drowelf

Thats what the DW and I do too. We always keep about 10-15 unread books for a 2 week cruise. That generally can get us through. So far we have not had to download any additional books, even on a 16 day cruise. Bingo, its a difference in how the authentication is being performed. On general WiFi, like at your home or other spots, authentication is taking place either in the AP itself or relatively closely as part of the WiFi network itself. With Medallion Net, you connect to it normally for shipboard access (Intranet), but to get through the firewall to outside world (Internet) you have to go through a browser based authentication which has to look up your credential in its database and update said firewall to allow your connections to the outside world.

Everyone has to look at any investment vehicle for the risk/reward to them. We've bought and sold both RCL and CCL many times over the years. At times we have held more than the required 100 shares for the OBC, but right now, we only have 100 of each as the market is not the best. At the current price for CCL, you could make up your investment in OBC relatively quickly via longer cruises. RCL is more expensive and would have a longer recoupment timeframe. While the stock is down right now, I don't expect either line to go under in the near term future, so a buy and hold and gather OBC is not a bad investment for us. Only you can decide if its a good risk for you. We hold ours in my DW's IRA-SEP Account.

Mainly because I can get very good annual policies for Medical/Evacuation that are much cheaper than doing it all (Cancellation, Interruption, Medical, Evac) by individual trip. Its all related the cost, its a rare cruise we take that including flights does not come out to be in the high 4 or even 5 digits in cost. Sure we could eat that potential loss, but its a fair amount of change to just leave hanging out. I want to learn what options, if any, exist to mitigate that risk.

Steve, I posted in the Q&A forum that was at the top of the topic area. Ok, so I wonder what folks who do the annual policy thing do, just self-insure or buy a policy with minimal medical/evacuation benefits?

Bingo! We like smaller ships because they can get into the smaller ports. On our last small ship cruise on the HALs Prinsendam, we were docked right in the center of Bordeaux. Not going to see that on any mainstream ship these days. We sail mainly for the itineraries. Don't do TAs and while we do want to entertainment on Sea Days, the ship is not the destination for us and never will be.

We were just on the CB in August on Deck 9 (D602). We woke up the one morning and the toilet would not flush. Called Guest Services and reported it. When we saw our room steward as we went out breakfast before getting off the ship for the day (Port Day) I told him too. He stated that there was an issue and part of the line was shut down for fixing a problem. For sure when we came back from a quick breakfast there was a ship engineer just down from our door with the wall opened up working on something. When we got back on the ship later that day, we had a message on our room phone that they apologized for the issue and were giving us a $25pp credit. Totally unexpected. While not exactly luxury, but after the first sea day, we bought an 8 pack of better (two-ply) TP for our room. That 1 ply stuff they supplied was only slightly better than 100 grit sandpaper on our bottoms. We both remarked that we just could not stand it for another 14 days.

Well, everyone has raised some good points, so I'll try and address them. First on the CC, the primary we card we use for cruises is our Disney Rewards, which offers nothing for Travel,, but our average cruise generally buys us 1 park day in rewards. I've read that the Chase Sapphire is a really good card, but between my business CCs, personal CCs and the other various cards from banks that Chase has sucked up over the years, they won't advance me any additional credit, its not that I am a poor credit risk, they just feel that the large amount of available credit they have already applied is all they are going to do. That was straight from the credit risk manager when I last asked for a credit line increase on one of my personal Chase CCs. We don't tend to do any local cruising out of the US. The Caribbean is not our thing, as we are not beach people, so in 25+ years we have only been three Caribbean cruises, all to different areas. We take cruises to see the world. So we tend to take both longer cruises that leave from far away ports. So I would like to back stop the considerable investment we make with some kind of insurance. We do mostly cruise HAL, but are starting to branch out a bit as we get back to cruising again. Not been entirely happy with the direction HAL has taken over the past few years, so looking to test if the grass is greener on other comparable lines. Princess does not seem to offer a Cancellation only type policy, theirs includes medical and the medical they do include I consider as insufficient for what I would want. We've never had to use any trip insurance so far, but its like the old adage, "You never know if you'll need xyyz, but if you do you'll be grateful you have it" I'm going to talk to my TA about this too, but she off on a Mediterranean soiree with Seabourn at the moment. Thanks to all.

Nada from TripInsurance store so far. So I thought I'd post the question to a larger audience to see what other folks are doing. More information is always better. 😁

Previously we only took 1 cruise a year, so an annual medical policy did not make sense. Well now are are looking at probably cruise at least twice a year for the next few years, so we are going to be getting an annual medical coverage/evacuation policy. As such I've started to research Trip Cancellation/Interruption only policies that we will purchase as we book the cruises, but I'm having problem finding them. I do an internet search for it, and get a bunch of hits, but when I drill down into the various sites, the policies always include medical and evacuation, which I'm not going to need.

We were once off the Irish Coast and our ship was used for medical excavuation training exercise by the Irish Coast Guard. We got both a letter and an announcement from the Captain that it would occur at some point in the evening hours. Sure enough around 10pm a ship wide announcement was made that the upper decks were closed and that we should not go out onto our balcony's. Not too much time later, we heard the whuppa-whuppa of helicopter blades overhead and they remained for about 30 minutes after which the Captain came over the speakers and stated that the exercise was over and thanked everyone for their cooperation.

Is that because the are registered in the Bahamas or just because they are there?

Thanks, that had the perfect shot I was looking for. Question answered.

We are looking at Deck 9 Balcony Cabin on the Enchanted Princess and we have a question on the closets. On the diagram of the room it does not show any shelf storage in the closet area. On the Caribbean Princess, we had a similar room that the floor plan also did not show any. But when we arrived in the room, we found that it had a floor to ceiling area in the closet with shelf storage. Are the closets on the Enchanted similar? I ask because we did not see any on the floor plans for our previous ship and we brought a hanging closet cube thing to use for storage, but it the Enchanted has the same features as Caribbean, then we don't need to bring it. I've searched for pictures of the cabins, but none I've found show me what I want.

While it was not Celebrity, it was happening on our recent Princess Cruise. Not even sure a Quarantine section was even set up on the ship. I know of at least 2 folks that were allowed to stay in their cabin, along with their non-positive roommate.

Really, the OBC from my TA shows up and is usable for an upcoming cruise. Yeah, which is why I tend to not use my phone to purchase stuff. I've got a nice 32" Monitor on my desk that makes seeing all those pesky checkboxes and reading stuff much easier than on my 6.5" phone screen.

Neither was open for business on our recent 16 Days on the Caribbean Princess, which made it nice for dinner as the area in the lido for dinning is very limited. I don't know what folks would have done without both those areas for seating. For breakfast they used the buffet area for made to order omelets and additional breakfast fare. At lunch it would host a station for the daily specials. Not sure I ever saw it used much for dinner.

We don't have one. Its always a problem for us, especially as we tend to do longer cruises and the DW has foot issues which require her to take quite a few pairs of shoes. I can get by with 3 or 4 pairs (Dress, sturdy walking boots, 1 walking shoe & sandals), but she needs more. Its also some of the ancillary stuff that we us (clocks, electronic stuff, magnetic hooks, etc.) that always seems to take up 10 pounds or so of space. Thanks goodness we either fly business class or on the airlines I have status, so we don't need to worry about bag count and weights. Another issue we often encounter is that we go through multiple climates during our longer cruises. For example, we recently completed a 3 week trip from New York that included Atlantic Canada and Greenland. Had to deal with 80's at the beginning, moving to low 40's in Greenland and even chillier on the various open boat trips we took in Greenland. Same thing for our return to Antarctica in January, it will be shorts and t-shirts for the beginning and end, but really need to bundle up to spend 6+ hours out on open deck for the 3-4 days off the Palmer Archipelago.

We got a 2nd card for our 2nd booster. When we got our first booster the sticker they put on the card took up both booster lines, so now we have 2 cards already. We have a set of those for our cards and I also make reduced size (Credit Card ish) copies that are then laminated so that the DW and I can each have one in our wallets.

I heard a report that people were doing laps in the pool during our extended sea voyage around southern greenland. I did jump in the Hot Tub a couple of times, just to get the whirlpool effect on my back. As for the internet, if you pre-paid the internet, you should have gotten 99.90 back. I did and so did many other folks that I talked to. The fog was really eerie at times, it was so thick that at times I could not see the surface of the sea from the lido deck. Now thats thick. I really feel for this on the upper decks closer to the bridge who had to endure the fog horn going off all night at times. I could hear it down on Deck 9 at times, but only if it was quiet (no tv or talking with the DW). I was really surprised by the sea conditions for the whole cruise. I expected to encounter much rougher seas for most of the cruise. Several days the sea was totally calm and I've seen ponds and lakes with more wave action, especially on the 2 days from Greenland back to Newfoundland & Labrador.

What is the best address for an email to Princess to complain about the fiasco disembarking from the Caribbean Princess on the 31st. We had a 9:20 scheduled time, but it was almost noon before we were off and aboard our transfer to LGA. That cut it close to our flight. I know that people who had flights earlier than our 2:45 one missed their flights. Any other time I could go down to the front desk and complain, but we are now off the ship and the front desk is somewhere off the Nova Scotia coast now 😆

Is there anyway that I can view the amount of FCC's that we have available from the Celebrity Website. I know that I can see them on Holland America, but have not found it on Celebrity.

Generally I'll ask the person supplying the service (tour guide, driver, etc.) what currency they would like their tip in? In non-Europe countries, its most often the local currency, except for Central America where is mostly USD, but I've had it about 50-50 between Euros and USD when in Europe.

Unfortunately that is my DW too and it not just because of fashion. Due to some foot issues she's had over the years, she needs to switch out walking shoes every day. So we end up 5-6 pairs of shoes that she rotates through just for her. I can get by with 3 pairs (sturdy walkers + Tennis Shoes + Sandals) and a pair of dress shoes for formals nights. But still that ends of with 10 pairs of shoes. So I just don't think we are ever going to be able to do just carry-ons. We are trying to cut down on packing. For our upcoming 21 days travel (16 Day Canada/Greenland with pre-land) we are targeting only 2 or maybe 3 of our standard 26" luggage for checking. Need to bring layering and some outer wear as we are doing some Open boat Fjord Tours in Greenland where the expected temperature is only going to be high 40s/low 50s and probably a bit cooler out in the Fjords.

We were on a Baltic Cruise many years ago, when mid-day we heard a loud whoop-whoop noisy outside the ship. Went out on the balcony and watched a Bundeswehr Apache Helicopter slowly fly down the side of the ship about 100 yards away. It was almost level with our stateroom so was probably less that 50 feet off the water. It slowly cruised down our side of the ship and then took off once it was past the stern. I asked at Guest Services later if they knew anything about the fly-by, but most of them did not even know that it occurred.

On our Holland America Antarctica Cruise (2015) we saw the entertainment crew out on the bow one day when we were off the archipelgo. They ran out all in swim wear and various forms of boots. Well off came the boots and they all one-by-one jumped into the crew pool that was on the bow. Needless to say, they did not stay out long, as they did not have much clothes on. While it was frigid on the outside decks for viewing, we bundled up and used chemical hand warmers in out boots and in between the 2 pairs of gloves we wore. The hand warmers really helped. Never really had any serious ice issues on our balcony or the decks. Have a good balcony story. After one morning after about 8 hours of viewing outside. We headed inside to get some warmth and food. So first we stopped by the cabin for a shower and change of clothes. As I was drying off I looked outside through the balcony and saw an amazing site. There was a pod of Killer Whales that had captured and were in the process of eating a whale calf. I grabbed my camera and started to rush out to the balcony, when the DW yelled at me to put on some clothes first! So I reluctantly did so and then rushed out, soon joined by the DW. The captain kept the ship by the pod for about 90 minutes until the Killer Whales had finished off their meal. The ship's photo staff got it all on tape too and included it on the DVD of the cruise. Only time we have bought the 'cruise' DVD. Best cruise ever. Going back in 2023 for another round. Hopefully this one will go off.