Kristal Blade

Thanks for the link, LHT28, I have been on the Oceania website. They say they are doing an upgrade so excursions can’t be booked online right now. So, I’m thinking I’m allowed to book any listed excursion for free? Some of them are really expensive though. I don’t think they will allow me to book a private car in 3 ports and pay $0!!

I have just booked an O life ultimate cruise. We have 6 excursions, 3 each, drink package which is alcoholic drinks with meals only plus on board spend of $600. We have only ever cruised Oceania on the ultimate package, they seem to sell off these cruises at late notice as we sail on 1 October. This will be our 3rd cruise with Oceania. The onboard spend will cover tips plus pre dinner drinks and probably a few items from the shops on board.

I’m a magnet fan too. I use them to pin up paperwork, excursion tickets, disembark info etc. We are on Sirena in October but in an oceanview cabin. I’m hoping the wallpaper will be thinner in a lower grade cabin, ha ha!

I am cruising in October with 6 free excursions. Does this mean a price of N/A under the unlimited column is one that I can book for free? We have never had this perk before but have already had a couple of cruises on Riviera. Thanks for any clarity.

Thank you Vertygo, We have 3 cruises coming up this year. We get cruise catalogues and emails every day and are very easily persuaded to travel now that Covid seems to be calming down. Memories of holidays and trips are magical. I keep a holiday diary so we can re read our experiences too. Bless you.

Thanks for the advice. Like you we were great travelers before Covid. We have dozens of photo books plus albums when we used to print our holiday snaps. I’m taking each day as it comes, so far only minor changes, such as rearranging my kitchen after he puts the dishes away in the wrong place and repeating our daily calendar of events multiple times.

I am very grateful for finding this thread. Thank you Josie, for starting this up. My husband has early dementia now. We cruised in May this year. I put fridge magnets on our cabin door to make it identifiable. That was great till 2 of them were pinched! I did get them back after going to the purser. That was on a Cunard ship. Hubby has very fragmented memories of our trip, but when I remind him he can recall events. Today we booked a 10 day cruise on Sirena in October this year. He said we should pack in as much as we can while his brain is still functioning. I know he will need to write down our cabin number, but he should be able to find his way “home” if he has been to an event on his own. Josie, I hope your cruise has been a success.

Take print outs of all your documents! we were boarding in New York a couple of months ago on QM2. They asked for “Covid card”. In U.K. we don’t have them, but I had print outs of every jab plus booster as well as Covid test results. They were fine with that.

Brilliant. He will be delighted with that. Thanks for your help.

Thanks 0106, I think the lido opening hours will keep him well fed! Are there “sprinkles” to go with the ice cream? He is a very tall, slender lad and a week of ice cream indulgence won’t do him any harm. I think his parents are hoping the cruise will be a money saving exercise because they won’t be feeding him that week!

We will be boarding Zuiderdam next month with our daughter, her husband and grandchildren. It is their first cruise. We have told our grandson he can eat 24/7. He is 11 years old and ready for the challenge! He asked us about ice cream flavours the other day. He wants to make a mega flavour ice ream sundae. Will that be possible? Thanks for any help.

Thanks, bottle sizing is strange here. Wine is in 750ml bottles. Spirits in 700 ml or litre bottles. Milk comes in pints or litres!! But I think we will probably buy a couple of bottles of spirits on board. They may do offers with deals on 2 bottle purchase. They did that on QM2 but we weren’t tempted at that time. Thanks for your report, it really got us excited for our cruise. Safe journey home.

Well, I don’t think ours would get to the packing stage! Our daughter lives in Vancouver so we would buy it to leave it there. Im not sure how big a fifth is? It sounds small!

Thanks for the super fast response. Drambuie is a big fave for my husband, he loves a Rusty Nail. Our most recent cruise was on QM2 and we thought prices in their duty free shop weren’t very competitive compared to our U.K. supermarkets. Thanks again

We will be on Zuiderdam in about 4 weeks. Your report is getting us right in the mood! Thanks for taking the time to do this and for including pics. One little question. Is there a duty free shop on board? We are travelling with our daughter and her family and it would be nice to pick up a couple of bottles of spirits to enjoy when we get back to Vancouver.

Which part of the plane are you flying in? If you are near the front and have a lay flat bed then you will have had a good sleep on board so driving home would be fine. We have had flights from west coast USA to U.K. where we have flown business and driven home, which is a 4 hour drive. Other times, flying standard class, arriving home in darkness, plus not being in our home time zone we have booked a cheap hotel room so we can crash out before we wake early then drive home. 11pm Florida, will be 4am Barcelona time, I think. Would you want to drive at that time of day normally?

Thanks for reviewing, it’s great to follow along. I will be on Zuiderdam next month and we will be a 3 generation group. First time for daughter and her family so we booked them a Neptune suite. Can you let me know how much dressing up happens for “dressy” night. My husband is wondering if he needs to pack his tuxedo. I say no, it’s Alaska and more casual, but he will have a “dressy” jacket and trousers with him. My dressy clothes take up a lot less room in the luggage! Thanks for any info.

I can’t tell you anything about paperwork, but I do know that in Iceland you can use your credit card for virtually any purchase. Tap and go is easy there. In Greenland you will find having Danish kroner useful.

Yeah, I saw that. unfortunately our cruise in October goes from Piraeus and they still want a negative test prior to boarding! Maybe by then they will have changed their minds? 🤞

We used Medicspot. The Zoom call had me and my husband both on camera at the same time, but the woman observing us was also watching at least another 4 people at the same time as us. We could hear her talking to them and giving instructions. We swabbed our noses, wiggled the swab in the epindorph tube then put the drops on the test strip. We then started a 15 minute timer. After 15 mins we took a photo of the test strip and emailed it to them. After about 10 mins we had an email from them with the “fit to fly” certificate attached. The certificate is “signed” by a doctor, but we never saw her/him. To be honest, it was a lot more relaxed than I had expected! I had been fretting about it for days, if not weeks before. It was fairly easy and I will definitely go with Medicspot for my next test, probably in August this year.

These ones are just dreamy! We don’t get terrific sunsets at this time of year here. Lovely to get a different view from around the world. I’m trying to attach a day lily from my garden now. I know it’s not a sunset, but the colours fit.

When we did our tests on Zoom the certificate we got was “signed” by a doctor. But we never saw him, just had the process observed by a minion who was observing at least 6 other people at the same time. Hubby and I did them together, didn’t need to log on separately one after the other.

These are gorgeous! Where do I need to be to get pics like these? Thanks for posting.

Your hotel in NY may have a limo you can hire for the transfer to the cruise. No idea what that would cost. Maybe you could email the hotel and ask? The cruise line might offer a transfer to the airport with a tour of NY before the flight. I know you can get a trip like this in Miami. Have a look at the trips offered now for departure day.