tupper10

For anyone interested in a good new novel about the founding of Singapore I would suggest Rachel Heng's The Great Reclamation. I realized that I knew nothing about this area of the world and she weaves a fascinating tale with a fairly accurate history. It would make some great reading for a long cruise. I hope we hear how everyone is doing - I was hoping to see some updates posted today. @dfish The gardens look beautiful. We signed up to do a TA next year and I think @StLouisCruisers is on it as well. My husband is getting to the point where he doesn't want to fly at all - this was the only way I could get him to Europe since we only have to fly one way. I wish VOV would do some more Norway ports then we would just do a RT but it is one area I really want to see so we are doing a Norway cruise before the TA. I hope everyone has a great day. We haven't been outside in days here way too hot to do anything.

I do not think travel insurance will pay if you only cancel 1/2 of this cruise even if HAL lets you do this. You say that you booked this as one cruise, not 2. All outside travel insurance policies require you to give the dates of travel and the cost. I assume you purchased travel insurance for the 14 day cruise not two separate policies for two separate cruises. The doctor's certificate required for all claims will have to state the medical reason your wife cannot travel and also the dates that travel is restricted. The date will include the dates w/in the 14 day cruise. You can't say she can travel for the 1st half and then not be able to travel for the 2nd 1/2. I also assume that given it is one policy you have to make a choice -either forego any claim at all or cancel and get a refund for the entire trip. I would suggest you confirm this with you travel insurance agent/company in writing and spend some time reading the terms of your policy - not the one page cover sheet. So sorry that you have to deal with this we all look so forward to these trips. Perhaps something closer to home may work for you? Whatever you decide good luck to you and glad to hear your wife did so well with her surgery.

@marshhawk A comment on Pompeii - it is very large and hard to walk it all. If it were me I would tour Herculaneum which is much smaller and doable and you get the entire experience of seeing this smaller city that was totally covered by ash. In Greece it is a long walk up to the Acropolis but it is wheelchair accessible as is the museum so my suggestion for this trip is to rent a wheelchair for your husband and then use it at places like this one where he can access what he wants to see. Sagetraveling.com is a site that is for disabled travelers in Europe it gives you load of information and tours for those who have mobility issues. I hope this helps. You can get information port by port.

@JazzyV so sorry to hear about your friend. It is so hard to lose cherished friends. @rafinmd Loved your Sandy story. We lost power for 2 weeks and had multiple trees down in our area of LI - out by Stony Brook. Almost all of our roads were not passable. Glad you had a great travel agent who managed to get you on your cruise. Sending healing thoughts to so many on the daily who need them.

We were wait listed and received an email that we could book the excursion if we wished to - which I did on the same day.

@luvteachingmy thoughts are with you at this difficult time. @smitty34877glad to hear the surgery went well. Hope your husband has a room by now. @dfishhope your sister just slept in vs a migraine. They are horrible headaches. Thinking of everyone today. Have to say my back surgery was a success. I am at Universal in Orlando with my daughter and grandkids and I’ve been walking 4 miles a day. Hot as the blazes and not many rides that I can do but helping out. I couldn’t have done this pre surgery.

So sorry to hear this. So hard to lose our beloved pets.

Wow. I guess we booked early enough so the fare was reasonable at that time. It seems to have gone way up in price.

@friendswithdaveYou say you have been to Alaska multiple times - so what is it you would like to see again or for the first time. We have also been multiple times both a land only trip and cruises with land extensions. We decided to do the 14 day HAL trip that is offered only in the Spring and Fall which does some different ports. It is one of the few cruises that actually goes to Valdez, Kodiak and Anchorage so it may interest you.

@bennybear Asian doesn't work for me due to my many food allergies, but thank you.

I would contact their corporate offices. Primary Contact Mark Ewing Director, Customer Relations 1 Skyview Drive Fort Worth, TX 76155 Markus.Ewing@aa.com Secondary Contact Caroline Truelove Vice President – Reservations and Customer Relations 1 Skyview Drive Fort Worth, TX 76155 Caroline.Truelove@aa.com Chief Executive Robert Isom CEO 1 Skyview Drive Fort Worth, TX 76155 robert.isom@aa.com

@marshhawk would you be able to give me the name of the place you loved to eat in Vancouver - we will be there this September. Glad everyone's surgeries seem to be going well -hope the recover goes just as good. Fun Fact about Simon and Garfunkel - Paul, his younger brother and parents lived down the street from me in Queens, NY. Art Garfunkel lived around the corner. Mrs. Simon (Paul's mother) was my 1st grade teacher at PS 164. She continued teaching even after Paul became famous and for show and tell used to bring his gold/platinum albums to share with her classes. All of us who had her say she was one of the best teachers we ever had!! And yes I did know Paul though I doubt he would remember me, I am much younger than he is, his younger brother was my baby sitter.

Yes I think you now have 60 days to do this and it must be before final payment. Your TA will give you a form.

@superoma thinking of you and your family tomorrow. @dfish good luck with your surgery tomorrow. I hope it goes well and you get taken in quickly at 8 AM. I also hope you have a fast and pain free recovery. @marshhawk Sorry you were ill on your cruise and the weather was not the best. It seems like you made the best of it and still had a great time. I hope you quickly recover now that you are home. @StLouisCruisers Have a safe trip and congratulations of the graduation!! What fun to see your grandson graduate. Healing thoughts to all who need them and for those traveling have a wonderful cruise/trip.

This happened to us when the Eurodam went into dry dock this past winter and our Panama canal cruise was canceled. We had a load of OBC because we had booked it on board and though we could get a new date for the same price HAL refused to move over all of the OBC. I contacted corporate and explained that we didn't cancel the cruise they did and I wanted the same cruise with the same OBC I had booked - it was honored but again not until I contacted corporate. Elliot.org lists all the corporate contacts.

We have done the same as this poster if we buy the airfare ourselves. When you purchase your ticket the airline offers cheap travel insurance which covers just the airfare. Then for the cruise portion of our trip we buy travel insurance and since the cost of the trip is much lower the cost of the travel insurance is lower as well. We also do this when we do a land trip since the airline insurance is relatively inexpensive.

That should work great!! I bought cuddle duds for my long underwear vs paying a fortune for silks and they worked fine. This will be a fabulous trip for you and having the balcony helps.

I don't think you need a longer warm jacket you just need more layers for the wind. I bought a pair of heavy fleece pull on pants that went over my long underwear. This was much warmer than jeans. I then had a pair of cheap rain pants as well that went over the fleece. The rain pants blocked the wind. For the top layer it was long underwear, a turtle neck shirt (like one you would wear for skiing), a fleece and then my jacket which had another layer of fleece and the outside shell which was waterproof. I also had a neck warmer and good hat that covered my ears and good sun glasses, since the sun reflects off the snow/ice. Again it isn't that it is so cold it is that it is so windy. If you ski another thing you can do is just bring your ski pants since they are warm and water proof and just wear your long underwear as the bottom layer.

Eva @superoma so sorry for your loss. May his memory be a blessing to you and your family.

Alaska is well worth the long flights. Get a day pass for your late departure and hang out at a nice hotel.

You will have a real veranda on any of their ships, and a promenade deck as well, so you can walk all the way around and not be barred from accessing the entire ship even if you don't have a suite. If you only sail with the retreat on Celebrity I am not sure you would like HAL suites since you do not have your own part of the ship, just a dining room, where you get one extra main course choice, and a lounge with a concierge. I found the crew friendlier on Holland America, the non stop music just as annoying on both lines, and the food to be frank about the same.

This is our complaint on almost all cruise ships. I don't understand why the powers that be think this awful non stop music is what we want to hear. I have tried to escape it to no avail. Unfortunately we can't sail on Oceania or Azamara as they both use latex gloves for all their food preparation and I am allergic to latex.

We had the same dilemma and at first we booked to Seattle with the shuttle bus to and from Vancouver. We were doing two overnights in Seattle since our flight got in so late. I then realized that we would be spending around 4 hours on a completely filled bus and would have to get off at the border with our luggage which would need to be inspected and decided that it would just be easier to bite the bullet and fly directly to Vancouver. The flight time with the layover is essentially the additional 4 hours but we don't have to drag our luggage to a hotel in Seattle, then get back to the airport in Seattle and drag it off and on at customs. When I initially went to book our flights the round trip Seattle was much less expensive than Vancouver. When I asked flightease to look at the round trip Vancouver the cost turned out to be the same so we changed it. Hopefully Westjet won't be on strike in September when we have to fly. The cost of the shuttle as I recall was around 158.00 per person round trip.

I haven't posted in awhile since it has been a rough recovery from my back surgery but finally feeling a bit better so you can take me off of the care list. Rich I loved following you on the world cruise, welcome back. Sandy thanks for doing this while Rich was away. Sorry Rem lost his game but you have a wonderful happy event coming up - high school graduations are so meaningful. Sending healing thoughts to everyone who needs them and for ill pets as well. I hope Vanessa is finally feeling a bit better and can get out and about.

Contact corporate. Go to elliot.org to get the email address of the person at Holland America who you think will best respond to your request.