Sopwith

And by the way, read the policy before you buy!!! Make sure you understand the limits of coverage and the exclusions.

In my business you can have the best; you can have it fast; you can have it cheap. But you can only pick two of those three.

But as a rule, best and cheap don’t go together. In my experience, insurance is not the place to go cheap, especially when you’re talking about medevac.

I know Maui quite well (I’m there now).

Bring your tin hat, just in case. ;)

I know Maui quite well (I’m there now). My advice is this:

You are correct that there is not much of touristic value in Kahului and near the port. Lahaina is a better destination, but only worth a couple of hours and maybe lunch - it is not large. Many galleries, time share hawkers and tee shirt shops. A few historic buildings and sights and a large park covered by a single Bannon tree. Check that there isn’t another cruise ship anchored off Lahaina. If there is it will be crowded.

The better beaches are just north of Lahaina at Kaanapali, but again probably busy.

The drive from Kahului is ~25 miles, 45 minutes with light traffic. But be aware that the only road back to Kahului can be very congested at times, so allow at least 1 - 1.5 hours to get back to be safe. You can rent a car, but there will be ships tours and local tour operators that will have offerings to Lahaina and other stops. Probably a better bet.

To rent a car you may have to cab it to the airport or a local office. Not all agencies serve the cruise port. The airport is about 10 minutes from the cruise port.

Bottom line, you’re probably better off doing a tour of some kind.

Apparently at this time an iris scan is only required for the NEXUS program.

Yes. With Nexus you use the iris scan and Nexus card entering Canada and fingerprints and passport entering the US. If anyone has a rational explanation for that, I'd be interested.

Both Mrs. Sopwith and I renewed our Nexus registration this year. I had to attend an interview, she didn’t, likely because I had been to Indonesia on business, although she also had Peru and Colombia on her list. Both took about 5 weeks for approval, cards came within a couple of weeks.

A word to the wise from our experience a few months after the original card was issued: the expiry date on your Nexus/Global entry is not the same as your passport. If you renew your passport and forget to update it on your Nexus registration it causes grief: hauled into secondary inspection, bag search, multiple scolding, etc. Don’t forget.

As Canadians we have Nexus cards. In addition to expedited customs screening into Canada it gives us access to GE, priority security screening at most airports in Canada, and TSA Precheck in the US. Best $50 we ever spent.

When choosing flights it’s extremely important to look at the exact specs of the plane assigned to your route.

seatguru dot com is a good resource for this.

As one who has flown extensively, here is my take on this issue.

If you want full control over your booking it is best to book directly with the airline. If there is a TA involved (O is a TA for purposes of airline bookings) they will only deal with the TA, and not directly with you until after you have checked in for the first flight. The exception to this is that once the flights are fully paid and ticketed and you have the PNR you may be able, in some cases, to go onto the web site and make a seat selection. In other cases this won't be possible. I have seen it both ways, even on the same itinerary booked by O. In most cases you will pay for seat selection.

Also be aware that generally O will book the lowest possible fare class, whether you pay for a deviation or not. This will generally involve some restrictions on baggage, seat selection and changes. I'm not sure on this, but if you talk to O and are willing to pay for a higher fare class they may accommodate you, but there will undoubtedly be an upcharge.

Another nuance you should be aware of arises if your cruise begins and ends in different ports and you therefore need something other than a return air ticket to/from the same airport. In most cases booking a one way TATL or TPAC ticket is very expensive, often almost the same as a round trip. In this case O can often get a much better price. But it comes with restrictions and complications as pointed out upthread. A work-around is to book a round trip to/from the cruise departure port and fly back there at the end of the cruise to catch the return flight. However, you need to be careful about booking connecting flights on separate tickets, even with the same airline, and especially if they are different airlines. In this case, if there is a misconnect you will usually be on your own. If the flights are on the same ticket the airline will accommodate you on a later flight. In some cases you may be able to book a multi-city ticket at a more reasonable cost than a one way.

That said, some of the low cost carriers may offer more reasonable one way TATL or TPAC tickets. But be aware that they're called low cost carriers for a reason.

The bottom line is that there is a very small set of circumstances in which I will book an air ticket through O, that being the one way ticket price issue mentioned above. Otherwise, my advice is do your research and deal directly with the airline of your choice. And inform yourself of the conditions and restrictions of the fare class you book. It matters.

Hope that helps.

One of the biggest changes announced is to restrict "people-to-people" visas that thousands of Americans have used in recent years to easily travel to Havana and other cities in Cuba.

...

Now, those travelers will need to be accompanied by a U.S.-based tour guide who must ensure Americans are engaging in approved activities that help the Cuban people.

I'm very confused. Isn't "freedom" one of the fundamental American values? This is something I would expect from the Cuban, Iranian or North Korean government, not the US government.

O will book what's best for them, not what's best for you, unless you pay the deviation fee. If you do, there may or may not be an upcharge on the flight you want. Depends on the deal they have with the airline you want. The good news is you can look at the schedule and price they can offer before you commit to the deviation. What I'm not quite sure of is if you can wait until you see the air arrangements first and then opt for the deviation if you don't like it. Perhaps someone else can answer that.

Since I'm fussy about air arrangements I normally either take the credit and book my own or pay the deviation fee and have them book something decent.

If you haven't done so already, I recommend you read the fine print for your CC trip insurance. IME the limits are quite low.

I suppose one advantage to booking in C$ this far out, if you're satisfied with O's exchange rate, is that you lock in the rate. You're protected from future increases (but you may lose out if it decreases). The popular wisdom seems to be that the US$ will stay the same or soften slightly against the C$ over the next 6-12 months. However, to say that things affecting the rate are volatile these days would be an understatement.

Thanks!

C$6999 / US$5499 = C$1.2728 per US$1.00

The best rate I can get locally today is $1.2759, so I guess their conversion is fair. (Which is not what I expected!)

I'm looking at Lima to NY, Marina, March 18, 2019. The price quote for cruise only in Canadian $ for a B4 veranda is C$6999. I'm curious to know what they're quoting in US$. If someone could look it up I'd appreciate it.

(I haven't figured out how to access the US website without using a VPN, which I'm not set up for.)

Thanks!

I'm interested in how the disembarkation went from the NA today. We were on this cruise last year and it was a complete gong show on arrival at FLL because of the ineptness and lack of readiness by the USCBP.

Anyone there?

I'll try this. I've never had to do anything to have my phone adjust to correct time.

 

 

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You don't. However, if you do what I've suggested you should avoid any spurious roaming charges. At worst, you will see a minute or two of data charges, not a big deal. Make sure you have the data roaming turned off or it will start downloading email when it connects.

When I cruise the cell phone is turned off and stored in the safe. There are less expensive ways to find out the correct time than paying expensive roaming charges. :evilsmile:

 

Roz

1. Turn on your phone in airplane mode.

2. Go into settings and turn data roaming off.

3. Turn airplane mode off.

4. When the phone connects to the local network it should show the local network time. This will take only one or two minutes.

5. Turn airplane mode back on if you're concerned. However, with data roaming off you should not incur any charges if you don't send or receive calls.

I have done this often and never had roaming charges if I don't use the phone.

Sorry, but I'm going to rain on the parade. I haven't sailed the Eurodam, but we spent a couple of weeks on the sister ship Nieuw Amsterdam last year. These ships are built on the same hull as the Vista ships, but they've stuffed almost 200 more people into them without expanding the facilities to look after them. We found it a bit crowded at times, especially in the Lido, where it was often impossible to get a table. The service was slow, and many times we had to clear a table ourselves or move outside to sit. We probably won't book one of these ships again.

Living in Vancouver, I have boarded a number of cruises at the Canada Place terminal. Generally it has been okay, but occasionally there have been waits, mostly perpetrated by the USCBP operation, which is incompetent to say the least. I have never waited more than about an hour, however.

Disembarkation can also be a gong show, mostly because of the way vehicle access to the terminal is set up, which restricts the ability of taxis to enter and exit efficiently.

Having said that about USCBP, I have seen far worse in San Diego and Fort Lauderdale. My last experience in FLL was a year ago, and queues for immigration were 2-3 hours long, causing many to miss their flights.

Someone there needs to be fired.

When you arrive turn your cell phone on and it will set to the local time.

I have paid in Full and have my flight no so presume that is not enough?

You need to get the booking reference (a six digit alpha-numeric string) from Oceania. Once you have it you should be able to go onto the web site, click Manage My Booking, and select your seats. However, as others have said, BA will charge you for seat selection, and sometimes a significant amount. It is possible, however, that on the cheap fare classes O buys you may not be able to select seats until you check in. If so, make sure you check in as soon as possible when it opens 24 hours before the departure time.

(This is one of the reasons I avoid Oceania air if I can.)

A move by the Canadian government to protect North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is having an impact on the cruise ship industry in parts of Quebec, as stops in the Gaspé and Saguenay have been cancelled.

The Celebrity Summit ship's stop at the wharf in La Baie scheduled for October 2 was also cancelled.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/cruise-ship-industry-quebec-speed-limit-1.4273807

Not dangerous or anything like that, but could be a drag

Thanks a lot!

Go for Royal Jordanian if you can afford it. And message me when you get to Tel-Aviv, Free State of Tel-Aviv and I'll buy you a drink! We got great bars here

Thanks for the quick response. I'm leaning that way. Are you suggesting that the land transfer is unwise?