njhorseman

In your opinion. Others may disagree...based on what some people have written on other cruise lines' boards. I would say it's the best I've had at sea, but I haven't cruised on any of the "luxury" lines. I have had some poorly prepared food on Oceania, so they're not remotely close to approaching perfection.

"The Finest Cuisine at Sea" is a registered trademark, not an objective statement of quality. It's an advertising slogan and as such is permissible sales puffery . In other words Oceania's saying it has "The Finest Cuisine at Sea" doesn't make it true.

The 2021 PVSA exemption was very limited and only permitted ships to do Alaska cruises from a US port without making a foreign port call because Canada's ports were closed to cruise ships. A cruise to Hawaii would not have fallen under that limited PVSA exemption, and the itinerary under discussion includes Canadian ports.

That wouldn't make it compliant because it would still be a cruise from one US port in Alaska to another in Hawaii. As @CruiserBrucesaid, that itinerary requires a call at a distant foreign port. There are no distant foreign ports within a reasonable distance of this itinerary. The ship would have to go at least a week out of its way to get to a distant foreign port.

You will be denied boarding.

Some ships docked there last year. There's no issue with being able to dock at the pier, the issue is completion of the cruise terminal building facilities, but I would imagine that temporary facilities such as canopied or tented areas for check in could be used if the building still isn't finished. We took a B2B cruise a couple of years ago where the first segment ended and the second began in Lima, Peru, or more accurately in Callao, which is the port that serves Lima. It's a commercial port with no cruise terminal and canopies or tents were used as gathering places for passengers and luggage, with the actual check in process being conducted on the ship in its theater. There was a lot of grumbling from the passengers about the inconvenience, but everyone who had to disembark or embark got through the process.

It's not reasonable unless the cruise line is at a minimum reimbursing you for the additional money you will be required to spend for a hotel, meals, and transportation from Victoria to Vancouver. As a matter of goodwill they should also be offering something beyond reimbursement for the named expenses, such as an onboard credit or a small credit toward a future cruise. You do understand that they made an error by allowing passengers to book an illegal itinerary and that error caused passengers additional expense and inconvenience. This is not something that was out of the cruise line's control, such as weather or a labor dispute, it was the direct result of the incompetence of the cruise line's corporate office staff.

I don't think "It's a small price to pay" because the cruise line had no business permitting the booking to begin with, or at the very least they should have disclosed the problems associated with the itinerary before allowing passengers to book, which would allow potential passengers to make an informed decision about whether to book or not. It's not as if the PVSA is a new law...it's been on the books since 1886.

The poster said "I will be flying in that morning from work", so I believe they are arriving in NY on the morning of departure day, not the day before. Not many places in this country provide the types and breadth of services to their residents that NYC does. Some of the larger cities, yes, but widely available free COVID-19 testing elsewhere largely ended when federal government funding dried up so I believe you're making a bad assumption about what may be available to this poster.

Other than your cruise line citing the wrong law they are correct. The applicable law is the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA), not the Jones Act. The Jones Act applies to the transportation of cargo, the PVSA applies to the transportation of people. Royal Caribbean should never have permitted you to book your B2B. Are they providing any compensation for the expense and inconvenience you're going to have to bear as a result of their error?

Typically approvals come back about a week to 10 days prior to your embarkation date. If you don't get yours back by one week prior to embarkation then call their hotline.

The fact that conflicting information is posted on Holland America's website serves to reinforce my recommendation that you get your information from your own cruise line's website. It's permissible for a cruise line to exceed a government requirement . For example there are cruise lines that require all passengers on all itineraries to have a passport, even if for a particular itinerary the government would permit use of a drivers license and birth certificate as proof of ID and citizenship. So if the page you cited is actually the correct current information for Holland America, if you were cruising on Holland America you would have to comply with it. But, you're cruising on Royal Caribbean, so you have to comply with Royal Caribbean's rules. Holland America's rules are irrelevant for your cruise.

The first words of my post were: "Fine that you posted it...no harm in doing so..."

I've cruised on Oceania. A sport coat is never required.

You are wrong. Holland America requires you to be fully vaccinated for Canada. No booster is required. From their website: "Alaska & Canada Sailings Vaccines: Guests ages 12 years of age and older must be fully vaccinated." OK...but that wasn't what you said originally. Hence my response. Yes, I said cruise passengers require a COVID test. I specifically said cruise passengers, not other water arrivals. Again, that's not what you originally said. You said a COVID test is NOT required for cruise passengers..

You have everything wrong. No booster is needed. Cruise passengers require a COVID-19 test, which is not the case for those arriving by air or ground transportation. ArriveCAN has to be submitted no more than 72 hours before embarkation, not exactly 3 days. "No more than" means 72 hours or less. Why are you reading the Holland America board for information about your Royal Caribbean cruise? You should be reading Royal Caribbean's website ,which has the requirements laid out, the ArriveCAN web page for cruises, which has the official Canadian government policy, and if you want to read a cruise line board, why not read the Royal Caribbean board?

Yes.

I've posted about it a number of times and so have others.

Fine that you posted it...no harm in doing so, but FYI it has been discussed in more threads than I can count over the last couple of months.

I can't confirm this from personal experience, but that have been reports of at least some cruise lines misinterpreting the rules and insisting that ArriveCAN be completed for this type of cruise . Perhaps that isn't occurring any longer, but if it is you'll have no choice but to complete ArriveCAN if the cruise line insists you do so .

Everyone from the previous cruise should be gone by 10:30 so that's a good time to arrive.

I think it's a really bad idea to have someone from out of town who's flying in the morning of the cruise trying to figure out which free testing site is going to be open that morning . The HHC list of sites can change from week to week and there's no guarantee that a site that's listed as being open this week will also be available on whatever future date the OP is flying into NY. Also, who knows how much time one will have to spend waiting to be tested and then waiting for the results. That 's no way to start a vacation. It 's far better to do an inexpensive proctored self test at home the day before flying to NY...and it's not expensive. For example OnPoint allows you to use your own test kit, which means you can the free kits that the government was distributing, and charges $18.99 per person for their telehealth proctoring service.

No...the OP said they will have a rental car that they will be returning the morning they are embarking the cruise. They're flying back from FLL.

You beat me to the punch. I was about to say exactly what you did.

To reaffirm what the other posters have said, you'll be pre clearing customs and immigration in Toronto and I also recommend Uber or Lyft . No pre booking necessary.