CarolandNate
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Posts posted by CarolandNate
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46 minutes ago, shipstud said:
Could anyone clarify what hotel is the closest to Enterprise Car rental in Long Beach?
We're flying into LAX, picking up the car, staying one night in Santa Monica, then driving to LGB for one night prior to our Carnival Cruise. Is this a good idea? Or should we skip Santa Monica and head to LGB for 2 nights?
Thanks in advance..!
andrew
Lot of options. There is an Enterprise of San Pedro and it is about a mile from the Best Western, about two from the Hilton Double Tree. That Enterprise is 15 from the Long Beach Cruise terminal (Carnival).
As far as going to Santa Monica, one night there and one in Long Beach, that is a good option as well. If you have never been to Santa Monica, it is kind of cool on the pier. If you want something to do near the cruise terminal in Long Beach, the Queen Mary and the Aquarium of the Pacific are right near it, very close. If you think you would want to do the aquarium, you need the better part of a day. It is huge. There are a lot of hotels and car rentals to choose from.
You might even want to consider staying in between, like in Torrance, which is a half hour from Santa Monica and the terminal. There are a couple of Enterpises in Torrance and an Uber from Torrance to the terminal is only about $25-30.
We are going in December on a Princess, whose dock is on San Pedro. Right now, our plan is staying near Pasadena to the east until the day before (family). Then drive over to Torrance or Long Beach, where there are several Choice hotels and Marriotts. Get rid of the car the morning of and Uber over to out terminal. Since the Torrance and Long Beach car rentals are not too far, we are planning to uber from LAX to one of them to get the car for several days . FWIW, it is cheaper to Uber and do a round trip car rental there than a one way from LAX to a rental return in LB or Torrance.
Check out Costco, if you have membership there.
Hope that helps
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17 minutes ago, njhorseman said:
Personally, I think a ship's tour or equivalent tour from a private tour operator is the way to go on your first visit to Cartagena. Having a knowledgeable guide to explain what you're seeing is going to greatly enhance your experience.
I wouldn't recommend walking back to the port from the old city. It's probably about 3 miles, you'll be hot, sweaty and tired and i'm not sure I would feel entirely at ease doing it. If you're going to stay in the old city after the tour take a taxi back to the ship.
Appreciate the advice. That's what makes this Cruise Critic so valuable
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2 hours ago, njhorseman said:
To me the must-dos in Cartagena are exploring the fort, Castillo San Felipe de Barajas , and the walled old city. It's very hot and humid in Cartagena, so I'd recommend visiting the fort as early in the day as possible as it's a substantial climb to the top. Visit the old city after the the fort.
On our most recent visit we spent a little time at the bird sanctuary that's part of the cruise terminal. we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was.
That's what I have read. Are the ship's tours worthwhile vs doing it on our own hop on hop off, cab or walk in, etc. They don't look to be overly expensive; they are about the same 3-4 hours and they appear to highlight the same places. Looking the map, it appears to be relatively small area in which to sight see. I'm thinking, do one of the actual tours and either come back to the ship or stay in the city, walk around and then head back on our own--cab or walk. Being the end of the cruise, we will likely be pretty wiped out, but then we would have two sea days to recover. Are there any that are more wow than the others or are they all pretty much variations of the same thing.
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58 minutes ago, njhorseman said:
The point is that the better place to both ask your question research this port is on the Mexican Riviera board, not the Panama Canal board. Just by scrolling through the threads on the Mexican Riviera board you're going to find some information on this particular port, although there may not be a lot since it's not as frequent a cruise ship call as many other Mexican Riviera ports. For example during the entire month of December, 2019 only five ships are scheduled to visit Huatulco according to cruisetimetables.com.
If you ask your question there, in addition to here, it's more likely to catch the eye of cruisers who have been to Huatulco.
Thanks. That's a good thought. I will do that. Along with what you are saying about Huatulco not being a frequent stopping point, I am also hearing from some that it is---okay, nothing special, bland, etc. You get the idea. If there is a stop to just wing it, this appears to be the place. And it does not sound like one where if we wait until we are on the ship to book, and perhaps get shut out, that we will say, "Oh no, look what we missed !" But it is good to educate oneself to make an informed decision at some point.
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50 minutes ago, BillB48 said:
Bear in mind I usually don't do a lot of sun, swim, sand stuff, so none of those activities are on my "to do" list as far as shore excursions. So as far as Huatulco goes for me, it is sort of a bland port and while I enjoyed the excursions we took there just not was a bunch to write home about. Once we were there during the Day of the Dead holiday an spent a little time in the town of La Cruceita, don't know if the holiday had any impact on the goings on in the town or not, but it was quiet. Another time took a bird watching hike... not that I am a birder, but that was fine. The last time I was there (Dec) just grabbed a cab to let my daughter get some pictures of the area and we wound up back in La Cruceita... it was little more active than the last time, but then again nothing to really point to as a must do. You can get some great pictures of your ship from the overlook of the pier.
To me the more interesting aspect of the Hualtulco area is what kind of weather you will be treated as you cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. A good part of the year the mountain passes on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec channel winds into the Pacific and it can cause a more lively passage through that body of water.
Bland ! Interesting description. We kind of saw it the same way, which is why we did not jump to line something up some nine months in advance. So it's not us. Huatulco is just.... there. The other ports have something that makes one say, gotta do this or gotta do that and if we don't that would be disappointing.
Puerto Vallarta has the beaches and there was one that stood out, at least to us and we jumped on it. Same with Costa Rica, rainforests, Nicaragua, volcanoes. There were options in each, but one in each seemed to stand out more, so we booked. At Fuerte Amador, we went with the Embera Indians, because I was getting a lot of people saying that this was the highlight of their trip. Good is one thing, highlight is another. I guess I am easily swayed. With Cartegena, it is all about the city and there are a lot of variations of seeing the city, so I am confident that one is as good as another and I can wait on that. Then if all else fails, we can just go in on our own. It's pretty close. Huatulco seems like whatever we decide will be fine and there is no need to rush in to book.
That said, it would be good to know what others think. Thank you for your insight.
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17 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:
Have you done any reading on the Mexican Riviera board, under Ports of Call? EM
Not for some time. What I remember seeing was pretty general and tough to navigate through. Looking to get some specifics from people who have been there.
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18 minutes ago, thinfool said:
Too bad you are limited in your choices. We have been to Cartagena multiple times and really enjoy the city.
Last time we toured with Dora the Explorer (http://www.cartagenatour.com/) and filled the day with history in the old city and wonderful local food and scenery. The only complaint I had was that her tour did not include any time to explore the huge fort that protected the city in colonial times.
I have heard about her and that's fine. I figure with 15 or so options we should not get shut out. Some are actually hop on hop off or go on your own and if all else fails just taking a cab to the city and go on our own. Just looking for suggestions or highlights.
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Going on Emerald Princess to Panama Canal in December, 3rd to 18th, LA to Ft. Lauderdale. One of our stops, Huatulco, Mexico, is early on. While we have most of our ports covered with pre-books, this is one that we will wait for until we get to the ship. We do however, want to get an idea of what others think about possible excursions. We will book through the cruiseline, so there are some limits.
What about Huatulco stands out? What types of excursions are unique to the port? It looks like there are a number of cruises around the bays or rivers. Therer are also several that get out into the countryside. For those who have been there, would you suggest one type over another. Is there anything worthwhile in the city. Of all of the places we are visiting, this appears to be one that would be a possible one for piggybacking. Tour in the morning, get back and then head to city on our own for a little bit. Is that a viable plan? Looking for thoughts.
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Going to Panama Canal LA to Ft. Lauderdale in December on Emerald Princess, We have booked four of the six land days with excursions from the cruiseline. Cartagena, Colombia id the last port of the trip. From things that I have read, that Cartagena is really about the city. We have decided that any booking we will do will be through the ship and that we will likely wait until we get on board.
Of the ship's authorized tours, most are to the city, perhaps 15-20. I figure with that, we can wait and take our chances. All of them seem to be generally going to the same places, so there is nothing that I see that makes me say, "I have to go on this excursion." Most appear to be $30-50 and about three or fours hours. The city area is fairly compact so it appears, maybe a loop ofg about a mile or two. We figure that there are a few options. 1) Take one of the tours and when we get back call it day; 2) Take one and when we get back to the ship, take a cab back or walk (it's about three miles to the farthest point.). 3) Take a tour and stay around the city area, eventually cab or walk back to ship. 4) Cab to city, walk around, cab back 5) Walk up and back. Appears that a cab is about $10.
Has anyone done any of these things here? Any thoughts? Suggestions? Warnings?
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3 minutes ago, Slugsta said:
Yes, it was that one. I should have realised that y message would make little sense once the spam had gone!
Yes be careful. Once you let something like that get into your system, what can follow could be really bad. You open yourself up to malware or a number of bad things. You can try to filter out, but it is a real pain. Good luck
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Like FB or any other social media, this kind of posting can and will happen, unfortunately. If you go to this person's profile, there are at last count 39 of the exact same wording to others on CC. Looks like they joined a couple of weeks ago and have been doing this since. Reporting is fine, but the best thing to do is just ignore it. Do not, I repeat, do not reply by email. You would just be letting this person know you are out there and it would result in getting a lot of spam. The admins on this board can probably block people, but you don't want to have do this in the outside world. That would be a lot of work, filtering.
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1 hour ago, Slugsta said:
Post #4 reported.
I assume you are referring to the one from Lucy Watson !!! Monica Brown !!! or whoever. !!!! At first I thought it might be what I wrote, but the broken english kind of gave it away that this was a spammer.
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Our Panama Canal Cruise for December 3-18 on the Emerald Princess from LA to Ft. Lauderdale has opened up the excursions for booking well in advance of the 120 days, that is on website. It is even a lot earlier than the 180 that I had heard about. Given that we booked four of our six days in port.
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico--Las Caletas Private Beach Getaway ($105) 6 1/2 hours. We wanted to do some beach and PV seemed like the best place for that. There were a couple of other beach options, but this seemed to be the best because there is no bouncing around from place to place and spending time getting there. A catamaran takes us to this private beach and we spend four plus hours in one place with several things to do. beach, eat, drink, hike, eat, kayak, cooking lessons, did I mention eat. Four hours later they take us back.
San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua--Nature Experience, Masaya Volcano, Apoyo Lagoon, Granada ($100) 7 1/4 hours. Volcanoes are the big thing in Nicaragua, so I hear. There were three options and each was the same price. This was the middle between an 8 1/2 and 7 hour excursion. All three visit the Masaya. This one also also takes in Mombachu from a distance. It also takes us to Granada and gives us more free time there to walk around. Didn't want to wait and possibly miss out, so we jumped on it.
Puntarenas, Costa Rica--Rainforest Aerial Tram, Tarcoles River ($180) 10 1/2 hours. Rainforest is Costa Rica, right? There were several and this was the priciest. There was one that was just the Rainforest , but it was pretty expensive as well, at $155. For $25 more, we get to do a river cruise and see crocodiles (hopefully). The only issue we had, is that it iis a lot of time in bus getting from the rainforest to the river and then back to the ship. Heard from some that there are things to see on the bus part and when we put it together, it seemed like the best deal. Could blow up on us, but we'll chance it.
Fuerte Amador, Panama--Embera Indian Village. ($100). 5 1/2 hours. Going east, the port of call is the day before the transit. I am assuming there will be a lot of educational stuff on the ship throughout the trip and then more on the day of. Most of the excursions for Panama City are lock/canal related. And while I understand that from land, it is a different perspective, I wanted to see something different, totally different. I was lukewarm about this over the months, but then several people on cruise critic wrote that this excursion was the highlight of their trip. That meant something. I also saw an eight minute thing on my streaming travel channel on it. Like I said, it's different.
We have not and probably will not book the other two, Huatulco, Mexico and Cartagena, Colombia until we get on the ship. Cartagena is really about the city and there are something like 15 variations of city tours. There are minor differences between them. I am assuming that I can wait and not be shut out. There are also options that are on our own or we can just cab in or even walk from the pier. If I detect that things are filling up by the summer, I might book ahead. Huatulco has various options of different types of excursions. There are some interesting options, but none make me say, "wow, gotta grab one". That could change as I observe people on Cruise Critic and their comments over the next couple of months. The city, which apparently has some points of interest is not very far and could be cabbed to or even walked to.
So for now we are booked and I don't have to obsess over choices over and over again for the next however many months. Well I'll find something to obsess about.
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21 minutes ago, riffatsea said:
I don't understand the discussion of insurance when you use OBC or points??
Excursions can be cancelled with the OBC going back to your account.
Often a flight or hotel booked with pts can also be cancelled with the pts going back into your account or worse comes to worse you lose the pts but you are not out any money anyway so I don't see a problem doing that.
So I thought when you pointed that out in an earlier post. I called to make sure. The issue is not that they can be cancelled, it is that something booked with OBCs which they determine not to have refundable cash value, they won't even insure it. Not insuring it is not an option. Anything booked prior to the trip would have to be accounted for and over an additional $50-75 of premium, I do not want to risk blowing the whole pre-exist clause. I would have to have paid for some by CC anyway as I don't have enough OBCs to cover everything. It is more of I can pay now or pay later. I put it on a credit card that gets me airline miles.
As far as using airline miles, same deal with TG. Airline miles have no dollar value to them. If I cancelled, I could get the points back for forever use, with a $150 penalty, but the $150 would have to be accounted for to TG. I can, however, use the booking up to a year from when I made it and pay no penalty. I assume I will use it.
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5 hours ago, TERESAh said:
We booked two tours for our June 2019 cruise but received an email from Princess asking to give ok to bill our credit card to pay fro the tour and if not received in 24 hours our tours will be cancelled. When we sail we are getting $750 OBC from our TA and planned to use that credit to pay for our tours but guess we’ll have to cancel the tours and hope we can book them after we sail
Just a little something on that. I see that some people want to use their OBCs to book as many excursions as they can as opposed to using their credit card and saving the OBCs. I also assume you are insuring your trip in some manner, so I would check with the insurer as to how they handle excursions that are booked with OBCs.
I am insuring through Travelguard, which is very strict about how one accounts for everything and maintaining a pre-existing conditions clause. If I add anything, that is non-refundable, it has to be accounted for within 21 days of booking. This is relevant because onboard credits from the cruise line are considered to have a dollar value and thus there is no refund to be had. With no refund to be had, they don't even allow you to insure OBC items. If you want to insure an excursion, you need to have form of payment. In the end whether you pay via OBCs or CC does not really matter. If you don't use them for excursions, you'll likely have them later. If you use them up for excursions, then at some point, you will be going to your credit card.
Also TG puts its premiums into bands depending upon the total insured. It is possible, maybe even likely that $600-900 worth of excursions will jump you from one band to another. The difference is usually, $50-70. I chose to go that route. The small $50-75 as well as putting it on the CC now is worth it as opposed to not insuring or blowing the Pre-exist clause. . Airline points work the same way. Can't insure a flight booked on points, but in my case my points are still usable up to a year without putting them back into the account, which would trigger a penalty.
Just check things out with your insurer.
5 hours ago, kruisey said:Can one pay for excursions using onboard credit Princess has given one on a promotion before one sails?
5 hours ago, TERESAh said:We booked two tours for our June 2019 cruise but received an email from Princess asking to give ok to bill our credit card to pay fro the tour and if not received in 24 hours our tours will be cancelled. When we sail we are getting $750 OBC from our TA and planned to use that credit to pay for our tours but guess we’ll have to cancel the tours and hope we can book them after we sail
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46 minutes ago, CATGUY7 said:
I keep looking at excursions, thinking after looking at them 50 times I will know which ones to pick!
That's funny !! FYI, I passed 50 times awhile ago. I have charts and charts of my charts. I make notes, create links, set up maps. Clearly I have too much time on my hands. Now that they are actually out there for the taking, I can move to the next phase and that would be obsessing as to what I will do the rest of the time at said port of call. Fortunately, one will have a 10 hour excursion out of the 12 hours we are there. Doesn't leave a lot of time for anything else, maybe get back to the ship and crash. I'm good with rainforest in Costa Rica and beach in Puerto Vallarta and we have them narrowed down to one. Research pays off.
Of course that does not take into account the ones that have three or four hours of "free" time when not on an excursion. Planning every minute is just something I do. I can't help myself. There is also one place where there are three from which to choose, Nicaragua and volcanoes. They are each the same price. Oh the pressure !! I was hoping to get some more feedback from people on Cruise Critic to help my "research", but it looks llike I'm on my own. I got help with Panama and got swayed by people saying that the visit to an Indian Village was the highlight of their trip. Also saw something on TV about it as well. And finally there are the two ports where I am going to wait until we get on board. Cartegena has something like 15 variations of city tours. I am guessing one is as good as the other and can wait. Huatulco has different things like city or countryside or nature or bay tours. We can wing it.
Actually I find this stuff to be fun. Hope you do too.
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5 minutes ago, CATGUY7 said:
We have a cruise booked for July 2020. The excursions are already available for booking - 490 days out.
It is good to be vigilant. Or obsessive...
Obsessive is so...... OK obsessive works. 490 days, so what are you going to do with yourself after you book. I know that once I book, my obsessiveness will need to be fed. And I only have about 300 days.
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1 hour ago, 6rugrats said:
As to comments about using airline miles. Many policies cover the redeposit fee for your miles.
That may be true. Travelguard does not or at least I never asked them, because in my case with American or Southwest, there would be no fee. If you redeposit, there is a fee. With American, if I was unable to go on the given date, I would still be bale to use the ticket for up to a year from when I made the reservation, as long as my destination was the same. So if I got tickets to LAX for 12.5K, I would be able be able to use that ticket to LAX. If the only tickets available at the time of the make up were 20K, I would have to make up the difference. Southwest has the same one year thing, but they put the points into a an unused section of your account and you can used them for anything. You're not restricted the location. Knowing that I did not even ask about the redeposit fee, because it is not relevant.
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4 minutes ago, bbangel74 said:
Thanks for the heads up! Many excursions available to book already for our sailing which makes it easier to plan and budget.
I am going on December 3-18 and the Princess website says usually 120 days is when they start actually giving one the chance to book. That would be August. Then I read that 180 days is the magic time. That's June. Not believing any of that, I periodically checked and then over the weekend, the itinerary had a different link. This one had our names to check off and details took me to a different screen that said, it is not reserved until you pay for it. Then it gave an option as to how to pay. OBC or credit card. That is different and we are still ten months away.
In our case, we have identified some must sees that have limited options. That we would be disappointed if we did not get that particular excursion. Those need to be booked earlier sooner than later. There were some ports that have many excursions that are sort of the same or where we could do this or do that. Those can wait until we get on the ship. Basically it means that there are so many options, one is as good as another or if we got shut out entirely, oh well. We can just go into town, walk around and not spend too much money on an actual excursion.
I'm glad I kept checking. We lock it in with today's price and we still have the option to cancel without losing anything up to five days before the actual excursion. Now the work goes into figuring out exactly which one in a particular port.
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9 hours ago, Alrana Eris said:
I swear by Travel Guard, I have been loyal customer for about 20 years. Not once had to file a claim but it is always good to have.
20 years, wow. Some of the reps can be testy. They keep repeating the mantra of "if it's non refundable, you need to account for it" I got a good one yesterday and she went over and above to explain things. The biggest takeaway was the explanation as to why I would not want to book excursions by OBCs, but rather that I should pay by CC. Bottom line is that OBC pre-booked items are not insurable. Will I have to pay by CC some nine months in advance, yes. Going to have to pay for it eventually. And now I have more OBCs to use OB. In the end, something is going to go onto our credit card.
I also piggyback trips like this with family visits, so the TG door to door is better. I am guessing that it is what you like.
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On 2/26/2019 at 2:22 AM, CarolandNate said:
This is great. I had been told that as you got higher in the total of the trip, the brackets, which I now know are called bands have lower jumps in premium. The chart in tripinsurancestore.com makes that quite clear. The link you sent was gold and we have silver, but I found another site travelinsurance.com that had silver as well as gold (and platinum). The gold price on that was same as tripinsurance store, so I feel I can trust that the silver price is the real deal on Travelguard.
To get a top price, I added the excursions that I plan to prebook to the price from my agent (cruise plus return flight). It took me to the top of a band giving me a cushion of just $50, but unless I prepay for something else that is truly nonrefundable, I won't go into the next band. I played around with it and even if I dropped several things, it would not get me to a lower band. The only way I would get to the next lower band would be to not prebook any excursions and then all I would save by going to that is $50. Not worth possibly not getting the excursion I want. There is no harm in "overinsuring" it appears.
On our flight out to LA, we will be booking with airline miles and I am assuming I don't have to "report" flights booked with miles, because I won't have lost any money. With American there is no penalty if you don't actually cancel the flight and have the points returned to the account. You just have to use them within a year from booking date as long as you go to the original destination. Southwest is pretty much the same. They call it Unused Travel Funds. You might lose the $6 govt fee, but I'm not sure of that. They don't require the original destination though.
This actually means I should take my total anticipated price to the limit of the band even before I book the excursions. I have been told that the quoted premiums will go up as we get closer to the trip.
Thanks, this was really helpful
The band information you gave me was so helpful. I went to TG and had some specific questions to ask with ragrd to how that all fit in. There is a difference between booking directly with TG and using my big box store's agency. TG has a partnership with the latter that have different tiers of insurance. Instead of the Basic, Silver, Gold and Platinum, they have a special one that is a combo of the top two. Price is also lower. Also the reps at TG aren't going to upsell. In terms of using OBCs to pay, they said you can't. Because OBCs are really just credits from the cruiseline, they have no cash value. If you don't "pay" for something, you can't insure it. If you can't insure an excursion that was on OBCs for example, you are out of luck if you don't make it because you got sick that day or something. If you pay for it, you're good. The only downside, is that you are laying out the money well in advance and they will charge you credit card. Still can cancel on that five day window, though. But being insured you cover the sudden sick part. In the end it won't matter. Pay for it now or pay for it later. Works the same way for using airline miles. They have no cash value. If you want to insure the flight, you need to pay for it. Save the points for something else.
The bands part you mentioned. The bands are big enough that if you are in the lower end of one, then you can account for a value near the top which gives you a lot of room. Even if you go into the next band, the premium difference is maybe $50-75. In my case, I am going to prebook four excursions. My OBCs will cover, at most, two. I would have to charge the other two anyway. Adding two puts me in the low end of band and two more does not put me into another.
Thanks again for the advice
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Count me in as someone who finds Cruise Critic to be a lifesaver when planning a trip. Whether you have a specific question for your own trip or you want to just share, it is great. Then there is the opporunity to meet up with people on an upcoming trip.
Having done a bit of research on insurance, I want to share what I have learned. Trip insurance can be confusing and a lot of us don't know what we don't know. Sometimes you can't ask the right questions because you don't have any idea of what questions should be asked. I have been on the question asking side and several people on cruise critic have given me some valuable information, as it relates to excursions or OBCs, etc.
The cruise that we are taking to the Panama Canal in December is just now starting to pre-book excursions. We want to get in early to insure that we get what we want. My biggest question has been how to insure them. One person informed me that there is a five day window prior to the excursion that allows for a full refund. Some else talked about the premium breakdowns when it comes to certain insurance. I took all of that and asked my insurer specifics. I learned a lot.
Simply put the ship, in our case Princess offers plans. But they cover Princess related things--cruise, EZAir, excursions booked by Princess. There are also a number of others that are tied to insurance companies. One can book directly, through brokers. There a number of websites that will let you compare side by side. In our case, we use Travelguard (AIG), which also has a partnership with a certain big box store that has a travel agency arm. TG differs from the Princess insurance, in that it is door to door coverage. From the time you leave the house until the time you get back, you are covered. The price differences are relatively small, maybe $75-100. TG has some ground rules. You must account for anything pre-booked that is non refundable. If you book after you begin the trip, you do not have to account for it. You must do said accounting within 21 days of booking to maintain a pre-existing conditions clause for trip cancellation. The accounting does not identify each item, but it must add up if you end up making a claim.
This can be important, especially if you are doing more than just the cruise. When we went to Alaska a couple of years ago, we did a land tour and then visited family. We also did that part on our own. Had we booked the cruise tour with Princess, everything would have come under that. For flexibility reasons, we wanted to do it it on our own--rent a car, stay in B&Bs and basically come and go as we pleased. We spent more time where we wanted to spend it. All of that was covered. Then we went to see family in California. Still covered.
We are going to the Panama Canal over 15 days and while the vast majority of the time will be Princess related, the family part is still there. The premium difference in minimal in the grand scheme of things.
TG breaks up its premiums into bands, which get broader the more you spend. The difference between one band and the next might be $50-60 and the band width might be $500 or even $1000. The question can be what should one cover. Pretty simple, if you book something and it has any part of it being non-refundable upon cancellation, you need to account for it. If you don't say good by to the PEC clause entirely. But because the bands are so wide you may not see a change in premium with additions or if you do go from one band to another, it may only be $50 or so.
I asked TG about OBCs and using them for excursions and whether I had to account for them. Using OBCs is not treated as a payment, since they are gifted, so to speak by the cruise line. They will not even let you insure it. But you will have used OBCs and if you miss the excursion that you did not insure, well, you are out of luck. If you want to insure an excursion, you need to pay for it and then account for it by their rules. The downside is that you are laying out money, months in advance as opposed to using credits gifted by the cruise line. In the end, it does not matter, since you will have your OBCs for later use on the ship. As far as the bands are concerned, if you are in the low end of a band, you might as well account for a value just short of the band's top limit. That way you are covered in case you messed up with the math or if you decide to add on. You have room and flexibility. I thank people of CC for that tidbit about bands. BTW, this also applies to using airline miles. Since miles do not have cash value, they are not considered payment.You can't insure the flight unless you actually pay money for it.
Can be complicated, but not insuring a trip of many thousands is a lot more complicated. Hope this is helpful for anyone considering. Good luck. -
5 hours ago, SG65CB said:
Travel insurance is priced in "bands", for example the Travel Guard Gold policy has the same premium for any insured amount from $7001 to $8000, then it has the same premium for $8001 to $9000, etc.
To be safe and ensure that you don't accidentally under-state your non-refundable trip cost you could just insure the top of your band. If your trip cost is $7300 you would insure $8000, it is the same price.
Here is the list of bands for Travel Guard Gold:
https://tripinsurancestore.com/travel-guard-gold-plan-prices-to-100000-pp-trip-cost-for-44-states/
This is great. I had been told that as you got higher in the total of the trip, the brackets, which I now know are called bands have lower jumps in premium. The chart in tripinsurancestore.com makes that quite clear. The link you sent was gold and we have silver, but I found another site travelinsurance.com that had silver as well as gold (and platinum). The gold price on that was same as tripinsurance store, so I feel I can trust that the silver price is the real deal on Travelguard.
To get a top price, I added the excursions that I plan to prebook to the price from my agent (cruise plus return flight). It took me to the top of a band giving me a cushion of just $50, but unless I prepay for something else that is truly nonrefundable, I won't go into the next band. I played around with it and even if I dropped several things, it would not get me to a lower band. The only way I would get to the next lower band would be to not prebook any excursions and then all I would save by going to that is $50. Not worth possibly not getting the excursion I want. There is no harm in "overinsuring" it appears.
On our flight out to LA, we will be booking with airline miles and I am assuming I don't have to "report" flights booked with miles, because I won't have lost any money. With American there is no penalty if you don't actually cancel the flight and have the points returned to the account. You just have to use them within a year from booking date as long as you go to the original destination. Southwest is pretty much the same. They call it Unused Travel Funds. You might lose the $6 govt fee, but I'm not sure of that. They don't require the original destination though.
This actually means I should take my total anticipated price to the limit of the band even before I book the excursions. I have been told that the quoted premiums will go up as we get closer to the trip.
Thanks, this was really helpful
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42 minutes ago, riffatsea said:
I agree that 3 for Free is a better deal than Sip n Sail !!
We pay for drinks as we go along and never reach the number necessary to make a drink pkg worthwhile.
IF you don't own any stock or never plan to go on another Carnival Corporation cruise(Princess, Holland America, Carnival and others) then the Carnival stock is not worthwhile buying BUT if you DO plan other cruises then it is a good investment.
It is a good investment for its own sake and for the OBC you get on every cruise.
For the Panama Canal you would add $250 OBC. We have owned it now for several years and have gotten our money back from the purchase.
Something to think about going forward. probably too late to purchase Carnival Stock now and get any benefit for this go a round. Is there a minimum of stock that has to be purchased to be eligible? Getting your money back from the purchase might have been more likely a year or so ago. Not so sure now.
I'm with you on the drinks. We did Alaska for seven days. We bought a bottle of wine in Vancouver and milked it through the trip in our room. We got wine for use with dinner in the dining room and went through two bottles in a week. Add in the occasional drinks in a lounge or at one of the game night things and that was it. Doubt it came to more than $100 total. We were helped by the fact that in the Alaska cruise we did the Chef's Table one night. That included champagne for the hors d'oeuvres; wine for appetizers; a white and a red for the main course; a dessert wine for the five different desserts. Basically, we were lucky we were actually eating while drinking all the wine. Needless to say, our personal wine limit was covered by 9:00. Well so was the food.
Granted this is two weeks and there will be more time spent on the ship, but I can't imagine we would come remotely close to what a bev package provides. Might get a second bottle in LA. Might get one or two more through the ship as "needed". And because we will have more nights, might get a drink here and there at lounges. Certainly not going to come close to bev package "value". What is it worth, something like $800 or so. I'm good !
I need hotel suggestions for a LAX/San Pedro port departure
in West Coast Departures
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Ah Montreal. One of my favorite places. Son was going to go to McGill before he decided elsewhere and I have a cousin who has been a professor there forever. Actually love Canada. In the 70s, we honeymooned in the Maritimes and a couple of years ago got back to PEI after 28 years. Love your country !!!
Crowne Plaza is expensive. It is literally across the street from Enterprise, isn't it. The DT looks nice. We want a place with free breakfast and Residence Inns have a decent buffet and since we have Marriott Points and free anniversary nights, seems like a logical place to go. Also have Choice points and there is a brand new Ascend, which are the more upscale Choices in Torrance. Called the Bluestem and it literally opened a couple of months ago. It also is getting great reviews. There's also an Enterprise a mile or so away from it.
Getting back to the breakfast thing, we don't want to go hunting around for breakfast that morning. When we went to Alaska, we stayed at a Westin through Princess and they had a buffet. Made life easier to eat and go and then tide us over until we get on the ship, where the serious eating begins.
I like to think, that I know the LA area reasonably well for an east coast person. Daughter is out there and my son did an internship near LA when he was in college.
When and where are you going on Princess.