Pat.D

Current sailing (solid blue line) vs projected route (dotted line). According to the Amber Cove monthly schedule our ship is supposed to be there now. They skipped the USVI and visited the DR early. They are on their way back to Port Canaveral now. Of course all this doesn't mean all future sailings will be like this but it will be good to keep an eye on this. It is what it is I guess...

Same here, sailing the Getaway B2B on Aug 13 and 20 and I was trying to book a private scuba diving excursion in the DR but now I can't really make solid plans. Also I booked dives in St-Thomas thru NCL (gotta use those $50 shorex credits!) which will be out the window if we skip that port... 🙁

As far as I know, the people found out about the port cancellations while on the ship and had no advance warning.

It would appear they added a sea day and moved the Puerto Plata (Amber Cove) port day. (image from another social media site)

When I cruised the Epic last March, Spice was almost unusable when the ship was sailing because we'd get showered in greasy soot and rusty scale from the ship's chimneys. The only time it was usable was when the ship was not moving or if we had a strong cross wind. I'm hoping this closure is to fix this situation as it was bloody unpleasant.

This is interesting and if this is what it appears to be I hope NCL will soon drop testing on the routes it can. Obviously the CDC isn't the only authority involved in international sailing so other countries being visited may still require testing.

I eat there at least once per cruise (love it!) and I've seen it done 2 ways: It used to be shrimp cooked last after allergic person is served, but in the last few years it's been mostly allergic person's food cooked entirely in the kitchen (except on the Joy last march, the chef cooked all of the allergic persons food on the empty second grill behind him, and the rest of ours on the grill we were sitting at, it was quite a show!)

Makes sense, I'm sailing the Getaway B2B next month and found this recent change to the Sail Safe page when I researched it:

I usually bring a thick plastic bag (ziplock) that's just a tad smaller than the NCL paper bags and really PACK the dirty clothes in and then put that inside the paper bag. You can fit a bit more without ripping the bag that way.

Awesome! Syds and Howl at the moon are the 2 places where I spend my evenings. Hope they're still on when I sail 2x B2B next month.

I just received this email from NCL a few days ago, it explains the testing and vaccination rules for my upcoming cruise leaving from Port Canaveral in the US on August 13th.

I love GSC, I usually just bring my snorkel gear and go for a swim in the bay. There is actually a fair amount of underwater life along the rock walls. I'll be glad to be there again next month.

Interestingly, when I sailed the Joy out of Miami back in March, it was also missing quite a few brands of alcohol they usually stock (but nowhere as bad as what you're experiencing!) It was the sailing where the Joy had to skip Cozumel due to "propulsion issues".

VPN's on cruise ship wifi are very hit and miss. I just hope you don't need decent bandwidth or speed as your connection will be barely above dialup speeds at the best of times with loooong lag).

As it stands, they are optional on the ship. This can (and in a few cases has) change at the Captain's discretion should there be rapidly rising case numbers onboard. I cruised in March and May and the breakdown was around 1/4 passengers masked, 3/4 not. Some people (like me) only wear a mask when in involuntary close quarters (elevators, theatre, lineups). As for the ports we visited, it depended on those countries local laws and rules. Most western Caribbean ports and Alaska didn't mandate masks. Masks were mandatory inside the ports in Puerto Rico and the ABC islands. In Bonaire, St-Lucia and St-Kitts masks were mandatory anywhere indoors at all times (and they were serious about it). Some of this may have changed since, but the bottom line remains: their country = their rules.

In most Caribbean countries it's not permitted to bring any food off the ship. As for checking, I've seen occasional random searches with sniffer dogs in Cozumel, Roatan and Barbados. A few times in Cozumel their officials had everyone open their bags as they exited the pier. You're probably better off supporting the local economy and getting some local food from a grocery or restaurant once on land.

My official Caribbean cruise uniform 😉 Following this as I'll be on the Getaway the 13th and 20th of August. Enjoy your cruise! Pat

Sailing the NCL Getaway Back-to-back on August 13th and 20th. Departing port Canaveral and sailing to the eastern Caribbean

Will be sailing the Getaway twice back to back to the eastern Caribbean next month and am looking for a dive shop in/near Puerto Plata (or most likely Amber Cove port as previous cruises seem to be switching to that port). Thanks! Pat

Though the NCL/Carnival/RCCL sail-safe group is in talks with the CDC to have pre-boarding testing reviewed, in a recent AMA session on the "Presiden't Cruise" to Alaska, the CEO of RCCL said testing should be around for a few more months. There has been a little bit of conjecture tied to the cruise industry looking for pre-cruise testing to be reviewed as a requirement. "I think pre cruise testing is going to be around for another couple of months," Mr. Bayley answered. "We obviously want it to go back to normal, but we're incredibly cognizant of our responsibilities to keep our crew, the communities and our guests safe." Ref: EDIT CC will not allow linking to reference site I've personally been using at home proctored tests for my last 3 cruises (and flying to the US and back to Canada while it was required), they cost me around $100can per kit containing 2 tests. For my fellow Canadians I use the "switch-health" kits recommended by Air Canada (only for Canadian addresses but there are US equivalents, I believe NCL recommends the Inspire Diagnostics kits).

Is it really? Cool, I learned something new today. 👍

I get why it's practical to have the water bottles/cartons, but they don't exactly contain Evian spring water... it's just "filtered water" (basically the same as what comes out of the ship's taps). I personally bring a refillable bottle and top it up with my stateroom's tap. To each their own of course.

When you fill out the ArriveCan form, you specify which point of entry (airport/port/land border) you'll be crossing so I would assume that yes you'll need a separate ArriveCan for that day.

Not a balcony, but last March on the Epic out of San Juan the Spice H2O area was often unusable when the ship was on her way. We were constantly rained on with smelly nasty greasy black soot and chunks of what looked like limescale coming from the exhaust chimneys. For the ship with arguably the best Spice H2O of the fleet it was a shame it was often unusable.

Sailing the Getaway August 20th (and may add Aug 13 soon), just checked and the DR port is still Puerto Plata, but seeing the trend I guess it will probably change. No big deal for me, I was not a huge fan of Puerto Plata or La Romana when I last visited.