Two weeks ago, I told you about Bonnie and me spending time at Harrah’s Cherokee prior to a two-week European cruise. This is a continuation of that narrative. Those of you wanting a lot of video poker information from me, come back in two weeks.
Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) offers a lot of incentives to entice passengers. Those offers vary over time and the one I’m discussing now may or may not be in effect at any time in the future. One of the incentives is 70% off airfare for the second passenger. With this incentive, you pay full retail only for the first passenger, but have little or no choice of which airlines they book you on. Still, it was the cheapest way for us to get back and forth to Athens from Atlanta, which is the closest major airport to Cherokee.
It was a Delta flight, which was perfectly okay, but they flew us into Athens one day early. That is, for a cruise that sailed at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, we arrived in Athens at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. Okay. We found a place to stay with free airport shuttle. Advertised as a “Luxury Suite” with free WiFi and Netflix, it sounded perfectly acceptable. Turned out to be two stories, with the mini-bathroom and “minier”-kitchen downstairs and the bed-and-only-television bedroom upstairs. The stairway was steep, with no railings. Not the best choice for two mobility-challenged senior citizens.
The closest restaurant was more than a mile away, but there was a supermarket a quarter mile away. The supermarket wasn’t so super, but we found enough for our Saturday night meal. We arranged for an early trip back to the airport and figured we could get breakfast there. Plus, we were about to embark on a two-week all-you-can-eat excursion and skipping a meal beforehand wouldn’t hurt us.
Without going into explicit detail, I had an extremely painful gastrointestinal issue Saturday night and the problem remained several very unpleasant hours later. I decided a visit to the ER was mandatory. If we missed the first week of the cruise, we’d just get a place to stay in Athens until next week and pick up the second week of our planned cruise. But if I needed hospitalization, it had to be better to not to be air-lifted somewhere from the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.
Using the Internet to find a nearby hospital with a 24-hour ER, we used our UBER app, which sent a taxi. At least the UBER app let us pay with a credit card since I failed to redeem dollars for euros at the airport. The hospital wanted to see my passport but was uninterested in looking at my insurance cards. If I had to pay for this medical visit, my credit card could probably cover it, but not being able to use insurance to help defray the expense was daunting. Some hospitalizations turn out to be VERY expensive.
By the time I got through the check-in process and was in the ER area, it was 7 a.m. on Sunday. I was the only patient, which meant I wasn’t going to have to wait. I asked to use the restroom. There were two toilets, neither of them with seats. The sink to wash up afterwards had water, but neither soap nor towels were available.
When I saw the doctor, who spoke excellent English, fortunately, I mentioned the situation in the restroom and she responded, “Welcome to Greece.” To say I was a bit uneasy would be a gross understatement. After X-rays, she prescribed an enema. They used a bottle that looks like what is called a Fleet Enema back home, but whatever was inside that bottle burned and I suspect was much stronger than what we get in the United States.
It worked, and my problem was solved, at least for the moment. I was released by 9:00 a.m. The doctor included three additional bottles of the super-strong enema and told me there was no reason we couldn’t make the cruise.
At checkout, I tried again to give them my insurance information, but they still weren’t interested. They just wanted my passport and my credit card. Fifteen minutes later, both were returned to me, and I was free to go. Turns out there was no charge for the medical treatment. Welcome to Greece!
I was asked when I first got to the hospital if I had come directly from the airport. I told them no. We had arrived the previous morning, spent the night in a hotel, and suffered the medical setback while in Greece. At the time I didn’t know why they were asking me that. Now I think they were checking to see if I qualified for free medical treatment or not. They didn’t allow people from other countries to fly in and take advantage of their medical system.
I used my UBER app to get us a cab and we were at the port by 10:30 — too early to get on the ship. But we were there — exhausted. Our staterooms wouldn’t be open until 2 p.m., but there was lots to do before we could lie down.
First, we went to Guest Services to order a scooter. While the NCL Jade isn’t one of the bigger ships, it’s still plenty big, holding up to 2,400 passengers. The price of the scooter was dependent on how long the cruise was. I argued that I should get the two-week price ($325) rather than the one-week price ($205) twice. I was told that this wasn’t possible. I asked to speak with the supervisor, and I was told to take a nearby seat and they would get back to me. I marshalled my arguments for when I spoke to the supervisor. After all, I was Diamond level and Bonnie was Sapphire on NCL, which are different levels of the tier that used to be called Platinum Plus. I was ready to explain the distance from Las Vegas to Athens (never mind we actually started from Atlanta this trip, not Las Vegas), and that signing up for balcony suites for two weeks in a row wasn’t cheap (never mind we get highly discounted prices because we’re both Seven Stars at Caesars). I never got to make my arguments. Fifteen minutes later, the Guest Services attendant came riding up in a scooter — telling me my request had been granted.
Very good. Next step was the Cruise Next desk. While this is not a necessary step for lower-tier passengers, it was for us. It was there you went to sign for the free ship’s tour (Bonnie only. My joints wouldn’t allow me to go up and down that many stairs), officer’s dinner, and to find out what night the Cruise Next party was. While this party isn’t a big deal (it’s actually a sales event where if you pay $125 now you get a certificate that can be used for $250 on future NCL cruises within the next four years), it includes live music we can dance to and a few other things. At a minimum, we didn’t want to make a dinner reservation that conflicted with the party.
Then it was off to make dinner reservations. Although there are free dining options on the ship, we received four specialty dinners-for-two. Two of those were a tier-level benefit and two were due to an “Ultimate Dining Package” promotion. If you make your reservations early on embarkation day, you have far greater choices of days and times.
Some of the larger NCL ships also have entertainment options for which you need to make reservations. There weren’t any on this ship, but if there were, we’d have made those the first day as well — taking care not to conflict dinner times with show times.
Finally, it was time to eat at the buffet. It was very crowded, as the cabins weren’t open yet, but we found two seats and had some food.
By the time we were finished, the cabins still weren’t open, but we went to ours anyway. With me in a scooter and Bonnie in a walker, we told all room stewards in the area that I had to lie down immediately whether it was officially allowed or not. Nobody stopped us.
It was a struggle to get to this point, but we were onboard and ready for a cruise — after a nap.
This is actually very interesting to me, as I was recently diagnosed with a disk issue and, after running a couple of miles regularly for 50 years, I am reduced to “using a cane” status. So all of the scooter and walker references kind of make me feel okay to be bopping around with a cane for awhile. I’m keenly aware of distances, stairs, and how much tromping around can take out of you when you’re taking baby steps. My antennae are up for all the examples and references. It is weird to go from one of the fastest walkers in the casino, no matter my age, to planning routes and priorities based on steps and pain tolerance.
Kudos to doing what you’re doing!
Hi Bob,
I just took a Cruise (Caribbean Princess) and played Bonus Poker on the ship. Here’s what’s unbelievable… The Bonus Poker machine paid 10/8. A straight paid 5, Three of a kind paid 3. Two Pair and Jacks or better paid 1. The only catch is, to get full pay on a Royal, you had to play 10 coins. It was a Progressive so 10 quarters and a Royal paid $2314.89
I’ve played a lot of VP and have never seen a 10/8 Bonus Poker machine. If there is another “catch” I believe it would be that if you only play 5 coins, the Royal paid 1500 quarters. I suspect most players just blindly play 5 coins and don’t know they are getting screwed.
I played 10 quarters and just considered it to be a 50 cent machine ($2.50 per deal).
Have you ever heard of something like this? When I saw the 10/8 I actually thought of you.
Thanks much,
Don
[email protected]
When you say 10/8 Bonus Poker, I’m assuming that 4 aces pays 80, 4 2-4 pays 50 and other quads pay 25. With 2 pair paying even money, this is about a 94% game. Not such a good find.