Benthayer Gonbak

The Antartica cruises seemingly triple for Azamara and the even smaller cruise ships are even higher! Of course if you start by celebrating Carnavale first then they all get higher!

I don’t need to fly to do a good portion of mine.

And sometimes the change is to better seats😇😂 There is even more chance of being moved if you are on the bulkhead that has bassinet hooks! And, those can happen really late.

Oh my goodness! We booked in 2019! At that time the Ivory Coast had not shutdown and stopped allowing transit passengers. The embassies weren’t refusing visitors or limiting the, and there was a belief that the cruise line would likely help with many of them. But that wouldn’t be known for a while. Since our cruise wasn’t the first one we were led to believe that those things would be long worked out from the previous sailings, or most as Azamara tries not to do identical cruises ports. So now that the cruise is back on, I think the ports may have changed, Azamara is saying they are trying to negotiate same day or waived visas hopefully by 90 days. There is no indication which ports are even being considered although they are telling TA which visa are required and omitting Ivory Coast in the list. We looked that one up early, and discovered their rules say we file online and pick up the rest of the final approval papers at the airport! Yep, that’ll be easy to do … not! S si ply put many of the directions don’t assume entry from the sea. And yes there are ports arid the world where entry by air and entry by sea are different. CIBT does know those rules but they are expensive but get the visas back in time and check applications so the embassy doesn’t reject them for silly things! if you want a separate challenge try to figure out whether you need a yellow fever jab or whether a waiver will suffice.

Yep, we forgot about the suspend for vacation, Thxs. The post office holds our mail for 30 days, but we have a rural office so they let us fill in 2 cards so we get 30 days plus 30 days. Our Rural mailboxes are too far apart for others to pick up mail for you. Before they closed the contractor post office they would hold it forever it seemed! Most of our time in Japan showed we were in Miami. But just after Taiwan, and maybe due to weather, we switched satellites to Hong Kong—- certainly not where I wanted to be wifi anyway!

We were due a FCC from a cruise in late 2019, it seemed to took quite a while to received. We had made reservations for 2021 so we had plenty of time for it to show up. I think it arrived before everyone got laid off! .

Don't give up yet. I know a TA that decided business was too expensive from Florida to Cape Town so she booked Premium but on Emirates to get even nicer sets. Of course she has to go through Dubai. also consider a consolidator through a travel agent some of those flights can be locked in lower prices.

Be careful with those 1 hour 20-50 minute connections through CDG. If anything goes wrong you aren’t likely to make it. We started late out of JFK, waiting for luggage, and didn’t make up the time. Then security wanted to count the straws in my suitcase, yes the literally handled most of them! I still don’t know what he was looking for but he was alone and holding up everyone behind me. He wasn’t interested in the large lithium batteries hubby carried through. you must go through security again when you change from international to domestic (Europe). As for making overseas reservations from the US I’ve always gotten the message that it can’t be done online and to call instead.

The advantage to booking with Azamara can be cancellations as well as dealing with late flights etc. if you can find a non stop or a direct flight they should be able to price it for you. Last time I used Royal they directly asked me if I had a specific flight in mind, I did. When I’d booked Azamara years back but they had trouble with mixed cabin flights out of Dublin.. They beat the TA consolidator’s quote. The drive from Venice to Ravenna port is boring scenery but in May ours had no real traffic.

Azamara has had 220v outlets on the two ships I’ve been on! They are the deep 2 prong European type. We use both 110 and 220 outlets for charging multiple items. The only problem I had was in one cabin the plug near the large mirror was only 220 but their hairdryer was 110! I got them to bring me a mirror, not great but it solved the problem. I suspect that problem has been remedied.

We are in Lisbon late November and that sounds like a good plan! I was on a cruise where we did a passenger driven wine tasting event. It turned out nicely.

Most of the times washington Dulles does have agents at the entrances! It’s nice to see that elsewhere. I’m one of those that cannot checkin on line! I give them all the info, before which helps but I’m stuck with a ticket agent. For what it is worth in Rome we were about 3rd in line and it took me 45 minutes at the business check in desk! Fortunately there were plenty more. The problem was a new agent that didn’t know how to handle larger lithium batteries. She called several times because the questions she ended to answer were stupid! Finally, they sent someone to help her but there were still a few bumps. At the gate they wanted me to take the case of my iPad! Yes, they checked carry ons again! Things were pretty smooth, but we didn’t have time for the lounge.

i understood it as one must persevere, not an insult. I associate it with others phrases like growing old is not for sissies!

That insurance time lags is really a pain when it’s a mobility device, like a walker, that’s lost!

there was a time when Azamara brought on local wines for the complimentary wines. Some were good, others s not so much.

Thats interesting. In Japan I had a Tile on the key to my mobility scooter. Loading it into the taxi it fell out without anyone noticing. I was able to locate it with an iPod and Japan being who they are, it was there when we called. It was outside the main entrance of a museum and I feared it would be taken to the police lost and found. Yes, there are stories of iPhones left on trains being returned to their owners!

As many times as we’ve carried lithium batteries through security I never really thought about that the limit was on rechargeable for checked bags. Thanks.

i think CDG is modeled after it! I’ve done both with escorts and they are still too complicated.

Interesting, Azamara used to be more than Celebrity minutes.

Nice, thanks.

In Cozumel ferry we were giving a choice to opt out. Shore had a gallon bad full of sea sick pills and the crew gave us blue bags. Only one on the gangway at a time! And I’m pretty sure we weren’t at 10 meters. We did those type numbers on the Azamara Quest! Crew was sick and so was the CD. glad you made your trip.

We had a tree come down at a rental property. The tenant got it blue tarped and notified us. I also had relatives in the area. The tree was a huge lake and only some branches hit the roof, destroyed some of the side siding and put a medium branch embed in the ground, it looked like a small tree. What was amazing was it was close to the water line but missed. Of course it took out the above ground electric, phone, and cable wires for the neighbors across the street and totally block the road, fortunately dead end. we’ve now sold all the rental properties! Whew.

We did 60 days and did online banking as most bills were not consistent, and hubby won’t let anyone pull funds where he can’t review first. However, you can only pay Dish satellite service from a US ip! When the internet folks couldn’t explain the rejection I told hubby to try my iPad, which I had installed a free vpn on, it worked! We also had to prepay our oil bill ahead of time, they were happy with just a guess which was low. They only take cash and checks, and leave the bill on the door! i know others that prepaid things like Amex but they were only gone for one cycle. We tried it once with another card and it was a bit more clumsy.

In Venice we paid 20 cents per call. We just needed to coordinate with the guide and other 2 on the tour. I can’t remember taking my phone out of airplane mode though. i did get the pop up like Jim showed, it even listed the name of the local carrier. It gave us other costs too.

That’s disappointing for sure. Many have also manage to file with credit cards as non delivery of services but often the airline has drug the issue out so long that that doesn’t work either. since many are still cancelling flights it would seem the issue you describe remains and is tangentially relevant here! As for the increased cost just Wow.