Algebralovr

 

Sounds like all worked well for you and your family. Thanks for posting.

 

BTW, and Off Topic:

 

Do you REALLY love algebra? :confused: :D

Texed,

As a math teacher, I actually do enjoy algebra. Now, calculus... that is another story. ;) I'm much better at algebra!

I believe the 123GO gives you $200 in OBC. It will not get both of you the non-alcoholic package, sadly. At that point, you should consider what beverages you wish to drink, and which ones are not on the classic package. It may actually be more cost effective to either pay by the drink or take the classic package and upgrade.

That is really strange, and I would read the fine print. They are saying that if you cancel you owe more that the full cost?

What do you need out of insurance? To be made whole, emergency health care or more?

Still adorable!

We were on the Equinox last month, and noticed that they seemed to loan out the wheelchair for the entire cruise, as we saw someone using one at Ephesus!

However, and this is a big one, the ship chair only had small wheels in both front and back. This means it is more difficult to maneuver and a more bumpy ride. Not what I would recommend.

I noticed this because we had our DD in a WC that we had acquired just before leaving home. Her WC was much smoother and easier to maneuver. Additionally, we learned that a standard WC does not fit through the door of a standard cabin.

OP, I highly recommend that you make sure your parents are in an accessible cabin. Second, request transport assistance on and off the ship for both of your parents, since it can be steep and uneven. Third, rent a scooter for use by the parent who will need it most, if not two of them.

DD was treated beautifully by the staff and crew of the Equinox, but we were very glad she had her own chair. If she continues to need mobility help, we will be looking at a scooter.

 

We'll be on top of the weather reports and if need be, we could possibly (for a price!) change our flights to a day or two earlier. We are retired and our DH has two weeks vacation so it is doable.

 

It is beautiful weather right now but just thinking about it makes me worried.!

In many cases, the airlines will permit rescheduling of flights at no costs when the weather is predicted to close the airport during the time your flight is supposed to leave. You have to watch the weather forecast, watch the airline website, and be proactive in calling. They would rather put you on a flight out before the mess (if seats are available) than make you fly standby after the mess when they are trying to get planes and passengers where they need to be. If you are supposed to fly Saturday morning and the storm is predicted to hit overnight and dump 12 inches of snow, and you call on Thursday night or Friday morning while looking at their website showing lots of availability, be nice to the agent and ask for them to assist you in arriving on time for your annual vacation, and you can drop everything and fly when the agent can get you on the plane, you stand a good chance. The customer service agents would rather deal with a pleasant, proactive person than an angry, frustrated, sleep-deprived, stressed person.

OP,

This is why I suggested a conference call with you, your TA and Resolutions, as well as y I u sending an email to the contactmichael@celebrity.com address.

Your TA should have kept a record of the day and time she spoke with Celebrity. They need to go back to the recording and pull the log. I agree that it absolutely should not have taken them 2 weeks to amend your reservation, and when they did, it should have been at the rate when the call was made, not the rate at the time they got around to it.

Good luck.

To add to that, an inside guarantee is usually the least expensive room on the ship. The likelihood of the cruise line giving anything extra for the price paid for that room is very low.

LKN,

I recommend that you and your TA get on a conference call with the resolutions department. Also, email the contactmichael@celebrity.com email address with your situation.

Good luck.

I would say a state issued ID would be needed. Not all schools issue an ID with photo and info on them even today.

The passport card is a very reasonable price.

We fly out as early as we can get a non-stop the day before, but I start looking closely at the forecast a few days before. If they are predicting bad weather, they will often allow us to fly out early. We also have the ability to drive or amtrak to 3 or 4 other airports in order to get to Miami. If worst comes to worst, I'll drive.

You'll need a car, but we like the Hyatt Place Plantation. It runs under $170 per night, and has a Target, Publix, and a mall nearby. Parking is no charge. I usually look to see who will rent me a car for around $20-25 per day.

Is there an excursion for the Disney cruise that is intended for B2B guests? If so, you might ask if you can check your bags early and join it.

If not, get off Eclipse extra early, rent a car, and head to the beach until noon?

Failing that, a good book?

My travel agent uses Allianz, which recently received top ratings in a study, and I normally use Travelinsured through USAA. I haven't had a claim, though.

If you look on the travel insurance board, someone posted the link to the comparison.

We got a better price on an open jaw, where we embarked the ship in Venice and disembarked in Istanbul

Interesting note, ducklite.

I haven't seen anyone abuse it, but would not be surprised at all.

The flight I was on last night was quite full. The last person to board with a woman with a young child. Why they did not board between A and B like they could have, I can only guess. I suspect they were running behind for some reason.

Anyway, the FA at the front come on the intercom and asked the FA at the back to secure two seats together for the woman and child. To which she yelled out, they don't exist. At that point, just about everything was full, there were just a few middle seats remaining. I commented to the woman next to me, that the FA needed to do her job and bribe someone to move. Yes, bribe. Often, people will move to allow a parent and child to sit together in exchange for a couple of free drinks.

I have to say, if I'm going to be on a very long flight, I might be tempted to purchase an extra wanna - get-away ticket to have the extra room. If I'm willing to purchase it, they better let me keep the extra seat!

OP, I would also comment to whoever you speak with that when you booked, it was not made clear to you that you would have one dining room as you were booked in AQ, and the rest of the family would be in the other dinning room. The agent you spoke with needs some training.

Slider girl, I do not disagree with you. If a person doesn't not fit into the space between the armrests, they should purchase the additional seat they need in order to not spill over into someone else's space. It doesn't matter if they have a medical condition, they still need to fit into the space allocated to them. Even a petite person is entitled to the space in the seat they purchased.

If a larger person is traveling with a small child, maybe they can use some of that space, but that means the small child may not be buckled in as securely as they should be.

For example, I traveled on SW last night. There were a couple of families on the plane, one is the row across the aisle from me. Dad was next to the window, mom on the aisle, and a child about 2 in the middle. The fasten seat belt sign was on the entire trip and it was quite a bumpy 3 hour ride. The two year old was not in a child safety seat, though. As a result, he spent a good amount of time on the mom's lap. While I appreciated that she kept the child entertained and he didn't fuss, it was a bumpy ride! If dad and mom had been larger, I could see them not buying extra seats, figuring they would spill over into the child's seat, though.

In this case, the plane was not full. If it had been, however, and a customer o f size had sat next to me, spilled into my space, and I had complained, I wonder how the FA would have handled it?

The refund policy has changed over the last couple of years. It used to be that the customer of size only got a refund if the plane had an extra seat and they didn't need to actually book two seats.. Now they refund no matter what. They use it for planning purposes. The issue is that many of the larger people don't wish to tie up their funds on a second seat.

I appreciate all the assistance. I'm reading about different programs, and considering branching out from Southwest for my domestic flights. My thought for our next big trip is that I may try for one award seat (in a couple of years) and purchase the other seat. That should allow us to be on the same flight, but cut down on the cost as well.

I also appreciate the comments about the differences between the premium economy or similar on the different lines. It is definitely something to consider!

How many days in advance will you be flying in? While weather is definitely a consideration, there are pluses to flying from the home airport and pre-planning immigration. If you will have sufficient time to get south 2-3 days later, it might be a good gamble.

That said, are there other flights from Shannon to consider? Ones that fly closer to where you want to end up?

It shouldn't matter, but this summer it seems to. I had three rooms with 5 air tickets through Celebrity for our June 14 sailing, with June 10 flights. Our edocs didn't start becoming available until much later than expected. It even surprised my travel agent how late they were. It turned out that while I had ordered and paid for flights 6 months earlier, Choice Air didn't actually ticket our flights until 30 days out. That delayed our edocs and luggage tags.

Your situation may be different. That was my experience in May and June. Gets really annoying when everyone else on the roll call seems to have their edocs!

Since you bought air through the cruise line, it will slow down the edocs and luggage tags. I believe ours were issued about 21 and 25 days out. It started making me all kinds of nervous, but all fell together.

The non-alcoholic beverage packages are very reasonable. I think the premium one, which covers the frozen drinks as well, was about $20 per day including gratuities. It has been a while since I purchased, though.

The less expensive one doesn't include frozen drinks, and I think it was about $16 per day.

After a cup or two from the coffee shop, a can of Coke and 2-3 bottles of water a day, it more than paid for itself. Mom didn't originally want one, but was glad she had it. Sis bought one as soon as she tasted the coffee in the buffet.

We bought a few things in June on Equinox, although nothing quite so pricey - I think the most expensive item was a $30 bracelet. It was printed on the receipt all sales final.

My attitude is that if I want a piece of "junk jewelry" that catches my eye for a few $, no problem. If I want real gems, go to the local jewelry store that supports my community.