Foggyzx9r

6 minutes ago, manc said:

Last night's Newsnight on the BBC has added to the confusion for people in the UK. My husband had a Pfizer vaccination and I got AZ. It would appear that entry into some countries is ok for him but not me! Neither of us were given a choice of jab.

Yep has caused a bit of an upset. It is caused by the Indian Serum Institute not getting approval. They have applied for emergency authorisation since it has been raised as an issue. In the UK it affects 3 batches. If you have downloaded the app and registered you can check the batch number or look on the card you received. A internet search will tell you which batch numbers are affected. Since the vaccine is identical to the UK and EU Oxford vaccine it is only a matter of time for approval to be given. 

23 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

If Regent does not offer a refund they might be willing to convert your deposit to a FCC. Worth asking.

Hi flossie, yes the wife and I talked about the possibility of converting the deposit to an FCC. When we looked at the forthcoming cruise so far released to 2022, sadly with the exception of one cruise none of them appealed. The one exception SF to Papeete would cost an additional £4-£5000, that would be in a concierge cabin and not a penthouse as we had booked. In addition the original planned cruise was intended to celebrate some very special dates in our lives with my wife’s 60th amongst the trip.

7 hours ago, flossie009 said:

................. or maybe just sit tight with the written assurance of a refund that you have!

What did your TA say about your deposit before you cancelled?

She was going to speak to Regent on our behalf. As we didn’t expect to get our deposit back, I am not overly concerned if Regent deny payment as under the Terms they are within their rights to do so.

The TA I spoke didn’t offer an opinion other than they would speak to Regent and do their best.

 I am pretty sure the email is an error and yes it is confirmation of our cancellation and not the whole cruise cancelled.

 I will find out this morning.

4 hours ago, tert333 said:

In the note that you received above, it refers to a January 14 cruise.   The actual Navigator cruise according to the RSSC website says the cruise starts on Jan 15 and is 15 days.  As a result,  not sure that is your cruise....

Well spotted. The 14th includes our date of travel from the UK to Honolulu.

Just received our cruise cancellation email from our TA this afternoon.

Jan 15th Honolulu to Papeete.

We had already jumped the gun and cancelled on the Thursday of last week . We hadn’t received any acknowledgment prior to Regent sending the cancellation so I am hoping they play nicely and we get our deposit back. 
@GrJ Berkshire agree completely with your post. 

15 minutes ago, QueSeraSera said:

OK Foggy, I'll try one.  & thanks for the post!

I'll have half.    ?

Got it in one👌

Forgive me for visiting the Silverseas board, I do not have a cruise booked with them. I have however been following the water cooler thread for some considerable time and just wanted to compliment everyone for an uplifting experience. 
We have a Regent cruise booked but because of the rather fractious nature of the Regent board I have spent more time on here.

So to add to Lincslady and brimary here is a little taste of my Home Counties dialect.

Ya gret apeth

Aye ave been t tarn.

Stop thi roaring tha s like a gret babbi.

Tha a reet bahmpot.

Al ave arf.

He belted me but al bi reit.

That a reet burk thi.

and finally

Pack thi cossie.

So in the interest of international relations I would like to invite our colonial friends 😉 to a challenge to translate.

A big thank you to everyone in the watercooler thread from my wife and I for hours of amusement and discussion. Long may it continue even after we start cruising again.

Hamilton for the win Lincslady.

2 hours ago, Mercruiser said:

FP is in a very challenging situation. They have eliminated Covid from their country, their economy is very tourism dependent, and most significant, their largest tourist source is USA which has a ginormous Covid problem. Opening FP to low Covid countries might have worked if their location was not so very remote. Non-stop flights from low-Covid countries is not generally feasible. Canada is low-Covid but does not supply enough tourists. Australia/NZ are low-Covid, but are not allowing their own citizens to go on overseas holidays right now.

You are very correct in your observations. I guess I worry for the inhabitants. They are so reliant upon tourism to sustain livelihoods that they have little choice I guess. My fingers and toes remain crossed that all goes well.

Fingers, toes and anything else I can find.

 I do worry, please do not take this the wrong way, but opening to the whole world carry’s to high a risk. Selective opening to countries with low R ratings may have been more judicious.

Having said that I am very jealous of those that are travelling there now.👍

4 minutes ago, Ladys Mom said:

Also, if the WC sails where will it go.  Many of the ports on the itinerary now will not let Americans in.  Therefore there will have to be adjustments.

You are spot on, it isn’t just Americans. I looked to do a land journey to Borneo as Malaysia is one of the countries we Brits can go to. Unfortunately that means quarantine for 14 days on arrival, that assumes we could get permission to enter the country in the first place.

I just checked our Navigator Honolulu to Papeete cruise January 15 2021, F to H wait listed. So I checked the other Navigator cruises. Seems one has disappeared 30th Jan Papeete to Papeete. Next cruise showing March Papeete to Lima, same scenario Cabins F to H waitlisted.

May 16th cruise Miami New York back to near normal with only H as waitlisted.

Read what you will.

Information from RSSC UK website.

Found the following 

Links to laundry

I checked on Google maps and the three listed on the above link confirmed they are still there.

Hopefully someone who has a more knowledge than I can will be able to point the right direction.

Have a lovely cruise, we hope to be there in January.

Thank you for posting this heartfelt story. Very moving and in some respect it’s the forgotten war in the UK.

We celebrate VE Day but little of VJ Day.

BTW yourself and DH still managed to walk after all that breakfast?😂

Hi Ellie 

God I am so enjoying your trip so far. A wonderful experience and we will be with you all the way.👍

Can’t wait to get to Singapore, it remains one of favourite cities in the world, so looking forward to the arrival.

8 hours ago, Pcardad said:

The more expensive the room, the closer it is to the bar.

Oh that did make me smile on a wet and windy day. 👏

Of concern also is the insurance as we are not likely to be covered for Covid.

Fortunately and perhaps a little selfish, in UK testing is free if you are fortunate to be an essential worker. Otherwise £125 per test being advertised.

There also seem to be a few areas to be updated yet, notably cruise lines.

I do think you are correct, we will see a revised list in due course.

@Wreckdiver

Well we were in the same “boat” as you. We have only done Azamara in the past so quite the uplift to Luxury for us as well. The main attraction to be honest was the itinerary very focused on the islands but as we are doing the 15 day Honolulu to Tahiti. Hawaii was the main focus as it is somewhere my DW has always wanted to go. The added bonus was FP and Regent.

 I still think Regent offers the best value by the time you add up all the extras from other cruise lines. We also liked the small ship experience and at a max of 490 pax that was equally attractive. Mind you if we are going to be at 50% capacity it’s going to feel even more spacious.

we also booked a forward cabin on Deck 9 after having looked at the layout and went for the PH.

Trip date for us is 15th January 2021, so if we do sail we will do a trip report.

1 minute ago, Sir PMP said:

That was a good story..

I am glad I found it. I thought that whilst some are clamouring for cruising to start up, the crews ultimately are still stuck with still being delayed getting home.

With the much maligned Cruise companies being hammered by the media I caught this on my news feed.

Christine Streets Cruise and Travel Director on board the Koningsdam.

Her story.

Experience  of life on board a repatriation ship.

1 hour ago, SusieQft said:

The face shields are an interesting variation.  I have read somewhere (sorry, don't have the reference offhand) that they are much less effective than face masks because of all the unfiltered air.  Basically, the face shield just redirects the air flow to go down instead of forward.  It will not help at all for fully aerosolized virus particles, but It should do a pretty good job of blocking inbound droplets, and changing the trajectory of outbound droplets.  It seems to me that if, for example, a waiter is wearing a face shield and is standing next to a seated diner, then the waiter's exhalations (air and droplets) might actually be more directly aimed at the diner than without the shield.  More studies of this would definitely be helpful.

 

Report on the Infection Control associated with Face Shields

Societal Use of Masks and Face Shields

Seems there has been some research but I see them frequently used in orthopaedic elective and trauma theatres. The use of drills in tends to create a considerable amount of airborne contamination through the aerosol effect.

They are of course in a surgical scenario used in combination with surgical masks and so I think you would be right Susie in that it would act as a deflector. How efficient that would be is debatable.

2 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Just read this morning that countries that will accept foreign visitors do not want people from the U.S. as we have the highest number of cases in the world.  Maybe it is time to enforce social distancing and masks or we could have this virus continuing indefinitely.  This not only affects cruising (and traveling in general) but our schools and jobs.  Hoping that we can all try to do better.

 

Note:  Not sure what will happen with WHO since the U.S. is disassociating itself from them.  

Don’t worry TC, your not on your own. The UK has been excluded from Spain and Greece possibly for the rest of the summer. We still have higher infection rates albeit the r value is running between  0.4 and 0.7.

The WHO will continue there’s been a commitment from a certain country to plow a considerable amount of investment.

Stay well.

13 minutes ago, Petoonya said:

 

I made a reservation with a very reputable company Lagoon Service in Bora Bora yesterday. I've toured with them before. But they are already asking for full payment. Torn- the tour is a year away. The risk is there but wanting to help out is there too.

Ouch that’s a tough call. Part of me would be thinking if I could afford to lose the cost it would be an indirect way of supporting the business and keep somebody fed. However one could repeat ad infinitum with any of the local businesses and it would be a drop in the ocean.

I know from your posts that you have a deep love of the islands. At this point in time it is a risk as we have idea what decisions will come out from the officials in the government regarding cruise ships.

Stay well and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

BTW keep posting as I really enjoy reading them😀👍
 

That was a request by the way not a demand🤣

16 hours ago, Petoonya said:

I emailed the Hilton Moorea today to see if eventually they will offer day stays again and got a response that they couldn't respond to my email....just any if emergency arises to email the general manager. I know that you meant the Intercontinental is closing for good, but how can other hotels on any of the islands survive with just locals visiting?

I don’t expect they would be able continue without government support.

Hopefully the smaller hotels are getting that whereas the bigger chains, somewhat like the cruise lines, are expected to stand on their own. 

 

Such a shame for the staff there.

Fingers crossed that the islands people get through this.

I know exactly how you feel albeit it was for our excursions. It was really good to feel excited about the trip rather than ponder the will it or won’t it.

Same as you got all we wanted no wait listing. Mind you with over 100 state rooms still available not to surprised.

Fingers crossed for you.

I cannot comment on Viking as all our cruise trips have been with Azamara. However and as posted both lines are port intensive. The first time out we felt almost obliged to go on out every day for the longest trip possible to get our “monies” worth. We learned our lesson.

Now we pick and choose according to interest and length of excursions. 
 

Looking at your trip and the excursions offered some are are 4 to 5 hours long, so in theory you have plenty of lounging time to soak up the sun and have more than a few sips and have a trip out.

If I may recommend at least one tour, assuming you both have an interest in Ancient Greek history, the trip to Olympia is stunning. The Peloponnese peninsular countryside is so beautiful and the opportunity to see the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games.

Have a fabulous cruise.