SensFan11

We called our travel insurance and they said bc RCI hasn't cancelled the cruise and the airport is technically open they can't do anything for us

 

 

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That's terrible. The details of insurance policies really can matter.

One tip for fellow Canadians in this predicament - the Government of Canada has issued a travel advisory that ALL travel to Puerto Rico by Canadians be avoided. Any trip cancellation insurance I've ever seen has a clause whereby it kicks in if there's a Government advisory:

https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/puerto-rico

And one more thing...again for Canadians. If you don't have trip cancellation insurance or choose not to use it and travel to Puerto Rico anyway (despite a Government Advisory not to travel) and you get injured or sick while there, your travel MEDICAL insurance may not cover you. Many policies have a clause whereby it doesn't cover you when you travel to a country subject to a DO NOT TRAVEL advisory.

I had "heard" that the fuel situation had been rectified, hopefully, it's true. My main concern is the airport, no air traffic control tower? Eeesh, doesn't sound safe but I'm not a pilot. Perhaps they'll have one airlifted, like what was done for St. Thomas. Will be interesting to see how/if the flight schedule increases in the coming days.

Lots of challenges with the airport...one example, about half way through the article below, that one of the airport radar sites was completely destroyed, and that it's on a mountain in the jungle that's completely inaccessible...downed trees and vegetation mean replacement equipment is being carried by hand, as a lead group cuts a path through the jungle with chain saws.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/maria-cripples-puerto-ricos-main-airport-leaving-thousands-stranded-1506378803

As many are likely doing, in case their first choice hotel doesn't re-open on time, we are making a back-up reservation at a second hotel. Sadly, this will make overall availability in San Juan look even worse than it already is but there is no way around it. If our cruise is going forward, we need a place to stay.

I also suspect FEMA and other disaster relief organizations are booking whole hotels and/or large blocks of rooms for multiple weeks ahead through the fall/winter. Some of these may get reopened to new bookings as the recovery effort proceeds, but I'd also expect a few hotels will get taken over completely by FEMA for the next 4-6 months.

That's the primary reason I've booked a backup hotel...in case it's FEMA that's there now, and that they continue to hold all rooms beyond October 31st.

It's been widely report that there's over 10,000 federal employees now in Puerto Rico...they've got to stay somewhere.

We had/have reservations at the El Convento and I have not been able to get a response from them. We are definitely not going to PR since our cruise (AOS on 9/30) and all our flights were cancelled. We've rebooked on the Allure leaving on Sunday instead. However, I pre-paid for pre and post-cruise stays at El Convento and since your list shows them open I have no idea what will happen to that nearly $2,000. Oh well, I know they need the money more than I do but it still hurts.

It's worth trying to get a refund from the hotel or your credit card for a prepaid stay...but may be tricky.

A refund from the credit card company is usually only for 'goods and/or services not provided'. If you prepaid your hotel and they say they were open and able to accommodate you, then they're going to consider you a 'no show' and the credit card company probably won't reverse the charge (although it's worth a try).

This is where travel insurance would be applicable...most have clauses based around costs due to a 'missed scheduled connection', a Government-issued advisory not to travel to a region, or a natural disaster at your destination.

Adventures of the seas is on her way to San Juan. Ship has dozens of generators, food and water to bring to San Juan. I would imagine they would take some people onboard and bring them to continental US, because I see no real chance of them sailing from San Juan Sept.30th. I would imagine they swich their port to Fort Lauderdale and cruise from there for a while.

A great idea...there's thousands of people trying to leave Puerto Rico right now. But this may also raise 'Jones Act' issues, which states that foreign vessels can't take passengers between two US ports (without a stop in a foreign port).

Maybe they detour to St. Maarten to drop of aid, and qualify as a foreign port? Or maybe the Jones Act doesn't apply if they're not paying passengers? Or perhaps there's a handshake agreement between the US government and RCCL that they won't enforce the Jones Act on this humanitarian mission?

I did read somewhere a couple days ago that some folks in Congress were proposing a temporary waiver of the Jones Act.

Were cancelling our cruise on the 30th and booking one out of Florida. We can't wait anymore to have RCCL cancel on us 48 hours before and then we can't go anywhere else. I think RCCL is using this strategy to have people cancel on their own and go thru insurance so they don't have to refund us and they can keep our cruise fares. I have always highly praised RCCL, but this time they have really disappointed me.

 

 

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Have you tried calling RCCL and asked if they would switch you to a different ship, maybe departing from Florida the same weekend?

We sailed on Brilliance from Cape Liberty in the immediate aftermath of hurricane Sandy, and others on our roll call had success in switching Oasis.

We're going on a Caribbean cruise leaving Fla on Jan 25, 2018. St Martin was a port of call. We've already been advised we will not be stopping there and Jamaica has been substituted.

Really? Which cruise line and ship?

I haven't heard of a cruise line making definitive port changes beyond October.

It's not so much an issue right now, but once the winter season heats up in November and December, if St. Maarten and St. Thomas are still out of commission, they'll be some busy jockeying around for ports. St. Kitts and San Juan are the most likely candidates to handle the diversions, but they can only take so many extra ships beyond those already planned to call there.

I've seen MSC doing this also. But I've personally never seen RCL use ship based tenders.

Similarly, I was on Brilliance of the Seas last year, and we used ship-based tenders for our call in Kotor, Montenegro.

In a few days it's time for us to escape the winter. Sure, we've had less snow than last winter but I've had enough. At this point in my life any more than snow on Christmas Day is too much.

That sounds like a Southern Ontario perspective...speak for yourself! ;)

Here in Ottawa, we've had over 255cm of snow (so far)...well above our average winter snowfall.

We've still got 14cm on the ground...so I'm certainly ready for Harmony!!!

You book everyone, and then get the credit onboard if the child orders from the child's menu. Also, I've read accounts of people getting the credit even if the child orders off the adult menu. You may get lucky.

We've taken our kids to multiple specialty restaurants (Chops, Giovanni's, Jamie's) on several different ships (Brilliance, Serenade, Quantum). They almost always order off the adult menu, and have always been charged the kids price - either by adding them once on board the ship, or booking them in advance at the adult price and then receiving a credit for the difference.

I have done this several times and it's not a problem. I can't speak about other ports but at PC the security does not check your set sail pass at all, they have no way of knowing who's doing what. As long as any one person doesn't have more than 2 bottles it's fine.

 

although as others have suggested it's probably best for husband and wife to go through separate security lines.

We similarly had not problems last year boarding in Port Everglades. Security saw we had four bottles and said "you're only allowed two bottles of wine"...I answered "we have two cabins" and they said "oh, ok". No problem.

Also awaiting the release- really wanting to do a westbound TA- we are unable to travel after mid October through late April. Probably end up on an eastbound. We shall see-

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There's usually an early September westbound TA on a Radiance Class that's really popular...includes Iceland and Atlantic Canada. That would be a great cruise...but unfortunately I can't cruise that time of year!

I've spent the past few months myself researching flights for our upcoming March break AOS cruise. We (family of 4) were hoping (ha, ha) to use our Aeroplan points for the Ottawa - San Juan flight (or from Montreal and Toronto too) but nothing reasonable around the dates ever came available. In the end I found the Kayak app to be very helpful.You can search for flights from different airports, different date ranges, set notifications for price drops, and see graphs of price changes over time. We finally booked our flight at the end of January for our March break cruise and I'm still amazed at the price, $358 CDN/pp (price found on Kayak, then booked directly through Air Canada). Montreal - San Juan with one connection (reasonable), arriving 1 day before the cruise and red eye flight home the day we disembark the ship. Sorry I can't answer your questions directly but my suggestion is that if you are comfortable waiting, don't rush to book your flight until you are about 2-4 months away. However, the flight costs you stated, $500-600 CDN, do seem to be similar to what I found when looking for Toronto - San Juan flights (for March break timeframe). I have never used ChoiceAir, but agree with other posters in that I would be very likely to book though them if flying in on the day of the cruise.

Great find karebare22...that's a great price! I hope I can get something like that for my cruise out of San Juan in November!

A couple things to note to the OP: that flight back on Dec. 23rd is likely to be more expensive, which is why I suggested you consider splitting your flights.

Also - Christmas and March Break are prime travel periods, meaning the price drops 2-4 months karebare22 found are less likely to materialized.

One way karebare22 worked around this was flying out of Montreal (a very viable option for those of us in Ottawa). Because Quebec schools have an early March Break than Ontario schools, flying out of Montreal essentially bypasses most of the price premium associated with March Break.

Noel

I've done cruises in and out of San Juan a couple times (from Ottawa)...a couple tips I'd check on:

Consider flying south the evening before your cruise - most likely to Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Orlando or Atlanta...you can stay at an airport hotel and then take a connection the morning of your cruise the rest of the way to San Juan. I always fly the day before, but a relatively short hop the morning of from a non-winter departure point can work. There are several evening (e.g. after work) options to head south.

Consider splitting up your flights. These days I almost never book a round trip within North America. I often find I get cheaper and/or more desirable flights when booking each trip individually on the airline with the best option.

Consider also splitting up your flight down - one ticket as far as Florida, a second ticket fro Florida > San Juan...it may be cheaper, or give you better flight times.

Don't forget about Porter. They have flights to Orlando-Melbourne that might work well for a connection on the way south. As well, they partner with JetBlue via Boston...and JetBlue has nonstops SJU-BOS.

Noel

Good Luck SensFans, for it seems you will probably do it your way. Fishywood and I are both locals and it might be possible that we see your scenario quite differently. Especially, the difference between renting a car and taking a private transfer is miniscule.

I certainly appreciate the input here...especially from locals who are more familiar with I-95 than I am! It's more that I'm pointing out an option for how it could be done...but the risk is, everything has to go right.

I do readily accept the point that rental a car adds extra time that I don't really have. I'd be curious if anyone has a recommendation for a good private transfer service...I used on years ago to get me from Port Everglades to FLL and I really wasn't happy with their service.

Thanks!

Noel

On a busy Saturday morning you need to add more of a cushion for possible long wait times to pick up and drop off your rental car. I would be off the ship closer to 7:00; hopefully Harmony will be like the other Oasis-class ships and start disembarkation before 6:30 most of the time. You should definitely weigh the cost difference between the rental car and a private transfer.

Interesting. I've never waited more than 5-10min for a rental car in Ft Lauderdale before...that's what Budget Fastbreak, Hertz Gold Plus and National Emeral Aisle are for. Similarly, while the lines at Port Everglades can sometimes be long, last time I was through there they'd opened up the new Global Entry lane at Terminal 18...made arrival a breeze!

We've used PBI before. It was awesome. Great airport, and very user friendly. Flew through security. However we used it on weekends and we had more time to get there and our savings were worth it compared to FLL. All things being equal, I would use PBI over FLL everytime, but not with a time crunch on a weekday.

Thanks for the feedback here. Similar to the OP, I'm considering a flight out of PBI, but on a Saturday, departing at 12:10pm. I'll also be disembarking at Port Everglades (off Harmony of the Seas).

The plan I'm considering: taxi from cruise port to FLL or another local car rental place, dropping the car at PBI airport. My thinking is if I'm off the ship around 8am, in the rental car by 9am I should get to PBI by 10:30am, which seems to be a lot of time (especially with TSA Precheck).

As for savings - for us they would be significant: $136 per person X 4 = $544 total.

Thoughts?

Noel

Question for the Nexus folks.

I have my card, I have my flight booked. Its out of the US. I know I can cross the boarder using the card, its very easy. My question is about using it at the airports. How do I do that? It needs to be in my flight information some where? Or do I need to apply my number some where else? I'm looking at avoiding t he long lines at security especially in Orlando.

 

Walk me through this, its our first time using it at the airport.

Nexus members MAY be able to use TSA PreCheck, which is a form of expedited security screening. It applies at most US airports, with most airlines (but not all). And there's no guarantee that even if you do everything right that you'll get the 'TSA Prechek' designation on your boarding pass.

I wouldn't wait until check in. For most airlines, you should be able to access your reservation on their website and be able to add contact information, frequent flier numbers and 'Known Traveller' numbers...that's the key - you need to add your 'Pass ID' number from the back of your nexus card into the Known Traveller Number in the airline's computer. You may also be able to add it during online check in, or in person at the airport, but I wouldn't leave it that late.

Thanks - Yes, looks like ESPN Caribbean - they're an official Olympic broadcaster.

Anyone out there cruising the Mediterranean? Wondering if they show ESPN Caribbean on board European cruises too?

If your cell phone is unlocked, the most cost effective option is usually to obtain a local prepaid SIM card...especially in Europe, where a SIM with good roaming coverage should cover all of the European Union at reasonable rates.

This web site has a great run down of options:

http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/European_Union2

One more question, Vicki - Kotor is also one of our ports later this month. The tour you took sounds very interesting. What tour company did you go with? Do you have a link to their website or email address?

Thanks,

Noel

Hi Vicki -

Thanks for sharing! A great review - I especially enjoyed your summary of the ports. We embark on Brilliance in eight short days, on a very similar 12 night itinerary!

I'd love to see copies of your cruise compasses, and especially of the kids and teen club programs! Please post them there, or you can alternatively email them to me: sensfan11cc AT gmail DOT com.

Cheers!

Thanks for the feedback.

Anyone else noticed what channel(s) they have carrying Olympic coverage?

Anyone successfully streamed online Olympic coverage while on board?

So, it's officially Day Three of competitions in Rio. Anybody on board a Royal Caribbean ship (particularly in the Mediterranean) able to report on what coverage is available on the TVs on board?

Also interested if anyone has tried to stream Olympic coverage over the internet while on board.

Was anyone on board during the Opening Ceremonies? Did they show is on the big screen by the pool or elsewhere on board?