LatinaInTexas

8 minutes ago, VictorWI said:

I had a similar issue. But my card was cancelled due to fraud. My car insurance was lapsed over two months!! Insurance never contacted me about it. I only noticed when the home insurance came due and was up almost $500 which seemed crazy. When I went to get my policy info online to shop for something cheaper I noticed that my car was no longer listed. Called my agent and they said it had lapsed. Apparently when I changed the credit card on file when I was issued a new one I only changed it on the house. It did not apply to all policies. Luckily in my case they were able to re-instate it at the same rate I had. Then issued a new home policy which went back to the normal price with the home and auto discount. Needless to say but I’ll pay more attention when they come due. 

So crazy these things happen with no warning, we have to find out on our own after the fact. Lucky you got reinstated, my great rate went bye bye.

8 minutes ago, tsahall01 said:

Last week we got a check for almost a thousand dollars with a letter stating that our car insurance had been canceled.  WHAT?????  We had no accidents or anything and could not figure out what was going on.  What happened was that we had bought a car in November.  My husband paid the premium to add the car.  For some reason, they never recorded the payment, and cancelled the insurance!!  We had not had insurance on our cars since January--the check was the first notice of our insurance being cancelled.  Once we proved that we had, in fact, paid the premium, our insurance was reinstated.  Had we had an accident or anything during that time that we had "no insurance", we would have been covered because we had proof of payment.  I now have at least a dozen new grey hairs, but all is well.

Wow! Glad it got resolved. I admit I'm pretty casual about finances and not as vigilant as I should be but have now started paying more attention and checking things often. I don't understand how I can get a 4 page bill on a credit card I have a zero balance on but can't get a heads up about a credit card on file expiring soon🤦

13 hours ago, Happy0810 said:

Like many here, we've spent a decent amount of time traveling.  It started in March with over 3 weeks RV camping in Florida.  Home for a few weeks and then another trip to FL to stay with friends for 10 days.  Home for 5 days and then back on the road to FL to cruise on the MSC Seashore. We had to make the trip back home to let the dog stay with a family member while we cruised.
 

Fun times were had except for the motion sickness traveling to the rainforest in San Juan.  Back of the tour bus swaying as we navigated the winding roads up the mountain.  I couldn't look out the windows at all and kept praying that I would be "that person" puking on the bus.  I left my motion sickness meds on the ship and finally found someone at one of our stops that had Dramamine.  Although she tried to decline, I gave her $5 for one pill and it was worth every single cent and then some. 

 

If interested, here are a few pics of our adventures.  

 

 

Fort Mantanzas National Monument, Fort Clinch State Park, and St. Augustine in Florida

 

 

 

Tomoka State Park in Ormond Beach, FL and scenic motorcycle ride in Flagler Beach, FL

 

 

Nassau, Bahamas and Blue Lagoon Island

 

Blue Lagoon Island, the jungle pool on the MSC Seashore, and sunset as we departed Nassau

 

 

MSC Seashore, Castillo San Felipe del Morro as we enter San Juan Bay, and the port area/lazy river in Tiano Bay in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

 

 

Yokahu Tower in El Yunque National Rainforest in San Juan, Bano Grande Historic site, and huge snail sighting.  Maybe this is why escargot was on the menu this night. 😉

 

Beautiful views in El Yunque Rainforest in San Juan

 

 

Waterfall in El Yunque,  Paseo de la Princesa in San Juan, flower (hibiscus possibly), and the view from the Bridge of Sighs on the Seashore

Beautiful pictures! I loved the Seashore. Thanks for the tip about the winding mountain roads in San Juan. Will not be taking this excursion even though I have considered it twice.

We had what I felt was a near death experience on an excursion down winding mountain roads. Driver was speeding and reckless blasting R rated rap music without a care in the world while we all panicked, yelled at him to slow down and held on for dear life.

1 hour ago, TxTeach79 said:

Morning! Already cleared by 7:45a. Still undecided what I’m going to do tonight. I think I’ll start by lying here and “thinking” for a bit. 

Good morning! I'm up early because even though it's not my cruise day it's my daughter's cruise day, her first cruise ever. She has never wanted to cruise, is scared to cruise, but her husband for the first time ever got his way and they are cruising..... finally.

He has booked, researched, and planned everything for over a year and is like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. They will be on Harmony of the Seas. I wish they had picked Carnival because I was so underwhelmed with my very first cruise being on RC, I really had no intention of cruising again. 

I told them yesterday I wanted to treat them to a steakhouse dinner and they were unable to book due to it being last minute I hope and not that it's sold out.

She's also a teacher and sailing out of her home port so let's see if she defies the odds and has a student encounter, it seems to be trending😂🤣

9 hours ago, dmet0225 said:

Things I didn’t have on my bingo card:

 

1.  Allowing my auto insurance to elapse 4 days prior to the construction sign crashing onto the front end of my car 5 month old car because I mistakenly thought I was enrolled in auto renew/auto pay.

2.  Having insurance company refuse to reinstate my auto insurance due to non payment.

3.  Finding any insurance company who will insure anyone who allows their insurance expire due to non payment.  
4.  Having the road construction company deny any responsibility for the sign crashing into my car because it was an “Act of God.” 
 

Yep, that was my day yesterday which completely changed any plans I had while I frantically tried to find insurance.  Finally got it resolved at about 9:45 last night.

 

Yay!

Ughhhh I semi know that situation. Was notified ours had lapsed because of non payment. Thought we were on auto also because they had previously sent me a notice that I was and didn't need to do anything for it to renew.

By the time I read the notice 4 days had passed of us driving with no insurance. Same situation trying to find new insurance spur of the moment and the old insurer telling us we can't go with them again until a year has passed. We had it thru AARP and had an unbeatable rate.

Turns out the credit card on file for payment so I could get airline points had expired and it was on me to know this and fix this🤨

Ta-Da all caught up! I knew this was gonna be wild and crazy. Students, fellow teachers, that's insane

Seeing your dad's favorite bartender, that was fitting. Right place at the right time.

I'm pretty sad because last year this exact cruise was gonna be my first booked cruise of 2024. Then life happened and the opportunity was lost. 

Have wanted to cruise this ship since I first saw it and after seeing Saint Greg's New York/cruise reviews sparked an interest for the first time of visiting New York when it had always been a hard no, nope, never.

I'm glad I was able to make Alaska happen instead but gotta admit I'm kinda feeling buyers remorse lol.

Did it last Sunday from the Encore. Signed up online pre cruise and when onboard asked if I could add a bag. Was told if I had signed up on ship yes but since I signed up online answer was no.

Got the special yellow tags day before debarkation and put my luggage out night before thinking the next time I saw my luggage would be at my home airport.

Had a direct flight and landed and waited for my luggage. No luggage on the belt for me and 3 other people. They had other issues and did not use Port Valet. 

Agent took my info and told me my luggage was not on the plane and opened up a case. Told me they would investigate and keep me updated with info. Went home with no luggage. 

At 12:40 am got a call from the gate agent telling me my luggage had arrived on a later flight and was there. That they would schedule a time for them to deliver my luggage to my home next day if possible but maybe not until day after.

Luggage was delivered next day late afternoon. I never found out if it was a ship delivery issue, an airport issue, or an Alaska Airline issue. Either way Alaska handled it in a timely manner and all ended well this time.

The gate agent did tell me they almost always have issues when Port Valet is involved🤷

20 pages in but gotta go start dinner prep booooo. Since I'm so far behind I'm not gonna like or lol all the posts but I'm liking and laughing all the way through😁

Your hotel is great! I want that room as my cabin on a future cruise. When I saw how easy it was getting from airport to hotel I was like easy peasy I can do that. Then I saw the pics of the city and my anxiety went off the charts. Close the curtains, scary, scary.

Are you kidding me? I have 70 pages to catch up on😭

So be it, I'm ready to dive in and take a walk on the wild side. Your reviews never disappoint, always something zany, funny, and crazy going on🤣😂

Loved revisiting the Vista hate that it's so far away until I sail her in March. Booked this cruise for husband's birthday and haven't even told him yet lol. 

I wish my itinerary was the ABCs you did, the ports looked lovely! I still have 2 Carnival ships I need to try. The Venezia and the Horizon so I will get there some day.

Good news that Patti continues to do well since her surgery. Can you imagine if you had to write the review and take all the pictures😮 

Thank you again to the dynamic duo for your time and energy to keep us all entertained💜

Found some time to finish your review. Ughhhh going back to work was soooo hard. I love the way you write, it's very unique and interesting just like I imagine you are in real life. 

I'm glad I got to experience Alaska but wow did it wear me out both mentally and physically. I booked last November and it seemed I was always planning, researching, changing my mind, booking things, cancelling things right up the day before sailing.

Then all the physical activity from being on a big ship, getting up so early for excursions, the excursions themselves. We took 2-3 hour naps every day bundled up under the covers in our cold, dark dungeon, I love interiors.

I'm so glad my August cruise is on a smaller ship. I think it's time to start downsizing to ships more manageable to our old age and old age bodies lol.

Glad you decided to go on your cruise and take some time for yourself. Good to hear you still have a job! I know you have a lot going on and hoping for the very best possible outcomes for you.

Hey Sid👋  In case you have WIFI in ports and check in I hope you are enjoying your time for yourself. It's strange not seeing a real Sid review here and even stranger seeing just how many Sid wannabes there are lol.

4 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Hey tribe. My teen got sick on our recent Alaska cruise. Now I have it. It’s Covid.

Oh no, hope it's mild. I thought for sure we would come down with something. From the shuttle to the port where the lady behind me coughed almost the whole ride to the cruise itself, I heard so much coughing every single day. Not just regular coughing but also really bad coughing. Also the second half of the cruise it seemed to get quiet and less populated everywhere. I was wondering was everyone in their cabins sick☹️

Last year on the Getaway pre cruise I was able to make MDR reservations for every night. I like eating at a set time. And there was a time or two when the wait would have been over 30 minutes of I didn't have a reservation.

This year for my Encore cruise I was not able to make any MDR reservations. Got the prompt not available to book, try when onboard.

I tried the help chat and they told me to just wait until I was onboard and do it then.

After I was onboard I was able to make all my MDR reservations for the week on the app. There was a time or two that I saw 4 or 5 groups waiting to be seated but we got sat right away with our reservations. 

I think we were out each night in about an hour or less.

5 hours ago, TravelE said:

 

I was impressed with our Alaskan Airlines flight from Seattle to Atlanta on Sunday. Boarding was super easy with the way they plan their boarding groups and announcements. The cabin crew was so polite and pleasant with service, safety information, and other announcements. Even the pilots were great with communication and letting us know when turbulence was approaching and that we should use the restroom now if needed. 

 

I feel that most airlines find passengers as a "bother" so this was a breath of fresh air.

I was impressed on my first Alaska airline flight also. Like you said boarding was great, nobody disorderly lined up they just stayed in their seats until it was their turn. 

Then to board a half full flight both ways was unheard of the last few years. People were moving around getting whole rows to themselves. 

Nice leg room, comfy seats, chargers, free in-flight entertainment. 

Everyone got their own can of soda and the good buttery pretzels. Then surprisingly before landing they do drink and snack service again with cookies.

I also found out that with T-Mobile I get free WiFi for 4 flights a year, I didn't know that, saw it on the Alaska website.

They also handled my lost luggage in a very timely manner. I might have found my new airline to replace Southwest who has cut so many non stop flights that I don't want to fly them anymore☹️

4 hours ago, graphicguy said:

Have to blow off some steam....so, excuse my rant in advance....

 

Driving to my Sister's house yesterday for a cookout.  Beautiful weather, had my driver's window down, sunroof open, listening to Little Feat on the car stereo, in a great mood.

 

Stopped at a red light.  Turns green.  I go into the intersection and out of the corner of my eye, see someone in a pickup coming from my left, and he doesn't look like he's going to stop.  

 

Quick decision time....freeze and stop dead in my. tracks, or floor it and try to make it through the intersection unscathed.  I chose the latter.  Problem there, I didn't make it through without him smashing my rear ¼ panel.  My car did a 360º.  Side airbag went off blasting me on my left side.

 

Was telling the police who responded with 3 cruisers (must have been a slow day in my sleepy burg) that I thought about stopping dead in my tracks.  They said I would probably have absorbed the brunt of the wreck on my driver's door, which would have been much worse.

 

Not hurt, but sore.  Ummmmm...my NEW Accord did its job and protected me, but the rear door is smashed in.  My guess is the rear part of the unibody will have to be replaced, at least, along with the glass, the trunk lid, the airbag(s).  The rear left wheel is pushed in almost perpendicular to the ground.  I'm sure the under carriage has significant damage to the suspension. On top of all that, IT'S A NEW CAR....had it a couple of months....not even 2K on the odometer.  They had to "DRAG" it onto a flat bed to take it away.

 

Person that hit me....and I'm trying not to be insensitive...but he was a stupid red neck.  Crappy truck.  Tried to tell the cop he had the green light.  Fortunately, I had 2 witnesses who stopped and refuted his story and affirmed what actually happened.

 

Missed the cookout.  But, one of the policeman gave me a ride home, which I thought was a nice thing to do given I was going to call an UBER.  Called my sister, she brought over a sampling of the cookout goodies to me later last night and listened to this rant (which was much worse than this post).  I love my family.

 

Fortunately, he did have insurance (my heart skipped a beat when I saw him get out of his truck as my profiling instinct was based on the way he looked and acted, which told me he might not).

 

Anyway, wish I took pictures, but the cop did.

 

Talked to his insurance company just now.  They wanted to know if my car was drivable.  Uhhhhh...not even remotely.  Told them I needed a car.  They said they had to review the police report to see if they would cover it.  That just hit me the wrong way.  I'm sure the agent I spoke to  is just following protocol.  But, the person they decided to cover, is an idiot, and to have her tell me they had to "review the police report" just hit me the wrong way given I'm sore, car-less and not much in the mood for their garbage.  I told her I have a copy of the report and will scan it and email it to her.  And, that their "insured" has a copy, too.  She said that wasn't necessary, but they also had not heard from him, yet.

 

I still had to give the tow company a credit card to get a receipt that they towed (dragged) my car to my dealership.  I'll see if they fight me to reimburse that cost.

 

Called my insurance company.  I have rental coverage ($30/day) and that they will get reimbursed from his insurance company for the rental and the tow if they don't pay it.  Enterprise is bringing me a car later today (told them I wasn't in a hurry).

 

Also called my local Honda dealer, where it was towed.  Their body shop manager said no one was there yesterday, but he saw my car first thing this morning.  I asked him his thoughts.  He only said "not good".  He went on to say even without looking underneath it looked totaled.

 

Now, I'm in limbo.  

 

Good thing I've got a cruise coming up in few weeks.

Sorry you were in an accident and glad you are ok. It's getting all Mad Max out there on the roads. In the last 2 weeks we have almost been in 4 accidents due to risk taking crazy drivers. Thankfully husband is a super attentive and aware driver and maneuvered appropriately.

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

I think we did cross paths briefly in Juneau. 

Indeed we did lol. We rushed off the ship, waited in a line to catch a shuttle to town. Dashed into the first big store I saw, grabbed some souvenirs in record time. Hopped back on the shuttle, raced to our excursion bus and made it just at meeting time and the bus was already full. We got back right before boarding time ended. I knew I wasn't going to get to shop after the excursion. Ended up doing this same scenario in Skagway also😕

Just started reading a few pages before bedtime. I have thought about you on your Alaska cruise while I was on my Alaska cruise and can't wait to read all about it!

Just finished catching up, great seeing you have family time. Your kids are adorable. Glad to see you survived the family in one cabin with no issues, it looked roomy enough.

OMG I was feeling so bad for you all reading about perfect day and then to see that you at least got to go wowee that was a close call.

My daughter goes on her very first cruise next week on RC. I will just keep any info about the N word to myself lol.

1 hour ago, MeganGC1983 said:

Ohhh how I wish this would happen. It would save me so much stress. Normal travel days just don’t exist anymore. I didn’t post this in my review but I had 3 couples with their flights delayed past connection as we were boarding the plane for our cruise. That was a Sunday, American couldn’t get them there til Tuesday so they lost 2 full days in Jamaica. It was a mess. Now I get to deal with travel protection compensating them because lord knows AA won’t. 

We had about 25 people miss embarkation because of weather related cancelled and delayed flights. When we were waiting to get off in Juneau our first port stop we saw them waiting to get on. I felt so bad for them but glad they didn't miss the whole cruise.

I just started reading your review then have a few others I want to catch up on lol. 

Good news my missing luggage was just delivered YAY!

3 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

I think most of those posts are fables

Very possible. I will say that for quite some time me and husband got exact same offers but this year they are completely different. Luckily mine are better because I have more vacation time and can cruise with family members.

3 hours ago, onlyano said:

 

 

I'm back from my cruise on the Carnival Magic. No planned trips for June. My next "vacation" will be a land trip to Key West in July. 

 

The cruise was amazing until going home day.

 

This is the first time I've debarked in the Miami terminal with the four luggage belts and the multiple tags all mixed up together. 

 

Then once you find your luggage, luggage picker-uppers have to merge into a line with the "let's haul all our crap off" people. This includes 7-year-olds who can't manage their Barbie roller-boards.

 

The line management to get out of that area was non-existent. They did have pretty multi-colored arrows and footprint stickers on the floor. No signs just stickers.

I was planning to do the bus transfer to the airport. That never happened.

 

When I got to the transfer ticket line, the person at the check-in was tied up for 10 minutes trying to help someone who could not find their ticket  Someone finally came to help her and directed me to the wrong line. 

I was then moved to the right line. Then I was asked if I was alone. Since I was, I was moved to the front of the line to get on the bus. 

When they realized the bus was full, I was moved again. I was told by someone else I couldn't go to the front of the next bus line, but I was able to get the attention of the person who put me there and they said I could stay. 

We are now up to around 30 minutes, in the heat and partial shade.

The full bus is still there. We were told the next bus was 20 to 30 minutes out. 

 

I left along with 2 other people and took a taxi (on my own) for $56, with a tip. At the airport, I ran into 3 other ladies who gave up on the bus too.

I have heard that the luggage and bus people are not Carnival employees. No matter who they are employed by, they need to do better.

I've requested a refund, but I doubt I'll get it.

 

My flight from Miami to Dallas was delayed two hours. A part fell off the plane, but they didn't know what it was. They had to scan it into the computer to figure out if it was important. Of course, it was a Boeing plane. I guess it wasn't critical to the plane, because we were able to use that one. 

In the meantime, our pilots timed out, but they were able to replace them.

 

I got home right before the Ubbi Dubbi Festival across the street finished. At least I didn't have to fight that traffic. I heard they had 50,000 in attendance. After some issues a few years ago (minor vandalism and a pulled fire alarm), we have full-time security whenever there is a major concert at that venue. 

 

One day of travel crazy is worth seven days of wonderful cruising.

 

What a mess! I don't know what happened to mostly normal travel days but I wish they would get back on track. I went from years of travel with no issues to back to back to back to back travel craziness. I'm too old and anxiety riddled to go through this every trip lol.

I will say today doing my weekly grocery run that for the first time since pandemic things were back on track. I was able to use 15 in store coupons and my grocery bill was very close what it used to be. I have also noticed restaurants offering specials and deals again making eating out more easy on the pocketbook.

It's little things but it brings hope

I have seen people post and I was told once when I asked that if we both had the same exact offer we could both get the perks offered.

I'm my case we both had the exact same offer that included drinks in the casino. I called and asked my PVP about it and he said yes we would both get drinks in the casino. 

We ended up getting the drink package so I don't know really know if it would have worked.

But I have seen posts where they say they both got the drinks and OBC that was showing on their respective offers because it was the exact same offer for both🤷

What a day we had in Seattle just trying to get back home from our cruise.

We had used Port Valet so luggage free we walked over to the Pike marketplace, looked around, shopped, and then called for an Uber to take us to Westlake where we would catch the light rail to the airport. 

Waited for our ride and noticed my phone said he had arrived. Looked all around nope he wasn't here. Then I got a text asking where was I and to start walking to a street that was 2 blocks away. I texted him what streets and building we were at and he didn't respond. We walk the 2 blocks and nope he's not there. At that time he cancelled the ride on us.

Booked another ride and he arrived about a block away but we caught it and made it. Got to Westlake and figured out how to get a ticket and went down to catch our ride. There was a train on the other side of the tracks loading and the board said ours was 6 minutes away.

After about 10 minutes the board said 2 minutes away. The other train across the tracks is still sitting there. About 5 minutes later the other train makes everyone get off and stays sitting there. The board continues to show our train is 2 minutes away for 30 minutes. 

At this point it's cutting it too close for my peace of mind to make our flight, especially not knowing how bad TSA is because it's a cruise day and a holiday weekend. 

I make the decision to scrap this and go back up and catch an Uber. A $65 Uber compared to the $3 train tickets😡I request the ride and it shows driver will arrive in 2 minutes. I see him on the map about 2 minutes away so all is good. After 6 minutes have passed he's not here and I'm watching him going in a whole other direction and now it says he's arriving in 6 minutes. 

I make the first call and ask him what's going on, I tell him exactly where we are at and he says yes I will be there in 2 minutes. I watch him go in circles for another 7 minutes and call again. He again tells me he's coming. Another 7 minutes of the same watching him go all over the place no where near us I call again. I am starting to panic because it's now really cutting it close for our flight.

Finally after 25 minutes and a third call he arrives half a block away. I am upset and ask him what happened to the original 2 minutes? I'm afraid I might miss my flight now. He tells me the GPS was going crazy and that these things happen. Don't worry I will get you there in 10 minutes. Obviously he's a habitual liar because that's humanly impossible. He took 24 minutes. 

The strangest part was when I requested the ride and he was 2 minutes away it was a straight shot down one street to where we were at. 

Thank God TSA was only 15 minutes long. After 2 airport shuttles and a walk we made it to our gate just as they were boarding. 

Had a 4 hour flight to calm down and try to forget the whole day.

But as you can guess it wasn't over yet. We land and get to the baggage claim early and wait. It was a small flight only 52 people so it wasn't crowded and we didn't see our luggage come down. Then all of a sudden there were only us and 3 others waiting and no more luggage coming down.

Lost luggage for all of us. Agent makes a claim for us and tells us they will investigate and give us updates. 

At 12:45 am I get a call. It's the same gate agent and he tells me our luggage was on the last flight from Seattle and had arrived. It will be delivered hopefully sometime today but maybe tomorrow. 

The gate agent also told me there's almost always issues with using Port Valet ☹️

So my vacation started and ended bad but everything in between was fantastic. No complaints about the Encore and no complaints about Alaska airlines. 

Hope everyone with cruises coming up or going on have a stress free, no problems, amazing cruise!

Just now, Saint Greg said:

They probably aren’t giving half of the ship away to gamblers like Carnival Casino Line.

Absolutely! I haven't been on a Carnival cruise that wasn't a casino cruise in a long time. 

I don't spend a lot of time in the casino partly because it's too smoky and when it's packed full on the casino cruises it's horrible. This ship has a nice sized smoke free section.