Isklaar

I hope that you love Norway, I'm so looking forward to reading all about your cruise.

Lovely photos SLSD. That looks like perfect sightseeing weather. I hope that you have a fabulous cruise. Have you visited Norway previously?

Re Howdy Doody party - you beat me to it! Have a great cruise Markham, I look forward to hearing more about your experience on Venture when you have time to post.

Seabourn using the word Retreat on both O and E class ships is silly. On the O class ships the area is not at all the same as the Retreat on Emcore and Ovation,

Good to see you again rols, you were one of the missing regulars I had mentioned in my post upthread.

I remember it too, hard to believe it was almost seven years ago though! I must mention I noticed several posters who were regulars back then had posted on the 'Punctured' thread. I haven't seen them at CC for a long while.

I am in the UK and our deposit here is generally non refundable regardless of how much was paid. In this case as I said earlier, I would try to transfer if it were feasible, but SB can refuse that and refuse any refund of deposit.

I believe at this stage the deposit will be lost. Could you claim on your insurance - depends on the reason for cancellation of course. Something to consider if it's feasible for you is to ask if you could transfer to a different cruise instead. They may agree to it. Or may not.

If you can do a board search someone posted a multiple USB C that they were using onboard quite recently. I thought I had the thread bookmarked but I don't. If you can't find the post, comment here again and I'll check for it on a different device. Also useful to know is that there are fewer US outlets in the suite than EU.

On Quest the outlets are EU, US and USB.

Good point about Japan as it's been a requirement there for at least the twenty years since my first visit to carry the actual passport at all times, not a copy. I've never visited Japan by ship but in hotels sometimes the front desk staff will remind you to have it with you when you leave the hotel. I have never had any concerns about carrying it during my visits to Japan. In SA however I have always carried a copy since a visit in the mid 1990s when my office booked me into a hotel in Johannesburg CBD. The area had entered a decline recently and front desk staff told me to avoid leaving the hotel alone. So now we're told that a copy is not acceptable and the passport itself must be carried. Good news for the criminals. I'm not sure what measures tourists and other visitors can take given this new information.

But that was entirely my point as to why I mentioned a cruise in 2014. I couldn't recall the insistence for passports taken ashore back then. In this post you've clarified the difference between then and now. If there had been a big table at the gangway manned by passport dispensers I would have remembered it. So I wonder when the change was made. JMO but it's a concern given that the UK and US official advice is in conflict with Seabourn procedures.

😂

Exactly. I tend to be rather compliant when given official rules but in this case, because I've visited SA previously, based on experience I would not have taken my passport ashore. I really do feel for those guests affected by this horrible incident.

48 hours looking at coal?

U.S State Department also advises citizens to carry a copy of their passport and to keep the original in a 'secure location'. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/south-africa-travel-advisory.html We were on Sojourn holiday cruise Cape Town to Cape Town back in 2014. I can't recall if we were advised to take our passports ashore but having experience of SA previously I would not have taken mine off the ship.

Dover port has been operating normally during the late afternoon today but there were problems this morning. Tomorrow and Saturday will be busier than today for the Easter break, so will have an opportunity to see how well the new measures they have in place are actually working.

Rick Meadows

We had the previous guy to the previous guy onboard for several days on Quest several years ago. I can't remember his name. Anyway Mr L's summary describes well what I observed!

Good plan. Dover isn't a nice town, although the castle is very impressive.

I'm convinced that the breadsticks recipe changed sometime around 2013. I found them rather addictive when we first sailed Seabourn. Then suddenly one cruise they just weren't so good and have never been since.

😱

Indeed. Had many childhood vacations in the Lofoten islands.

Pleased to read the Norway love. Kind of makes up for the beets and kale hate 😂

We had a poor experience on Odyssey several years years ago. I let rip on the post-cruise questionnaire. The lack of response from Seabourn infuriated me to the extent that I wrote them an actual letter. They responded to the letter kindly explaining that they don't actually reply to the questionnaires! Clearly they still don't.