Before Booking Your Cruise - Ask these Questions

[lhbrown]

Hi

We recently decided to look for a cruise for next year. However, before you send in the deposit for your cruise, check out any of the following items, that are important to you, through your travel agent, the cruise line booking office or on the web.

Ports. Is the boat docked or are passengers tendered in by small boat? What conditions would not allow tendering into a scheduled port? What are the exact times and length of time you are in a port?

Motion. What kind of stabilizers or thrusters does the ship have to handle rough water?

Age. How old is the ship and/or when was it renovated?

History. Check links for safety, health (www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp & www.cdc.gov/travel ) and other issues (www.cruise2.com).

Cabins. What is the exact measurement of the room you are planning on securing - not the square footage.

Amenities. Does the room have a hair dryer, iron or other appliances?

Location. What is located above and below your room?

Attire. How many nights require jacket and tie, tuxedo, or costumes for theme nights?

Weather. Forecast at destinations for this time of year?

Food. What provisions are made for special diets?

Dining. Are there separate seatings, and at what time?

Insurance. Is trip cancellation and medical coverage including evacuation insurance available?

Transportation. What is the time of departure from US port? How long and what is the cost/provisions for getting to the ship from the airport?

Handicapped accessible. In public areas on board, and shore excursions?

Exercise. What and how many are the actual machines, facilities and class schedules that are offered?

Running. Is there an open deck to circle the ship?

Other passengers. Is this a spring break cruise with college students, a sales convention for a marketing group, families or seniors?

Medical staff. Is there a doctor on board?

[jctdlt]

I want to tell you about a situation I just had. Bid on a barge cruise and thought I had won and I got confirmation of my bid. The only problem is that the category they had listed was not available. I could have paid more and gotten an upgrade but this is not what I expected.



Solution: Be sure that on cruise vacations you call LuxuryLink before you bid and see if the room is actually available so you are not disappointed.

[shygirl724]

Hey Jctdlt,



Just to clarify, LL advertises packages that are available. They do not engage in "bait and switch" tactics. Some LL offers list a wide time range the trip is available (subject to availability, with any associated black out dates listed), others list specific dates. What you need to verify prior to bidding is if the room / package you want for ANY LL package is available for the dates you have in mind prior to bidding. All LL packages are subject to availability, unless specific dates are listed.



We bid on a LL Uniworld trip last January. I called LL and verified that the dates I had in mindfor the package were available. We bid for vacations at work in January each year by seniority, so making sure the tripwas available on the dates I needed wasextremely important to me. LL was very helpful and we happily took the trip this past month.



Shy ~

[jctdlt]

You are correct. We had bid on other packages and there was never a question of whether it was available. I was just telling other people that be sure to check if you are bidding on cruises. It was a disappointment that was we were bidding on was not available unless you paid extra money. I know now this and will call before bidding.

[bonniejoy03]

Hi J. Just out of curiosity: What are you going to do with the package that you bid on and won but not able to use?

[jctdlt]

Just said no thank you.....

[travel2fun]

OK, sounds like No Harm - No Foul.