Fouremco

For those curious about the new passport: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/new-passport-features.html#

I last sailed on the Nieuw Statendam in 2019, and at that time there were two USB ports, one by the bed and one by the desk. I'd forgotten about the one by the desk until I checked my photos a few minutes ago. Were you in a suite? Maybe they have the additional ports. If not, maybe they've simply added an extra couple of ports. In 2019, the ports were USB-A. When you sailed her recently, were any of the four USB-C?

Good to hear. As you say, the article is dated, probably based on last September's event. This video gives a good idea of the conditions at that time. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/video/2022/09/25/watch-dramatic-drone-footage-erosion-kaanapali-beach-raises-call-action/

According to this blog item, Kaanapali Beach has effectively disappeared. https://www.hawaii-guide.com/blog/erosion-at-kaanapali-beach

For the purposes of this trip, if the hotel will lend you an adapter, you really don't need to buy one. There will be a USB outlet in your cabin once you board, so one of you can use that to charge one phone while the other can use one of the many US outlets to charge the second one using the phone charging brick. If your future plans include more international travel, I'd recommend waiting until you get home to buy one. You'll probably pay less and have a much wider selection to choose from.

For a cell phone, all you need is an adapter, not a converter, and there is no need to be concerned over damage.

If travelling with a spouse who doesn't drink alcohol, you can still bring in two bottles. CBSA is going to process this as a group of two people with a total of two bottles, so all is ok. While not technically correct, from a practical perspective, this is how they handle it. Similarly, if your combined spending on goods that you are bringing back after being away for more than seven days doesn't exceed $1600, they aren't going to double check to ensure that each person stayed within the individual $800 limit as opposed to one perhaps spending $1200 and the other less than $400. 1.5 litres for wine, but only 1.14 litres for "alcoholic beverages", a direct carry over from the pre-metric 40 oz.

Yes, new bookings only.

There has been no Brazilian visa requirement at all for Canadians over the past few years. I personally don't view reimposing the requirement as making it easier, no matter what system they use.

CARP has just over 330,000 members compared to AARP's 38 million members, and AARP's magazine and bulletin sent to its members are the two largest-circulation publications in the United States. I doubt that CARP would be of any serious interest to HAL from a marketing perspective.

Good point. Lots of disappointed foreign cruisers have been denied boarding in Seattle for an Alaskan cruise stopping in Victoria because they didn't have the requisite visa to enter Canada. The "Then I won't get off the ship" argument never works. If a visa is required for Canada, Brazil or anywhere else, you'd best have one to avoid disappointment at embarkation, unless the cruise line has alternative arrangements for securing visas for passengers.

There are a few countries that will waive the visa requirement for cruise passengers, with certain limitations such as how far from the port they can travel, but I agree that Brazil does not appear to be one. I'd also noted the lack of a "heads up" for the pending change on the travel.gc.ca.. As you know from the discussions on ETIAS, changes can be announced without being implemented right away so, yes, maybe the website only makes the changes on or very shortly before they come into effect. Brazil's Canadian embassy website discusses the pending changes, supporting my long-standing recommendation that whenever and wherever you are travelling, it's always wise to visit the websites of the embassies of the countries you'll be visiting.

The Brazilian Government first announced its decision to resume the visitor visa requirement for citizens of Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States back in March of this year. A visa exemption had been established in 2019, but the failure of Canada and the other countries to subsequently grant reciprocal status to Brazilian nationals prompted the government to reintroduce the visa requirement effective October 1st. I've seen nothing suggesting that cruise passengers will be exempted from this requirement

Rather old news. Here's a recent thread with more information:

LOL. The information was a single mouse click away. Clicking on your name or avatar brings up your profile and recent posts. The latter included your Roll Call post for this cruise on the Nieuw Statendam. I hope that you decide to book this cruise. We did HAL's 14-night Voyage of the Midnight Sun on the Nieuw Statendam in 2019 and loved both the ship and the cruise.

True, @Beach Nut didn't mention it, which is why I referred to the Nieuw Statendam by name a couple of times as well as posting the photos. I apologize for any lack of clarity.

Correct. But as @Beach Nut is contemplating a cruise on the Nieuw Statendam, it made more sense to show him photos of that ship instead of random photos of a ship belonging to one of the other classes.

Doable but not risk free. You might want to look at changing flights/airlines to either fly out of Miami or fly later out of Fort Lauderdale. As I understand the current regulations, if an airline makes unilateral changes to your itinerary, you are entitled to decline the change and insist on a refund.

The only time we book RCI is when we are doing a family cruise with our kids and grandkids. Otherwise, we book Celebrity or HAL, based primarily on itinerary.

HAL and Celebrity are our preferred cruise lines. While we have cruised more often with HAL, we rate them more or less equal and find that there is a bigger difference from ship to ship than there is from line to line. Our choice of which to book is based on the itinerary, not the ship or cruise line. 1. Food is very comparable and I'd never be able to pick one over the other. Of course, individual tastes and preferences vary. We sailed the Nieuw Statendam in 2019 and were very pleased with the food. 2. Excellent firm beds that I'd be quite happy with at home. 3. HAL pools are heated. With the roof closed, usually due to inclement or cool weather, a HAL pool area remains the same. I prefer HAL's main pools to Celebrity's regular pools as they tend to be larger and less crowded, but if you are looking for peace and quiet and no kids, HAL has no pool area comparable to the Solarium. That said, HAL ships sailing 21-night itineraries in Northern Europe do not attract many kids. We did the 14-night Voyage of the Midnight Sun aboard the Nieuw Statendam in 2019 and I don't recall seeing any kids at all. 4. Again, wait times seem to very from ship to ship and cruise to cruise on both lines. DW and I normally get a table for two and haven't had long waits on either line. A non-issue in our books. Here are a couple of photos of the pool with roof open and closed:

This article may help you decide if it's worth it or not: https://bigislandguide.com/kamakahonu-beach-king-kam

I've seen several available ones that start in Lahaina, depart 9AM to mid-day, and return you to Lahaina in ample time to reboard. But maybe none of the available tours appeal to you. I hope that you have better luck as you get closer to the dates of your cruise.

LOL. In just a couple of minutes I found a number of available Lahaina tours for October 15, including several listed on Trip Advisor's "Maui Tours" list.

Google "shore excursions lahaina" and you'll find lots of websites offering tours.

At the risk of nitpicking, the program's official name is the Entry/Exit System. For those not familiar with the program, this link provides a good overview: https://travel-europe.europa.eu/ees_en