Hamwen3839

Thank you for going to the trouble of asking your friend. I could not find any mention of YF vaccinations or Exemptions on the other cruises you mentioned. I was hoping to find just one Aussie who had RECENTLY done this cruise for up to date information. However it seems to me that Exemptions are ok BUT it is up to each country whether they accept that . Worst case seems to be you would have to stay on board for that port. I will wait for closer to sailing to try and get Regents most up to date advice. Thanks everyone for your input.

That is correct. Wanting recent experiences of people going to countries on west coast of Africa and if they were ok for entry with a proper medical exemption for YF rather than a vaccination certificate.Were they even asked for anything when visiting from a cruise ship for a day. I am OK with re entry to Australia.

I have looked into requirement for returning to Australia and advice is that even if you do not have a Vaccination Certificate and have been to countries which have yellow fever,you will be allowed in and need to monitor symptoms . You do not have to be quarantined.

Apparently medical advice is that YF vaccination is not recommended for over 60’s ( risk out weighs slight chance of actually getting YF). Cruising down West Coast of Africa is relatively new and am hoping to find Aussies who have done it recently and what their experience was as to acceptance of the Exemption letter for counties in West African region. Not so worried about returning to Australia ,

Question about recent experience of need for Yellow Fever vaccination OR Exemption letter. We are cruising November 2024 West Coast of Africa ending in Capetown .Advice is conflicting but some countries say they require proof of YF vaccination OR Exemption letter .Due to our age apparently Vaccination is not recommended. Wondering what procedure was for anyone who has recently done similar cruise .

Further to this thread , we were told on the ship we would receive a cheque and some people here have confirmed that. However today we received an email from HKSB Refunds dept in the UK ? Saying they will be processing our refund and we need to provide a registration number. We do not have this. The email appears genuine, it has the exact amount we are due and have doubled tapped on heading and it seems correct. However we cannot progress this without a registration number. wondering if anyone recently has received a cheque refund OR contact from HKSB ?

Thank you, that seems to be the opinion I am getting from many . Luckily our local DR ‘s surgery is a Yellow Fever clinic as well so we can get the exemption easily.

Thanks Dave, yes we finally just got confirmation from Regent that we WILL be covered by a blanket Visa as we are going on ship excursions exclusively for all ports .We will however need a Visa for Ghana.The ship will arrange that Visa at cost to us. Such a relief to have that cleared up. Just need to confirm that an official Yellow Fever Exemption form will be accepted. Thanks for your correct advice.

Thanks. Yes was hoping to hear from Australians who did your cruise to try and clarify Visa issues. I can’t believe we have to apply for so many, some seem to be e visas and some you can get on arrival but unclear if port applies or has to be at airport. !! Can I also ask if you also heard anything about Yellow Fever Exemption Certificates being Ok as we cannot get the vaccination but can get the exemption certificates . really appreciate your help.

Can any Australian passengers help me ? We have paid a deposit for a similar cruise later in the year and now find we have to get Visas for Cape Verde, Ivory Coast ,Senegal,Ghana, São Tomé and Toga. Just wondering if any Aussies on this cruise found they had to do the same and if so was the process easy or did the ship do the Visas for you at your cost ? Can I also ask if you had a Yellow Fever Exemption Certificate and has that worked ok ? Thanks so much in advance.

Thanks for responding. It seems a bit different for Australians.For example Senegal do not require Visas from UK or USA passengers but definitely for Australians. What concerns me is that they say I have to send my actual passport to an Embassy( we don’t have one in Australia) and I don’t want to let it out of my control.Appears we need Visas for 6 ports i.e Cape Verde,Ivory Coast,Sao Tome, Senegal, Ghana and Togo.

Thanks for the reply. Will wait a few more weeks and try and get Regent to confirm.We thought we may also need one for Cape Verde but it isn’t clear at all.I suspect that as cruising here has gathered momentum it may lead to clearer advice.

With the new West African routes ( replacing Suez Canal options) does anyone know or have experience of Regent helping with Visas ? We are doing Barcelona to Capetown 6 November 2024 and we call at a number of countries on West coast of Africa into South Africa itself.The information on various Visa websites is confusing to say the least and seems to change depending on which site you go to. I am specifically looking at requirements for Australians but really asking if Regent will help with Visas On board, at my cost of course. Thanks in advance.

We are doing a Barcelona to Capetown cruise 6 November 2024 on Voyager. We stop at a few African countries ( west Africa) , some do not require Visas but some do. We are Australian citizens and will ONLY be doing ship excursions.Regent site seems to indicate we would be covered by the ship’s blanket visa if on ship tours but then goes on to say visas are the responsibility of the passenger. Quite confusing as we will only be in each port for less than 24 hrs. Has anyone ,particularly Aussies done this cruise recently and could advise ? countries we think need Visas are Cape Verde,Senegal,Ivory Coast,Ghana, Thanks in advance .

Thanks everyone. I suspected it would not be a quick refund process especially as we are in Australia. It just seemed to me that if only one credit card was used to pay for all excursions it could simply be refunded to that card.No one would dispute payment.

Just returned from Majestic cruise to NZ where we missed the first two ports due to weather. We had booked two ship excursions pre cruise for those ports using credit card ( over $600). The money was shown on our final statement as a refundable credit but we were told onboard that it would not be refunded to our credit card but rather a cheque would be received “ in due course”.That cheque would come from “head office”. This seemed unreasonable to me as we paid by credit card but now have to wait who knows how long to get refunded. Anyone have experience with this arrangement and how long did it take to receive cheque?

We have been to Santorini 4 times , it was always such a magic place. Sadly we would not go again after our last experience. We too had no option offered other than cable car return, a wait of 90 minutes in the heat with numerous people just pushing in.There were 4 ships in that day so far too many people to move around the streets at all. There was another excursion on a boat to thermal waters which was a lovely few hours. I would go again to see the excavation sites but not into either tourist town.

We found out from our taxi driver so we were ok but information was confusing and misleading. Glad you made it !!!

Really sorry, cannot find all that information now as we did not expect to get the upgrade. From memory the offer was made in June , the minimum bid was about $500 AUD and maximum about $2500 AUD so our bid was considered weak. Cruise 17 August Greece Intensive.

Just got notification of our successful upgrade bid on our 9 day Journey cruise starting soon from P1 Veranda Plus to a Club Continent Suite. Bid EACH was $950 Australian (approx $677 US) . Not expecting to get it as bid was low in our opinion but very happy we did. First time Azamara cruisers so can see it will be a lovely cabin.

We are on this cruise B2B in August with Athens in the middle and have been advised we will “probably” have to provide a negative test ( the ship will do the test for free). However since Azamara dropped the need for any test pre boarding it was unclear. The requirement is a Greece thing not Azamara but not clear if it applies to people who are already on board and may not even get off in Athens to sightsee.

We will be on Journey next month.

Azamara Newbie enquiry.Is the hair dryer adequate or do I need to bring my own ? Have been on other cruise ships where hairdryer was so “weak” it was next to useless.

But to show how confusing it is for Greece this is a quote from the official Greece tourism site Furthermore, as of Sunday 01.05.2022, all travellers arriving in Greece, regardless of their country of origin, are no longer required to display a valid certificate of vaccination or recovery from COVID-19, or evidence of a negative test result from SARS-CoV-2 infection (PCR or Rapid Antigen test).

You are correct, I confused the two.