Any Canadians Cruising???.....doing alot of dreaming and reading

[Kelownabccan]

My wife and I sure want to cruise again and have booked then cancelled a couple as the border remains closed....no driving....we can fly with so much hassle it is hardly worth the effort and the extra stress.....any tips for a west coast couple....have lots of FCC's from Princess and HAL from cruises that were stopped early in the COVID years.....this seem to be going on and on and on.....both luckily have the same dose times two.......lucky us....who would have known this would have been a bonus...poor people who did the mixed ones...what a nightmare

 

Reading the new posts from Seattle to Alaska and wishing we were there....love thinking about what we would have from the menu...lol.....but now with extra testing required, masks etc....not in the cards for us yet....

 

Would like comments from any Canadians on a cruise....how did they go about doing it....

[Cruise4food]

45 minutes ago, Kelownabccan said:

Would like comments from any Canadians on a cruise....how did they go about doing it....

For myself, I went about doing it by booking for July 2022. I know that is not precisely who you want to hear from (those sailing in 2021).

 

Will watch carefully to see if the hassles are reduced by summer 2022. I will have to review the FCC rules for the funds moved forward from 2020 and 2021 canceled bookings. I do not recall when they expire, meaning you must use  the FCC for for a cruise before a certain date. I hope to not have any more delays.

 

I have Zuiderdam booked for 14 days (7 days inside passage B2B). With Alaska ports there are more than enough excursions or just stroll thru the town to cover two visits in two weeks. One bonus of all the cancellations is that my FCC allows me to book a higher grade room than usual.

[john2003]

We have cancelled or been cancelled several times. Recently cancelled the October TA on the Eurodam. Too much risk for our comfort but I think several Canadians are sticking with it. Our next cruise realistically is June 2022 to Alaska.

[nimiq]

We have just booked the New Rotterdam for 11 nights over Xmas and New Years fingers crossed 🤞 all go well before the final payment date. Did I mentioned toes crossed well. Lol lol 😂.

Sea Ya 

Eric

[HappyInVan]

For December, it will be either Honolulu or Los Cabo for me. 

 

Next cruise in May 2022 Vancouver to Alaska. 😀

[bobpell]

Back to back on my wife's birthday, Nov. 20 out of FLL

My office is festooned with HAL tshirts, bags and old menus!!

With final payment coming up a decision awaits.

Biden might make the decision for a lot of us

Dream on 

Bottoms up Bob

 

[puppycanducruise]

Like a lot of people, our 2020 cruise was cancelled.  We re-booked for 2021, but that was cancelled too.  So, we are booked for 2022.

Good luck to all who can cruise this year, unfortunately, it's not us.

[highscar]

Jan 2023.   Longest wait ever. 

[kazu]

We’re not cruising now until May next year.  

 

One aspect that is a concern to me and should be to all Canadians is the Travel Advisory still in place to avoid cruising.  This can impact most people’s insurance, etc.

 

Nevertheless, some Canadians are going.  They are prepared to mask, get the covid test, etc.  They are willing to deal with the roadblocks to cruise.  

 

It’s each person’s choice.  We chose to wait.

[bennybear]

We are not sure we’re even cautiously optimistic.  With our long awaited French Polynesian cruise cancelled   And the Our holy land Cruise and then the inaugural…..   

but we too like to dream so two more planned for next year.  
The  real stumbling block for us is the advisory as it  negates our insurance.   That and the wicked delta variant!  

 

 

[Kelownabccan]

Looks like lots of us in the same "boat"...lol......keep looking at the ones out of LA and San Diego....they are usually so easy to get to and go on but not yet.....had one on HAL booked for early Nov out of SAN but cancelled as had to do full payment....was not going to do that as still tooooooo many unknowns....oh well can read the blogs and dream...

[weeislayman]

We have done what many others have done: booked and cancelled, booked and cancelled.

We have 3 booked at this time.  February 2022 14 day Caribbean with HAL.  As the weeks go by, this one seems less and less likely.  (As in less and less likely that we will be comfortable going).  Then we have a July 2022 NY to France on Oceania, which has a fabulous itinerary.  We are hopeful, but we'll see.

Then we have the 2023 WC with HAL.  That's too far off to be thinking about at this time.

I am beginning to think that if some warm, friendly, mostly Covid-free country opens up, then a land-based trip might be a better option.  We'll see....

[wandrr]

On HAL, we have a 2023 Grand South America, preceded by a 7 day Caribbean. My forecast is that things will have settled down by then. Had to make a booking to use Future Cruise Credits before they evaporated at the end of 2022.

 

We also have a river cruise in Europe in Apr of 2022.

[Vict0riann]

We are booked for October in the Med and back to Fort Lauderdale.  It is still up in the air until final payment date mid-month.  One thing we have to figure out for Europe is if they will accept a provincial vaccination certificate, as Canada has not come out with a national one yet.  Hope to hear next week.  We are pretty well decided that we will cancel our pre-cruise visit to the relatives in England - I'm not sure they want us right now, anyway.   I'm not overly optimistic about the whole thing.  

 

We also have a booking for Hawaii and Mexico in February next year and the Viking Passage in July.   My stack of cancelled cruises is getting thicker...

[nimiq]

10 hours ago, kazu said:

We’re not cruising now until May next year.  

 

One aspect that is a concern to me and should be to all Canadians is the Travel Advisory still in place to avoid cruising.  This can impact most people’s insurance, etc.

 

Nevertheless, some Canadians are going.  They are prepared to mask, get the covid test, etc.  They are willing to deal with the roadblocks to cruise.  

 

It’s each person’s choice.  We chose to wait.

If we wait for the Canadian government to reduce the travel advisory to the states we might just wait for ever. Funny how out government à letting US citizens fully vaccinated to come visit us but at same time he’s saying not to go. I’m fully vaccinated and willing to take the risk and will wear my mask when possible. 
The only thing bugging me like u said is because our gouvernement has issue that travel advisory this might void our COVID Insurance. 
Sea Ya 

Eric 

[T8NCruise]

13 minutes ago, nimiq said:

If we wait for the Canadian government to reduce the travel advisory to the states we might just wait for ever. Funny how out government à letting US citizens fully vaccinated to come visit us but at same time he’s saying not to go. I’m fully vaccinated and willing to take the risk and will wear my mask when possible. 
The only thing bugging me like u said is because our gouvernement has issue that travel advisory this might void our COVID Insurance. 
Sea Ya 

Eric 

I don't understand the opening of the border when fully vaccinated people can still carry the Delta virus, and the numbers in the US are way worse than here.  And way more of our population are fully vaccinated.  I wish they had waited another month.  Speaking as someone living close to the border and near spots that US visitors like to go.  And I have held off of even booking a cruise, I thought early next year would be OK but maybe late or even in 2023.

[liamur14]

🇨🇦 We are  booked Sept 12, Venice to Athens Sept 24. Fingers crossed it goes.

[Andy&Louise]

We are booked on a B2B Nov 10 2021 Caribbean cruise from FLL on the brand new Rotterdam.  We have really been looking forward to it after cancelling a number of cruises. The payment date is in 3 days and we are getting cold feet!

 

With the Covid numbers skyrocketing in Florida and with all of the ridiculous actions (ie push back on CDC recommendations) by their state government,  Florida is, by far, not a place to visit. If we could be flown directly to and from the deck of the ship and avoid Florida that would work for us. I think that HAL is likely going to try their best to keep us safe when we are on board.

 

An other issue is who knows what would happen if (when?) there is an active case of Covid on board. Would the island states that we are planning to visit shut us out? Another "voyage of the damned", perhaps.

 

If the Covid cases continue to rise asymptotically in Florida, we could have problems returning to Canada.

 

To top it off, even though we are double vaccinated we could still catch it down there and bring it home with us.

 

We have a 35 day Hawaii, French Polynesia, Marquesas cruise on the Zuiderdam in February 2022 that could be in jeopardy as well. Because if leaves from San Diego we feel a little safer. But who knows what will happen between now and then? 

 

We have been following the Reviews on the New Amsterdam Alaska cruises. Come comments lead us to think hat we could be disappointed with the meal selection and quality. The new (to us) Club Orange possibly suggests that to get what we have always thought was excellent food, we now must pay to upgrade from the standard fare.    

 

 The more I pour out our thoughts, I think that we are going to cancel the November cruise.

[trixiee]

We are booked for the July 2022 Viking Passage cruise, but prepared to wait until 2023, if things don't clear up.  We'll need a booster too, as we got 1 Pfizer and 1 Moderna shot.  😪

 

[weeislayman]

3 hours ago, trixiee said:

We are booked for the July 2022 Viking Passage cruise, but prepared to wait until 2023, if things don't clear up.  We'll need a booster too, as we got 1 Pfizer and 1 Moderna shot.  😪

 

As far as I can tell, you will be fine with that mixture.  What is not accepted is a mix of Astra-Zeneca plus one of the MRNA vaccines.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8086370/mixed-vaccines-travel-policy/

 

[john2003]

20 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

We are booked for October in the Med and back to Fort Lauderdale.  It is still up in the air until final payment date mid-month.  One thing we have to figure out for Europe is if they will accept a provincial vaccination certificate, as Canada has not come out with a national one yet.  Hope to hear next week.  We are pretty well decided that we will cancel our pre-cruise visit to the relatives in England - I'm not sure they want us right now, anyway.   I'm not overly optimistic about the whole thing.  

 

We also have a booking for Hawaii and Mexico in February next year and the Viking Passage in July.   My stack of cancelled cruises is getting thicker...

Wondering why your final payment date is so late. We had to pay by end of July for the Oct 30 sailing, which is why we cancelled.

Also thinking we will probably skip our UK trip to visit with my sisters and other relatives.

[cbr663]

We aren't even looking for something to book right now.  For us, there still is too much uncertainty and too many moving parts that are quite frankly, still moving.

 

I've written previously on CC that it is going to be a while before we venture back to cruising and that hasn't changed yet for us.

 

I am enjoying reading the live threads though of those who have ventured onboard.

[northernphoenix]

We are looking forward to our September 2022, Quebec City to Boston…on the Nieu Statendam.  We will be  cruising Canadian ports with the exception of Bar Harbour and Boston. 

[trixiee]

3 hours ago, weeislayman said:

As far as I can tell, you will be fine with that mixture.  What is not accepted is a mix of Astra-Zeneca plus one of the MRNA vaccines.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8086370/mixed-vaccines-travel-policy/

 

 

Oh that's awesome!  That's what I thought, (MNRA any brand is OK) then heard otherwise.  

Thanks!

[bobpell]

Toronto Star newspaper has an article this morning, (2021-08-10), regarding opening the Canada/Us border so we Canucks can travel south. The delay southbound is tied to the Mexican border for some reason. The American government sees the low numbers of vaccinated Mexicans (less than 40% have one shot) and their choice of using Russian and Chinese vaccines as a deciding factor in keeping the south  border closed. For some reason snowbirds who lead our American cousins in total vaccination rates are lumped in with with the Mexicans

Bob