Mercruiser

What documentation did you provide to show a round trip reservation to/from Brazil (see red text below)? I ask because, like you, I was planning to make a day trip from Argentina to the Brazil side of Iguazu falls. That trip across the border would be on a taxi or bus. Source: [Official] Brazil Evisa | Tourist eVisa (vfsevisa.com) Click on "Information" tab. REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR eVisa( Tourism/Business) Stays Up to 90 Days

I have not been there yet, so I cannot speak from personal experience. But, here is a web page on the subject. https://www.ytravelblog.com/iguazu-falls-brazil-vs-argentina/#:~:text=On the Brazil side%2C there,covers a 2.7 kilometers area.

One more thing, these Argentina tour operators also require passport numbers when using a credit card for an online purchase. Id never seen that before. I emailed one of them about it and they said it was standard practice in Argentina to require national ID numbers with all credit card purchases, to prevent fraud. For foreigners, they use the passport number.

I am presently making several tour reservations in the Patagonia region of Argentina. All of the tour operators require passport numbers for foreigners and federal id numbers for locals. I've traveled to 60 countries (mostly for work), and have been asked for passport numbers in probably 15 or so of them.

Apparently, Van Gogh, and anyone like him, is not welcome in Brazil.

Also, Cruise Mapper provides similar detail, for free, but only for the past 5 days. There are plenty of ships in the antarctic region now, so you can look at those.

BTW, we will sail this route on Azamara Quest, January 22.

It is the Professional Plus on a 7-day free trial. The two features of importance here are 365-day history and satellite tracking. It is easiest to look at these maps on a home or office computer with a big monitor (not on the phone app). To avoid being charged at the end of the 7 days, I set a reminder for day 6 on my Google calendar.

We have planned a DIY, post-cruise trip to Iguazu Falls from Buenos Aries, staying on the Argentina side. I had hoped to make a day trip across the border to see the Brazil side. At this point, I'm thinking we'll just stay on the Argentina side. Too much hassle and expense for a day trip to Brazil.

Permanently closed, per Google

I often book Viator tours that do not fit the time in port. For example, tour starts at 8am, ship arrives at 9am. I then send a message to the tour operator explaining the ship arrival & departure times and ask if they can accommodate. So far, the answer has always been yes because the tour operator knows they can sell the other seats to other people on the same ship. I've filled a whole bus this way by posting the tour on my roll call. If the tour operator says no, or doesn't respond, I would cancel. That has not happened so far.

We both just turned 60 this year, so I guess we aged into the 60 to 89 demographic. I am reminded the birthday card I got for my dad about 30 years ago, it said "Tease my about my age and I'll beat you with my cane."

On my last Azamara cruise, I was able to do as you ask. But even better, I was able to use the Hotspot feature on my Android phone to share the Internet access with multiple devices (phones, tablets, laptop). iPhones have a similar feature with a different name.

I've already seen this movie. Many times before a cruise line has made a similar announcement: No more last minute discounts! Book early for best fares!!! Then a while later, the business climate changes and it's back to: Fill the Ships! And we start getting emails advertising last minute bargains. They are probably announcing this now to juice the 2023 fiscal year bookings. That make the lenders and the shareholders happy.

It appears the San Francisco pier damage has been repaired, or at least filled with Bondo 😁

We are on Crown Princess in Victoria, docked next to Ruby. This picture shows some of the activity on the pool deck. I can see a crane, shipping containers, and many workers.

Fruitmachine & Riocca, Thanks for the update. This is very useful information.

I tried booking an excursion online using OBC. I was successful in that I booked an excursion. Unfortunately, I was just browsing and didn't intend to book that particular excursion. Instead of trying to figure out how to fix it on the web site, I decided to call Azamara to sort it out. It turned out to be one of the best customer service interactions I've experienced in a long time. The agent answered right away, cancelled my unwanted excursion and booked the two I wanted, using OBC. I was on the phone just under 10 minutes. We chatted a bit and she said she recently joined Azamara after leaving Celebrity. I think Celebrity's loss is Azamara's gain. I wanted to post this because Azamara has had terrible reports of customer phone service. Hopefully, my positive experience is part of a larger trend. Note: I called on a Tuesday at 10:00 AM Pacific (USA).

We took a taxi to the walled city area. It was easy to get to/from the ship. There were lots of taxis at the port and plenty at the walled city. We had a great time. I wouldn't want to take a ship tour. It's nicer to be able to stay as long or little as you like. As I recall, it was very hot & humid the day we visited. So we went back to the ship once the heat got to us. I'd go early.

I have a slightly different perspective. Save money on the cabin and apply the money to more/better excursions. The best part of an Alaska cruise isn't the cruise. It's all the fun, interesting, exciting, scenic excursions you can go on whilst on an Alaska cruise. Examples: humpback whale watching, glacier walks, sled dogs, flight-seeing over a glacier, Skagway self-drive or train to Yukon, etc. The $1000 you mention would pay for some really nice excursions.

Yes, there is a Shell station right next door to the Avis Pacificar office. You can see it here: https://goo.gl/maps/VoKwF7Ya4ELc5kdy9 I have always had a manual tranny in FP.

I received this in an Azamara email today: Helpful Tips for Booking Shore Excursions If you have an onboard credit (OBC) you would like to use to book shore excursions before you board, you can do this on Azamara.com or by calling your local contact center. Please note that you can book shore excursions in advance up to 7 days prior to the sailing date. To assist in applying your OBC on Azamara.com to book shore excursions, we have prepared a simple step-by-step guide. Please click here to access the guide. I have attached a copy of the guide Use-OBC-to-Book-Shorex-Online.pdf

Island Princess, offshore of Bergan Norway, 720 am local

This is good news for LHR travellers https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/heathrow-strikes-off-after-security-workers-accept-deal-2023-06-23/

I travel extensively, so I'm used to doing my financial business on the road. Right now I'm on a 60 day trip. I cannot delay until I get home to pay my bills.