leaveitallbehind

Specific to coverage tied to a given cruise, some carriers have coverage guidelines that are specified by when, relative to making a booking and the final payment date, you can purchase it for a given coverage, and may not be available at all post final payment. General travel insurance may not have these guidelines.

Not an easy question to answer with any certainty. Both the AI prices and the al la carte package prices can vary by itinerary. Without a booking in place, which would give you access to the cruise planner with current offered pricing for the beverage and internet packages, the only way to get a rough comparison would be to go to the Celebrity website to see what their advertised prices are for the packages. Then determine desired stateroom category and whether you would book a non-refundable or refundable deposit fare, do mock bookings and do the math between AI and Std. fares for your cruise and add back the package prices to the Std. fares to compare. In or experience, the AI prices are typically better than the add-on to Std., but that my not necessarily always be the case. They also may offer attractive pricing on board for the add-on packages, but you would obviously have to have already booked the Std. pricing to take advantage of that. As a side note, the rough breakeven for any of the beverage packages is, depending on beverage choice, about 6 - 7 drinks per day per person. Obviously that includes port of call days. Another way to try to get a comparison is, if you are going to book through a travel agent, ask them to do it as they will have easy access to the different fares for your given itinerary and will also have the standard published prices for the packages. BTW not a real fan of the premium access as I'm not sure of the true value for the cost. Just my opinion.

What do you do presently at home? Probably the same would work on a cruise.

Not disagreeing, nor arguing - just clarifying as I also said "not typical", meaning they can happen. But I was also mainly clarifying that most often additional cancelation fees - in particular on refundable deposits - happen with TA's as a separate fee to them.

Perhaps by a travel agent for their efforts, but under a refundable deposit - especially when there also is a non-refundable option - not typically by a cruise line. It is the terms of the NRD - and one of the reasons they were introduced - that specifies penalties.

Don't doubt you at all. Especially if you arrived by plane. It just seems contradictory to me that since by ship you can arrive and stay for several days on their soil with a BC and photo ID, to then have to have a passport (to stay) at a hotel. I agree that it probably is not a requirement. But I know I don't know for sure so don't want to presume I am definitely correct.

It's still nearly impossible to say. Way too many variables as to where the storm would be concentrated, at what point during the cruise would you be affected, how big the storm is, etc. But your itinerary is pretty concentrated to the northern section of the eastern Caribbean, which would limit alternatives. And if the storm would be centered anywhere in that area from San Juan to Antiqua, all the alternative islands around there would likely be affected as they are all vey close together. So there maybe wouldn't be any alternatives available. And since you are coming from and returning to Miami, you would be dramatically limited in the range and time available to get to anywhere not likely affected, such as further south to St. Lucia, or Barbados, as example. But the bigger issue remains that even if there were alternatives, would they be able to schedule the on the relatively short notice that would be required. The only thing that would perhaps work in your favor of finding alternatives is that most hurricanes are tracked for a week or two as they develop. You don't typically "run into" a hurricane. This may provide the cruise lines with some time to work on an alternative itinerary, but that may be out of the region altogether or even force a full cancellation. I know you are trying to have all your bases covered, but you really are asking the impossible. I would just suggest planning to enjoy your cruise on the itinerary in place.

That is what I always thought as well. But what initiated my confusion and questions regarding that is the information as provided above by @navybankerteacher who has indicated that to stay (at a hotel) on the island you need to have a passport. This would contradict you comment as well as my understanding. I would tend to agree with you.

First of all, as @mom says suggests, we would have to know what your specific itinerary is to even have a stab at what alternative ports of call might be. (There are a number of Eastern Caribbean itineraries with various ports of call). And I agree that securing alternatives on the fly during a given cruise may be difficult if not impossible. Storm avoidance would be the Captain's first priority and alternate ports of call would then be secondary, based on feasibility of short notice arrangements. Most itineraries are secured months, if not years, in advance and any alternatives to those would only be as available for additional ships at any given time. The other thing to keep in mind is that hurricane season (June 1 - November 30) is just the time of year when conditions are most favorable for storms to develop, and not a guarantee that they will. The likelihood is you will have no issues and this question will be moot. Enjoy your cruise!

Agree. IMO notifying the ship would just be a courtesy so they understand why you never scanned back in that night. But I don't see it as a requirement. Your comments also echo my question, relative to Bermuda, as to why would you need a passport to stay overnight on the island when you don't need one (on US based closed loop itineraries) to be there for the days you are in port?

Thanks. Not familiar with that as said, we always have just used a passport. Just curious - If per this thread you are planning to stay on the island one night from the ship, how is that verified? Do the hotels request a passport at check in? I don't recall that in the past with our land vacations. Also the confusing part about this to me is if it is OK to board the ship in the US bound for Bermuda with a BC and photo ID and to disembark and visit the island, why would they further require a passport to stay on the island. Once the ship is in Bermuda waters it must be in compliance with immigration regulations with just the BC and photo ID. And the ship is the hotel there. Again, just curious.

Not disagreeing with you at all. Just saying you were fortunate with the sea conditions. We've had wonderful sea conditions many times. Have also had not so wonderful. Often on the same cruise.

Your good fortune, I guess, especially as both of the staterooms you reference are in the forward section of the ship on a high deck, which will feel the up and down motion the most as you move forward through the sea. Side to side rocking motion resulting from waves going across the ship will be felt the same anywhere on board, although more pronounced the higher up you are, but is what the stabilizers will help mitigate. The point being, sea conditions can, and do, frequently change and are unpredictable.

Specific to Bermuda, notifying the cruise line - more specifically the ship when in port - that you plan to be off overnight might indeed be a good idea and a courtesy. But I am not aware of any permission required to do so, if that is what you mean by checking it out with them. But if I am incorrect perhaps someone can explain it.

I've actually heard of more, but as one example, we knew of a person on one of our cruises to Bermuda who was visiting and old friend but wasn't able to stay at their house. They had dinner together, went into Hamilton for evening sightseeing, returned to the friends house for cocktails, and then this person stayed at a hotel overnight and they then met again the next day. I'm sure there are other reasons as well. What different rules are you referring to? We are US citizens and, over a 42 year period, have been to Bermuda three times for land vacations and many times via a cruise with three days in port and have just used a Passport for all of them. (Going again in June via cruise ship). I am not aware of any different rules that have ever applied to our arrival and stay there, be it by plane and in a hotel or on board a ship, with any of our dozen+ visits.

There is always the option to add the 4th to your existing reservation and have all in the same stateroom. That 4th person charge is likely to be less in total than the first option you described resulting in two staterooms. This of course would depend on whether or not your current stateroom is configured for a 4th person or if there are available staterooms within your category that are. But then you have to juggle 4 people with one bathroom and who sleeps where, etc. Guess it depends on how close knit your family is - LOL. Just pointing out the option.

It sounds like what you are doing is changing a single reservation in a single stateroom with three passengers to two staterooms with two passengers. This would result in two (new) reservations, one with one person dropped but with two original names remaining and one new one with two new names on it, which will require four separate deposits. How this is accomplished depends on your current booking and what type of deposit you used. Is it with a refundable or non-refundable deposit? With Celebrity there will be deposit penalties with making changes to a booking that would require a stateroom change if an NRD was used. Obviously using non-refundable deposits in this instance would be more complicated and likely will result in penalties to the deposit money on the current reservation. If refundable deposits were used in the original booking then you will have no issues or penalties making any of these changes. You will need to confirm this with Celebrity. If you used a travel agent they would need to be the ones to make these changes and they would work with Celebrity on the least disruptive or penalized way to do so.

Here is a link to the Key West Harbor webcam: https://www.keywestharborwebcam.com/

Well you seem to primarily list a number of reasons against doing the cruise, so not knowing you or anything else but what you've said, I would probably suggest booking another cruise. I, on the other hand, would probably stay with the cruise for most of the reasons you expressed concern (return flight not withstanding) - LOL. We enjoy repositioning cruises. But that's just me BTW, a number of cruise lines are rerouting their upcoming cruises in that region for the same reasons. No cruise line is about to place a ship, its crew, or any passenger potentially in harms way.

I would also post this on the Cabin Selection Tips board at this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/128-cabin-selection-tips/ With your post you also may want to include detail about what your concerns with that particular stateroom might be. Location? Noise from nearby venues? Etc. Just asking if it is "good" may be a little too general as all staterooms in that category are going to be essentially the same. A quick check indicates that this stateroom is the furthest forward on that deck, which will subject you to feeling the up and down motion of the ship the most as it moves forward through the waves. This could be a concern if you are sensitive to this type of motion. The more central on the ship your stateroom is the less this motion is felt.

Good point. I was referring to the many times we have been to Bermuda via a cruise we have docked at Kings Wharf the whole time we were there. (We have also been there on land vacations a couple of times as well). Less of a chance at having your described issues there, particularly on those larger ships. Unfortunately the ships we have been on for those cruises have been too large to dock at either St. George or Hamilton and we have spent the entire time docked at Kings Wharf. Having spent a fair amount of time in both locations, I would have enjoyed being docked at either (or both) St. George or Hamilton.

Good point and I was referring to Bermuda from a US based closed loop itinerary. Probably should have specified that.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. On Cruise Critic, try the Ports of Call board at this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2-ports-of-call/ Otherwise, for private websites of independent tours, just google tours and operators at the different ports of call in which you are interested.

I agree and was only commenting as you indicated that they don't provide lidded cups to use and I just wanted to be sure you (and others) were aware that they are available. 🙂

Here is that link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/544-uk-cruisers/