Jersey42

Yes. For example one device at a time is $10/day before boarding and $15/day once on board. The Platinum/Elite discount is applied to either price. My problem is to get the pre-boarding price, you must pay in advance with a credit card. You can't use onboard credits or gift cards. So if you have a lot of OBC or gift cards and you want to use them, you will pay the higher price. Some have said you can get the discounted price on the day you board by asking at the internet café. Based on recent personal experience and other postings, that is no longer the case.

I just got a pdf via email from the my cruise that ended July 9. I did not request it.

You say "travel agency", not insurance company. Is this a service travel agencies usually provide? Assuming it is not a personal friend, what guarantee does the travel agency have for repayment? This whole thread is an eye opener, thank you for sharing all of the details. Hopefully it helps others in the future.

Don: You are asking some good questions and without knowing many of your details, the numbers you are seeing may indeed be correct. I am not a fan of any comprehensive annual plan that I have seen for us. As @GeezerCouple point out, I believe the $50K medical limit is too low. This is one potential unexpected expense that I want good coverage for. It is also secondary coverage, and in my situation (Medicare with a supplement) I want primary coverage. Even though the Allianz plan you are considering is better than most, these two items would be a deal breaker for us. One good thing - it offers a pre-existing conditions waiver (if you purchase within 14 days of the initial trip deposit)!! We actually use a mixed approach that covers us for big ticket items, covers us for most of the small stuff and may or may not cover some of the stuff in the middle. For us it is a good balance of premiums and risk. But our approach will not work for lots of travelers, depending on their situation. Here are some of the questions that could be helpful in figuring out a good solution. If you want to post some answers, you may get some useful advice. Or just call tripinsurance store. They can give you some good advice on trip specific plans and although he will not sell you one, Steve can give you some of the pros and cons of the comprehensive annual plans. Does your home medical plan cover foreign travel? Are you aware of deductibles, cost shares and other limitations. Will your plan be satisfactory? Are you on Medicare? If so, do you have a supplement with foreign travel coverage? Or, do you have a Medicare Advantage plan? Or a different retiree plan? Do you need primary medical coverage or is secondary ok? The answers to 1 and 2 will go a long way to answering this. Do you potentially have what insurers consider pre-existing conditions? How about your traveling companion and non traveling family members such as kids and parents? Be sure to read the definition of pre-existing conditions. It is often similar among different policies, but the lookback period varies and some plans consider non-traveling family members. Is it just the two trips you mentioned, or might you take more? How long are the known trips in days? When did you make your first deposit for each trip? Are you willing to forgo cancelation insurance for any cheaper trips? The answer to each of these questions would affect my approach. Unfortunately the answers sometimes generate more questions. Unfortunately this is much more complicated than it should be.

Thanks for pulling this together. A lot of this high level information looks similar to Chase's marketing info. Some of the words are identical, so they may even use the same company to administer the plans. The devil is still in the details, so that paper with the fine print is key. I still can't find it online, but I am a BofA customer, so I will try calling them and see if they will send me a pdf. From what I can see at this level, a lot of the coverage is probably identical to Chase. Cancelation and interruption amounts are much better with Chase (but if you only take short and relatively inexpensive trips it won't matter). Unlike BofA, Chase does not include any Emergency Evacuation & Transportation Coverage in their $95 fee card (Preferred). It does not look like either bank provides any medical coverage in their $95 card with the possible exception of medical care during an emergency evacuation (BofA). So I still need to keep GeoBlue (or something else), and that includes both medical and medevac. The BofA wording makes me think the trip interruption limitations with Chase are no better with BofA, but I need to see the guide to be sure. I also need the guide to understand pre-existing conditions and covered reasons/exclusions. If BofA waives pre-existing conditions, I would probably jump on it even with the lower cancellation/interruption coverage. But I have yet to see a credit card that does that. If I get a copy of the guide, I will post anything new that I find out. In any case I think the OP should follow @GeezerCouple ''s advice. A broker like tripinsurancestore will provide more options and better advice than virtually any TA. The OP can also review credit card coverage too. Then once they understand everything, they can make the best decision for their own circumstances. You are very happy with your credit card approach, and a hybrid approach (GeoBlue + Credit Card + trip specific insurance when warranted) is better for our situation. Unfortunately all of this is much more complicated than it should be, and most people only find out about the "gotchas" after they make a claim.

Can you post a link to the guide to benefits for your BofA card so I can see what it covers? The only BofA card I can find that offers travel insurance is the Premium Rewards card. I see highlights of coverage for that card, but not the details. And the devil is in the details. I am familiar with the Chase cards and I have seen the AmEx cards. The Chase cards are the best ones I have seen (for me), but they have holes. I am curious if your BofA card fills in any of the holes I have with my Chase card. I do rely on my Chase card for many trips and add more coverage for others. I am much more comfortable relying on the Chase card or self insuring when my exposure is limited. For more expensive trips, especially where pre-existing conditions may be an issue, I usually purchase a separate policy. The primary issues I have with Chase: Minimal medical coverage - I can't relay on the credit card for medical coverage and this is a potentially significant expense that I want to be protected against. If someone has good foreign travel medical coverage than this is a non issue. Like you, I am on Medicare with a supplement. Supplements (not Advantage Plans) that cover foreign travel are limited by law to $50K lifetime. Plus they only pay 80% of usual and customary charges after a small deductible. I can deal with the 80/20 split, but not the $50K, so I carry an annual GeoBlue medical/medevac policy. It costs a few hundred per year for two and it won't impact my $50K lifetime maximum. Pre-existing conditions - Trip cancelation and interruption does not cover pre-existing conditions for me, my traveling companion or non traveling family members. Many people have what insurance calls a pre-existing condition, without realizing it. If someone takes no prescriptions, and never sees a doctor beyond an annual physical, it is not an issue. If that is not the case for you (or your parents, in-laws, kids etc.), it is important to read the policy. Chase is fairly restrictive. Other - I can usually live with other shortcomings of Chase such as more limited covered reasons, and much more limited coverage for trip interruption. I do like the fairly high limits for cancellation and interruption - $10K per person, 20K per trip and $40K per year. I agree that each person needs to read the coverage and make the best decision for their circumstances. If you can't find a link to the guide to benefits, can you post excerpts of BofA's coverage for medical, pre-existing conditions and covered reasons for cancellation and interruption reasons. Thanks.

I would be happy with your suggestion . I did not receive an email for my February cruise. I have not (yet) received anything for last week's cruise. I think there may have been an extra last minute charge in February, but I will never know for certain. If there was one, it was less than $15. Last week I took screen shots of my statement before departing. The credit card charge matched the statement.

We started looking last night and was amazed that Princess only had a handful of 2023 British Isle cruises, when they usually offer plenty of choices. So we looked at choices on other lines and we were close to booking. I'm glad I found his thread. Hopefully we will see some Princess options in a few days.

I am not the one who picked IMG, but the best way to answer this question for your specific circumstances is to talk with a good travel insurance broker. If someone knows exactly what they want, they can purchase from any online site for the same price. If not, I highly recommend Steve or one of his associates at tripinsurancestore.com if you call them. They are very easy to talk with, and they will answer all of your questions and provide recommendations based on your specific circumstances. They only offer plans from about ten companies, so at first glance it may appear that it limits your choices. But, they know the plans very well, they know their plans will pay valid claims and they can provided much more targeted advice. I once tried calling one of the large internet brokers about a plan that Steve did not offer. The rep could pull up on his screen the same info I could pull up, but he did not really know the plan. He gave me an answer that did not make sense to me. It turned out to be wrong information. I then called Steve and asked about the plan that he did not sell. He knew more about it than the person who sold it, compared it to options he offered and concluded that the plan I was asking about was the best option for me for that specific trip. He also told me the best way to purchase it. He did not make the sale that day, but he gained a customer for life.

We always carry a GeoBlue Trekker policy and sometimes add a trip specific policy when circumstances warrant. Circumstances have included longer, expensive trips especially when we have had concerns about non traveling family members. We also have a Chase card that may cover unforeseen expenses when we don't take out a separate trip policy. When looking for the separate trip policy we never care about the medical portion because we rely on GeoBlue. For the other coverages, we do care about pre-existing conditions for us and non traveling family members. We also look at covered reasons and exclusions. We have never purchased IMG, so I can't comment on their coverage. But it sounds like you have done your homework. Unless you hit some unusual situation you should be in good shape and are probably better covered than most travelers.

Great on the location issue. Turnaround is usually less than 30 minutes from purchase to delivery. Although AARP told me it could take 24 hours, I have never seen more than 30 minutes. All my purchases have been during normal business hours. Not sure if that matters.

All correct fir US residents. But @Steelers36 may also need to know the following info from the registration page: * AARP Rewards is currently only available to residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia.

I get that this is a gray water drain and totally unrelated to the toilet issues. I just posted here in the hope you might see it. I don't know if you have ever been on a Princess ship, but the showers are VERY tiny and there is no shower door, only a shower curtain. So it is very common for a lot of water to get onto the bathroom floor. So I think the Princess ships have even more need for a floor drain, than any other ships I have been on. I have seen the drains in many other cabins on various ships. I was just surprised I could not find one in this cabin. The toilet hangs on the wall so it was easy enough to see under it and around it. There was low shelf under the sink. It could have been hidden under the shelf and I missed it.

Thanks for your thorough response. I have learned how to "follow you" on cruise critic, so read most of your posts and always learn something new. I was most curious on why there was a recurring problem, why it was for certain sections of the ship and how the room steward knew that we would most likely have problems this cruise? What you say above makes lots of sense and it is nice to know the citric acid treatment should reduce some of the issues (over time).

Here is something I found with more details. No guarantee's of 100% accuracy, but it makes sense. I would be 99+% certain you can configure the beds in E416 either way. Ours in a different cabin were not configured the way we wanted. The Steward easily changed them.

Where do you see this? I see a "star" symbol for this cabin. This means: Ambulatory accessible, accessible features may include grab bars and and/or fold down shower seats (based on another site than I can't mention here). A symbol similar to an asterisk means: Two lower beds not convertible to Queen; shower only. I don't see this symbol on any Emerald deck cabins. Are you sure you have the right symbols? In any case, I think the conclusion in your last post is correct. Based on a similar cabin we were in last week, the queen could converted to two twins. The left bed in the picture is moved against the wall and the left night table is moved between the two beds.

There is a messaging feature, but like previous Princess apps, there is no notification feature. So unless someone is opening the app and checking, they will never know if they have a message. To me, it is not worth the bother. If you all have internet access and your phones let you text over Wi-Fi, you can just use your regular messaging (texting) app. As long as the Medallion Class app is working, the locate feature works great. Edit - We had problem with the locate feature (and other features) last week on day one. We then deleted and reinstalled the app. After that, the locate feature worked great.

We were on the Caribbean Princess last week. It is a ship we have been on many times in the past, and unlike a few posters who experienced their version of a "cruise from hell", we really had an overall very good trip. One of the issues we had was a non or slow flushing toilet. Although we have experienced toilet issues on multiple cruises, it was a little different this time. I am hoping @chengkp75 sees this post and can offer some insights on what the underlying problems may be. First, the symptoms - Sometimes the toilet would flush fine. Other times it would gurgle for a while (1 - 20 minutes) before it flushed. At least once it never flushed, but after we left the room we told the room steward. It was taken care of and was fine when we returned later in the day. It was all just a minor annoyance for us. In the few cases we knew we were going to "dump" a lot of human waste in the bowl, we would do a test flush, or just use a public restroom. We never kept flushing, so we never had an overflow. Cabin location and prior problems - We were in a starboard 700 series on Emerald deck. This was the same location where there were similar problems in May. See this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2852275-live-caribbean-princess-may-14th/page/5/#comment-63250992 So I believe something may be going on beyond a passenger in a nearby cabin flushing the wrong items town their toilet. Initial meeting with room steward - When we met the steward on day one, he gave us his number and told us to call him if we needed anything or "had toilet problems". I have never had a room steward mention toilet problems at an initial introduction. So I believe this was a bigger, known issue. Solving the problem - Engineering staff were working in hallway closets after the first problem. We never called anyone. Everything then worked well for the next two days. Thereafter it was hit or miss. One time the room steward knocked on our door with an engineering staff member at his side and asked if the toilet was working. I did a test flush, and told him no it was not. They left and it "flushed itself" within 15 minutes. The room steward told us the problem was people trying to flush the wrong things down the toilet. But why was this a big problem in the same location on prior cruise(s)? Why did the room steward know there would be problems on this cruise? @chengkp75 - here is a second bathroom question. There was no second drain on the bathroom floor. Just one in the shower. I looked for a small one on the floor and a long rectangular one at the door. I even checked under the waste can and the bowl brush holder. Is this common on some ships?

I have only seen Princess stop at Mahogany Bay.

Given no one has responded yet. I'll take a stab at a partial answer. First, I'm not a big fan of annual comprehensive travel insurance plans for many people. Take a look at the thread I linked below for some reasons. That said, I always maintain an annual GeoBlue Trekker policy that primarily covers emergency medical and medical evacuation. If you go that route, there is no timing requirement. You can purchase it whenever you want and put it into effect the day before your next planned trip. There is no pre-existing conditions exclusion, thus timing is a non issue. If you elect to purchase a annual comprehensive plan, read the plan document thoroughly. They are all different and have different rules. If you potentially have a pre-existing condition, pay particular attention to any pre-existing conditions and waiver of pre-existing conditions language. Some plans have a waiver if you purchase within 14-21 days of the initial trip deposit, like the single trip plans. Others have no waiver, just a lookback period. At least one plan ties the waiver to each trip. Advice often given on this forum is to talk with a good travel insurance broker. Unless something has changed recently, none of the brokers often mentioned in this forum offer annual comprehensive plans any more. They only offer annual medical and evacuation plans.

GeoBlue pays primary. No need to file with other insurance first. Nationwide Deluxe only covers $20K in medical, (their other plans only cover $10K). The biggest reason I want medical insurance is to cover large unforeseen bills. $20K would not be enough for me, unless I have other insurance that will pay out of the USA and I am just looking for something to cover deductibles and copays. $250k evac is plenty, assuming the terms (which I have not read) are reasonable. Unlike GeoBlue, Nationwide will not cover pre-existing conditions (90 day lookback), nor will they waive the pre-existing conditions clause. If you do not take any prescriptions or rarely see a doctor, this may not be an issue. Otherwise, make sure you read the pre-existing conditions section of the policy and be certain it does not apply to you. Many healthy people have what the insurance companies consider a pre-existing condition, and they don't realize it. Nationwide limits coverage to trips of 30 days or less. For most people this is fine, but this is the lowest trip length of any of the annual plans I have looked at.

What do you mean by "Medivac"? GeoBlue Trekker is Emergency Medical AND Medical Evacuation (Medevac). MedjetAssist is usually considered the premier Medevac only plan. It will cost you more than what you have and it does not provide emergency medical coverage. But, it offers more flexibility and choices than GeoBlue for medical evacuation. There are also annual travel insurance plans that include emergency medical and medevac coverage along with other coverage. All of the ones I am aware of are not as good as what you have (in my opinion) for one or more of the following reasons: Higher cost Secondary vs Primary payer No or limited waiver of pre-existing conditions. Lower medical limits A positive is, I don't believe any of the annual plans I have looked at will have the $200 medical deductible. If you confirm what you are looking for and which of the negatives are non-issues for you, I can point you towards companies you might want to look at. Otherwise research various annual plans from these companies: Arch RoamRight, Allianz, Travel Guard, Nationwide, Travel Insured, Seven Corners, Trawick Intl and Medjet. I have elected to stay with GeoBlue (even with the current premium and increased deductible) because it still offers the best plan for my personal situation.

We just got off of the Caribbean Princess (7/2 - 7/9). While we partially experienced some of the issues brought up by the original poster, we did not experience others and none of the issues had a significant impact on our cruise. Here are a few of our notes: AC - Our cabin (Emerald aft) was actually as cold as any we have ever had in 40 cruises. Definitely needed the comforter at night. Most of the public areas were plenty cold and sometimes a light sweater would have been useful. There were a few very warm spots, but most of these were on or near deck 7 when there was an open door to the promenade. The warm air could be felt in the hallway and at the stairs. We did not have a balcony this time, so we were not subject to any issues sometimes found when nearby cabins keep their balcony door open. Toilet - We had toilet issues. It flushed most of the time, but sometimes it could take 5-15 minutes to flush. After the first slow flush, they cleaned out the pipe outside the cabin and all was good for a few days. They did another cleanout later in the cruise. This was not ideal. Plus we were in a cabin where people reported toilet problems several weeks ago. So there is a bigger problem here, but for us it was more of a minor annoyance. Water temperature - No issues. Internet speed - Great (for a cruise) from Saturday until Wednesday afternoon. Poor for the remainder of the trip. I was seeing 2.1 - 3.7 Mbps download speeds at the beginning of the week. They went to 0.1 - 0.2 Mbps (or worse) at the end. Latency was pretty bad the second half, but I never measured it during the first half of the week. Medallion Class App - The first day it would often freeze or give "not available" messages. Similar problems on both Android and iOS. I ended up deleting and reinstalling the app and it worked fine on both platforms for the remainder of the cruise. Fine means all of the functions worked and it stopped freezing. I could order drinks, make reservations, book FCDs, find shipmates and view my statement. That said, the app still needs a lot of work. Among other things, the interface needs work, it needs to respond better, and the daily activity presentation is terrible on the small screen. Wrong charges - While we saw one big erroneous drink charge on a prior cruise (passenger services removed it), we only had a minor issue this time. They charged us for one extra drink in one of the lounges, but they did not charge us for one of our drinks on Princess Cays (when they were just writing down cabin numbers). The net difference was only about a dollar and I think it was in our favor. If we had the cabin AC problems experienced by the OP, this would have been a major issue for us. Hopefully it is now fixed. In our (limited) conversations with other passengers last week, we never heard about cabin AC issues. So hopefully that problem is limited in scope. Unfortunately, if it is your cabin, it does not help if most of the other cabins are fine. ☹️

If you see any wrong information, please post corrections. Or, just copy and paste the table in a new post and make the corrections there. SHIP CRUISE DIRECTOR ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR Caribbean Princess Kristoff Greyling Coral Princess Kevin Tugwell Crown Princess Jody Miles Kelvin Joy Diamond Princess Discovery Princess Marcus Prince Juanta Frenchie Desbuquois Emerald Princess Fernando Cunha Enchanted Princess Matt Barnard Marissa Wurms Grand Princess Corinne Steel Island Princess Andi Sanders Majestic Princess Armando Merin Dan P??? Regal Princess Dan France Neil Rose Royal Princess Natalie Costa Ron Goodman Ruby Princess Tim Donovan Sapphire Princess Sky Princess Paul Chandler-Burns Matt Thompson

For whatever it's worth, about an hour after I posted the internet slowed down dramatically and remained that way for the remainder of the week. A few download speed measurements were under 0.1 Mbps and I don't believe I ever saw it much above 0.2 Mbps. Pretty high latency too. I believe ping was over 1000 ms after everything slowed down. If the numbers don't meant anything to you, I just checked my download speed at home for comparison and I am getting about 360 Mbps. Ping is 16 ms.