KS&JW

Looking at the schedule there is a small gap in her schedule. Last cruise ended on the 18th and next cruise does not start until the 27th.

This is really a good idea. Our next cruise is on Riviera (just prior to the refurb) so I think the walls will still work for this. After the refurb? who knows?

Yes, don't mind them. However, I have never received more than a couple a week. The latest on Northern Europe was very interesting to me as there were a couple of cruises if I had not already booked something for next summer I would have jumped on.

Think of it as a venn diagram. 90% of people flying to Europe have no issues (other than longer lines), some small percentage of people flying to Europe are taking a cruise <5%, and then 5% of people who take cruises are on Cruise Critic. That means only those people in the intersection of these three circles would post here. In other words, not many.

We don't check luggage. It is much easier to do on an ocean cruise because of the easy access to laundry facilities. We spent one month in Germany/Austria December 2019 with just a carry on. That trip included a river cruise, but they don't have the laundry facilities of ocean cruises so finding Laundromats was a requirement. It can be done. You just have to plan for it.

The United website is nice. However, the assumes you are flying into the country where as cruise ship requirements may be different. For example, Canada shows 'green' on the United website, but is one of the three countries that Oceania calls out as requiring a test. The other two are Bermuda and Greece.

Generally, yes.

I was on Riviera in April and thought afternoon tea was lovely and the same as previous cruises. The selection was good and it changed from day to day. Service quality was good as well. They only served food from carts, but that was good enough. The ship was less than 50% full at that point, so service levels were very high due to crew to passenger ratio.

It is prior to when the dinning rooms open, I want to say 5:45. So you if you have a 6:30 reservation, you would need to leave 'early', but you would still hear the speeches and have a drink, or two.

I did this at the start of Covid. However, Chase handled it very well we just had to request the money in check or online transfer. The transfer did not take a long time. But yes, lesson learned about putting a deposit on a credit card that you may not keep open.

Tile is one option.

I've used https://www.romelimousines.com and was please with their service.

That is how it worked on my B2B as well. Everyone who stayed on for the second leg (there were only 30 of us) had to be tested.

Do you want to see those missing ports? Come join us on your original October 13th cruise on Riviera. 🙂

I just completed a B2B of a 12 and a 7 day cruise. I received two credits as it was a custom cruise.

No

While saving ~$1000 is nice, no way would I change cabins 5 times for that.

Having watched a couple with Covid escorted out of their room and to a waiting elevator, they do mist right behind them. That is the only time I saw any "misting"

I recently took a B2B on Marina. First cruise was the tail end of an extended journey TA and the second cruise was your standard Med cruise. Very few, 33 people, stayed over for the second cruise. The difference between the cruises in regards to mask wearing was night and day. There were signs everywhere that masks were required and staff always had theirs on. However, on the first cruise we were often the only people wearing our masks (KN95) in the theater waiting for excursions to be called. There might have been two other couples with masks on the bus. The second cruise was very different with almost everyone was wearing masks in all close settings, ie bus, theater , tender, etc. There were also a much higher percentage of European guests on board than we typical experience which may have contributed to the difference. I only have anecdotal evidence, but I saw the Tyvex suited crew escorting passengers out of their cabins on the first cruise, but did not see that on the second. The Ship was only half full so it was easy to dine without sharing a table in all venues and we choose to do that even though we typically enjoy sharing tables. I had a wonderful time and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Others listed above, plus Cape Town to Cape Town, the South America cruises that go to Antartica.

Cruises that only happen once a year.

48 hours testing before getting embarking has been the rule for months and month now. It should not be a surprise.

Just got off Marina, in Rome. Everyone was masking as Italy is fairly stringent on this. No idea situation on other ships.