Aardvaark

On 7/31/2021 at 10:41 AM, ski ww said:

Bon Voyage, fair winds & smooth seas. Nice to see cruise ships heading out sea again with passengers.

Wish we could stop in Victoria.  We need another dinner at Four Mile House.

What a wonderful greeting!!!  Thanks, and Best Wishes to all Cruisers.

Last week we took the Lake Express catamaran ferry across Lake Michigan from Muskegon to Milwaukee.  Highly recommended, saves going through Chicago.  Capacity 44 automobiles.

Aardvaark is booked 07 August 2021 Seven Day Alaska Explorer on Nieuw Amsterdam.

51 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

We are also very disappointed with the cancellation of our Tokyo to Athens B2B.  This was to be our first taste of Azamara and we were drooling!  Don't know what to do now as there is nothing to book in that area.

We've been cancelled, too.  I have to infer that no line is willing to do all the work and liaison with the multiple governments when they each might change thier minds at any time.  I don't like it, but I suppose I have to accept it.

22 minutes ago, trtog7 said:

Went to Azamara website. New list of cancelled cruises

Our Singapore to Athens May 13 2022 has been cancelled plus all Journeys itinerary previous.

Appears to be low vaccination rates in the area

I can't find this infomation.  Can you provide a link? 

Or perhaps it's just buried in one of the hundreds of pages that don't work right now.

Whitehorse sign taken while on Aurora Borealis tour, Feb 2019.  Temp -15*f.

They’re doing all they can to recoup lost revenue.

On 6/7/2021 at 6:48 PM, Rabo said:

The reason I care is that if a person who is not vaccinated comes down with COVID while on the cruise (through prior exposure or exposure during an excursion) everyone on the cruise can be affected. Remember what happened on the cruises (other than Azamara) at the beginning of the pandemic. 

And you think that the cruise ship cannot isolate them?  They're pretty good at isolating norovirus, etc.

6 hours ago, uktog said:

I wonder if like some other lines Azamara will say no Under 12s (or 18s) in the short term. I was looking at our case data here in Scotland where on first glance numbers have shot up.  However over 50% of cases are under 18 so they are the problem group.  Virtually all are asymptomatic but have got picked up during school testing.  It’s also good to see less than 8% are over 55 aka the stage of the population now at two jags.  Further evidence vaccines work.  So a simple precaution in the short term is to say no children until vaccines catch up with them safely.  

And just to add to the complexity of the virus,

CDC reports higher than expected cases of heart inflammation in young men after second dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine.

8 hours ago, Ithikan said:

Florida's governor has blocked any business or government entity from asking any person about their vaccine status.  Fine for asking is $5,000 per incident.  And it was announced today that Florida will no longer release daily virus data, moving to weekly updates.  Good thing the state enjoys so many sandy beaches, ideal for the burying of heads...

This thing started when some Florida stores said they would not admit un-vacinnated people.  That smacked of discrimination, and the cry went out that "you can't do that".  So now, by EO until 1 July, and by bills passed by the legislature and the senate, and signed by the governor, discrimination based on vaccination status is not allowed.

My next cruises don't touch the US, so I'll just wait it out.

Further, we've been vaccinated, so why do we care if others are not - they walk the streets among us.

Or, if this is true, we have another way.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/royal-caribbean-reverses-vaccination-mandate-for-passengers-on-cruises-departing-from-ports-in-florida-and-texas-as-tension-over-vaccine-passports-intensifies/ar-AAKK5uZ

8 minutes ago, mchell810 said:

I have had quite a bit of time in the last year (like so many others) so I decided to update the cabin reviews document. It started as a project just for myself; however, with cruises restarting soon 🤞I want to share this with others especially since I have benefited so much from the work of others.

 

I believe it was originally started by @uktog and then updated by @Grandma Cruising.  Many thanks to them for their great work which I used as a base.  I then pulled any information about specific cabins I found as I was back-reading threads on this board (did I mention I had free time?) 

 

I am posting it as a pdf and as a docx for greatest flexibility.  I have the file in pages as well so if someone would like it in that format, post here and I can add it.  I hope this is helpful.

 

Cabin Reviews 2021.pdf 1.21 MB · 1 download Cabin Reviews 2021.docx 185.71 kB · 1 download

Wow!!  Good work!

On 6/3/2021 at 1:13 AM, leerathje said:

I sent a letter to Governor Desantis letting him know how, as a tourist, I feel about his executive order.

 

L.

 

What Executive Order?  The anti-discrimination-by-vaccination status is state law.

All but one of our HA cruises have been on the smaller ships.  This one (Westerdam) would be second of the larger variety.  Still, we'll do this cruise if the virus requirements ever get sorted out to our satisfaction.  We'll keep watch here.

12 minutes ago, Aardvaark said:

Hmmm, you’re right.  So I sailed then on Rotterdam (nil) in 1995 to Alaska, and Rotterdam V a number of times thru the 20teens?

Nope.  That was "V" in 1995, so what was the Rotterdam recently sold?

1 hour ago, YXU AC*SE said:

 

Actually, that was V.  IV was scrapped in 1940.  🙂 

http://www.halpostcards.com/unofficial/rot4.html

 

Hmmm, you’re right.  So I sailed then on Rotterdam (nil) in 1995 to Alaska, and Rotterdam V a number of times thru the 20teens?

17 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

You mean Rotterdam V.

 

 

 

No.  I meant Rotterdam IV, the last of the ocean-crossing two-class ships, later converted to one-class and put into the cruise industry.  She is now a hotel ship in Rotterdam, her namesake port.

Our first HAL cruise was 1995 Rotterdam IV to Alaska from Vancouver. We’ve done Rotterdam V and we’ll do Rotterdam VI.  We like the smaller ships.  Our last cruise was on Azamara. What’s next?  Don’t know.

We were still RVing in 2005 when we stopped in Haines for a few days.  Beautiful, pristine area.  We took the fast ferry to Juneau for the day.  Then we saved several hundred miles of driving by boarding an Alaska Ferry for the trip around the point to Skagway. 

We like 7054, port side, between laundry and elevator/stairs, quiet.

IF you have a cruise terminating in Lisbon, look for a Douro river cruise beginning about then.  Perfect add-on to Intensive Spain and like cruises. 

25 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Currently an EO, but the EO stop gaps the law which, IIRC, goes into effect around the end of July.

Since signed into law to take effect 1 July 2021. 

You can read the official summary here:

https://www.flsenate.gov/PublishedContent/Session/2021/BillSummary/Military_MS2006ms_02006_docx.pdf

The Florida legislature has adjourned for this year, except a Special Session of 5 days will take up Florida Gaming laws beginning 17 May 2021.

2 hours ago, ChutChut said:

Nope. Affects private businesses, too. Abbott's (Texas) ban only affects government agencies unless a private business has (at any time) received one dime of taxpayer money.

Hmm.... after looking at it, you are correct.  It was touted as affecting Florida businesses but that wording is not in it.

There'll be pressure to amend the act, no doubt.

Others are also saying it has no effect on the cruise industry: 

Law experts: It's legal for cruise lines to ask for proof of vaccination, even if they sail in Florida

17 hours ago, Laminator said:

DeSantis ban on vaccine proof may send one company’s cruise ships out of Florida (yahoo.com) This makes it sound like NCL is considering cruises with vaccinated only pax! 

Desantis’ ban only affects government agencies.