Naismith

What a great resource--thanks so much for sharing!!

The only tour time for Stingray & Snorkeling that would work for us is the 10 a.m. Our ship is not scheduled to arrive until 9 a.m. That seems rather tight--are the tenders from the port or the super-small ones from the ship? What do y'all think?

Since you offered...Have you noticed if they do Afternoon Tea on NA? Is it just on Sea Days or every afternoon?

I am sorry that you saw my addition as critical or contradictory in any way from your valuable observations. I don't doubt for a minute that what you reported was totally accurate of your experience, and do not mean to detract from your opinion in any way. But I do still have hope that things at PCC will eventually bounce back, based on what is happening here in tourist-reliant Florida, where during the last year, businesses have closed unexpectedly on random days with very little notice because of lack of staffing, and Disney World cancelled a lot of their live shows. It is finally starting to get a bit better this year. One thing about the college students who perform at both Disney and the PCC...they have a certain window of auditions, etc. I don't know how Covid was doing in August 2021 in Hawaii, and whether the usual scholarships were being offered for the 700 students who worked at PCC pre-Covid (who likely did not travel to Hawaii without the promise of a job). It would seem that by January 2022 it would have been safe to bring the students back, but the way college courses work, for a lot of majors some prerequisite classes are only offered in fall so that starting in January is not very practical. While I fully acknowledge your negative experience last February, I do have hope that a new school year brought a new influx of students and improved the quality of what is currently being offered at PCC.

Just a few notes about the PCC...it was established as a means of providing jobs and thus income for college students at BYU-Hawaii. That is why the PCC is so far from Honolulu, it is in Laie, on the campus there. Although it is operated by a church, it is fully taxed as a for-profit operation, since they do charge admission. The turnover of students leaving to go back to their islands, and new performers coming in with great enthusiasm, was one of the special things that made it such a delight. And of course COVID hit it hard, and they are just finding their way back, like so many performance and restaurant venues. Perhaps by next year they will be smoothly operating again, (depending on how well the new vaccines work, and whether new variants or diseases crop up). I served as a missionary in Indonesia, and being able to attend BYU-Hawaii and work at the PCC was a goal for so many young people there.

One of the lessons I am seeing from this incident and other stories shared is something that I have practiced on previous cruises: I will go on private excursions if it is something local like kayaking in Ketchikan. But if something is farther away, like the bus ride out to the rain forest in Costa Rica, I do prefer to book through the ship. (Our bus barely got back from that excursion in fall 2019, our last pre-Covid cruise.) So this is exactly why I am so frustrated that there are no ship excursions available for our Nov 27 Nieuw Amsterdam cruise, due to a change in itinerary a month ago.

Thanks for the cogent explanation.

Speaking of Embarkation Day, can anyone explain the current Muster Drill procedures? (I will be on N Amsterdam if they vary by ship or class)

Thanks for sharing, that is frustrating indeed.

Hmnn. I have surgery scheduled this week, I wonder if the professionals in the operating room will have "moved on" or wear masks? Some have referred to the idea of masks as "foreign," and this is true. But please understand it is very common in Asia, sangat sehari-hari, part of everyday life. Asians suffered with SARS and MERS in a way that did not hit North America, and they have learned caution and the common-sense efficacy of mask wearing. It was very frequently seen when I lived in Indonesia. And if North Americans were smart, they would follow the patterns in Singapore, Korea, other spots in Asia (who had much lower Covid death rates) and be willing to mask from time to time in order to stop spread during a surge. It is not just Covid, but also flu, Noro, and other bugs that may cause a Captain to require masking for a season. (And I am an Army veteran, so I fully appreciate the value and costs of freedom.)

So I booked a last-minute cruise and went to add a shore excursion but found that none were available for Georgetown or Falmouth, the places that interest us. Let me be clear: I understand that excursions sell out this close to sailing, but there is simply nothing at all listed for those ports, something I had not seen before. It turns out that a few weeks ago, this cruise had a change in itinerary, and the dates for those two ports were flipped. So I can understand some confusion....but it has been more than three weeks since the change. Has anyone seen that kind of thing, and any thoughts on whether shore excursions might be offered eventually?

I hope that it will truly be their choice, and that no crew member will be pressured by people complaining that they want to see their "smiling faces." One interesting note is that most of the lower-ranking (cramped conditions) crew members are Indonesian and Filipino, places where it is very common to wear masks during flu season, etc. Of course Southeast Asia suffered during the previous SARS epidemic that North America largely missed. Having lived in Indonesia, mask wearing made sense to me, and I was bewildered at the politicization of masks.

I hope that it will truly be their choice, and that no crew member will be pressured by people complaining that they want to see their "smiling faces." One interesting note is that most of the lower-ranking (cramped conditions) crew members are Indonesian and Filipino, places where it is very common to wear masks during flu season, etc. Of course Southeast Asia suffered during the previous SARS epidemic that North America largely missed. Having lived in Indonesia, mask wearing made sense to me, and I was bewildered at the politicization of masks.