Roland4

I know we will be talking to Rick Spath, so I will ask him.

We will be on that one, so I will let you know.

We stayed one night at the Hotel Borg in May and it was nice. We looked into other hotels when we were there and are staying at the Hilton Iceland Parliament hotel for one night before we board Serenity later this week. Friends sailing Explora 1 are staying at the Saga Hotel. The Radisson Blu has a very nice restaurant/bar. Everything in Downtown Reykjavik is only about a five minute walk from everywhere else! One thing to keep in mind is that,at least last May, none of the hotel restaurants/bars are open for dinner on Monday or Tuesday.

I just looked at Dec 1, when we disembark from Oceania Vista, and the count is eight ships and about 27K passengers off and on!! MIA is going to be a zoo that day!!!

Unless something has changed with NC, it is (or at least was) possible to order a coffee at The Cove and even in The Avenue.

I just took a look and you are in Victoria from 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM the day before. You certainly won't be touring, which leads me to believe it is an admnistrative stop to clear Canada Immigration for sure, and possibly Customs. The wild card in this is the second leg being a repositioning cruise to LA. Normally for Alaska you pre-clear US Immigration/Customs when you board in Vancouver, but since you are proceeding to the Lower 48, that may not happen. You might have your TA check on this for you, but my guess is you will be able to leave the ship in Vancouver, but you may have to clear USCBP to get back on the ship, and once on, you won't be allowed back off. Again, just a guess.

For those comong late to this discussion, see Ryndam's post #65 above for draft changes already made.

Agreed, but what Keith is saying is that any monetary settlement from Moecker in future would be deducted from any unused EI credits. That is NOT what I was told, and I asked that question specifically of our Crystal DSM. Again, the recovery from Moecker, if any, will be insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Never tried that dish, but during WC 2020, on the rare occassions we ordered Eggs Benny, we used the "Vince Method" and ordered the hollandaise on the side and it worked perfectly. The only thing we could not get them do, no matter how hard we tried, was to stop bringing a separate bowl of hollandaise for each us!!!!😮😁

That is my understanding as well. I asked when the EI was launched whether subsequent refunds from Moecker would affect the IE credit and was told it would not. Now, in our case, any credit from Moecker will be so small as to not really matter.

All the Authority cares about is moving ships and getting paid. These crossings are booked probably as much as a year, or two years, in advance. I have no idea how far in advance they are paid for.

Speculation again on my part. I recall looking at one of those cancelled cruises, and it was a full transit, same as your Regent Cruise. I would think Regent has had those slots booked as far in advance as they can be booked, while Crystal was obviously "late to the game". Maybe in cancelling the sailings, Crystal "jumped before they got pushed" by the Canal authority. We will likely never know.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I suspect, and it is nothing more, that ships that are repositioning, like the ones that will soon be returning to the Caribbean from Alaska, or Serenity before the WC starts in San Diego will not be restricted. They HAVE to get from one side to the other and around South America is not an option. Cruises like the ones Crystal has cancelled, that are essentially "site-seeing" cruises are the ones being restricted as they don't HAVE to get through the Canal. One thing I am curious about, and have not seen anything on it, are both canal channels (Old and New) dealing with these restrictions? As I understand it, the "new" canal recycles most of its water use.

If you are taking about the Exceptional Inititiave credits, as a TA, I can tell you your TA's commission is fully protected.

No it is not. Manahattan/Brooklyn/Bayonne are all considered to be the same "port" area. As someone pointed out either here, or on another thread, they are all part of the same Port Authority.

Hopefully ours will arrive soon!

Hi Keith. AutoCorrect "done you wrong" on this post!!! 😮 😮

We board in Reykjavik two weeks from tomorrow and are really looking forward to it!! It will be interesting to see what everything looks like "up close and personal"!! Now all we have to hope is that all/most of these tropical storms buzzing around don't all go the North Atlantic to die at the same time! We do not need a repeat of the 2012 Symphony TA!!!!😮😁

Vince. There are lots of pictures of The Lounge, and also a video clip Keith posted of The Bistro at about Post # 113 on the thread from the TA sailing;

Welcome back, Vince. We have missed you!!!

Be that as it may, I just took a look at the St. Barth's schedule for November, and on only one day, Nov 27, is more than one ship shown as in port. Don't know if they have changed the rules and have started limiting ships, but I would not be surprised. Here is the link; https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/gustavia-st-barths-port-459

You are dreaming if you think you will get an explanation, beyond "for operational reasons", which is cruiseline-speak for "because". FWIW, not every line sends out change notifications for every small change in the itinerary. As May B said in another post Regent is there that day, and I suspect they booked their slot long before NC came along.

Must have been in the "early years" because they have been "in place" and unmoved since we first sailed Crystal in 2000 on Harmony!!! And I admit, when it comes to things like this, I am as big a kid as the next person!!😃😃

I have often wanted to change those direction arrows, but only on one side of the ship, just to see what would happen!!!😁 Alas they have been "shellacked" into their current direction and probably have not been changed since either ship was first launched!!! I have never been able to figure out why the direction is counterclockwise, but it is the same on every ship we have ever sailed that had a walking/running track. A couple of newer ships we have sailed over the last 18 months even have that direction painted onto the track!