Pete Jackson

Getting Brazilian Visas is no problem when you use a visa service, such as the Zierer visa service in Washington. The main concern is going without your passport while it is mailed or delivered to the service. They will tell you exactly when to send/give in your passports and, if you need your passports for other travel, they will coordinate the process so that you have your passports when you need them. There is an expense, of course, but it's not unreasonable.

HAL will give you the names of Visa services that they recommend.

Brazil has a reciprocity policy in visas, and so makes Americans go through exactly what Brazilians need to do to visit the USA. Most Europeans, for example, do not need Brazilian visas. There have been bilateral discussions between the US and Brazil to simplify or eliminate the visas. Contact your congressperson if you wish to tell them your feelings about this.:)

Hopefully, whatever happened was caught on one or more of the security cameras on the decks, and this would also give them the time of the incident, and then the captain can determine where the ship was at that time. That and knowledge of ocean currents should allow an for an accurate search. But it's still a big big ocean out there.

It would be nice if they made the hold less for children since they don't run up large bar bills or gambling expenses.

If the credit limit on your card is a problem, I think that cash can be deposited in lieu of a hold.

Have a great cruise:)

Maybe you could have moseyed up to the Zuiderdam, cast a hook up onto the Lido deck, and had someone stick a fish fillet onto it!:D

On the Maasdam in 2005, they had a great pianist who did one of the evening perfromances in the show lounge. It was very good, but just the usual mixture of broadway and other short pieces.

But then, the CD and he put on a rare afternoon completely classical performance; the show lounge was packed, the performance was great and the applause enthusiastic. A grand piano fills the Queen's lounge with sound very well!

Mind you, it would be probably be wise to avoid pieces with lots of pianissimo because of the ambient backgrount noise of the ship.