trk_koa

We use Dropbox folders. I create one for each cruise under our Travel folder. I always name the folder for each trip beginning with the date (YYYY-MM-DD) so it collates to soonest first.
 

In this folder, I keep PDFs of guest copy, itinerary, etc. Under each folder I create a sub-folder each for Excursions, Insurance, Receipts. All email receipts, I print to PDF and save there. 
 

Just before we leave, I make sure to tell Dropbox to keep a local copy of the folder on my device so I don’t need internet access to get to the files. 
 

Once we return home, I move the entire folder to another folder under Travel called Archive. I never delete.

@koolforkatz I was just reading the Sapphire Princess roll calls and there are some interesting comments starting at #1614.

1 hour ago, lynncarol said:

Have you considered spending a week in the Lake Country of Argentina first?  Supposedly similar to Switzerland. I saw videos from relatives visiting the area and it is gorgeous.  Now on my bucket list.

Thank you. We will look into that. It sounds lovely. 

Ours is actually through Azamara. We are supposed to fly to Lima on December 31. Tour starting January 2.
 

I got an email from the US State Department today ( I had signed up for their STEP travel advisory system). It says that Cusco is now alert level 4 = Do not travel. I just sent that notice to the Azamara land programs people via email. 

I checked our travel insurance documents with iTravelInsured and it states that alert level 4 is a covered situation, if I’m reading it correctly. 
 

Well, phooey. We are supposed to travel to Peru in two weeks on a pre-cruise tour to Machu Picchu, then be flown to Buenos Aires to begin our cruise. Now that’s looking unlikely due to the political unrest in Peru.

I’ve been in touch with the cruise line and they are waiting to see how things develop. But with the 30 day lock down announced yesterday, I don’t think we even want to go to Peru right now. We have trip insurance so we are looking into whether we can cancel just the tour part and get that money covered if the cruise line doesn’t cancel.

So now we need to figure out what to do with a whole week before our cruise. We have already been to Buenos Aires twice and have already done Iguazu (both sides) and Rio. 
 

Does anyone have any great ideas besides stay home that week and just fly to BA for the cruise?

Thank you. I’ll keep his information for next time. We have already committed to our tour.

Just ask your PCC. My sister got a private fare offer and we were able to book two staterooms using it. The PCC told us we could do up to 4 staterooms under the offer. 

My sister had 3418 (other side of the ship) and it was very quiet.
 

We were in 2713 and it was so loud that we could not stand it. It’s next to a machine room.  They moved us to 3382 below a kitchen. Very noisy, mostly door slamming and carts rolling. 

So I think you’d be good with 3417.

Thank you. We decided that trying to do both the Nazca lines and MP was too hard to fit in. We opted for the cruise line tour.
 

I contacted several tour companies. They either don’t do the HB train at all or were almost as expensive as the cruise line tour but didn’t included the flight to BA. So the simplest thing was to add on the tour and have everything included as one package price. 

January 7, 2023 Pursuit, 17 nt. South America/Antarctica

Discoverer booked in club continent suite.

Here is our offer:

Club World Owner’s Suite from $3,500 USD pp

Club Ocean Suite from $2800 USD pp

Club Spa Suite from $2000 USD pp

We don’t intend to bid.

I just received our upgrade offers email for January 7 Pursuit.
 

We are already in a continent suite N2 so the only benefit of ocean or owner would be space, correct?

I had a HAL gift card,  purchased from HAL, and went to guest services to have it put on my account. It took quite a lot of time as they had to fill out a paper form and then contact someone shore side to get it credited the next day.
 

If you can use it to buy OBC on the Hal website, I think it would be infinitely easier. 

We were on Zuiderdam in April and there is pizza in the Lido, but it is not at all like what they have at New York Deli & Pizza on the other ships. The crust was thicker and doughy, not crispy, and had very little cheese. I didn’t like it, YMMV.  

I was reading an Azamara review and the person said you have to buy laundry soap. I don’t think that’s true.

Do they still provide the soap? Is it scented?

Another caveat is that if you pay for your cruise but then cancel ( before penalties kick in), it takes a long time to get anything back. We canceled a cruise on August 30 that was paid for with a combo of credit card and gift cards. Still waiting for our  money back. 

Anybody know why Bliss just arrived just after 18:00 instead of at 13:30?

We did B2B on Zaandam in August 2022, Boston-Montreal-Boston and we were only required to test for embarkation in Boston. No test for the return from Montreal. No customs in Montreal since were were already in Canada and no ArriveCAN for the second leg of the B2B since the itinerary didn’t leave Canada and return once we entered. US CBP processing was done in Bar Harbor on board the ship. No one was allowed to go ashore until all had been processed. 

Yes. You can walk all the way around. It gets a little bit narrow in places. 

We are taking an Azamara cruise out of Buenos Aires in January and have booked air to Lima a week prior to embarking in BA. We had thought about taking the land tour through the cruise line and might still do that. We are still early enough to add it.

We decided to at least investigate a custom private tour and see what we can cobble together to see everything we want to see. We have about five days to do it. (We want to get to BA the day before embarkation so will need a day to fly.)

We already know we want the Hiram Bingham train to Machu Picchu. DH is very interested in seeing the Nazca Lines. 
 

What would your Peru “must see” list include ?

We decided to remove the land portion and book a separate tour privately. That way we will be in control and get to see exactly what we want to see. My DH really wants to see the Nazca Lines. 

I somehow managed to find an archive of a roll call from 2011 a while back. I wanted to read through it to make notes of the private excursions we did in South America since we are going again next year. Now I can’t find it.

Is there a way to search for archived old roll call threads?

We are booked on the Machu Picchu tour prior to sailing the  Pursuit Antarctica cruise in January. 90 days out would be October 4, 2022. 
 

How far out did you get your tour docs?

Thank you. This is good information. We will research our plan B since we have already purchased our air to arrive before the pre-cruise tour. 

We just booked a land package with our cruise and wonder the same thing. It is preceding the cruise and we need to buy our air. If we are going to fly in that much early, I’d like to know if it’s a go or if we need to find a tour company to do something on our own. 

We waved at you from Zaandam’s promenade as we departed Halifax. Nice horn war!