waiting2retire

Success!  After persistently (obsessively?) checking the site over the past couple of days, I just booked an appointment in Niagara Falls, which is a one hour drive, for Friday this week. This will be my first Nexus application and will be very glad to have it done with!

55 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

Looks like there may be action on opening Canadian Interview sites. Note the last sentence "The CBSA says in an email that Canada and the U.S. are in discussions about when to reopen Canadian enrollment centres."

 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/nexus-program-backlog-balloons-to-nearly-300-000-applications-1.5924162

Glad someone finally sat up and took notice. Maybe some publicity will light a fire under the CBSA to reopen Canadian centres sooner rather than later. I have booked an interview in Detroit (a 4 hour drive) after failing to find an interview time in Niagara. Would be lovely to book something in Mississauga!

3 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Thanks so much. Were you happy with #4195? 

We were very happy with 4195. I love the larger deck 4 balconies and the fact that there seems to almost always be either sun or shade to be had, depending on your preference at the time. It was a nice quiet room with no excessive motion. 
 

Enjoy your cruise!

The cutoff is where the fire doors are. There is a fire door across from 4169 so that the only stateroom access is aft of the elevators. We were in 4195 in April and I’m pretty sure that once we turned starboard at the aft side of the elevators we could turn right to access our cabin but not left. That would mean the last accessible cabin on the starboard side was likely 4175. 
 

We just had a similar situation with Holland America.  My daughter contacted the Family Assistance number from the information provided.  The rep said she contacted the ship and the Port representative in Amsterdam was to take care of shipping the items to us.  That was two weeks ago. We still have our fingers crossed. 

We used Walmart.  No email, but they provide you with a paper copy which we took a photo of.  We carried the paper copies as well, but the photo was sufficient.

For anyone still interested in the OP’s original question, I was in an obstructed balcony cabin on the Rotterdam for one day in April to isolate pending a second negative Covid test. I believe the cabin number was 4132. The tenders had just been out, but I’m pretty sure they were back in their normal position by the time I took this photo. 

I have only used FlightEase twice now, so not  on of experience, but in neither case did the fare I chose ever go up prior to final payment. In fact, the first time I used it was just prior to the Covid pause and got R/T flights from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale for $24.00. Still not sure how that happened, but it did. 
 

This time, our flights from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale , then return to Toronto from Amsterdam after a transatlantic cruise, came in at less than $600 pp, much better than any flights I found on my own. 
 

As I said, I am obsessive about it, checking the FlightEase fares at least once, sometimes twice a day. They can change quickly and once the seats are gone, the fare is gone. 
 

Definitely not a problem to click on the Change Flights button. It won’t change your flights until you confirm the flights you want to change to, so if you don’t find anything you prefer, just back out. 
 

I booked my flights a few months out when I booked the cruise, then checked somewhat obsessively until I found flights that not only saved me $$ but with airlines and timing I preferred. 
 

On 4/28/2022 at 5:14 PM, NCTribeFan said:

I've booked the Rotterdam TA for next April.  What is the charge to add Club Orange?

 

I need to check my booking and see what cabin I have (it's an interior).  I most definitely do NOT want heavy vibration for two weeks!

I believe the cost of Club Orange depends on the length of the cruise or some other random criteria. For our 21 day TA it cost $15/pp/pd. 
 

On 4/28/2022 at 1:48 PM, Cruisetrekker said:

Could you tell me who the current captain is onboard  the Rotterdam ?

it is Captain Timmers but he will be leaving the ship in Amsterdam on Sunday. Not sure who the next Captain will be. 
 

I am also on this cruise and loving my first transatlantic!  I hope I don’t jinx it with just one more sea day to go, but the seas have been very calm, and other than a few showers, the weather has been amazing. 
 

with regard to the food onboard, we purchased Club Orange for the sole purpose of decreasing the price of the veranda cabin we wanted. The bonus has been that the CO dining room has wonderful service and piping hot food. The Dive-In fries are still the best at sea and our Canaletto dinner was delicious. Our Pinnacle dinner was very good but I have to say the quality of the beef was not as good as in the past. Tamarind on tap for tomorrow. 
 

I am a mask wearer. At the beginning of the cruise I would say approximately 40-50% of cruisers were wearing masks indoors. Today it’s more like 15-20%. I think people are becoming more confident as the cruise continues. While there is no way of knowing how many cases of Covid are onboard, I have heard very little coughing, sneezing, or other signs of illness. We are on Deck 4 aft, and it seems both sides of the midship cabins are blocked off. We have noticed very little coming and going from the blocked areas. 
 

any other questions feel free to ask and I will answer if I can. 
 

The boarding pass did say 5 Gala nights for my 21 day cruise, just not which nights they would be. This info was available about 2 weeks prior to boarding. 

The app said Smart Casual for all nights of the cruise we are currently on right up until we boarded the ship. Don’t know why they can’t decide ahead of time to help with planning specialty restaurants. 

I needed a rapid antigen test last Saturday April 16 for flight and cruise boarding April 17.  I first booked a test with SDM ($40) at noon, then when a Costco appointment ($16.99) became available at 10:10 a.m., I booked it as well. As a third option, booked a test with Walmart ($19.99) at 8:50 a.m. when it became available 3 days prior to test. 
 

Hated booking 3 appointments when only one was needed but felt more comfortable doing it this way. Attended the 8:50 appointment at Walmart, got my negative result in 15 minutes and immediately cancelled the other two appointments. 
 

Results were provided in paper form which I took a photo of and uploaded to VeriFLY for the cruise and to my Wallet for digital copy. Full disclosure my daughter did this for me 😁

No problem with Walmart test result for either flight or cruise. 
 

Happy cruising!

23 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

The one day test is only required by Spain. The EU is not monolithic in their entry requirements, as I've learned over the last few weeks. (I'm on a Celebrity cruise, the first one of the season in Europe for that line, departing tomorrow.)

 

It's very possible that the Princess cruise did not have a call in Spain on its itinerary. Thence the difference in testing requirements.

then can you explain the testing at pier for the Rotterdam which is not going to Spain?

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

As explained just the other day, up to April 1, you needed to test foreach cruise. One person has reported since April 1 that they didn't test on a B2B after April 1. I would call that unconfirmed at this point.

 

If you test positive on boarding day, you will not be allowed to board. There have been several reports that if you test positive at ANY point in your cruise, you will be quarantined on board for 5 days, retested, and possibly quarantined again if positive. You will NOT be kicked off the ship until whenever your final scheduled day, unless you require hospital services ashore.

do we know that these same conditions apply on Europe cruises?

We are currently on the Rotterdam transatlantic and the gala nights did not show in the Navigator until we were onboard. 

For anyone interested, the Lido pool is a beautiful blue this morning. The aft pool is more of a light green, but not yellow. 

We’re on the move. Not sure we can match “the long goodbye” 🤪

Rotterdam captain just announced we have fuel and food and will be underway “shortly”. 

Yes, it was horrendous standing in the heat. We were lucky and managed to be the last ones into a shaded are before the lines spilled outside. There was no crowd control/line management but MOST passengers were well-behaved and did not attempt to jump the queue. 
 

We were early because we had an early flight in from Toronto this morning, arriving at the port around 11:15. The doors did not open to allow the first passengers in until after 12:30. 
 

A few HAL reps came around with bottled water about noon then about 12:30 local fire department showed up with more water and some folding chairs to give those in need somewhere to sit. 
 

we have been told that there were the usual suspects late leaving the ship to zero out capacity. Since we received no email from HAL regarding a change to COVID testing requirements, I believe the HAL employee who said they were only notified of the requirement last night. Given the lateness of the change, I actually think HAL did an amazing job testing everyone prior to boarding. 
 

And in this case having Verifly downloaded and completed saved us a ton of time. There was no usual priority line due to the testing, but those who had completed Verifly did have a “fast lane”. People who were in line around us had just had their Covid test done by the time we had waited for the negative result and proceeded to boarding. 
 

Although frustrating, seems a small price to pay to be back on a dam ship after more than two years!

Hope to be on the Rotterdam for sail away!

Near and dear to my heart. She was my first HAL ship in 2007 to Hawaii 🥰

13 minutes ago, cantgetaname said:

I'll be flying from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale, catching a transatlantic cruise to Spain, then flying to the UK for a few days.   Is it going to be difficult filling out my information on arrivecan.   I've never had to use it before.

It will be pretty straightforward and shouldn’t be a problem at all since you have a few days in the UK to input the information required. I believe you can also input your basic information before your trip, i.e. personal info, passport details and Covid vaccination document.