Holomoku

The testing for travel to Hawaii is to be done by one of the approved by Hawaii labs, mainly CVS pharmacy due to it's 1400 locations around the country, and then the currently being created paper work would be electronically transferred to the airlines involved.  You show your ticket to the pharmacy and they enter it on a site, perform the test, and the results are sent to the airlines involved.  There was no mention of whether or not they will inform you of the results.  Then the airlines decide when you get to the A/P whether or not you fly.  Still working on the details if you are turned away as to the sort of recompense you would receive from the airline(s).  If you test positive and are, for some reason allowed to fly, then when you arrive in Honolulu or other islands you will go to a special location for a monitored 14 day quarantine.  This is not negotiable.  No process for cruise ships has even been considered as of yet.

Right now, if you do not respect the quarantine, you will be arrested, have to post a large bail, then put on the next plane back to where you came from.  They are not messing around anymore, and all the new quarantine trackers are doing a superb job of finding the scofflaws.  I forget the exact number as of Fri. but it is more than 100 that have been sent home.  Don't plan on cruising to Hawaii anytime soon.

Holomoku

Now I'm even more bummed about our cancelled cruise on the Ruby last Mar.  I see that our favorite CD was going to be there, Callie.  We had such a good time with him before.  I do hope he returns to Princess when they start cruising again?  Perhaps he will be on the Emerald next Mar. with us, if that one does not get cancelled?

We had the two in Mar. on the Ruby then three re-bookings for Sept./Oct. all cancelled now.  A new re-booking on the Emerald next Mar. and one on the MSC Divina for just before the Emerald and it was now cancelled this week.  This is getting old but what can one do but book new ones and keep trying to cruise?

Ahoy All,

Mahalo for the replies.  We called MSC this morning and asked about this among other questions we had.  They said that just like on Princess with Any Time you walk up and say "two to share" and you will be put at either a 4, 6, or 8 person table.  So, that sounds great to us.  We were not looking forward to just being at a 2 or 4 person table each evening.  Now if we can just get the website to work easily, way too confusing too us.  I'm sure MSC will block us from calling for help in getting all registered soon. LOL  

Then we booked our hotel through booking.com and got an email saying we need to cancel the room for one night next spring do to not being "essential" persons.  I wrote to the hotel directly and asked them if the rules would still be in effect next Spring, just waiting to hear back now.

Aloha,

H & J

Ahoy All,

Our first time on MSC is next Mar. on the Divina.  We have opted for the Area Experience and one of the items mentioned is Dine Any Time.  How does this work?  Can we just walk up to the M/'d any time at all and get seated or do we have to pick a time at the start of the cruise and that is it for the duration of the cruise?  We normally cruise Princess and their Anytime Dining is just walk up when you want at a Dining Room that is Anytime and get seated shortly.  We like to share all meal experiences and meet other cruisers and have formed many friendships around the world this way.  We do not like being assigned a table and the same people every evening.  We can find no explanation on the web site about this option.

Aloha,

Herb & Jackie(Holomoku)

aloha all,

I just signed in went to search cruises, to April next year, brought 43, went into one and all worked fine.  Ai te pea pea as they say in Tahiti, "no problem".

Holomoku

aloha all,

I just signed in went to search cruises, to April next year, brought 43, went into one and all worked fine.  Ai te pea pea as they say in Tahiti, "no problem".

Holomoku

Ahoy Charles,

Good reports again, best way to learn of the ports and ship is from your posts.  Great talking with you guys when you were in Nawiliwili.  Did you know the Star Princess is off you starboard beam on it's way to Ensenada?  You are keeping pace perfectly.

Mahalo for your posts.

Holomoku

Aloha Voljeep,

I'll do this one in blue for you, but only one person saying that out of my 1200+ posts is no reason to change.  I just like color, so if we get a chance to cruise together you will see me in very bright multi colored shirts a different one for each day and others for the evenings.  No not Hawaiian just me.  This is "yellow",  I don't know what the name for the color I choose is?

Ahoy Alaskanb,

I'll look up that one tonight, but like I said, my DW really likes her coffee in the morning just luke warm, not hot so the tap water works well with her blend of instant.

Holomoku

50 minutes ago, Bonella said:

This actually sounds perfect for us. Moderate and light drinking and nightlife sound great. From the responses I've received, I know we made a good choice. The crowds and behaviors of some of the Carnival passengers were a huge deciding factor in exploring other cruise lines. We were honestly looking for something more upscale without being stuffy. Does that make sense?

Ahoy,

Yep, perfect sense to us.  Formal night we do dress but that is because here in the islands formal dress is a nice aloha shirt and slacks.  Remember formal is only for the dining rooms, not the other eating venues.  It is fun for us.  The stuffy dressing all day is why we have not done a Cunard cruise.  We are way more laid back as are most of the folks on Princess.

Holomoku

Alaskanb,

Good work on getting a definitive answer to this question.  I went to the site and here it is:   

• Hookah and Water Hookah Pipes, candles and incense, strike-anywhere matches, clothing irons, heating pads, hot plates, kettles, coffee makers, toasters and other electronic cooking appliances.

under the prohibited items.  I guess I never read far enough down that page.  Saves us $$ not buying a water heater for her coffee.  SWMBO will not be happy since I already told her I was looking online for one.  That is "She Who Must Be Obeyed"

Mahalo,

Holomoku

I may be reading the rule wrong, but to me it says you can bring one that is thermostatically controlled now.  It did read years ago, after the Star fire that was cigarette caused if I remember correctly, no heating elements were allowed.  Now we bring two extension cords that have not been confiscated, one is a surge -two outlet-two USB outlets and the other is just a four outlet non-surge.  Since my wife likes her own coffee in the morning, it is instant, we will now go looking for a good two cup water heater.  She has just used the tap hot before 'cuz she likes her coffee luke warm. (Why I ask?)

Ahoy,

Yep, the fleet dry dock schedule says, Jan. 21 - Jan. 30, 2019 in the Bahamas for light refreshing.

Holomoku

Ahoy There,

We have done Celebrity, RC and HA but always come back to Princess.  I have always complained that there are not enough hours in the day to do everything that Princess offers.  If you want boredom take HA and for multi use venues go on Celebrity where the venue does not fit the crowd and it always seemed rushed to get the activity done with.  We will keep trying other lines just to see what is out there, but Princess for us.  Bring a highlighter to mark up your Princess Patter for the events you want the next day!  Then also ask your steward to bring two Patters to your mailbox each evening so you and your mate can at times go different directions.

Holomoku

I just went in after reading these posts and everything was the same and worked perfectly.

Ahoy Ccrain,

I have a super cruise ship tracker now and have been following your ship for the past week.  I just checked two ocean sailing weather sites and both show great weather for you to Guam.  Rain in Guam on Sat. and partly cloudy on Sun.  I'm not sure whether or not that is adjusted for the date line.  The wind will be coming mostly from the East at 10 k or so and the waves at 5' or less from the port side all the way.

Sounds like traffic was worse in Manila than in Saigon when we were there last April, I thought that was bad!🤔

Keep up the good work, your reports are super!😄

Holomoku

Ahoy There C & J,

I finally found your "Live From".  CC kept coming back with pages of "Coral","Princess", "Live", "From", but nothing related to this.  So, I finally had a brain explosion and put in ccrain and there it was.  As usual a great blog of the trip.  I have the mascot ready for our April cruise to Hawaii and about 5 folks have said they would join in so far.  Sad, to hear that Elua will be on the Coral  because we will be on the Grand then.  Someday I will get to cruise with them.  J. is really interested in what you do on Guam and if you see Jeff at Jeff's Pirates Cove and say Aloha from Jackie from High School.  We saw him the last time we were in Guam.  Tell Judy to get well and take care both of you.

Holomoku

We use the Toilet Bowl Night Light. They have 16 colors of light to choose from, use RED, and a flexible arm that we bend over the top rail of the bath shelves. it is motion activated and does not take up an outlet or flat shelf space and works great. Several brands out there all around $10.;p

We have many friends from cruising and have visited them and they visited us. One thing I do now is to create a business card for each cruise. It has our photos, cabin number and the cruise location/dates done nicely on it. I hand these out to everyone we meet that we would like to see more of on that cruise. Then I have some for near the end of the cruise with our contact info printed on the back side that I give those we would love to cruise with again.

On our 2020 T/P cruise from Sydney there will be a group of 14 that we have cruised with before so we will all get to catch up with each other again in a nice relaxed way. This is just from keeping in contact and recognizing their handles here on CC, of those who post here.

Makes cruising all the more fun and gives reasons to go to other cities and visit.

This may sound strange to some, but we live on the Big Island and are taking our 2nd cruise from S.F. to Hawaii and back to S.F. This is just to get in a cruise and since we like sea days and have been to all the ports we can just sit back and people watch for 15 days. In the ports all we will do is leave laundry with our house sitters and visit with friends on the other islands, maybe? One 8 hour day in each port is plenty with a very late night departure in Honolulu, 2300-2400 hrs. so you can see more and do a night time luau. One very interesting tour in Honolulu is to the Doris Duke home through the Museum of Art, not a Princess tour. We did that last time and it was very interesting history and design and very inexpensive. You can take a nice walk through town to the museum to catch your van ride out there. Overnight in any of the towns except Honolulu and the sidewalks roll up, so what are you going to do, just go back to the ship anyway. If you are a 20 something you could find a bar in Lahaina. On New Years Eve in Kailua-Kona you could shoot a cannon loaded with grape shot and not hit anyone at the stroke of midnight.

Here's the latest visa information from my Cruise Personalizer.

VIETNAM VISA/PASSPORT REQUIREMENT

 

A Vietnam visa is required for most guests on this voyage, including Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and U.S. passport holders. You may either obtain the visa on your own before your cruise, or a visa will be issued upon arrival in Vietnam. If you choose to have the visa issued on board, a passport-size photo or copy of your passport photo page is required, and a visa fee of USD $56.00 per person (USD $76.00 per person for those participating on an overland package) will be charged to your stateroom account.

Some guests, including UK passport holders, do not require a visa; however, they will be charged $1 per person for a landing card and a $1 per person processing fee.

All guests' passports must be valid for at least six months after departing Vietnam and must contain at least one unused page for entry/exit endorsements.

Tom😎

Aloha,

We are doing a Princess Cruise from Singapore going for two stops in the 'Nam. My CP says exactly the same thing, so I went to the VN Gov't E-Visa web site and looked up the fees, $24 for a 1 month Tourist Visa multiple entry. Some of the business ones run in the hundreds of dollars. The only problem I see with this is you get a letter saying you have paid but still have a queue (sp) to stand in after disembarking the ship to get your Visa stamp. We'll pay the price for the on board service and no lines in a steamy hot place. I just don't trust bureaucrats to show up on time or work fast.:( The ship collects the passports and takes care of it, less for us to worry about or have to do. I am on Holiday!;p For expensive Visas try China, from Hawaii we have to send our Passports to L.A. to a company that takes them to the Consulate and then sends them back to us for many hundreds dollars even for a 1 stop/1day visit and you had to have one even if you did not leave the ship!:o(in case of med. evacuation.)

Hope this helps?

Holomoku

Ahoy there Charles & Judy,

This is my first post since our return to "real" life.:eek: Mahalo for the links and I will try to find time this afternoon to begin reading through them.

Coffee klatches were fun and got going way before 0700 hrs. If I came in at 0615 hrs. I was considered late.:p Having Victoria as barista was super, she was one of the reasons this whole coffee klatch got started on my cruises back in '11. She did like seeing her photo from then at the I/C bar in my employee favorites album.

Just a note on Dengue Fever and wearing mosquito repellant, we have had a large outbreak here that started in Hilo on Sept 11 and is continuing. The CDC is here now to help determine what can be done. There have been more than 108 cases and it is being spread around the island. So for anyone considering coming over here soon, wear your bug juice!;)

That's all for now,

Cheers,

Herb

Ahoy Mateys,

I just booked marked this so our kitty sitters can follow along with us.;) Just like all cats they are being standoffish to us and now go to their new keepers for scratches.:rolleyes: We are lucky in that the same folks come over to house and pet sit for all our cruises. They are already booked for our next cruise next year. We are so lucky!:eek:

Mahalo Harry for getting this one started.

Herb & Jackie

The first part is not completely closed down on our RC, it is still there just a read only. You cannot make more posts to it. CC would slow down a whole lot if it were endless. Just a part of our new lives in the ethernet or whereever we are headed with all these electronic gadgets.;)

What about the cruises out of New York, brochures, even pre cruise paperwork says Manhattan OR Brooklyn, here at CC it says Manhattan, but once you print your boarding pass it DOES say Brooklyn on it. We have some folks on this upcoming cruise that have plans to go to Manhattan!!!! Unless a major storm (Sandy), fleet week or some other unforseen event, they should not put Manhattan on the itinerary. For those unfamiliar with NY, they just might think they are one in the same place.

Just go here to see where your ship is really scheduled: nycruise dot com/schedule

Hope this gets them to the correct pier?

My best advice when on shore with questions about where to go and what to do is to find one of the ship's Officers on shore duty that day. Ask him or her and get the correct information for that ship at that time. Most of the other people on shore wearing Princess uniform apparel are contract persons that work for many cruise lines and a different one each day. So they don't know all the answers, but the Officers, in uniform, should or should find out for you with their radios. As for being seated in the wrong dining room, not quite sure how that happened. The comment about "real" passengers can be chocked up to English as a second language and a minimum wage person being expected to speak fluent English, perhaps you could have spoken to that person in Tagalog. It is give and take on any cruise ship no matter the line involved. We always use the same phone rep. at Princess and never have any problems. On the extremely rare occassion that I have written to Princess, I have always received a reply, perhaps not the one I hoped for but what the hey. I for one think Princess employees, the real ones and the contract ones do a fine job and try very hard to make everything enjoyable. Even the Union Longshoremen have been very helpful and friendly.