Pushka

All I can say is that it's completely random. So prepare for anything. And then no need to worry. We don't even need to isolate anymore when positive on land if not symptomatic, but cruises have been our issue.

Many destinations require it still.

This is what I'd do. I'd take a photo at the required time, include your passport in the photo and possibly also do a selfie with your face and showing the lot. The photo will be time stamped automatically. Then you are covered.

Seems to be the whiskey whisky bourbon supply issue. Glad I don't like any of 'em. Just make sure the gin is plentiful. Vodka at a push.

I haven't flown Qantas International in years. Because they don't fly anymore into Adelaide. However I have not missed a thing. Gives me the option to explore other airlines. So far they have all been excellent. Qatar, Emirates and Cathay. And flying MH next. Qantas have truly lost the plot.

Our favourites and more than appears in the sample menu in MVJ. All up by about $2.00. Belvedere isn't on our list in MVJ but it's wonderfull

Not necessarily. It could simply have been that border control couldn't get all the manpower organised to process all the passengers and passports as first Australian port - has never happened here before - so two different issues. One is immigration, the other is biosecurity which is a different process entirely. The berthing area at Outer Harbour is a major port for many cargo ships every day. Where maintenance is done. Also the site of Australia's submarine building facility.

SA was expecting Orion to port stop and I was liaising with the Tourist Authority due to the late schedule change and Viking never ported here. Then I received this email from them:

I just like seeing people smile again.

I've heard of several ships now ditching the masks for crew. How fabulous.

Yes, in that scenario the price should have been as per the original purchase.

We never had a chance to book one of our desired Viking excursions in Alaska and this was pre Covid. Never opened up again.

I don't think even Amazon offers guaranteed pricing if something is in your shopping basket but not yet paid for. I've seen price alerts in my basket for increase and decrease in prices since I put the item in the basket.

It does. Cruises have special requirements. Everyone must do a RAT. But I suspect they will be dropped soon, just not yet.

We are on Viking. It seems that all visas are applied for on the one portal, however when we did ours a couple of weeks ago, the only option applicable was the tourists one, there was no option for the maritime one. It's all incredibly confusing. I have no desire to visit Jeddah, it was added to our itinerary just a few weeks ago and was never in the plan. The tours offered are really basic and not worth all this hassle.

We were told if we didn't have the visa we would not be allowed to board the ship as Saudi asserts its control over the ship in their waters. And that includes locking down of all alcohol. This is the Govt site. https://visa.visitsaudi.com/ It is expensive at around $150 usd.

That makes sense as we booked direct with Viking.

Login to MVJ and the cruise. Those three lines on the top left - expand them. Look for Account near the bottom. . Select that. Landing takes you to email address change and there is a tab called 'Request Tax Invoice'. It will be sent to the email address on file.

In MVJ request an Invoice. These usually contain all the current ports and dock times when there's been a change.

I purchased the eVisa last month. Australian but US is the same. Easy to do online as we'd just done the India visa and used the same passport photo and pdf of passport page. White background, neutral expression and 2x2. We took a selfie then used an online photo editing website that with a small fee produces the correct size and white background for every country. I just googled to find it. We had approval with a few minutes and it's valid for 12 months. We go to Jeddah in May. It's very expensive though.

We had to apply for Saudi Visa ourselves. Viking. It is available online. https://visa.visitsaudi.com You have to create an account but you can do all family members using it. It is expensive. 😒 jordan is on arrival.

If rude and churlish behaviours demonstrated to crew don’t fit my view of the world then I’m fine with that.

We have a cruise with many sea days. A repositioning one. Average of Two drinks a day on such cruises isn't difficult. I don't tend to drink wine with food, never have, so most likely all mine would need to be purchased.

The drinks limit has increased to $18 but only the Drappier comes close to that. http://docs.vikingcruises.com/MVJ/onboardbeveragemenu_oceans.pdf?_gl=1*1aar1qp*_ga*OTMxNTQxNDYuMTY3MDEwODk2MA..*_ga_24KNYDH1S6*MTY3MzQxMTMxMS43OC4wLjE2NzM0MTEzMTEuNjAuMC4w

We did it from Australia. Aussies are used to complicated logistics. We flew to Vancouver. We trained from Seward to Alaska then flew to Hawaii then Australia.