Galley Slave

How are you finding the condition of the Volendam? The reviews are not very good. We can deal with the usual signs of the ship's age, just concerned when reading about plumbing issues and not being able to use the bathroom in the cabin. Have you seen or heard of any major issues?

We just returned from Europe with Covid. We were fully vaccinated, wore masks in crowds, planes, trains, trams, washed our hands frequently. We both have ended up in the ER at home. We now have terrible rebound cases from taking Paxlovid. We had test kits and Paxlovid with us, made the process seamless. This variant is different from the previous, based upon all of our friends who have had earlier variants.

The Fairmount Olympic Hotel is near the downtown Sheraton. It has a nice remodeled lobby with a bar that also serves food. It is on 4th Avenue and University. The Four Seasons Hotel is on 1st Avenue and Union. It has a nice restaurant with a view of the water and the Olympics. There is an Anthony's Restaurant along the waterfront, near the port for cruise ships.

Rick was actually in Iceland if you look on his website, filming and writing a guidebook. We usually take a HAL cruise and do an extension before and after the cruise. We live near his headquarters and have taken many classes there and talked to him. We took a cruise to Iceland in 2017 and took his class on Iceland prior to our trip. We took his 14 day tour of Ireland and saw a lot more than we would, even taking independent excursions from a cruise ship. His directions to get to a specific sites are very helpful. We are taking another trip with him in September with a week in Budapest after the tour. His Travel Forum has been a wealth of information. His guides are fantastic. I have private messaged people on how to get from the train to the hotel, the airport or far off sites. People answer within minutes. We cancelled a HAL cruise since we could not imagine being quarantined with Covid. Rick pays you for the days you leave if you catch Covid and you can stay in a hotel, eat your meals and take walks at least. I am not sure why he is getting so much criticism from people who may have never taken his tours. He did a show on cruising in the Mediterranean and he was much easier on the cruise industry than this forum is being on him. He was able to see the ports and surrounding areas based upon his research. You never stand in lines on his tours, as the guide has pre-purchased tickets ahead of the tour. So far, it has worked well considering how hard it has become to plan independent excursions on a cruise.

What have been the experiences of people who organize independent excursions or sign up as a participant if they have tested positive? I assume the payment to the tour operator can be handled by other participants. If people are in isolation, are they still obligated to pay their share of the tour? Does the organizer find a way to transfer the money to someone who is not in isolation? This makes planning independent excursions even more of a challenge.

You must be doing the 69 day South Pacific and Circumnavigation of Australia on the Noordam! That should be awesome if that is your plan.

I see that you and Angela have cruised many times during Covid. Do you wear masks in elevators, shows, hallways or as you enter the dining room? I am sure that when they are required, you do wear them. You mentioned being "Covid survivors." I am just wondering how you handled the mask issue. Thanks for the advice. It is finally cooler in Seattle, hope you have a safe trip home.

We took the train to the town of Howth. It is a very scenic town and you can do some of the Coastal Walk.

We rent bikes every year when we go to Vancouver on our sailboat, pre Covid. We use Spokes Bicycle on W. Georgia. You can walk along the waterfront from the cruise port. We ride through Stanley Park, English Bay, and False Creek. You can stop on Granville Island for lunch, snacks, crafts. Then you take the little passenger ferries back to mainland. It is flat all of the way. There are good signs along the bike paths. I would not ride downtown, there are too many cars, no bike lanes. Look at street map of Vancouver to gauge route based on ability of bikers. You can also walk and take passenger ferries to Granville Island. We used the bike rate for 3-4 hours if I remember, last time in 2018.

We did this on our laptop, but used our phone to take a picture of the CDC card. You could download a picture of your card into your laptop from a camera. We had to send ourselves an email of the picture and downloaded it into the laptop. You enter your personal info, passport info, vaccination history(dates, type) into the start of the app. Downloading the CDC card was the hardest part, but they provide a link. You have to claim if you are entering by land, sea or air. You also need the name and address of where you will isolate if needed. At the end, you should get a QR code that you can print and show at the border. I think you should have your original CDC card and passport as well. It is a challenge! You can enter the basic info, but the last steps have to be within 72 hours of your arrival into Canada. You can try a dummy trip and just logout at the end. I found out at the end you can enter all of your party on one application, we ended up with separate accounts.