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Wishing you and your family good luck. 😊

I would think a medical professional would be a better person to consult.

And yesterday I received an e-mail from Gate 1 Travel with river cruise offers that look tempting. We have used Gate.1 twice before though not for cruises, an escorted land trip in Central Europe for our 40th anniversary in 2017 and an absolutely fabulous escorted land trip in Peru in 2019 including Machu Picchu. We were impressed with both, but don't really know much about the river cruise ships they use, so will have to do some research.

Our TA once said to me not to stress over things like this, just turn it over to him after the cruise to let him handle it.

Hmm, that degrades their value. I feel I have earned every single one of them that I won at trivia. I do know that they handed out some to children on one of our cruises, and I do not mind that.

I think the ability to not be amused is part of the job description of security officers. 🤦‍♂️

Thanks, but a BIG NO for Uniworld. We once (2004?) had a Uniworld cruise booked and paid for and then they chartered it out from under us. Viking actually sent me 2 identical brochures, each with a card to enter a sweepstakes to win an 8 day river cruise including airfare with the rule only one entry allowed per person. We both filled them out and mailed them. If one of us wins, it makes the choice much easier. 😊

On our last trip with both on the same credit card, we each had an account we could see on the tv. The primary account, however, was the only one that showed both our charges.

We were on that Prima cruise that missed Brugge (actually the port was Zeebrugges) as well as Isafjordur. The reason given was an extremely low tide. IIRC, they said 1 foot.

And trying to get them to handle a problem like this will only hold up your check in and others in line behind you. Wait until you get on the ship and take it up with guest services.

And what a proud feeling that is! But only one?

The way those folks often express themselves is the cruise line should be paying them and somehow if I withhold my tips it will force them to do so. But mostly they either know they can get away with it or to give some credit come from totally non-tipping cultures and really do feel that way.

We did that cruise this past August, and I can attest to the scenery was gorgeous. Can't comment on March.

Probably makes sense, and that is the way other cruise lines seem to do it, but they have their own rules and are following them. It's sort of like when you were a kid and questioned your parents, and they said because I said so. 🤣

Mine gets annoyed too, just not as quickly as I do.

My DW scolds me for getting impatient while it acquires satellite.

LOL @ the GPS lady hates you. We sometimes hate her for the excessive amount of time that she sometimes needs to access satellite.

OK, here's another question. When we checked in in Southampton on NCL (one of the lines you do I assume), the agent retook the picture for both of us. How do you decide if the picture from the online check in needs to be retaken or not? And the online check in required glasses off (just like passport photos), but the check in agent in Southampton said when I asked about my glasses that I could keep them on.

I'd also call it a win and in addition good customer service by HAL.

Since you say your work involves 5 different cruise lines, are there any differences in how the different lines have you and your co-workers doing check in? Are some easier for the check in people and that makes it quicker for the passengers to go through the line? Conversely are some more difficult for you and the other check in people slowing the process for passengers to board? Are differences enough that you have to keep remembering which line your passengers are boarding that day?

We were on the Prima this past summer. I had reviews, many negative, some positive. And we were not in warm water ports, sailing from London (Southampton) to Reykjavik, and many of the reviews complained that the ship was not built for cold weather. We loved the ship and had a great time. Go in with the expectation of a wonderful cruise. If you do the opposite and let the negativity of some reviews get to you and to expect a bad experience, that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think they were splitting it back then and even earlier. I just got a bad rep who in fact thought using OBC pre-cruise to buy excursions was a brand new policy (her words) thought it was not. I ended up having to put IIRC, $35 on my credit card, but would have that $35 still in OBC once we boarded. It wasn't really enough to be worth arguing about especially since I would have it later. I could have called and tried to get a better rep, but it just did not seem to be worth the hassle for such a small amount that in fact I would still have in the future.

That is not always true. Back in 2020 when booking an excursion pre-cruise (for a cruise that unfortunately never happened due to Covid), the Princess rep I spoke to refused to do that.

Just make sure you bring the proper documents for check in, 😉

One should also ask why other cruise lines when the stock is in both names, do not split it.