Covepointcruiser

Great reminder for the rest of us.   Check your passport every year so you can renew ahead of time.

Changes in the itinerary are just the nature of Expedition cruises especially in Greenland.

Did you make independent arrangements for tours??   We missed at least one port on our 14 day trip last September.   Sea and ice conditions were the reason for our change last year.

Celebrity was wrong to oversell the cruises, no doubt about that.    However, the cruises were far enough in the future that final payments were not made, only deposits.   At least now folks reading this thread will learn to never book non refundable or non changeable airline fares.   We are not Zenith, but we have still sailed enough to have many cancellations not even including COVID.   If you are planning your once in a lifetime trip to a certain destination, don’t book a cruise.

Am surprised they don’t have porters in Portland!?    We have easily found them at ports in the U.S., NYC, Brooklyn, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Honolulu.   Are you scaring them away?

We are on the Odyssey South Pacific, Papeete to Honolulu.   All ports, except Papeete and Honolulu are tender ports.   We have seen passengers with sticks and canes go ashore with little difficulty.   Two passengers have scooters and I have not seen them get onto a tender.   One can walk around the buffet unaided.    The tenders require you to walk down a flight of stairs and then be helped onto the ships tender.   I am fairly able bodied, right now, and find maneuvering around the tender difficult but doable.   Hope this first hand experience helps.

Seabourn will include breakfast out your hotel.    If your flight is to Greenland you will have an early start.   The charter plane takes you to Greenland and picks up the passenger who debarked.   Those passengers are loaded onto your plane and flown back to Iceland.

Our weather has been humid, but not hot.   82 or 83 degrees F. Is as hot as it’s been although it felt warmer in the sun.   Five sea days is about normal for us as we love transatlantic and transpacific cruises.   The current one had an unusual number of ports but they were all great.   The one very hot cruise we had was from Greece, it was over 90F every day.

QM2 is ready to sail again on 5/2.   She is sailing on a special Coronation cruise to Liverpool with fantastic prices all the way up to Queens Grill suites.   Only went on sale today but it may be sold out.   

It was certainly available in December 22 for U.S. travelers.

The porter will know where they are, invaluable.

I like the new color, black or dark blue, rather than the bright aqua.   I might actually use it after the cruise.

As a comparison, for lunch today on Seabourn Odyssey.   Too many lines of food to capture.  Celebrity fans may remember Mario as he began on Celebrity.

We were put in an accessible suite years ago, never again.   In addition to the problems with the shower, the sink was set at an odd height making in unusable without discomfort.   The closet only had a bar set at a low level so all of my clothing was puddles on the floor.   It is worth paying extra for a non guarantee suite and avoiding the pitfalls of a accessible suites.

Agree that those cheerfully serving coffee in the square deserve accolades!   Amazing the different variants on coffee ordered.   We have also found this to be the only place for great iced tea.   Our best meals so far, including service and food, have been in Earth and Ocean, although I would rate the ribs on TK night to be the absolute best pork ribs on any ship.   We have only been on since Papeete and have few, if any complaints.   Of course the great itinerary and weather has surely colored our experience.

I believe one or both of the sofas will convert to a bed so you can choose either of the two sitting areas to convert to a bedroom at night if it is essential your bedroom have a window.

To avoid the PITA after debarking, use a porter.   They hauled our luggage quickly through a fast Customs Line right to the LF pick up.   We tipped them and it was well worth it to avoid the hassle.    LF won’t pick up your bags on the ship if Customs is involved as they need to look at your “guilty” face as you walk through with your luggage.   The dogs are also checking your luggage for bad items.

On 4/24/2023 at 11:30 AM, Mr Luxury said:

I would just show the image of my passport on my phone as I have done for a few years now.

All of the information that anyone would need for immigration purposes is there to see when going ashore.

The cruise card has always got me off and on again.

I really can't see who benefits apart from the criminals.

Since South African government mandates actual passports, if you don’t want to carry yours best remain onboard the ship.

We had a mix of a great pianist, string trios, and a harpist in the Commodore Club in December.   All three acts were wonderful and you could appreciate the music and still be able to speak to table mates.   Never had a problem getting a seat and are sailings were fully booked.   Never experience the “Black hole of Calcutta” in the Queens Room unless you are speaking of the behavior of the ballroom dancers.   

You can’t compare this to COVID forced cancellations.    No company in the world knew how to deal with a global pandemic.   We didn’t know how countries were closing down, where airlines and ships would be allowed to travel and all of this changing every day if not minute.   Canceling voyages because of technical issues happens and there is a course of action that will be taken.   Everyone will be unhappy and disappointed but it is not an unheard of event.

Bingo is still a being money maker for Catholic Churches and schools.   They seem to run it every week and have a number of loyal followers.   Trivia seems to have taken the place of Bingo and it very popular with a loyal and boisterous following.

Not being able to fly is a major problem.   If you are on a voyage and have a serious health issue do you just remain in the nearest port until a ship comes by?   At least you won’t need to pay for medical insurance.

Why travel on the QM2 if you completely avoid the Britannia?    The Kings Court is lacking compared to other lines.   I do know that the fares in Britannia can be significantly less than the comparable air fare.   Room service would offer a better meal than the Kings Court.

Credit Cards are key, without them and a substantial line of credit, it is really not safe to travel.   At least you will have 30 to 60 days to pay the credit card bill.   If you bought travel insurance, it would cover an economy class ticket home plus additional for hotels and meals.   This would also not be an immediate payment.

Luckily in England you are not stranded as there are a multitude of flights to every place in the world.   With the full refund of your fare you should be able to book a flight and perhaps tour around England with your 7 travel days.    It’s a relatively short flight to NYC so Business Class is nice but not essential.

We had the TK meal last night, barbecued pork ribs, and everything served was excellent.   We took the excursion in Nuku’alofa Hiva and the beauty of the island was amazing.   It was definitely a rough 3 hour ride but the views were gorgeous.   The tiny sliver of a ship in the photo is our Odyssey.