German Mermaid

6 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

We´re talking about special French protocols for cruise ships which want to visit French ports. And I´ve never heard of any as many other cruise lines do call French ports.

 

I guess you know I´m not a native english speaker so maybe my message was a bit misleading. I understand that Royal was talking about France's protocols for cruise ships, but I meant that there might be new protocols of the cruise lines because of new covid rules in the ports, high risk areas etc. I guess you already heard about the "TousAntiCovid-Pass" in France which is a requirement for restaurants, different activities and also for cruise ships. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Royal is going to skip France.

6 hours ago, steamboats said:

BTW the numbers of Spain are worse than those of France and even so the Harmony is supposed to start there. As for us Germans Spain is a high risk country for weeks, Southern France (and especially the region Marseilles is located) was just added today to the list of high risk countries. The Brits have put France on Amber+ some weeks ago (when the numbers still were low).

 

steamboats

You are right, it makes no sense to skip a high-risk area while starting in another. However, I guess they will continue to do so as long as Spain allows cruise ships. The only way for  Royal to avoid that would be to cancel the cruise. 

MSC just replaced Kotor, Montenegro with Split, Croatia for the upcoming trips with Splendida. They didn't tell the reason why, my guess is due to the fast rising covid numbers. And I think we will see more port replacements or even cancellations soon. 

27 minutes ago, steamboats said:

 

But actually I haven´t heard of any special protocols for France from the other cruise lines which are calling French ports.

 

steamboats

Not yet, but I guess it might happen in the next few days. Some countries like Germany just added southern France to the high-risk travel list. Germany also added a travel alert for some areas in France, including Provence/Cote d'Azur.

@steamboats @Kbonner Sorry for my late answer, I just noticed your messages. 

On 8/1/2021 at 7:55 AM, steamboats said:

@German Mermaid he has a yearly plan and this company does not offer a Covid-19 add on. Other companies like ADAC, HanseMerkur or Allianz do offer it. But you can´t just purchase the add on with another company without the basic contract. So he needs to quit with his old company and change to another one. There´s unfortuantely no way to insure this just as an add on. The other option would be to purchase a single trip insurance but it might be too late for this either.

 

And actually what he needs is an add on for the Reiserücktrittsversicherung/abbruchversicherung. The Reisekrankenversicherung in most cases covers the costs of the treatment without an add on. But the costs of quarantine, a single transport back home or quarantine in a local hotel as a negative contact person are only covered by an add on to the Reiserücktrittsversicherung/abbruchversicherung.

 

steamboats

Got it. Since travel insurance (and health insurance in general) are not expensive here in Germany, I would rather buy a new insurance than to cancel my cruise, but that´s just my opinion. I know it´s too late now, I just wanted to help.

On 8/1/2021 at 10:40 AM, Kbonner said:

 

My requirement was to have an insurance all-in-one, Rücktritt,Abbruch, Kranken, Gepäck. When comparing i.e. at check24, unfortunately no ADAC or one of the other mentioned companies comes up. 

So Harmony from Spain is not insured for us. None of the mentioned insurances here cover all 4 risks.

 

Well, I´m not an isurance agent nor an expert, but I think the Allianz travel insurance does cover all risks. It´s called "Komplettschutz mit Reisekrankenversicherung". Maybe something to look at in the future. 

On 7/26/2021 at 3:00 PM, Kbonner said:

I am with LTA, you should know, its one of the largest here. I have a written response from them that Covid is not insured in case you enter a high risk country

"If you fall ill at your vacation destination and require medical assistance, insurance cover is provided if there was no travel warning for the travel area prior to entry."

 

 Try the Allianz travel insurance. Covid is covered even with a "Reisewarnung", and you´ll get a prepaid credit card. From their website:

Wenn Sie bei Allianz Travel eine Reise-Krankenversicherung abgeschlossen haben, sind Sie im Ausland umfassend geschützt. Sollten Sie sich während Ihrer Auslandsreise mit dem Corona-Virus infizieren, sind die vor Ort anfallenden medizinisch notwendigen Behandlungskosten oder ein Kranken-Rücktransport grundsätzlich versichert. Das gilt auch für Reisen in Gebiete oder Länder, für die das Auswärtige Amt eine COVID-19-bedingte Reisewarnung ausgegeben hat. In den allgemeinen Versicherungsbedingungen ist zwar grundsätzlich geregelt, dass kein Versicherungsschutz besteht, wenn das Auswärtige Amt für Ihr Reiseland eine Reisewarnung ausgesprochen hat. Da es sich bei der Corona-Pandemie um eine länderübergreifende Situation handelt und das Auswärtige Amt zwischenzeitlich zudem eindeutig zwischen regulären Reisewarnungen und COVID-19-bedingten Reisewarnungen unterscheidet, gewähren wir in der Reise-Krankenversicherung Versicherungsschutz, sofern für Ihr Reiseziel ausschließlich eine COVID-19-bedingte Reisewarnung ausgesprochen wurde. Besteht für Ihr Reiseziel bei Einreise eine nicht COVID-19-bedingte Reisewarnung des Auswärtigen Amtes, besteht in der Reise-Krankenversicherung jedoch kein Versicherungsschutz.

A crew member who had been working at Starbucks just got his new contract starting on June, 5th in the port of Miami. He shows his contract on Youtube

6 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Für mich wäre das ein Traum. Ich liebe Deutschland und die deutsche Sprache. 😊

Seriously? Your German is perfect, but I've never heard someone saying that about our language 😂

I love traveling to the U.S., unfortunately it's not possible at the moment.

I´m not sure if someone has already mentioned this, but NCL just started a huge advertising here in Germany for 2021 sailings. There is also a TV commercial which is a bit... well... strange. It´s like Covid has gone. You can watch the commercial on the german NCL homepage. 

On 1/14/2021 at 2:45 AM, Cruise Wonderland said:

Europeans, especially the non-English speaking passengers, seem to love the local brands (Costa/MSC in Italy, AIDA/TUI in Germany) more than the American cruise lines such as Norwegian or Royal Caribbean.

 

 

Not me! 😉 Cruising with Aida or Tui would mean only german passengers and that would not feel like a vacation to me. I love to talk with people from other countries and cultures.

I have been wondering about the same things. We have Odyssey booked for June and while we already have a few ships sailing here in Europe, I guess our cruise might get cancelled. Just a few days ago I called Royal Caribbean Germany for a different reason. During the conversation I was told that there aren´t any news about a restart date for European cruises. That makes me really wonder about it, since Norwegian Cruise Line just started a huge advertising here in Germany (including a TV commercial) for 2021 cruises. 

8 hours ago, CaliCruzing said:

In general, would you say it is comfortable in the summer?

Yes, I think you should be fine. Well, it all depends on what you are doing. Of course it might be exhausting when you are walking around a big city like Rome or Barcelona for a whole day with high temperatures. But for me personally, it was A LOT more exhausting walking around Walt Disney World with the high humidity of Florida.  

I live in Germany and have been visiting the Mediterranean at least one time per year. I also have been travelling to the US in the past years, mostly to California and Florida. The mediterranean climate is more comparable to California than to Florida. It can get up to 100 F in July and August, but as long as you are at the coast it never feels like the high humidity in Florida. I recommend visiting the Mediterranean in May, June or Sepember. July and August are very crowded due to school holidays. Unfortunately, my guess is that we won't be allowed to travel across the big pond this year in any direction.

A german cruise blog just reported that Rhapsody + Grandeur will dock in the British Virgin Islands for a warm lay up!

Just checked Royal´s website. All september cruises are gone, even all cruises out of Europe. 

4 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Why?

Well, I´m new to cruises and from what I´ve read in this topic it seems to be a standard to give additional tips, and I really doubt that crew members will receive the automatic gratuities. 

I´m from Germany and I have been to the U.S. a few times, so I know how it works over there. But I´m new to cruising and this tipping thing with prepaid gratuities is confusing me. When I was in the U.S., I think I always tipped more than what was expected, for example often more than 20% in restaurants if I received great service. I tipped almost everyone who provided me with a service and I´m planning to do the same on top of the automatic gratuities for my first cruise with RCI here in Europe - well, if it won´t get cancelled. But I´m not sure what would be an appropriate amount for additional tips. If I read the FAQ´s on Royals´ website, it seems to me that you already tip some of the crew members twice with the automatic gratuities. So I´ll pay the automatic service gratuity per night and per person and that will be shared among dining, bar and culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel service teams who work behind the scenes. (From their FAQ´s) Plus, with every drink package and speciality dining there´s an additional 18% fee for gratuities. That sounds to me like bartenders and servers receive more of the automatic tips than the stateroom attendants does? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I just don´t get it. And to be honest, I´m really wondering if all of the crew members receive anything of that from their cruise line. Please don´t get me wrong, I would never remove the automatic gratuities, I´m just wondering about that. 

Did anybody notice the significant price drops on Allure's Mediterranean Cruises? I'm wondering if that happened because of the coronavirus crisis, or because she won't get amplified. We are booked for September for our very first cruise,  and the price for our stateroom category is more than 700 Euros (=760 Dollar) cheaper now for the two of us. Unfortunately we don't get price drops once the deposit has been paid. We didn't choose this cruise for the itinerary, we wanted the experience of a "new" Oasis Class Ship for our first cruise. I'm not willing to pay a lot of more bucks for an announcement that won't happen. I'm not sure if I should cancel and rebook with loosing the deposit, or just wait and see.