klfrodo

For me, Christmas day or Thanksgiving Day is a great time to do that end of year mileage run. Plane is usually half full. Give an extra smile or thanks to the flight crew because they are at work instead of being home with their family.

Good opportunity to teach them the power of entrepreneurship. Since cruises out of LA tend to have a lot of weed consumption on board. Bring the cookies. Should be able to generate enough revenue to cover all expenses. The above is said slightly in jest. I think this kind of thing is a great reward for their hard work.

Mercedes vs Kia Both have tires, engines, steering wheel, seats, & entertainment. Both will get you from point A to point B. One costs a lot more than the other.

Can't speak for the laws of Canada and actually can't speak for the laws of Missouri. What I do know is that in the US, you must (except for 1 policy I'm aware of) purchase your travel insurance within a certain time limit of the date you made your first payment i.e. the deposit. (The time frame is usually 14 days to 21 days depending on the policy if you wish to waive the pre-existing conditions or purchase a CFAR rider.) What is also regulated by each State in the US is whether you have to insure the entire trip to receive this benefit. In my State, Washington, you do not. Again, I can't speak for other States. That's why many of us recommend that people reach out to a broker who can help you personalize your coverage that best meets your individual needs and stays within the laws of your State of residency. I usually put my first deposit down over a year before my trip. I can't possibly know what my airfare is going to be because airlines don't sell tickets more that 330 days out. Therefore, it would be impossible to know my entire non-refundable trip costs.

Depends. Are you buying thru the cruise line? Cruise line insurance doesn't waive pre-existing condition. Or thru a 3rd party? 3rd party usually requires the insurance to be purchased within X number of days to waive pre-existing medical conditions for you and any family members not travelling with you. And if you were to include in the 3rd party policy, Cancel For Any Reason, then that also requires the purchase of the policy within X number of days of deposit. Having said all that, you don't have to guess or estimate your entire trip cost at that time. You can buy the insurance to only cover the non-refundable deposit, then call and add trip expenses as you firm up you travel plans or pay down the cost of the trip.

Not for me. While the 10% savings may sound great. The negative potential outweighs any positive in my book.

Coming from someone who books suites so I can enjoy the SL,,,,, You're not 100% wrong. Not going to say I'm not guilty, but I sure do work hard to remember where I came from. I used to book interior cabins. Now I'm able to enjoy a bit of my hard labors. Having said that, I do find the P's acting as the Primary social group while dismissing the members of the Secondary social group. In a way, I can understand. Many of the P's have sailed many times together to earn that status and know each other. Plus, they have earned a certain level within the social groups. On the other hand, I would think that one of the requirements after earning P status is that you also agree to be an ambassador for Royal.

Are you concerned that less people will be reading hard copy books, reading their electronic books, playing cards, reading a hard copy newsletter, sitting in the library, etc and that more people will be socializing via their wifi connected devices? I don't see how having access to wifi causes issues. I remember my grandfather complaining about having a phone in his house. His thoughts were that if he wanted to speak to someone, he'd just go visit them. If anything, it makes life easier. I could have taken more cruises had I been able to connect my computer remotely and had wifi calling that was reliable for work purposes.

Having cruised since 2000, I have never had a cruise director that made any memorable difference on my cruise experience on any cruise line. I couldn't name one from any of our cruises.

He was well respected on these boards and his willingness to share experiences, advice, and thoughts will be missed. My condolences to the family.

I'm aware of that. The person I quoted in post 11 was who I was directing the question specifically about the trains and train stations from Venice to Trieste. There are websites out there that are directed towards Venice and people dealing with accessibility concerns. It can be done. The question is does the person concerned want to deal with the limitations.

Yes they do. How are these trains and train station set up for HC accessiblity? Someone traveling with us may be in a chair. we need to start thinking about these things when planning the trip. We may need to make adjustments and accessibility will be a priority. They may even bypass Venice due to this and use NCL air and transfers unless we can figure out alternatives.

Gee, I hadn’t even thought of that possibility. I’m so glad you took precious time out of your day to respond. Thank you

What's the luggage situation on the train? I call myself Francis the mule when it comes to traveling with my better half.

Still 600+ days out. Our preliminary plans call for us to fly into VCE and visit Venice for 3- or 4-days pre-cruise. Then, we have to get to Trieste. The easiest would be to just go back to Marco Polo Airport and jump on an NCL transfer. Does NCL offer this service? Or is it only for those who book their air travel thru NCL and arrive on the same day? I did go back 10 pages to see if this had been asked and answered.

Are you aware of how Air2Sea works? These are consolidator tickets. The tickets were negotiated in price a year ago. Along with city pairs and airports. These are not the same tickets you or I may purchase from the airline directly. They don't take your request and then call the airline and buy tickets for you from the airline of your choice. They look at what they have available and then issue a reservation. It could also be that they do or did have ticket pairs that matched your needs, but only have 2 and you need 3, therefore unable to sell to you. There is an old but still viable sticky post on the Cruise Air board that can help one better understand how cruise air and deviation works.

I can't speak for every travel insurance policy sold in the US, but most treat Covid as any other medical situation. I cannot speak towards the rules, regulations, policies of travel insurance sold in the Philippines.

While I respect most people's feedback, I'm still going to disagree. Whether staying in a hotel, a condo, a resort, an apartment, an Air B&B, or a ship stateroom, while I'm staying in these locations, I should have a sense of safety and security as if I were in my own home. There is implied consent that housekeeping will be in and out. There is no implied consent for other people to be entering my space without some form of notification. Hotels notify you. Apartment complexes notify you. Resort management notifies you. It's not too much to ask that cruise ships notify you.

Furniture replacement. The last 2 sailings on Royal, my wife and I have returned to our cabin mid-day to find our cabin door open 4 or 5 crew members inside our cabin to include the cabin steward. Both times, they were replacing the couch. Nothing wrong with the old couch that we were aware of. The first time, I must admit, I was upset and voiced my concern to the crew members, the cabin steward, Guest Services, and the Director of Hotel Services. I was upset not because they were replacing the couch. I was upset for the lack of communications. We could easily have been left a note the evening before that this was going to happen. What was the result? The low man on the totem pole (cabin steward) got in trouble. When I realized this was happening, I lit into the Director of Hotel Services and told them that I felt this was a leadership and communications problem, not a cabin steward problem. Fast forward to our recent Anthem cruise out of Southampton, same thing happened again and have no clue why. It wasn't like the old couch either time was broken, torn, or dirty.

Asking for my wife, please don't ask me to explain the why's and whereto for's? I've searched TSA.gov and can't find the answer. A few years back, she got TSA Pre-Check because she was tired of standing in the lines while I was enjoying my coffee waiting for her to get thru security. Then, a year or 2 later, she decided to get GE. (Please don't ask the obvious question 🤯) Now, she's receiving notification that it's time to renew her Pre-Check. The commonsense approach would be that she's got GE (which includes pre-check) so don't worry about it. The other part of me is that no one that I'm aware of has ever accused a US Gov't agency of using the commonsense approach. Thoughts?

Depends on the Terms and Conditions of the credit card. My CSR card states that a portion of the trip needs to be used. Some other cards require that the entire trip needs to be used. Always trust but verify. (Go to your cards website, take a look at the latest terms and conditions because as with many things, the terms and conditions can be updated at any time.) When I plan my trip, I make an Excel spreadsheet showing dates, times, whom the payment was made to, which card was used, and then a notes section. This way, if needed, I can go to my spreadsheet and I can see that I paid X amount to ABC for XYZ on such and such card. Then go to my credit card web site and download that months statement and highlight said purchase.

Considering that many of the entertainment staff are athletes and performers in their own right, and that many of them eat from the same menus/options we are given, many of their YouTube videos show exactly what and where they eat. Their self-discipline and dining choices are way above my inability to stay away from the junk that is available and that I gravitate to. So, yes, there are plenty of health choices available. I just choose to ignore those.

If my observation was mistaken, then I'll accept that. If true, then Royal put zero thought into it and it's disappointing. Wonderland on Symphony was a true delight compared to Anthem. The difference is night and day like a county fair is to Disney World.

We did Wonderland on the Symphony. Loved the experience. The food was good, but the themed experience was even better. The characters and the atmosphere put you into Alice's Wonderland. We did this again on the Anthem this past October. This time, it was a whole different experience. It was very obvious that this venue used to have a different use. Then somewhere along the line, someone decided to try to change the decor and call it Wonderland. The menus were worn out, no "characters" such as the Madhatter, the atmosphere was different, and the food? Well, just didn't live up to our expectation.

Good information, however, the OP posted that their cruise is sailing in US waters only. Therefore, any medical coverages via Medicare will be covered just as if they were at home.