Stratheden

I hope you enjoy your visit to China.  It will be a very busy time I would imagine.

Just wondering if there are any COVID cases on board at the moment.

Diane thank you for your blog, I have enjoyed every minute of it.  You obviously take part in all the opportunities offered on the cruise and really enjoy yourself.  I cannot understand folk who pay a fortune to travel to all the exotic places offered and then look for American food.  They might as well save their money and stay home. 
Get well soon and I look forward to following your travels next year.  

How far can you walk?  It is level ground but depending on where the ship berths it could be a couple of kms.  Maybe a taxi to the station?

On 10/11/2023 at 1:38 AM, euro cruiser said:

I just got off the Noordam after my first cruise on this ship and I would avoid it, it's not up to HAL standards in my opinion.

I totally agree with you.  We have done 2 cruises on the Noordam and both were disasters.  It broke down in New Zealand and we missed 3 ports.  

Creme Brulee.

If you can't sleep without it, the need to have a prescription for spare parts seems to just make life difficult.  
It is not all that easy to travel by air carrying a CPAP machine and if you have to carry a bag of spare parts as well, well that's just ridiculous.

Fortunately, downunder we don't need a script for replacement parts, just the need to dash around to pick something up.

Thank you for your reports. It is very kind of you to take us along with you. I have enjoyed the ride.

On 3/27/2023 at 5:18 AM, Real NHDOC said:

We ordered a martini last night in billboard onboard. It was not during the 3pm happy hour but at a more civilized 5pm. $12.69 for one drink. Exactly what we had been paying for two on Rotterdam during happy hour at the same time of day. And it was half full to ad insult to injury.  So half the booze at twice the price! 
 

Seriously, we’ve been averaging 100-150 days a year aboard cruise ships and like to enjoy one cocktail a day. The difference does add up but it’s more the principle of it. Same cruise line, should have policies that are consistent between the ships, especially when the beverage manager on Rotterdam said it was a fleet-wide policy. But the beverage manager on this ship disagrees and says it’s up to the beverage manager’s discretion. So who is telling the truth?
 

 

Geez!  So all of this huge thread has been about 1 cocktail a day. 

On 4/12/2023 at 10:28 AM, sciencewonk said:

My CPAP works fine without water in the NSW summer but when I tried it on a cruise it didn't work well.  I think the AC dries out the rooms too much.  That said, everyone is different and it might be worth trying it without water.  You just need to make sure you turn off the humidity function.

I purchased a new fitting for my machine that fits in where the tank goes.  It makes the machine smaller and doesn't have a place for water.  It works really well.  We caravan a lot without power, only solar, so plug it into the 12 volt socket.  (We bought a new lead with cigarette plug).  Hardly uses any power because it doesn't heat.  

Have you tried using your CPAP without water when on holiday?  Makes a big difference not having to worry about sourcing distilled water.  I've not notice any difference when sleeping.

On 2/4/2023 at 11:47 AM, greensprout said:

Just booked a B2B on Niew Amsterdam, 19 Mar to 2 April.  While I have been able to book excursions and specialty dining for both legs, and have purchased the thermal spa access for the first 7 days, I cannot find a way online to continue the spa access for the second week.  I'd be happy to pay for it now.  

 

Any suggestions?

 

It is usually cheaper to pay on the first day of the cruise.  They often have a special offer - go to the Spa soon after you arrive.  On back to back I usually renew on the last day of the first cruise.

Have you heard about the terrible flooding in Auckland?  I believe you are scheduled to be there soon.  There may be a change of ports coming up as more heavy rain is forecast.

We have always caught URTI on the Noordam.  I don't think the aircon/ventilation system is really great.  
I certainly would not travel on the Noordam whilst the Covid cases are still so high.

On 11/25/2020 at 5:17 AM, iancal said:

Does anyone really think that countries like Australia or New Zealand are going to let boatloads of North Americans enter their country with no proof of covid vaccination?   My guess is that it will be a basic requirement just like a passport.  At least for a few years.  I doubt that anyone will take your word that you have had covid in the past and are thus protected.

 

And...if you do not wan to get the vaccine then select a vacation that does not require this certification.

International travellers on Qantas will be required to have Vaccine.  

I'm in Victoria Australia.  population 6 million.  We have just had our 20th consecutive day with zero new cases and zero deaths.  We have been through a very strict Stage 4 Lockdown which has thankfully worked.  We have just been allowed to rejoin the rest of Australia except Queensland who have their state locked down tight and are not accepting visitors drom many other states.  Just yesterday South Australia, our neighbouring state went into an even stricter lockdown as they have had a surge of cases starting with international hotel quarantine.  Only for 6 days though.  They are not even allowed our for exercise.  Only one member of the household is allowed out to buy essentials once a day.  The only shops open are food and pharmacy.  

Did not enjoy it at all.  Just a glorified TV show.

2 hours ago, iancal said:

I can well understand why the EU has banned visitors from the US.  The writing was on the wall three weeks ago when the numbers started to spike.

 

Canadians should be concerned as well now that some areas have lifted closures.  We are not immune to stupidity.

 

 Yesterday DW regaled me with some of the ridiculous covid conspiracy theories that she has read from some of her facebook  contacts.  I did not believe her at first, I though she was kidding.  Then I realized that she was dead serious.  I am still shaking my head.  They  went from there is no covid through to someone putting chips in vaccines to follow (?) people and a few more in between.   Very, very strange IMHO.

In Victoria, Australia we now have ten suburbs identified by postcode (zipcode) that are currently in lockdown as the state is currently having up to 70 new cases a day.  This has been caused mostly by returning Aussies who have been living overseas.  They are required to isolate for 14 days in hotels (at the gov't expense).  Our lax state gov't allowed private security firms to guard the hotel guests.  These guards, spoke no english, (probably spoke the language of the returning travellers),  Didn't understand about PPE, took the hotel guests shopping, slept with some of them etc.  We now have a judicial enquiry into what happened.  
 

Testing has increased all over Melbourne, the authorities are going house to house testing everyone in the locked down suburbs.  Over 10,000 people have refused to be tested.  The reason given for most of the refusals is that Covid19 is a conspiracy and not real. They can tell from genome sequencing that we have a super-spreader somewhere who is going from suburb to suburb.  We do hope they find this person soon. 
 

In the meantime Victorians are not really welcome In any other state and airports, train stations and roadblocks have been set up to check the postcodes of all interstate arrivals.  They have found two (with Covid) trying to enter other states.  One thought she had it, went and had  a test,  then got on a train to travel interstate prior to getting results.  Unbelievable.  

1 hour ago, fatcat04 said:

@StrathedenI can't speak out of direct knowledge about Massachusetts as I don't live there but here are some numbers. Their average age of Covid fatality is 81 and 98% of those that died had underlying health conditions. Of the 7963 deaths, 5023 (63%) were in nursing homes or long term care facilities. You will find those kinds of nursing home percentages in a few hard hit places and some even less densely populated places outside the Northeast. Nursing home deaths have been a huge issue in many places. I think they are now saying 25% of US deaths have been patients in long term care facilities and nursing homes. Really make me want to keep my very senior but active and feisty momma home as long as humanly possible.

 

My own home state of Tennessee as of today..

Population:  approx 7 million

Tests: 727,268

Positives: 44,202

Recovered: 25,280

Deaths: 567

Nursing Home deaths: 142 (25%)

 

Numbers for counties with 500,000+ population:

Co names and city/Cases/Positive tests/Negative tests/Recovered/Deaths

Shelby (Memphis)      8,643,  10,383,  113,047,  5,900,  175

Davidson (Nashville)   8,258,  9,767,  64,945 ,  5,597, 103

 

Death rate is presently at 1.3% of positives and .0081% of the general population of the state.

 

In my county Davidson, the average age of those who have died is 72, with an age range of 41-101, most with underlying health conditions.

 

Our local health department and our state give daily press conferences and send out all the new stats every single day. I have been tracking them for months. Our local health department releases heat maps that keep track of hot spots in our county and they have a very good contact tracing program.

 

We are having a surge here in certain parts of town. I am not surprised as things have been slowly opening up and we had anticipated a surge in cases. Most cases have been in the 20-40 age groups. We did have 10k plus folks march in protest in Nashville a couple weeks back and several days of protests that had at least 1000 participants so.. yeah maybe that might have also contributed to it to some degree. The mayor encouraged everyone who attended a protest to go get tested as testing is free and open to anyone. He attended one and he got tested.

 

 

I am sure that our state would have just as many aged care facilities as MA.  My SIL is in aged care.  They were all locked down and no one was allowed visitors. They have had no cases at all.   A couple of aged care places in another state became a hot spot - lack of covid hygene processes.  I believe about 19 residents died.   We have a similar situation in Australia.whereby our State Premiers are responsible for each state so we do have different regulations state by state.  They have regular what is called National Cabinet Meetings where the National and State officials discuss the situation.

Some states, Western Australia and Queensland have their borders closed and no one from any other state is allowed in except by special compensation.  They require 2 weeks  Isolation in a hotel before you can enter.  
 

I don't know what the overall plan for the way Covid was handled in the US but I am just doing a comparison between two areas with a similar population.  

I live in a state in Australia with a population of 6.3million.  We have had 1917 cases overall, with 20 deaths.  

We have just had some of our privileges taken back as we have had a spike in cases this past week.  We have had cases in the double figures.  A lot of the cases are from returning Australians who are in 2 weeks isolation in hotels.  They are from 3rd world countries.  There are also a few suburbs who have been asked to please stay home as they seem to be gathering in large family groups and ignoring the rules). We cannot have more than 5 visitors in our home at any one time.  (Our grand daughter's 13th birthday party on Sunday is being held in shifts of 5 people at a time.  My DIL will be serving lunch 3 or 4 times on Sunday)

I just checked with Massachusetts figures.  Similar population 6.7 million. Total confirmed cases 102,922.  Total deaths. 7776.   They have had more deaths today than we have had in total.

What is going on in the US that is so different from other first world countries. 

How often are filters either changed or cleaned on a cruise ship?

This is the current state of the Ruby Princess.  

 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/06/ruby-princess-cruise-ship-dock-port-kembla-nsw-10-days-doctors-manage-coronavirus-outbreak-australia

At the moment there is a criminal investigation i to the actions of NSW Health Dept and Carnival Corp/Princess cruises 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2020/04/05/coronavirus-australian-police-investigating-ruby-princess-docking/2950398001/

On 3/23/2020 at 5:22 AM, MMDown Under said:

Australia is a federation of States, with a Federal Government.  The WA Premier announced that all WC passengers on ships redeployed to Australia must transfer direct to the airport or stay on the ship until they had flights home.  This was for public safety in WA (his responsibility).  This was a wise decision because Australia has a number of infected people, off cruise ships, who were allowed to disembark in Sydney.  One infected couple off Ruby Princess is from NT.  NT has closed its borders to try to protect their high population of vulnerable aboriginals.  Another infected person off the Ruby Princess, returned to Tasmania, also locked down to protect their small population.  These are just a couple of examples to demonstrate the high price Australia is paying for allowing cruise ships to visit Australia to disembark passengers, after cruise ships were banned from visiting Australia.

The Federal Government (? border force) over ruled the WA Government.  

The Amsterdam had been in Australian waters for over 14 days prior to docking in Freemantle. 

DL6799 has been delayed.  Due to leave Sydney, NSW at 10.25 AEDST - no idea what time it will leave.  Current time is 9.50am AEDST

Thank you John and Diane for allowing us to travel with you on your cruise.  You are such a positive traveller.  Very much a glass half full person.

11 minutes ago, richwmn said:

today is International Earth Day

ms Eurodam    Pacific Ocean    Destination Puerto V    
ms Koningsdam    Atlantic Ocean    southwest of Montserrat heading southeast 
ms Nieuw Amsterdam    Laid Up    west of Great Stirru    Bahamas
ms Nieuw Statendam    Laid Up    west of Great Stirru    Bahamas
ms Oosterdam    at anchor    off Cabo San Lucas M    
ms Rotterdam    Parked    Puerto Vallarta MX    
ms Veendam    Laid Up    west of Great Stirru    Bahamas
ms Volendam    Fort Lauderdale        
Web Cam   https://www.ftlauderdalewebcam.com/
Web Cam   https://www.portevergladeswebcam.com/
ms Zaandam    with Pax Pacific Ocean    Service Call Valparaso, Chile   
ms Zuiderdam    Laid Up    west of Great Stirru    Bahamas

Eastern Hemisphere:
ms Amsterdam    with pax at sea    Indian Ocean    Feemantle
ms Maasdam    with pax at sea    Indian Ocean    Honolulu svc call
ms Noordam    at sea    Hauraki Sea east of    Auckland NZ
ms Westerdam    at sea    Pacific Ocean destin    Puerto Vallarta MX

 

Latest from HAL

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-20/wa-coronavirus-cases-jump-as-cruise-ship-lockdown-announced/12075846