Pour yourself a cup of coffee and pull up a chair; our forced holiday is over and we are about to return to the Pacific Princess when it continues with its Mediterranean itineraries on October 28 in the port for Rome, Civitavecchia.
As for what we did last week, it was laundry and re-packing and doing what-if travel planning, punctuated by a few trips to the grocery store, and some very simple, miminal ingredient cooking (doctored jarred spaghetti sauce and chili) since the cupboards were bare. But mostly it was keeping very odd hours and suffering from Princess Induced Stress (which we shortened to PIS and then made into a verb that I won't include here because my mom is reading this!). In the end, Princess is doing exactly the right thing (I want to give full credit where it is due), and we are grateful, but getting to that point was neither easy nor fun. It's been a real learning experience, and let me share with you a couple of educational points we've picked up along the way:
We really thought that since we had seven back to back cruises booked on one ship, had used Princess EZ Air to travel to Venice, Princess transfers and Princess Vacation Protection (PVP), we should be immune to any financial penalties related to the early termination of one cruise and the cancellation of the next cruise. It seemed pretty straightforward to us; just get us back to the ship where we were before the Pacific Princess incident occurred. In the end, it was anything but.
We will be submitting some expenses directly to Princess (hotel in Nice for a second night, meals, taxi, Uber to home and phone calls) that I expect will be reimbursed, because we all received a letter stating that fact before we quickly disembarked the ship in Nice. But those extraneous expenses related to our return to the Pacific Princess (seat selection costs and transfer from the hotel in Rome to the ship in Civitavecchia) I am unclear about. At this point we've paid quite a bit out of pocket and all this clean up should keep me busy during the month of January. And so on.
Yes!!!!!! It's all worked out; we just have to endure another long night of travel to get us back on track. In the end, we missed only one port (Sarande, Albania) that we won't pick up on the next four cruises. There is no place I don't want to visit at least once, but since Albania wasn't even on our original itineraries, but was instead a substitute for Kusdasi, Turkey, it's hard to be disconsolate.
We will be spending three nights in Rome near Vatican City prior to going to Civitavecchia Friday morning to embark the Pacific Princess. All along- well, at least after we had been home for three days and semi-recovered from the flight- we had in mind that if Princess confirmed the Pacific Princess would be available for its October 28 sailing, we would fly to Rome a couple of days early, provided we had enough notice. If the ship wasn't going to be ready until the November 9 sailing, we would fly to Venice 3 or 4 nights early. Either way, we were going to make up for some lost time by doing some pre-cruise sightseeing.
We will be spending three nights in Rome near Vatican City prior to going to Civitavecchia Friday morning to embark the Pacific Princess. All along- well, at least after we had been home for three days and semi-recovered from the flight- we had in mind that if Princess confirmed the Pacific Princess would be available for its October 28 sailing, we would fly to Rome a couple of days early, provided we had enough notice. If the ship wasn't going to be ready until the November 9 sailing, we would fly to Venice 3 or 4 nights early. Either way, we were going to make up for some lost time by doing some pre-cruise sightseeing.
Although we talked about all sorts of other things we might do before the end of the year, we never seriously considered any other options but returning to the Pacific Princess when it resumed its Mediterranean cruises. We had counted on them for so many months that, had we not been able to return, this year's cruising season might have been just 10 nights long.
But this will be another GPS-worthy post as I catch you up with what's happened in the past week. Actually, I should back up to that first night in Nice and something that just typifies my life. Coming back from dinner after dark in the rain, I slipped and went down hard as I walked up a slick, tiled handicap ramp to the Hotel West End. Just as in South America, these resort areas love covering everything in tile, and not rough tile but slick tiles that become skating rinks in the rain. No injuries, but torn pants and bruised hands and knees and ego, and a week-long achiness. Things were not going well, and the evening wasn't over yet.
I've already talked about the phone calls to Princess from Nice. No need to dwell on them but they did not improve things.
I've also mentioned that I received a phone call from my nephew about 3am Nice time. My brother had fallen from a high ladder and was being airlifted to a Level 1 trauma center. It was a short phone call- I had been asleep for only 10 minutes and was groggy and my nephew was driving to the hospital and couldn't talk- but he promised to stay in touch. I hung up from that call and my mind was racing. There was no going back to sleep after that! And though I was concerned, I knew that my brother was where he needed to be, so I instead began worrying about my mom. Did someone take her to the hospital or was she sitting at home worried sick? I couldn't turn off that image, so I phoned her about 4am Nice time (10pm her time) using that darn awful WiFi and Vonage (For free! Get the app!!). The connection was very sketchy, but I too quickly learned that she had known nothing about it, and certainly got excited when I told her. Damn! Played that one wrong! Figuring she hadn't been told because no one had wanted her to worry, I felt like a beast for calling her.
What I didn't know is that I left her thinking it was my nephew who had been airlifted, thanks to our phone connection that kept cutting in and out. So after we hung up, she phoned the hospital asking about my nephew and not my brother and...well, you can imagine how that mix up played out. Meanwhile, I was feeling awful and texted my nephew to confess my sin and apologize for messing things up.
Keep in mind that this day started at 6:30am when the Pacific Princess hit the breakwater. That was one terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (credit to Judith Viorst)!!!
Well, as it turned out, not knowing I was in Europe, my nephew actually had wanted me to call Mom (he didn't have her new phone number saved in his phone and figured I'd have everyone's numbers, which I do); my brother is now home from the hospital and resting...well, not comfortably but as comfortably as possible when one takes a 12 foot fall (especially considering he is so much older than I am ;-)); my very minor bumps and bruises have nearly healed; and Mom put in some serious rosary time this week making it all come together. Quoting Nietzsche, "that which does not kill us makes us stronger", and we are all a bit stronger after that day.
I've spoken before about our best-in-the-world neighbors. Just to prove how much they are on top of things while we are gone, we hadn't been home for 20 minutes last Sunday night when I was already asleep and G was just finishing up a few things before he went to bed. Our next door neighbor, letting her dog out, saw lights on in our house. Curious, she looked closer and saw a hand (G's) through the window. She immediately called the neighbor on the other side, who also didn't expect us home. And since her husband was out of town, she started imagining noises in her own house.
20 minutes. It took just 20 minutes for us to stir things up. Do we worry about our house when we're away? Nah, we have our own personal security force on duty all the time. A quick call cleared things up, but we felt bad for not spreading the news of our impending arrival. I think we both thought the other had. By Monday afternoon, friends had returned laptops and keys and delivered mail and generally commiserated with us over what had happened to get us home 78 days early. And we thank them very much!
As for what we did last week, it was laundry and re-packing and doing what-if travel planning, punctuated by a few trips to the grocery store, and some very simple, miminal ingredient cooking (doctored jarred spaghetti sauce and chili) since the cupboards were bare. But mostly it was keeping very odd hours and suffering from Princess Induced Stress (which we shortened to PIS and then made into a verb that I won't include here because my mom is reading this!). In the end, Princess is doing exactly the right thing (I want to give full credit where it is due), and we are grateful, but getting to that point was neither easy nor fun. It's been a real learning experience, and let me share with you a couple of educational points we've picked up along the way:
We really thought that since we had seven back to back cruises booked on one ship, had used Princess EZ Air to travel to Venice, Princess transfers and Princess Vacation Protection (PVP), we should be immune to any financial penalties related to the early termination of one cruise and the cancellation of the next cruise. It seemed pretty straightforward to us; just get us back to the ship where we were before the Pacific Princess incident occurred. In the end, it was anything but.
For those questioning our use of PVP insurance, third party insurance companies do not offer full insurance packages (trip cancellation and interruption, medical, etc.) for three months. By linking together several Princess cruises, we are able to insure ourselves for the entire length of our trip. Health insurance overseas (perceived to be a weak point of PVP) is not an issue for us; because of our existing excellent health coverages we are more interested in the trip cancellation, interruption and (mostly) the cancel for any reason portions of travel insurance. And thankfully we did have PVP with its cancel for any reason coverage, because we were told that if we did not return to the Pacific Princess, we would be charged cancellation fees up to 100% of all remaining cruises.
However, as we discovered, PVP makes no guarantees about what will be covered except in certain instances...and their stated policy makes no reference to our specific situation. Trip delay? Sure. Trip cancellation due to a stated covered reason? Of course. Costs related to returning to a cruise for which one was already supposed to be on the ship and therefore had not previously purchased air? Um...maybe, maybe not. We've been advised only to submit those expenses for consideration.
However, as we discovered, PVP makes no guarantees about what will be covered except in certain instances...and their stated policy makes no reference to our specific situation. Trip delay? Sure. Trip cancellation due to a stated covered reason? Of course. Costs related to returning to a cruise for which one was already supposed to be on the ship and therefore had not previously purchased air? Um...maybe, maybe not. We've been advised only to submit those expenses for consideration.
We will be submitting some expenses directly to Princess (hotel in Nice for a second night, meals, taxi, Uber to home and phone calls) that I expect will be reimbursed, because we all received a letter stating that fact before we quickly disembarked the ship in Nice. But those extraneous expenses related to our return to the Pacific Princess (seat selection costs and transfer from the hotel in Rome to the ship in Civitavecchia) I am unclear about. At this point we've paid quite a bit out of pocket and all this clean up should keep me busy during the month of January. And so on.
Another point I had previously read on Cruise Critic (made by poster CherylandTK who knows everything about everything when it comes to these small details) but had conveniently forgotten: If one pays for a cruise, either in total or in part, by using a Princess Vacation Protection travel credit from a prior insurance claim, and then something happens on that cruise that generates a refund (as was the case in our first cruise), the basis for any refund given by Princess excludes the amount paid by the credit. We were reminded of this the hard way. So if a cruise is paid in full with a travel credit and then that cruise is subsequently cancelled by Princess and a 100% refund is given as a result, nothing would be credited back. There isn't even a replacement travel credit provided. It's simply lost. This makes the Goodwill credits that Princess issues (in our case, it was 100% of both the terminated and cancelled cruises) seem a little less valuable. If they get applied to cruises that subsequently get cancelled or terminated, no credit would be received.
You might think that that kind of thing rarely happens, but I can assure you that if it happens to you just once, it's in the back of your mind all the time. While not probable, it's certainly possible.
And, finally, when a cruise is cancelled by the cruise line, the cost of PVP is not refunded. This one actually makes sense to me. If third party insurance had been purchased, its cost would not be refunded because Princess cancelled a cruise. Many people had already arrived in Barcelona when the cancellation occurred, and will have a claim associated with airfare changes to return home. If the insurance was cancelled, they would lose the ability to file claims related to the cruise cancellation. But since the cost of PVP is around 6-8% of the cruise cost, it is not an insignificant amount of money.
So, feeling reluctantly wiser and considerably more travel-weary, we are winging our way back to Europe on the exact same flight we took three weeks ago at the start of our adventure. I felt a cold coming on while on the flight home from Nice and it hung over my week at home but at least I am through it. Unfortunately, I didn't share it with G quite quickly enough, and he is not going to be at his best during our stay in Rome. For that reason, we have simply moved the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica tickets we had bought online several weeks ago from October 28 (which was to have been a turnaround day on the Pacific Princess) to October 26. Reading the fine print on our Vatican ticket voucher after we returned home revealed that we could make a schedule change one time, so we waited until Princess committed to the October 28 cruise before rescheduling.
We have not committed to any other tours during our days in Rome; I thought it might be best to see how we feel after another long flight and time change (our body clocks are a real mess right now) and just do some sightseeing at a more casual pace. Tentative plans include one day at the Vatican and one day at the Colleseum and Roman Forum areas, but we really haven't had time to plan in more detail than that. This entire pre-cruise flight and Rome stay has been pulled together in less than 72 hours.
While we wished every minute that we were still in Europe (especially after receiving word about the Pacific Princess being repaired in time for the October 28 cruise), we were not unhappy to be home. For the first time, I could upload photos to my blog before I had 100 days worth. Much easier! We received our mail in ballots while we were home, and so we could vote after all (there had been a LOT of discussion earlier in the summer about our willingness to miss that opportunity because we left on October 3). Though I didn't make the 90 minute drive each way to watch the boys play in three basketball games on Saturday, I was able to get up-to-the-minute updates (they won all three!!!). Not wanting to spread my cold, I stayed in touch with them electronically. And I enjoyed a lot of college and pro football games the past two days. There's always a bright side.
Unsurprisingly, since I didn't pack a lot of clothing to begin with, I had already in twelve days worn everything I had taken at least once except for one pair of the shorts and one tropical shirt I had included for our Caribbean cruise. I am returning with the same things clean and neatly packed in the suitcase (substituting a different pair of slacks for one with holy knees), though with a sightly smaller amount of toiletries. We will still be gone almost 2 1/2 months so this trip, while shorter, is not short. While I was home, I did some tailoring of G's new tuxedo shirt (he decided after he wore it twice that it wasn't juuuuuuussssstttt right) and repaired a Velcro strip that was lifting up on the 15-year-old rain jacket I wore more than anything else on our first cruise. They just don't make things like they used to! ;-)
We lived with certain things the way they were when we came home for the entire week. Most lamps and all but one TV remained unplugged, the gas fireplace remained turned off and we wound our way around the deck furniture in the family room, but finally pushed it back enough to put our feet up on an ottoman. Just one outdoor faucet was turned on to do some hand watering and we ignored the leaves piling up around the house the best we could (feeling puny from the colds helped). Still, today we- and this time I really do mean we...on our return, G decided it was time to show me how- had to disconnect the car batteries and take the insurance back off the cars (our insurance agent is the epitome of patience) and unplug the refrigerator and go through the same list of to-do's, albeit a shortened one, that we do every time we leave for our long cruises.
Let's hope it sticks this time!
We were prepared to Uber back to the airport but Martha insisted again on taking us, and we hadn't seen her since we'd gotten home because she was out of town, so we used the opportunity to get caught up. I remember telling G last Sunday that nothing could get me on a plane back to Europe for at least three weeks but time is a great eraser of bad memories, making room for the good ones to stay at the forefront. Eight days after we returned home, I am willing to tolerate another overnight flight...'cause I'm going on a cruise!
Life is sometimes challenging but mostly it is good. :-)