tosteve1

Thanks for your help and suggestions 

Looks like it was finally accepted. Scan, change file type, re-size and finally accepted. Fingers crossed! I can’t imagine trying to do this without a little bit of computer knowledge! 

Thanks for the idea, I’ll try the laptop!

It seemed to load the portrait ok, just not the passport data page. Maybe it's an iPad issue?

Is anyone having trouble uploading photos to the application? The passport photo keeps getting rejected due to file size. What can I do about that?

The Atla got past Passau and we are on our way to Krems. Hopefully smooth sailing from here!

5 hours ago, Izengolf said:

Cruisemapper shows the Viking Atla docked in Lindau? Did you end mup making it from Regensburg?

We left Regensburg yesterday evening for Passau. We stopped just before Passau due to high water. At the moment we are on an excursion so I don't have an update on the plan from here. Not raining at present.

We were unable to pass a bridge on the way to Passau. Rain has stopped for the moment so hopefully a solution will be found today while we are on our excursions!

Currently on Viking Atla in Regensburg. Steady cold rain. Not the best for walking tours but we are feeling pretty good about Danube water levels!

On 9/10/2023 at 12:07 PM, highplanesdrifters said:

Will be in Venice AND Athens in early November. Fingers crossed that the crowds have died down.

We were in Venice in November last year after our Med cruise. Cool but comfortable. Not crowded at all so no problem getting into restaurants, museums at all. Apparently there had been some flooding just prior to our visit but none while we were there. We fell in love with the city.

Have only been on Disney x 2,  Princess x1, Silversea x1and HAL x2. Leaving in a week for the Caribbean on the Rotterdam. We enjoy the HAL pinnacle class ships very much with the music walk. For us it was a game changer. The smaller HAL ship, Zuiderdam, was disappointing in terms of entertainment. Specialty restaurants on HAL are not worth it except for Tamarind. Princess seemed very traditional and nothing stood out. Disney….overpriced and children are not my thing anymore! Silversea had an awesome itinerary and was all inclusive which was great.But…entertainment was minimal and service overrated. Not 6 star as advertised! 
We are booked on the Solstice in Asia March 2024 so will be excited to finally get on Celebrity. We were looking at Viking and Oceania for that cruise but preferred the Celebrity itinerary.

From my reading all the lines have cut back and are not what they were. Itinerary and entertainment are most important to us.

Onboard Spirit now. No testing required if fully vaccinated. We both tested voluntarily prior to boarding though. Masks are rare onboard or on tour buses. No mention of masking or testing on board yet at all. We are both fully vaxxed and feel safe. The weather is beautiful here and hopefully we will spend most of our time outdoors to further mitigate our risk.

Greece has dropped pre-cruise testing for fully vaccinated passengers! Yee-haw!

Now if Greece would only get its act together before we board in 8 days…

Greece has its own, more restrictive requirements, as well! Hoping they change before our October 12 cruise from Athens on Spirit.

7 hours ago, TLCOhio said:

Getting to your international cruise is not as easy as we might remember from the "Good, Old Days".  Right?

 

From the Wall Street Journal earlier this past week they had this headline: “Worst Flight Delays at the World’s Busiest Airports: See the List" with this sub-headline: "Most of the 100 busiest airports have had at least 20% of their flights delayed in recent weeks.”

 

Here are a few of their reporting highlights: “Flying for many has become full of delays, cancellations and other travel woes, but there are some airports that are worse than others,  At two Canadian airports, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, more than half of departing flights were late.”

 

In later August, as we are headed to the Eastern Canada Maritime Provinces on a Tauck land tour, we have our flights to and back through the Toronto main airport in going to Halifax.  Should we be concerned and worried about this Toronto airport?

 

Also from their report: "High on the list for U.S. airports was Florida’s Orlando Airport, New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and the Baltimore/BWI,  Not all of the large airports on the list are struggling. For example, at Tokyo International Airport, 8.3% of scheduled flights have been delayed."

 

Also very high on this listing for high numbers of delays, in order after Toronto and Montreal were: Frankfurt, Paris de Gaulle, Munich, Amsterdam Schiphol, London Heathrow ,London Gatwick, Vancouver and Athens.   Any flights planned through these key Europe airports?

 

Full story at:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-worst-flight-delays-at-the-worlds-busiest-airports-see-the-list-11658889826

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

AFRICA?!!?: Fun, interesting visuals, plus travel details from this early 2016 live/blog. At 53,050 views. Featuring Cape Town, South Africa’s coast, Mozambique, Victoria Falls/Zambia and Botswana's famed Okavango Delta.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2310337

Terry, we just flew through YYZ today. The only issue was the line through US customs was 45 minutes. Otherwise things were smooth and virtually normal. Masks are still required in the airport itself but most places in Toronto are wide open. We had a great 5 day visit. 

Chase and American Express are going head to head. Centurion lounges are awesome. I have both cards so hope to benefit from their rivalry!

Just returned from the UK to the US today. Very relieved no testing required today although I did waste $100 to purchase tests before heading overseas. Airports and train stations are jammed. Masks are rare. The traveling public is returning with a vengeance! Hopefully, this trend will continue!

16 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I will give you an A+ for that answer.  

 

 

A good, logical reason.  

 

 

I wonder about this statement.  Are you able to supply a source for such thinking?

I can’t give you a specific reference to the immune tolerance idea but it is touched upon in the Times summary from 3/29 as well as several legitimate medical podcasts I have listened to. Dr. Paul Offitt is an authority to listen to. He is a scientist first and not a politician. If the evidence clearly shows benefit to another booster he will support it. The Israeli data has not been reviewed yet. And corporate CEOs should not be the ones recommending more and more boosters!

Spacing between shots/boosters can make a difference. Many scientists believe the 3 week spacing between the two initial Pfizer doses was much too short. A better response is seen when the interval is longer and many countries did space them out. Probably true for boosters too.  And there are reasons to believe that frequent boosters may induce immune tolerance. I certainly don’t see a reason for Americans to rush to get boosted when Covid levels are so low here. If traveling in the next month that’s a different story. As with most Covid topics, the right answer is “we don’t know”!

Technical issues in my previous post…what I meant to say was: the improvement in antibody levels is known to last only several months. Right now Covid prevalence in the US is low (always subject to change).  We are traveling again in September and so plan to get boosted in August. Hopefully by that time we will have a vaccine more effective against the current variants instead of a booster against the original virus. 

1 hour ago, cruiseej said:

 

But there are questions about timing if you're aiming to travel later in the year. We have a land trip to Italy booked for October, and a Silversea cruise to Antarctica booked for December (hopefully this third time, after cancellations in 2020 and 2020, will be the charm!) So when should we get our fourth shots? If we get them now, and their effectiveness wanes over time like the previous shots, by October (7 months) and December (9 months) might mean we'd have pretty diminished protection. Will we be able to get a fifth shot (3rd booster) in another 5-6 months? Who knows? So as of now, we're thinking we should hold off on getting a 4th shot now, and wait a few months so our boost will come closer to our travels later in the year. Or are we increasing our risks now by not getting our second booster as soon as possible? Damned if you do; damned if you don't! 

10% of asymptomatic patients who are tested pre-op for elective surgery are positive. In my clinic we are running 30-50% positivity rate on children with colds. Being on on a cruise ship where 1% of people are positive sounds safe to me!

If I see another story about Petri dishes 🤬! Or “perfect storms, for that matter…

Fully support vaccination but I will be very surprised if a vaccine requirement for domestic travel ever happens. Unlikely to have any significant effect on Covid and if it were attempted, it’ll be reversed in the next election. Choose your battles.