**Get travel insurance, period. It covered our cruise, excursion through the cruise line and our airfare. We cancelled almost two months before the departure date and we only paid $900.00 of the $11,000. bill
** Disappointed in port options via the cruise line so for the first time booked through an online vendor. We booked 3/4 of our excursions through Viatour. I picked this site after going to Trip Advisor and reviewing comments from other travelers and Viatour's name kept coming up.
*** You pay for Viatour when you book, however, they have a cancellation policy. Check with them when you book
*** READ cruise guests comments on any ship excursion. Extremely valuable and it may give you the opportunity to think of other options.
***Bookings we made on some sites our charges were for a hold only. When I gave them all adequate notice of our cancellation we did not loose any money.
Other thoughts:
**Know the distance from the airport to your port. Know mileage and time. You do not want to book a flight only to find out that you could miss the flight based on distance. You all know disembarkation takes time, you cannot just walk off the ship when it docks.
**If you have booked a flight through your cruise line, once you make the final payment you are responsible for booking your seats. Get the confirmation numbers, get onto the airline website and book your seats. Remember many airlines are part of a larger airline, so read the fine print when it says this airline is associated with......
I have to say this is truly the first cruise I became more "detail" oriented, perhaps it comes with being a frequent cruiser. Just remember your agent has their important role but you are the one responsible for all of the finishing touches.
Patricia