Snowrose

The ship was apparently using tenders. And one of the passengers was paraplegic. It could be that there was no safe way for them to board from the Coast Guard vessel, either because of needed equipment or winds/waves.

We have no problem taking private tours but we always make sure they're returning hours before the ship would be leaving.

On 2/17/2024 at 8:05 AM, rapister said:

 

Err.... a few countries are now officially in recession.

UK included.

 

So yes, there will be cost cutting.

US currently has the strongest economy in the world. Personally, I think it's because of the new Infrastructure projects keeping industries busy. Biden taking a page out of the Depression's Works Progress Association (WPA) to keep things moving.

On 2/12/2024 at 11:03 AM, love4god said:

Just curious, I wonder how much food changes from ship to ship on the same cruise line. I'm sure they're all being supplied the same bulk ingredients at the same quality level across the line.  However, does one ship have a better executive chef or staff than the others?  Or, is it like a chain restaurant where so much is mass/factory kitchen produced and delivered that it's basically the same.

We're at NCL platinum, so quite a few cruises. We've found that food quality is mostly crew-dependent, though of course prices forcing lower cost items will make a difference too. But it really does depend on the experience and abilities of the chefs and kitchen staff.

Heard from family in Sydney. The power was out, lots of trees and power lines down. The family homes were okay, even the ones on the bluffs, but there are places missing roofs, houses moved off their foundations.

It'll take a while to get running again as electricity poles have been broken off at the bases.

22 minutes ago, hallux said:

 

Yeah, that wasn't confirmed, though. The prime minister refused to confirm it even yesterday. But now it's been announced.

"Cruise passengers will not have to do pre-board tests or prove they have been vaccinated." The Canadian Press

Little quick on the draw, there. They just announced dropping the requirements minutes ago. It ends as of this coming Saturday, October 1st.

We got off a NE cruise the other week. We live in Canada and work with the exchange rate often. While there, I saw a shop treating $4 American like it was $4.75CAD. That's an exchange rate of about 1.19 when it should be about 1.36 per US dollar, right now.

$4US should be about $5.45CAD.

And yes, even though we don't use cash at home we still carried some Canadian cash to use in small shops that might not take a debit card.

14 hours ago, dmlrra said:

Going on Joy when you come in tomorrow. Just curious how bad vibration is in aft since that is where we are. Thank you for your reports. Very informative. Enjoy your last evening!

We were on the cruise before this and rode out the end of Hurricane Earl one evening. The ship was amazingly stable after taking on ballast and setting out the stabilizers. We did gain a few new creaks in the walls after that night and did have one maybe 20 degree tilt sideways as we crossed past the lead waves and back into calmer waters, but that was it.

15 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Did you see any hints of fall colors during this cruise?

We were on the cruise before mking, there were a few branches turning color here and there but not that many.

17 hours ago, ZoeyRox said:

It was definitely a confusing experience. The letter said all excursions go at the earliest time, but the cruise directors’ announcement made it seem like they were releasing the excursions by deck. We decided to ignore what she was saying and we’re able to bypass most of the nightmare. Also, the agent barely looked at our passports and seemed like they were just trying g to get through everyone. It didn’t seem very thorough. 
 

I really feel for the non-US citizens. Their process took forever and we still saw people waiting in line when we returned from exploring the area. The process wasted their day.
 

This is our first cruise so we didn’t know what to expect, but hope this is not the norm. 

Honestly, I count you as lucky. My experience with customs on either side of the border is you do exactly as you're told and always follow the rules. The CBP doesn't take kindly to people who don't follow rules, and when coming into the country even US citizens can be roughly treated if you don't follow the rules.

I don't want to be roughly treated and since I had been crossing the border often pre-covid, I didn't want to have any issues with them that would flag my passport to be looked at more closely every time I cross.

20 hours ago, Travelers56 said:

We will be on the Pearl next week from Quebec City,  and in the same boat (so to speak)....as our first US port is Portland.

Just being curious...... did anyone see if CBP had any Global Entry lanes for US Citizens?

I know-  I'm being terribly optimistic

US citizens still had to leave according to deck - I think to ease congestion at the elevators. Except for Haven. Haven could get off when they wanted, I believe.

On 9/13/2022 at 9:52 PM, kattybiz said:

I'm also on this cruise, and I heard them call for all passengers with shore excursions, then for certain decks several times for both US and non-US citizens.  We're in the Haven and were done at... 

Each call was for all passengers for shore excursions on deck numbers (whatever)... and then they would call the decks with shore excursions that were allowed to go ashore. 

That's what we heard.

On 9/13/2022 at 6:20 PM, PATRLR said:

Just curious, is this the first NCL ship stopping in Portland this season?  

Yes, it was the first stopping at Portland.

16 hours ago, dandelpino said:

 

I don't mean to criticize since I can imagine it was a hectic day for everyone onboard. But I can't understand why you would choose to follow the general calls over the PA when you had already called guest services and requested a specific accommodation because the general instructions did not work for you. You asked for and received specific instructions from guest services that was applicable to your specific situation.

 

Why did you choose not to go to the terminal at 12:30 and then meet your excursion group at the terminal as instructed? Is it really fair to call the ship staff incompetent when you didn't follow the instructions given specifically to you for your unique situation?

They were calling those who were on excursions by deck number, no matter what your immigration status was. They had not called our deck yet and were constantly admonishing people not to go down before your deck was called.

The accomodation they gave us was for me to get off with the Canadians, but they still hadn't called our deck when we passed 2PM - even though the meeting time for the excursion was 1:30PM. Guess I wasn't clear on that.

We did end up getting off before we ever heard our deck called, but then we ended up in the Canadian line for another hour.

For those interested in tours from Halifax be aware that See Sights "Tours" of Peggy's Cove are not a tour, they are a shuttle. They pick you up (hopefully they send you the right address for pick up, we got sent to the furthest terminal), they bring you to Peggy's Cove, and then drop you off for 2.5 hours while they drive an hour or so back to Halifax to pick up more people that they'll also drop off for 2.5 hours.

On 9/8/2022 at 2:43 PM, Sailing12Away said:

I've only seen 3 children on the ship. Haven doesn't feel crowded at all.

We spoke to the F&B Director, Ricardo. He said there were 17 children on board under the age of 18.

2 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Walking off the ship without an excursion still took forever. The lines were long for both US (left side) as well as non US. We got off a little before 2pm only because we are in Haven. Never experienced something like this before.

When we got to the line (without our floor ever being called) there was no one on the US side and that side was being used for wheelchair access, for maybe 10 people in wheelchairs, over the time we were standing in line.

I'll start by saying DH and I are Gold status and will be Platinum at the end of this cruise. We waited thru 3 covid cancellations to take this cruise.

I am American and DH is Canadian. In the 15 years we've been cruising with Norwegian we've never had an issue with any embarkations. DH would always get off with me and the the Americas because that was what we'd been told to do on our first cruise. We never had any issues.

Well, this time we are on a cruise involving both our nations. We had no issues with either excursions, or disembarkation/embarkation in Canadian ports. But today as we crossed into Portland, ME, USA, everything fell apart. US Immigration decided they wanted to see everyone face to face, even if you weren't getting off the ship. The ship sent out a paper showing disembarkation for those with excursions beginning at 12:30 - but US citizens were to go to Cagneys and non-US were to go to then port terminal (even if passengers weren't getting off the ship).

As I'm mobility challenged and our excursion was to meet at 1:15 at the theater on Deck 7 that was a big problem for us, so DH called 00 as offered on the letter to find out what would be the best option for us. The NCL person said that we should go to the terminal with the non-US and we could meet up with our tour there, as they would be meeting at the terminal before boarding our bus to Kennebunkport. There was only one problem, they started calling excursion passengers BY DECK and citizenship, but only 2 decks at a time. They started with Decks 5, 8, and 15. Then much later 9 and 14. Then they announced they would pause the US citizen disembarkation because it was getting overwhelmed. We waited past the 1:30 meeting time for our excursion, knowing the excursion would wait for us. At 1:45 they finally called the US-citizens for excursions for decks 11 and 12. Then they got back and said that non-US citizens shouldn't go to the gangway. At 2PM, they opened things up to all US-citizens wishing to go ashore. Still no call for non-US citizens from floors 11 and 12 with excursions! (Let me assure you we were listening to the announcements on the TV, so there was no way we missed the announcement.)

At that point DH called 00 again. He was told that ALL excursions had been called at the same time at the very beginning - which was totally untrue! They'd been calling excursions by floors and had made that point with each announcement. At that point we gave up following the announcements and went down to the gangway. We waited in line with the non-US citizens as more than half an hour slipped by.

At 3PM we finally stood in front of Immigration. He was shocked to see me in that line, being a US citizen. We told him how NCL had been calling excursions by long separated decks and so we were pretty sure we had missed our 1:30 excursion.

The CBP agent told us : "Next time you tell the ship that CBP says you need to be at the beginning of the non-citizen line."

Long story not at all short, our excursion was long gone thanks to the Joy releasing excursion passengers by decks instead of by excursion time. We talked to an excursion official at the terminal. Estzher said she would refund our excursion fees.

It better be in On Board Credit!

15 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Breakfast in our room is one of our favorite perks. The butler told me they had no hash browns. I call BS... Will attempt to get my fried potato fix tomorrow I suppose.

Hi! DH and I are also on the Joy. Just wanted to say, we were also told no hashbrowns yesterday morning when we were at The Local for breakfast. They only had home fries.

It's called Quebec City. Quebec is the entire province.

You MUST have a negative test before boarding a Canada bound cruise ship! Antigen within 2 DAYS, midnight to midnight. PCR within 72 hours, exactly. Other cruisers have said 72.5 hours won't be accepted.

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise#pre-embarkation-test

3 hours ago, Fisical1 said:

For Canada (Alaska Cruise) Did they change the testing day to 3 from 2 days prior to the cruise?  I thought it was 2 days prior.

They expanded to allow antigen tests. The antigen tests are to be taken within 2 days of boarding, the PCR tests must be within an exact 72 hour window. If you try to board 72.5 hours after the test (theorectically) you will not be allowed to board, so be sure you leave plenty of time.

@kasimir I was answering a specific question about how getting the tests work for entering Canada. Having read the info extremely carefully, because I'm a dual citizen that may often travel across the border, I simply wanted to help make things clearer for those who are facing the same testing issues I am.

I'm just here to help folks when I can.

23 minutes ago, funfetti said:

We cruise in October and I am feeling... defeated? Like I am leading my newly vaccinated toddler and senior parents directly into a cramped germ warehouse? I don't know.  We chose cruising over flying *because* they had enhanced safety protocols. If I could mandate that everyone with vacation-ruining communicable diseases be allowed FCC/refunds and be forced to stay home, heck yes I would do that!  Flu? Stay home! Norovirus? Stay home! Covid? Stay home!

 

It's especially frustrating because ships are still reporting staffing issues. NCL kids clubs are still fully closed for under 5s. Ships aren't ready to welcome more people back.

 

Our TA reported they haven't received official notice of the change, so no word on potential cancellation FCC or refunds based on the policy change.

 

With any of these diseases there is a day or more that you're symptom-free and will test negative, so it's impossible for everyone to actually know in advance that they are sick. You will always run this risk then, no matter what the policy is.