Fairgarth

If it's a six hour trip, start to finish, then when you factor in travel times, you will have more time in Lucca. Lucca is flat and larger. San Gimi is more cute with narrow medieval streets. In both you can climb a medieval tower and get a great view. If you are a candidate for a knee replacement, forget it. As mentioned above, I'm inclined to recommend 'do it yourself' to Lucca. The train station at Lucca is a very short walk outside the wall. Rent a bike, ride around the wall. Check out Duomo di San Martino, Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, Guinigi Tower and, of course, the wall, on bike or foot. Also bear in mind, it is Puccini town.

Interesting piece in the Globe and Mail this morning. "WestJet mechanics make only $109,000 on average. Oh, the humanity." Two points: therefore half of them are making more than this (OK, OK, I know the difference between the mean and the median) and that is before they get the raise they have just negotiated. If negotiated is the right word.

No you can't. I was a member of AARP when I lived in the U.S. but on moving back to Canada I was no longer allowed. Perhaps AARP and CARP have agreed not to tread on each other's turf. That was a few years ago so possibly things may have changed.

Wow! That is impressive, I'm glad you got treated so well.

Excellent advice! I left the ship with pages and pages of documentation. No charge. We jumped ship and flew home after four days of a ten day cruise. We had to buy new airfares and an overnight hotel since we could not use our original bookings. I was worried about the medical bill and it never crossed my mind that these other expenses might also be claimable. Too late now. Older, sadder and wiser.

Never having had a claim I don't know if this was unusual or not. I was on a cruise ship in the Adriatic when I had to go to the medical bay and ran up a bill of over five grand. Which, of course, got paid on my credit card not by Allianz. I filed a claim when I got home. It took 11 weeks for them to contact my doctor for my medical records. Slim pickin's, there's nothing there. The only reason for doing that, of course, is to find some excuse for denying the claim. They paid my doctor's bill right away. Two weeks later I got an email from Allianz to check the status of my claim. I signed in and saw a green tick and the text "all done". I did not know what that meant but it sounded encouraging. Silly boy! I waited another four weeks then called to enquire and was told it had been referred for review and that would take two to three weeks. After another four weeks I called to enquire again and this time was told it had been referred for review and would take another eight to ten weeks. That was also wrong since a cheque showed up in the mail three weeks later. Start to finish was 23 weeks. There's only 52 weeks in the year. Having bought Allianz insurance for thirty years and never had a claim I'm not impressed and have found a new supplier.

For thirty years I bought travel medical insurance from Allianz and never had a claim. Then last year I did. I'm through, never again. For six months I did not know if or when or how much they would pay out. That is ridiculous. To be fair, they did pay up in the end. In talking to my agent, she is now steering people away from Allianz since she has heard too many negative stories. This experience has changed my perspective. Most people seem to care about how much the insurance will cost. I don't any more. Cheap insurance that doesn't pay out when you need it is useless. You need to figure out what is covered and what isn't. Then try and figure out their track record in meeting claims. Any insurance will duck and dodge and squirm rather than pay out. I often think insurance is like buying a dog and barking yourself.

As others have said, yes, it is possible. In my opinion, however, it is not sensible or desirable. Getting to and from Florence will consume a chunk of your day already so I would skip Pisa entirely. I don't know what your interests are but there is so much in Florence that I still have not seen it all and you certainly cannot 'do' Florence in one day. You have to research and choose.

Same here. But I had to go to the ship's medical centre while afloat in the Adriatic and ran up a bill of five grand. No way to contact the company and if they disapproved of the ship's medical centre there was no alternative where they might prefer to send me anyway. It never became an issue. Timing, however, was a major issue. I had no idea if or when they would pay out. They finally did after six months. I was not impressed and will not be using Allianz again. In fact, my broker mentioned that she is now steering people away from Allianz on account of too many negative claims experiences. Never having had a claim before, we were not thinking. We jumped ship after four days of a ten day cruise. We bought airline tickets to get to London and then had hotel and meals before catching our flight home to Canada next day. At the time, it never occurred to me that these other expenses might also have been claimable. Silly boy! Too late now.

I'm certainly not flaming our esteemed and knowledgeable contributor, Mr. Hank, but may I offer an alternative view on Tarquinia? On our last departure from Civitavecchia we did stay a few nights in Tarquinia to get over our jet lag. We relaxed and enjoyed it. We stayed at "I Tre Camini" which made a big difference. Federica, the owner, met us at the train station and later drove us to the port - a 20 minute ride which, with baggage, was a real bonus and we never needed a taxi. Depending on time of day, we would stop for a cappucino or spritz and we had a splendid lunch at 'Il Cavatappi'. There are lots of other restaurants to chose from. In the end, of course, it's your decision.

Absolutely, always use Trenitalia's own website every time. (Same for Italo) Ignore the others. But watch it, are you overdoing it? Some years ago, we were staying in Florence and went to Cinque Terre for a day trip. The train back to Pisa was over an hour late so we missed our connection to Florence. No big problem, got the next one and arrived home at 10:30pm. If our cruise ship was leaving without us I do believe some measure of panic would have been appropriate. And, purely personal, I would choose Vernazza over Monterosso.

Pre-Covid American flew PHX - YVR. I have taken it. Obviously they dropped it.

I stand to be corrected but I'm not sure if this is still true. WestJet started as a clone of Southwest 28 years ago but they have long since abandoned that idea and they look more like Air Canada every day. In the early days, they were non-union and employees owned shares. They ran ads showing happy Westjetters, who 'owned' the company, looking after their 'guests'. They don't run these ads any more. Most of the employees are now unionized. WestJet was bought out by Onex so I'm assuming that nobody owns shares in the company. WestJet are fine, go ahead.

Hallelujah! I hate these all numeric dates with a passion. Take 4/6/2025 - is that the 4th of June or 6th of April? Haven't a clue, got no idea what the writer intended. How difficult is it to write 6Apr2025?

Aha! Good point, thank you. Learn something every day.

I arrived at Heathrow from Canada on Monday this week. Immigration was zero wait with the machines that scan your passport. (Time of day, maybe?) Customs? Pah! Walk right out. I believe Aer Lingus also use Terminal 2. But beware, it's a route march from aircraft to Immigration. You feel like walking to Trafalgar Square might be quicker. Your choice, Sir Jack, but I would never fly in day of departure. Your faith in the airlines is touching and entirely misplaced.

Having got fed up with another company I'm also very interested in claims experience. Most of us are buying travel medical insurance but hopefully very few are having to make a claim. So almost all the discussion on the boards is about rates and terms. I think you are quite right to research what is likely to happen when you do have a claim.

Hallelujah! A check in the mail yesterday, over six months since I incurred the expense. The claim was over five grand so I have been out-of-pocket all this time and not knowing when or if it would be settled. The amount of $122 was deemed not eligible but I am very happy to get the settlement. The point was made earlier about declaring which company this was. I'm reluctant to say since I expect many others might pile in on this one company. I'm sure there are more companies just as bad. Perhaps we need a new thread: "Report your claims experience with travel medical insurance, good and bad."

When I have been asked to check a carry-on, the agent has been very clear that I should first remove and retain any valuables, medications and lithium batteries. That last is very important since they do not want spontaneous combustion in the belly. I truly can't believe that any agent would take the carry-on without first advising the passenger. That has to be mandatory.

I'm of the opinion that a limit of $5000 is hopelessly inadequate. Here's my evidence. I had to go to a cruise ship medical centre twice in 24 hours. The total was $5021. My mother-in-law was boarding a cruise ship in Ft. Lauderdale when she fell backwards on the escalator and ended up in hospital in intensive care for four days. The bill was $23,600. (We were surprised - thought it would be very much higher!) A friend had an accident in Cuba which could not be fixed locally and was flown home on a private jet. What did that cost? When we left New York on QM2 the captain sailed in closer to the Maine coastline and a Coast Guard helicopter lifted off a sick passenger. What did that cost? Who pays? The other thing you must think about is who pays? In my case, I paid the cruise ship and now it's my job to submit the claim to my insurer. Until, or indeed if, they settle I'm out five grand. For my mother-in-law in Ft. Lauderdale, the hospital claimed directly from her insurance and she had nothing to do with it. If, however, you run up a hospital bill in Albania, Aruba or Argentina are they likely to claim from a Canadian insurer and just let you go?

Sorry, don't follow your logic. The gal checked her bag at one gate then the flight was moved. She did not and should not retrieve it. In fact as per OP, it was on her aircraft, not "unattended", and that is why it was held up while they went into the belly to find her bag and haul it off.

Folks, don't get hung up on price. My wife and I have been buying an annual medical travel insurance from the same company for thirty years and never had a claim. Now I do. I had to go to the medical centre on a cruise ship. It has been more than five months since the claim was submitted. I phone every month but I still don't know if they will pay out, when they will pay out or how much they will pay out. I am not renewing with them. Trying to find out which insurer will honour claims in a timely and decent manner is next to impossible. All the discussions on the boards, including this one, are about price and coverage. Can anybody shed light on satisfactory claims experience?

Repositioning happens, for example, when ships move from the Caribbean to Europe in spring and then back again in the fall. QM2 does not do repositioning - it's a trans-Atlantic 'crossing'. Depends what you want. QM2 takes seven days to cross the pond. Everybody else takes 14 or so. Is that cheaper? Is your time limited?

The stingrays are free, not captive at all. The guides told me that on days with no tourists they still go out and feed them anyway.

Watch the opening hours. The ground floor market closes - around 2:00pm?? - but upstairs stays open.