dickinson

I was about to go with another company but saw this one on insuremytrip. It is better coverage and less expensive than Global Alert. I use travel insurance in case of medical issues while traveling. Never needed to use it before though but want to be covered. In my 60's so starting to get expensive. Don't want to be penny wise and pound foolish!

Anyone use them before and have claims? How were they? Thanks.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek:

That is terrible! I'm going through tripinsurancestore.com and going with Global Alert. I looked at the link and called them too. My receipt from my TA just shows a $200 deposit without specifying that it was a future cruise credit. Presumably that would have been good with Travelguard if I used them. I really think that it is lousy of these companies not to honor it. One is not booking a specific cruise with specific dates when purchasing them but only an interest in possibly cruising again. With Princess it is refundable if not used within two years. No way should that be considered a deposit by any company.

I would have been up the creek (if I had needed to use it) if I purchased my cruise through Costco and then used Travelguard!

Thinking of buying an iPad Air. Does that fit into the safe?

Previously we have brought our laptop and hid it although occasionally while recharging during the day left it on the counter. We would feel more secure if the iPad Air fits into the safe.

nana541, I am sure you are right and will no longer book with Costco. I was told I would be called this evening with information on my cruise but have heard nothing. The incentive for me to book with Costco as well as many other people was being able to get insurance at reasonable costs at final payment. Now that is gone I am not interested in booking a cruise and having to pay inflated insurance costs over a year ahead of final payment. I feel Costco let down their loyal customers.

Because of all this it spurred me to book elsewhere (I started looking at cruises April 30 but didn't call them til May 2 when I found out about the insurance situation). It actually turned out well for me as I found another TA whom I used about 12 years ago. I saved $175 more than I would have if you use the new rules about insurance. Insurance, on the other hand, is going to cost me a lot AND I will have to pay for it by this Saturday to be covered for pre-existing conditions. If it had been under the old guidelines I would have booked with Costco because the insurance would have saved me money and given me flexibility as my cruise isn't til February.

I will check with them next time in case things have changed by then.

Last year Princess reclassified the cabins and the great upgrades we used to get in the past by booking guarantees are now a thing of the past. S, now when you book a guarantee, the odds of getting what you paid for are very high.

Thanks! I understand. No way to upgrade within category anymore so if one is lucky and gets an upgrade it is to a different category.

Just curious, what do you mean with the "cabin reconfiguration" you now have a 90% chance of getting what you paid for?

Never having been on either ship but having two upcoming cruises on both …. why does the Grand not let you use it?

Great thread! We just booked an inside guarantee for a 4 day Calif Coastal in Feb. Can't wait to find out what we get! (we will be fine with an inside though. Never had one and the whole idea is to see what other cabins are like).

I saw that the cruise policy was back up on the site. I booked my cruise through a different TA this past week end. I called TravelGuard to confirm I could still book this policy but they said it is only back up online for those people who booked before May 1. Boo Hoo. Now I have to spend more on travel insurance than before. I used a different agency as I got a better deal on the cruise so I guess that will make up for the extra I have to pay on cruise insurance. Cruise insurance is expensive as one gets older. This old policy didn't ask for age so was much less expensive.

"will upgrade fairy stop by if we pick our cabin?"

 

We always pick our cabin and she stopped by once only to drink most of my Bombay Sapphire and then left without saying a word.:rolleyes:

 

Mike:)

:D:D

We'll be ok even if we get a bad cabin. It is only 4 days so how bad could it be? :eek::eek: It is sort of an adventure. After that cruise we will be in a Window Suite going to Hawaii. Ahhhhhhh.

Thanks all!

We have cruised Princess 2x and both times in Window Suites. Before that when we cruised Carnival it was years ago and were on ships that had lots of outside cabins so we were in those. Princess cabins are small (so I hear as Window Suites are not!) and probably future cruises will not be in Window Suites so we figured a short cruise would give us a chance to sample a different category type. We didn't just pick a balcony because this is not a cruise we would have picked because we wanted to go on a cruise. We mostly wanted to get to Platinum before the Hawaii cruise, sample another cabin type without too much time invested being in it and going to San Diego for the day. We will be in CA for the Hawaii cruise so we are just going a little earlier for this one.

Just booked a short 4 day cruise for next year (California Coastal) before our Hawaii cruise. Just did an inside guarantee. TA said we had a better chance of being upgraded this way than if we picked a cabin. i hadn't heard that before. Is this true? I thought if you didn't mark it "no upgrade" then they could upgrade you if they so desired.

We've done Princess from the west coast to Hawaii several times and love it. For us, the answer would be - Yes, why are you even asking the question!?!

 

But.....it works for us because we love-love-love sea days; we have both been to Hawaii before on land tours and seen quite a lot of the islands, so we like doing more off the beaten path things in each island now and we don't mind it if we miss a port due to weather, we've been there already; rough seas don't bother us and we expect some chop heading west the first two days and east the last two days; Princess has Hawaiian themed activities on board which we find fun and interesting; Princess ships are like second homes for us.

 

BUT..if we had never been to Hawaii before we would fly over and spend two weeks there island hopping (we would not take the seven day cruise around the islands - terrible reviews, not our cruise line of choice), we would find out if we tolerated semi-rough seas well, we would find out if we liked sea days.

 

Don't question for a second your choice to sail Princess, just make sure that Herself is comfortable asea......wishing you a terrific first cruise together!:)

How bad are semi-rough seas?

I have had a Window Suite 2x but never in the Caribbean (Alaska and also New England/Canada). You will NOT feel claustrophobic unless you feel claustrophobic in a nice hotel room. It is much bigger and especially wider than a regular cabin. Look for pictures as there have been threads before with pictures. They are beautiful and have lots of storage. Try not to book cabin F301 as it is a little smaller than the others. We loved the Window Suite and the perks. As an FYI - we have never been in a balcony cabin before so for us there was nothing to miss. When we wanted to go outside we just went upstairs.

Depending on your interests, I can easily fill 2-3 days in San Diego for you....

Thanks Loonbeam but the 2-3 days would be in LA. The 4 day cruise has San Diego as a port of call.

Thanks all. This is not a regular TA of mine (I don't have one). We were thinking that maybe before our 15 day Hawaii cruise we would just fly in to LA a little early (isn't retirement great?) and take the 4 day cruise so we would be Platinum for the Hawaii cruise and get some free internet minutes. Of course it is less expensive to just purchase those minutes but we figured we could see what it was like cruising in a less expensive cabin along with also spending a day in San Diego (Ensenada is the other port but that is also on the Hawaii cruise. I hear one day there is enough).

So therefore it sounds like we should have no problem talking with the cc desk to make sure things are updated so we would get the internet minutes , am I correct?

Our next big cruise will put us at Platinum level so we thought maybe we would take a 4 day cruise before it (with 2-3 days in between) so we could have the free internet minutes for the big cruise. I was talking with a TA getting pricing and was told that it can take 4-6 weeks to get credited with that short cruise. Is that correct? Any way around it? Thanks.

Pam- what is it about the Grand that you didn't like? We have only been on the Golden and the Caribbean Princess.

Is it often that Maui is missed because it is a tender port?

We have been to Hawaii before although the last time was 25 years ago! We took our honeymoon there and went to Oahu, Maui (although only for the day), Hawaii and Kauai. When we went again 16 years later we did everything except Maui. I like the idea of not having an 11-12 hour flight from the east coast. Somehow sea days sound a lot better!

Pam in CA - if we do this cruise I'll be looking forward to meeting you as it is the same cruise as I see in your signature. Same for Cre8tv1.

BTW - which port is a tender port?

We are also considering a 4 day CA Coastal on the Crown just before this cruise. That way we will be Platinum on the Hawaii cruise. It is actually an expensive way to get some free internet minutes ;) The one good thing is that we would pay for the least expensive cabin and see what we get. We have only been on 2 Princess cruises and both times we were in a Window Suite.

FritzG - what is it about the Grand you don't like?

Thinking about doing this cruise Feb 2015. Lots of sea days. Not sure if we'll be bored. I see a lot of people seem to do this cruise repeatedly so therefore they must like it. What do you like or dislike about this 15 day cruise with all the sea days?

For us the new policy is $253 More and covers less except medical evacuation which has higher limits. I don't understand how they can have such an expensive policy for their members. I can do better elsewhere.

I also don't understand this purchasing it by May 10. If they are allowing the old policy that policy states it covers pre existing conditions if purchased w/in 24 hrs of final payment. It sounds like they are allowing people to purchase the higher coverages and the lower cost of the old policy more than anything and not the being able to purchase it within 24 hrs of final payment.

So if I understand this correctly one has to buy the cruise insurance policy by the 10th or else it won't be available and one would have to buy the more expensive policy. Oy. I haven't booked my cruise yet and hate to feel pressured but it would save us about $100!

I too looked and saw this now whereas yesterday it only listed one thing and that was the Deluxe plan. The cruise plan mentions you don't have to purchase until final payment (or w/in 24 hrs of final payment) in order to have the pre-existing condition waiver whereas the other plan doesn't seem to have that waiver. I would assume that because the land tour is part of your cruise then that is what you want although I would check w/them.

You could buy it on line ..

Huh? Please explain.

All I can say is just "wow".