CurlerRob

Always your choice and I recognize your earlier statement that "I’d rather sit in a hotel room of whatever quality and salvage something from our lost vacation", but if you were ever unfortunate enough to have to make the decision, you will want to ensure you know in advance what kind of shoreside quarantine you are entering into. I recall reports of several very different quarantine experiences from shortly after the reopening - ranging from private villa accommodation (may have been in Malta?) to utterly abysmal hostel stays (SA, I think). Hopefully never needed, but keep it in mind ... 🍺🥌

We were originally on this trip, now deferred to 2023. I booked the Bergen-Oslo with Rail Ninja (1st class), who advised that they would ticket 90 days before the trip. An email to vy.no resulted in my being advised that I could alter my tickets (we wanted forward-facing) if needed, by using the vy.no site once we had our tickets from Rail Ninja (still with me?). There was no senior discount that I saw on Rail Ninja, but I'll add it to my list of things I will be trying to change once we are ticketed in 2023. (PS - Rail Ninja was very slick when I asked to modify my booking - I lost the service charge, but that was clearly stated up front). All this to say that you may want to open a query with vy.no and ask how you might get the senior discount if you book with Rail Ninja. Best of luck! 🍺🥌

Used to be French Onion Soup, Caesar Salad, chicken, salmon and steak as "always available" - but in looking at the posted meus referenced earlier, it appears the (small) steak is no more, although you can pay extra for a larger one.

Star is about 600m from the Town Hall, Jupiter about 1000m - or roughly 1/3 mile and 2/3 mile respectively. Can't help with the shuttle question though - Clay's thought on the Roll Call may help. 🍺🥌

The differences are more likely a function of the various countries and their requirements. (I presume your river cruise doesn't start in Bergen 😁). 🍺🥌

The cruise line responsibility is likely dependent on who you are sailing with, and the rapidly evolving policies. Recently, a number of the Carnival lines stopped providing disembarkation tests, requiring pax to arrange tests for themselves if required to fly home. (This was not well received by surprised pax). One of the prevailing themes is the thought that if the cruise line does not test you prior to disembarkation, then you are not their problem if you test positive once on shore. In that case, it's over to you to deal with flights / xfers / hotels. Cruising ... not for the faint of heart right now. 🍺🥌

Thanks for this info. It's perfectly reasonable to have pax call for results. I was overly influenced by eel's mention of "pushback" in acquiring his results - that would not be acceptable. Not deviating from a rule is always simpler for a provider - it eliminated the need for analysis or decision-making on the part of staff. (Of course, strict rule adherence also avoids inconsistency in policy application and reduces liability due to errors ... it's not black and white). My real point was that if I saw a person with a positive PCR test on day 'x', followed by multiple negative tests on succeeding days, I'd be highly suspicious of the validity of the positive. PCR tests are generally sensitive enough that they shouldn't turn negative overnight in an infected person. In this particular case, I simply found it unfortunate that there didn't appear to be any room for professional medical judgement. That said, we all know the policies and the risks, so it's up to us. 🍺🥌

Squawkman and Andy - I agree with all of your points about process, risk and lack of liability, but I'm troubled by two items raised by eel: In my opinion, daily test results for quarantined pax should be provided to them automatically. They should not have to request them after the fact - they are our health records. Keeping a patient fully informed about their medical condition is mandatory good medicine. The circumstances described by eel do raise the question of whether the on board physician should have some professional discretion, especially around the "90-day" timing. There's no magic to the 90-day window, it's simply a point in time chosen by the CDC. Other countries' health institutions have different recovery "windows" and quarantine times. While it may be simpler for the cruise lines to avoid exceptions, I'm sympathetic to the difference that one day made in this case. 🍺🥌

I echo Andy on this - and the smoked salmon sandwiches in the adjacent restaurant are completely worth the "tourist" price! 🍺🥌