Heidi13

With respect to weather, a crystal ball is about as effective as any other resource you can find. The time of year will be helpful in providing an educated guess.

Negative. While I never worked FoC, only UK & Canadian Flag, our son has and still works on FoC mega yachts. He is paid in US $ or Euro, depending on his contract. and his salary is paid into his account of preference. Where the account resides has no bearing on his tax liabilities. For taxation purposes, he selects his country of residency. Since UK is much more favourable for seafarers, he is an official resident of UK, having dual citizenship.

An excellent question. In our younger days, we survived very well with an inside cabin, but like you, after our first balcony, we were hooked. Have since completed numerous balcony cabin cruises, including 2 World Cruises. We certainly have the means to book suites and/or balconies, but I also have a heritage to uphold, that requires value for money. DW is unable to cruise, so for the next cruise, I am going solo. I don't have any motion issues, so don't need to focus on midship's and lower deck cabins, so started from scratch with cabin selection. On our last WC, we were upgraded to a 1,350 sq ft suite for the last 3 weeks. Way too much space, since I spent many months with 3 cadets in about 80 sq ft. The balcony cabin across the alleyway from where I booked was $292/day more expensive, and being a predominantly chilly cruise, I didn't consider that as value for money. Could I afford a suite/balcony - yes, do I see value for this cruise - no. Don't also see value with the OV, so ended up booking an inside cabin. Long haul flights are a different matter, having spent way too many hours flying economy back in my younger days. These days, anything 4 hrs of more is First or Business.

Every drydocking is a separate project and each project is different based on the scope of work, schedule and what tasks are on the critical path. With respect to the crew, they are continuously employed performing ship's maintenance and since it is unlikely they will bring additional crew for the TA, I wouldn't expect any increase in the work performed by the crew. However, they may bring owner's contractors onboard to commence refurbishment prior to the docking. Most of the deck covering refurbishment is completed by contractors. In all my years at sea with numerous drydocks and managing a shipyard, yes, I have seen work start prior to the docking, but I have seen more instances where the work continued after the docking.

Sorry misunderstood. On the Island/Coral, the bow area/focsle, which is probably Dk 8 is a crew only recreation area. I don't recall the fwd area of Deck 9 being open to pax, but on Deck 10 and 11, which are the 2 decks below the Bridge, the fwd areas are open to pax. Not continuously, but normally for arrivals, departure, scenic cruising, etc. The area is well protected by bulkheads, so in most conditions is safe to use.

None of the Princess ships, at least from my days working for and cruising with them had pax on the bow, as this was a crew space on many ships.

If it was liability concerns it would never be open, or only open when within clearly stated parameters of ship's speed, wind speed, sea state, rain, etc.

Totally agree with you Hank. In addition to the bow/focstle, the ones I am thinking off at the fwd end of the pax decks don't even have any machinery, just great spaces for fwd views.

Yes, a draw on Tuesday with a victory in the "friendly" would make for a great day. Unfortunately, we probably won't get the Scotland v England match over here.

Impaired driving has been an indictable offense in Canada well before 2018. From memory, Bill C-46 introduced driving under the influence of drugs, just prior to the legalisation of pot. It also made the penalties for impaired driving harsher and gave police officers more tools. When it comes to determining eligibility to enter Canada, I believe the relevant Act is the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Section 36.

Thanks, I just moved a booking to a 22-day S/America on Oosterdam. Back in my Princess days, I really enjoyed those fwd decks on Island/Coral. BTW - another great result in Cyprus today, watched the match live over here.

The Master or Officers aren't advised of any decision by Border Services. While I haven't personally dealt with this specific issue, if deported, I expect the pax will be escorted off the ship by Canada Border Services. In Vancouver, I suspect they could be taken to any of our land border crossings, or YVR. If deportation is not warranted, based on risk assessment, the pax will be requested to head directly to YVR and depart Canada. The ship will only be advised the pax is free to proceed ashore.

I am well aware of the major UK travel agencies, having used them a number of times. While I may now live in Canada, I'm also a Brit. While I don't dispute that they book more flights than Viking in any given year, my issue is with the statement they book more than 12x Viking in a year. As with all promotional material, it pays to read the disclaimers in the fine print. We also won't book with Viking at present, but that doesn't negatively impact the previous exceptional service we received. I certainly don't agree that Viking provide TA type services, at least not any TA I would employ. Viking Air provides pax flights, as they must also provide thousands of crew flights, which is a requirement of the Flag State Shipping Acts. Yes, they also provide some highly over-priced pre/post excursions (hotels), but those are hardly commensurate with what a TA provides. With respect to purchasing power, your TA is based in UK, so I suspect the vast majority of their business originates in UK, and the destinations are predominantly tourist type destinations. Viking have to service both pax and crew requirements. While your TA has a single major market, for pax, Viking have 4 major markets, specifically US, UK, Australia & NZ. Once you add crew flights, their major markets more than double and they also have numerous secondary markets. So, yes, your TA has huge buying power, but it is nearly all from UK, whereas, Viking has major markets in multiple countries, plus numerous secondary markets. Even if Viking purchased the same number of flights as your TA, since they operate worldwide, they have less impact in specific local markets. When booking any cruise line air, you need to be aware of the inherent limitations and remember that cruise line air services were originally to service crew requirements.

The conviction makes the pax inadmissible to Canada, so you are at the discretion of the Border Agent who reviews the ship's manifest, once it is sent after departing the final US port. Similar options are possible, as for arriving in Victoria - no action taken, or the ship is requested to hold pax onboard for an interview. If an interview is requested, your situation is again at the discretion of the Border Agent, who has the option of permitting you to leave for the airport and exit Canada, or since you illegally entered Canada, you could be detained and deported.

I will be very surprised if that is accurate, as in addition to pax, the cruise line is also purchasing flights for all crew members, including those on the river ships. With almost 100 ships, that is a lot of flights, since virtually every crew member flies to/from the ship, as the days of joining in your own country are long gone.

The Oosterdam deck plans show outer deck spaces at the fwd end of decks 5, 6 and 7. The P&S alleyways appear to have doors directly to these areas on decks 5 & 6. On deck 7, the fwd interior spaces are greyed out, which I assume is for bridge officer cabins/offices. Do pax have access to any of these fwd spaces on deck 5, 6 or 7.

The specific details are a closely guarded secret and the cruise lines does not want pax knowing the finer details. Even on board the ship, how it works is not widely known. Prior to leaving cruise ships, our son was S/2/O, which is a Senior Bridge Watchkeeping Officer and he was not privy to the policy or details, such as exactly who was included, how much they received, etc. Another factor to consider is that with all policies & procedures, they change over time.

You have way too many variables to provide a definitive answer, not the least of which include - balcony location, ship's course and speed, wind speed and direction, ship design, etc. To put it in perspective, if the ship is steaming at 20 kts in a 40 kt wind, the relative wind speed could be anywhere from 20 to 60 kts. A ship steaming at 20 kts in a 20 kt wind can have a relative wind speed of 0 kts to 40 kts. Another consideration, if the wind is on the opposite beam from your balcony, you have virtually no wind on the balcony. To determine the wind speed over the ship's deck or balconies, you need to calculate the relative wind speed, which is a factor of wind speed/direction and ship's speed/course. Simple math problem. Once you know the relative wind, you need to compare that to the balcony location, then factor in aspects of the ship's design. Been at sea too many years and we only use knots.

American Samoa (Pago Pago) - alongside berth is available Tahiti (Papete) - multiple alongside berths available Moorea - tender Bora Bora - tender Fiji - Suva is alongside, all other ports in Fiji that I have visited were tender ports, mind you some were 45 yrs ago, so might have changed.

Affirmative, have sailed both directions many times. Whether you see the Rock and the quality of the viewing will depend on which direction your are sailing and the visibility. If departing the Meddy, ships sail on the Stbd, or north side of the channel. You are normally a couple of miles offshore, so most days have a view of the shore and the Rock. Sailing into the Meddy, you are also on the Stbd side of the channel, which is the south, or African side. On a clear day, you can see the Rock, at a distance of about 6 miles. In my experience, they have many hazy days, especially when it is hot. Only experienced a few really clear transits.

I'll suggest that conducting phone interviews is OK for an initial inquiry to create a short list, but it is certainly not my preferred method for conducting interviews, especially when potentially hiring a vendor, or service provider. When I get into more depth in the interview process, my preference is a face to face meeting, as I want to have the entire communication available, not just the spoken words. When I conducted final interviews to find a TA, I met with them, initially outlining our plans in the short/medium term, so the TA knew we were genuine potential customers, and they were competing for our business. If you just phoned various TA's and started asking questions, then more in depth questions, you may wish to reconsider your interview techniques. If you are looking for a full service TA, I suggest expending the effort to go and meet them, as the relationship with a TA is more than technical help, it also needs to be a good personal fit. BTW - As with any hiring or purchase, the first step is knowing what you want, so I suggest developing a list of your expectations from a TA, listing them as must have and nice to have.

Our TA had us confirmed early seating, so perhaps you need to check alternative TA's.

The cruise ship cabins are all modular units that are fully constructed offsite and then installed onboard. They all have bulkheads comprising sheet metal, most of which is ferromagnetic. Whether you cabin bulkheads will hold magnets may depend on location and the strength of your magnets. Cabins adjacent to a transverse fire bulkhead will have better success due to the proximity of the thicker steel bulkhead. In addition to magnets, we also bring 3M Command strips.

Depends on the person and more importantly if you have them located properly. It can be trial and error to find the right spot. DW has used them for years and they work well for her.

Affirmative, hydro pools are normally between 90 - 96 F, while a hot tub can be up to 104 F. When younger, we kept our hot tub at 104 F, but these days prefer it a little cooler, keeping it at 99/100 F during the summer and 101/102 F in the winter.