terry&mike

Thank you for posting this, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As we've visited half of your ports on land trips, and are going to be visiting the other half on Riviera in October, also in an extended balcony cabin, it was perfect for me. A nice mix of memories from past trips, with anticipation of adventures on a future trip!

titong, as long as you continue to accrue miles, then the miles don't expire. You'll notice that your expiration always travels ahead of you, next month when you log on it will say a Miles Expire a date a month later.

I am surprised it says December, 2014 now, as I think United miles expire without account activity for 18 months.

Yes, I had an amazingly speedy transfer at EWR myself recently, which resulted in moving myself to a considerably earlier flight, and getting home several hours earlier than planned.

I've also noticed more separate security lines being added if you are in the program. There's one at Houston that is a blessing, and we recently had a great experience in Toronto with their "exchange" program.

Don't try to do standby at the Newark airport, because the office is in a controlled area and they make you show your appointment print out to get through to the office. I tried this while I was helping my Mom apply for hers in January, and they told her only she could go back (not me), and only within 15 minutes of her scheduled time. Conversely, DH & I had great success when flying through the Houston airport, just stopped in to see if their was a possibility of them taking us early for our interview, and they said, Come on in, and interviewed us both together, watched the little film, and out in 20 minutes total. This was several years ago though, so maybe not so friendly now.

And don't forget, you have $1000 in your budget to work with when looking at your own airfare ($850 credit plus the $150 deviation fee)

Another huge vote for Global Entry, best thing we ever did. Several countries are now offering reciprocal agreement programs, so it can speed up your arrival when entering foreign countries in some instances also.

The new language is no casual jeans. The opposite of casual jeans is not designer jeans, it is dress jeans. And yes, there is such a thing. It has nothing to do with price, but with cut, style and the denim wash (color).

As other posters have said, here in our area at the finest restaurants, we see people dressed for dinner with jeans as part of their ensemble. Many ladies wear jeans with heels and dressy tops. We often see jeans worn at weddings. It is part of today's culture, and a growing trend.

Just last week Sir Ian McKellan was interviewed on TV wearing a lovely pair of dark wash slightly waxed (the new style) jeans, paired with a velvet tuxedo cut jacket and dress shirt. The man looked positively elegant, and is 74.

Personally, we won't be wearing jeans on our cruise, as jeans are not part of our packing strategy in packing light, and not our usual going out to dinner attire, but I'm fine with other folks wearing an attractive pair of jeans to dinner.

Wendy, In the UK, the term pants sometimes is used to refer to panties/underwear.

Once, on a different line, while at breakfast in the dining room we saw a young man probably about 17, come strolling in wearing a fluffy white robe from the cabin and slippers, walk over and join his parents who were mid-meal at a table. Within minutes, a staff member appeared, had a discussion with the parents, and the three of them got up in a huff and left the dining room. I think the parents were miffed that their little darling was not welcome, whatever his attire. Certainly, a line crossed.

I agree with an earlier poster, it's about style and how you wear something. I have seen folks be perfectly lovely and well turned out with jeans as part of their attire, and I've seen people look a mess in a dress.

We did French Polynesia several years ago on Renaissance (one of the original R ships), and found it to be our favorite tropical trip ever. The water is the prettiest we've seen, with magnificent shades of blue, the people had a wonderful vibe, and we ate some spectacular food. Much more exotic feeling than the Caribbean.

Laraine, If you want to add my brochure numbers to your bulldogging, here they are.....

United MileagePlus Presidential Plus Card World Elite MasterCard (Chase issued, United Airlines co-branded), personal card, $395/annual fee.

Brochure effective 11/01/13, #BGC10328, 52 pages.

United MileagePlus Explorer Card Visa Signature (Chase issued, United Airlines co-branded), personal card, $95/annual fee.

Brochure effective 11/01/13, #BGC10335, 48 pages.

Our cards are both personal, not business, and I have the effective 11-1-13 booklets for both the Presidential Plus and Explorer cards, and both booklets state that Trip Cancellation, which begins on page 12 in both books, is up to $10,000 per person, not to exceed $20,000 per occurrence, and not to exceed $40,000 in a 12 month period.

Must be slightly different cards out there, with different benefits perhaps?

Dan, The $395 Presidential Plus card has other perks in, addition to the Evacuation clause, that the Explorer card does not. That's why I wrote that each person needs to determine what the value is to them, to decide what card they should get. I receive a great deal more than $395 a year in perk value from that particular card, but I also can see where someone with different habits would receive no benefit at all.

You can usually get the first year free on either card, and then the fee for the Presidential Plus is $395/year, and the Explorer $95/year. The cards feature different perks, so if you go forward you'll want to compare which is a better value for you.

I just compared the 2 different benefit booklets from Chase that we received, the United MileagePlus Presidential Plus Card and the United MileagePlus Explorer Card, benefit by benefit.

The only difference that I can find between the 2 cards when it comes to insured travel coverage benefits is that the Presidential offers Emergency Evacuation and Transportation (pg. 45-49), and the Explorer does not have this feature.

I received a new booklet in the mail yesterday called Guide to Travel and Purchase Protection Benefits, from Chase, for the United MileagePlus Presidential Plus Card, and the World Elite MasterCard.

For this card, the Trip Cancellation amount is up to $10,000 for each covered trip for you or your immediate family; same for Trip Interuption. It goes on to spell out that if "more than one person insured under the same account suffers a covered loss for the same covered trip" the maximum amounts are $20,000 per occurrence, and $40,000 per 12 month period.

It also explains coverage for Lost Luggage, Trip Delay Reimbursement, Baggage Delay, Travel Accident Insurance, Emergency Evacuation and Transportation, Travel and Emergency Assistant Services, and so on. The booklet is 52 pages long, so too much to scan.

insuremytrip.com can help you compare different policies, including annual policies.

Those type of cards are available in the US, usually from a foreign exchange business, often times at the airport money exchanges; although they carry a very poor exchange rate.

Our style mirrors Rupert. We order cash for the countries we are visiting before we leave, have never visited an ATM while traveling; we also bring some extra US dollars in case we are spending more local cash than anticipated and need to buy more, but this has been rare. Keep daily funds with us, and extra cash in the safe. Use United Presidential Plus through Chase credit card when traveling, for no foreign transaction fees.

llarsen, I think your current plan of action is a good one for the amount of usage you expect to have.

As to the text feature on your international phone, you may have to call the service provider and have this feature added for it to work. Even though the phone has text capability, you usually have to establish this service to have it actually send and receive texts.

Can't speak to Facetime, as I've never tried to use it through a ships wifi service, but it sounds like a great idea. I would think it would work, but if they are blocking similar services, such as Skype, it may be blocked; I'm sure someone will have your answer. Keep in mind, you'll need to be calling another Apple device to use it.

Yes, I would purchase the internet package from O, so that I could access wifi on my iPad. For my usage, I would choose the unlimited package so that I did not have to worry about minutes, but you may only need to purchase a few minutes.

If you are connecting through wifi, their will not be a roaming charge.

If you are connecting through your service provider (your own cell phone company), to make a call, check your voice mail, etc, then there may be a roaming charge each time you connect. If you add an international plan for the period you are out of the country, you may experience roaming charges each time you connect, or once a day when you connect, or just one roaming charge the very first time you connect in the new country, depending on your plan.

llarsen,

Rallydave covered it. Texts are part of messaging in your plan, not data.

Think of your plan as three different components - voice for calls, voice mail; messaging for texts; data for internet related items such as surfing the web, emails, apps that need an internet connection.

The data plan you are thinking of purchasing would easily cover a few emails, and then some. Where your problem could come in would be incoming emails eating up your data. For example, you open your email program, for the first time in 4 days, so you can send a quick email to a family member. In opening your email program it automatically begins to download the 72 emails that you have received in the past 4 days, this could be a lot of data. I don't know how many emails you typically receive, but something to consider.

Another source of data usage is not fully closing out an app, before you put your device to bed. Some apps, such as a map app that is tracking your location, is continually searching and setting. If you have this running in the background, it will be using data continually.

Before you buy any plan, be sure it is for the Cellular at Sea program, because you certainly don't want to buy an international plan, think you are covered, and be accessing the network through Cellular at Sea rates.

My usage is high, as I have to work a bit each day while traveling. The best option for me financially is to start an international plan just before I leave for both voice and data on my phone; you need to remember to cancel the plan when you return home, as most auto renew month after month. I don't do the text plan, as I just limit texts and go with the 50 cents each way charge.

Just before my international flight departs, I close out all my apps, and turn my phone off. I have a voice mail directing people to email me, or who to call in an emergency. When I get where I am going, hotel or ship, I get their wifi service, and access my emails through my iPad via wifi. I will usually cut my phone on once per day to see if anyone left a voice mail, or sent a text.

I keep my phone with me as I'm touring around during the day, and can use the apps for maps, services, restaurants, etc. I limit my use, so as not to exceed my data purchased, and am sure to fully close out all apps when done, and shut my phone off. If I have some important business items going on, I keep my phone on.

If I have a lengthy call to make, I will use a phone app via wifi on my iPad or cell phone; I use both Skype and Truphone, in case one is having issues.

This method usually runs me extra about $30 for data plan, $30 for phone plan (sometimes a bit more), maybe 10 texts at 50 cents each, plus whatever I spend on wifi services wherever I am staying. I generally only add plans to my phone, and generally do not add plans to my iPad, using wifi with my iPad.

Most of my trips are land based, international, 3 to 4 times a year, running 12-16 days, and I usually spend between $100-$300 extra per trip on communications, the wide variance depends on how much I have to pay for wifi access; as I often rent apartments where wifi is included, I'm more often near the $100 extra amount. I cruise less often than land trips, and usually spend more to the higher end of that spectrum when cruising.

But again, you'll want to check with your provider. Most have extensive information online as to what you can expect.

I see on the AMA Waterways site that they offer free wifi on their sailings, which is why you incurred no charges. On Oceania there will be a fee, although some of the sailings from O have offered free internet as a booking perk.

When you are incurring roaming charges, you are accessing your email through your service provider (your plan), and yes, there will be fees associated with it based on your plans international/cruise rates.

You'll want to cut the roaming off and access your email, and other features, through wifi. To do this on Oceania, you will need to purchase their internet package.

Other data services are email, surfing the net (Safari, etc), running your apps that require data, and so on. Yes, you can use them, but you will be billed via your cell service provider.

Go to your carrier and check their international rates and plans page, they will have a section for cruises, it will give you the amounts you will be charged for calls, texts, emails.

My cruise rate with my company is $2.99 usd per minute, .50 per text incoming or outgoing, and I don't remember the data rates, but they are high so I limit my usage.

As my phone is my business, I turn mine off, let calls go to voice mail asking folks to email me (or direct them to call another person in an emergency). I then use the ship wifi service plan to check my email's a few times a day, and I check my voice mail on my cell phone when I am onshore (rates are still high, but a bit better)

It will be much cheaper to buy the ship's plan, than to use your home provider.

There was a cruise line, Tropicana Cruises, until recently that was calling on Cuba, it stopped within the past 6 months or so due to financial issues, but is trying to reorganize. It's certainly not a line like Oceania, or even close, more like ship transportation with a room and some food, decent but not luxurious. Most of their clientele is Russian, but they are quite diverse; and a few Americans had figured it out and were using it. The ship they use is Adriana or Ariana, something like that.

Their usual itinerary is to sail back and forth from Puerto Morelos, which is a couple of miles south of Cancun, to Cuba, and back; this takes an overnight sail. You could buy a round trip, and spend a couple of nights with the ship docked in Cuba, and then sail back; or you could buy a one way, stay a few nights independently in Cuba, and then return to Puerto Morelos on another one way cruise.

Sometimes they switched up their itineraries and visited Jamaica too, and on occasion Campeche or Progreso, Mexico.