lstone19

Email address doesn't work.

It's correct but you need to remove all the spaces. Most of us post email addresses in some obfuscated way to make it more difficult for automated spam address harvesters.

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It does look as though Princess is, once again, stepping up to the plate and offering a pretty generous compensation package for the passengers that are onboard. But am still curious if everyone does have to disembark shortly after they reach Honolulu or if passengers will have the choice to stay onboard or even stay in Hawaii for the remainder of their vacation. Has anyone onboard been notified if this is an option??

I suspect they will have to use the ship as a hotel until they can fly most of the passengers out. Just as finding plane seats for 3000+ passengers is a challenge, so is finding hotel space for that many.

I was in the jumpseat on that flight! ETOPs at its finest.

Yeehootu, if you would, email me at l a r r y @ s t o n e j o n g l e u x . com

I am extremely surprised they are heading to Honolulu and not Hilo. From their present position as I write this, Hilo is 110nm closer than Honolulu. At 11 knots, that makes Hilo 10 hours closer (to see this, go to http://gcmap.com/ and enter 22.99245N 149.489W-HNL; 22.99245N 149.489W-ITO for the paths to be mapped - that will use the airports rather than marine ports but close enough at that distance).

As an airplane pilot, I am well aware of the concept of going to the "nearest suitable" when required. Years ago, an airline had a plane lose an engine three hours south of Hawaii. Being south, Hilo was the closest with Kona just a few miles further and Honolulu 150 miles farther. They went to Kona due to Hilo having terrain considerations that made it less suitable than Kona; Honolulu was never considered even though it would have been more convenient once on the ground as it made no sense to pass up a suitable airport and risk flying another 20 minutes just for convenience once on the ground.

You misunderstood the promotion. It was not they would upgrade you from what you booked but rather that upgraded cabins were available for the price of the lowest in the category (e.g. Your BE for the same price as a BF).

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I believe the Connoisseur tours are only 16 people. You can book now without any financial commitment beyond a refundable deposit so why wait. We had a specific date in mind for 2018 (the cruise tour will be in the middle of a six week trip we're planning) so wasted no time and had arranged things with my TA in advance. They had it booked within 10 minutes of it opening for sale.

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It's not unusual for one physical post office to serve multiple zip codes. And it was going to a P.O. box so delivery is likely to be in the same building. And a box that gets more than an average amount of mail - I very much doubt it's a typical post office box - more likely due to volume it's a large bin that is picked up several times a day by the Passport office.

But, I'm confused. In the original you said it arrived in Philadelphia over a week ago. But in the last post, you said 11/28. If the latter is correct, it was way too soon to worry.

EDIT: Upon further review, it appears 19190 may be a special zip code that exclusively serves the Passport Office. So all normal concepts of mail delivery do not apply.

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The State Department Passport website has a "check status" link. Have you tried that?

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I had never heard of the PVSA and can only surmise that if a federal law, in effect, prohibits cruise passengers from innocently skipping a U.S. port, it needs some serious amending.

That's not the purpose but it is a result of the law. The purpose of it is to protect U.S. shipping interests by requiring that only U.S. flagged ships are used in domestic "coastwise" voyages. While you may look at it as skipping part of your cruise, the law says you're making two voyages, one of which is domestic and restricted.

Similar laws apply to airlines. For instance, I can't fly Air Canada from LAX to NYC even if via Toronto.

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How wouldn't this be contrary to the PSVA.

 

 

 

I must be dense.

How would what be contrary to the PVSA? Unless you were responding to a post other than the one just before yours, the poster was suggesting a post-cruise visit. The PVSA, of course, does not regulate what you do before or after a cruise.

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The PVSA doesn't care (or look at) the fact that the overall cruise is roundtrip, they only look at where a passenger gets on and gets off. By getting off the ship mid-cruise that's considered "debarking" the ship. Even if you plan to reboard.

Yep. The PVSA does not care how the cruise line markets the voyage - only where YOU embark and where YOU disembark. That's why certain B2B cruises are not allowed (e.g. Los Angeles-Vancouver B2B with Vancouver-Seattle is not allowed because it becomes an illegal Los Angeles-Seattle voyage). As others have posted, what you want to do turns it into two illegal cruises: New York-Boston and Newport-New York.

On both of our Regal cruises this year, 10pm shows still had seats (although off to the side) at starting time.

A couple of other notes: Despite the personalizer saying late TD seating was 8:15pm, it was 8:00pm on both cruises.

Show times varied on our Baltic cruise in June. Some nights 8:00 and 10:15 (so easy to make from late TD); others 7:15 and 9:00 (late TD diners would go to the show before dinner; early TD diners after dinner). Regardless, they are generally timed to fit with the traditional dining times (exception being the first night welcome aboard show which was a single show at 9:00 on both cruises).

On our cruise late month, they were all 8:00 and 10:00 other than the first night.

Correct me if I am wrong but my understanding is that

 

GE is for immigration -verifying citizenship, fingerprints, etc.

 

MobilePP is for customs - listing all those 'real deals' and souvenirs you bought while you were out of the US.

 

While both are handled by the same officer upon entry, my impression is that the two items will complement each other rather than being either/or.

 

Am I on the wrong track?

Yes, you are on the wrong track. GE handles both*. I assume Mobile Passport does as well. When you answer the questions on the GE kiosk, the first are Immigration related; the last are Customs related.

Also, they are not necessarily handled by the same officer. At most airports, you first go through Immigration with one officer, then claim bags (or walk through if you have no checked bags, then go through Customs with a second officer. With GE, the kiosk is before Immigration but you then take the form it printed with you through both.

* Mostly OT but after getting GE and the demo of how to use it, the first place I used it was Guam. Guam, as a U.S. territory rather than a state, has its own Customs separate from U.S. Customs so GE at the airport there is only used for the Immigration piece (it's still U.S. Immigration there). So of course, my experience was completely different from the demo and it still required regular Customs processing.

Did not know there was a cruise director till 14 days in.

I've been trying to figure out just what the poster means by this. I'm thinking the poster thinks the CD's responsibilities are different than they really are and is responsible for all aspects of the cruise. OP, in case you don't know, the CD is in charge of entertainment and has no official responsibility for the hotel part of the ship (cabins and restaurants).

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I have Patters from a Regal Baltic cruise from June as well as Patters from Regal's Canada five-day a month ago at http://www.stonejongleux.com/

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I think that the 4/29 itinerary would be OK because of the Victoria stop. But the 5/5 would appear to be a clear violation. But the PVSA is not as simple as many of us would believe, so you need to call the cruise line and get the definitive ruling. The post that says you cannot start at a US Port and end at another US Port is incorrect. You can do this as long as the itinerary satisfies the "distant foreign port" requriement (we think that Victoria meets this test).

The 4/29 cruise, on its own, is OK not because of Victoria (which is not a "distant foreign port" - see my post above) but because it ends in CANADA. Vancouver, being in Canada and not in the U.S., makes it an international journey and therefore not limited by the PVSA. Likewise, 5/5 on its own is legal because it goes from Canada to the U.S.

But the PVSA cares only about where a passenger and embarks and disembarks and does not care about how the cruise line markets it. So doing them B2B is not legal because it's Los Angeles (U.S.) to Seattle (a different U.S. Port) without a "distant foreign port" being visited.

U.S. port to same U.S. port requires visiting any foreign port. U.S. port to different U.S. port requires visiting a distant foreign port. U.S. port to foreign port or v.v. is always OK.

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I'm not sure if the stop in Oregon makes Vancouver distant enough to stay aboard the Ruby.

"Distant enough" is not how it works. "Distant foreign ports" are defined by the PVSA to be ports on other continents. Another North American port is never a "distant foreign port" no matter how far it is from the U.S. ports on the itinerary.

In practice, any port Panama and north is not distant nor are any Caribbean islands except the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) which are specifically defined as distant (I guess since they're just off the South American coast, they're get treated as South America). Greenland is considered distant which is how the specialty Alaska to East Coast via the Northwest Passage cruises meet the requirement.

It's a dead app. No longer needed and just directed you to the internal website.

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I'm looking for OB6 as well to line into what should be Corals's 7/11/18 SB cruise. We should know in a couple of weeks.

So, it's PB6 for 2018 rather than OB6 but same tour and it will line into the Coral's 7/11/18 cruise so on 12/1, I will be on the phone with my TA.

I'm also watching for the 2018 cruise tours to open up, and am hoping that the Coral will be offered on some of the Southbound Connoisseur Escorted Tours in 2018 that were not available in 2017 :D.

 

 

 

I really want tour OB6 which does two nights Fairbanks, 2 nights Denali and 2 nights McKinley. In 2017 this tour was only available on the Star and Island, so hopefully for 2018 the Coral will offer it!

I'm looking for OB6 as well to line into what should be Corals's 7/11/18 SB cruise. We should know in a couple of weeks.

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There is an online TA site (there was an indirect reference to it in another topic) that is showing schedules although not bookable yet (of course). They have Coral, Island, Star, and Golden doing the one ways with the first NB of the season as follows (you can extrapolate from there for the dates for the rest of the season): Coral - Wed 5/9/18, Star - Sat 5/12, Island - Wed 5/16, and Golden - Sat 5/19. But that site is not showing cruisetours yet which is my interest for that season.

If you're going to be doing things in Copenhagen (museums, etc.), look into the Copenhagen Card. It includes the local trains and buses and can be purchased at the airport. It's about a five minute walk from the main train station (Koebenhavn H) to the Scandic and easy to do with wheeled luggage.

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Can someone please tell me where the entrance to the center stairs is located on cabin decks

 

 

 

Thanks

Unlike the front and aft stairs where the elevator and stairs lobbies are shared, the center stairs have their own lobby just aft of the center elevator lobby.

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Just seems to be 11/12/17 that is cancelled. Since the website makes it look like the ship is sitting idle for a week, I wonder if it's a full ship charter.

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No later than 8:00 a.m. that gives you 2 to 3 hours to get to Heathrow (yes, it can take that long) and a couple of hours checking luggage, going through customs, etc. Be prepared to do a lot of walking! On my last flight from London to the U.S., my gate was a 45 minute walk from the security gate....:mad: it may not be the case for you but....

You do not go through Customs departing a country. And there is no longer Passport Control departing the U.K. It's just like departing the U.S. - check-in, security, gate.

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