Native Floridian 26

So with the AARP cards, is there any concern about travel insurance coverage? Anyone have experience with that?

What if you are booked through a travel agency? Can you still use the gift cards toward final payment?

What countries are the holdouts that cause a sailing to need Enhanced Protocols? For a while it was Greece, Bermuda, and some Caribbean, but many have eliminated the needs for testing/vaccination. I see some South America sailings require Enhanced. I think duration of cruise comes into play, but see some 14 day sailings with Standard pcols.

Good info. Sounds like what I'm used to with Princess and HAL.

One way fares to Europe are very expensive. Princess and Holland America offer much better rates and flexibility than booking independently.

Can you check fares before you book like you can do on Princess/Holland America? Is it the same agency?

Looking at this cruise. Does the FLy2Fun group give you airfare quotes/ideas if you're not booked yet?

The HAL and Royal TA's are both spring. Can only do 1. Hard enough to get hubby on one.

I agree. Working with RCCL on airfare is no fun! They don't even give you the lowest prices when they start rating off the flight details. They quoted me over $1k for one way.

The fares are generally better on one-way fares than you would get on your own. Also enjoy the flexibility of changing them when price drops before final payment.

Yes, exactly why we would travel to Brussels for flight home.

OK, thanks. That is a better itinerary. That one is higher than our HAL cruise and double the price of the Jewel.

Thank you so much. Yes, the drink vouchers for D+ would be good. I appreciate your input.

Edit: Our FCC (not OBC) covers 3/4 of the cruise price before tips.

I’m going to post this in Holland and RCCL forums. We have sailed on 3 Transatlantics previously on Princess and NCL and love the relaxing sea days combined with appealing ports. We are booked on the Holland America Nieuw Statendam 14 night Transatlantic on April 8 with only $1 deposit. Final payment due in January. The fare is about half of what is it selling for today for the Inside cabin. Airfare through FlightEase also booked with decent $300ish one way fare back from Spain. We’ve only sailed HA once many years ago. We are Carnival shareholders, so get the $250 OBC shareholder benefit and some OBC from travel agent and those are pretty much exhausted with crew appreciation charges. We are 60 and 62. We like the itinerary with Ponte Delgada, Azores, Gibraltar and 3 stops in Spain (Cadiz, Malaga and Alicante) before ending in Barcelona. We will take a train to Madrid for 2 nights and return to Florida from there. We love Spain and have not been to Gibraltar, Cadiz or Alicante. We’re also excited that the ship is newer. The dilemma comes in because we have a $500 Future Cruise Credit with RCCL with no expiration. They have a 12 nt TA from Canaveral on the Jewel oTS with port stops in Ponte Delgada, Cherbourg Fr, Dover UK and end in Amsterdam. Other than ending in Amsterdam I am not excited about the itinerary. We also have not sailed RCCL for many years either. The price of this cruise is much less than our HAL cruise, but we have no shareholder or onboard credit. Our OBC covers ¾ of the cruise price before tips. However, initial fare savings are partially offset with higher airfares coming back from Amsterdam or Brussels if we go there after the cruise. Considering price, itinerary and features of the ships and our ages, what would you do? Like I said we haven’t sailed either cruise line for over 20 years so don’t know the awesome features each has to offer. Tell me some things I may not know when comparing the onboard experience.

I’m going to post this in Holland and RCCL forums. We have sailed on 3 Transatlantics previously on Princess and NCL and love the relaxing sea days combined with appealing ports. We are booked on the Nieuw Statendam 14 night Transatlantic on April 8 with only $1 deposit. Final payment due in January. The fare is about half of what is it selling for today for the Inside cabin. Airfare through FlightEase also booked with decent $300ish one way fare back from Spain. We’ve only sailed HA once many years ago. We are Carnival shareholders, so get the $250 OBC shareholder benefit and some OBC from travel agent and those are pretty much exhausted with crew appreciation charges. We are 60 and 62. We like the itinerary with Ponte Delgada, Azores, Gibraltar and 3 stops in Spain (Cadiz, Malaga and Alicante) before ending in Barcelona. We will take a train to Madrid for 2 nights and return to Florida from there. We love Spain and have not been to Gibraltar, Cadiz or Alicante. We’re also excited that the ship is newer. The dilemma comes in because we have a $500 Future Cruise Credit with RCCL with no expiration. They have a 12 nt TA from Canaveral on the Jewel oTS with port stops in Ponte Delgada, Cherbourg Fr, Dover UK and end in Amsterdam. Other than ending in Amsterdam I am not excited about the itinerary. We also have not sailed RCCL for many years either. The price of this cruise is much less than our HAL cruise, but we have no shareholder or onboard credit. Our OBC covers ¾ of the cruise price before tips. However, initial fare savings are partially offset with higher airfares coming back from Amsterdam or Brussels if we go there after the cruise. Considering price, itinerary and features of the ships and our ages, what would you do? Like I said we haven’t sailed either cruise line for over 20 years so don’t know the awesome features each has to offer. Tell me some things I may not know when comparing the onboard experience.

You go to where your flights are, and say Change Flights. Nothing will change unless you go all the way to confirm new flights.

The COVID protections are pretty much gone. Does your credit card have trip cancellation coverage for sickness?

I've been able to get back in now.

Things happen. We were coming back from our Med/Greece cruise a couple weeks ago, and we boarded the connecting flight from JFK to Florida. In the process of taking the jetway away from the plane for departure, the jetway rammed into the plane causing damage to the plane. This ended up in us deplaning and sitting in the terminal waiting for evaluations to see the extent of the damages and if the plane was fit to fly. That delayed us for 3 hours. Fortunately the plane was deemed to be okay and we went on our way. If it was not and we had to get another plane, who knows when we would have gotten home. This could happen on any flight. Never a good idea to fly in on the day of a cruise.

We already have flights booked thorugh FlightEase, but I often go in and check for better prices. Anyone having trouble getting into their flights today? I get a Service Error every time I try to go into Flights and Transportation on my booking on both my desktop and app. Anyone else having trouble getting flight quotes today?

Do they have Indian food on the buffet on the Nieuw Statendam?

We were just on an MSC Med/Greece cruise and I brought some home tests and used when I came down with a sore throat. No COVID, but I discarded them in the public restrooms every time so noone would see them in the cabin.

I agree. On both my cruises, the drinks have been great, as well as the service. Just off the Armonia and we so enjoyed all the fancy coffees (alcoholic and non) in the coffee shop also. Yes, the pool bars can be hard to get service, but a little patience works every time.

Thanks everyone!