NMCruiser123

Update:  everything was sorted during embarkation.  Filled out a paper declaration and was on my way!

10 hours ago, esrs said:

I am a US passenger and there was indeed a box to tick in the lower left corner of my declaration when I completed it yesterday - it reads: "Check this box to complete your health declaration, and to confirm that all guests aged five years and over on your booking will undertake a covid-19 test in line with the testing requirements for this voyage."  You've got to scroll down to find the box, but there is no excuse for the system not telling you you haven't finished the form! I'll try to attach a screen shot here, edited to exclude our personal info.

Oh my goodness.  To be fair I did complete it on my phone and could see missing that little check box next to the big red submit button.  If that is what happened, the fault is ultimately my own but I am not pleased with whoever designed this page.

Yes in total I talked to 3 customer reps who all said they had had other passengers call with the same problem, it is a known IT glitch they are investigating.  For US passengers it is only the 4 main questions, there is nothing about insurance and no other boxes to check which would cause the form to be rejected.  I asked one of the reps to send me in writing that the advice is for me still to go to the port, which they did. I have been assured that this the official recommendation from corporate and that my cruise will not be cancelled, but I’ll be sure to bring a copy of the email Cunard sent me.  I’ll give an update with what happens on Friday.  

Hello all,

I'm booked for my first Cunard QM2 TA on August 5th.  I completed my health declaration online this morning (answering all the questions correctly - no to everything) and submitted it, and then got a message that I would be denied boarding and my voyage would be cancelled based on my responses.  Panic ensued.  I called Cunard (twice to make sure) and apparently this is a known issue which began occurring in the past couple of days where some passengers are receiving this message despite answering the health declaration questions correctly, and we are still advised to go to the port on embarkation day where we will undergo a secondary health screening.  Unfortunately Cunard won't provide anything in writing to me on this, and I have to fly across the US to get to the port, so I'm still a bit uneasy.  I've saved a screenshot of my completed health declaration that I will bring with me.  Has anyone else run into this issue?

This thread is out of date but I just wanted to post and say that I decided to go through with the Feb. 6-16 Eurodam cruise.  Absolutely loving the freedom of being able to go where I want on the ship after my isolation experience.  Happy that the ship deck plan is so similar to Zuiderdam so I feel like I’m making up for what I missed in January!  I’m happy to discover that it hasn’t ruined cruising for me.  Hope everyone is doing well!  

Sorry you are having this experience.  If I can give you any thoughts from my recent 10 day isolation on the Zuiderdam, the depression for me wore off a bit by the 4th or 5th day.  I settled into a sort of acceptance of the situation, but I was still very happy to finally be released.  I found that making lots of posts on CC was a really nice way to pass my time, and it helped that people were so supportive.  My least favorite parts of the day were definitely listening to the Cruise Director announcements!

1 hour ago, FlorenceItaly said:

 

Oh that is really unfortunate.  My isolation hall definitely got filled to the max my last couple of days on the cruise.  I think if they had decided to test the entire ship again in the past couple days, they may have run out of isolation rooms!  

Anyway, I’ve said it before but thank you all for keeping me company and giving me support during what was a very long stretch of 10 days.  I can’t tell you how elated I was to step off the ship onto the gangway.  I’ve been at the Fort Lauderdale airport for the past 2 hours now just loving how far I can walk before running into a wall!

My last 24 hours in isolation was fairly uneventful.  I ended up with about $120 in unused OBC.  Thanks for all your advice on what to do with it.  Buying some duty free was given to me as an option, but I honestly need a detox now.  I ended up giving it to the dining services group as they were my lifeline during quarantine.  Sometimes delivery was a little slow, but my orders were always perfect and the food was almost always delicious.

I did have to spend quite a bit of time on the phone with guest services working out my final statement as for some reason some of my beverage were charged to me outside of my beverage package, but ultimately this was taken care of.  The main thing I was concerned with was getting a letter stating my positive results, my quarantine length, and a “statement of recovery” from medical.  I had requested that 4 or 5 times during my isolation, and it finally arrived at my stateroom about an hour before I disembarked!  When it was time to leave, I was able to leave at the same time as the earliest self-assist group.  An officer came to my cabin and personally escorted me to the gangway, trying their best to take me down empty halls and stay away from other guests.  This was all pointless in the end though, as security at the gangway wouldn’t let me disembark because I didn’t have a room key for my isolation room (by design) and I had to stand there for 5-10 minutes while about 100 other guests swarmed around me and off the ship.  I doubt I’m still infectious, but it was a little comedic how it played out.  Best laid plans…

So to wrap up this whole experience…would I have gotten on this ship if I could have foreseen what happened?  Absolutely not.  After a scary first couple of days, I was ultimately taken care of very well, but I’m not built for isolation.  It was terribly lonely at times and I am just thankful for my partner and good friends (and CC community) that I was always able to chat with.  Knowing that I am going to get a big old chunk of FCC or refund soon also makes it better.

Will I go on the Eurodam in 3 weeks?  I think so.  I believe the chance of this happening again is low, but if it does happen…well it’s only a 10 day cruise so if they test on the 2nd or 3rd day at least my isolation won’t be as long!  I’m hoping that our current wave will be well on the descent by that time.

If anyone ever runs into Stevie with dining services, or Eduardo the GSM on the Zuiderdam, give them my regards.  They were both really amazing and my most consistent sources of human contact during this time.  

I’ll leave you all of this photo with me and my partner, Floyd, taken onboard the Koningsdam at 11:23 PM on NYE. (Notice the brief lack of masks…perhaps this is where the COVID came from.  Can only blame myself!).  This was a happy evening but little did I know what I had in store!  If any of you see my onboard in the future, say hi!  HAL made the best of a bad situation, and I look forward to continuing to cruise with them in the future!

Take care everyone!

Dan

I’m free!  I’ll close it out formally later.

I’m still here!  Just hard to come up with new material in my 225 square foot universe day after day.  As you’ve probably seen on another thread,  we were denied from tendering at Half Moon Cay today due to our COVID load.  Rotterdam appeared to be successful though and we had some nice views of her this morning.  We are now making our way slowly towards Florida.  Interestingly, I just got a letter under my door.  HAL is crediting my shipboard account $200 for not being able to attend any of my shore excursions I had booked with my “Have it All” fare.  Of course not redeemable for cash so I’ll step off the ship tomorrow with a couple hundred dollars credit vanishing into thin air, but what can ya do.  I can only stuff myself with so much steak and lobster.

Medical will drop off a letter tomorrow with 1). My positive test results 2) Verification of my 10 days in quarantine (should I decide to pursue a refund with the insurance company, but I’ll probably just opt for the automatic FCC) and 3) a letter of recovery, should there be an issue with testing for my Eurodam cruise in 3 weeks.

I also worked out details for disembarkation tomorrow.  My flight is at 11:30 AM so they are planning to escort me off in full PPE and chemical spray at 7:30 AM.  They also told me they will come to my cabin today and take a picture of my passport so that I don’t have to interact with customs officials tomorrow.  I’ve never heard of that happening.  Otherwise, I’m packing up, drinking wine, and feeling like a prisoner on his last day before parole! 

Beautiful shots!  It actually got cool enough on the shady side of the ship today that I ended up sitting outside in my sweatshirt.  

4 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

@NMCruiser123Here's the sunset from the other side of the ship.

 

 

@BtimmerI’ve talked to her a few times, she’s been very nice.  If you see her again, tell her your CC buddy would love to

be able to roll around in an isolated patch of sand on half moon cay!  I promise

to wear an N-95.

7 minutes ago, ksmaxey said:

 

Are you getting your meals with dishes or in disposable containers?  I see a real wine glass

Totally random.  Sometimes cardboard containers with highly ineffective disposable cutlery, other times full service glass and metal.  

1 hour ago, TiogaCruiser said:

To give a brief answer, the stop to prevent (a potential ) fine is a legal requirement, and political in a different way than I think you might suspect.

It has to do with cabotage laws, namely PVSA.
 

Foriegned flagged carriers (I.e.HAL) cannot transport people from one US port to another (as in final destination - embarking in one port then disembarking in another) without visiting a country designated as a far foreign port. And they cannot take pax on a round trip without stopping in a country designated as a Near Foreign Port. (In the latter, ships can do a round trip from Seattle if the ship calls in Victoria, San Diego if stops in Ensenada, Etc.)

 

so your “service call” meets that criteria. And it’s not just an American thing. Lots of other countries have similar cabotage laws. And we have similar ones for air and cargo.

1 hour ago, TiogaCruiser said:

Here’s a current thread discussing some of it. It might become another “primer on the PVSA” thread like many have. One poster, Cheng, is a licensed maritime professional now working in cargo shipping. He did work for a cruise line in the past. He’s a wealth of knowledge and kindly and patiently shares.
( If you are technically interested, you can find some interesting reads if you check his profile. You still have a couple days to fill….😉.) 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the summary!  I know it was lazy of me to ask.  If the Wi-Fi wasn’t acting up the past day or 2 I would be more motivated to do my own investigations!

And so it came to pass that on day 7 of NMCruiser123’s isolation, dining services tired of filling 5 separate glasses of wine and bequeathed him a bottle!

48 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

@NMCruiser123, here's a submarine picture from the other side of the ship at 10am sitting in the bay at Cartagena.

 

Oh cool!  You get a lot of the interesting craft on that side of the ship!

Hello all, coming to you live from the shores of Cartagena where the captain decided to make a technical stop to avoid the fine for not stopping at a foriegn, non-Central American or Mexican port.  I’m sure the politics or history behind this must be an interesting read…anyone know a summary off the tops of their heads?  Anyway, this stop has resulted in yet another itinerary change…we will not be doing our second stop in CR and instead will stop at Half Moon Cay on Saturday, our final full day before we arrive in Fort Lauderdale.  

T minus 3 days until I get to step foot on land as a free man.  If I didn’t have to go back to work the next day, I’d be a little happier, but such is life.

Still no symptoms. HAL continues to treat me well.  Everyone received a $50 OBC for all the itinerary changes yesterday.  I have pretty limited options to spend it, so I decided to splurge on a lobster eggs Benedict this morning, and may go for a lobster roll lunch, and add a lobster tail onto my dinner!  I don’t even love lobster as much as some do, but I don’t like seeing $50 go to waste!

16 hours ago, Lizofwisconsin said:

NMCruiser

 

Have you seen this story?

 

https://news.yahoo.com/shame-fish-filets-diary-comedian-193905601.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHgGAm2JkyizP3tyd3IYmZFFysfmp414_l_Q56QbsKmWUjsrzUQAzn10J9ZNYZqjKJYCLKF5yCtc4NE0yX6S0eAKjNgnF0LaAYrzLn6X-f7DdEGlzvn881NU0zhYZclQwyRmabOVUgcrHCg7AiNXRtBFcQODA1ku9c5zQEDcJKwQ

 

Hope the link works.  Comedian talking about her quarantine experience.  I think you'd find it interesting.

 

Thanks for the article…that’s a funny read.  I’m glad she was able to produce something to further her career out of the situation.

16 hours ago, OceanPatter said:

NMCruiser123

 

Another wow … you wait until now to disclose that you have another cruise booked for February??

The big question that looms will be: Will he or won’t he? Ha, think of all the sequels you could pen after this one. And if you embark again, we would love to learn what you pack in your ‘potential quarantine’ bag.

 

Despite your misfortune, you have entertained/educated us immensely. To which we are ever so grateful.

Yes yes…of course this was booked long ago when we were nestled in a comfy trough between Covid waves and the calculus was so much different.  I think I will end up going though.  And if this happens a second time, I’ll have to find a new hobby!

15 hours ago, bcummin said:

I remember so much more:  reeds along the water's edge with fishing boats, ferry boats, the Japanese bridge, military outposts, green farmland on the west with roads and animals, dove cotes, monuments, mosques, Christian churches, cities.

NMcruiser123, I hope that someday you get to see this and much more.  Thank you for sharing so much.

May God bless you and all of the others affected by this pandemic.

Barbara

Thanks for all of the comments about the Suez.  I’d heard it was boring once in passing as well, but I think the “foreign land” aspect must be worth something.  I’ll keep it on my bucket list.

15 hours ago, canadianbear said:

I wish I could even handle an ocean view but it’s the “escape” phenomenon I guess where I need to get outside to breath.  I can’t do IKEA as I feel trapped in their store unless I’m with someone who can get me out quickly if I need it.  
 

I am envious of those that can travel in an inside or ocean view-we could do a lot more cruising plus we have to book close to mid ship of hubby gets sick.  What a pair we are, lol.  

 

Oddly enough, this situation has led me to rethink my approach to cabins.  I’ve always gotten a verandah (and always lamented how little time I spent on it by the end of the cruise).  Well let me tell you, I now have a lifetime of verandah-sitting under my belt, and the next cruise I go on I can’t imagine spending more time in the cabin than necessary.  I think I may decide to do an inside stateroom and stretch my money further on a future cruise.  

15 hours ago, dchip said:

@NMCruiser123 You have learned your life lesson in my opinion. How to stay positive while dealing with a very stressful situation.  

 

You have helped so many of us, me for one, make our decision whether or not to cruise! DH and I are more than ready to board the Zuiderdam on 2/27/22 for 35 days to “who knows where” in the South Pacific!

 

Keep on cruising!!!

 

Cheers, Denise 

 

That sounds amazing.  If you have free run of the ship, there may be something exciting to the moving target itinerary changes in route!

14 hours ago, regnig said:

Not only should you go but HAL should comp the cruise for you.  And I think you have earned a Pinnacle Suite.  Not once have you complained and many many times you have given praise to HAL for all they have done to meet your wants and needs.  Most of us could never have remained as positive as you have been.

OK I know I said inside cabins would be good enough for me in the future, but I wouldn’t turn this down.

10 hours ago, REOVA said:

can you take a photo of the outlet situation if there is any by the bed/nightstand? Thank you and continue to stay positive (no pun) and strong, as this will be a life memory for everyone here you've yet to meet and will enrich us all. 

you’ve got one USB outlet on either side of the bed.  No standard AC outlets that I see, those are at the desk, and there are 2 US AC outlets and 2 European outlets and 2 USB outlets there

Thank you all for your comments.  I’m surprised to hear that I’ve come across as having maintained a good attitude through the experience.  It hasn’t felt like that at all times and I worried that some of my posts may have been a bit whiny. I suppose I only decide to log on and write a post when I’m in a more positive mood (after a couple of glasses of wine maybe)!

Also..should HAL consider changing their glassware supplier?  I’ve had enough “Rona” in my life this week.

17 minutes ago, OceanPatter said:

Wow, your thread has hit more than 28K views! Impressive, as it even exceeds ‘Bill and Mary Ann’s’ world cruise thread. You’ve become a big celebrity! Can’t wait for your final sign-off when your ordeal ends.

Ha!  Accidental fame of misfortune.  I’ll have to think about how to wrap this up in 3 days!  Just had a nice chat with some of my quarantine neighbors, including the ship personal trainer who is out of commission until after Ft. Lauderdale.  We are all keeping our spirits high and enjoyed today greatly.  
 

I am actually booked on the Eurodam Feb 6 -16.  Anyone joining me?  Better question, should I go?  Or is this experience a life lesson of some sort I’m supposed to learn?

24 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

 

Thought I could see a small spot of white...

It could be me.  I held it up briefly and then suddenly I was staring right into the windows of that building so I put the towel down feeling silly.  The location is about right though.

You all are awesome.  Yes made it to Gatun locks.  Was ready with my towel but I’m just behind where the webcam viewing angle gets.  I’m sad we are almost through it’s been such a peaceful day with a cool breeze.  I didn’t catch much wildlife though.  Maybe it’s apples to oranges, but how does this compare to the Suez? 
 

and I don’t think I want my username to permanently reflect this lost 10 day period of my life!

1 hour ago, NavArch64 said:

Your new screen name for life could be Zuiderdam6033Q .....

This is such an amazing experience.  I don’t mind being isolated on my balcony at all today.  And the weather has been perfect, being in the shaded side of the ship!

55 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

I tried...is this you waving something white?

 

 

Oh my gosh good eye!  I was waving a towel for someone back home!

2 hours ago, johnnyswitzerland said:

How are you doing today, @NMCruiser123?  I, like many others here, feel for you.

 

Is tomorrow canal day?

Tomorrow is indeed canal day!

2 tests originally.  Antigen and then PCR to rule out false positive.  No further testing.  I went to College at William and Mary btw

17 minutes ago, rothbury said:

I can't help but ask this question.  Do they give you another test to confirm the result?  I guess I'm thinking if this is based on just one test who or what is to say that it is not a false positive?

 

Been keeping up with this thread.  I'm rooting for you!

55 minutes ago, 0106 said:

Hi NM- 

Haven't heard from you today.  I am  thinking about you and hoping you have been released and are swimming in the pool.  If not,  I hope you are on your balcony enjoying fresh air and sunshine.  

 

Have you tried the Wordle activity suggested by a previous poster?  I just did and would become addicted except it appears you can only play once a day.  Give it a try.

 

Let us know how you are doing.  Know that we admire your positive attitude throughout this experience.

2 hours ago, johnnyswitzerland said:

How are you doing today, @NMCruiser123?  I, like many others here, feel for you.

 

Is tomorrow canal day?

Hello hello…get the champagne ready.  I’m officially past the halfway point of my isolation!  Today I celebrated by requesting new bed linens, which I self- changed.  Hopefully a portion of my daily crew appreciation gratuity will go to my onboard account!  Other than that I read for hours on the balcony and enjoyed watching large brown birds fly alongside the ship and occasionally dive into the water for a snack.

The internet has been very sluggish today, and it seems I can’t access many websites, but I finished day 2 of Wordle.  I couldn’t figure out yesterday, but I got today’s on the 4th attempt.

Has the Holland America website been down all day?  Or is that just my WiFi?