Live(ish) report: First real cruise this year - Greece with TUI Cruises Mein Schiff 6 - 9/27

[Miaminice]

3 hours ago, denatravels said:

Stay safe and have fun!


Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks, will do! 😉

 

[BEAV]

Look forward to following your adventure. 

 

Is onboard wi-fi also inclusive in your fare, or do you have to pay additional?

 

Have a wonderful cruise. And more importantly, taking us along. 

[Miaminice]

56 minutes ago, BEAV said:

Look forward to following your adventure. 

 

Is onboard wi-fi also inclusive in your fare, or do you have to pay additional?

 

Have a wonderful cruise. And more importantly, taking us along. 

350 MB of data are included. 
TUI offer a social media package for 27 Euro and various data packages. 
I booked the XL package (7 GB) for 70 Euro. Pretty decent prices.

[GlobalMethod]

On 9/20/2020 at 9:04 AM, Miaminice said:

From some other topics I know that this is what many of you are interested in. 

Thank you for all your the work required in your detailed reporting! Very valuable! I also probably would have not considered a German cruise line even though I worked in Germany 4 years and speak pretty good German ... we're living in Greece now so I know you will enjoy that part of your trip! Continued Happy Travels!

[Miaminice]

TUI cruises are obviously taking their protocols very seriously.
 

On the cruise which ended yesterday two guys left a tour group in Athens to have a beer - the cruise ended then and there for them. They were not allowed back on the ship and had to fly home.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Miaminice

[Miaminice]

1 minute ago, GlobalMethod said:

. we're living in Greece now so I know you will enjoy that part of your trip! Continued Happy Travels!

Thanks! I am sure we will!!! We have been to the port several times before. That’s been another reason to book a different kind of tour. Never used an e-scooter in Athens and a bike tour in Corfu sounded enticing.

[Germancruiser]

18 hours ago, Miaminice said:

TUI cruises are obviously taking their protocols very seriously.
 

On the cruise which ended yesterday two guys left a tour group in Athens to have a beer - the cruise ended then and there for them. They were not allowed back on the ship and had to fly home.

And a good thing too- rules are rules- esp. in these strange times. Your planed shore excursions seem very well choosen- as you I don´t like to go on booked tours- your sounds as much independent as you can get these days.

[Shadow9612]

On 9/20/2020 at 2:04 AM, Miaminice said:

Another thing, not mentioned in the above information, is that booking a b2b is not possible. 7 days are currently the maximum time on board. 

Any idea as to the reasoning behind this limitation?

[Shadow9612]

19 hours ago, Miaminice said:

TUI cruises are obviously taking their protocols very seriously.
 

On the cruise which ended yesterday two guys left a tour group in Athens to have a beer - the cruise ended then and there for them. They were not allowed back on the ship and had to fly home.

very glad to see the cruiseline enforcing their safety protocols.

 

That's a pretty expensive beer (given they must have had to buy plane tickets home 😉)

[Miaminice]

7 minutes ago, Shadow9612 said:

Any idea as to the reasoning behind this limitation?

Sure, the whole thing is a “bubble concept”. So they don’t want to mix passengers of one cruise and another. 
 

Just in case an infected person is missed despite all precautions, it’s limited to one group of passengers.

[Shadow9612]

11 minutes ago, Miaminice said:

Sure, the whole thing is a “bubble concept”. So they don’t want to mix passengers of one cruise and another. 
 

Just in case an infected person is missed despite all precautions, it’s limited to one group of passengers.

Of course.  I should have realized this🤦🏻‍♂️

 

Thank you. 

[vickykay]

Looking forward to your review and getting a cruise fix!

[Von & John]

Miaminice - have a fabulous cruise...

It's so exciting to hear of others getting to cruise, even if we are not able to, at this time...
Thanks for taking all of us with you!

Cheers & Bon Voyage (or as we say in my family...  Von Boyage)

[Miaminice]

Today is Corona testing day... 

At around 4pm we will drive to the Helios hospital nearest to us, present our seapass and get our PCR test.

 

After that it’s wait and see... if we don’t hear anything until Saturday 4pm, we are good to go 🙂 Our flight will be at 11:35am on Sunday 👍

[prish]

So excited for you Miaminice, it’ll all go off as planned and you’ll have a fabulous time, thanks for taking us along aboard!

[Germancruiser]

I am sure everything will turn out just fine. When were you able to do you online check in? Just a few more days for me. LOL. The tension is growing- LOL.

[Miaminice]

9 minutes ago, Germancruiser said:

I am sure everything will turn out just fine. When were you able to do you online check in? Just a few more days for me. LOL. The tension is growing- LOL.

 

I am not really worried 😉 

 

Which online check-in - flights, ship?

I made seat reservations for the flights, so I will probably just check in at the airport.

For the ship I did it a while ago already.

[Germancruiser]

8 minutes ago, Miaminice said:

 

I am not really worried 😉 

 

 

For the ship I did it a while ago already.

Neither am I. LOL.

For the ship - I did the manifest a few weeks back- but in order to print the seapass I have to complete the online check in.

[Miaminice]

1 hour ago, Germancruiser said:

Neither am I. LOL.

For the ship - I did the manifest a few weeks back- but in order to print the seapass I have to complete the online check in.

 

Did that a while ago. Plus, we need the saepass for the test.

[grayjay]

It's a good thing that Tui Cruises are enforcing their safety rules. On the other hand it is not always easy to follow the droning voice of a tour guide walking through a city and forgetting most of the zillion pieces of information your offered. Exploring on your own to us is preferable , but I see the sense in the rules being enforced in these uncertain times to get nearer to cruising more freely again in the future.

By the way: when on a tour offered by TUI you are required to ask the tour guide for any snippet of time you need to be away from the group i.e. even for a bathroom break... And no, I didn't make that up!

[RickT]

Good luck with your Covid test.  Following this thread so I can live vicariously through your cruise.

[wrk2cruise]

I believe @Germancruiser had said that TUI was offering some sort of "Covid Insurance".  Is that still being offered and can you provide any details.   I'm curious if the restart of US sailings would include this sort of protection being available.

[Miaminice]

1 hour ago, wrk2cruise said:

I believe @Germancruiser had said that TUI was offering some sort of "Covid Insurance".  Is that still being offered and can you provide any details.   I'm curious if the restart of US sailings would include this sort of protection being available.

It’s not offered by TUI but by one of the large insurance companies. TUI have a link  to it on their website etc.

[Miaminice]

Wow, we went to the Helios hospital near us and we are just waiting there to do our test.

 

In front of the main entrance there was a group of ten people all holding seapass documents, more are waiting inside.

 

After a while two gentlemen came out. One wearing a surgeon’s gown, one wearing a suit. They were the managers/clinic directors of the hospital. Both apologised for the wait time and said they were totally overwhelmed by the number of people coming for the cruise passenger test.

 

A few minutes later the clinic director came back and personally served us water and snacks...

Edited September 24, 2020 by Miaminice

[PaulS]

I sure cannot believe that any clinic or hospital in the United States would serve snacks to people who would be waiting for a test. That is real customer service.