lissie

But they are disembarking anyways - when its an overnight port stop there is no requirement to return the first day - there is no curfew 🙂 You can stay out all night if you wish

We had this scenario on the QE last October - overnighting. The thing is that everytime you exit the ship you go through Singapore emigration regardless of whether you are returning or not. I don't know how early they start - but it probably won't be early enough for you. We were returning - but we went over the border to Malayisa and back - which apart from the online form filling (which may or may not be still in place by the time you travel) caused zero issues. Cunard had no idea where we went. For an 8:20am flight you need to be at the airport 3 hours prior - and its probably about a 40 min drive from cruise terminal to airport. I'd be leaving the ship at 5am at the latest. So I'd say pick up your luggage and leave the ship the day before - anytime you want. Cunard are not going to hold you hostage and the Singaporeans will process you with or without luggage! Alternatively, don't book a hotel and check on the ship just before arrival whether you can debark at 5am - if not you can still grab a last minute hotel. Singapore is small enough that there is no real need to stay at the airport for early departures And this is why i don't bother with TAs most of the time. They always seem to only have 1/2 the story. In fact I'm pretty sure we got a letter in the cabin asking us if we were debarking early - I think it was so we could finalize our on board accounts early - didn't pay much attention as it didn't affect us We were debarking but chose not to do it early

Yes I'm doing the same thing! I'm hoping that once we move onto Western Canada it won't be so booked up - I hate having to commit to days in a city before I've been there! My problem with QC is that I don't know how many nights until tour companies start advertising tours for the summer - and obviosuly its a bit early for that at the moment

Funny I actually made a provisional booking at that hotel before I saw this reply - I agree about the location. Unfortuantely the price has gone up a fair bit C$270 /night

Europe is cheaper in my experience - I may be biased because the weak NZ$ isn't helping us either. I'm curious where you are staying in Quebec City - our cruise is round trip to Boston but we are flying to Quebec City afterwards and I'm finding hotels nearly as expensive as Boston! In Boston we're staying it's around US$200/night for us in July - your dates should be cheaper I'd have though - that's for an ensuite room- too old for dorms! Its in Chinatown - very near Boston Common - so very central. I don't know if the link is allowed but google hi boston - you'll find it. We book on booking.com because we can cancel without penalty if required

I don't use my wallet on board either. I just put the card in my pocket - or the back of my phone

We paid about US$1500 for insurance for 90 days trip last year - that covered the USA and cruising but excluded anything to do with Covid (we got Covid just about 6 weeks before travel so we were pretty sure we were fine for Covid) . At some point they will deny cover and then we'll have to decide whether to travel uninsured (probably)

If you have pre-existing conditions, you won't get signed off as fit more than a month or 2 in advance is our experience (partner has pre-existing cardiac issues) - we make sure we have booking that a cancellable with minimum loss prior

That's only because cruising hasn't started in Japan yet - they still require masking indoors on land

The boosters are tricky - there is some evidence that increased boosters can dampen down the immune response when you actually get exposed to infection - not a good thing. We have had our first booster - then had a dose of Covid so couldn't get our next booster before travelling last winter. At the moment we are waiting for the omicron specific booster to arrive in NZ so probably in the autumn before we go overseas again we will be boosted

Not PCR tests - the standard are RAT tests - available free in lots of place. Apparently 7.5million people tested in the last week Testing for COVID-19 | Ministry of Health NZ Obviously no everyone with symptons will test - but Iread somewhere that according to estimates of infection based on the standard waste water testing the testing is around 40% underreported - which I thought was pretty good actually. obviously if you go to hospital for anything you'll have to test - if you have any symptoms my Dentist will ask me to test (I just got his standard email) so do most doctors.

is it an Australian thing to wear them? I can't stand things hanging around my neck so I'd never wear one - but frankly very few people did when we cruised overseas last years where the majority were UK and US cruisers. As soon as more Aussies got on board I saw more lanyards - very odd

Depends on where you live - if you test positive in NZ its still mandatory isolation - that includes visitors - so the cruise lines won't be dropping that requirement anytime soon if they want to cruise here Preparing to self-isolate | Unite against COVID-19 (covid19.govt.nz) Given that Japan has only just reduced mask wearing to inside only (not outside) they won't be dropping it anytime soon

Surely there has always been isolation for infectious diseases on ships? Don't they isolate noroviruse and flu patients?

Ah well give them some time then - I don't think it booked out from memory anyways even though about 1500 people did the trip - they had a LOT of buses

Are you looking in the cruise planner? I dont have a picture because you can only log in to cunard com when you have an upcoming booking - not afterwards! I paid no attention of the alternatives to Luxor - but they were the usual lie on the beach, jeep safari that sort of thing.

Kia ora for that! Hope you are not too wet up your way (we're in Wellington and some of Auckland's rain has even made it down here! )

I see we share a common background in wines ie New Zealand. Do you find the packages decent value compared to just buying as you go?

Some photos I took - Karnak temple - in Luxor Valley of the Kings - golf carts and tombs

We did this in October. The ship goes to Safaga - this is about a 4 hour drive from Luxor. So there are a number of different excursions - but only one that goes to Luxor - we left at just after 6am and returned about 9pm. It's about 4 hours each way - the stops are Karnak Temple in Luxor itself, lunch at a Nile hotel and then time at the Valley of the Kings. The actual tombs vary by what's open (the authorities rotate them). You have to pay extra to go to Tutankhamen's tomb - and most said it wasn't worth the queue (we didn't bother). Cunard will push hard to get you to buy overpriced glass bottled water - but the tour operator will give you cold water on the bus (on demand) - we took our own bottles as well. They also provide snacks on the bus so we skipped breakfast. Its VERY hot and dry - the Valley of the Kings has golf buggies which saves you some walking - but you will still need to walk in and out of the tombs - which have many stairs and are well over 37C /100F even when outside it was probably only low 30s. Karnak has more shade because of the structures. Don't be the mug that pays US$4 for an EGP4 t-shirt - plenty were. The excursions should be out about now - have you logged onto the website? It was the only tour we paid for before the cruise and we paid around this time of the year for October.

We sailed San Francisco-Barcelona in July/August last year. They treated Florida as a sector end and upgraded us to gold and gave us a new allowance for wifi usage because of our status. It was little use to us because there was zero to no internet across the Atlantic - it only picked up when we got to Cadiz. It got to the point that you checked with the library before you even bothered trying to get a connection! Each person gets an allowance - so the $45 we got each - gave us 4x 24hours @ the going rate of $20/24 hours.

Does this cruise coincide with school holidays? We're looking at doing it from Vancouver to Hawaii and then NZ/Oz . I'd assumed it would be almost all older adults as its a long cruise 23 days - and I assumed out of school holidays - have I got that wrong?

If that is an injectable you definitely should be declaring it before its picked up on Xray

Last year we did 35 days on QE : SF to Barcelona and then another 20 Barcelona-Sydney. We' d previously done a 14day PNG cruise ex Sydney on her in Feb 20 (yes lucky). On the SF-Barcelona leg there were people who'd done the last Alaskan cruise prior - I think they were all Australians. The majority as far as Florida were Americans with a strong minority of Brits maybe 40% US 30% UK30% the rest of us. After Florida is more Brit - maybe 60% . After Barcelona (we did a loop around the Med in the last week ) - more like 75% Brit. On the 2nd cruise there were a lot of Australians - most going through to Australia. The Brtis were the 2nd biggest group - mainly flying out of Singapore. The ship was decidedly more casual on the 2nd cruise. There was a LOT more whinging about wearing masks and social distancing rules. The dress code was not enforced on either cruise but for almost all the first cruise until we got to Barcelona, we were wearing masks inside except when eating and drinking. The 2nd cruise we had to wear masks for the first week - I believe more than one person was put off for refusing to comply. You can' expect staff to worry about jackets or lack of when dealing with masking. Basically, on the short cruise segments Cunard dropped the masking requirement - the logic is that if you get Covid it will mainly show up after you left the ship so it's not their problem. The Smart Night requirements changed before our cruises last year no jackets required . As we were travelling for months my partner didn't have a jacket aside from his dark suit. He had a waistcoat he wore a couple of times early on the first cruise - but once we left Florida that would have been far too much on non-formal nights. Once the Australians were the majority the shirts were definitely more Hawaiian than business - plenty of patterns and short sleeves. Note though that both of these cruises were warm weather cruises hugging the equator. The A/C didn't always keep up. On formal nights there were a couple of kilts with the matching formal jacket. There were maybe 10% tuxs - more from the Americans than even the Brits. I didn't see shorts in the MDR but I did inthe Commodore Club and the Queens Room and the Court Theatre - pre-C this would have got the man refused service - but this was no longer the case. Now I think this may come back after the mask wearing stops happening - but who knows. It was still fairly refined behavour - no one was visibly drunk or yahooing or ripping of shirts late at night. The big disappointment was that particularly on the 2nd cruise was that they seem to be reducing the amount of ballroom dancing. No hosts - but also they had jaz guitar and a soft-pop duo scheduled on 7-8 in the Queens Room - totally undanceable. Never ever saw the English entertainment director in the Queens Room - Sally Sagoe (?) she clearly had no interest in dancing. The Canadian guy we had onthe first cruise last year Michael ? was much more proactive and was often in the Queens Room (when they were allowed to mingle) and dancing

Haha - I'm definitely flip-flopping. And having to work on a partner who things that 2 months is too long away (after being away for longer last year) . So the last option maybe a flight home 😞