Cruising Is Bliss

Sympathies from someone with recurring middle ears from h*ll. This is from the US Embasy website. Hope you can get some help. https://is.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/ If you are in Reykjavik and have an urgent medical problem, you may also go straight to the emergency room at Landspitali University Hospital located in Fossvogur. It is open 24 hours a day. Telephone +354-525-1700 or 543-1000. After Hours Care For urgent after-hours primary care, call 1770. After-hours care is provided through a central primary care clinic located at Laeknavaktinn, staffed on a rotating basis by physicians from local clinics. House calls can sometimes be arranged. A nurse will answer, gather some information, and either: Offer advice on how to handle the problem. Suggest the patient come to the clinic to be seen. Send a physician to make a house call. Refer you to a hospital emergency room You can visit the central primary care clinic without an appointment from 17:00 23:30 on weekdays and 9:00 to 23:30 on weekends. From 23:30 to 8:00 you should call 1770 as described above.

LA to LA is start and end in the same port, which only requires a visit to *any* foreign port. When it's different start port and end port (LA to San Diego) there the requirement is a visit to a *distant* foreign port. Cruises to Hawaii that are round trip to/from the same southern California port don't require a distant foreign port, so are able to satisfy the PVSA by stopping in Ensenada very late the last evening for an hour long "service call" with no passengers allowed to go ashore.

Oh yeah, the sweet spot for me is HAL's R class ships, Zaandam & Volendam. Small enough to get in to many more ports, big enough for good sea days. I started out on RC, switched to Celebrity for a itinerary, then to HAL for an itinerary, both for a while, since then it's just been HAL because of their more interesting itineraries and longer cruises. I'm doing two cruises next year and really looking forward to both of them. 2024 Grand Australia & New Zealand, RT San Diego, 94 days, on Zaandam. 2024 Alaska, RT Seattle, 28 days, summer solstice at the Arctic Circle, on Westerdam. More than a year away and it's completely sold out.

Safe travels home. Thank you for taking us along!

Still have nightmares about my one Vancouver airport experience. If everything went absolutely once in a lifetime perfectly, the answer would still almost always be no.

Thank you for taking the time to bring all of us along. I've really enjoyed your posts!

I've enjoyed reading your posts so much. I've been reading several blogs and have been happily reading them with my afternoon cup of tea. I also really want to thank you for your website. In the back of my mind I always thought of doing a world cruise someday but my longest cruise so far was 15 days and the logistic were really daunting. And now I'm booked next year on the 94 day Grand Australia, the 28 day Alaska, and I have a future dam on the 2025 GWC. Yay for long cruises!

I've really enjoyed reading your posts, thank you for doing them! I never expected to do a grand voyage and you've always allowed me to fell like I was there.

Pete, thank you. I took a good hard look at both cruises. Spent a week considering the pros & cons of both and then switched my future dam back to the GWC.

Looking forward to reading, thank you for taking us along!

Fabulous deal. I have it on the 28 day Alaska cruise next year.

You asked why you can't stay on for the following Vancouver to Seattle cruise. If you did that, your combined feet-on-the-ship trip would then be Hawaii to Seattle *on the same ship* and the PVSA covers the transport of passengers from one US port to another US port *on the same ship* and that would be a violation. Disembarking means close out your shipboard account and walk off the ship with all your baggage. And you can't turn right around and get back on. A break in your trip, to satisfy the PVSA, would require spending at least one night ashore before the start of a next cruise *on that same ship*. If there was another ship in port sailing the day you disembark in Vancouver, even if it's the same cruise line, no problem, take your bags across the port to board a different ship for a Vancouver to Seattle cruise and the PVSA could not care less. You could have breakfast on one ship and lunch on the other ship.

Caribbean is too hot and humid for me. I saw Capt Kate's instagram post of the harbor pilot boat coming along side and taking the harbor pilot off. YIKES. Somebody asked in the comments why Capt Dimitrios didn't have them approach Beyond on the leeward side. Capt Kate said that WAS the leeward side.

Oh yeah. Years ago I did a 15 night Hawaii cruise on HAL in October and there was ONE passenger under the age of 18. She was 17.

It doesn't matter how the cruise line chops up the voyage into separate cruises for booking purposes because that's not what the PVSA covers. It's specifically about transporting passengers, on the same ship, from one US port to another US port. A passenger vessel that onboards you in Hawaii and disembarks you in Seattle would be in violation of the PVSA. It would still be a violation of the PVSA if you boarded in Hawaii and then stayed on to do the entire season of Alaska cruises before you disembarked in Seattle.

Thank you for taking us along!

No. Getting any specific cabin would be pretty unlikely until booking opens because every cabin is subject to the first dibbs rule. Anyone already booked on the previous world cruise (in this case 2024) has their same cabin for the following year (2025) if they want it.

YAY! Pole to Pole 2025 grand voyage, on Volendam, 133 days (4 drive-by days in Antarctica), booking opens in May. For now, HAL will only be booking the full voyage.

Pete (the-inside-cabin) posted a link to both itineraries on his blog. I'm doing the Pole-to-Pole.

HIA on some cruises is an upgraded version. That may be one of them. On my 28 day 2024 Alaska cruise this is my HIA: 26-31 Day Premium Wifi HIA Promo Elite Beverage Pkg HIA Promo Shore Excursion Discount $100 Shore Excursion Discount $100 Shore Excursion Discount $100 Pinnacle Grill HIA Promo Pinnacle Grill HIA Promo Canaletto HIA Promo Pre-Paid Crew Appreciation Promo $160 Shore Excursion Credit Low Price Guarantee

YAY!!! Pole to Pole on Volendam for me 🙂 I called my travel agent and she says HAL is going to be sending out a form to Future Dam holders asking everyone to pick whether they want their Future Dam applied to the GWV or to the Pole-to-Pole.

They do.

I've been thinking about doing a live blog for my next cruise. For such a long cruise (94 days) I'll be keeping a personal travel diary anyway. Could you estimate about how much time it takes you each day?

There's a decent possibility that HAL may do a 2025 grand voyage that along the way spends 4 days drive-by cruising Antarctica. One of the four options HAL polled for the 2025 world cruise is not actually a world cruise. That potential itinerary is Jan 25th to June 7th, round trip Fort Lauderdale, includes all the way down to Antarctica and all the way up to the Arctic Circle. Bloggers on the current world cruise reported that the hotel director said at a morning coffee chat that he personally thinks the 2024 & 2025 world cruises will both again be on Zuiderdam, and that HAL will also do the polled "Pole to Pole" 2025 cruise, on Volendam. HAL's website currently has Volendam's last scheduled cruise ending in Fort Lauderdale on Jan 25th 2025.

The last Volendam cruise currently on HAL's website ends in Fort Lauderdale on 1/25/25 and that was the start date for option D, the Pole to Pole potential alternate GV 🙂