ARandomTraveler

I don't get the draw of the Northstar ride. I guess I can see it giving you a better view of the glaciers on and Alaskan cruise, but on a regular Caribbean cruise, aren't you basically just seeing the water higher up in the air? I'm surprised it's popular or that anyone would pay money for that. I guess now I'm sounding like the people who say "I can't believe people pay for the dining package/suite/day bed at cococay" 😂.

Oh $550, yikes. But yeah I guess it's really only $150 if you use $300 travel credit. Can the miles be transferred to Southwest Airlines? One would still need to purchase a separate travel insurance plan though if they wanted the cancel-for-any-reason rider, so that $150 dollars that's leftover of the fee is really just paying for the airport lounges I guess. How does that work?

It's surprising to me that any of their ships lack the freestyle machines. Navigator doesn't have them either.

That's true, the Chase Sapphire Reserve is a good card, they keep trying to get me to sign up for that one and I'm tempted, but I don't like the $400/year fee. I don't think the average American can qualify for that card though (or maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure they only offer it to you if you have an "excellent" credit rating). What I mean by that is that the likelihood that someone has that particular card is low, and if they did have that card, they'd know they had that insurance, because the travel benefits are the primary reason to get that card. So my guess is that the OP doesn't have that card, but maybe they do.

Might not have been so "easy"'for someone whose point already have them at the highest loyalty level. I imagine a lowly gold, platinum or emerald member wouldn't have been so lucky.

What does your insurance policy cover? If you got the one from the cruiseline you can cancel for any reason and get 90% of your cruise fare back as a future cruise credit. If you bought a non-cruise line policy, then it depends on the policy you bought. If you bought a non-cruise line cancel for any reason policy, you should get 75% of your cash back as long as you cancel more than 2 days before your sail date. If you didn't buy a cancel for any reason policy, then there may be other covered reasons you can make a claim on (do you live in the hurricane area? Have you lost your job? Any new medical issues, pregnancies, deaths of immediate family etc?). If you didn't buy any insurance, you should have.

Sounds like an all-inclusive vacation might be a good idea. Try a Beaches resort in Turks and Caicos, or the one in Negril Jamaica.

Aww that sucks! Sounds like you have a good attitude about it though. The coach will definitely appreciate that you guys made the effort, and will surely understand the circumstances of the cancellation due to the storm. This is the sole reason I don't book anything through 3rd party sites. The deals are great when things work out, but if there's a problem, the airline/hotel always treats people like gum on the bottom of their shoe. You're basically not their customer, and they'll do everything they can not to help you, brush you off and send you back to the company who has your money. Makes me wonder why they make deals with those 3rd party sites to begin with, because they seem to really hate that anyone uses them.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and figure that if you're living in Topanga, it's not gonna break you if the deal doesn't come through 😂😉 Of course, making sure you get the best deal is a good idea whether you need it or not.

This is what I use at the beach. Could also be used by the pool. It has a built-in cable and padlock. https://www.kyssbag.com/product-page/pre-order-compact-kyss-bag-ii

Exactly

This was a different situation. The ship changed its departure port and based on their own terms and conditions, were pretty much required to offer refunds in that case. In a situation where the ship is still able to leave from the original embarkation port, they don't have to offer any refunds.

Based on what happened in 2017 during hurricane Maria, she won't get her money back if she doesn't make the cruise, unless she has insurance. This is actually what got me to start buying cancel-for-any-reason insurance for every vacation I book. Back when Maria happened, a lot of roads were washed out, homes were damaged, flights were cancelled, and ports were destroyed, BUT, cruise ships were still able to sail, and so they did. Anyone who chose not to sail because they didn't want to go to destroyed islands, or whose flights were cancelled and they couldn't make it to the ship, or people who planned to drive to the ship and could no longer get through because the roads were damaged, or whose own homes had been destroyed, well....they lost their money. This is exactly what travel insurance is for. Most credit cards only offer insurance for things like lost luggage, emergency evacuation or death. They don't offer the comprehensive insurance coverage most people need in cases like this. That's why it's really important to read all the fine print. It wouldn't make sense for the cruise line to have a policy, then provide an option to purchase additional protection, and then when someone chooses not to spend the money on the extra insurance (or chooses not to spend the time to read the fine print), just give them back their money out of pure compassion. Sorry, but she's probably S.O.L. It won't help your sister at this point, but hopefully other people can learn from her mistake.

The place with the flamingos in Aruba is the Radisson, but you need to book that pretty far in advance because they limit the number of people who can go to the island, and Radisson Hotel guests get precedent. I think it's around $100/pp. Aruba has a tour company called ABC Tours that does ATV tours. There's also Aruba Trikes as someone mentioned above, they do a 3-wheeled motorcycle tour (make sure to ask for an automatic trike, not a manual one, even if you can drive manual, your tour will be more enjoyable with the automatic). Curacao also has a beach with flamingos. I can't remember what it's called, but I do remember that when I was there and asked about it, it was a pretty far drive away from the cruise port area so we didn't bother to go. We went to Mambo Beach which sucked!

I always buy "cancel for any reason" travel insurance, just in case something comes up that makes me not want to take my trip, and the reason doesn't qualify me to get a cash refund from the cruiseline or air carrier (I don't like that the cruise lines and airlines only offer future travel credits because they often have expiration dates). I learned to do this back in 2017 when hurricane Maria caused a lot of people to either not make their flights to their cruises, or caused them to not want to take their cruises because the islands were destroyed, or they had planned to drive to the cruise terminal but roads were washed out, or their own homes had been flooded etc. The cruise lines still sailed, despite all the damage to the ports, and didn't give refunds to the people who didn't make it to the ship (no matter the reason). As long as the ship can sail, they gave no refunds. Ever since then, I learned to buy cancel for any reason insurance. That being said, there are lots of other good reasons to buy it, medical issues and potential need for evacuation from a foreign country is a big one. But there are other benefits that you'll often get from the policy that you may end up being able to cash in on, even though it wasn't on your radar. For example, I just took a trip to Europe, and during my trip there was an air traffic control strike that caused my airline to cancel one of my flights between 2 of the countries I was planning to visit. This caused me to have to fly out earlier, and then pay for an extra hotel night at my destination. Even though I didn't purchase travel insurance with this in mind, I realized I could make a claim, and was able to get reimbursed for my hotel, my Ubers, and all the food I ate on the changed travel date. The $86 cancel for any reason policy that I bought just in case I decided I couldn't make my trip for some reason, ended up paying out over $500 in expenses that I would have had to pay anyway (I was already going to be eating, taking Ubers to the airport and spending a night in a hotel), but now I got a check for those things simply because my insurance policy happened to cover them. I always buy my policies through insure my trip dot com. The policies that I've made claims through and am happy with are "I Travel Insured (the LX plan)" and "Trawick International (the Voyager plan)". The I Travel Insured LX plan paid me 75% of all un-reimbursed travel expenses for a cruise that I wanted to cancel because of covid, before things got shut down officially in 2020. I don't know if this specific plan is offered anymore, but the company was really responsive, easy to get ahold of and quick. The only reason I didn't buy from the same company (I travel Insured) this time was because their policies are more expensive than Trawick International was offering, and since I didn't think I needed as extensive of coverage as they offered, I went with the cheaper policy. Both turned out to pay me what I needed, but Trawick International is harder to get ahold of, and much slower to respond. But both paid my claims so I'd recommend either one.

I was traveling Europe this month and there was an air traffic control strike in Paris during the weekend I was scheduled to fly there. I had to change my plane ticket to leave Italy early and fly to Paris before the strike. This caused me to have to miss an excursion I'd paid for in Italy, and I had to pay for an extra night in a hotel in Paris. My travel insurance is paying for both, and they're also paying for all the food we bought in Paris that day, and the Uber rides to and from the airport, which I wasn't expecting. I always buy travel insurance, primarily for medical stuff, and just in case I have to cancel my trip for some reason. I've read the clause about strikes in my policies in the past, but have never considered it as a reason to buy insurance. I was really excited to get to cash in on it this time, especially since they're paying for a bunch of stuff I wouldn't have expected to get refunded for (like food and Uber rides that I would have been paying for anyway). The policy cost me $86 and I'm receiving over $500 in reimbursements. Worth it.

I know, ridiculous price! It wasn't any sort of special beef or anything, but they did claim the lemonade was "house made." It was a good burger, but the high pricing was due to location (California Bay Area, beachside).

Totally agree with this. If someone has compassion for the late person, and they want to allow them to cut the line, then they should just give up their place in line and go to the back. If you're not willing to do that, then you really have no right to let someone get in front of you because if everyone did that, the line could end up twice as long for everyone else.

Agreed. I always call out line jumpers. I hate being in a long line and someone's group of friends sees that they have a better place in line and casually comes up to say hi and then somehow ends up never leaving the line. I always say something, and feel like it's the duty of whoever is directly in line behind the line jumper to say something on behalf of the rest of the line. I get it that this person was late for a flight, but that's their problem for taking a risk booking the early flight to save money and then not planning properly to be first off the ship in order to take advantage of their cheap flight (which is cheap for this exact reason). I don't mind them jumping in a line that wasn't assigned to them, as long as they get in the back of the line like everyone else.

No, but only because I had one yesterday. Cost me $48 after tax and tip for the burger, fries and a lemonade. It was good though.

I agree, I actually had a sentence in my post about how there are nicer beaches on the other side of the island, but they're not beaches someone will visit on a port stop, but I deleted it for the sake of making my long post a little shorter.

As much as I like Puerto Rico (and LOVE cruises that leave from here), they don't have the best beaches. The water is a little rougher and dirtier than the other southern Caribbean beaches. It's reminiscent of a California beach. Fine for sitting in the sun, but I wouldn't want to get in the water. The best thing to do on this island (in my opinion) can only be done if you're staying overnight, and that's the Bio Bay Kayaking tour. If you're not staying overnight, your time is better spent walking through the forts, going for a rainforest hike, doing the zip line, or just walking through old town San Juan (in my opinion). There's a cute hat making shop there where you can get a custom made hat (for men and women) called "Ole Puerto Rico." That's worth a browse for a potential souvenir.

Early boarding time is a good reason, thanks! I want to make sure I can book my dining and shows. I was thinking that the benefit of waiting might be that if a passenger swap is needed or something like that, it might be hard to do after you've already checked in. I don't anticipate needing to do that though.

I'm curious if there's a benefit to checking in early (when the cruise planner opens up for check-in) vs the week-of the cruise? I noticed the other day that my check in opens in 12 days. Is there any reason I should wait to do it closer to the cruise? I haven't cruised since 2018 and can't remember if we were always able to check in this early or not.

It was $69 when I did it in 2018 (I just found the confirmation email). They've raised the cost a lot. Maybe the $300 tour is a private one. I'm not sure I'd pay that much for a private hike, but I'd pay $150, maybe even $200 for a private hike, only because you'd get done faster than going with the big groups. My main gripe about the big group hike was that it took the whole day, and we could easily have gone to the beach for a couple hours or done some shopping afterwards had we not had to wait for everyone else. $300 isn't worth it though.