Heidi13

Both deserts could be identical, but on the older, smaller class of ship, the galley and/or prep areas may not be set up to guarantee no cross-contamination.

Also haven't sailed with HAL yet, but that has been our experience on other cruise lines. With other mass market, the following day menus were in the mail slot when we retired for the evening. Make selections, return to mail slot and they are picked up during the night. On premium ship, they often attempted to find us at another dining venue, failing that, the menus were delivered to the cabin and left on the desk. Cabin Steward delivered them to the galley in the morning. Since I doubt all the salmon comes aboard breaded, I am surprised the galley can't make a GF portion at short notice. All in all really poor service.

Unfortunately, the memory is receding with age. It may have been explained during during the original incident.

JD - Unfortunately very true. In human factors training, one of the first things taught is, "To err is human" and that 80% of incidents/accidents are the result of human error. I have no doubt Viking have utilised human factors to amend the procedure, removing the potential for single person errors and adding additional layers to the procedure. This is best described by the "Swiss Cheese Model" where each layer has the potential for having an error, represented by a hole. Unfortunately, even removing the potential for single person errors does not eliminate errors, it only reduces them. By adding additional layers, the hope is that the holes in each layer will not align, which represents an incident. Therefore, with more layers, you can still experience human error(s), but it is caught and corrected before an incident. If the Chairman mentioned "Human Error", it could be the OEM, shipbuilder or operational crews, and I have no doubt those procedures have already been modified.

Not aware of any list, but you can generally go by the target market and in addition luxury/premium cruise lines often include gratuities in the base fare. In the UK and Australian/NZ markets, included gratuities is the norm on ships based in those markets. Some of the American based cruise lines have tried to change the UK market to the US model, such as Carnival adding gratuities with P&O. It was a spectacular failure, so they had to revert to the British model of including in the base fare. If you are a Brit or Aussie/NZ, most of the British based cruise lines have them included (exception being Fred Olsen), but the US based ships repositioning to Europe will not. In Australia/NZ, P&O Australia and the Princess ships that operate year-round will have them included.

I'm also considering South America in 2025. We had booked the HAL 133-day Pole to Pole, which has an amazing itinerary, but unfortunately DW is unable to cruise again. I can't justify being away for 5 months, so will be changing the booking to a single pax on a 22-day Santiago to Buenos Aires. This cruise also has a number of relaxing sea days/scenic cruising. The flights will be long, not too bad if I pay for American airline flights, but to use my significant quantity of BA points, I have to fly to LHR first from Vancouver, then South America. Will only book First or Business and will overnight at the T5 Sofitel, if I opt for points. When cruising to South America from UK, opting for flights over a UK departure, could be the lesser of the 2 evils, as departing Southampton in January can have a number of rather unpleasant days. The Channel, Western Approaches, Bay of Biscay and beginning of the TA can all be an uncomfortable start to a cruise, lasting 3+ days.

On a voyage from Hamburg to Lisbon, upon cleaning the Western Approaches at Ushant, the ship will alter to a SW'ly course, crossing what is considered as the Bay of Biscay. All ships on this route steer basically the same courses. As Hank mentioned it could be smooth sailing, but unlikely, or it could have moderate to heavy seas. What you experience will depend on the weather systems in the Atlantic, such as the tail end of a TRS or early season frontal depression. BTW - the Western Approaches can also be rough, depending on the Atlantic weather situation.

Back during my coaching days, we were required to submit to a criminal record check, which is normally just submitting a form with your details. However, in my case, I was always requested to stop by an RCMP detachment for fingerprints. While they would never outright state why, it was suggested that I may share the same DoB with somebody on the nasty list. Since they can change their name, I was eliminated with fingerprints. Could be something similar.

Vancouver has limited berth space, especially with the ever growing mega ships. When more than 3 ships are in port, unless at least 1 of them is small, a ship has to anchor. From memory, this happened on Viking's first Alaska cruise and has happened once this year. Previous times, the ship tried to arrive early, go alongside to discharge baggage, then went out to anchor. Pax were disembarked via tender to the Harbourmaster's dock, which is adjacent to Canada Place at the heliport. Pax were taken by bus to a local hotel to collect the luggage. For embarkation, the Harbourmaster had offered the same service, but Customs & Immigration vetoed that plan. In Vancouver, you clear US Immigration then must go directly to the ship, so unable to take the short trip to an adjacent berth. After the other ships sailed, the Orion went alongside to embark pax, sailing about 22:00 to 23:00. I'll suggest each situation is different depending on the number of ships and the tides, so best waiting until you receive notification from the cruise line as to how the day will proceed.

Lyle - "Bravo Zulu"

The ship's manifest is normally sent 3 to 4 days before arrival, when on ocean passage. When coastal cruising it must be sent immediately after departure from the last foreign port, if within the 3 to 4 day window. Manifest can't be sent until departure from the last port due to the possibility of changes. Impaired driving is what most Americans focus on when coming to Canada, but it is only 1 of the offenses we treat as indictable. You cannot be denied boarding for a criminal record when boarding in a US port and visiting Canada, as the cruise line does not have access to this information. When your family member was requested to meet with Canadian Border Agents, the ship is not advised why they request a meeting, and is again not advised of the reasons for any decision. In your situation, the ship would have been advised the pax is prohibited to go ashore, they are not told why.

In Canada, we do not use the US terms misdemeanor and felony, as we use summary or indictable offenses. We have numerous offenses that are indictable, basically all serious offenses, which include impaired driving, possession of a controlled substance, depending on quantity and type of drug and even some assault charges.

Affirmative, my assumption is the interview is similar to presenting yourself at the border and provides a better ability to verify the pax identity and criminal record. The ship's Master or Officers are not present, so are not privy to the content. I'll suggest the Border Services Officer is not so much making a correct, good or fair decision, more that the Officer is conducting a risk assessment on letting the pax enter Canada. If they have a criminal record, such as drugs or drunk driving, they are inadmissible to Canada. Therefore, they have entered Canada illegally and should be removed from the ship for deportation back to the US. Therefore, based on a risk assessment, if the attending officer permits the pax to remain onboard, I'll suggest that is a fair decision, based on their experience.

Best guess as to the reason would be allowing an additional 12 hrs of steaming time, which will provide reasonable bunker savings, with the reduction in speed. As you mentioned, I expect shore-ex will be added later and they probably don't anticipate much shore-ex revenue loss. They also get additional bars and casino revenue at sea. Definitely agree that the pax experience is secondary to the bottom line.

Determining vaccination requirements is more than just the ports you plan to visit, our travel medical docs also recommend including where we will be visiting on tours. Another consideration is that requirements are constantly changing, so what we experienced last year may be invalid. It is for this reason, our travel medicine docs suggest not booking an appointment more than 3 months. When we knew longer term vaccinations were required, we started earlier and then returned again about 4 - 6 weeks before the cruise.

Welcome to cruise critic. This subject has been discussed many times in other threads. The cruise lines do not have access to the criminal record database, so will have no knowledge of your issue, so no reason to deny boarding. When the ship departs from the final US port, they send a copy of the manifest to Canadian Border Services. They review and identify any concerns. I expect you are inadmissible to Canada, but that is at the discretion of the reviewing officer. Generally, they employ 3 options: - Take no action - Request the vessel to restrict shore leave - Request the vessel to restrict shore leave and require a personal interview aboard the vessel. On completion of the interview you may be permitted ashore, you may be confined to the ship, or you can be removed from the vessel in restraints. All depends on the offense and attending officer. Just by being aboard the vessel, you have already entered Canada and if inadmissible, due to a criminal record, you will have to suffer any consequences. BTW - the removal in restraints is the least common and usually has outstanding warrants.

Interesting points, but I'll suggest that Ensenada has no incentive to offer cheaper than normal port fees. If the cruise lines wish to operate R/T cruises to Hawaii, they have really no other viable option other than Ensenada, so the port could easily increase normal rates.

The ozone cleaners were a contributing factor in the massive recall of Phillips CPAP machines, as the gas degraded some of the material inside the machine. DW has used a CPAP for over 10-years and only washes with hot, soapy water then rinses well. She hangs the hose in the shower to dry. She cleans every 1 to 2 weeks.

Totally agree with the above. In addition, one positive is they have more snow on the mountains, which is quite scenic.

Or how about the Bengal Room, had some brilliant curries in that room. Sadly long gone.

Lyle - looks amazing, the table cloth was the first clue this was at home.😁

I'll suggest it is personal preference, which can be largely affected by where you come from. Where I was brought up tea was always, as your describe, dark as tar. That was a proper cup of tea, which unless I make it at home is almost impossible to find, even in Victoria. Anything less was considered peelie-wallie, which is a weak and/or overly milky cup of tea.

An interesting description of afternoon tea at the Empress. Based on some of the others in Victoria and many I experienced growing up in UK, I'll suggest it is aimed at tourists, as it was very average and expensive.

Umbrella

There's a good reason we refer to this coast as the North Wet Coast. Activities usually don't get cancelled due to rain, as we are used to it. If rain is an issue, I suggest bringing a brolly.