sunnypalms

After primarily sailing Celebrity Cruises (Elite Plus) my wife and I decided to try Princess Cruises. We just got off the Enchanted Princess this morning. I had a bad slip and fall during the cruise, so I was given use of a wheel chair to move around the ship and cabin. I had read (did not verify this) that the ship's swimming pools were not good for people with disabilities because the pools did not have a chair lift and only had ladders instead of stairs to the pools. I did notice that the public bathrooms marked for wheel chair use did not have a button to open the door electronically. The door just had a manual lever to open the bathroom door. It would have been impossible for me to open the door alone and move in my wheel chair. Luckily, my wife could open the door for me. I also noticed a floor bumper right before the medical office that was not sloped, thus making it difficult to get a wheel chair over it. When exiting the medical office the floor bumper side was sloped, so it was easier to exit. While being wheeled around the the World Fresh Marketplace on Deck 16, I noticed the labels identifying the food dishes were placed at the very top of the food case. These labels cannot be seen by people in wheel chairs. So I was constantly asking my wife what was the food item I was looking at. Even after only using a wheel chair for four days, I think this ship could do better for people with disabilities.

https://visitantiguabarbuda.com/travel-advisory/

Per the above link, the advisory only applies to those who have travelled from South Africa, Botswana, Belgium and Hong Kong within the last 14 days.

We applied our future cruise credits from a cancelled March 2020 Celebrity sailing to two other Celebrity sailings in November 2021 and January 2022. The cruise credits were used to the maximum for the new January booking and the remainder of the credit was applied to the already-booked November sailing. While we normally purchase third-party cruise insurance for our cruises, we now have a premium cash rewards credit card that does provide some travel insurance benefits so we used Celebrity’s CruiseCare travel protection for these two cruises. Our travel agent informed us that the amount of the FCC is deducted from the cruise fare which in turn lowers the cost of Celebrity’s insurance. For our November 2021 sailing, the insurance premium dropped $40 per person. For our January 2022 sailing, the insurance premium dropped $80 per person.

I am not advocating for Celebrity’s insurance. In fact, Celebrity’s maximum coverage for medical evacuation is much less than what I could have gotten from third-party policies. I do not know how use of FCCs affects the cost of third-party insurance. Use of FCCs does reduce the cost of Celebrity’s insurance. I guess when considering the cost/benefits of any travel insurance you could include in your analysis any protections already provided by your credit card and any FCCs you have.

Perhaps you should consider how the Silhouette is supposed to actually get to South America. It is scheduled to be a transatlantic from Barcelona on 11/20 and arriving at Buenos Aires on 6 December after spending the summer cruising in Europe. So far the Silhouette is not in Europe. It is currently "parked" in the Bahamas.

8 minutes ago, puppycanducruise said:

 

I thought that e-cigarettes could NOT be used in cabins, that they were only permitted in the areas that regular cigarettes could be used.

Where did you see this policy?

The current HA document "2020 What you need to know before you go". On Page 15 is the smoking policy. It specifically says e-cigarettes are allowed in the cabins

On 5/17/2020 at 10:19 AM, kazu said:

 

Huh??  Where is this coming from???  When was the last time you were on HAL?

No smoking on balconies or on most areas of the ship other than one by the sea view pool and in a smoking section in the casino of some of the ships.

We were actually on the Nieuw Statendam 2019 Spring transatlantic cruise.  The smoke from the casino on deck three could easily be smelled in the music venues on deck two.  The current HA smoking policy also still allows the use of e-cigarettes in the cabins. This is ridiculous since there have been many reports of e-cigarettes exploding and causing fires.

I am not sure what the new CEO should bring back but I wish he/she would revisit Holland America's smoking policy. We used to switch back and forth between cruises on HA and Celebrity Cruises but, being non-smokers, we generally have sailed only on Celebrity since Carnival Corp. turned HA into the cruise line for smokers.

On 3/13/2020 at 7:20 PM, godawgs227 said:

Based on the wording on the Celebrity website, FCC for the cruises that are impacted by Celebrity's decision to cancel those for at least the next 30 days would amount to 125% of the cruise cost. I cancelled the March 15 Silhouette cruise 2 days ago. Should I expect to receive 100% FCC under their Cruise With Confidence cancellation promotion or 125% FCC now that Celebrity has cancelled the cruise. I'm guessing 100% but hoping for 125%. 

We cancelled the Silhouette 3/27 sailing under the Cruise with Confidence offer before the actual cruise was cancelled.  We just received our FCC at the 100% amount. We were not offered the new 125% amount.  We still have not received a $232.52 credit back to our credit card for the port taxes and fees.

While thinking about the two ships, you might want to reconsider visiting Disney World in July. The temperatures would be in the nineties with high humidity and possibly daily rain and thunderstorms in the afternoons and evenings. Spring or Fall are much better times for Disney World.