Mike B Landlubber

I returned from an Adventure Canada trip a week ago. We had been told in advance that our vaccination cards would have to be presented to board. In the event, we just had to sign (with all sorts of oaths, penalties, and spitting over our shoulder) a declaration that we had been vaccinated (may have been more specific, but don’t remember now). Both governments and travel providers could decide they want the card in a flash.

I have received distilled water on HAL, Norwegian, and MSC with no problems either for free or for minimal cost, roughly five dollars. I think it is pretty universally-available.

I don’t see a forum for passport control issues or for general EU issues. My search attempts gave zillions of irrelevant results, so am posting it here. If there’s a better place, please advise. I had two odd incidents related to border control on a recent Europe trip, and I think there are things going on that I don’t understand. I’m wondering if someone can enlighten me. My itinerary was that I took a transatlantic cruise from the US to Rome, flew from Rome to Copenhagen, took a Baltic cruise that ended in Stockholm, then flew from Stockholm back to US (I know, I have a tough life!). On both cruises, the cruise line viewed my passport when I boarded and took down the information, but gave the passport back to me and the cruise line never saw or asked for my passport again. I was never asked for passport when entering any country on shore excursion or debarking from either ship. The flight from Rome to Copenhagen and the flight home were both on SAS. I don’t think it matters, but the transatlantic cruise was on MSC and the Baltic cruise was Norwegian. Weird incident 1–when I checked in for the flight from Rome to Copenhagen, the agent wanted to know where I would fly to next. This flight was separate from the flight home in my mind and the airline bookings, so I explained that I would be done after arrriving in Copenhagen. The ticket agent seemed unable to comprehend that an American who wasn’t a Copenhagen resident would fly there and do nothing else with the airline. My explanation that I would be getting on a ship in Copenhagen didn’t help. She began to get a bit agitated, and I was worried that I would be denied boarding. I finally mentioned that in a couple of weeks I would be flying home to US. Since that happened to be on SAS she could locate it and she settled down and I could proceed. I was puzzled by all this, I speculated that maybe there was an EU rule that would have forced the airline to fly me back to Italy if I arrived with no further travel, but that didn’t seem likely to me. I wonder if I would have been allowed to board if my return home reservation hadn’t been with SAS so she could confirm it. Weird incident 2–When I went through border control to leave Sweden and fly home, the border control agent noted that my passport had no record that I had entered the EU. She had nothing to show that I had entered the EU. I explained what I had done and showed her my previous itinerary on an app in my phone (Thank goodness for TripIt!) and she was reasonable about it and stamped my passport to leave. I’m concerned that if she hadn’t been reasonable, I might have had real trouble getting home in a timely manner. I didn’t skip out on anything with passport control while leaving, and there was never even an opportunity to talk to a person from border control when leaving either ship. Does anyone have any insight on this to help me for the future? Is there anything I should have done but didn’t?

On the internet before my cruise, I shelled out $99 (from memory) for a fancy meal package at Butcher’s Cut. I am a compulsive documenter and took a lot of photos which may interest some. I’ll comment on things but be warned I’m not an expert gourmet and I am a complete ignoramus on wine. Here is an overall shot taken before anything but the bread had arrived. I could hear music from live musicians outside, but didn’t find it too bothersome. I was surprised how often one set of arriving/departing guests would recognize other diners and stop to say hello, but the joint wasn’t bustling. Here is the menu overall. For this package, I got my choice one of the appetizers, the shellfish platter, my choice of one of the entrees, and two glasses of wine, white to start with the shellfish platter, and red for the entree. You get a rack of four sauces as mentioned on the menu, your choice of side dish, and your preferred desert. Here’s the bread. Oddly, I didn’t like it as well as the bread served in the main dining room. I recommend ignoring it, you will need all your room for the food coming! My waiter asked which wine I preferred, and since I need to use Google to tell red wine from white wine, I placed myself in his hands. This was what I received (a glass, not the whole bottle). As an Oklahoman who is used to large high-quality steaks, I found the shellfish platter the most impressive part of the meal. It included oysters, mussels, shrimp, crab, a lobster tail and a scallop. I loved it! Everything was excellent. I suspect two diners would share one of these, so I may have come out ahead (if too much food is ahead) by dining alone. This is a large post and I’m not sure if we have limits on photos in a single post, so I will finish the meal in a post later this evening.

I am on MSC Divina and just watched you depart past us. Here are your sailing photos, for anyone on board!

While in the Army I was told that once the various choices about allowances and deductions on my pay were working tolerably, never, ever touch them or change them again. That wisdom has served me well and has applications in many areas of life…. 🙂

Was there a significant price advantage? I’ve never sought out those rooms, but have read unsupported claims they aren’t that large a savings.

Since January 1, I had already booked two cruises with regular deposits….*sigh* of course, one of them is after April of 24 anyway! 🙂

For what it is worth, my experience on a December cruise was that my booking email included a drinks package, but there was no trace of the package on the HAL website booking info. I called my TA, and she assured me that the drink package would be there when I boarded. I was skeptical, and had the booking email with drinks package at hand during boarding, ready to fight, but sure enough, the drinks package was there, and my TA gained a little credibility with me! 🙂

appetizer- clothesline bacon second appetizer- lobster mac Entree- Beef tenderloin with blue cheese dessert- their desserts are great, but no dessert stands out for me the way the other dishes do! on a two week cruise in December, I liked the tenderloin and the bacon so much I had them twice! they also had a veal scallopini dish in Canalletto that I really liked, but I can’t remember the exact name, and though I would swear in court I took a shot of the menu, I cannot find it!

In the Noordam last month, I received a shopping bag. Just like the one posted by Crystalspin.

Just the type of info I wanted! thanks, Harboursider!

Fair question! I got a United airlines flight home from Paris for 30,000 United miles, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

While I was on Noordam in Melbourne last month, we were docked next to a P&O ship. I think P&O decided their image needed a bit of polishing! 🙂

For years I’ve heard retirees say that for those who don’t worry about using up vacation days, cruises are the best way to cross the Atlantic. In May I will find out for myself on my first retirement trip, taking MSC Divina from Miami to Genoa on May 15-June 3! I will attend a Road Scholar trip in Italy, then go back to tradition and fly home on a cheap airline ticket! 🙂

I find solo travel doable for the most part, though harder than being in groups. I’ve become kind of a fan of Road Scholar for areas where the language and practicality barriers to solo travel are more intimidating (Eastern Europe, Asia, etc.).

There is a museum in Maine (probably the Maritime Museum, but not positive after over 25 years) where one of the exhibits is an 1840 or so letter signed by inmates in a Maine prison to the Warden asking oh-so-respectfully could they please have something other than lobster to eat one day a week! Before the invention of refrigerated railroad cars lobster apparently covered the sea bed and weren’t well-esteemed in the area it could be shipped to without refrigeration.

I just signed up for a cruise on Oosterdam in March-April 2024, going from Chile to Florida through the Panama Canal. I’m intrigued that HAL offers a very expensive shore excursion leaving from Lima and going to the Galápagos Islands for a few days. That’s a place I’ve always wanted to see, but I’ve been put off by the high cost of most trips. Using that excursion would let me see the island wildlife for myself for a brief time at a high cost but lower than a special trip. I’m hoping either that will satisfy my desire to see the islands or possibly confirm for me that I think they’re really great and will be willing to spend the high cost for a specialized trip. I don’t see much discussion of that excursion here. Does anyone have experience with the HAL Galapagos excursion they can share? Separately, my package includes a $500 OBC. From older postings here, I see that the credit couldn’t be used till onboard the ship, though there was talk of complaining and hoping for a policy change. Is there any sign HAL might relent and allow use for pre-booking? I’m a little concerned about waiting till I’m on board for many items, especially shore excursions and specialized restaurant reservations. Don’t want the desirable stuff to sell out!

I appreciate this, I am interested in going back to Egypt for a classic land tour (this would be my first time back since my first visit in about1997) and adding this tour on. I am intrigued by the chance to at least see a little of Saudi Arabia. I’m eager to hear anything you have to share!

This. At least the TripIt part. I use the mediocre Apple Notes app rather than Evernote. I have used TripIt for almost ten years, and can’t imagine traveling without it. I’ve paid for the Pro version for most of those years. in an app that goes on my iPad and iPhone (also accessible on the web) I have a nice listing that shows all my dining reservations, plane tickets, shore excursions, etc., filled in automatically from my emails. Here is a screen shot from a recent trip. When I click on each item, I get more information, such as confirmation numbers, phone or email for hotels and tour providers, etc. There is a space where I can type in notes, or add screen shots or photos. I highly recommend it!

My memory is vague, but I am pretty sure I ate in the Lido that day. It was my first cruise in over four years, and boarding had been easy when I had feared the worst over Covid restrictions, and I was in a bit of shock the first few hours! 🙂 So I doubt I knew at the time, and certainly don’t remember now!

On my cruise on Noordam that just ended, two bookings at Canaletto I had made and paid for in advance weren’t listed by the ship when I boarded. Weirdly, pre-bookings for Pinnacle were showing correctly. I went to customer service and it was resolved in five minutes. Sorry your experience has been tougher! It is definitely smart to carefully compare what shows in the Navigator app to what you know you booked!

That is CoPilot GPS. I bought it because It includes all the data so you can navigate without a data connection. I’ve used it for years and been happy. You do have to buy a package of data for each region where you want to use it, and the data uses a good chunk of phone memory. I have used it overseas and in remote parts of the US for years and recommend it. https://copilotgps.com/en-us/

I looked out the window of my hotel room, and there went the Noordam from Sydney! Anyone who boarded in Sydney, here is your departure photo! Sorry about the rain effects!

Since these got some interest, here are some pics from earlier in the trip before I started this thread: A cockatoo shows his stuff at the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, fireworks in Sydney, an airliner window view of arriving in Sydney, and Pinnacles Rocks near Perth.