News says volcano is quieting down,yeah

[alexandra cruiser]

For all of you flying in near future, the news last nite is, its getting better...All the flight cancellations and delays, along with NOT being able to get insurance to cover it,as of April 15th....was REALLy worried about trip in June....along with a LOT of others ,right????Anyone have any flight "horror stories" or "cruise cancellations" to share???:eek:

[6rugrats]

Were any cruises actually cancelled?

[Keith1010]

I have not heard of any cruise cancelations but I am sure that some people missed their ship or had to say longer. We were on a cruise ship during the April event and there were some folks who had to join the ship one or more days after the start of their voyage and there were some who either stayed on the ship a few days longer or stayed on land before they could get a return flight back home.

 

Keith

[Ashland]

I have not heard of any cruise cancelations but I am sure that some people missed their ship or had to say longer. We were on a cruise ship during the April event and there were some folks who had to join the ship one or more days after the start of their voyage and there were some who either stayed on the ship a few days longer or stayed on land before they could get a return flight back home.

 

Keith

"Stayed on the ship a few days longer" ?? How and what ship offered this, as most ships I believe sailed without a delay ??

[buckirj1]

This is encouraging news to me, too~! I'm scheduled to fly Icelandair to London in November, and don't really fancy having to deal with alternatives for my first flight outside North America.

 

I realize the volcano situation is fluid, and there are no guarantees. I have "cancel for any reason" cruise insurance, with the flights added on, as well as a separate insurace policy for airfare. Most of all, there's lots of time before November.

[Keith1010]

"Stayed on the ship a few days longer" ?? How and what ship offered this, as most ships I believe sailed without a delay ??

 

Yes. That's the point. We were on the Crystal Serenity and in April one of the voyages ended in Civitavecchia. There was room on the ship for the next voyage. Some passengers could not get a flight out of Rome. Some just stayed in Rome until the could get another flight, others took other transporation to get to another place where the could ultimately fly out from and still others were able to stay on the cruise ship by paying an additional fare and then flew out from another location such as a few days later out of Barcelona.

 

Keith

[alexandra cruiser]

I have been checking other CC areas, many had no help from their cruise lines and trouble with their insurance too...such as.Cunard,,,passenger not able to fly, lost cruise money, and then cruise line insurance would nt pay,said known event or act of nature...wow...awful way to handle it....so glad Crystal helped,will look into them for future cruise...taking SeaDream in June, but they refuse to refund for it and their insurance will not cover now, so going un insured,,,,hoping for the best....checked the online ins agencies, and no luck as of April 15 for volcano coverage....even called each company,but THEY determine if volcano stopped or restarted, in essence...so many may NOT be covered when they THINK they are.....:eek:

[luvs2travl]

We cancelled our April T/A on the Star Princess out of FLL - ending in Copenhagen - due to the uncertainty of the volcanic activity in Iceland. We had the Princess Platinum Insurance (which includes the "cancel-for-any-reason" clause), and had absolutely no problem with the cancellation procedure. We cancelled on 4/19/2010 - five days before we were to sail.

 

I received the Trip Cancellation Claim forms from BerkelyCare (Princess' insurance carrier), via the internet - downloaded them - filled them out & mailed them off on Wednesday, April 21st. The form was a one-page form as no medical situation was involved, and extremely easy to complete. I had to include my paid-in-full invoice from Princess and also include the invoice on which I paid for our insurance, which was at the time of booking in August of 2009. My travel agent faxed all of that to me, so it was no problem. That was it!!

 

On May 17, 2010, we received our Future Cruise Vouchers in the mail for 100% of our cruise price that included Princess Air and the cost of the cruise. The port taxes & transfers were refunded to my credit card by our travel agent. We have already rebooked another 20-day cruise for this coming October on the Emerald Princess.

 

I cannot say enough about the service we received from BerkelyCare. The lady with whom we dealt was most kind and sympathetic to our situation. She said they were being deluged with cancellations because of the volcano.

 

I also cannot stress enough the importance of getting GOOD insurance with the "Cancel-for-any-reason" clause. For some reason, when people think about travel insurance, they only think of medical reasons for cancelling a cruise or a trip. Living along the gulf coast, we live each year with the threat of hurricanes and other severe weather. While I admit, I never thought I would ever have to cancel a cruise leaving from FLL due to a volcano in Iceland, it was most reassuring to be able to do so with no loss of monies for our trip, (less the insurance premium, of course!). We paid $550.00 for the Platinum Insurance for both of us, for a trip that cost thousands - well worth it in our case!

 

Major kudos to Princess and to BerkelyCare Insurance. We will surely be dealing with them again and again. :)

[AmoMondo]

I'm very relieved to hear that the volcano may be abating. I've already had on cruise this year fall foul of it and there has been a slight niggle in the back of my mind, that my next one in July could be affected too.

 

I was meant to be flying on Mon Apr 19 to sao Paolo for a cruise from Santos to Dover but flight was cancelled (ironically resumed the next day), so only missed the cruise by a day. Fortunately the cruise company had provided the flights so they gave me 2 options - full refund or switch to another cruise. I'm now booked to do Venice to Rio instead at the end of October. Compared to some of the horror stories of people being stranded and out of pocket by a lot, I got off lightly. However when you've been working 70 hours weeks in the weeks leading up to your holiday, it is still a bit galling to be straight back at work instead of on a 3 week break! never enjoy the unpacking at the best of times but even less enthusiastic about doing it, when I'd not been ove the door step!

[alexandra cruiser]

farther down,,,,looks like the one next to it.Katlya,,,might be next,acc.to internet news sources,,,,I m Going in 3 wks.on Adriatic cruise, so feeling same way,,,,PS ..some posters have sort of made fun of this warning, as you ll read,but looked legit to me....from weather satelite photos that show changes.....:eek:

[Globaliser]

some posters have sort of made fun of this warning, as you ll read,but looked legit to me....from weather satelite photos that show changes

I still can't see any mainstream news sources reporting any hard news that there are any changes at Katla.

 

There is a historical link between the two volcanos' eruptions, but at the moment that really doesn't mean very much for risk for any particular travel date.

 

Of course, if one prefers having something to worry about, rather than taking a "if it happens, it happens" attitude, then by all means one should worry about Katla, as it has all of the apocalyptic qualities that the best subjects ought to possess.

[fbgd]

We paid $550.00 for the Platinum Insurance for both of us

 

For a single trip? That sounds pretty hefty! I've bought multi-trip annual policies with winter sports cover and all kinds of extremely generous allowances for about half that...and you're still tied to going on a cruise with them again because they've only given you a credit. Fine if you cruise with the same crowd year on year but hey..