May B

Dwght, thank you for this new thread. Glad you went to the Cove, lower and more midship, wise! And such a pleasant place to sit.

When we disembarked in Auckland (end of a cruise), a dog and his handler found an apple in a person’s carry-on and confiscated it.

We don’t have a sad button we can use to agree with you, Rob. Thanks for the absolutely wonderful reporting. Safe travels home to you both!

Bon voyage, CruisePfan! My brother lives in Rowayton.

I beg your pardon! Rob!!! I cannot tell Mr B what you said about Perry, as Mr B is every bit as much a Perry fan as I am. I was surprised when Mr B happily assumed positions, and he thoroughly enjoyed the whole shtick. He continues to quote Perry to this day, several years after we’ve been in the Avenue, or any place else, with Perry. Perry actually is a beautiful performer when he imparts sad news to us. Heartfelt and touching.

Welcome to cruise critic! My staterooms of choice are by the midship elevators. It’s as quiet as church and such a great location.

All true, but in post #7, Hanoi mentions the number of staterooms still available. I think in my mind I was answering that comment.

I think OP meant making a booking but not putting the deposit down until Feb. 1st will or won’t show a more favorable offer. That does sound undersold. I think you’re doing your best. It’ll be interesting to see what happens on Feb. 1st.

I have never been aware of a period of time prior to the travel date, only prior to the day trip insurance coverage is purchased. The quote given by tool worker doesn’t include the one I’ve seen in other policies, something about, or which might have caused a reasonable person to seek medical care.

Controlled on medication is fine, I think; but changing your medication dose (even changing to a lower one) during the lookback period can be a trigger for the insurance to deny coverage. Mr B often says, the devil is in the details.

Oh! I wasn’t paying close attention, that’s for sure!

FYI, I believe at least one of the popular trip insurance companies has a policy that will cover pre-existing, if you purchase coverage at time of final payment. The one unknown is, in between making your $25 deposit and making your final payment, what if a new pre-existing condition happens to you?! I believe the minimum you can cover is $500 pp. Sometimes I do that, at deposit time, and add the rest of the coverage later. I believe keeping the $500 pp coverage and not adding any more is kind of like self-insuring most of your trip costs, but having the benefit of the medical evacuation coverage, which I feel is a very important component, hardly ever needed but so nice to have, just in case. Also you have some travel delay and baggage protection. For the scenario the OP was so concerned about, I’m glad there was a workable solution. Oops, thx, kctwinmommy, it wasn’t the OP!

Your insurance will cover your cancellation FOR A COVERED REASON of your travel companion.

I’m so pleased to see you single out this sentence.

Bon voyage!

Thx! Please tell her Muriel of Muriel and Phil fame says hello. We’ve played on a team with her at least once. Plus, she was the bridge person on one Crystal we were on, also on Symphony (although I don’t recall the itinerary!).

Love that space to wait to board at Pier E. It was the site of my last two Crystal cruises! Thank you, Rob, for your great posts. Bon voyage to you both.

I don’t know what sailing you were on, but n Nov. 2nd out of Miami, there were way more than 20 guests, plus dance hosts, plus entertainers. Just watching CD Raphael and his dance partners was fun for me. I just looked at my photos, where I was reminded we ate at Umi Uma that night. It was fun seeing the other diners in their white, such a variety!

As we all know, Viking does things differently from other cruise lines. One thing they do that can work in our favor is post availability of various categories. This helps us watch for potential sell-outs, of either the category we want or the entire ship. Another thing I consider courteous is changing promos on the 1st of a month and keeping them until the last day of the month. This allows a last-day booking, to hold with deposit due on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd of the month. Then check the promo/cruise fare on the 1st to see if it behooves us to put down the deposit or wait for the end of the next month. The $25 pp deposit is quite nice as well.

I’m always disappointed when it’s somebody I don’t know! I hope there’s been a good turnout. On a few days in port on Serenity recently, they didn’t have duplicate on the schedule, just unhosted bridge. They tried that on the holiday cruise and practically had a mutiny.

One of the beauties of Crystal’s method of charging you after the shore excursion has been enjoyed: in case an adjustment becomes necessary, it can be done before the charge is even posted to your acct. Kudos to Crystal for that. It impressed me as a very civilized way of doing things.

I don’t think Crystal’s res. agents have a corner on that market.

So glad to hear you can play duplicate again! So, pray tell, who is it?!

Actually, our friends on deck seven were in an Oceanview and got the little snack things every late afternoon from their butler. Our butler, otoh, for our desk nine double with a veranda got them to us exactly ONCE. I guess he couldn’t handle all his 18 of our category plus the rest (mostly sapphire but a couple of handicapped-accessible aquamarines and Jr CPs).

On Serenity on Nov. 2nd, I was amazed at how quickly a little line-up was seated, lickety split. And I don’t mean they rushed us to our tables. It was all gracious and comfortable.