Ottawa traveller

We have tulips and cherry blossoms in Yokohama!

Unless you have a Nexus card or are travelling business class and get priority security, you would need extra time for security clearance.

If you are flying to Canada, then Customs and Immigration on arrival. If you can use the ArriveCan app or if you have Nexus, it speeds up the process. Departing Vancouver for Alaska, US immigration in the terminal. They have a Nexus desk if you have that card. Last summer, we had to complete Arrive Can before boarding the ship though I think there was some leeway to get help to do it onboard. The result was that on return to Vancouver, there was no Immigration, and customs was simply handing an officer a card supplied by the ship that you had to complete and sign. From the time I walked off the ship, got my luggage, handed in the card and walked out was about 10 minutes. I don;t know if they are going to use ArriveCan again this summer but it sure speeds things up.

I did a land based tour to Peru in August 2019. the weather was cool and rainy in Lima. In my pictures I see only people with closed in shoes and most appear to be running shoes. I am sure that was what I was wearing. I only take running shoes and sandals on my travels and I would not have been wearing sandals in that weather. We were given no advice about footwear but I would think closed in shoes are preferable. I have also been to the Cathedral of Leon and they had put a walkway around the edge of the roof so people could keep their shoes on. As has been said, the concern there was to not damage the roof.

You can also take the Busan subway to Beomeosa Temple, a Buddhist shrine at the base of Geumjeong Mountain which has hiking trails. I have done this. It is 25 stops on the subway and a short bus ride, but I was able to do it in half a day. There is also Gamcheon Culture Village which is a 25-minute bus ride from the fish market area which I plan to do on my Westerdam trip in March. Online you can find many other things to do and using Google Maps you can plan how to get there. Just be a little adventurous.

I did the Vancouver to Alaska return to Vancouver cruise in August. On the return to Vancouver, we only had to hand in a completed customs card, supplied by the ship, to a Canadian Border Agent. There was no need to do immigration. I assume that is because Canadian Immigration can use the online Arrive Can information to process everyone on the ship before arrival back in Vancouver. It was very quick, maybe 10 minutes, to leave the ship, get your baggage and leave the terminal. Arrive Can is good for something despite all of the complaints.

On my recent Alaska cruise, all check in was done on the pier right at the bus or boat transport for the excursions. On my last pre covid cruise, it was the same. There was no more checking in on the ship.

This is from the FAQs. Prescription medical marijuana is not allowed on board. Possession of marijuana, even if by prescription, is a violation of US law, may be a violation of the laws of countries the ship may visit, and may result in referral to law enforcement authorities. Prescription Marinol, an alternative to marijuana, is permitted on board.

Just to let Canadians and perhaps other non-US cruisers know that in the past, Fedex would not take such items across the border because of Customs issues. I doubt that has changed.

I had a very mild sore throat Thursday evening and my symptoms worsened over the next three days. I tested positive later on the Friday. I was similar to threebluestars. By Monday I was almost better. I still don't want it again. I wear a KN95 mask everywhere. I go out when I know that places will not be crowded.

I got off the Zuiderdam on August 10th. On the 11th at home I came down with covid. I wore a KN95 mask at all times except while eating. I ate most of my meals in the dining room. However, my last breakfast was in the Lido and it was very crowded at the time. I think that is where I got it. I travelled around BC by train and bus for almost 3 weeks before the cruise and felt quite safe and obviously was. I did not have to eat in crowded places. I am booked on a SA Antarctica in January and I intend to cancel it. I intend to continue travelling but I personally don't think cruising is truly safe yet.

Canada Place, Vancouver - where the OP was boarding his cruise

The staff in the cruise terminal were helping people complete ArriveCan while we were waiting to board. There was wifi in the waiting area. You shouldn't have a problem.

Just back from 26 days in BC and on the Zuiderdam. Hotel prices in BC are outrageous. For 4* and above you can expect posted rates of $800 to $900. Someone I met said that BC means Bring Cash.

I'm just off the Zuiderdam. Unlike most passengers I wore a very good mask except when eating and drinking. Despite the required vaccination and testing, there was obviously covid onboard because I was no sooner home than I came down with a nasty case of it. Not sure what to do about my next two booked cruises in the winter.

Just back from Alaska on the Zuiderdam. Tiles were left in the room. Eight of us who were 5 star were invited to a short private reception with the Captain etc. I didn't see anything for 4 star Mariners.

I'm just back from Alaska. I took my foldable plastic water bottle with me and even with water in it, it was allowed on the ship.

The Railroad is running. I took the shore excursion. We were bused across town to get the train at the station. The train picks up the land and sea group in the Yukon and returns them to Skagway for the sea portion. We saw them on the down train as we were going up. The trains from Skagway do a return loop. You enter Canada briefly while the train turns around but you can't get off the train in Canada.

I am currently on the Zuiderdam on the 7-day Alaska cruise out of Vancouver. I have the premium plan. I could post both text and pictures to my blog site only while in the inside passage - in both directions. Further north, I could get internet at slower speeds, including some videos but I could not post pictures. TV was not available at some times. The issue is the location of satellites. I have been told that the satellite companies don't focus a lot of bandwidth on areas with little traffic. We are currently sailing the inside passage on the return journey, and I was able to post 4 days' worth of blogposts in a relatively short period of time.

I am on the Zuiderdam. We docked in Skagway 4 days ago. No problems for us.

I'm on the Zuiderdam. We are arriving in Juneau about 10:30 am due to a medical emergency. We had to skip Tracy Arm Inlet.

I just finished Verifly. For the vaccine certificates the QR code wouldn't scan and the antigen test results were in the body of an email. I had to take pictures of both and upload the copy for their approval. In both cases it took less than 15 minutes for them to approve them. I have paper copies of the vaccine results and the email for the test and I will have them with me just in case. My boarding time is 10am so I will have lots of time if necessary.

Deck 3 has a walk around promenade. Here is a link to the deck plan. zu.pdf

I did this once in Yokohama a few years ago. However, this was before Covid and a lot of security issues. I think about half the ship which had come from Seattle, were staying on. I asked the check in staff it it was possible to do it and they said yes. I just had to scan out and then back in later. I got the impression that people staying on the ship were not given transit cards but were just scanned off if they wanted to go ashore. When I did B2Bs in places like FLL it was a big production with transit cards. You can always ask when boarding.