Heidi13

I certainly don't panic about getting the required Visas, as I thoroughly research the requirements well before they are required. However, for some countries, a visit to an Embassy/Consulate is still required. China is notoriously challenging, as we have experienced twice. The first China Visa required queuing outside the consulate before sunrise, to ensure you got a number that got processed that day. If you weren't successful, you returned the following day. Once the Visa was issued you repeated the process to pick up the passport. China also won't provide a Visa in passports that are not from country of application. While Viking paid for and arranged our Visas, China would not process our Visas in a Canadian or UK Passport, in the US. We had to go through the lengthy application and make 2 visits to the consulate downtown. For a number of months, India stopped processing any Visa for Canadians, so getting an India Visa was impossible for anyone with a Canadian passport. This is not the first time India has created problems for Canadians getting a Visa. Recently Egypt initiated a requirement for Visas prior to arrival, as previously Visas were always issued to the ship upon arrival. A consular visit is required and the closest one to us is about a 3,000 mile drive or a 5 hr flight, then the same drive/flight to return home. We also experienced issues with the India eVisa, as they would not issue the Visa until 3 months before arrival and we had already departed on the cruise. The Visa procurement agency copied our passport details, made the application at the correct time and forwarded directly to the ship. You may have been fortunate that all Visas required were available by eVisa, but that is not always available. So even these days, acquiring all required Visas can be challenging.

The number of sea days is entirely dependant on the itinerary and the cruise line. I have seen a number of Grand Voyages over the past 40 years that have just as many sea days as World Cruises. When a cruise crosses an ocean, regardless of whether it is classed as a World Cruise or Grand Voyage, it generally has more sea days The type of cruise line has a huge impact in the ratio of sea days to port days on both World Cruises and Grand Voyages, with Premium/Luxury lines normally having a much higher percentage of port days. Since you mentioned 3-months for a World Cruise, I assume you refer to one of the mainstream mega ship cruise lines, since many Luxury/Premium lines take 4-months for a Grand Voyage and 6-months, or more, for a World Cruise. Our 2015 World Cruise on Princess took 104 days and less than 40 were port days. In 2020, the Viking World Cruise lasted 245-days, having only 1 stretch of 8 sea days. Well over 60% were port days, which is better than most Grand Voyages that include an ocean transit. When comparing Grand Voyages to World Cruises you also need to compare the total costs, specifically the included benefits. As an example, Viking did not provide any additional benefits to Grand Voyages, which can be 90+ days, but World Cruises receive a host of benefits worth many thousands of dollars, including considerable OBC, luggage shipping, Visa procurement, etc. I certainly wouldn't consider World Cruises as uninspiring, but that is all up to individual expectations. Personally, I couldn't image booking a Caribbean cruise and even the Meddy, which has some great ports, but many of them are grossly overcrowded. Even back in the days when I worked an entire Australia cruise season, we went to most of the same islands every 2-weeks. Boring possibly, but certainly not uninspiring. I have seen many fabulous World Cruise itineraries from a variety of cruise lines, especially cruises based on smaller ships.

With so many options on a more direct route between Honolulu and Bay of Islands, opting for Papeete/Moorea is an interesting choice of ports. Raiatea is one of the few islands I haven't visited. Unfortunately, most cruise lines seem to focus on Papeete, which in my opinion, is highly overrated. In New Zealand, Christchurch (Lyttelton or Akaroa) and Dunedin are also great ports to visit. Wellington was my very first port on my first trip to sea, at which time we spent 3 great weeks alongside. Been back a few times since and totally agree, it is a great run ashore.

On all my cruise ship transits, we were at the Bridge between 05:30 and 06:00. An excellent spot to watch the transit on the Island/Coral Princess is from one of the fwd decks below the Bridge. Best spot on the ship for getting photos ahead. Enjoy the cruise.

Totally agree. Vancouver to Everett is a pleasant drive, if you time the border correctly. Last few times I headed south of Seattle, I left the house to be passing Everett at 05:30. That was a few years ago, so probably need to be even earlier now.

That sounds more reasonable, I just could imagine installing sufficient power in a tanker hull to make that speed. When I left Wild Auk after 9 months she was heading to drydock, so the best I recall was almost 22 kts on her. Mind you, the Wild Auk was still the 6th fastest ship I worked on, as most of our local Ro/Pax are 21 kts. Fastest was the High Speed Craft, which I had at 40 kts one night. Just over 400'. carried 250 vehicles and 1,000 pax. It was fun to handle.

Having driven to and through Seattle way too many times, I certainly wouldn't describe many of the trips as a leisurely drive. Depending on the day and time, you could have up to a 4 hr delay at the border, and then traffic from Everett into Seattle (about 30 miles) is often gridlocked for most of the I-5/I-405. From our house to Seatac is less than 150 miles, but on some days it can take well over 7 hrs.

You have a number of options from Vancouver to Seattle Bus - Quick shuttle departs from Canada Place to Seattle, with a number of options for disembarking in Seattle. Train - Amtrack departs the Main St train station. You can catch a cab/Uber/Skytrain from Canada Place to the train station Car Hire - you can hire a car 1-way, but you have the potential for long queues at the border, plus Seattle traffic is crazy. Fly - You can get cab/Uber/Skytrain/Bus out to YVR and take a short flight down to Seatac. Ferry - Take the bus down to Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal and catch a BC Ferry to Swartz Bay. Then catch the local bus to Victoria, taking the Clipper high speed ferry to Seattle. Lots of changes, much longer, but more scenic.

Wow, a product tanker capable of 22.7 kts is incredible. Having worked cruise ships and Ro/Pax most of my career, only a handful were capable of > 22 kts - Oriana, Canberra, the high speed ferry and a couple of the local conventional ferries. Even the Wild Auk didn't reach > 22 kts.

Transpacific is my preference, as there are many more islands in the Pacific. You could cross the Pacific many times and not stop at the same island twice. If you didn't stop in many ports that was the result of a poor itinerary. A cruise departing Honolulu could have stopped at any of American Samoa (Pago Pago), Samoa (Apia), Tonga (Nukalofa), Fiji (Suva & Lautoka), Vanatu, New Caledonia (Noumea), etc. They can also stop at a few New Zealand ports. I have visited each of those ports multiple times and are all great runs ashore. Just out of interest, what ports did you visit on the trans-Pacific?

Must have been a reefer, with the ship's name probably starting with "Wild" - Auk, Avocet, Curlew, Cormorant, Fulmar or Flamingo

Departing the US Eastern seaboard, the time difference to UK is 5 hrs most of the year and to ports in France & Spain, it is 6 hrs. Note - UK has different dates for daylight savings than North America, so for about 2 or 3 weeks in the Spring the time difference is only 4 hrs between the US East Coast & UK. I don't follow if Europe has daylight savings, so don't know if the time difference changes. When the vessel departs, the Master ensures the ships cloxs are changed throughout the voyage to ensure the vessel arrives in each port with the cloxs consistent with local time. If sailing straight across at 20+ kts, this usually requires a 1 hr change each day. Traditionally at sea, the cloxs are changed at 02:00, regardless of whether they move ahead or back. However, many Masters, when E'bd and clox move ahead, prefer to change cloxs at Noon, or another time during the day. Since most of the crew are day workers, this makes it easier to comply with hours of rest requirements. It is also a benefit to the pax. On most TA's, not crossing directly at 20+ kts, you may get cloxs 1 hr ahead every 2nd day, or every 2 days in 3. Even if the cloxs are adjusted at 02:00, that is hardly likely to cause jet lag.

As long as you aren't in Victoria on Monday/Tuesday, the gardens are open until 22:00. However, if the ship doesn't dock until 19:00, it could be 20:00 to 20:30 before you arrive at the gardens. Doesn't leave much time to actually see them. Been many times, including at night and never had any issues with there not being sufficient light. Sunset will be around the time you arrive, so most of your visit will be twilight. Fireworks are only on Saturday nights starting in July, so the cruise line's shore-ex small print information is correct. You will not have fireworks in June.

Fortunately, the CD, ACD and 4 singers were all talented.

Negative, no draught issues. Compared to cargo ships, cruises ships have a much shallower draught. The Celebrity Beyond is only about 27', so no issues in the Canal, even with the reduced water levels. Last I read, the Canal Authority is limiting draughts to about 45 '.

As per Milhouse, affordable and hotel doesn't really exist in downtown Vancouver. In the downtown area, across from BC Place is the non-profit YWCA Hotel. Basic, but comfortable, it is probably your cheapest option. Hotels out by the airport in Richmond are cheaper.

Viking has similar requirements, with our CD being a singer, pianist, drummer and also previously having owned his own production company. Same requirements for the ACD,who was a classically trained vocalist. In addition to the regular Corporate shows, the CD produced numerous additional shows featuring his entire staff. This was a COVID curtailed World Cruise where we had over 30 continuous sea days, but the CD and his staff developed and performed some of the best shows. Overall, they produced and presented over a dozen different shows onboard.

With the ever increasing Victoria traffic and construction, I would allow 45 mins from Ogden Point to the gardens. Departing Ogden Pt at 17:45, should put you at the gardens by 18:30. Allowing 15 mins for getting off the bus and to the entrance, should have you inside by 18:45. With 1:45 in the gardens, you should be leaving about 20:30, so with 15 mins to get everyone back on the bus, you should depart the gardens about 20:45. Time back to Ogden Point should be 30 - 35 mins. Therefore, best guess ETA at Ogden Pt is 21:15 - 21:30, so no time to enjoy downtown.

I also use the Chrome browser on a Windows 11 laptop. Rather than just deleting the HAL cookies, you may wish to perform a regular clean up of your browser. I do this exercise every couple of months. Open your browser - Select the 3 vertical dots at the top right of the screen - Select settings, which is close to the bottom of the list - In the left sidebar, select Privacy & Security - Select Clear Browsing Data - This opens another window, with a number of options already selected. Adjust the option(s) you want performed, ensuring Cookies and other site data is selected - Select Clear Data As noted, this does more than remove the HAL cookies, it cleans out all the options you selected. I do this every couple of months. Note - you can also achieve the same results selecting History after selecting the 3 dots.

By booking a cruise and paying the deposit, you have accepted the cruise line's terms and conditions, which clearly provides the option for them to make changes to the itinerary, for basically any reason. It also includes situations when you are eligible for a refund. Personally, I consider the published itinerary as nothing more than a suggestion, with the final itinerary confirmed upon disembarkation.

I am well aware that you can cross the Atlantic with no ports of call, as I have done on many of my crossings. My reference to "Factual" was based on your blanket statement, "There are usually no port stops on a trans -Atlantic cruise, sometimes there is only one." While some crossings of the Atlantic have 1 or no ports of call, they are very much in the minority of all Atlantic crossings, which can include - vessel repositioning/delivery, liner voyages, World Cruises, Grand Voyages, etc. Rather than a blanket statement that usually TA's have 1 or no ports, may I suggest that your original post you could have qualified that it was based on your limited experience of crossing the Atlantic. Since those itineraries are not overly common, it may also help to provide info on the cruise lines and routing. With the exception of the QM2 and other Cunarders, which are known as "Liner" voyages, having only 1 or less ports between embarkation and disembarkation is not an overly common itinerary. Most TA's make at least 1 stop in the Atlantic at the Azores, Madeira, Bermuda, etc and have a few ports in Europe and/or Caribbean.

On P&O back in those days we didn't have anyone as high profile as the current CD's, but we still had a person that coordinated all the entertainment and activities. When we were shanghaied into performing at the Can Can or Swan Lake during the crew show, s/he was the one doling out the costumes and providing the post show refreshments.

Sorry, this is not factual. The number of ports depends on the routing. Some ships making a more northerly crossing can be in port every day, or every 2nd day.

Unlike the airline industry, the marine industry has no formal reporting requirements of the intended voyage. The onboard requirement is the Master must have a completed passage plan to the destination, prior to departure. Some companies, based on the SMS, may require copies prior to, or shortly after departure. There is no mandatory reporting to any shore based organisation. The US Coast Guard operates a voluntary reporting system (AMVER), where vessels will report a sailing plan shortly after departure and update the position daily. This information is confidential and is only used to assist an emergency response/distress. If a vessel issues a distress call, the AMVER system notes any vessel(s) in the vicinity and sends a message to the vessel regarding the distress. Upon receipt, the Master is obligated to respond, in accordance with the laws of the sea. As I mentioned, this information is confidential and is not made public. The voyage plan is entirely at the discretion of the Master and Navigating Officer. In addition to prevailing currents, they will also factor in winds, weather and distance. The shortest distance is a Great Circle sailing, which takes the vessel into higher Latitudes. On a W'bd TA this also steams into the prevailing currents. Therefore, most Masters will favour a more southerly crossing for a W'bd TA.

Cyprus is about 200 miles from the north of Israel. Rather than being concerned about issues with the distant conflicts in Israel, surely you are aware of the ongoing potential for conflicts on the island of Cyprus, which are long standing and unrelated to Israel. If not aware of the local history, Cyprus is an island divided between Turkey & Greece, with a United Nations controlled buffer zone stretching all the way across the island. From memory, the buffer zone has been in place since the mid-1970's. Haven't heard of any issues lately, but I'll suggest the low potential for local unrest is greater than the potential for issues from the conflict in Israel.