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Just to fill everyone in on what happened with the stragglers. We were three of them that made it in time. After the 16:40 train stopped in Mantes-la-jolie we waited to board another train to Lahavre. There seemed to be much confusion and finally my son called us an Uber. It was a 200e ride and we arrived at about 9:05. We talked later to others who were on the train and they arrived on the train about 9:30. We heard 6 people were confused and missed the train in Mantes-la-jolie so did not make it in time. We are very thankful the captain waited about 1-1/2 longer than scheduled. The 16:40 train was scheduled to arrive in LaHavre at 18:51. We thought we would have 1-1/2 hrs to spare. Obviously we didn’t know about French trains. We would have scheduled an NCL tour but they were sold out, so we were on our own.

We’re on the Getaway. Last cruise was on the Gem and before that the Bliss. This ship seems really crowded without a forward lounge. No place to sit, relax with a drink and book like we enjoyed in the forward lounges.

I’m on the same cruise. I have reservations on Delta out of LA arriving the 11th, Spending the night in Panama City. I Plan on arranging a driver to take us to Colon port on the morning of the 12th. you never know how these things are going to work out. I had originally planned on a extra day on a Greece cruise last April and because of flight cancellation, we arrived 6 hours before the ship left. We made it on ok, but our luggage didn’t arrive until four days later in Israel.

We too were charged $125 each. The invoice did not say what it was for. But I assume now it was for the eurofins test prior to embark or the pcr prior to Israel. It just says customer service.

MrG. We had no test prior. Arrived at the ship and was tested by erofins. Very easy. They swabbed us and we waited in a room until our number came up showing showing us negative. Then gave us a wrist band to check into the ship. The Masada excursion was excellent included a trip to the Dead Sea. Take a bathing suit if you want to float in the Dead Sea. My wife had packed a suit, but because our bags were lost she only got to roll up her pants and walk in. If you have any type of rubber shoes take them as the bottom is very rocky and hard on your feet.

The PCR testing went smoothly. We were told to report to Bliss lounge in groups of about 200. We were in group six and reported at 10 AM. They administered the test which included a mouth swab and nostril swabs. We then had a relaxing at sea day. the next morning starting at 6:30 we were called by our same group numbers to exit the ship to the terminal for the in person immigration interview. The form I had stress over was never mentioned. She only asked if this was my first time in Israel and wished me a pleasant stay. We then returned back to the ship and went on our excursion to Masada Mountain and the Dead Sea at 9 am. At 9 pm our bags finally arrived at our room. Happy days ahead.

We are presently on the Jade. We were scheduled for the Covid tests by inspire, on line, after arriving in Greece Saturday the day before the cruise. Unfortunately our flight from Chicago was canceled and we were put on another from Chicago to London. Then on to Athens after 7 hour lay over, so we arrived in Athens Sunday at 12:30 pm. Ship scheduled to leave at 6:30 and we had no tests. Our luggage didn’t arrive so after reporting lost bag forms etc. we headed to the ship and arrived about 2 pm. We had filled out the eurfins paperwork when we originally checked in for the cruise so we had our paperwork. We immediately were tested, cleared and we’re on the ship within 30 minutes. This was a very smooth process, we did not need the prior test. Today we were given COVID tests for arrival in Israel. There is a form to be filled out on line for arrival within 48 hrs for Israel. I have not been to get it submitted and have asked twice at customer service and have been told to just do screen shots. We will be docking then reporting to Israel immigration for personal interview, then back to the ship. I’ll report how this all goes. Our bags are now at the Israel airport and are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. So, they’ve made it to Israel before we have. after the horrible start to this cruise with 48 hours of travel and lost bags we had a great day in Kusadasi. We cancelled our excursion and found an English speaking cab driver, Hassan, who took us shopping for clothes and essentials. He then basically took us on our own private excursion to Ephesus etc., we ended up having a great day.