sanger727

Yes, but the ship has a medical doctor; not just a pharmacist on it. And a medical doctor can prescribe it. Unless you are suggesting that no prescription drugs are stocked or administered on a cruise, Paxlovid doesn't seem out of the range.

There are usually spa specials available onboard on port days. We always wait to book until we get onboard.

While human trafficking is a concern. When dealing with kids traveling with a single parent, custody concerns are much bigger issue. People who say that they didn't think they needed permission to take their child on "vacation" are missing that it's really to take the child out of the country. Definitely better to have a not need than need and not have. There are many parents with contentious divorces and child custody issues.

We love anytime dining. We haven't had issues with a wait. We prefer to sit by ourselves and don't need the same wait staff each night. Anytime dining is like going to a restaurant at home. When you are hungry, go to dinner. You may have a wait if you go at a busy time and you'll be sat where and with whom is available. As opposed to fixed dining where you have a set time, set table, set wait staff.

I think you could successfully dispute the amount you paid to Celebrity for the initial tickets. That was a service charged that was never rendered. The question is how different is that than the $2,500 you ultimately paid? My guess is if you initiate a credit card dispute with Celebrity that would put a stop to any refund they may worked out with you. You definitely can't/shouldn't dispute the airline charges. That was a service paid and rendered. They owe you nothing back.

OP, you mentioned that you have an annual geoblue policy. I don’t know how much you travel, but if you are looking for a higher limit, geoblue offers up to 1 million in their per trip policies. Maybe it would work better for you to cancel the annual policy and just get policies for each trip.

the skipping out statement wasn’t referring to that specific instance. It was the general topic of ‘can they cruise line tell you can’t leave without paying your bill’.

First, the thread in Italy was so theatrically written it’s hard to take seriously. Especially since the OP was off the boat looking for luggage when the bill was still being discussed. second, businesses often tell people that they can’t leave it surprises me how many listen. I’m in law enforcement and most of the major stores have ‘loss prevention officers’ which are nothing more than plainclothes security. They catch someone shop lifting and people voluntarily go to the security office with them and wait until the police come. third, can you really blame them for putting a little ‘pressure’ on people trying to skip out on a large bill?? You are disembarking in Florida but are traveling back home. No one actually thinks you’ll be kidnapped and sold into human slavery by carnival. When they say you can’t leave without paying they clearly mean ‘or else we will call the police’. And they are well within their rights to have you prosecuted for theft of services.

I think that blaming this on social skills and family dinners is a gross oversimplification. I’m an introvert, as is my husband and most of the people in my family. Whether it’s nature or nurture is beside the point. I don’t consider myself ‘shy’ or lacking in social skills. We had family dinner every night. I have to meet and hold conversations with strangers at work and have no problem doing it. But I don’t enjoy it. At work it’s a necessity. But vacation is my time to do the things I want to do. And putting on my ‘social face’ to eat dinner with strangers is a chore, not something that brings me happiness. I really don’t think introversion is a new phenomenon. In the past there was no choice so they at dinner at the tables and either were the quiet couple or were engaged into conversation by an extrovert. But it is a choice now, so why do something on vacation that I don’t enjoy??

The 20 year olds won't be able to cruise with this group. Unless there is someone over 25, I doubt they will even be able to make a booking.

I am sure that the medical center is full of potentially powerful drugs that they use in the event of an emergency at sea. In a life threatening emergency you don't always have time to go over your full medical history with a doctor and you don't pass up life saving drugs over that. If someone is in a situation where covid may be a life threatening condition for them, then I would fully expect the medical center to utilize any drugs available to them.

I disagree about the food suggestion. We also take pre-packaged snacks on the cruise for evening snacking after the buffet is closed and taking off in ports. Virtually nothing on the ship is pre-packaged in a way that they can be taken as a snack into port. I'm happy to each lunch in port, but when on a shore excursion you are on their timeline and that doesn't always match up with your appetite.

AFAIK, it’s how all cruise lines operate when you want to upgrade. carnival runs algorithms that decide the best way to price rooms based on how fast the cruise is selling. When you booked, $X got an inside room with promos. Whatever they are pricing balconies at, they believe people will pay without getting the promotion you got before. the difference comes in when rooms aren’t selling fast enough. Then they may offer you to upgrade to a balcony so they can re-sell your room to a customer who only wants an inside room. It’s all about carnival maximizing their profit.

I’m just not making the assumption that these flights are changeable based on the information given. They aren’t advertised as changeable. Just customizable.

I suppose this relies on how long after the confirmation letter is sent that the ‘option date’ is. If it’s 24 hours, it’s not really the ability to make changes, just a short period to correct mistakes.

Yes, that is what I'm saying. If you drink primarily vodka and tequila and they run out. Then they should allow you to "turn off" the package and pay per drink, and then refund the service charge for the remaining days. Obviously, if you enjoy drinking beer or wine you wouldn't take them up on this. But, for example, I know people with mild allergies to certain types of alcohol that won't drink beer or wine but will drink certain hard liquors in mixed drinks. I do think completely running out of vodka or tequila is ridiculous. And not re-stocking with the gift shop liquor is more ridiculous. If they are selling a product they should feel some obligation to follow through.

I"m reading it through and it just sounds like Premium lets you make choices about your air booking. As in you can deviate the city you fly into or out of or dates. I don't see anywhere it says that once a booking is made that it can be changed. That would require a certain ticket class on airlines that allow that.

I'm pretty sure they will not allow you to sail. Most likely, if you had already checked in, they will call your name and shut off your card until you go to guest services.

I agree that cancelling a vacation over this is a bit extreme. But if you get to day 3 of the cruise and they have run out of tequila and vodka, I think they should you give you the option to opt out of the drink package at that point and pro-rate whatever you paid back for the remainder of the cruise. It is absurd to run out of such basic liquors and then have pre-sold "all you can drink" packages.

I would definitely not presume that this would be granted or just get off the ship without saying anything planning to re-board. There's always that rumor on this board that if you miss the ship, some of your items could be grabbed from your room and left with the port agent. If that actually did happen and you didn't return to the first port you would be SOL. Also, while things like this were allowed in the past, covid has completely upended alot of these rules. You could leave and very well find yourself unable to re-board later. If you pursue this, get permission ahead of time. But this does seem like alot of expensive and stress when you could just spend the day in Cannes relaxing on the boat.

Great. Thank you for the suggestion!

The problem with this advice is that avalon still has them registered as our TA. Doesn’t pick up the phone, and won’t return an email. We finally got a response to an email I sent them that said ‘sorry we didn’t call you back, hopefully this has worked itself out’ so not continuing to pursue this agency and try to work with them doesn’t seem to get an option. I would love for avalon to take the booking back. These people don’t deserve a dime. Cant figure out how to do that.

I’ve been on cruise critic long enough to understand why it sounds like there should be more to the story. There isn’t. this is an online only TA. The agent was responsive while making booking. Took the down payment. Then we never heard from him again. No confirmation or invoice. I did receive a booking confirmation from avalon and was able to see that we did have a booking with them. So while it was weird; I didn’t push the matter. Not pushing to get an invoice or confirmation then was my mistake. The incorrect room booking could have been easily corrected. At the time we had another trip upcoming that we were focused on planning so decided to deal with this when we got back. Them covid blew up at work (I was responsible for monitoring all covid cases) and a trip a year away wasn’t a priority. I sent the agent an email or call every so often with no response. A couple of months ago is when I started really trying to get on them. Covid restrictions are gone for this trip so we will definately be taking it. We booked everything else around the cruise. Still no response from our agent. I did leave a voicemail and sent an e-mail to the general agency. That got me a call back from a different agent. She took took our credit card number and said she would pay off the cruise. That was about 3 weeks ago. Cruise hasn’t been paid and she is now not returning emails or voicemails.

Correct. He took our deposit, and we never heard back from him. It was a HUGE red flag. But at the time, I did confirm that we had a booking and it was more than a year out so I didn’t push it. If the cruise line would like the $12,000 we owe them, it’s certainly their business to get it. If the travel agency refuses to talk to us or them, they can either take the money directly from us or cancel us and hope to sell the cabin at the last minute. the travel agency is ghosting us. They won’t pick up the phone, return emails, or voicemails. I really don’t know what else we can do to ‘work this out’

So update on our situation. We had gotten ahold of a different agent with our travel agency and gave her our payment information. She did not pay the cruise off and is now ghosting us also. And Avalon won’t call us back because we have an agent ‘working’ on this. It’s crazy. I’ve never had trouble paying a trip off before. also, we found out mid payoff that our agent booked the wrong room type. So we now owe $800 more than expected. And of course our requested room type is sold out now. I told them I wanted compensation, so I’m sure that’s why they are ghosting me. Avalon has to realize that there are thousands of dollars not in their pocket over this. And the agent will lose the commission if this cruise falls through. But no one will help us! Pretty sure this will be our only Avalon cruise.