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15 hours ago, victory2020 said:

Im thinking of doing 2 day deviation into Amsterdam. How does that affect testing? Is it 3 days before you leave or 3 days before embark?

It's required by the cruise line, so I think it's 3 days before you board.  My cruise overnights in Stockholm so we don't sail until the day after we board.  Our cruise consultant told us we could test as early as Friday for a Monday check-in and Tuesday sailing.  We're doing ours on Saturday before we fly out.  Two members of our group are leaving a few days earlier, so they'd take their tests using the internet at their hotel.  We're all doing the eMed tests - proctored online.

9 hours ago, victory2020 said:

What experiences has everyone had recently with NCL air to Europe?

Our party of 12 (10 with air through NCL) will be flying out next Sunday.  One group is flying from Phoenix to Stockholm.  They routed us through LAX, but that's not unexpected and it's a short detour. We have a long layover, though.   Our return flight originates in Copenhagen, connects in Amsterdam, and connects again at JFK.   We should be home around 9:30 PM.

We have a group leaving from VA, and they are flying out of Baltimore - the furthest of the three airports in the DC area.  ☹️  They only have two legs each way.  Their return flight detours all the way through Chicago, and they don't get home until 11:30 PM.  On the upside, though, they have "premium" seats on that flight from Copenhagen to Chicago.  😄

 

7 hours ago, Jeebs745 said:

What does Norwegian mean with “verified third party?” Does that mean I can’t go to my local urgent care for a PCR test? 

Remember you will need to get your results quickly.  When I went to an urgent care once for a test, the results were going to take a couple of days.  Our cruise consultant recommended a Rapid Antigen test.  You should be able to get results for this test quickly - like an hour or so.  The eMed tests take 15 minutes to process and about 25 minutes total.  Then they email you the results.

On 3/16/2022 at 5:19 AM, lionheart said:

Thanks I’m with my three kids and one has disabilities so it’s easier to take a taxi than public transport 

When I used the HoHo boat in '08, I was in a wheelchair.  I'd broken my ankle in Tallinn - on a cruiseline tour, so they were extra nice to me when I rejoined the cruise in Helsinki.  They let me use their wheelchair off the ship, which is normally not allowed.  I also had crutches, so when I boarded the HoHo boats, I would wheel up to the end of the dock and use my crutches to get to the door.  Then I'd sit on the steps and just scoot down them to get inside the boat.  My sister took care of bringing my wheelchair aboard.  Somehow we always managed to get a seat in the front.  

On 4/2/2022 at 11:09 AM, princesspat1 said:

Can you get the hop on hop off boat by the cruise port or do you have to get into town first?

 When I was there in '08, there was a HoHo boat stop right at the end of our dock.

When I was in Stockhom back in '08, the tour we wanted to take was full, so we just used the Hop-On-Hop-Off boat to get around.  We'll probably use it again when we go back this summer.  The ticket is good for 24 hours, so we would be able to use it the afternoon of the first day we're there and again the following morning/early afternoon before we depart.  It stops at all the major sights along the water, including the Vasa.  It looks like they also have a HoHo bus, so maybe we could try that this time and see more of the city away from the water.  

Either way, I can't wait to go back to the Vasa and get some better photos this time.  Last time, I had a new digital camera and took a lot of flash photos before I realized that the flash was useless and my photos  were actually lighter with the flash off.  

On 3/1/2022 at 9:21 PM, lionheart said:

Too bad thought maybe Poland German or Lithuania would be added. And a day early to Copenhagen to tour it

Our itinerary (Norwegian Dawn) already included Poland, Lithuania, and two ports in Germany.  In place of the two days in St. Petersburg, we will now have one day in Hamina (Kotka), Finland and one sea day.  We previously had no sea days at all, so I think a lot of people will actually enjoy having a "day off."  

Kiel was on our original itinerary and still is.  We're on the Dawn, which I understand is one of the smaller ships.

Our sailing(6/20 on the Dawn) just got an email with our revised itinerary.  In place of St. Petersburg, we have Hamina (Kotka) Finland and one sea day.  I'm relieved to have a sea day since our itinerary is 11 ports in 12 days.  The sea day will fall right in the middle of the cruise, so the timing is perfect.  We're also getting a 20% refund of the cruise fare.  

My first cruise was NCL Baltic Capitals back in '08.  I missed St. Petersburg back then because I broke my ankle at the previous port - Tallinn.  Fortunately, I was able to rejoin the cruise in Helsinki.  I was glad I'd gone, even with the missed port and the broken ankle.  

I'm booked to go back to the Baltic in June with more of my family.  It would have been nice to visit St. Petersburg, but I'm more disappointed for my family.  I was able to go back and spend several days in St. P. on a tour a few years ago, so I saw more then than I would in two days in port.  Our cruise this year will include a few ports we didn't visit last time:  Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and additional ports in Sweden and Germany.  It's so port intensive, I think it will be a relief to have a couple of sea days.  

3 hours ago, richard_london said:

That's my own personal reason for never having booked a Baltic cruise, since most since to overnight in St Petersburg.  As a solo traveller I wouldn't feel safe ashore, as I like to explore ports of call on my own.  But then, why should I go ashore and spend my own hard earned money in a country that is so hostile to people like me?  

 

And for all the other evil stuff he and his regime has done to destabilise the west and your country it makes it quite an easy decision.

In St. Petersburg, you wouldn't have been allowed to go exploring on your own unless you went to the trouble of getting your own Visa.  Tours have special visas that cover the group, but you have to stay together.

On 1/19/2021 at 3:22 PM, Mr. Click said:

Save them, always save them... We recently celebrated our 50th during a lull in COVID and I was able to pull out our wedding picture and have it reprinted for our family luncheon.  Wow was I skinny then......

I would advise everyone to get at least one good professional photo taken when they're in their prime.  When my sister died, we went through all her photos and there was one really good one that, unfortunately, had her ex-husband in it.  Thank heaven for modern technology!  The photo studio is still around and we got permission to use the photo, then had her ex professionally erased.  :-)  

I was briefly engaged when I was 30, and the one good thing I took from that relationship are the photos I had taken for him. 😉  Fortunately, we broke up before I gave them to him, so that's why I still have them.  

When my dad died, he and my mom had been married 50 years, and we had so many great photos of them on their various adventures.  It was wonderful going through them.  We displayed them on a digital photo frame at the funeral.  

If you really want to help out your family, set aside copies of your favorite photos of yourselves in a place where they'll find them.  It will make things easier for them someday.  I need to do this myself.  I took over 7,000 photos on my last cruise (trying out my new camera - first DSLR), so I took multiples of everything.  :-)  

As for my cruise prep, I'm obsessive about my spreadsheets.  I plan everything out and make duplicate copies of everything.  Packing on the other hand...

For some reason, I can never decide in advance what clothing to pack.  I always end up doing all my laundry at the last minute, so everything I own is clean in case I want to pack it.  I usually stay up all night or get a couple hours of sleep at the most.  

On 2/21/2021 at 7:38 AM, brookie848 said:

A few years ago, we were flying to FLL to stay overnight before flying to San Juan for a cruise (it was the year Hurricane Maria hit and there were no hotels to speak of available in San Juan). While on the plane, my husband looked at me and said, "I forgot your Glucagon."

 

I'm a type 1 diabetic and this is what is needed to quickly bring up my blood sugar if things get bad. He was in charge of bringing it because he is in charge of giving it to me. So once we got to our hotel, time was spent calling CVS and getting the prescription filled. And that was the last trip he was in charge of packing the Glucagon.

For the flight to my first cruise, we had a long layover at Dulles, near where my brother lives.  We took the opportunity to meet up with him and his family at the airport while we waited.  His daughter was playing with one of the carry-ons and we lost track of it.  We said our good-byes and went back through security.  It wasn't until we were in line to board the plane that we realized the carry-on was missing.  And it was the bag with all my dad's medications - couldn't leave it behind. We called my brother and he headed back to the airport and found the bag in the custody of a police officer (the father of one of my niece's friends, as it happens).  My sister went back to retrieve the bag, and since we now had plenty of time (had changed from our PM flight to an AM flight) she went and had dinner with my brother's family.  It turned out just fine, as we arrived at our London hotel just before check-in time.  

On 2/19/2021 at 8:11 PM, RunBikeCruiseDC said:

I'm not disabled but I ended up breaking a leg and having surgery shortly before a cruise.  Luckily they were able to work things out for me as I needed more room to shower (and sit) due to the cast.  I was really worried about those elevated bathrooms and tiny showers in an older ship, it would have been miserable for me.  I realized how difficult it is to get around older ships from that experience, I gained a lot of perspective about what disabled folks deal with from that experience. 

 

I actually broke my ankle on a shore excursion on my very first cruise!  (My avatar is my actual x-ray).  It was an NCL cruise, and they took really good care of me.  We'd originally booked our group of four in a single cabin, and when I got out of the hospital and rejoined the cruise, they moved my sister and me into a second cabin.  There weren't any handicapped cabins available, but I got by.  NCL loaned me a wheelchair for the duration (2nd half of a 13 day cruise).  I had crutches that I used inside the cabin, and my sister would fold up the wheelchair and set it in a corner.  Bathing was more of a challenge.  I had to get by with sponge baths, and my sister helped me wash my hair with the shower spray.  

My understanding with other lines is that handicapped cabins are reserved for those who need them and only released to others at some point a few weeks (maybe a month?) before sailing.  By then, they assume that anyone needing a handicapped cabin would have booked it.

Years ago, my whole family (20 in all) was booked on a Princess cruise to Alaska, and just a few weeks before we were scheduled to go, my dad (who had needed a walker already) suffered a stroke and would need a wheelchair to get around for a while.  We were so thankful that the ship still had a handicapped cabin available, so Dad was able to cruise in comfort.  

I understand they have laundry facilities on Hurtigruten ships and that you just need to buy a token and are supplied with laundry soap. Does anyone know the charge for the laundry tokens? I'm making my packing list - leaving in just over a week, so I'm trying to figure how much I need to bring and how much laundry will cost. We're doing the round trip, as well as a few days in St. Petersburg afterward, so we'll be gone for 19 days total. I'll definitely need to do laundry at least once.

Thanks for your replies. I'm pretty sure at this point that I don't need a "converter" - just an "adapter" because my only large wattage appliance (hairdryer) has dual voltage, and the adapters all say they work for cameras, phones, tablets, etc. Fortunately, a hairdryer is all I need for my hair since I got it cut - no curling tools required - only a round brush. :-) The hotels where we'll be staying in Bergen and St. Petersburg are 4-5 star, and the descriptions on the tour company website say they both have hairdryers, so I'm covered there. Still, you never know what kind of dryer the hotel will have. Even good hotels can have tired, crappy hairdryers.

So many adapters explicitly say that they shouldn't be used for hairdryers that I think I'll play it safe and just choose one of the few that specifies that it can handle them. (Many adapters don't say either way). There's one on Amazon that I'm watching right now - goes on sale in an hour or so. It's both an adapter and converter and can handle up to 2000 watts. I don't see how I could go wrong with that one. It's a bit pricey, but we'll see how much they discount it for Amazon Prime Day. :-) If that doesn't work out, I found a few reasonably priced adapters that will handle 2000 watts. Thanks again for your replies. I feel a lot better now.

Okay, I'll look for that. What about the hairdryer? Can I get by with using an adapter since it has dual voltage, and if so, do I need to consider the wattage of my hairdryer when I buy my adapter?

I know that Hurtigruten is different than the cruises I've been on in the past and I don't expect it to have U.S. electrical plugs. I asked a tour coordinator if I'd need a voltage converter, and she said Yes. (Note: Our trip also includes an extension in St. Petersburg after our round-trip cruise). My problem is that I'm not sure if I need a converter or just an adapter. My hairdryer (1875 Watts) has dual voltage. We'll also have a few cameras with batteries to recharge, a tablet, a phone, and a fitbit. I think that's all. I've read that electronics like this are designed to be used in other countries and only need an adapter, but I'd feel a lot more confident if I got confirmation from people here who really know. :)

Thanks! I copied down your responses and am forwarding them to my nephew.

I just learned that my nephew (who is stationed at Aviano AFB in Italy) will be able to meet up with us in Venice. He and his family will be arriving by train. I'd planned on taking the people mover, and I understand that it will take us from the cruise port to Piazzale Roma. Is there a good place to meet that is convenient to both the train and the people mover?

Also, since we don't dock until noon and they're taking a morning train, they may need a comfortable place to sit and wait for us. Note - they have a 2-yr-old and new baby that we're very excited to meet. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I just checked our flights and discovered that our first leg, which had been listed as "Swiss Int'l Airlines" is now a United flight at the same time, but with a different number. I was able to make seat selections, but at this late date, there weren't very many seats to choose from and we're stuck on the last row of the plane. :( At least this flight is only 3 1/2 hours. Who knows where we'll be assigned on the 8 1/2 hour transatlantic flight? It could be very uncomfortable.

I still quite can't believe how lucky we were on our recent Zuiderdam cruise. Our balcony cabin on deck 4 had major plumbing issues from Day 1 and on Day 2 we were upgraded to a midship Neptune Suite on deck 7 for the rest of our 11 day cruise! :D

I'll be on deck 4 on the Zuiderdam in 9 days. What cabin were you in that had plumbing problems?

Good question. I hadn't even thought about checking in, and that it might be different. This is our first time booking flights through the cruise line as well.

We have three legs each way, and we only have seat assignments for the very last leg - 4 hours out of 28 total flying hours. That leg is a United flight. Our outbound flights are Swiss Int'l and our other return flights are "United, operated by Brussels Air." I looked into getting assigned seats for the other legs, but the option wasn't available through Brussels Air, and Swiss Int'l charges about $30 to select a seat for intercontinental flights.