sanger727

It sounds as though they traveled to Greece and either took a pre-cruise covid test or a pre-flight to US covid test and had to quarantine for 10 days. I think the first step is to contact Allianz and find out specifically what documentation they need. If what they want doesn't exist, you could try filing the claim and then appeal it when it's denied.

I would start by doing some research on your destination. For example, something like this will give you an idea of when to go. Best Time to Cruise the South Pacific Islands - Weather & Climate (adventure-life.com) I can't share the cruise search website I use but Carnival, Royal caribbean, princess, and HAL all offer cruises to this area. Along with the luxury lines like Oceania, Regent, etc. What we do when we know a ways out that we want to do the trip is look at the cruises being offered this year (so look at 2023). That will give you a good idea of what itineraries may be offered and give you time to pick the cruise line you want and do research on your destination. Once you choose when you want to go and who you want to go with, you can check every couple weeks to see if 2024 is being offered yet. For a big trip like this, I don't see any downside to booking once it's available. You'll still be able to get price drops. If you feel uncomfortable committing to a trip this far out then book with a refundable deposit. That way you can hold the spot and cancel if something else comes up.

This is a common TA tactic. And, yes, I've seen that before. They pull the non-commissionable part of the fare out as a fee. Makes their rate look cheaper and lets them justify giving less OBC because your "rate" is lower.

I don't think the loop you choose will make a huge difference. All of the islands have their own unique charm and wildlife. I think that the water temperature will likely be warmer in more of the northern ports, so if plan to snorkel, that could make a difference. The water temperature down there is freezing by the way in many spots, even in a wetsuit. Also, you can check on if the southern loop crosses the equator and if that matters to you. The only way to get to the galapagos is to fly into quito or guayquil. If you don't intend to sightsee in ecuador, more than likely your flight will land the evening before and then you will fly into galapagos the next day. I know that Celebrity does a chartered flight for that part, I don't know if you'll take the chartered flight if you don't book the package? (we did the galapgos, but not with celebrity) We spent a day in quito on each side, mostly because of the covid restrictions at that time. It's certainly worth spending a day in. For ease of arrangements, I would book the 10 day package. There are other fees and steps required to fly into the galapagos on your own.

I’ve been really fortunate in vacation time due to having a union job. With 15 years on I get 4 weeks of vacation a year and also 3 weeks of holiday time (we don’t get any holidays off). Plus our time is set up in a way where unused time rolls over year to year, allowing people to save significant time banks. I have close to a year of time available because of that.

Did you have zero drinks over the classic package and did you try addressing it on the ship. I would hope that if you told them in the first day or two that they were out of all premium wines they would have made it right. Once you have any drinks over the classic package, you paid for a received service, not sure how they could pro-rate it that some of the drinks you wanted were unavailable. On our sailings we took the advice to wait until we were onboard to upgrade. We figured out pretty quickly that paying the extra per drink was a better deal for us.

First, in terms of NCL, what they charge for a beverage package (the gratuity) is still far less than carnival charges. At the end of the day you just have to compare apples to apples and see which one is better We had an unexpected service charge on celebrity. We had several sea days and purchased a spin class package at the gym! I get that there is a ‘service’ provided; but no gym I’ve ever been to expects you to tip the instructors!

Thanks to all. Good news. I called and left a voicemail on the general mailbox and sent an email threatening to fire them and I got a call back from a different agent. As long as the cruise gets paid off, I’m good. Lesson learned that the best deal isn’t always worth it! another question. Will the pre-paid gratuities cover included shore excursion guides or should we plan on having cash for that?

How do you go about getting a new travel agent to help with an existing reservation.

It really depends on whether this is a group tour vs private tour; an independent tour vs cruise ship tour; how long the tour goes, etc. I don't think there's a hard and fast rule. If it was a private tour I would tip 15% or so of the tour cost and offer to buy the guide lunch. If it's a group tour, I would tip $5-$10 per person depending on the length. There is no obligation to offer the guide lunch unless you enjoy their company and would like them to each with you.

Has anyone on here had any luck getting ahold of Avalon by phone? We booked through an online travel agent. This guy hasn't returned an e-mail or phone call in months. His phone always goes straight to voicemail and no one else in the company will talk to us. My booking is fine, but I just want to pay it off, right now I have zero faith that he will do anything. I tried calling Avalon and sat one hold for 20 minutes. Sent them an e-mail request so will wait and see if I hear back. I don't mind sitting on hold if need be IF someone will eventually answer.

OP, While I appreciate you wanting to be helpful. I agree with others that at the end of the day this is a business to business transaction. Since you don't work for either business, you don't have the connections. So there's no need for you to feel any obligation to get involved in this. And I'm really not sure why this business operator thinks a cruise ship passenger could get them in touch with the right people to become a vendor. It's a bit like a farmers market you shop at asking you how they get products into Kroger.

Definately Pisa. I also found the great barrier reef underwhelming, but there had recently been a cyclone so I'm not sure how much of that was sea conditions.

Just curious. Is the objection here that you should not have to use the same glass throughout the cruise without it being in a dishwasher? Or that you are concerned about how the glass is being ‘cleaned’ in the room and concerned that it is making your glass dirty? I don’t know. At home I use the same coffee cup and water cup throughout the week and wash them on the weekend. So that doesn’t seem strange to me. Guess it depends a bit on how long this cruise was.

Even cheaper to stay at home!