kentuckycruiser

My parents are on the Iceland to NYC cruise (boarded 6/6). They found out today at least 3 ports have been canceled due to the ice - they mentioned both stops in Greenland and at least one other, maybe 2. Now spending the night in one port in Iceland and have 4 days at sea in a row. It was hard to follow them on speaker. Viking offered credit towards a future cruise I believe.

We have a cruise on Saturday the 3rd and did the Walgreens NAAT tonight. (Wednesday)

I have the same problem. I came here to see if anyone had any ideas what is going on.

Just going to chime in. We did a neptune with 4 when boys were 8 and 10 ish and they barely fit on the pullout. I don't think two teenagers would enjoy it at all. Two weeks ago to Alaska we did a balcony for parents and an inside room across the hall for teenage boys and they were delighted to be in a dark room. HAL requires even for teenagers that they be across the hall or next door. I"m not sure I would spring for two balconies although I do like connecting rooms. We have also done a neptune and an inside room and that was super. You can do it yourself on line with two rooms. added: I like Neptune suites on the 7th floor near the lounge. We had a neptune for our alaska trip a few years ago and it rocked. Sooooo nice to have the big balcony to watch the glaciers. That may have been the year we were all in one room. But it is big enough that 4 fit fine except for the 2 on the pullout.

the Walgreens NAAT test is used by a good percentage of people who cruise. It is under the PCR umbrella.

I want to clarify one thing. The Walgreens NAAT test is under the PCR umbrella so may be done 72 hours before boarding. It is NOT an antigen but a PCR. We did our Walgreens NAAT test on a Wednesday evening before our Vancouver Saturday departure two weeks ago. We did take the time difference into consideration so took the tests at 4:30 p.m. as our boarding time was noon. However, from lots of other posts Verifly has no idea of your boarding time so we probably would have been fine doing the test earlier in the day.

well this is old news not thank goodness! But had 4 of us use the Emed tests on board on the Friday before the Saturday disembark. The other 8 used Flow Flex tests purchased in Ketchikan and booked with Azova for $20. All went fine!

I did find that out later. Although one family in our group was considered to be under quarantine on Arrive Can because their 4 year old was unvaccinated but yet there were no hiccups when going through customs during disembarking.

We had Club Orange - great use of $350 to move from obstructed balcony to a VA. We also enjoyed the CO dining room. Fantastic service. I was glad the CO had nice views of the ocean, so long as your table was in the right place. I think the MDR is a hot mess for breakfast even pre-covid. We didn't set foot in the MDR except for one tea. I was glad the ship was at lower capacity, I think it would have been jam packed in the Lido and elsewhere if full.

We were on the Koningsdam last week and 12 of us did the proctored test. We bought the premium internet for 24 hours at $29.99. We purchased on Friday a.m. and took the tests that afternoon while cruising the inside passage and we got off the ship on Saturday. There were zero issues for any of us doing the tests in 3 different cabins. Four of us did the Emed proctored test which needed no appt. Eight of us had FlowFlex tests purchased for $12 at the safeway in Ketchikan. We booked appts the day before with Azova for $20 per test and they proctored it. All super easy. Verifly took longer than 6 weeks ago, probably 4-5 hours to approve. No need to pay for the expediated service on Verifly if doing it the day before.

We were also on this cruise. Fantastic warm weather. I can also chime in on Club Hal (only 25 kids on board!) and Club Orange. We never set foot in the MDR except for an afternoon tea. We were a mixed group of three families most of us in verandas on Deck 6. The family with 4 kiddos was in the side aft on deck 4 with two adjoining veranda rooms with huge balconys. Also would recommend the zip lining in Ketchikan. We did the Tracy Arm and it was very nice, it is a bit long of a day. We paid for premium internet on Friday am and then did proctored tests in the room. We didn't have enough so two of the dads took an Uber to the Safeway in Ketchikan and bought FlowFlex tests for $12 then used Azova for proctoring for $20 per test. Super easy. Disembarkment was super easy and quick. We got off at 8:15, breezed through customs (all they wanted was the paper declarations page), short line for a cab which was 20 feet from customs (all inside) and then zipped off to airport. Short lines at Vancouver airport and we were at the gate at 9:15 with hours to spare. Getting on was fast but so many lines to get into. One family with us who had a 4 year old got stopped and even though child had negative test, HAL said he had to be tested again that day. That slowed them up by an hour which they found really annoying. The mom had to take the child to the convention center testing center (which is closed for everyone else) while dad was dealing with the three other kids. BTW even though the convention center testing was closed, HAL front desk was pushing it all week as an option.

no you just use your TV or your navigator app

Another option if you don't have the Emed tests handy. For our cruise that ended on Saturday we purchaed FlowFlex tests at the Safeway in Ketchikan and booked proctored tests through www.azova.com. The Azova test was $20. Half our group did Emed and the other half did proctored through Azova. Super easy and painfree. On the Azova website they list all the tests that they cover - lots of choices.

It is good for 24 hours. So if you bought it at noon on Friday you would be good for Saturday. But if you are disembarking and need to test on Saturday then just use your personal data plan, and you don't need the ship. Assuming you are disembarking in Vancouver. Or wait and do it at your hotel.

Hopefully you moved from a VH to a VA! That is the entire point of Club Orange. We just got back from the Koningsdam and had Club Orange. We really liked the CO dining room and never set foot in the main dining room. What I did like was you could see the ocean from CO vs. not so much on another ship we were on. The service is really top notch but the only hiccup we had, we had 3 couples in our group and there are only 2 tables for 6. We couldn't eat until 7 due to one couple having to drop off kids at Club HAL. Anyway, we couldn't sit together the first two nights as the tables for 6 were taken. I felt there was a pecking order for who got what table and I did see several cruisers tip the maitre de. One time we were told "first come first serve" but then another night the group came in after us and got the table. It was a running joke of our group but it all worked out fine, a few times we sat 4 at one table and 2 at an adjoining. One of our group is a correspondent on a national news program so we even had some star power. Ha ha.

6089

We were on the Koningsdam last week and our room had a screeching sound from the vent every fifteen minutes or so. As soon as we moved in I started hearing it, I thought it was a carpet cleaner coming down the hall or a loud scooter. Started faint, then got really loud, then faint again. We contacted front desk and I assume they sent someone down while we were at dinner. We had a message at 9 p.m. that they had another room for us. We moved the next morning down the hall which was relatively quick when you keep clothes on hangers. Both rooms had noisy neighbors which we are not used to. I was surprised how much I could hear through the walls, I have always felt cruise cabins are much more sound proof then hotel rooms.

https://news.delta.com/upload-and-go-deltas-new-online-tools-make-travel-us-easy

I would go on the airline website and it will give you the method to upload/provide your negative test results. We flew out of Vancouver home to the US via American Airlines. For American they are linked with VeriFLY so you can only get your boarding pass after documents approved by VeriFLY. If you are using an airline that is not partnered with VeriFLY, then they will have their own method. Likely on your specific reservation it will show documents needed to fly.

When you book it use the time on the cruise. We booked it the day before, there were no issues with finding times, all day was available. When we got the results from Emed and Azova, both showed a different time than the ship. I just put the ship time down for VeriFLY. For example, the Azova had 17:48 as the time of the test, I put down 1:48 pm. That is perfectly fine and all went through with no hitches. VeriFLY will not let you put down a time in the future so just put current shipboard time.

The premium internet package was $29 for one device or $39.99 for four devices. We bought it after breakfast on Friday. You purchase the internet via the Navigator app and go to the internet from there.

Ok update. We have 12 in our group. 4 of us used the emed with the prepurchased tests. Worked very smooth and did it in the room Friday mid morning before a Saturday afternoon flight. At first I went down to a conference room but got overtaken by an origami class which was frustrating as we were in the midst of test number 1. Anyway, room worked just fine with the premium package which we purchased that am. Second group bought FlowFlex in Ketchikan at the Safeway. We did a lot of research and used Azova which charged $20 per test. That group received their email results very promptly. On the Azova website they list the specific tests they will cover which made us feel more comfortable using them. They are also recommended by the Points Guy and are partners with several airlines. Do not use OnPoint, there have been a lot of consumer complaints. We then loaded on Friday by 2 p.m. all the results on VeriFly. Compared to 6 weeks ago it took several more hours for the results to be verified. Maybe 4-5 hours. There is an option to pay on Verifly for expediated results. But no need if you do the day before. We disembarked this a.m. on the Koningsdam in Vancouver. We walked off the ship at 8:10 and it was a super easy process. The customs line moved very quickly got through in about 5 minutes off the ship NO ONE asked for the Arrive Can even though HAL would not allow anyone to board unless they had the app. The only thing he asked for was the paper declaration page. No passports needed either. We then were about 20 feet from the cab line. It was very short and lots of cabs and lots of workers to put people in line. We were on a cab in about 5 minutes. The cab to the airport took about 20 minutes and cost 40 CAD (that included tip) Security at the Vancouver airport was also relatively quick. We were at the gate by 9:15 for a 1:25 flight. Now I am drinking coffee for the next 3 hours! The one thing to remember is to put liquid and gels into a clear bag. We did that at the airport and it was a small hassle remembering where we put things but the lines were short. Our friends took the airport shuttle and they still are not at the gate. Was just more of a hassle with getting all the seniors on the bus, luggage and everything else. They are sort of annoyed they paid $29 per person for the bus but all of us had been concerned with cab line. But the cab line is inside, covered and just feet away from customs so it is very painless.

yes, its a per day cost and you can do it for the last day. So we are doing it tomorrow morning and then will have the entire day with it. Annoyingly, my sister called the front desk and they said just take it at Canada Place. Then I went down today and got the info for Canada Place. Then an hour ago I see that it is closed.

We are on the Koningsdam now. We are going to get the premium package tomorrow (Friday) and do the tests then. We are one short (have 6 people but 5 emed tests) so we practically begged HAL if we could get one test or even buy one from them. Nope. I also brought along 7 of the freebie govt tests and we are going to try getting those to work via one of these pop up companies. What I figure we need to get just one to work and upload to Verifly on Friday then we are good to go on Saturday. We are nervous about getting 1:40 flight on Saturday.

We have done two cruises in the last six weeks (on one right now). The lines at guest services are always so long. I feel like we can't get answers before the cruise so we are stuck asking once on board. The other issue, the staff on board the ship are very new and even the young people working the front desk are unsure and there is a really hard time with the language barrier. I'm mid 50's so I have most of my hearing intact and I am an experienced traveler, but I cannot imagine the issues the senior citizens are having trying to understand what the girls at the front desk are actually saying.