AlanCruise

Also you need to have a mobile phone to receive the result of your covid test - which comes as a text.

For those who cant read the attachement on the original post, I think the issue is that you have to be logged in to Cruise Critic. I couldn' read initially, then logged in and it was OK.

Regarding the amounts of on board Credit shown on the web site, the first amount (£50 in your example) is per PERSON and is what you can swap for Coach Travel or Free Parking.

The £130 is per CABIN and is an amount they can vary and includes the £50 - if you select the Coach or Parking option then the amount per cabin will be reduced - in this case to £30 per cabin (£130 minus  two  times £50)

Having just managed to get the Confirmation of Cover letter for a Nationwide travel insurance, the process is to use the  Nationwide link, scroll down to the "Make a claim online" Section where there is a link to "UK Insurance Portal"

If you haven't already created an account on the portal you can do so using the Nationwide account details. Then under the "My Policy" tab select "Cover" - on this page there is a link for "Confirmation of Cover Document" which gives a personalised letter as confirmation of cover.

It has a section saying that it "will provide cover for emergency medical and repatriation costs up to £10,000,000 when you are travelling on a UK cruise that departs in 2021 (for a minimum of two nights)"

You should be able to fill it in on a computer if you open the PDF file using "Adobe Acrobat Reader DC" - which you can download for free. It can be difficult to fill it in if your computer opens it using your web  browser by default.

After a couple of attempts I got a response from P&O which almost explains it!

The £40 is the standard offer for that grade of cabin (the amount varies slightly with cabin type i.e. less for an inside). This is the amount that you can swap for free parking or coach travel.

The extra offer is such that if you take the £40 as credit you will get a total of £150 per cabin - this extra may vary. So maximum total for this example is the £150 per cabin.

If you play with the web site and opt for free parking or coach then the credit per cabin reduces by £80 (twice £40) to £70

I am confused whilst looking at bookings on the P&O web site about the amount of on-board spending money available. During the process two different amounts seem to be stated. Can anyone explain what I am missing?

This seems to happen for all cruises I look at, but for example for G139 (Northern Europe in December) at the page where you can select Saver or Select Price it states that (for a Balcony) you can enjoy £40 per person on-board spend.  If I proceed to select a cabin it then says £150 per cabin

I am on the Jan 2022 Antartic Cruise and recently emailed Hurtigruten to ask about flight bookings (From the UK the cruise fare includes flights from London to Santiago at the moment)

Response was an updated invoice showing BA flights with one day before and after the cruise in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Santiago and all transfers.

They also stated that we can request a  change to the flights  up to about 2 months before the cruise, for example to add a couple more days in Santiago before the cruise.

The only issue at the moment is that there is no direct Santiago flight to Heathrow for the return as BA are not scheduling the route every day - but this may change by next year. So the current flight booking is with LATAM from Santiago to Sao Paulo, Brazil and then the BA flight to London

As I put on a previous post, this TV program shows this particular cruise. And yes you do land on those zodiacs.  We are booked for Jan 2022.

Quest TV in the UK last night broadcast a documentary in the Mighty Cruise Ship series on the Roald Amundsen antarctic cruise, presumably filmed about a year ago.  This shows the trip from Punta Arenas to Antarctica and the Falklands.

Available on the Discovery Plus web site free of charge

Bookings on the UK website seem to be available again now.

When comparing prices remember that Tui/Marella include the standard drinks package. We have found that there is no need to buy the premium package. It is only really worth it if you want specific brands that are not in the standard package (or the Lavazza coffee). You can always pay a supplement for each drink if you occassionaly want the premium offers.

The Antarctic Expedition Cruises include House Beer, wine and sodas with meals as standard, I have not found any reference to an optional drinks package in addition to this.

A posting in one of the Forums shows bar prices from Jan 2018 (For the Norwegian coastal trips) with beer at about 75NKR and wine from about 100NKR a glass.  Currently about 7NKR to Canadian Dollar or 12 to GBP.  Norwegian prices are high!

For anyone who is considering a private visit using a taxi, note that the entrance price for Petra is about £55 if you are staying a night in Jordan (not sure if ship counts) and £95 if you aren't staying. This is part of the reason trip costs are high.

It's also a long way!

The only online check in is for the flight.

It's not quite the same (at least it wasn't two years ago).  Your bags are taken straight to the ship, but  (unlike Barbados where the coaches came to the plane) you have to enter the terminal building. Cruise passengers then get diverted down a separate corridor where your passport forms are checked and you then go out a side entrance to the coaches.

As others have said the forms are difficult to get right, sometimes they are given out on the plane and sometimes at the airport.

We did cruise in this area a couple of years ago, panama, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Cancun.
No checks were made for any vaccinations and we did not have Yellow Fever vaccination.
There is a difference between vaccinations that are required and ones that are recommended, also note that Yellow Fever is often not recommended if you are over 60 - you can get an exemption certificate.

We were on this flight recently and found that nearly all the seats were prebooked. We did not pay and at the 7 day point when TUI passengers can check in we were not able to (apparently not available once 80% of seats checked in ) and had to check in at the airport. We got two seats (for adults ) separated by several rows. The remaining seats are likely to be aisle seats, as nearly all the passengers are couples when travelling to a cruise.

As your phone connects to each network/country you normally get a text giving you all the prices. I was there last week.

If you leave your phone on (with Data Roaming disabled!) then it will always receive texts free of charge, even if connected to the ships satellite system. We have used this as a method for someone to contact us if needed. And as the previous reply says sending a text is quite cheap.

In some caribbean islands your home package may be available - depending on your network.

But be aware that if you answer a call the charge may be significant and some networks charge you if someone leaves a message.

Also be aware that if the phone connects to the satellite system it may reset to GMT time - makes a mess of any alarms you have set for the morning.

You won't be asked for the printed ticket, when you get to the ship they will just ask you for your name and give you your ship card and then take a photo of you to put on the system. But always a good idea to have access to a copy so that if there is a problem you can show what you booked.

They should tag your bag with your cabin number at the check in at the UK airport.

On arrival in Jamaica on the way out you go into the terminal building but cruise passengers are then diverted before baggage claim and have passports checked in a corridor before going out a door to the coaches.

And on the return the bag is taken from outside your cabin during the night before you leave and taken straight to the plane, no need to check it in at the airport.

For TUI / Marella this seems to apply at Caribean destinations and Dubrovnic.

The space that used to be the cinema is now a set of balcony cabins, located behind where destination services is now located. The previous Thomson Spirit ship, which was basically the same as Celebration, still had the cinema in that location (before it was scrapped!)

The only P&O cruise that seems to go to St Thomas (US Virgin Islands)  is N101on 3 Jan 2021 - and that goes to lots of other US ports as well. That one will require an ESTA.

The other caribean cruises only go to Tortola which as stated before is British Virgin Islands.

Looking at Google maps for Bayonne it is about 5 miles from the cruise terminal to the ferry. Information about the Cruise Terminal (http://www.cruiseliberty.com/passenger_info.html#parking ) says that you cannot walk through the port to the terminal, will need a taxi if you don't have a car!  Even if you plan to use public transport you have to start with a taxi.

Looking up taxi fares it is about $25 to the ferry terminal  and about $50 to go to Mahatten - and the ferry fare is $13 single.

So may be better to just get the taxi?

But apart from this Do it Yourself in Manhatten seems a good idea.