sierrafloridacruiser

Bon Voyage to you, Keith!  Know you must be counting the minutes til you board and I will be following your blog and posts with great interest. Happy sailing! 

I second this!

So excited for all who are on the first voyage!  

Does Oceania allow bottles of liquor to be brought on board for consumption in the cabin? 

Keith, I’ve been trying to reach DCL by phone off and on for a few months. Unbelievable wait times of 3-4 hours. I have a bit of time still before we can cancel without penalty our September 2022 reservation on the new ship, the Wish, so will keep trying but I’m not going to wait that long if I don’t have to. 
 

Made this reservation with great anticipation in May of 2021 when they first opened up and when I believed vaccines were going to save our future cruising experience and plans. This cruise is suppose to be for our twin grands 4th birthday. But they will have to wear masks in all the kids club activities per Disney. Ugh, feels like child abuse so we are going to cancel. We have planned an all inclusive land based family vacation instead. 
 

8 hours ago, MomC said:

We are sailing on the February 3 Splendor cruise.  Thus the new mandate applies to us.  Coming from snow country (Colorado) we always fly in two days early in case DIA is closed because of snow.  It happened a couple of years ago and we were glad we took this precaution.  BUT now we have to find a place to get a Covid test in Fort Lauderdale or Miami.  I called our hotel to see if they were offering them (Miami Intercontinental) and they aren’t.  I fear long wait times at the pier (that wasn’t the case in August in the Bahamas with Crystal which did a timed appt at the convention hall and provided us with a lovely place to wait), but I fear this new procedure.

 

Does anyone have suggestions on where we might get an appointment in either Fort Lauderdale where we fly into or in the downtown Miami area where we are staying for 2 nights?  Any other recommendations?

 

Mom C

Try CVS or Walgreens. There are multiple locations in S. Florida and you can make test appointment online. 

34 minutes ago, Stickman1990 said:

You did of course also receive an additional effective 25% discount as a FCC in recognition of the lack of some facilities that were advertised as part of the cruise 

I did say cash, didn’t I? 😂 Well, I’m not parting with my FCC for the Caribbean either. It’s lovely, but I’m relatively new to the whole “let’s see the world” stage of my life and that’s one of the few areas I’ve been multiple times. I need to see Europe and the Mediterranean! 

9 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

 

Took me a sec.  You win all of today's clever points.

He does!! 🙌

On May 30th, I received our 100% refund for April 3rd Regent Explorer cancelled cruise back on our AMEX platinum card. I called AMEX the same day to request A check for the credit balance be sent to me. As of yesterday (June 8th) the account still showed the credit balance, so I called again. The rep noted that it was “in review” due to the amount but that she would try to shake it loose. Checking again today, the credit balance has been deducted, so hopefully I will get the check within the 7 days the rep promised. Now just waiting on Crystal refund, and then will tackle the trip insurance. 
 

in the big scheme of things, I’m very grateful that my family and I are in good health, and that our grown children have all kept their jobs but boy has this long drawn out process put me off cruising. I used to spend a lot of enjoyable hours looking at the cruise line websites dreaming and planning. Not doing that at all now.  

We got our refund back on our Amex card this morning for our cancelled (by Regent) Explorer transatlantic cruise that was to leave April 3rd. Thank you Regent!  

Sail date:    April 3rd, Regent Explorer 
Cancelled   March 17th cruise cancelled by Regent

requested 100% refund through travel agent 

no refund as of May 11th

Very depressing. Especially for those of us awaiting substantial refunds from Regent-cancelled cruises. 

We got a full refund from Delta for our May 4th return flight from Prague. I was able to request refund online.  One of our tickets was purchased with Skymiles points and the points were refunded immediately. The other ticket was credited back to our Amex card within 72 hours. Yay Delta. Still waiting on Regent and Crystal refunds. 

23 hours ago, Eager2Travel said:

We had a letter from Regent through our travel agent showing that Regent would refund our money in full.  The TA said that should suffice.  The wonderful agency we purchased the insurance from submitted the claim for us.  We have received no funds from Regent as yet. 

 

We needed two separate  policies.  We received a check in the mail for one returned in full.  The other is to be refunded to our credit card.  It did not require having the Regent funds in our hands ( which hopefully will occur as easily.).   Steve iDasseos is always a wonderful help.

Thank you For this info. I will check with my travel agent about getting letters from Regent and Crystal 

On 4/1/2020 at 9:36 PM, Eager2Travel said:

Great news for us. I finally got around to giving Steve Dasseos a call regarding our insurance.  He took care of everything for us.  We had two policies for an April 29 cruise on Regent that was cancelled.  We heard back within a day or two.  Both policies are being completely refunded.  We are very pleased with these companies.  They have been excellent in the past when illness struck and we needed to cancel or change plans.

 

It is so nice when things work out in challenging times.  Now we just need the much greater sum returned by Regent.

I have a question about how the refunding works. As part of one 5 week trip In April, we had two cruises scheduled, with Regent, and Crystal. Both cruises were cancelled but like everyone else, we are awaiting the refunds.  We’ve already gotten a refund from Delta for our return airfare from Europe, and all our hotel reservations were cancelled.   

I’ve been emailing with the company that we purchased our insurance from (subsidiary of IMG) and they have said we can extend our travel dates through 2021 for a future trip or receive a refund Of our premium. From their last email, they’ve said: 

“To process this, we also need confirmation that no claim will be made against this policy and evidence from your travel company that you have received a full refund.”

So, I can’t proceed with this until I’ve received the refunds from the cruise lines?  or is there paperwork I can get from the cruise lines that will satisfy this requirement of the insurance company?  

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/us/california-stay-at-home-beach-goers/index.html

10 minutes ago, IguanaJ said:

 

re: email timing it is likely info comes to TA's first then to guests.  I just happen to be the both former and a booked guest also. I

wish all safe travels.

Thank you for posting!  I’m sure my TA will send to me, but since it’s a Friday afternoon, it’s nice not to have to wait until after the weekend to get confirmation of what I have been hoping for all week -  that Regent would cancel my upcoming cruise AND offer the option of a refund. I’d rather have my money back more immediately, but in light of these emergency conditions, 90 days does not seem terrible either. 

On 3/5/2020 at 2:42 PM, Mudhen said:

We are on the April 3rd TA. After communication with our travel agent, Regent said we needed to make a decision today if we wanted to bail on the cruise or stay the course. We're staying the course. We'll keep fingers crossed that all will go well. I had questioned our return air should there be any issue . I was told that Regent will get us home,  no matter what. May not be the very best option, but the ball will be in their court to take care of us. Not worried. So far, Regent has always gone above beyond in solving problems.

we are staying the course as well and declined the offer last night. The cruise is still almost a month away and I’m hoping things will look much improved by then. 

1 minute ago, mrlevin said:

 

3 April Explorer transatlantic - the email I pasted above says 30 days prior and mentions 3 April as first date eligible.

 

Marc

Ok yes, this is ours too, and I’m assuming Regent will honor today for this cruise, even though technically the 30 day mark was yesterday. I’ve emailed my travel agent about setting up a phone call later today to walk through our various options. I have spoken to the other couples on our Danube cruise and we are all in agreement that the trip is off, now have to sift through our options and decide the best choices. So bummed!!!

13 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

The email from Regent to my TA had a timestamp of 6:18pm (could be CST or EST).  She is very responsive and immediately forwarded to me.  We actually have until today to cancel and she is contacting all of her clients on this cruise.  

 

I know many people talk about having a great TA but the one thing Jackie and I have in common is the same great TA.

 

Marc

When is your cruise that you have until today to cancel?  
 

14 minutes ago, Kiwifromkiev said:

Are you thinking of cancelling?

 I would like to have the option to think it over in spite of very fast moving events (the newly quarantined Princess ship). Crystal announced a similar policy earlier today, and it is the second of my two cruises that are not literally B2B but are part of the same 5 week trip. My “30 day before sailing” deadline for that cruise is not until March 23rd. I’d like to be able to wait and see what happens but may not get that option with the Regent cruise. We do have CFAR insurance too. 
but damn, I’m so disappointed and upset at the whole situation. On multiple levels. The river cruise part of our trip was catalyst for our longer travel plan, with two other couples who arefriends we haven’t vacationed with in a while and have never cruised with. We were all really really looking forward to the Danube together. I’m fairly certain they will cancel.  

Hmmm, just got home and I see the posts on this new cancelation policy from Regent. I have heard nothing from my TA and I’m obviously not going to at 11:30 pm. I wonder how the deadline for the April 3rd transatlantic will be handled because the way I am reading the policy, I have to decide in the next 30 minutes. 

Just now, rallydave said:

Absolutely 100% the way to go.  You've got it perfectly.  Great choice.

Thank you!  

I have a related question that perhaps some of the frequent cruises can give an opinion/answer on. I have CFAR insurance for my upcoming April travel, which includes the Regent Explorer TA from Miami to Barcelona, then five nights in Barcelona, then fly to Budapest for a 7 night Crystal River Cruise, plus 3 night post-cruise extension to Prague. 
 

The CFAR pays out at 75% and we have until 48 hours before departure to pull that trigger. So I’m thinking we are better off waiting until the deadline to make any decision rather than canceling now. We really don’t want to cancel, unless it looks like the situation has gotten much much worse. And if that happens, the cruise lines may have to cancel, at which point we would get refunds and possibly FCC, in which case we would be better off than if WE cancelled. We do not have anything concrete that prevents us from taking the “wait and see” approach other than the uncertainty, and I can live with that. 
 

am I missing something important in my reasoning. We always buy insurance (although not usually CFAR)  but have never had to use it. 

1 hour ago, kjbacon said:

At first, I thought you were saying that the Coronavirus was getting out of hand, given it is a global epidemic that is close to becoming a global pandemic. But no, evidently you think that there’s too much of a big deal being made of it because the flu is kinda bad too. Wow.

that’s not how I read the post. There are very real downsides to a media-induced panic over Coronavirus.