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No, RCI only recommends the booster but does not require it. Anyway Spain does require the booster for entering the country if your second shot is older than 270 days. Plus you need to fill in the online health form. France does require a test which is either done onboard or in the terminal and it´s 55 USD. As you are not regarded as "up to date" when your last shot is older than 270 days you might need another test returning to Spain. It´s not for the flight to the US. steamboats

Wow, really just 10 $??? Back in 2011 there was no free port shuttle and the RCI shuttle was 14 $!! steamboats

But actually only 6% of the visitors were coming by cruise ship. The cruise ships were never the problem regarding overtourism in Venice. steamboats

You are absolutely fine with a booster! No extra test needed for shore stops. The booster does not have an expiration date here in Europe. You are "up to date". steamboats

Actually all specialty coffees are Starbucks onboard POA. Coffee in restaurants is only offered as after dinner coffee (and then would be included). Currently the only place to get coffee is the John Adam´s Café at the Atrium. MDR is currently not open for breakfast or lunch - only for dinner. There is no coffee machine at the Aloha Café, so no specialty coffees at the buffet. There is a coffee machine at the Lanai Bar (outside of the Aloha Café) but that one is currently also closed. As I do not really like Starbucks and the coffee at the Aloha Café is sort of undrinkable (yeah, hot brown water) I had a hard time. And the lines at the John Adam´s Café were very long each morning. BTW in some ports there is a local tax and even with the package you get charged the tax. On the other side if you do have a drink which is more than 15 USD you only pay the difference (plus 20% service charge plus tax...). An Espresso Martini is 18 USD. You can find all menus in my review. steamboats

BTW MSC is also offering a (paid) shuttle from Steinwerder to Hamburg Central Station and also from Kiel Central Station to Ostuferhafen. steamboats

Then you still need a taxi to get to the port as the train station is downtown and the port is out of town in Ravenna. There is also a public bus which you can use. steamboats

@foxylady99 you´ve obviously missed something... This change has been done prior to the pandemic already due to the announcement of the closure of Venice port. They moved all 2020 cruises from Venice to Ravenna. But then those cruises were all cancelled due to the pandemic. There was no cruise out of Venice by RCI or Celebrity since the restart of cruising. All current cruises have never been sold with Venice as embarkation port but were always Ravenna or Venice (Ravenna). Ravenna is a 2.5 hour bus ride from Venice. There´s more or less no choice. Anything else might be even more expensive. steamboats

@chengkp75 sorry, my first link was wrong, this is the correct one and it´s §8103 and this should be the interesting part: "(k) Crew Requirements for Large Passenger Vessels.— (1) Citizenship and nationality.—Each unlicensed seaman on a large passenger vessel shall be— (A) a citizen of the United States; (B) an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence; (C) an alien allowed to be employed in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), including an alien crewman described in section 101(a)(15)(D)(i) of that Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(D)(i)), who meets the requirements of paragraph (3)(A) of this subsection; or (D) a foreign national who is enrolled in the United States Merchant Marine Academy. (2) Percentage limitation for alien seamen.—Not more than 25 percent of the unlicensed seamen on a vessel described in paragraph (1) of this subsection may be aliens referred to in subparagraph (B) or (C) of that paragraph. (3) Special rules for certain unlicensed seamen.— (A) Qualifications.—An unlicensed seaman described in paragraph (1)(C) of this subsection— (i) shall have been employed, for a period of not less than 1 year, on a passenger vessel under the same common ownership or control as the vessel described in paragraph (1) of this subsection, as certified by the owner or managing operator of such vessel to the Secretary; (ii) shall have no record of material disciplinary actions during such employment, as verified in writing by the owner or managing operator of such vessel to the Secretary; (iii) shall have successfully completed a United States Government security check of the relevant domestic and international databases, as appropriate, or any other national security-related information or database; (iv) shall have successfully undergone an employer background check— (I) for which the owner or managing operator provides a signed report to the Secretary that describes the background checks undertaken that are reasonably and legally available to the owner or managing operator including personnel file information obtained from such seaman and from databases available to the public with respect to the seaman; (II) that consisted of a search of all information reasonably available to the owner or managing operator in the seaman's country of citizenship and any other country in which the seaman receives employment referrals, or resides; (III) that is kept on the vessel and available for inspection by the Secretary; and (IV) the information derived from which is made available to the Secretary upon request; and (v) may not be a citizen or temporary or permanent resident of a country designated by the United States as a sponsor of terrorism or any other country that the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the heads of other appropriate United States agencies, determines to be a security threat to the United States." steamboats

My information is that there is an exemption for the hotel department where 25% can be non US or non Greencard holders. This is part of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act of October 2006. All other crew (especially nautical/deck crew) has to have a higher ratio of US/Greencard holders. Those 25% can only work up to 36 months. They must have worked for NCL at least one year prior to the Hawai´i contract. This is limited to nonlicensed seamen (which means hotel staff or entertainment staff. steamboats

According to NCL this may last until the end of October. So far they have cancelled single cabins in June, July and August. As in the US it´s already hard to find staff for landside hotels or restaurants it´s even harder to find qualfied staff for a cruise ship which has to be manned 75% with US citizens or Greencard holders in the hotel department. I´ve been on in May and I can tell you the bar tenders at the Ocean Drive Bar or the Pink´s Champagne Bar really worked hard. steamboats

Rise was May 21st... I was lucky enough to get it for 14$ in late April for my Hawai´i cruise May 12th. steamboats

The main problem is that you can only get on the internal shuttle at this new place far North. Although there is a stop close to the Fortezza the busses usually don´t stop there to pick up people. Those stops are for those who have their car at the parking lot there. steamboats

I walked there many times. And yes, the fort entrance is usually open. It depends on where your ship docks. Terminal 25 can´t be reached by foot - there walking is prohibited. The terminals 10 - 13 can be walked. But be aware that it is definitely quite a walk especially when your ship is at 13. I´ve never done it with bags. steamboats

The only ship Scylla has bought is the MS Seaventure (ex MS Bremen from Hapag-Lloyd). All river cruise ships have been custom built for Scylla and the charterers. Scylla does not act as a river cruise company itself. That´s VIVA Cruises - a sister company. Tauck is still not back in full operation. They do have 8 river cruise ships on the Rhein/Main/Danube river system. Adding another 4 or 5 (including the old Mozart) might be a bit too much of a growth in those times. BTW the MS Seaventure was supposed to run for VIVA Cruises but is only running on select charters (meaning one or two cruises are chartered and then the ship is pausing until the next charter). steamboats

Tauck is just starting to use their ships again (which are owned by Scylla). I don´t think that Scylla is interested in buying ships. They are building their own and currently they do charter out ships to other companies as those they have built the ship for don´t need them right now. steamboats

Masks are only mandatory in public transportation in Italy. There you need an KN95/FFP2. This has been prolonged until the end of September. steamboats

BTW, the christening was on June 17th in Düsseldorf and Clara Eichler, the daughter of the Jörg Eichler - A-Rosa CEO - served as godmother. Then the ship moved up to Köln for the first cruise on June 18th. steamboats

On top of the Amadeus River Cruise website it does read "Lueftner Cruises" and "A product of Dr. W. Lueftner Reisen GmbH". Danubia Kreuzfahrten GmbH has an English website with an address in Innsbruck, Austria. But actually it´s all the same origin - Lueftner. Here is a company profile website - showing Dr. Lueftner as "Geschäftsführer" (CEO) and even the Lueftner Email and website addresses. Usually river cruise ships are owned by one company, chartered by another company, hotel staff from a third company, nautical crew from a fourth company and just the cruise director working for the company marketing the cruise but as a free lancer. steamboats

Lueftner is an Austrian company and in business for 40 years now. They do own the Amadeus ships (so all ships have "Amadeus" as sort of prefix in the name). AmaWaterways did start out with ship from Lueftner until they had their own ones built. The German branch is Amadeus Flusskreuzfahrten in Munich but according to their "about us" they are solely selling the Amadeus fleet operated by Lueftner. It´s even the same website design as the one of Lueftner. And there´s another Amadeus River Cruises website - same design, also only selling the Amadeus fleet operated by Lueftner with an address in Burr Ridge, Illinois. steamboats

On Iona the Sky Dome is the roof of the atrium. The AIDA ships (nova, cosma) and the Costa ships (Smeralda, Toscana) don´t have this kind of roof for the atrium but a closed one with partially an LED screen. The middle part holds the tech stuff for acrobatics. On both lines the atrium is used as a theater. AIDA calls it Theatrium and they don´t have another theater on their ships. Costa calls it Colosseo plus they have a second but small theater. I think the Mardi Gras also has an atrium which is used for shows. As for the Iona I think the Sky Dome is more a waste of space as you can´t use the upper deck for anything else. On all ships those atrium theaters are nice but it´s really hard to get a place where you can see anything. They have screens all over so the pax can see from the second, third and whatever rows. But if you´re not in the front row it´s really hard to see something. steamboats

All parts of the review are online now. steamboats

It´s been quite a while... but back in 2016 we did the hike and took the ferry back to Portofino. It was an organized ship tour so we did have a ferry on our own. The hike was really nice and worth doing but you do need good hiking shoes and there are parts which are steep and with narrow paths. It was a 2.5 hour hike. Just for some impressions you can check my review here. steamboats

No feeding of the animals!!! This is definitely regular in Antarctica. You get the advice to stay away from the penguins at least 5 m. But sometimes the penguins don´t care ;-). As for Antarctica - none of the regular cruise ships is able to do any landings. The whole experience can only be done with smaller expedition ships and it´s worth it! steamboats

Actually I lost track of their newbuilts... but the new Explora ships are built there. They mix it - some are built by Fincantieri, some by Chantiers de l´Atlantique. Carnival Group has some ships built at Fincantieri (Princess, HAL recently or Queen Anne for Cunard currently). Their new LNG ships are all built by Meyer/Meyer Turku (for AIDA, Carnival Cruises, P&O). Pre Pandemic MSC was a master to fill in all building slots at the shipyards in France and Italy just to let the other cruise lines no space. steamboats