groundloop

I tend to agree. I've found a travel agent who does a pretty good job of taking care of my requests and also throws in a bit of on-board credit as an incentive.

You don't upload test results to Carnival, all you have to do is select the proper answer on their website indicating that you've been vaccinated. Your Covid test results will be shown to an agent at the port, as well as your vaccination card. OR if you chose to use VeriFly you will upload an image of your vaccination card and your Covid test results to VeriFly and you'll simply show your VeriFly app to the agent at the port and save a bit of time.

That could actually simplify things for us then since we want to spend a few days exploring San Francisco before our next cruise. I'll just do the e-med test now (which will definitely be positive) and then not have to worry about how we're going to get tested and print test results from a hotel.

Now that I managed to catch Covid on our cruise that ended a week ago I'm thinking ahead to our Hawaii cruise in 2 1/2 months. I know that most of the time people won't be testing positive that far removed from having Covid, but it's not totally unheard of either (thankfully we've both been vaxxed and double boosted so our symptoms aren't real bad). I don't want to take any chances with not being able to go on our next cruise so am thinking it would be a good idea for us to get a Document of Recovery letter. If anyone else has been there / done that - what are the steps involved in obtaining one. I'm seeing conflicting information on the internet (no surprise there) so any information from someone with firsthand experience would be appreciated.

True, but I'd still do it to save time at check-in. I hadn't wanted to mess with VeriFly before so just showed all my paperwork at check-in. For my most recent cruise I went ahead and used VeriFly and found that it really did speed things along while checking in at the port.

At the moment masks are "recommended", but not mandatory. As a side note we just got back from a cruise and all 3 of us caught Covid. From the timing it's pretty much certain we got it either on board or on an excursion..... I feel like total crap and right now I'm kicking myself in the butt for not masking up when out in public.

I'm going with the assumption that the rules are uniform fleetwide. We just got off Eurodam with refillable water bottle, mine is aluminum and my daughter's is sturdy plastic, no issues at all taking them on board so long as they're empty when you go through security.

Why even bother worrying about this? It would cost a fortune to change out the locks on each and every cabin door for them to be able to read a wrist band, it's just not going to happen.

I've always had good luck cruising in the fall. The weather was nice every time, kids are in school, etc. The one and only time we ran into REALLY bad weather was in February, right before the Covid shutdown - coming back to Port Canaveral from our final stop at Grand Turk we spent 4 or 5 hours in tropical storm force winds and 18 - 20 ft. seas.

I'm assuming Holland America has similar policies to Carnival since they're a sister company. My daughter recently removed her cousin from her booking and the net cost to her was over $400. Definitely just handle this as a "no show", and get a little bit of money back. You'll have to pay the full fare before the final payment date and put all of your dad's information in for online check-in as though he's going. After he doesn't show you'll get back his portion of taxes, port fees, etc.

You'll get no argument from me that it's a lot more hassle than it used to be, but it has to be recognized that various countries are doing what they can to ease the spread of Covid and protect their citizens the best that they can. Until this damned virus goes away we're going to have to endure some inconvenience in order to enjoy our preferred form of vacationing.

Be more specific about your situation and someone may be able to help. What port are you sailing from, where will you be stopping in Canada, where are you flying from / to, etc. etc. etc.

Heads up for anyone who may have been on this cruise: We got off of Eurodam yesterday and my daughter was feeling a bit ill after we got home so she did a self covid test and it was positive. She's been vaxxed and boosted so only very mild symptoms. My wife and I both tested and we're negative. From the timing it's pretty certain that she caught it on the ship or else one of our excursions.

Yes, they did that to us for the sailing we're on right now with no explanation as to why. It really sucked for our stop at Ketchikan, after completing our shore excursion we had no time at all to explore (although HAL did save me money in that my wife had no time to shop 😁 )

I totally agree. I find it somewhat amusing that during the pandemic we were told by economists that as we recovered there would be shortages and inflation, and now that that's happening everyone is shocked. I'm seeing this period in time as an excellent opportunity to buy investments at bargain basement discounts.

It's uniform across the entire Carnival fleet. There are two things you need to do - watch the safety video on your stateroom TV and go to your muster station to check in and watch a brief demonstration of how to put on your life jacket.

The Eurodam is no different in that respect than any other cruise ship I've ever been on. When you get into 8 to 10 foot seas it's going to get a bit rough, there's just no way around that fact. If that guy can't handle a little bit of rockin' and rollin' he needs to stick with land based vacations. Funny story - right before the covid shutdown I was on Carnival Elation. The last evening there was an 'ask the captain' Q & A session where a lady asked if it "was always this rough" (up to that point the cruise had been the smoothest I'd ever been on). That night we got into tropical storm force winds and 20 ft. seas..... I'm sure that woman never set foot on a ship again.

So it sounds like we happened to find a date in a lull. I get the impression the crew is still geared up for the larger crowds and don't quite know what to make of such an "empty" ship..... it's impossible to eat breakfast without constantly being accosted by servers looking to fill my coffee, pour me some juice or water, etc. 😁 But hey, I'll take that over being ignored.

I'm going to amend my previous post. When I did my little walkabout we were sailing at about 21 knots in calm waters. Overnight we got into some rougher seas and I could feel a strong vibration with a frequency of maybe 3 or 4 per second which woke me up a couple of times - I'm in an aft facing balcony on deck 5. It's my guess that the propellers were cavitating a little bit as the ship rocked. Now that the seas have calmed a bit that vibration is gone.

I just talked to another crewmember and she said the past two weeks Eurodam has been packed. I guess we just got lucky. I'd been checking the HAL website occasionally and up until a few weeks ago it looked like this cruise was going to be pretty full. That's what made me curious.

Well gee, thanks for bursting my bubble!!!!!!!! I'm on Eurodam right now.

Just wondering what the accepted etiquette is for dirty dishes in a cabin. I've always sailed Carnival before, and while I find it rather unsightly to see dirty plates and half eaten burgers sitting in the hallway I've read where John Heald has said that that's what is preferred so that cabin stewards don't have to spend time taking care of it. Is that the same on HAL, or do we leave plates etc. in the cabin for the steward to take out?

I'm on Eurodam at this very moment sailing toward Alaska. The ship didn't feel very full to us so I asked our server about it, she said there are only around 1200 guests on board. I'd have thought we'd be packed right now, any wild guesses?

I'm on Eurodam as we speak, just took a stroll down to deck 1 and went as far aft as possible. There is no more noise or vibration down there than on any other deck (which is to say just about none). I obviously couldn't go in anyone's cabin to see if that was any different but I can't see where it would be. And as far as that old thread you found, it seems as though some people just like to complain and create drame.

My daughter recently cancelled her cousin an a HAL cruise (I'm going on the assumption that all the CCL brands handle this in a similar fashion). It cost her over $400 to do the cancellation. What was maddening was that she started out as a single, added the cousin after the fact (for which a fee was charged), then went back to her original status as a single and the cruise line sucked out another huge fee. So yes, do nothing, say nothing, and just tell them at check-in that the second guest hasn't arrived yet. Worst case is that they charge the fee, best case is a little bit of money will be refunded for unused port charges. NOTE, to do that you'll need to make sure that the second guest's information is completed in the online check-in just as though they were going to cruise.