ringers0815

B2B cruises: 1. Northern Europe in August on the Enchanted Princess 2. TA in Sept on the Enchanted Princess

Thank you for your reply.

Are taxis readily available at Yokohama's Daikoku cruise pier or do we need to pre-book a transfer? We are going to a hotel in Yokohama and all the private transfers seem to be for hotels in Tokyo.

Loved your live review. Wishing you a safe trip home and a wonderful holiday season.

You might want to see if you can get the tylenol or paracetamol from the ship's doctor. There have been cases of contaminated paracetamol in Africa recently. I think it was only children's liquid paracetamol that was affected but it may be best not to take any chances.

We spent 5 days in Dubai on our first visit and saw most of the "main" sites but not all. As Ken said, you could easily spend a week there. That would give you time to either do a day trip to Abu Dhabi (where you can visit a spectacular Mosque) or spend a day in the desert. Some of the must see sites include the Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab, Dubai fountain, Dubai Creek, Souk Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai spice souk, Dubai museum, Dubai mall, and many beaches and walks along beaches.

My first 2 vaccines were AZ (covishield then Astra Zeneca). I have had 3 boosters since (a mix of pfizer and moderna). I have flown to the US and Europe and taken a couple of cruises with no problem. The CDC recognizes vaccines approved by the WHO and AZ is on the WHO list.

Oh that is too bad. But you should get your refund faster I think. I cancelled a cruise a few weeks ago and got my refund in 5 days (including the weekend so 3 business days really).

I remember Salalah as being very hot and desert like. In Muscat we visited the Mosque, a museum, the Al Alam Palace and the Souq close to the port. Enjoy your visit!

We were on a cruise that stopped in the Seychelles and Madagascar in January/February 2020 and we did not need the yellow fever vaccine. We have it and its now good for life (I have had 3 because previously it was thought to be good for only 10 years) but we were not asked for it. We made it ashore in the Seychelles with no problem but passengers were not allowed in Madagascar because of Covid. But no mention of yellow fever.

Ask for an on board credit, they did that for us once when price dropped after final payment.

I just loved Petra when we were there in 2015. Another visit I would like to do again one day. Have a great day in Petra!

Very sorry to hear about the robbery in Durban. Hope you are doing OK. Take care and thank you for sharing all your adventures.

We were in Luxor many years ago. It is such a wonderful place. Hope to go back one day. Enjoy!

I hope you have a wonderful trip. We did an "Indian Ocean and Africa" cruise with Princess in January 2020, just before the pandemic shut everything down. 46 days out of Perth (we returned to Perth on March 10 and decided to cancel our next cruise and flew back to Canada on March 11). It was one of my favorite cruises and I would do it again if it was offered. We did pretty much the same ports in South Africa (loved the Addo Elephant park in Port Elizabeth) but passengers were not allowed off the ship in Madagascar because the ship had been in Thailand in the last 14 days (were Covid was spreading). My husband and I took a ship tour in Reunion which left the ship early. We found the Island very beautiful, very green and lots of mountains with spectacular views. When our bus returned to the ship at the end of the day, we were surprised to see police everywhere. We found out that the ship had been in lockdown all day because demonstrators showed up (after our bus left) and prevented passengers from disembarking because they were afraid of Covid. They even threw rocks at passengers and some were hit and hurt by the rocks. Hopefully you will receive a warmer welcome than some of our fellow passengers received. But everyone we met on Reunion was very friendly. I will follow along and cant wait to see your photos to relive the wonderful experience we had.

We travelled twice in 2021 (2 short trips of about 3 weeks each in Europe) and twice in 2022: one 2.5 month long trip in Europe in February, March and April, travelling around on our own; and then our first cruise since covid (over 20 days in northern Europe and TA in August and September). We always mask on planes and tend to mask when we are in indoor public spaces (whether on a cruise, travelling on our own or shopping at home). We never caught covid while travelling but we did catch it in early October, in our home from our grandson. We had just received our 5th covid vaccine, the bivalent vaccine. Very mild, probably would not have noticed if our grandson was not sick (he had a fever for one day which is why we all tested ourselves). So really, you can catch this thing anywhere. You have to protect yourself as best you can (for us it means keeping our vaccines up to date and masking) and go on with your life.

Hope you will feel better soon. We did b2b cruises on the Enchanted Princess in August and September for some 22 days at sea and did not catch anything. But caught covid from my grandson at home a couple of weeks ago. It was very mild (maybe because I had just received my 3rd booster - the new bivalent vaccine), just a day or two of feeling congested and some chills but no fever. Did not have to take any medication. So really you can catch this thing anywhere, anytime. I hope your case is just as mild as mine was. Speedy recovery.

I am getting the same message. Tried several times but still getting the technical difficulties message.

We also went mainly to the Santorini dining room (deck 5 midship) on our b2b sailings in August and September. In the Santorini dining room, they reserved a table in our preferred section every night. We usually went for dinner around 7:45 pm but some nights we told them we would be earlier or later and they always accommodated us. We never waited in line for Santorini (they told us to use the "exit" door if there was a line and to go directly to our section where a table would be ready for us, and one was always ready). The first of our B2B cruise was fully booked with the next one (the TA) only about 65% booked.

I agree. I am feeling more optimistic now about cruising in Japan in March 2023. I have now booked hotel rooms in Japan (fully refundable). They are really inexpensive right now compared to when we were there a few years ago.

According to articles I am reading, Japan announced today that it is re-opening to individual tourists as of October 11. https://www.travelcaffeine.com/japan-reopening-individual-tourists/

We were on this TA and on the previous Scandinavia cruise and both went very well in our opinion. Even though the Scandinavia cruise was at full capacity we really did not wait in line anywhere on the ship. On the Scandinavia cruise, The Piazza was very full when they had events and the pools were very busy (including with kids) but those were the main differences with the TA which was not at capacity. The food was for the most part very good and the service excellent. We thought the immigration in NY went well. We had been given an 11 am time to go to Immigration but they announced early in the morning that immigration was running ahead of schedule and guests could go ashore at their convenience so we left the ship early, took a few minutes to go through immigration and then spent the day in New York, returning to the ship in the evening. All in all, we had 2 lovely cruises, the first ones since the pandemic for us. Looking forward to cruising again in a few months.

We are currently on the Enchanted Princess on a TA and the show times are now 7:30 and 9:30. They were later on the previous European cruise which we were also on. When asked why they were now 7:30 and 9:30, the CD indicated that the times were adjusted for the North American market given the repositioning of the ship.

Not difficult if you don’t have luggage! It’s only about 1.5 km. But with luggage I would not recommend it. It cost us about 6 BP for a taxi from the Holiday Inn to the Ocean Terminal. The hotel booked it for us the night before. Very easy. We are doing a back to back so when we returned to Southampton, on turn around day, we walked from the Ocean Terminal to WestQuay (which is more or less across the street from the Holiday Inn) and it is a very easy and nice walk with no luggage.