klkaylor78

One thing to keep in mind over the back and forth over documents and photos is that the Brazilian evisa is a retaliatory event to the US, Australia, and Europe not exempting Brazil from their new/existing evisa process so they have no reason to make it easy.  Maybe they are hoping that our dificulties will push us to push our government to change their policy.  Sadly we are caught in the middle.

a not to the moderator- there are two threads on this topic - might be worth a merge. 

After chatting with lots of folks on the ship it was clear that knowing the Regent process in advance was very helpful and may have changed our opinion a bit. There were other issues that impacted my opinion. If first time sailors have unfortunate events the first few days due to not knowing the process then as the say you only get one chance to make a first impression..... they made one that was not too good.

Just to end the discussion - dont like web arguments-gave my opinion and my plan. Agree that it was not a "dire" experience just one I did not like that much. As we have other options for luxury cruising we will pass up the great looking ship and use one that fits our lifestyle a bit better.  

I hope my tip of knowing your table number was helpful. 

We did not find the crew helpful with "finding us" when we forgot our number and we were not the only passengers having that issue. May have been variable by ship.

Agree that all ships have a process but our feeling was that the process was more important than the passengers.  

Not really an issue in the long term as if you like the processes on Regent stay with Regent. We on the other hand will vote with our feet/$. I do think that as knowing and joining the process is more important on Regent and perhaps a newbie FAQ might help or even a handout so that we know our roles on the ship. It was a rough few days  figuring out our role in our own happiness.  

I do have to say the ship was beautiful so and the room and butler wonderful.  

As a guy in the middle of the process one of the issues with all of the documents is getting them into an acceptable format and an acceptable size.  

The easiest way on a Mac - sorry not a windows guy- is to use the app preview.

Open the app - then go to "file"- "open" and browse for your file (photo, bank statement, ship itinerary, or passport data page. Once you get it opened in preview then to to "file" - "export"

T

This window will open - chose pdf even for photos/scans if it is a jpg/jpeg then will be a slider that will allow you to reduce the file size to less than 1MB and then you can save it.  Key is that most iPhone photo are HEIC and are not acceptable and most photos and scans are bigger than 1MB. Sometimes there is no size slider but you can see the pdf file size just below permissions to insure it is less than 1MB.

Good luck - this is not an easy process.  

How to say this nicely - Regent was a big disappointment as a newbie! It is a very process driven ship and when busy (nearly full) the meal can be an issue.  Breakfast at Laveranda filled very quickly in the morning - it fact people started showing up before it opened just to grab a table/seat especially at the window. Lunch could be equally crowded. The key for Laveranda and the pool grill is to see the small metal plate on the table with a number on it. Yep you are at Carl's Jr. and have a table number. It is your responsibility to know and remover remember the number. If you go up to order eggs, French toast, a burger at either location without that number you will not be served.  Key newbie tip.

Getting your specialty dining reservation set before you go is key. On a 31 day cruise we only got two reservation at each of the specialty dining areas. However it is was relatively easy to get lunch at these locations even on sea days if you go a little earlier.  Sete Maria can be difficult to get a table for diner but we had little trouble at Compass rose but we did dine early - martinis at 1730 and dinner at 1830. 

Another newbie tip is that all of the shore excursions start in the show room and it is not a fun process. Go the the auditorium, get in line, trade your ticket for a number, wait, wait, wait till your number is called. Several times we waited for over an hour.  Be prepared.

No plan survives first contact— transfer set up for 1250 to meet 1320 check in time. Driver shows up an hour early- I expect 15 min early but… hurry a bit finishing getting ready. Check out at 1230 - 15 min drive takes25 due to traffic. Arrive at 12555. No one asks for our checkin time despite a warning we would be turned away if early. No one looks at our boarding pass even though a text message that morning insuring us without our source downloaded pass we would delayed. New paper passes printed and like a friendly precision machine we we welcome back to our favorite ship the Quest. (I wa worried she would be a bit sullen as we has a fall fling on the Odesey and a steamy affair with the Sojourn in March but no). 

Lunch in the colonnade, help de conflicting a TK reservation with fried chicken night.  Pleseantly surprised with being given the diamond internet pkg for free even though we were a few nights short of Diamond(2 to be exact).  
Seabourn please get rid of the boarding times and the unnecessary warnings and do what you do best-great service with no hassles.

My experience is that the time on your pass does not matter yet Seabourn makes it sound important. Text today from Seabourn that we will be sent away if we arrive early- sorry doubt that would happen.   I like to follow rules but if they are not enforced equally one must question why are the rule followers disadvantaged by doing the right thing.  My personal approach is to set up my transfer based on the original time and leave it - I hate rework.  In early covid I changed my transfer with Blacklane three times and then they were unhappy. I could understand the desire to reduce crowds during covid but now not so much.  I think Seabourn should go back to a time block for boarding like 12300-1500 and let us do our thing.  I think Diamond have their own line but unsure what criteria they use to assign groups.  I’m quite hurt at being in Group C this trip but will show up at 1320 to meet my fellow C,s.

The boarding groups/boarding time has become a bit of a thorn in my shoe issue.  We have the app, download our final documents, get emails about our boading time and group, set our transfers and then Seabourn changes time/group 3 times (5 times for our Mar 22 trip).  Each change is accompanied by a statement that you must show up at the specified time - previously for COVID separation now I am not sure why.

To me this is a foolish waste of time and effort.  Many dont care, there are lots of exceptions and I am unable to control the departure/arrival of a cab or other transfer down to that small time frame given all the varibles.

Just give us a time boarding starts and let folks decide - stand in line or wait for the line to go down.  This is a luxury cruise line not a military transport. 

Don't have rules if people can't or won' follow them and you don't enforce them.  Plus no passenger on Seabourn wants to see they are in group "M" -

Was looking for good points flight to LIS but most were pretty high and fares were high as well.

Went to look at Flight Ease and found some very reasonable oneway fares. 

Before we bail on our 124K/pp Air France flights I was wondering if you get AA loyalty points/other miles programs with flight ease flights?

Sorry if this has been asked before but my multiple searches were not successful.

Have a Nov cruise on Scarlett Lady to try out VV. I saw the loyalty program email and was trying to do a status match. We are Plat on Seabourn - a Carnival line - do you think they will upgrade as Carnival is listed but not Seabourn. Looking to see if I can get in another 2022 cruise just to make that mark as well

So not sure if we created a problem or not but looking for some advice. Flying into Vancouver a day early for a Seabourn cruise. Did the arrival by air and all went well. Was “told” in another tread that we then needed to do a second ArriveCAN submission to board the ship in Vancouver. However after completing and getting a QR code for or flight can’t seam to find a way to enter the system to get another QR code for the cruise.  Any solution? Wait till we are in Canada and do the second form?  Any ideas?

Seabourn had hard copy but it was not ridgidly follow as countries are changing the rules.  Based on CDC data it is possible to be covid antigen and pcr positive for 90+ days post recovery makes testing unnecessary.  Sad to hear that RSSC will not allow a recovery document to substitute for negative test like the US does for entry.  For this reason we are going to cancell our July RSSC cruise.  Just not worth the risk of being denied boarding for something that is avoidable

Just recover from Covid, have Celtic ate of recovery. Did not like single person isolation on board due to safety issues. Wife is still negative. Does anyone know the regent protocol for on board isolation?  I am very worried about wife being lock up with minimal medical monitoring and nobody to take care of here in isolation if she is I’ll.  
As regent is not accepting recovery letters is it worth the risk of an international flight then getting a residual positive in the port city and turned way on embarkation

On 3/16/2022 at 2:29 AM, Timeflies said:

The UK Department of Health says that a Yellow Fever vaccination is mandatory, and we had our vaccination several years ago.  We took a Viking cruise from San Juan to Manaus and back in Jan/Feb20, and no-one checked our certificate anywhere, onboard, in San Juan, Brazil or UK.  Things may be different now post Covid.

 

Once you've had the vaccination, the certificate lasts forever. Top ups every few years not needed!

 

I hope you enjoy the cruise, its one of the very best we've ever done, and our 2020 Amazon adventure was our second visit!  Freshly caught and grilled Piranha fish was excellent by the way if you take an excursion that offers that!

 So I got my last YF vaccine in 2016 just prior to climbing Kilimanjaro - based on the CDC 10 yr rule - and was going to remind folks of that possiblity by country however further research produced this note from the CDC:

Revaccination against yellow fever was previously required by certain countries at 10-year intervals to comply with International Health Regulations (IHR). In 2014, the World Health Assembly (of WHO) adopted the recommendation to amend the IHR by removing the 10-year booster dose requirement, and stipulated a 2-year transition period for this change. Consequently, as of July 11, 2016, a completed International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) is valid for the lifetime of the vaccinee. Moreover, countries cannot require proof of revaccination (booster) against yellow fever as a condition of entry, even if the last vaccination was >10 years prior.

So I learned something today - nice to have a board like this

My system is to download the itinterary and make a spread sheet for the countries and look up visas requirements and immunization -both required and optional- prior to the trip when we are selecting shore excursions. 

based on the US still keeping up the mask/testing mode and Seabourn still requiring pretesting 6 is still the right number to leave the US, get back to the US and some for back up.  I just saw were some were paying $105 for a rapid PCR to meet the US requirements so....

So doing some review on our 27 Mar 22 Miami - Monaco trip and I am more confused

by four  different pages of instruction - basic guest protocol, travel to Europe page, travel to Portugal page and departure from US ports - masks and testing rules are all different - I will take three of my favorite masks and make the best of it

All of the pages are available here

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/health-safety/guest-protocols.html - with links to the above named pages

On 3/10/2022 at 11:57 AM, rucrazy said:

Appreciate the clarification The reason we chose Optum is we don't travel enough for 6 kits at once.

I am so happy there are those that can! Trust on that.. 👍

 

So I think the idea behind 6 is that we need two to board, two to come home and two just in case. Bad news is that with eMed the sets get registered to the buyers (1-4 people) so you really can't be a back up for someone else. 

8 hours ago, rucrazy said:

Our cruise in December will be the first time we utilize the eMed option.. I had questions so I called the Optum store customer service.. I found out that the test kits that we will order will have a shelf life of 6 months..

So we will order after August to ensure they are not outdated. I thought it was a shame they only come in 2 packs or in 6 packs and not available in a 4 pack.

So eMed and Optum are different companies both using the Abbott BinaxNow antigen test.   Expiration of BinaxNow is 12 months (https://www.health.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/Webpage Updates/COVID-19_BinaxNOW_Product_Expiry_Extension.pdf)  Many units show only 9 months so see the above line and you have to check the lot numbers.) eMed sells them in sets of 6 rather than two so it has worked well for us.  Seabourn accepted the results in Dec so do not expect and issue in Mar.  I just looked at optum and emed is cheeped to buy direct.  Optum is selling the eMed Binax now for $70/2 and eMed is $150/6.  Please forgive me if this is view as selling and not just information

Cruiseej -

Thanks for finding that tidbit about Ovation and masks - in bold but well hidden down the FAQ - they kinda buried the lead.

Sad to say that there is still precruise covid testing but we used the eMed system on our last Ovation cruise (self administered/observed test) and plan to use that in Miami and in Monaco.

I find the comment that the rules for the whole ship/whole cruise are determined by the port of embarcation questionable.  My basic understanding is that ships are governed by the rules of the port only for the time in port and then up to international waters (12 miles or so) then they are governed by the laws of the country in which the ship is registered/flagged and the Captain of the ship.  Cruise lines or ships can also set policies for those on board. However reading some of the data as to how all of the laws/rules are enforced was quite daunting and I do not want to become a maritime lawyer - if someone is chime in. I am sure Covid rules have made some work for that industry.

The complexity and differences of rules from port to port/country to county/and cruise lines is difficult for everyone and I have gotten/reviewed/read most of the "rules" and they do not all make sense or are compatible. 

We were on the Ovation out of FL/USA in Dec -masks were mandatory inside but essentially as soon as you sat down anywhere (to include the square) masks were off.  Yes there were "reminder annoucements" but did not see any personal "corrections" (hey its Seabourn) but folks were pretty responsible.

We are back on the ship in Mar for the crossing and hope by then, with 7 days at sea at the start, the mask mandate will be removed. However if you want to wear a mask do so and I hope the rest of the ship will be kind to those who do and respectful of those who don't. 

The only science point I will make is that it has been shown that three days is the optimum time between exposure and testing for a carrier state (virus in your nose) so maybe for embarcation and first 3 days might me more worthwhile.  After that we are a bubble for the next 4 days. Once we start hitting ports it is a different game again.

At this point we can only guess what the rules will be week to week, port to port, cruise line to cruise line, ship to ship.  I will be flexible and prepared with my favorite well fitting mask but will pass on the N95.

I know that Seabourn stated that if you tested but did not have your results they would test you at checkin but you had to have started the process per their note when we sailed with them in Dec.  I think they tested at the port in Barbados but that country had a very strict testing protocol and was different than the US embarcation protocol

This is the link - lots of good data

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/health-safety/us-travel-requirements.html

Let me first appologize to the monitors if this is too far out from their rules on covid discussion and if it is "cut" I understand

I agree with testing to try to make the cohort of folks (staff and cruisers) on the ship a covid free zone, especially as we have 7 days at sea. However the question is really when to test.  Best data is that it is 3-5 days from a clinically relevent exposure to a positive test for the exposed person.  So day of embarcation testing is not that great is you are trying to identify those who were exposed/contaminated during travel to the port.  Even then there is not a concensus at to whether asymptomatic but test (molecular/antigen) positive people can spread/shead the virus.  I think that Seabourn's choice to use two days before boarding a reasonable approach.

If you assume that every person is contaminated(the only safe zero tollerance view) then you would have do bring folks individually/close cohorts to the embarcation hall (or have multiple geographicly separated paths), do a test, quarantine for 15-30 min, get the results, then release them to finish check-in and begin to mingle, or isolate that location for a positive test untill the people are removed and the location disinfected. A very difficult time consuming event. Then we should test everyone again at 3-5 days to identify those who were contaminated via travel. 

Seabourn's choice to use two days before boarding a reasonable approach from a logistics standpoint. Keeps positive folks out of the terminal, prevents them from exposing other quests, and stops the sad issue of turn folks away at the pier. For those that usually arrive one day before departure it lets them test before getting on the plane to get to the port. Also good for the traveling population. But it does miss those who are exposed during travel.

Sorry for the bold but wanted to use it to separate my comments/questions (bold) from Seabourn's (not bold)

So this is part of a memo I got from Seabourn and after letting it sit and digest I have some questions as to what they really mean and what is practically happening on the ships v. the rules.

So the action item of the note - with a question in bold after the action item

• In accordance with health authority directives, our cruises will be operated as vaccinated cruises, as defined by the CDC, with guests and crew vaccination rates approaching 100%. These cruises are available for guests who have received their final dose of an authorized/approved COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the cruise and have proof of vaccination, in accordance with CDC guidelines.  What is meant by final does - given that one or two booster are now being given? How about those with mixed vaccine?  Seems like they need to be more definitive as to booster or no booster.
• Our Seabourn team members that are eligible have received, or are now receiving, their booster shots and many of our guests have also received their boosters as well.
• All guests and crew are frequently reminded to monitor their health and report any COVID-19 symptoms immediately. 
• We conduct regular COVID-19 testing of our entire crew.
• All guests are required to wear masks at all times when indoors, except when eating or drinking or when in their own suites and when outdoors if in large gatherings where physical distancing cannot be maintained.
• As advised by health authorities, guests are recommended to use higher grade masks indoors and we are now providing KN-95 masks for guests. So will we now have to wear an n95 or equivalent mask indoors? 
• The shore excursions provided by Seabourn include additional health and safety standards overseen by local officials.
• We disinfect all public spaces and suites with increased frequency. While it may be help for norovirus or influenza why do this for Covid? It has proven not to survive on surfaces so....
• Our HVAC systems now feature enhanced circulation of fresh air, upgraded filtration, and UV treatment.

Has anyone sailed under these new rules?

Seabourn has put a lot of effort into it Seabourn Source.  On our Ovation Cruise it was nearly mandatory to have either a phone or ipad with the Source app loaded.  While you could print your boarding passes, as we left home three days before embarcation and they were changing the boading times/passes up to the morning of us getting on we had to update the Source frequently and the data being supplied to it.  While on board they still printed and provided the daily information at evening turndown it was nice to have a portable edition with us via the app.  I would recommend for those on Seabourn to consider having an iOS or Android device to make the most of the data Seabourn is providing.

There are two apps available on iOS Common Pass and Clear that can do QR codes/vaccine certification for US folks. You upload your data and the (clear/common pass) verify the data and issue a QR code for travel.

 Some states have QR codes (CA and NY for two) that can be uploaded to your wallet.  Might be worth a deeper search.

I did a quick look and could not determine whether these programs would work for Norway but might we worth some time to avoid quarantine.

Seabourn sadly has great ships and crews but its digital footprint is lacking a bit.