Join me for another LIVE CRUISE Q&A HOUR where you can ask and have all your cruising questions answered live on Saturday 6 August 2022 (5pm UK / 12 Noon EST/ 9am PST). This is the 70th livestream cruise question and answer session, and I hope you can join me and look forward to your questions
#CruiseLive #cruiseQ&A #CruiseLivestream #cruisetips
24 Comments
11am pst is this still live?
Great video as always. Lisa
As usual, great video.
If you're looking for intensive nature cruises like Madagascar – you have to look at the very expensive expedition cruise ships. Don't know any that have a Madagascar itinerary now but they have in the past. I'm talking about Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic, Ponant, Quark, Uncruise, etc. There are also companies that do both land tours and cruises and lease ships as necessary like Miru Adventures, etc. Warning: super expensive!!!
Having done 2, I would absolutely never do another 3 night cruise. In fact, the ones I did were, in one case a B2B 4+3 and the second was totally free. The crowd on a 3 night is very different than even a 4 night, and not in a good way. My experience was either very entitled people trying out the ship or cruising in general, trying to do "everything" in what amounts to 2 1/2 days–impossible–or they were on board for a drunken party. Not my group.
In the US, the insurance offered by the cruise lines is usually very limited. The cost is a percentage of the cruise fare, usually in the 7-10% range. Private travel insurance is based on the age of the traveler and the dollar amount of insurance you are purchasing. Because of the age, it may cost more or less than that thru the cruise line. Most private insurances will cover pre-existing conditions at no additional charge IF purchased within 14 or 21 days of the initial travel booking. After that, there is an additional fee to add pre-existing coverage. It does vary with the company. My TA always suggests we go one notch up from the lowest policy from the company they recommend…for about $5 more, we get a lot more coverage that way. My biggest concern is medical coverage as my health insurance doesn't cover me outside of the US….and one illness or injury that requires hospitalization can be huge. Fortunately, in over 40 cruises, we've made 2 small claims which were handled promptly and fully. One was a trip to the medical center, the other was that the ship couldn't dock due to weather, so we couldn't board for our embarkation. The cruise line paid for our hotel, but we had some expenses for food, etc.
n Alaska, I would recommend Princess. I've done both Princess and Celebrity in Alaska. Celebrity had the better food and some better ship features, but Alaska is about wildlife and scenery, and Princess was better for that. Glacier Bay should be on your itinerary. The ships have it booked in advance, so you should be able to look and see whether it is scheduled for the cruise you are considering. It is not a port; it is a day of cruising in the bay…but it often shows up in the same way a port would. And like any port, stuff can happen and it can be canceled; this would usually be due to a weather related issue where the park service was denying entrance for safety reasons. They do the same basic ports with minimal variation (some stop at Victoria, some don't) so port choice is not a huge issue. Also, going out of Vancouver will allow you to get farther north and potentially see more, but it also means you'll need to meet Canadian health rules.
Thx Gary, interesting. Yes insurance is a very complicated topic. I was a Travel Agent for 30 years, and the part I hated the most, was talking about insurance. We were given extensive training, but I was always phoning the insurance company for clarification.
Hi Gary ~ once again delightful & informative! You are soooooo close to 300K ~ very exciting!!😃 I’ve hit the “notification” alert for your next Q&A.✔️
Sorry to have missed the live earlier today! Glad to hear Mark enjoyed being on with you last week. It was great to hear from him, and we look forward to seeing more of the two of you together!
hi and great show! my question is that it has been over 3 years since cruising and just what is the process of Negative PCR and where can we get this done? any help is appreciated, again great program. going on diamond princess, out of san diego.
Great video. I’m going on Prima for the first 3 cruise open to the General Public. Do you have any plans to go on the Prima.
Could you do a video on how you stay healthy on a cruise? On many of our cruises one or both of us end up with a cough or a head cold. Masking seems to stop much of passengers coughing in the theaters. Much thanks.
Cunard Elizabeth last week was well staffed.
I enjoyed my recent Alaska cruise on HAL Eurodam!
Nice to hear he has opened up to being live!
For New York, go to Junior’s and get a cheesecake. I normally go to the one at 1515 Broadway. The coffee there is excellent too.
Hi from Kishor Pancholi. I have done few cruises like Prencess Cruise, Merella and Fred Olsen. Me and wife are vegetarian, we have found that the main restaurant chef is not very creative in preparing manure for the vegetarian. Hever even in the buffy restaurant chef are equally not very creative in preparing vegetarian choices. At the time of booking, we have always been assured that we will not be disappointed.
Missed the live, here for the rerun. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I wish I could have watched live and Commented. I don't know if people that ask questions go back and look at these comments. Regarding cruises to somewhere like Madagascar, easy to find on vacationstogo. Just plus in the location! Looked and saw many more than expected. Ponant and silversea have the most, but also larger ships such as MSC, Holland america,, Norwegian and Oceania.
I have an 18 day may cruise next may from Lisbon to Nice. The weather will probably be a mixed bag but look forward to lower crowds.
Regarding German river cruises. When I was on uniworld in June there were arosa ships with us each day. I don't think you can expect it to be quite the same as those that cater to Americans. Morgan from unofficialtravel just posted on a recent cruise he went on. At the beginning they asked if there was anyone who DIDN'T speak German at all. There wasn't, so the crew spoke German. It appeared that they would repeat or give separate info to English speakers if there were any.
We did a Princess Japan cruise with a focus on 4 Summer Festivals . It was amazing . Probably my favourite cruise .
Was watching an Alaska replay when I noticed you were live…hello from Florida USA
Just realized that I have just watched half of live and half of vlog and now I’m just watching replays