and pleasurable way to see eastern Canada's cities, Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City, while then venturing into the seaways and natural beauty of the eastern fjord and islands, finishing in Portland, ME. Good food, excellent and organized crew, comfortable quarters, and decent weather. Lobster was served often and the quiche for breakfast became an everyday ritual. Lectures excellent.

 

We're headed on their cruise to Cuba March 26 based on our favorable impression of the ship and the company. We in fact took the Canadian cruise as a substitute when all of their Cuba cruises were canceled in 2016 due to their not receiving permission to enter from Cuban port officials. Glad to hear in December that permission had been granted, and now January 17, we see that the Pearl Mist sailed from Ft. Lauderdale on this first edition of their Cuba program. Can't wait!

The Canadian Maritimes / St. Lawrence cruise is the one that most appeals to me in their line-up, so I'm glad that you replied and offered some good feedback on it. You mentioned it ending in Portland, ME however. Do they run it both ways? On the website it looks like it starts in Portland and ends in Toronto. I suspect they do it in both directions depending on the date. Either way, that cruise definitely goes on my list for sometime in the near future!

I recently posted a thread about Pearl Cruises and got a reply from a guy (who has been a guest lecturer on many different lines) who was on the Pearl Mist. His review speaks not only well of it but makes it sound terrific. I think I like the itinerary enough to have a go at it. Interesting about the regulations applied to small ship companies. As to the price of a European River cruise, I don't find them to be cheap by any means.

I don't think a lot of CC folks have been on PEARL MIST. I have ... twice ... albeit as guest lecturer on two cruises, "Great Lakes & Georgian Bay" and "Canada/New England Fall Foliage" ... and I loved it. I know this is telling my age, but my first cruise was back in the 1960s working as cruise staff on a Dutch Student Bureau trans-Atlantic crossing. Since then I've been on more cruises than I can count, had travel agencies for 15 years, and, after retiring early, have spent the last 8 years working for Holland America and Princess, and doing guest lecturer spots on Celebrity, Crystal, Silversea, and last year Pearl Seas. I've watched as ships have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, but not necessarily better. My favorite ships were the "R Class" Princess ships, the old ROYAL, the PACIFIC, and the OCEAN. I loved having the opportunity to get to know the guests. Sadly, well I was happy to do it, but sad for the occasion, I did the final cruise around South America a year ago on OCEAN before it was sold.

 

The small, all-inclusive vessels really appeal to me now. I get to meet the guests. The guests are generally more mature, certainly more affluent, well-educated and well-traveled. They are fun to be with. I wasn't sure about PEARL MIST, but like I said, I loved it. The staterooms are surprisingly large, and pretty equal, and of course everyone has a balcony. Top deck there are lots of comfortable rockers and shaded lounge ares providing great views. Generally you are close enough to the coast to see something, not 12 miles out like on the big blue-water ships.

 

No one is trying to impress anyone. I've met fascinating people with fascinating stories and experience. There are no lines. No lines! No tender ticket scrambles, or lengthy waits in line to get stickered for tours. Tours, when not included, are reasonably priced. There are piles of bottled water ... help yourself! No $3 charge, plus 15% gratuity, for a little bottle of water. There are piles of snacks in the lounges ... yeah, I know, I shouldn't, but I do. There are coffee machines that make really good ... and this from a Panamanian coffee grower ... specialty coffees with the push of a button. No nickle and diming here. You go for dinner or lunch when you are ready and eat with whomever you want. Great way to meet folks!

 

Yeah, the "gym" is just a few exercise machines and they didn't get a lot of use. Entertainment is low-key, but fun, and entertaining. mostly lounge-type duos, with dancing music. If you want to see Broadlway want-a-bes this is not the ship for you. People on Pearl are interested in the ports. Yes! No casino. No climbing walls. No bumper cars. No waterslides. No kids -- I don't think they are outlawed but it just isn't the kind of ship or itinerary that appeals to young families.

 

It was a little challenging for me as an onboard lecturer, since I had to create my own lecturn stacking up furniture, and there was one pull down, living-room-size screen for PowerPoint, but it worked, and we were all friends and made it work. I enjoyed lecturing and folks seemed to enjoy and appreciate my presentations. Of course I never get to see ... or meet other lecturers. Folks always ask, "Do you know...?" and it's only very rare that ship lecturers get to cross paths.

 

The crew is fantastic. They come from a major crewing agency that provides crew for a lot of the high-end, smaller boutique cruise lines, and private super yachts. Polished, but friendly and eager to serve, heavily from the Philippines. On big ships crew are coming and going in every port, but these guys work together as a team, and all go off on vacation at the same time, so they know each other and work together flawlessly. There are married couples working on board, one father and his son, really nice folks and all speak great English as well as other languages.

 

The itineraries are great. We went to some major cities, and some tiny, off-the-beaten path towns where no big ship could venture. The ship was built for coastal cruising and my experience was that although small it rode well even in some rough weather. Not a lot of rocking and rolling or folks with "slight momentary motion discomfort" as they say.

 

One of the highlights of the day is the cocktail "hour" well, more like two hours, before dinner. Everyone comes. Everyone socializes and has a great time. Whatever you want it's there without any bar tab.

 

So, yes, I'm sold and now a big fan of smaller ship cruising. They key to any successful vacation, cruise or otherwise, is to do some research and know what to expect, and if you do that you will thoroughly enjoy PEARL MIST.

 

And by the way, the fall color was spectacular.

 

So, for what it's worth, and mainly since there isn't a lot on CC about Pearl Cruises, I thought I'd share my experience.

 

Regards, Richard

 

OK the food ... very good! At breakfast you kind of indicate on a check list what you think you might be interested in for lunch and dinner, just to give the chef an idea, but no one holds you to that choice. You can order half portions if you like. If you love lobster, crab, and shrimp, you will be in shellfish heaven, particularly on the Canada/New England runs. Unfortunately, after a lifetime of ordering "two" lobsters on cruise ships, I'm now allergic, but I still enjoy seeing folks pigging out on lobster. I always had interesting options available and because it's a small ship the crew took good care of me and made sure I didn't eat anything that had shellfish in it.

Hi Richard,

Great, great reply!!! Thanks so much for all that information. You really provide a terrific description of the whole experience. Definitely makes me want to try it sometime. My wife and I are definitely of the sort to be more interested in the ports than the actual cruise experience. So many on CC talk about hanging out at the bars, wanting to know what the entertainment schedule is, the menus, etc. and all that is fine, but I choose ANY trip based on where it is going and what I want to see. And, as you say, with their being no lines of people waiting to go here and there on the smaller ships, that sounds good too!

Regards,

Keith

Uniworld was excellent! Comfortable cabins, good food and service. They were very organized and the included tours were good. The ship has its own set of radio mikes/receivers, so they're always charged in the morning when it's time to go out. It was a tough choice between Viking and Uniworld. At the time, Viking gave free internet and Uniworld gave free wine with lunch and dinner. So we went with the wine. The funny thing was they had just upgraded the internet on our boat and they could not get the charge codes to load, so they gave us the internet for free. The only reason we haven't done a second European river cruise is that HAL and Cunard keep coming up with good sales and/or special itineraries. And we can never agree on which river cruise to do next.

 

American Cruise Lines was a huge disappointment and I would never sail with them again. To be fair, they no longer have the boat we were on (Queen of the West), but almost everything the brochure said was a lie--windows did not open (brochure touted "large windows you can open"), cabins were smaller than stated, DVD players were missing (just an empty space in a cabinet). Rooms were shabby, beds uncomfortable, bathroom smelly. Sample menus on the website showed more choices (3 per course) than we actually got (2 per course). When I booked, I was told that for booking early, our excursions would be complimentary. But no, the two extras we signed up for showed up on our bill. When I said I was told our excursions would be complimentary, the answer was that only the included excursions (which everyone got) were complimentary. Just too much bait-and-switch. Not everyone hates them. We met a couple on our Christmas cruise who had done the same itinerary on the boat that replaced Queen of the Worst, and they were happy with the cruise.

 

Like you, I have looked at the small ships that do the St Lawrence trips. They look tempting, but these companies go in and out of business constantly! And you never know who owns the ship. The owner leases the ship to a company that makes deals with yet another company to sail the ship. Another company (or two or three) is contracted to sell the cruises, and they all make it sound like it's THEIR ship. All those shell companies make me uncomfortable. At least I know who owns the HAL ships and who owns HAL.

Interesting about American Cruise Line. I've encountered similar comments from reviews I've seen. BTW...was your saying "Queen of the Worst" deliberate or a typo? LOL I am seriously trying this Pearl Seas line - again, has mixed reviews. The thing is, these smaller lines are NOT cheap so people are definitely expecting a luxury cruise for the considerably higher price, and I don't think that is the correct expectation to have the way it seems. Good point about knowing who owns the bigger lines, although I think it is somewhat ridiculous that Celebrity and RCCL are the same company, and yet many people talk about Celebrity as being better in certain ways than RCCL. That seems crazy...I guess Celebrity is supposed to be the more classy of the two.

The 7-day itineraries are OK, but I've been to Halifax and Bar Harbor many times and don't need to do them twice in the same cruise. There are so many other possibilities for port stops!

I see you have listed that you've done a Uniworld river cruise. How did you find them to be? I have one booked with Tauck, but it seems that Uniworld is also rated as being among the highest ranked riverboat companies.

For that matter, how did you like the American Cruise Line...I see you have them listed also? I receive their brochures...the trips look quite interesting.

The 7-day itineraries are OK, but I've been to Halifax and Bar Harbor many times and don't need to do them twice in the same cruise. There are so many other possibilities for port stops!

I did a 14-day with Celebrity that stopped at Corner Brook, Newfoundland. That was part of the reason we picked the itinerary. Also had an overnight in Quebec City. I agree...lots of options for ports. There is a smaller ship cruise line I've been looking at that stops at Iles de la Madeleine, Gaspe, Perce, Lunenburg (NS), Baie-Comeau, and Saguenay Fjord. I think I'll have to do that sometime since the bigger lines don't go to many of those...perhaps can't. The same itinerary also goes to Montreal - would love to get back there again also.

I hope they throw in a 1-week Boston-to-Boston again next year. I know it does't go to as many ports, but it's so easy for a quick getaway. I'd also like to see more variety in the one-way cruises. I don't want to do a B2B that repeats all the same ports. Why can't they go to Saguenay or Gaspe once in a while on the 7-day cruises? The repo cruises at the ends of the season have more interesting/varied ports.

Yes..I'd love to do another Canada / New England cruise that stops at Boston. Have never visited there by cruise but did a 3-day bus trip there last month. Very enjoyable. I agree totally about not doing a B2B that would be the same itinerary. We were on a ship one time and talked to a lady who was doing the same cruise over and over for 6 weeks! I'd be ready to jump overboard half-way through!

I have inquired a about booking that combination. To do it this year will require sailing both Masdam and Veendam an synching them to both be in port the same day. (Montreal)

There was a sailing out of Montreal a few years back that really interested me. At the time it conflicted with other trips we already had booked, and then it seems that the same itinerary never showed up again. I believe it visited several ports along the St. Lawrence that most cruises don't seem to include. Hopefully that itinerary will appear again sometime. My only experience with HAL was on the Veendam to Alaska...loved that ship! It looked so much like what I still think of as a sailing ship compared to what I refer as the 'floating hotel' design of most newer ships.

Hi,

I have been looking at Pearl Seas cruises, in particular I like the Canadian Maritimes and St. Lawrence Seaway since it includes several ports that most of the larger ships don't (probably can't) go to. I found cruise critic reviews but can't seem to find a specific forum for this company.

Thanks for any input...

Keith

Let me ask this another way. Let's say I wind up with an emergency medical evac situation that costs $250,000. Being that I have the Celebrity policy that I purchased at time of booking, does what your saying mean that I will get $25,000 reimbursement from Celebrity and need to pay the remaining $225,000 myself? This is what I'm reading into your statement about having the additional policy "not increasing your reimbursement". OR...since the other policy I was planning on purchasing provides over $1 million in medical evac, would that policy then cover the additional amount? Please clarify this for me. In talking with the agent from the company I was thinking of buying additional coverage from, he never mentioned anything about this. Yet another factor in all of this is what my regular Blue Cross policy would cover. I talked to them awhile back and they seemed to think there would be no limit on the medical costs involved. They would certainly be primary to either Celebrity or another company.

I am copying in a paragraph from the policy that I was planning on purchasing: This pertains to emergency medical coverage and transportation:

"Benefits payable as a result of incurred covered expenses will only be paid after benefits have been paid under any Other Valid and Collectible Health Insurance in effect for you. We will pay that portion of covered expenses, which exceeds the amount of benefits payable for such expenses under your Other Valid and Collectible Health Insurance."

With this in mind, doesn't this make it worthwhile to purchase the extra policy?

Hlitner,

Interesting. Are you saying that because I have the Celebrity policy (which only pays 25k medical evac) an additional policy that might offer higher medical evac (or other medical expenses as well) will not kick in and that the costs will be satisfied solely by the Celebrity policy with the rest being out-of-pocket? Somehow that wouldn't seem right. Your statement about having multiple secondary policies for medical coverage as not increasing the reimbursement doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't the one policy cover what the other doesn't?

In talking with a rep at a well-known trip insurance website, he suggested something that would not have occurred to me - which is to simply use $0 as a trip cost if the goal is simply to add additional coverage such as boosting up the medical amounts which is what I've been meaning to do. So I will keep the X insurance cause it's cheap enough and has the trip cancellation features, but will supplement with a secondary policy that carries 0 trip coverage but adds much more on the medical side. Had no idea you could do this.

Hi,

I purchased Celebrity's Cruise Care coverage when I booked the trip and so have their CFAR feature that provides 75% credit towards a future cruise, but since their medical coverage is only 10k and evacuation 25k (both amounts being pretty low), I'm considering adding another policy primarily to boost up the medical coverage. I will be in South American / Antarctica and obviously any needed medical evac will be far more than what Celebrity covers.

Can you have 2 secondary policies? Doesn't that get a bit tricky as to who pays what when? I talked to Celebrity and they indicated that there would be no problem having an additional policy. Since Celebrity is already secondary coverage to my existing health care with Blue Cross, I suppose it's no big deal but I'm wondering which would kick-in first..the cruise line policy or another?

I have been doing research online and will continue to do so - primarily looking for a policy that concentrates on medical coverage since the cruise line's policy has the trip cancellation / interruption features found in most trip insurance.

Any suggestions appreciated...

Thanks,

Keith

For most insurance you need to purchase it within so many days of booking. I found that out the hard way when I didn't purchase any then decided I wanted it some months later. I found some but paid more for less coverage. Go to insure my trip or other sites and see what you can get at this point then compare to celebrity. At this point you may be better off sticking, then know for the future to buy a non cruise line policy within a couple of days after booking.

I think you're referring to purchasing insurance for pre-existing conditions and/or "cancel for any reason". I had a travel agent who was misinformed about trip insurance in general. You can purchase a trip policy any time up to 24 hours prior to departure. I've often found that the closer to the trip the cheaper it can be. For "cancel for any reason" it has to be purchased within 24 hours of the initial trip deposit.

I think I will keep the Celebrity insurance since it does include 75% credit towards another cruise in the event of canceling for any reason, but I'm still thinking of adding additional (secondary) coverage for medical. Not sure how having 2 secondary policies would come into play but from talking to X about it they said it shouldn't be a problem. I just talked to a Capital Blue Cross agent to find out what my current coverage is and he seemed to think there would be no limit at least in-network, but what was a bit discomforting was that he seemed to have no idea what I meant by 'medical evacuation', so whether or not something like a helicopter evac from the ship or wherever would be covered still remains unanswered. I think the thing to do would still be to purchase a product where I'm sure it is included.

Lysolqn....lol....I get it...I've used that website you cryptically refer to quite often :)

Thanks to all for the replies. Very helpful....

Hi,

I'm booked on a February cruise and purchased the X insurance at the time of booking. I suppose one advantage for this, presumably, is that I have 'cancel for any reason', but the flip side of the coin is that the coverage amounts are really low - 25k medical evacuation and 10k expenses. Considering that this trip goes to South America and Antarctica, I can only imagine what medical evac would cost from down there.

So my question comes down to whether or not I should cancel the X insurance and purchase something that offers greater coverage. Either way, using Celebrity or another product is secondary to my existing insurance. I need to find out what coverage I already have and then decide.

Any suggestions? I have never purchased trip insurance through the company with whom I have a trip booked, but certainly the cost of the cruise line insurance in this case is amazingly cheap.

Thanks for any thoughts,

Keith

Hi,

While on a Canada / New England cruise, I picked up a magazine in Quebec that advertised Saint Lawrence cruises that go to several lesser visited ports such as Trois-Rivieres, Baie-Comeau, Sept-Iles, Gaspesie, Havre Saint-Pierre, and Iles De La Madeleine. Has anyone been to some of these and if so any recommendations?

A Holland America trip a few years ago went to a few of these following a start in Montreal (another place I definitely want to visit sometime on a cruise), but then the itinerary never appeared again. I came across Pearl Seas Cruises that also visits many of these places, so that might be worth a try. I just think it would be neat to get off the beaten path a bit when it comes to the typical Canada / New England itineraries. Plus a friend of mine has been all over the St. Lawrence through camping and car trips and said it is definitely worth it to visit the places I mentioned. Undoubtedly most of those ports are only suitable for smaller ships.

Thanks for any input.

Keith

How soon before cruise is Choice Air available?

I don't think there is any limitation placed on this. Is your question more about how far ahead of time you can book flights with CA or how close to the cruise date that you can book with them? Either way, I don't think it matters. If the flights you want are available up to a year before your trip, CA should be able to book them for you. As I've mentioned though, you may need to tell them the itinerary you want since not all flights show up on the website.

Let me know the next time you have a flight delay or cancellation with a specific airline due to, for example, a weather issue, and then are rebooked by them on a different airline. That would make headlines.

 

If choice air abandoned their passengers the way you make it sound, it would be widely known on this board. I haven't heard of it before.

It'd be interesting to get some feedback from specific cases where things did in fact screw up just to see exactly what choice air did for the passengers, and how quickly they responded. What I do not like about them to be sure, is that their website does not show all the available flights. I realize that they have to filter those out that they deem unsuitable for the cruise schedule, but I had been looking at flights that arrive a day before embarkation, and those are not on their website either. They could get the flights for me, but it was just an extra hassle to relay all the info back and forth over the phone. When I used them last summer for a trip, the flights I wanted were on the website.

Either way, all I know is that if a winter storm hits the week that my flights and cruise are scheduled in February, the problems could well be of such magnitude that it may not matter if I'm booked through choice air or the airline. I think the more critical component with a winter trip is to make sure there is really good trip cancellation insurance. That is the next step. I'm booked with X's plan, but the coverages are not that good, hence the cheap price.

The difference is that the airlines don't post an ambiguous "assurance" statement on their website, that makes it sound like they guarantee something which, in fact, they do not guarantee. Choice Air uses verbiage that sounds very much like "we guarantee to get you to the ship" and a lot of people misunderstand that.

 

And contrary to what many seem to believe, if you book directly with an airline and your flight is canceled or severely delayed, the airline WILL work with you to get your rebooked. As with Choice Air, it depends on seat availability, but they don't just say "sorry we canceled your flight but you're on your own now." Many people seem to misunderstand that, too.

Agreed that the airlines certainly work with you in the event of flight problems. I've never had the issue arise wherein I had flights booked with choiceair and then some unforeseen event occurs that would indicate to what extent they really do spring into action to reroute. I only used them once. A good point was mentioned that they can't create seats that simply aren't available, but my hope (and I don't want to test this to be honest, especially in the middle of February) is that they would move fairly quickly to reschedule flights. They do not promise to get you to the ship at your embarkation port - although I think that would certainly be top priority if at all possible - but rather to the ship's next port of call. I was told by them that I would have to do nothing in the way of contacting the airlines. An airline representative, on the other hand, told me just the opposite - that I would need to contact the airline anyway. Like I said...I am really hoping not to have to find out either way! If things go wrong, and it turns out that I would not be pleased with how they (choiceair) reacted, then I'd be unlikely to use them again. The price was actually $100 higher than what I could have got directly with the airline, and yet many here have reported getting lower prices through them.

Except that they don't actually guarantee that. Read the fine print. It sounds like a guarantee but it isn't. They will attempt to "work with the airlines" to find a "reasonable" alternative. But if flights are booked, they can't manufacture an empty seat. If they CAN rebook you, you still run the risk of missing several days of your cruise.

 

 

 

Any chance you have booked a Delta "basic E" or "basic economy" fare? Those are usually the cheapest fares and do not include advance seat selection.

I actually wound up not booking with Delta at all. I went with Aerolinas Argentina (a Delta codeshared flight) and booked business class.

This is with Delta, right? ATL is the largest Delta hub in the country. We had heard so many horror stories, but then found it very quick and efficient every time we used it. And, like you said, being in business class will expedite matters significantly. Is there a business class lounge there?

They tell us it's fine. We shall see. Glad it wasn't yesterday. LOL.

Only concern is distance between gates.

 

Carol

Distance between gates should not be a problem either with an hour layover. The few times we've gone through ATL have been very smooth connections. They have a great inter-terminal transportation system also.

Glad you worked it out. I've been thinking about you. We aren't big on layovers or changing planes, but for this trip and the price we got out of Harrisburg we will chance it. A little concerned about our 65 minute layover in Atlanta but it should work or ChoiceAir will be getting us there since we booked through them. 😉😉 We still need to work out the transfer to our hotel in Buenos Aires. We are staying at the Hilton.

As far as a Bermuda cruise, driving to New Jersey was nice but we find 7 nights to short a time. Felt like it was over as soon as it started. LOL.

 

Carol

I'd do the Bermuda out of Bayonne as a B2B...that allows 6 days in Bermuda. We've never been there. X seems to be the only line that stays there 3 days.What concerned me about coming into ATL is that, since that is our point of departure for an international flight, it is probably best to be there even earlier than 2+ hours. If our first flight would be late, we could be in trouble.