happy cruzer

Some vacation, some travel, we do a bit of both....

Thank you for posting the warning. I am looking at this cruise and it definitely makes a difference about partial transit vs. port visit. I still may do the port visit but at least with my eyes open.

Interesting report about the buffet. Do you have a report about sharing a pizza or meal with the UDP as you asked about in a post before your cruise? Specialty dining in general? If sharing is possible, we would enjoy a meal much more - for us one meal is plenty for two people. Thanks.

Collect your documentation probably emails. One- the first air ticket from NCL. The notice that your flight was cancelled and WHY the flight was cancelled. What did the airline offer? What did NCL offer? Hope you have those in writing. If the flight was cancelled by the airline because of their issue like mechanical failure, and they issued a refund to NCL as the payer of the fare. Then pursue with NCL but you will need documentation of what happened; NCL most likely won't just give you the refund without you proving it was done. If the flight was cancelled due to weather, then you will need document that with the insurance and file a claim. You will have to have all the documentation. They are going to want to why you did not get another flight vs. driving or did you get a refund or a travel credit. Lots of details to be proven. Good luck. My claim on another cruise line took several months.

Well it depends on the description of "formal". If it means long pants and t shirts for men, there are lines/restaurants that have that code now. One example - NCL has one of three dining rooms on one of their ships that do not allow shorts for men. All three dining rooms serve the same menu. Yet you still men demanding to be allowed in the "formal" dining room in shorts. They don't care that two minutes away there is another dining room with the same menu, they are entitled to dine anywhere. So my guess is that maybe they are trying to have one dining area with a dress code of some sort??

New Orleans has the same problem with fog and getting up the Mississippi River. But we do love cruising the river on the way out during the afternoon. The lower cost for Breakaway and getting to cruise on the Mississippi may tilt this toward New Orleans even with the more crowded embarcation/disembarc areas. Still mulling it over. Thanks.

The cabin is a Balcony. So the rest of the ship does matter, no escaping to the Haven for us :).

Prima from Galveston or Breakaway from New Orleans? Would drive to Galveston and would need to fly to New Orleans. With air for New Orleans trip, Breakaway is still about $300 less for the same cabin. I've been on the Breakaway and loved the cruise, mainly because we don't do the pools which seemed very crowded. All else was good. Opinions? Thanks.

Did you get an updated email with ticket numbers and names? You may have NCL say we did it correctly and AA implemented it wrong. Both should be able to show the issued tickets with details. Hope you are able to get something in writing (email are hard copy) to use to get this resolved what someone says gets instantly lost.

If you were in charge of marketing, what would you do? Include it all and have a higher list price than a competitor then rely on the public to do the math to see that they really are getting a better deal? The devil is always in the details whether it is package pricing, insurance policies, etc.

If you want an entire pizza to take to your balcony (on Breakaway) at lunch, is there an "acceptable" way to do so? That cutting the line thing would be annoying. If one group can do it then several could and then the line would never move.

Just booked the Doubletree. Will be there for two nights. Any other hints for grocery/breakfast, wine purchases, light dining, or a nearby sight to see. thanks for posting a hotel recommendation.

Found this link to a form to submit; hope it is current. https://www.carnival.com/request-forms/reimbursement-form.aspx

Yes, the 5 day denial is strange. When did you actually pay for the insurance? At the early time of deposit or at final payment? If you paid the insurance premium at final, perhaps they are saying that you are claiming a pre-existing condition. But hopefully CFAR will still provide you some coverage. Please let us know how this plays out, and hope you get a good result.

So it seems to be a travel cancellation claim for medical reasons. Did you have documentation from a doctor stating that you should not travel? There has been a report in the past where someone cancelled with a broken leg but the doctor would not state they could not travel and the refund claim (not CFAR) was denied. The person filing the claim thought it was very obvious that they would not enjoy the trip plus would entail extra efforts and pain. also remember that claims with any insurance take a long time and often go back and forth. Keep all documentation. Not they way it should work but the way it is with all insurance in general. Our recent claim took 4 months.

Do you have a recommendation of a policy that would cover your claim? Did you file a medical claim or a travel claim? If it was a travel claim, did the cancel for any reason cover you? Did you check with you credit card for coverage? Thanks for the reminder that just buying insurance is not good enough, one needs to buy the insurance that covers what you want covered.

Agree that most trip interruption insurance would be no help. Kind of like losing your passport, it is something that typically is not covered. If the policy does not specifically state an item is covered, it is not. So did you print out a copy of your ticket after the last name correction? An email with the ticket? Do you have the ticket number? AA should be able to tell you when/if your ticket was changed. AA may be at fault after all your flight going to the cruise was ok just not the return. If NCL booked a round trip ticket for you then it looks like AA is the issue. Good luck, you may have to get some government regulator involved. Regardless if AA does a refund it will be to the purchaser of the ticket. And as HHI cruiser says that will show up on the AA website but it will not have the name for the refund just four digits identifying either a credit card or processing agency. I went through that with Celebrity. They got a refund and took alot of time to get them to forward it to me.

Did you have a email copy of the tickets with the passengers names? Seems they would have to honor that. If you had an email from NCL or AA with all the names correct then I would keep persueing this, one of them owe you a refund.

How was the dining room for traditional seating? Looking forward to the ropes course, IMAX and skyride. Hopefully in Sept, the crowding won't be so bad. Thanks.

Just read a review which seems very strange: https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=697784 I've had noro and do wonder what would have if it started the night before disembarcation. Thanks.

Tell us more....

Did you look at the options before final payment? Where any of them better than going with NCL knowing the downsides? Typically if we can match the NCL price plus a bit more then we book ourselves and cancel the NCL air at final payment. If not, then you have rolled the dice and have to take what you can get from NCL. If you do no research, and just want someone to take care of you in the current environment you get what you get....

Very interesting viewpoint of cruising for travel vs. vacationing. You mention all the things that you don't like about mass market cruises. There is one you missed, the travel snob. We did a 20 night cruise to Midway Island on Princess. There was fellow at lunch one day at a larger table of randomly assigned cruisers in the main dining room that spent a great deal of time enumerating the reasons he did not like cruising and would never do another one. Quite the downer. Most of his points were similar to your first post and known by most frequent cruisers. If you go on the cruise, hopefully you will meet others on the cruise that are making lemonade of lemons. They have picked their best option either because of finances or physical abilities. They are fully aware of most of the problematic issues of sharing a travel option with maybe a 1000 others that have various interests. They are willing to be tolerant and enjoy the good parts. I hope you have a good travel experience but it still is a cruise 🙂 with a lot of people on vacation.

We will be on Vista. Does JiJis or Cucino de Capitano offer the half off wine on the first night? Any luck getting more than one bottle half off and taking it to the cabin unopened?

Thanks for all the helpful info. Anyone have link to a deckplan that shows the actual footage of different cabins? So far we seem to be in 9378A; looks like there may be larger outside cabins that may be worth calling about? Thanks for the advice about the wine. Are bottles of wine covered in the bar tab? Is the corkage fee covered in the bar tab?