ontheweb

They usually read that way, but I have found in the past (using offers from Carnival Corporation) that if the charge is to the right place, the offer kicks in. When Amex recieves the charge, they only know where it is going, not specifically what it is for.

That has worked for me in the past.

They stopped that; I remember reading about that when it was stopped. It was great when it existed. I know for a HAL cruise we once got it on both connected cards. And later the offer came up again, and as it was after final payment, I bought $500 OBC and got another $100 credit. (I was at first afraid with other OBC, I would not be able to use it all, but then DW wanted the most expensive Anne of Green Gable tour, and it was easily spent.)

Yes, one of the great advantages of youth is being able to recover. My parents both died as a result of falls, one at 101 1/2 and the other at not quite 99. (Dad actually unexpectedly survived breaking his hip at almost 99.) Moral of the story---save your falls and broken bones for your years as a youth. BTW, did you try to contact the port agent? If so, did he or she make any attempt to get you back aboard?

Not if the shore excursions were NCL excursions.

So true. I was one of those at the original Woodstock festival, and it was better and special because of the crowd.

Lucky you. 👍 for Chris, and here's hoping there are a lot more like her!

i was responding to your post about if you would have one or the other there should be testing. Answer this--was it the miraculous development of the vaccines or was it the availability of tests that has changed things to the point that hospital ICUs are not being overrun?

Walgreens in my home town has a sign that says no Covid testing at this site.

That should read the testing requirement if entering the US by air as that was what is ending; there were no testing requirements for entering by other means.

Did I say vaccine were foolproof? But they do seem to be working very well to mitigate the worst of the symptoms. Or are you going to disagree with the medical community and the CDC over what vaccines have accomplished? Why do you think pediatricians are now happy that a vaccine will finally be approved for those under 5 years old?

Yes, and that truly puts the cruise line bean counters between a rock and a hard place. Whichever policy they choose, they lost a part of their potential customer base.

As someone who once had a river cruise chartered out from under us after we made final payment, I agree 100%. Much better to have a year to make alternate plans than to have to scramble to make new quick plans.

If you were not so funny, I would put you on my ignore list. 😜

And I am sure that is a loss for the world!

If someone does not get Covid due to being fully vaccinated plus precautions and maybe a little bit of luck and gets on a ship, the vaccinations have helped keep Covid off the ship. And since testing days beforehand can miss Covid and even testing right before embarkation can miss someone who is not yet sick enough to test positive, your beloved testing is not as foolproof as you make it out to be.

I used it and got the credit for an excursion in Barbados. But that was many years ago so I cannot comment on what might be going wrong now.

Vaccines prevent the worst of the disease. Testing does next to nothing as you can still become positive between the 2 or 3 days before the cruise and the actual embarkation.

Maybe John does not think passengers would be mean spirited enough to remove the auto-gratuities.

Not the best analogy ever unless people are staying days and days and days and days at that local supermarket.

But does it become a more onerous requirement when the test reads positive despite no symptoms, and possibly a false positive?

That is terrible. Sorry for your loss.

I believe the policy is that if the automatic gratuity is taken off, all tips in cash must be turned over to go into the pool. If the automatic gratuity is left, then the additional tips may be retained.

DW always goes straight to the pool. (I go get something to eat.)

Yes, I realize you can get larger bills broken that way, but that just adds to the lines that are often already long at that point on a cruise for customer service.