Snowrose

4 hours ago, zjc said:

I’m very confused, if I leave from Seattle and the cruise calls in Canada do we need to test?

Canada requires testing, so you do have to test. Up to 2 days out for antigen, up to 72 hours out for PCR.

NOTE the specific wording, so it doesn't trip you up. 2 DAYS, so midnight cut off for antigen. And 72 HOURS, which cuts off at the exact 72 hour mark, so you want to make sure that something like a 2 hour delay at boarding won't cut you off.

Also, you must fill out vaccination proof and info on the ArriveCAN app prior to docking at a Canadian port.

Interestingly, people coming from Canada appear to now have different terms, dependent on room-type and length of cruise. Fortunately, since we have a balcony and a 7-11 day cruise, we still get 2 meals free, up to $89US value.

4 hours ago, goldmom said:

I would think that Canada will relax their protocols soon.  If I'm reading the government web site correctly, you no longer need to show a negative test if you are fully vaccinated and entering Canada.  It does use the term "entering by land, air, or water"  which is a little unclear since as  of now cruise ship passengers to Canada still need to provide a negative test.

All we can do is wait and see what happens.

Not true. You still must have a test, even if vaccinated. 2 days out for an antigen test. 3 days out for a PCR test.

Pre-embarkation COVID-19 testing

All travellers 5 years of age or older must have a COVID-19 test to board a cruise ship in Canada or to board a cruise ship that will dock in Canada at any point on the cruise.

Proof of a professionally administered or observed negative antigen test taken no more than 2 days before you’re scheduled to board your ship

• the 2-day window does not depend on the time of day the test was taken or the time that you board.

Proof of a valid negative molecular test taken within 72 hours of your scheduled boarding time

• for example, if you’re scheduled to board at 11:00 am on Friday, your test must have been taken any time after 10:59 am on Tuesday.

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise

We have a husband/wife team doing posts on both boards. Makes for more conversations  as some folks have never heard of CC.

They told us it could be months, because so many people were cancelling. We got our smaller FCCs back in 3 days. Our larger amounts were back within a week.

Sounds like someone selected the entire email list instead of the list specific to those with Dec 31, 2021 FCCs. I got the first email too and was wondering about it as we'd already used up my FCCs for a new cruise.

We were told our credits wouldn't come back for one or more months. We got some back within days and all our credits back within a week. That was about 2 weeks ago.

We've already rebooked using the credits. Mine were all used for the booking. DH had extra and they did split them for him, so he still has about $900 leftover from the $2300 he was originally credited.

Just for an outsider point of view, we've done 5 or 6 cruises from NYC and I've never found that area of Manhattan scary. Right around the cruise port, there's basically no one except for the passengers and cruise employees. And you're just several city blocks from Times Square, Central Park (a few more blocks),  and the train station, and the police, so it was pretty quiet. I wasn't at all afraid of going across the street to the taxi stand. Stay to the main streets in that area and you're fine.

Call NCL and ask to speak to the Peace of Mind group. Tell them why You want to cancel under their Peace of Mind policy. Seems to me that being forced into a 1 week cruise because of COVID when you booked 2 weeks isn't giving you peace of mind.

18 hours ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

11202 will look just like 11802 (balcony forward of an angled balcony). It's not PrivaSea even though the deck plan has the symbol. The picture in post #8 shows the balcony for 11802.

It looks like there's a heavier divider between the balcony and the one behind it. That might be why they've called it PrivaSea.

10 minutes ago, Lou33 said:

Has anybody been successful in getting an exception?

 

We've had several cruises cancelled and we would have welcomed the opportunity to "lift and shift" them to the following year.  Or even have the opportunity to apply our 35% FCC to a February 2023 cruise, even though the price is higher than our cancelled cruise.  

 

At this point, since our FCC expires in one week, and the prices for 2022 cruises are inflated so that our 35% FCC is basically worthless.  We will probably just lose our FCC, and NCL may lose a customer for life.

You might want to check on that expiry date. Information I saw posted here on CC said that those credits had been extended to 2023, though the listing on My NCL wouldn't be changing.

We just booked 11202 on the Joy, which is also listed as a Privasea balcony. Can't really get a good picture of the side of the ship to get an idea of what the balcony would look like.

They slowed down the return to change crew and get supplies at GSC. Then they'll slow track up the coast to avoid the worst of the seas from the slowly exiting winds from the previous snowstorm.

Could also be there were issues with the pier or longshoremen being available for other dates that slowed them down from their original estimates of an early return.

Canada's pages still say they're a go for cruising in spring 2022...

We cancelled our fully paid cruise last week. We were told it could take 1 to 2 months to get our FCCs back, but we got the smaller ones back within days and our larger ones back a week later.

1 minute ago, Laszlo said:

As soon as possible? The storm will be long gone by the time they arrive on Wednesday

You apparently haven't checked the NOAA wind forecasts. The near-hurricane force winds will admittedly be around Boston by Tuesday, but the gale force winds will still be there. And I can tell you from personal experience with Hurricane Sandy that the leading edge of high waves can go from NY all the way to the outer banks of NC for a storm that size.

9 minutes ago, shof515 said:

according to marine traffic, the Gem is heading to Great Stirrup Cay were the Star currently is. I wonder if NCL will be transferring any crew from the Gem to the Star similar to what Royal is doing

Quite possibly. It's working for Royal (for now, atleast), and if they're concerned about bridge and ship crew then they might need to do that. It would be a bad idea to head back to NYC as quickly as possible, as the snowstorm has near hurricane force winds at its core, which wouldn't be a pleasant ride.

15 hours ago, WYB! said:

The production shows are back on and they have been as entertaining as ever. They haven’t missed a beat.

 

They only perform 1 show a night but I think that is because passenger attendance is low. We could all fit in the theater but only about 40% (200 people) are going to the shyow.

 

- WYB

You say the production shows are back. That implies they were gone for a while. There must have been a reason. And only one show, could be there isn't enough cast for two.

And while passengers seem healthy, you're not getting reports on the crew. But the ports would be getting reports on crew, and that is most likely why the ports denied Gem docking. Remember, people on the cruise before you reported lots of coughing and runny noses by the end of their cruise - and I think someone did report they came back COVID positive.

On 1/14/2022 at 11:19 PM, BirdTravels said:

We're all-in for our next couple of cruises. If they get cancelled, so be it. We are more than willing to roll with the changes. We are not as inflexible as others. We have no expectations other than getting on a ship and having a good time. If the ship actually stops somewhere, bonus! 

 

 

Bird, that's unfair. Just because someone cruises for different reasons than you do does not make them inflexible. Personally, I cruise for the ports but also enjoy the ocean. And having weathered both a nor'easter and going out in Hurricane Sandy, I think I'm pretty flexible. But would I enjoy 5-6 days at sea where the ride might be bumpy, many shows and entertainers are missing, and some restaurants might be closed? I think I might find the experience a bit lacking.

On 1/14/2022 at 9:03 PM, JIMESOPUS said:

If you go to windy.com, the track of Izzy ( just love how they now give winter storms a name ) will be ahead of the Gem, waves and the wind will subside. Also if they track closer to the coast after Cape Hatteras it should be a smooth ride north. Anyone who sails out of NYC in the winter has experienced a nor'easter or two 

I personally go to the NOAA surface maps. They currently forecast atleast gale force winds from around Virginia to New York through Tuesday morning.

It's going to be a long, slow cruise into a snowstorm, if they're not careful. That can be a really bumpy ride.

A long, slow cruise alongside a growing snowstorm isn't my idea of fun. Last time I did that the ride was only slightly better than the time we rode through Hurricane Sandy.

Just thought I'd add this, in case you missed it. The Gem has cancelled their current cruise after only one port and will be heading back to NYC.

19 hours ago, KurtMo said:

From NCL website:

 

.

For affected reservations paid via a previously issued Future Cruise Credit, please know the full value of the FCC used will be re-applied to your Latitudes account within 7 days. This is done automatically, so no further action is required on your or your travel advisor’s part. Learn more about booking a cruise with your FCCs here.

Within 7 days, huh? I guess we'll see. When we cancelled our cruise (Yes, we cancelled ourselves.), we were told by our cruise consultant it could take months to get our FCC back because so many people were cancelling.

On 1/7/2022 at 10:13 AM, joyy7403 said:

We’re on the Gem on the 19th also. Hoping they would cancel it so we could get cash back instead of the POM FCC. We have other trips planned & are not sure we could cruise again before May 2023. Plus, we’re staying 4 days in New York before the cruise to go to a couple of shows. Everything is cancelable. Thank goodness! Hope to see everything the port! 

The most recent POM offering says you can request cash instead of FCC. I believe it was in section #5 of the numbered list in the POM offer.