pghflyer

I was told by crew and other guests that the industrial facility was not allowing outside parties into the area. This is really the middle of nowhere, so even if you knew where the outside of the restricted area was, not sure I would trust the other party to find it. If it were me, I would definitely just have them pick you up at the shuttle drop point in town.

WRT Riga, the buses didn't have toilets, the tourist office didn't have toilets, but I am sure if you patronized a restaurant by purchasing a snack/ coffee, they would make one available. Honestly, even NYC is bad for public restrooms but I empathize with the challenge as I love my coffee a little too much myself and that is even without adding significant medical complications.

When I was there, that particular one-room stall was open with no fee required. Our itinerary had a particular lack of public toilet facilities in the ports, this one included. We just used this one, the free one in the library, and the free one at our bike tour meeting point.

We did the bike tour from this company, and they were great (they don't cover old town OR the central market on the bike tour, so definitely don't miss those in your spare time): https://www.rigafreetours.com/ It is a really sad arrival spot in the middle of a cargo shipping field without any cruise ship facilities...but they had 10 buses ready for us when we disembarked and tourism staff from the city were there to answer questions. Took about 20 minutes to arrive, but due to traffic took about 35 to return. Last shuttle to the ship was 6PM, and we caught the 5:30PM and it was PACKED with people standing / sitting on the floor. They drop you on the main road by the river, right next to a public toilet (link below), a few blocks from the old town and tourism staff meet the buses there too and provide maps and mark locations for you, HOHO buses are there as well. https://goo.gl/maps/DAeaqysnk69oURX6A **Should share an important piece of info which is that since this "port" is inside an active shipping port facility, taxis are NOT allowed to enter (and some refuse to go this far away to the middle of nowhere where they won't get a return fare). Some ship staff tried catching taxis to get back on time and had to be dropped off at the facility entrance, far from the ship and catch the bus from there** Overall, Riga is a glorious beautiful city and it is a shame the first impression is so bad, but they are doing the best they can with their port situation and larger ships. In addition to the sites seen on the bike tour (including art noveau district), our favorite spots were the old town, the central market (incredibly large and diverse but more for getting a "taste" of local shopping goods, not tourist crap), and the Library (easy walk across the river, a cool modern building with a few free exhibits inside).

Because I had to have a policy with my name on it for a European cruise, I bought Travel Insured multi-trip annual policy - it was very cheap and does cover common carrier delay. Never had to use it so would expect they would be as difficult to get money out of as they all are but FWIW: https://www.travelinsured.com/multitrip/

Travel insurance is just like commercial (US style) health insurance, they market it really well but when it comes to using it, they will do everything they can to squirm out of paying a cent.....and if they do have to pay a cent, they will make you jump through as many hoops as possible so that they can keep the money longer. These are all businesses that exist to make profit, and only profit by not paying. Vast majority of affordable flight insurance only covers weather delays/ strikes/ injury/ jury duty. And you will have to get a letter from the airline proving these things too. Very sorry to hear about your trip problems, sure it is incredibly disappointing and frustrating.

I see that, honestly I was more just making a general comment on my own thought process for what I wanted to do (Slussen to Frihammen with no more than 1 stop) and how every time one of you guys posts, another light bulb goes on (I swear they have let me leave the USA before this ha ha). Still bottom line for me is I can't do a one-stop ferry from Slussen in the 10-11AM timeframe on a weekend day so will just do my Gamla Stan stroll around the island and back to Nyboplan for the easy non-stop. Cheers all.

Great point @Desdichado62.....I totally forgot to look at the other direction route....my goodness, I feel like I am playing the dumb person in a bad bar joke..."how many XYZ's does it take to read a single Swedish ferry timetable".....ha ha

Yeah confusing with the changing routes, but thanks all for sorting it out. I'm with you @gnome12, looks like the last time you can catch the 80 at Allmänna gränd which goes direct to Frihammen is 8:38AM......and then it does not run the full route again until 13:08 for some reason....and in that time gap, the only connection from Slussen (via 82) would be at Nacka Strand by getting off and waiting for the subsequent 80 after 27 minutes. So at that point 2 switches just becomes too much fuss, and I will probably just huff it back to Nybroplan as well. Shucks. Thanks for the help with the photo on ferry direction @Desdichado62

Are you sure @Desdichado62? I read they added a bunch more stops in the last couple of years and the official map shows many more stops also............ https://sl.se/globalassets/linje-80.pdf

Hmmm great point @DragonOfTheSeas, I could walk from Central station through Gamla Stan as I wanted (2KM, 25 minutes).......but instead of a much longer walk back through Gamla stan and over to Nybroplan as I was considering, we could instead take the 82 commuter ferry from right at the end of Gamla stan @ Stockholm Slussen kajen (10 minutes) right over to Allmänna gränd (on Djurgarden), and switch to the 80 commuter ferry for the remaining 40ish minutes to Frihammen. Both trips should still fall under a single 75-minute ticket. I did notice that 82 doesn't start as early (9AM) on the weekends as 80 (7AM) so good to download and review both schedules. https://mitt.sl.se/ficktid/sommar/S82.pdf Thanks for the idea (and @Desdichado62 for the updated timetable)! But to directly answer your question as I understand it, YES, you can catch the ferry at Nybroplan and stay on the same boat all the way to Frihammen......or if you have a need to catch it in Djurgarden, you could also catch it there.

We are taking RCL out of Frihamnen and arrive early at the airport 6AM so wanted a little more scenic way to burn time before our noon check-in. We are very mobile and only bringing one bag each so light travelers. If we take the express train to central station....perhaps a brief walk through Gamla Stan (old town)..... it looks like it is a 1KM (15min) walk to Nybroplan, where the local 80 ferry runs to Frihamnen (and beyond) with a 1-hour ride. Should just be 39SEK ($4USD) each as a normal commuter ticket. Anyone ever done this? Ferry 80 Map https://sl.se/globalassets/linje-80.pdf Ferry 80 Timetable https://mitt.sl.se/ficktid/vinter/V80.pdf

Great news, I hope they scrap the entry testing like US just did. Require vaccinations (maybe even match the ID to the vaccine card? ha), the rest is theatre.

We did all of this as a couple for Jewel in March. We arrived one day early and left one day late. We received a $50 CREDIT ($25 each way) for our deviation. We also removed all the transfers with a simple phone call at no cost. The air program is generally a good "deal" if you don't mind potentially the worst flight of the day with long connections.

Great map!! On the plus side, we are the only ship in port that day so less busy.

Thanks great info! This is only my second RCL cruise, so not sure about the specifics but I am sure some folks get early disembark privileges (ex. high ranking Crown & Anchor members or perhaps with the concierge for those who got a suite) so that may be an option for some of you.

Don't get me wrong, this stinks and not thrilled about it, but it is common practice for cruises to dump you in a port far from the actual city. One of my favorites is when you go to "Berlin" and they dump you in Warnemunde about 300KM (3H) away ha ha

Thanks for this thread, didn't realize we were heading into such a craptastic experience from RCL and Riga.

Normal risk/ reward decision here. Save some good money but know they are booking the cheapest (aka. worst/connecting/latest) flights they can get. I had similar 12 ours delay between docking and flight, and the airline (United) would not allow any changes to the flight in advance without NCL authorizing.....and once we got to the airport all the earlier flights were full and we spent the day unsucessfuly standying by. But we saved probably $500........so just things to consider next time on whether to use the offer. Personally, I wish they would remove it because it does affect the cruise pricing (watch those prices go down once they remove the air promo as the cruise approaches).

Cruise ships were never intended to be a floating medical facility, so this whole situation is not to anyone's liking. Hope you feel better.

Yup, life must go on. Proof of vaccination should stay but the testing charade needs to stop.

WOOOHHOOOOOO, huge worry lifted, life goes on!!!

So for those of you with 2-day deviations heading to Europe from USA, how does that timing work out? I assume if the ship has a PM Thursday departure in Europe, a "normal" (no deviation at all) flight from USA would be Wednesday departure arriving on Thursday.....so a 1-day deviation is Tuesday departure and 2-day deviation is a Monday departure....is that how it works?

I used a TA and just won a bid, but have booked Costco many times and always unable to bid anywhere

What level of WIFI do you think is needed to complete a proctored test? We are on Voyager so assume I would buy a one-day VOOM SURF + STREAM VOYAGE PACKAGE once onboard (we don't need it every day).