Observations from my first cruise

[Gray Lady]

2 hours ago, WriterOnDeck said:

Re missing independent tours: previous advice to ask the tour company about its cancellation policy is important. Some will not charge if the ship doesn't make the port. On the aborted 2020 world, I got refunds from our Africa tour companies (and am booking with one now for the 2023 world). So you don't necessarily lose the money.

 

One advantage of getting on-HAL trip insurance is that it can cover the entire cost of the cruise; not just the HAL portion. Trip insurance should cover the cost of missed excursions (make sure it covers for covid). Yes, it's a little more work, but really not that bad -- a few emails and saving receipts.

Yes, we purchased our insurance with HAL so we will be able to get our money back for everything we missed, which is almost everything, and our quarantine costs. Extremely glad we did that. They also changed our flights home for us at no additional charge.

[cowmilker]

FWIW, we have done 9 cruises (including a Grand Voyage), and in all that time, I've been on ONE ship's excursion.  That one was just me, because DH had to go to the dentist for a root canal in Naples and I wanted to go to Pompeii and he didn't feel comfortable about me going by myself.  I booked my spot the night before we arrived in Naples.

Other than that, it's all been outside vendors or DIY.

One of the most enjoyable things for me about planning a trip is making a spreadsheet and planning every port.  I mark stuff on my phone's map, check out independent vendors (most of them have a "pay about two days before the excursion" policy, so if the cruise were cancelled, no problem cancelling the excursion as well).  I make lists of what I think we'd want to do, and then we see how many of those we actually get to (sometimes all of them, sometimes just a few).

Honestly, doing the planning is almost like getting to go on the trip twice.  For some ports, I literally get on Google Earth and "walk" our route.

Some of our best shore days were those where we spent almost no money at all.