ysolde

Our local consulate does not seem to answer their phone. Was thinking of traveling to the consulate in LA, but we have a trip planned for the Christmas week, and we have a Regent cruise in February, then the cruise to Brazil in March. Hopefully, we have enough time to get this damned visa. Otherwise, it may just be time to give up and cancel. ETA: And this cruise is definitely not worth it to me, as I am in a wheelchair, and the majority of the ports in Brazil are not accessible to me, so I will be spending most of the Brazilian part of the cruise enjoying the amenities on Voyager. This is beyond ridiculous at this point that I am being made to jump through this many hoops for a country that I will barely be seeing.

We are booked in an aft view non Haven suite on Viva on a Lisbon to San Juan cruise November to December 2024. We were originally booked in a club balcony suite, but it is a long cruise, and we spoke to our TA, and once we saw actual videos of the different cabins, DH just said, call her back and take the non-Haven suite. When you are on an even partial Transatlantic, you spend time in your cabin, and you need the space. Plus the perks offered seemed to appeal to us.

Thanks, but they want us to do this all online now. No printouts. So I have no idea how to upload the data from my bank while blacking out part of the information. Or maybe the bank does it automatically. Who knows. Yikes!

How did you provide the information on-line without giving the system your bank's routing numbers, bank account numbers, etc.? I mean, the best we have come up with is to open up a new, small bank account just for purposes of this visa. Does anyone else worry about a poorly built, poorly run system having all our personal financial data? How easy to hack could it be? Would anyone in Brazil even notice or care?

I am just hoping the refit is completed in time and our cruise does not get canceled. I am really looking forward to our holiday cruise.

We are supposed to have a holiday cruise on Mariner in 2025. Fingers crossed. I think.

I tend to agree. We are going through with this cruise because DH has his heart set on it. But I can't see ever traveling to Brazil again. Even using a cruise concierge means uploading all of these damned documents to them, which I have no idea how to do. I tell you, I am at a loss.

Current visa requirements: A valid passport: You must have a passport with at least six months of validity. It should be in good condition, have at least two blank pages, and should not have been reported stolen or lost. A visa application form receipt: After filling out your Brazil visa application form, you will get a receipt, which you must present to the consulate or embassy to get your visa. Print this, attach your passport photo, and keep it safe. A passport picture: The attached passport picture must be two inches by two inches. It must also be recent (within the last six months), against a plain white background, clearly show your face and neck, be free of glares and shadows, and be centered. You cannot wear headgear that covers your face, thick-rimmed or tinted glasses, or have anyone else in the picture. Additionally, you must have a neutral facial expression. A return or round trip ticket: Failure to present this can have your visa application denied. Evidence of sufficient funds to cover your stay: Brazilian immigration authorities must ensure you can support yourself during your stay. Thus, you must attach financial statements. Proof of accommodation: You must show where you will stay, whether in a hotel or with friends. Proof of employment status: If you are self-employed, you should attach an affidavit on the same, plus your tax assessment. Employees should attach letters from their employers stating their positions and salaries. Students should prove their status through enrolment letters from their universities. Proof of Brazil visa fee payment.

That sounds like a reasonable idea. I have been trying to get through to the consulate in LA for over an hour (the phone number for the consulate in Phoenix/Scottsdale does not go through, for some reason) and no one answers. I think a visa service may be the way to go. This whole thing is ridiculous. Gah! Why couldn't we book a Europe cruise like everyone else?

They require you to upload a copy of your bank account statement, which contains your bank account number (among other personal data). We don't have children.

The website indicates they want you to upload all these documents. We need to hire someone to do that for us, as neither one of us is technically savvy enough to do all that on our own. At some point, we are going to have to decide when the stress and expense of all of this is enough and just cancel the damn cruise. FTR, I am in a wheelchair and wonderful though Brazil may be, none of the excursions there are available to me, so I will be spending the Brazil portion of the trip on board the ship.

My main concern right now is that the automated system for the visa requires proof of a round-trip ticket to Brazil. We are going on a Transatlantic cruise and therefore will not have a round-trip ticket. I don't think the automated system is prepared to process a one-way ticket to Brazil and an exit from Brazil via a cruise ship. Thus, I don't think the system will issue us a visa. I am going to call the consulate tomorrow, but I don't know that the system, at this early date, is equipped to handle this type of issues on-line. We may need to go to the nearest Brazilian consulate to resolve it in person. There seems to be a Brazilian consulate here in Scottsdale. We'll see if they are equipped to handle this issue. Otherwise, we may have to make an appointment to go to Los Angeles to resolve it.

I don't disagree with you. However, the website outlining the actual visa requirements went live only in the last few days. Until then, no one had any way of knowing just how intrusive and onerous this process would really be. Add to that the fact that we booked this cruise a couple of YEARS ago, and final payment was due in what, October? Had we known that Brazil was going to want to know the ins and outs of our finances, including our bank account numbers, there was no way we would have booked this cruise. As it is, the only way to salvage it is to open a new bank account and hire a tech advisor to help us upload all of this information for us. If it is ever even going to work, given that we are on a Transatlantic cruise, and we don't have round-trip airline tickets, as the computerized system requires. Everyone on our Transatlantic cruise (and every Transatlantic cruise) may very well be in a bind. Something Regent needs to figure out, because an automated system is not built to comprehend the situation.

We are booked on the same cruise. We have not been notified by Regent that the visa was required, either, but apparently, it is. And it is a doozy. I would love to know what is going to happen, because I honestly don't know whether travelers of Regent's demographic are going to be readily able to upload all of this information on the internet. Like I said, DH and I looked at the website and realized n order to do this we need to hire a trusted tech consultant. It's ridiculous.

Well, here's where it gets interesting. One of the required documents is a copy of the round trip flight itinerary. We are booked via Regent Air, and therefore, while we know the flights that we have (one way to Rio on AA), and I think I may be able to upload those (maybe, heck, I am over 50, and my technical skills are so-so), I cannot see the flights back from Europe to the US. I have tried on the LH website, and they say I have to try through my TA. I am going to have to call the Brazilian consulate on Monday to figure this out. They really, really are not making this. easy. I thought this would be like getting the Argentina e-visa ten years ago: go on the website, input your name, passport information, and e-mail address, pay for the visa with a credit card, and print out your visa, which was good for ten years. This? This is insane. My husband really, really wants to go to Brazil. I was never that into it. If Brazil is making travel to their country this difficult and intrusive, I really don't want to go. Like I said, I will call the consulate tomorrow, but if this procedure is going to require calling up our banker so that we can set up a new bank account with $2,000 in it (for safety's sake), then calling up a tech consultant to upload all of this information into the Brazilian website, my next call will be to Regent to ask if we can. get a FCC rather than take this cruise. When we reserved this cruise, this e-visa was not in place. This is not something we had any way of foreseeing. Is this really worth the hassle, stress, etc.?

Someone please explain to me: I understand you need to provide a bank statement. Do you also need to provide a credit card statement? What else do you need to provide? I know you need to provide a passport type photo (not sure how to upload that). I guess you also need to provide proof of vaccination? How do you provide this? Photograph your vaccination card? It's all a bit much.

I don't know. There is something awfully discomfiting about all of this. Can someone from Regent speak to the Brazil e-visa requirements, please? We are past final payment for our March 2024 cruise, but I feel very uncomfortable with all of this. Very uncomfortable.

I usually bring my Longchamp bag along when we go grocery shopping in Europe (we will do so because we want a few things in our hotel room or because we are having a picnic lunch somewhere). The Regent tote sounds kind of perfect for this purpose.

Do you really have to provide bank statements? Seems awfully intrusive. Wow . . .

In our experience, the Condado Vanderbilt is lovely. Can't speak to the Marriott, since we have not stayed there recently (our most recent stay was at the Residence Inn in Isla Verde, which seems to be quite new).

Check out the air deviation thread. Do some research on flights that are going to work for you (pick three going out and three coming back). You may have to pay a little bit, but you will like the flights that you get. Business class or not, there is nothing worse than running around airports trying to catch flights with extremely tight connections. Invest in trip insurance. Stuff happens. The laundry service onboard is, indeed, fantastic. You do not need to see every port. There may be days when you decide to stay onboard the ship and explore, sit in the library and read (one of the joys of Regent is that they have full libraries with books in many languages -- not only are books provided by Regent, they encourage passengers to donate the personal books they have finished reading to the library), perhaps have your hair done or enjoy other spa amenities, and enjoy the games and activities the crew sets up for those homebodies who take the day off with them. It will be a day well spent.

I had a good experience with Voyager's hair salon services. As someone with a mobility impairment, one of the things that I like about Regent is that its cabin layouts are usually large enough that I can request a suite that is not specifically wheelchair accessible, as long as the bathroom has a step-in shower. That having been said, when I stand in the shower, I can wash myself, but I cannot wash my hair (that requires two hands, and I need one hand to hold the grab bar). Thus, on longer cruises, I rely on the ship's hair salon to wash and blow out my hair. On Voyager, I got a Kerastase straightening treatment as well as a blow-out five days after that. My hair looked terrific throughout the cruise. And my hairdresser always made me feel welcome and comfortable as well as beautiful.

For those who were on the cruise when the conflict started, where are you now? Did you get out of Israel? Where did Voyager go, and when?

We have noticed that of late, it is more difficult to find otc medications on board cruise ships. While we always brought the basics with us (acetaminophen, seasick medicine (just in case), anti-diarrheal, cough drops), we now bring cough suppressant, Benadryl, Sudafed, and a pack of DayQuil/ NyQuil. Basically, anything for a cold or allergies. We don't overthink the wardrobe. Khakis and polo shirts (jacket over it when the weather requires it) for my husband; long sleeved, casual collared shirts in the evening. His day shoes can either be sandals (Tevas) in warm weather ports or comfortable closed toe shoes. In the evening, appropriate slip-ons. My wardrobe is similar. By day, I will wear slacks and a sweater combo (with a jacket over it when the weather warrants it). I will sometimes brighten that up with a silk scarf. Day shoes are keds type, very comfortable.In the evenings, I will wear knit dresses and knit skirts with matching sweaters. I will usually pair that up with a small heel, but I have recently discovered Rothy's so I may bring those on my next cruise. I will bring some some jewelry (nothing expensive) to play with in the evenings. I always have a pashmina or a thin cashmere sweater with me in the evenings. I find cruise ships tend to make their venues cooler than I enjoy in the evenings, and I like to keep a bit of warmth with me to keep comfortable. I find that if I bring clothes and jewelry that I love and. that work well together, I enjoy dressing up a bit for dinner on a cruise. Especially on longer cruises, clothes get dirty. There are laundry and dry cleaning services on cruise ships. Depending on the cruise line, they may cost money and they may not be inexpensive. Consider it part of the cost of the trip, and don't stress about it. Cruise ships allow passengers to plug in their US and European appliances. I bring our (I don't know what it's called) adapters? from our European travels so that we can plug in things into as many plugs as possible in our cabin. Since they're never unpacked from the little electronics bag where I pack the computer, it's not a big deal, really. I love my hairbrush. It keep my hair shiny and and it truly is wonderful. But it is large and takes up a lot of room in a suitcase. Years ago, I bought a travel-sized version of my hairbrush. I keep it in my underseat suitcase (the one for my laptop) so I always know where it is. Those are my top tips.

This. DH and I will be on Viva next year, too, on a late, late season repositioning cruise, so perhaps the small-venue overcrowding will be less of an issue. That having been said, I would be curious to hear how others have worked around these problems, and how NCL is working around these problems (if NCL perceives them as problems in the first place, of course). I also wonder whether these perceptions are universal amongst those who have traveled on Prima/Viva, or whether others on CC have a different perspective.