terry&mike

Hubby and I are currently sailing on the Island Princess, 16 days around England, Ireland, Iceland and Greenland. Today we ported in Akureyri, Iceland and went on a privately arranged tour with goHusky (gohusky.is), Hiking with Husky - it was a highlight of our trip! We were met at the port by Gunni and Maria, along with one of their beautiful dogs. They drove us to their home overlooking the fjord where we met all 18 of their furry family. The four of us then hooked up to a dog each and went off on a beautiful nature hike for nearly an hour. The dogs are fun and high spirited, and Gunni and Maria are outgoing and interesting. We laughed, talked, walked and shared a great time in nature with dogs. We returned to their home for a tour of their property, and some more time with the full pack of Huskies. At the end, we were dropped back at the port. If you love dogs, and nature walks, you will love this outing. We did - it was truly a joy!

No, but I haven’t reached out to any transfer companies or the hotel yet. I will probably do so 3 months or so before my sailing.

I had the Free at Sea with 250 free minutes, and upgraded just myself to Unlimited Premium Wifi with Streaming. Did not have to purchase wifi for hubby (but probably will later as he doesn't like to share).

Thank you for the post. Good to hear! We board Island Princess on August 12 for the Iceland/Greenland sailing. Sailing over to join you via Queen Mary 2 from NY to Southampton on August 5. Keep the lights on for us!

My sailing in March 2023 on NCL Jewel still includes San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Of course, a change could still be coming our way, and if it does, we'll roll with it.

Are you talking about the Terminal Cruceros de Amador (Amador Cruise Terminal)? If so, that is on the Panama City side, around 25 minutes from Old Town, and easily reached by Uber or taxi. I am heading to the cruise terminal in Colon, across the peninsula, which is about 1 to 1.5 hours away from Panama City, depending on traffic.

Wonderful, thank you for the information.

On the river cruise portion of the trip, is your sailing direction Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh?

Looks like we will need a Multi Entry visa for Vietnam, as we will fly in to Hanoi from Thailand, and spend about 1.5 weeks in Vietnam, then fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia to join the Scenic tour, and a few days after that enter Vietnam again by river. Is the information you listed above the river entry points for Vietnam when sailing in the Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh direction? I am making a note of this as I plan to apply in early October.

Thank you. Just ordered this one for hubby.

Starting to look at the visa info for Cambodia for US citizens. Need to nail down the entry and exit points for the river cruise portion of the trip - does anyone have them handy for sailing in the Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh direction? The 21 day itinerary sounds nice, we are on the 11 day itinerary with Scenic, but are adding several stops on our own. We were in Vietnam in January 2020, and really enjoyed it, and are excited to be going back. We will fly in to Bangkok, and have 2 weeks traveling around Thailand, then fly over to Hanoi for a couple of nights. Next we'll go to Lan Ha Bay (near Halong Bay, and same scenery, but not packed with hundreds of boats) for a couple nights on a boat over Christmas. We'll then spend 6 days in Hoi An, and then fly over to meet the Scenic tour starting with New Years Eve in Siem Reap for a couple of days, and then board the ship for 7 nights and sail down to Ho Chi Minh City. Home after HCM.

You need the BinaxNow proctored test, which is the one with the red stripe on the box, not the other one. You take it with a proctor over a zoom type call, and your results are posted to the app and sent to you. We have had good success in having the front desk of our hotels print out a copy of the results document for us.

We handled our own air, as our Mekong cruise will be part of a longer trip we are taking in Asia. Used miles for Business over and back, and booked it several months ago. I do have a backup plan, in case Scenic isn't operating in Asia come December.

Agree. We have sailed with both and that is also my take away. Both lovely experiences, but I'd give a slight edge to Scenic. I should correct that to say that I give the edge to Scenic on the actual sailing. As far as booking communication goes, pre-trip information, and that type of thing, AMA is by far the front runner.

Yes, please keep us posted as to your October trip. We are scheduled on Scenic (parent company of Emerald) for December of this year, and are hopeful that all goes forward.

We have had good success using the proctored tests from our hotel rooms in several countries. The wifi is usually stable enough to last the call, the room is quiet enough to be able to hear the instructions from the person monitoring, and there is enough space to set up a comfortable place where the phone can view your test for the waiting period. Hotels have also been happy to give a print out of the results, as well. That would have been our choice had we had an overnight in Southampton, but with going directly from one ship to another, we weren't trusting that we could find a place quiet enough and with a signal that wouldn't drop. It's very frustrating to lose connection during the results waiting time and have to throw the test out. One change we noticed in June on the Binax Now proctored tests is that there is a person who monitors the test while you take it, and then a different person comes on the line at 15 minutes and goes over the results with you. In the past the same person came back on the line. They tell you to ensure that the actual test lies within view of your device for the 15 minute wait time, so I imagine someone is monitoring the test during that time.

Very interesting, and I had not noticed this change. Last weekend, it still showed the $60 test at pier option for my cruise departure from Southampton on the Princess web site, and in looking now, that option is gone. I am very happy I locked in our appointments at the Regenerative Wellness Center, as I have a feeling they will become rather busy, given this change.

QM2 transatlantic sailings have notoriously poor internet. If you could even make the connection, I don't think you would be able to hold it for the 20 minutes or so to complete the entire call/test. I'll use a proctored test to board the QM2 from my hotel room in NYC, but I wouldn't rely on it for the second sailing.

Hi Bruce, I'm in a similar situation as you - we disembark QM2 on August 12 morning, and embark Island Princess on August 12 afternoon - so I have been researching the options for this. QM2, at the moment, is only providing testing onboard if you present yourself as symptomatic, and then they will test. If you only want to test to have a document showing negative, even by paying a fee, they are not offering this service. My guess is that they don't want to encourage extra testing onboard. And if you present yourself as (fake) symptomatic to obtain the test, they will make you quarantine until your symptoms are gone. So that one is out for us. Princess offers testing at the pier, at $60 pp, but I have read that the lines for testing are very, very long as many people are traveling internationally and using this option for convenience. The last option is to arrange for a test in Southampton, which is the option we have chosen. We booked tests with the Regenerative Wellness Clinic at Westquay Mall in Southampton for 10am on August 12. We will disembark the QM2, head to the clinic, have our tests, wait for our results, and then head over to the Island Princess. We were able to book appointments online, and the cost was 39L each.

Once you complete the check in, your boarding pass will print with the correct date. My sailing showed August 4 all the way through check in, but at the end when I printed boarding pass it states August 5.

Hubby and I have tests booked at the Regenerative Clinic at the mall in Southampton for the morning we board. Was easy to do online, and we like knowing it’s booked.

I am on your same sailing, and online check in opened this morning.

We also always keep euros on hand, as we visit countries that use this currency frequently. As a matter of fact, I purchased $1000 usd worth of euros yesterday when the rate dropped so low against the dollar. I'll just keep it in my mad money drawer and draw on it for the next few trips as they come up. We like to hit the ground with some local cash in our pockets for any country we are traveling to. Love it for small purchases, street vendors, tips.

Thank you, I will reach out to them. I've used Uber successfully around Panama City on land trips in the past, but think I want to have something pre-arranged.

Can anyone recommend a private transfer company for a transfer from Panama City Old Town to the Colon cruise port?