roaming_kiwi58

1 hour ago, valantine80 said:

Thank you for that information. It seems it may be advantageous to speak to a real person.

For years the policies I bought from Southern Cross have been online, with no interaction with an agent. When I bought the latest policy from Allianz, my travel agent started the process with the basic information (destination, date of travel, ages of travellers) and a quote. If I wanted pre-existing conditions covered then I had to ring Allianz to answer medical questions and whether there was extra to pay to cover these. Given my experience with Southern Cross, I found it useful to be able to discuss medical coverage with an agent at Allianz. 

On 7/22/2023 at 6:57 PM, valantine80 said:

 

Wondering what process you went through for them to determine all conditions "stable" as normally they are just straight "yes" or "no" answers and no further explanation.

 

Yes, the answers to questions were usually ‘yes’ or ‘no’. However, given my previous experience with Southern Cross charging for conditions which had not been diagnosed within the last year, or had a change of medication, I asked for confirmation of coverage and lack of charging, to make sure I had not misunderstood the agent.  We then had a discussion about conditions which were considered stable because of my answers, not being liable for an extra charge.

They did not cancel the whole policy - but they did cancel all the medical cover for my husband. As the policy was no longer fit for purpose I cancelled the whole policy. They gave me a refund of the policy cost, less an admin fee of $35. I did object to paying the admin fee, given they changed the policy, but they refused to budge. 

What really stunned me was that they could cancel medical cover which they had already agreed to (and we had paid extra for), when he got another medical complaint which they did not want to know about!

Isn't buying insurance about covering the unexpected?

I did tell them what I thought of their action, but got no response. 

For many years I used Southern Cross for insurance for my husband and myself, for many land tours and cruises all over the world. Over the years we claimed 3 times – once for a broken camera, once when my husband became ill in Poland and once for travel delay expenses when American Airlines cancelled our flight from Puerto Rico to Dallas and left us stranded in San Juan for three days. No complaints with SC handling of any of the claims, happy with cost of premiums.

In October 2022 I bought a policy from Southern Cross for an Asian cruise in March 2023. I had to pay an extra $200 or so to cover my husband’s existing medical conditions – being on medication for high blood pressure & high cholesterol (medication unchanged in years), and a benign kidney tumour which was completely excised in February 2022. In December 2022 my husband was diagnosed with nodular melanoma and had the first of several surgeries. I rang Southern Cross to advise them of the change in medical condition, but intention to go ahead with travel, as surgeries were being arranged around travel dates. I was expecting them to say they would not cover the melanoma but the rest of policy would continue as agreed. No way! They immediately cancelled ALL medical cover for my husband, even all the previous declared conditions which I had paid extra to cover. They did refund the excess I had paid for cover.

We thought this was appalling. You buy insurance to cover the unexpected, but when the unexpected happens the insurance company removes all your cover!? What is the point of buying the insurance? I cancelled the Southern Cross policy altogether – had to pay a $35 admin fee.

I will never use Southern Cross again. I got a policy for our March 2023 cruise through my travel agent, with Allianz. It actually worked out a little cheaper than the Southern Cross policy because they did not charge any extra for the blood pressure, cholesterol or kidney tumour – they considered all conditions to be “stable”. They would not cover the melanoma as surgery was ongoing, but we were okay with that. The Allianz excess if claiming was higher than Southern Cross - $250 compared to $100.  

That has been our experience with travel insurance!

We have done 8 cruises with Azamara and 3 with Oceania, all pre-COVID. So I can’t comment on very recent experiences.

Azamara is definitely our preference. But we are itinerary driven, so if we see an itinerary of interest we will consider it, no matter what cruise line it is with. As well as Azamara and Oceania we have travelled with Viking, Windstar, NCL, HAL, Hurtigruten and Katarina, so do have lots of comparisons.

Yes, there are differences in the inclusions between Azamara and Oceania, and you have to consider what would be value for money for you personally.

A lot of people say the food on Oceania is better than Azamara, but we strongly disagree with that. Food is subjective. We have enjoyed much more interesting food on Azamara, and very ho-hum food on Oceania. One constant annoyance on Oceania was the cold plates, leading to cold food most of the time. We complained on several occasions and they said they couldn’t preheat the plates because passengers would get burnt! Well how come they heat the plates on other cruise lines?

In our experience Azamara are more motivated to give the passengers a good cruising experience. One example of this is when missing planned ports of call, for weather or whatever other reason. If this happens on Oceania they just delete the stop and they do not refund port charges either. Azamara will reorganise the itinerary and replace the lost port, even at very short notice. Once we were on Oceania when a visit to Mykonos had to be cancelled due to high winds. It became very obvious that we weren’t stopping, as we were nowhere near land,  there were no shore excursions staff about to advise what was happening, and it was after reporting time to go ashore, but no announcement was made until later. Eventually they announced no stop would be made, so “enjoy your day at sea”.  When we had Mykonos cancelled on an Azamara cruise, they did some reshuffling of the itinerary and added a stop at Bodrum to replace it. We have found Oceania to be very secretive about port changes. We had one cruise which had 4 port cancellations or changes. Upon boarding we were given a letter telling us the new itinerary. They must have known before then and could have told us much earlier. Two of the cancelled ports were in Egypt and had been being cancelled by all cruise lines for months, but Oceania were insisting up until boarding day that there would still be stops in Egypt. We did not believe them, are we were proved correct!

We have always found the staff on Azamara to be much friendlier and obliging than on Oceania, adding to a more relaxing and enjoyable experience on Azamara. 

But everyone is different, things change over time, and you have to work out what suits you.

We did a 2 day cruise in Ha Long Bay as part of a land tour in Vietnam a few years ago. It was very relaxing and we enjoyed it. Overnight you anchor somewhere out in the bay, which was very peaceful and it was lovely to experience the sunrise and sunset in such a tranquil spot. We also visited a floating village, via much smaller boats from the junk (not really a genuine junk, but an imitation in appearance) we stayed on. And there were some island stops.

A few years later we did a day cruise in Ha Long Bay, while based on an ocean cruiser which anchored near Hong Gai. By the time we were taken by bus to the marina where the boats that cruise Ha Long Bay operate from, it was only a half day cruise. You don’t go as far out in the bay (obviously, due to time available).

We were disappointed in the second experience, but then we had done the longer cruise on the bay previously, so it was never going to be as good! The scenery is beautiful.

If you want more detail I would have to dig out my diaries from the two trips, rather than relying on memory. Which I can do!

For us, seeing more of the country would be of more interest than NYE, but everyone is different with different interests, so only you can know your own priorities.

Yes, the extra cost, when you have already paid for your bed and board would make us think twice too.

5 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

I love the Falklands.  I did it on a ship the size of the Fram and we stopped at 4 of the outer islands in the Falklands.  They were actually more interesting than Port Stanley and we saw lots and lots and lots of wildlife.

 

DON

Yes, with the Fram we stopped at several of the West Falklands Islands too (tender of course). As you say the wildlife was truly amazing. But we enjoyed the stop in Stanley too - great souvenir shopping! 

However for wildlife nothing beats South Georgia! Penguins for miles on the beaches! Oh, would love to go back to South Georgia or Falklands!

We have been to the Falklands twice.

First time was on HAL's Zaandam. The stop at Stanley was tender, and would always be for a ship that size. Even with the smaller Azamara it would have to be tender. And that is very weather dependent. 

Our second visit to Stanley was with Hurtigruten's Fram and it was docked at the industrial berth a little out of town.  The issue was getting the Fram through the narrow entrance to the harbour, rather than the actual dock. It can be very windy, in which case it is hard to get into the harbour. 

Would go back to the Falklands any day, given the opportunity!

We did a 22 day cruise on Viking Sea December 2019-January 2020, in 3052. If we are ever able to cruise Viking again we would definitely not go for that location. The noise every night, through to 1 or 2am from Torshavn really bothered us. We are usually easy to please and very tolerant of noise, but this was excessive, and every night!

The article I saw said:

"The ban applies to ships weighing more than 25,000 tons or longer than 180 metres or with other characteristics that would make them too polluting or overwhelming for Venice's environment."

The figures I have seen for the Azamara ships are 181 metres long and 30277 GT tonnage.

Unfortunately, looks like the limit is set at a point to definitely exclude ships of Azamara's size!

We had three B2B2B cruises on Journey booked for August/September.

Today we received emails to both of us (my husband and myself) for all three cruises, advising of the cancellations and explaining our options.

We booked through a travel agent, but having been in contact with her today I find that she has not yet been notified of the cancellation of our cruises. 

2 hours ago, Ithikan said:

 

What I wonder about are the 2021 New Zealand cruises Azamara plans for next Jan and Feb.  With kiwis looking at a potentially years-long international travel shut down, how will international visitors be dealt with ashore, during these numerous, Azamara port stops?  Three months and counting....

As I understand it Azamara have already cancelled these cruises - according to the 6 October COVID update on their website. All three ships are scheduled to restart operations in Europe in March (Quest), April (Journey) and May (Pursuit). So Azamara will not be in Australia/New Zealand in December 2020 to February 2021. 

We had an Australian cruise booked over Christmas, but cancelled it months ago, when it became clear that we would not be able to leave NZ for a very long time, nor would Australia let cruise ships resume any time soon. It does not look very likely that NZ will let any foreign cruise line in to do cruises around NZ, for NZers, either. There is a locally based company which does trips down to the southern islands and Antarctica. They seem to be expecting to operate at the end of this year. 

There is absolutely no sign that any border activity will start up here in NZ in the foreseeable future (other than for returning NZers who have to quarantine on arrival), so there is no chance for any international visitors. Even the "Trans Tasman bubble" keeps being delayed. The new  relaxing of rules for NZers going to NSW or NT is in practicality not very useful for many people.

Now we expect to lose several years of travel, unfortunately. I even have moments of thinking our days of overseas travel are over! But we do have to be thankful for the great trips we have had in the past, including many great Azamara cruises!

3 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

Wow, for a small country like New Zealand I guess this is doable, and makes a certain amount of sense--here we just quarantine in our homes and they robocall us every day.  Does that include meals?

 

 

You are put in a hotel room. Yes, the $ includes meals.

I would just love to book more cruises - particularly on Azamara, which is our preferred line, but until we know when we will be able to leave and return home unhindered by travel restrictions I am not even looking at itineraries!

We have a B2B2B booked for August/September 2021 - we booked it back in August 2019. We have cancelled cruises we had booked for November 2020, plus another over Christmas.  We did not consider lift & shift, nor do we expect to be able to do our B2B2B next year, even if it does operate.

The issue for us is not just whether the cruise will operate, but whether we can travel. In NZ the borders are closed, with no suggestion they will be opened any time soon. The suggestions are it will be years before international travel becomes available for us again. Even the bubbles with Australia or Pacific Islands keep being pushed further and further back.

Australia has recently opened their borders to NZers into 2 of their states, but that only helps people wanting to go over there long term. For anyone else, who wants to go for a holiday from here they would have to be prepared to go into 14 days quarantine on their return to NZ, as well as paying NZ$3100 for quarantine for one person, and another $950 for a second person in the same room. Makes it an expensive trip - in time and money!

For us we will not be booking anything anywhere until there is some sign that we will be able to travel again. It is nothing to do with what is available to book! We are firmly stuck in NZ, maybe for years!

We have done both a drive by and an expedition to Antarctica.

Christmas 2015 we did a drive by on HAL’s Zaandam and enjoyed it very much. The onboard lectures were truly excellent as well as what we saw off the ship. Then at the end of December 2018 we did an expedition trip on Hurtigruten’s Fram which went to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica. An amazing experience and South Georgia was easily the highlight. The wildlife was beyond imagination. I am a penguin lover, and the penguins were certainly in abundance!

I know most people say don’t bother with a drive by, you have to do the "real thing", but we would do either again, given the opportunity. There is a massive difference in cost, of course. My preference now would be to do an expedition trip to South Georgia and Falkland Islands, without Antarctica. But I have not seen an itinerary like this for ages, and who knows what the post COVID availabilities will be? We would love to return to the Falklands and South Georgia. But even a drive by in Antarctica by would satisfy some of my desires to be back in this amazing part of the world!

We have also done Greenland on HAL. We found it quite unexciting compared to Antarctica, Falklands and South Georgia. We have not done Alaska, so I can’t compare with that. IMO the real attraction about Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands is the wildlife.

At the end of the day it depends what your priorities are, as well as how much $ you are willing to spend. Health and mobility is also a consideration on the expedition trips. 

Here in NZ we are near the end of day 5 of a 4 week (minimum) lockdown. Domestic travel is banned. Just about everything is closed. We are allowed to go to the supermarket (which is opening reduced hours) but they are only letting a handful of people in at a time. Our local pharmacy is also open a few hours 6 days a week, but we can’t enter – you get served at the door. If you want to see the doctor you have to ring for a phone or video consultation. I had a specialist appointment cancelled as even medical specialists are closed. We are allowed to go for a walk, but we can only walk locally, have to keep 2 metres away from anybody else and mustn’t stop to talk to anyone or do any games/exercises in the park. Playgrounds are cordoned off. Only workers in essential jobs should be in their cars on the road.

We always work from home so in many respects our daily routine is unchanged, but not being allowed any physical contact with anybody is still somewhat isolating.

Someone started a teddy bear hunt, originally to amuse kids when they are out walking, but the big kids are also enjoying looking for the teddy bears in the windows of houses as we walk around the neighbourhood! We are on a back section, so no-one can see our teddy bears if we put them in the window!

Just about all international passenger flights (other than freight) have ceased. There is just the occasional plane still bringing returning NZers home, but I think they are due to dry up in the next few days. The majority of our new virus cases are still related to overseas travel, though we have started to get some community transmission in the last week. Our prime minister has stated that our borders will remain closed until there is a vaccine available, which realistically is expected to be 12 to 18 months away. If this is the case that spells the end of the 5 Azamara cruises we have booked, before they have even started!!

But there are advantages to being an island nation here at the bottom of the earth! If we can get our outbreak under control then it is possible to quarantine ourselves down here and keep safe. Life has certainly changed, and may never be the same again. However, we are just thankful for all the travel we have done in recent years, leaving us with wonderful memories of foreign places.  

We spent a long half day in Yokohama at the end of a cruise a couple of years ago, before catching trains to Narita Airport. We could have filled longer. 

We left our luggage in a locker at the cruise terminal and wandered around the town of Yokohama. We were pleasantly surprised at how much of interest we found, and we enjoyed it very much. Visited a couple of temples, went up one of the highrise buildings for the views, walked around the waterfront and along walkways in the town. The cherry blossom was just coming out into bloom. 

It was a good choice for the time we had available, fitting in well with a train trip to the airport later in the day.

We need to return to spend more time in Tokyo, which we just did via 2 day shore excursions from the ship. 

Hi geospyder - yes we do like Azamara! But wish they would get some new ships! We were very taken with the Viking ship we were on recently! We will travel with many different cruise lines if the itinerary and timing is right. But prefer smaller ships. We are lucky to have done so much travel and are continuing to do as much as possible while we have the health and the funds. You never know what is around the corner!

Enjoy your trip down under. Rotorua is a good base to explore quite an area of the North Island  - we just spent a week there in November. Around Wanaka there is some great scenery. Hope the weather behaves for you.🙂

We recently disembarked our first Viking cruise (21 days). We have done 8 Azamara cruises, plus many other cruises with other lines.

There is no doubt the Viking ships are well ahead of the Azamara ships. Many features of the new Viking ships are lovely - nice cabins including lovely bathrooms and lots of different public spaces to spend time in. We enjoyed the ship very much.

We found the Viking food somewhat unexciting - to the extent we even complained about a meal we had in Manfredi's speciality restaurant (we usually go with the flow, and rarely are pushed to complain!). We like the variety of food on Azamara.

The included shore excursions on Viking (which you are in fact paying for, whether you take them or not) are very basic, and several of ours did not match the description which was in place when we booked them. This was particularly noticeable with the timings - such as 2.5 hour tours having the most interesting stop deleted and the tour reduced to 1.5 hours. 

The lectures were very targeted to the American market - too bad if you are some other nationality, as we are. For example lectures about the assassination attempts on Ronald Reagan and the relationship between Reagan and the Pope. We would prefer to learn about the area we are visiting. 

We would certainly sail with Viking again, but the itinerary and timing would have to be right, and at the moment we think the itineraries are very ho-hum compared to the Azamara offerings. We have another 5 Azamara cruises booked. 

We are very itinerary driven, and we are limited as to when we can travel.

We are currently on Viking Sea, having just left Belem yesterday, and been to Parintins, Santarem & Manaus in the last week as well. On board they have told us several times that we will need Brazilian Real, but I have not found this to be the case!

We are from New Zealand, so we don't usually have USD anyway; I got Brazilian Real before leaving home. We have not spent much money, but here are our specific experiences:

Santarem - bought 2 magnets at a stall on the pier - she gave me a price in USD, I asked for a price in Real and she happily took Real, but would have taken USD.

Parintins - bought 1 magnet at a stall outside the convention centre where we went to the show. He gave me a price in USD. I said I didn't have USD and so he gave me a price in Real. I didn't have the exact money and he didn't have the change in Real - he couldn't get it from a neighbouring stall either, so he ended up giving me change in a mixture of Real and USD!

Manaus - bought a couple of postcards at the Opera House. Prices were quoted in Real and I paid in Real. However there were other members of our group asking to pay in USD, and they were successful.

Manaus - bought a magnet at the Indian Museum. They gave me a price in USD, then in Real when I asked, However again I did not have the exact money and they had great difficulty finding change (in Real) - had to ask among the staff. But they may not have had change in USD either. 

Manaus - bought a Tshirt in the shop at the terminal building at the port. They quoted USD, but changed to Real on request and happily took Real, giving me change in Real with no problem.

Belem - bought a mug and a magnet in one of the shops at the Estacao das Docas centre (where the shuttle runs to/from) - prices were in Real and there were other Viking passengers there also paying in Real. Don't know whether USD would have been accepted. Neither of the women there spoke English. 

My conclusion is that if you are at the stalls on the piers or at venues where you are there as part of the tour group then you will get away with USD. However, if you venture out further afield on your own you could get some blank looks trying to use USD. Also note that apart from the people running the tours organised by Viking we have struck virtually no English, only Portuguese.

Hope this helps! Enjoy your cruise!

We are still waiting for any communication from Azamara about the Journey cruise we have booked for September 2021 which has changed from a 7 day Barcelona to Civitavecchia, to an 11 day Barcelona to Athens. We booked it as the last segment of a B2B2B. The new 11 day itinerary is really of no interest to us as it has no new territory. 

Our travelling companion (who lives in Australia - we live in NZ) has had notification of a minor timing change to the 2nd cruise of the 3, but still nothing about the major changes to the last cruise of the three. We have had nothing about either. 

As I found out from Cruise Critic about changes to the 2021 cruises about 2 weeks ago I am getting frustrated with the lack of info. When asked the Australia/NZ Azamara office said they know nothing about changes for any of these cruises. This is not good enough!

Right now, if they ever get around to telling us what our options are, we feel inclined to cancel all 3 cruises.

Lesson learnt, about booking too far in advance. We booked them on board in August this year. 

The response we got from the Australia/New Zealand Azamara office was that they have not been advised of any changes to the itinerary of the 18 September departure of Azamara Journey. They will query it!

Great communication within Azamara!

So we still await further info.

Not just changes for October  2021. The itinerary for the 18 Sept 2021 from Barcelona was a 7 night cruise, but has been changed to 11 nights. The ports of Mahon, Ajaccio & Portoferraio have been dropped. Trapani, Valletta, Siracusa, Heraklion, Santorini have been added. Finishing in Piraeus instead of Civitavecchia.

We are booked on a B2B2B with this as the 3rd cruise. The later end date does not suit our business commitments at home and all the additions are repeats for us. But we know this was a danger of booking this far ahead - we booked it while aboard Pursuit in August.

At this point we have had no notification from Azamara - when I saw this post about October itineraries changing I went fishing and noticed it had changed in our Azamara account.  

On Pursuit in August we did not have the codes for our internet minutes, or the voucher for free laundry in our cabin when we embarked. I had to go to guest relations and ask for these. As we wanted to upgrade one of our internet codes to unlimited I was sent away to log in and purchase unlimited first. Then I had to return to guest services to ask them to credit our unlimited internet with the $ that we were entitled to from our "free" minutes. They also provided me with the code for our other internet entitlement, plus a laundry voucher. 

I did hear from somewhere else (can't remember where) that they are trying a new internet system, but do not understand how you would access your "free" internet minutes if they are no longer providing the access codes on embarkation, other than having to go to guest services to ask for your code, which seems to be creating extra work for them. 

Certainly guest relations can "see" your internet access codes, but they refused to provide me with both of ours, because we were upgrading one of them to unlimited.

We did Bertha's Beach with Patrick Watts in 2015. Great day! Much better value than any of the ship excursions (we were on HAL). There were lots of gentoo penguins and also a few king penguins. Being closer to Stanley we did not have such a long or bumpy journey in the 4x4. It also gave us a little time after the trip to spend in Stanley, which has great souvenir shops!

We have not done Volunteer Point, so cannot compare, but we were very happy with the Bertha's Beach excursion.