KirkNC

I am sure it will happen, it’s just a question of when. Personally I would prefer they wait a while. I like knowing that we at least start with a clean slate.

I think they are usually on sea days. We had several on our March cruise on the Quest.

No, that was not on the itinerary.

When we boarded in March, the earliest boarding time was 2:00 pm.

No, the email just referred to my specific booking.

We booked it a few months ago when HAL canceled our Volendam cruise. We were trying to use FCC (again) from the 2020 world cruise.

Not sure, also I am not sure everyone on the land portion got the email. Maybe they just wanted to reduce the head count.

Yes, our cruise portion began June 26th.

Your experience certainly confirms why they did what they did.

Thanks, glad I haven’t pulled the suitcases out yet.

Nieuw Amsterdam

Just got the email from Gus

I agree, beautiful mosaics.

Have not heard anything about masks. We will probably wear masks on the buses. Masks are not bulletproof protection but they do help, particularly a N95.

So I just read the thread on offers (bad offers I should say) to passengers to delay their sailings on Alaska land/sea tours. This got me thinking. HAL apparently has reintroduced capacity limits and now introduced pre-land tour testing. My conclusion or guess is that they are having trouble with Covid and hoping to mitigate the risk through these two measures. Makes me a little nervous about what we are sailing into.

Good question. I don’t know the answer. I am guessing it is two days before your free night, in your case Sunday. That is the “start of your tour”.

I would think they would have sent you a similar notice if they were requiring testing for your trip.

I actually do as well!

Both the Vancouver airport and the departure hotel HAL is using have testing facilities and accept appointments. The airport facility was $85 and the hotel (which is having a sale) was $58. This compares to our test in March in the Lisbon airport which was 25 euros. Our cost for testing for this cruise is $286 for the two of us. I reiterate my position that HAL should be arranging this for the convenience of the passengers if they want to encourage more people to cruise. Our only post Covid cruise so far on another line had free at the pier testing (Miami). You just showed up and were tested. Took ten minutes.

Well we just received notice from HAL that a negative test IS required prior to the land portion of our trip in mid-June. IMPORTANT NOTIFICATIONPlease be advised that we have implemented a new requirement and cruisetour guests 2 years of age or older must now produce a negative COVID-19 test at the start of their pre-cruise land tour. The test must be medically observed andcan be an antigen test taken within two days of the start of your tour or a PCR test taken within three days of the start of your tour. You will not be able tobegin your cruisetour without proof of a negative COVID-19 test. At-home medically observed antigen tests are allowed.

Well we just received notice from HAL that a negative test IS required prior to the land portion of our trip in mid-June. IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION Please be advised that we have implemented a new requirement and cruisetour guests 2 years of age or older must now produce a negative COVID-19 test at the start of their pre-cruise land tour. The test must be medically observed and can be an antigen test taken within two days of the start of your tour or a PCR test taken within three days of the start of your tour. You will not be able to begin your cruisetour without proof of a negative COVID-19 test. At-home medically observed antigen tests such as https://*****/optumtest are allowed.

Here are some pictures of VP

We have been to the Falklands four times and never seen a cruise ship docked. It’s a tender with a fairly long ride to the dock. Of our four visits, we have landed three out of four. If you go, try and go to Volunteer Point. It’s a two hour ride across the tundra (each way) and then more penguins (including king penguins) then I have seen outside of Antarctica and here you can get within feet of them. There is a local guy named Patrick Watts who runs the tours, there not cheap, maybe $100/pp but well worth it. The tundra ride is lots of fun as well.

I really think it’s a travesty that HAL does not provide testing at the end of the cruise. You would think they would want to make it as easy as possible for their guests. We have a later flight on the return trip so we have an appointment in the airport.

We did them in March twice for Portugal and once for Spain and no one ever asked for them.