Hamwen3839

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Have not been able to have this confirmed on any other cruise page but I suspected the Exemption Certificate  was accepted everywhere because I could not find any comments to the contrary.

It is the same with Visa requirements for West Africa for Australians .Nigh on impossible to get a straight answer from my cruise company and have had to trawl through many other cruise critic sites to finally be comfortable with what I think is required.

Could I ask if this cruise is finished did anyone with a Yellow Fever Exemption letter have any problems at any port? We are doing same cruise later this year.

We have researched this question in depth as we are doing the reverse cruise Barcelona to Capetown in November. As the previous person says it is quite confusing and different requirements exist for US and Australian citizens. What we do know is that you will definitely require a Visa for Ghana but the ship can get that for you at cost.

As for all the other countries you may visit on west African coast it seems they are getting their act together and if you are only  there for a day AND only doing a ship excursion you might be considered as either being in transit or covered by the ship’s blanket Visa. If you are doing your own excursions that could be different.

We are now satisfied in going knowing we have  the Ghana Visa under control and any other issues that surface will be dealt with by the ship.( ours is Regent Seven Seas).

The only other issue you need to concern yourself with is the Yellow Fever vaccination requirement or an exemption letter if you don’t have the vaccine.

Don’t be put off by the Visa or Yellow Fever questions, it will be an amazing trip and these issues can be sorted.

This exact situation happened to us in March when two ports in NZ were cancelled due to weather so 2 excursions needed to be refunded. We were also given “ goodwill” non refundable shipboard credit as well. I asked two staff members at Client Services which was used first, refundable or non refundable and was given two different answers. The more junior Officer got it wrong after I checked with Manager .

Non Refundable is used first. However to be sure I got them to confirm that on my final account in writing before we left the ship and I finally got a refund 6 weeks later through HKSB after completing some paperwork.

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

From a good friend currently aboard Resilient Lady, there is no blanket requirement for a yellow fever jab. So far they have called in Durban & Port Elizabeth (medivac), with next port being Cape Town. These are coastal day visits, not days in the African jungle.

 

This could vary based on itinerary, but a void of information about vaccination requirements would suggest there are no entry requirements for it on cruise itineraries. It is a bit like advice here that requires a malaria vaccination to visit some of the Pacific Islands, yet are not a significant risk for day visiting cruise ship passengers.

 

All the same, check the fine print on your travel insurance. Also worth reading through roll calls for ships that are currently on this route:

QM2, Queen Victoria, Zuiderdam. It wasn't required for Island Princess passengers a few weeks back.

Thank you for going to the trouble of asking your friend. I could not find any mention of YF vaccinations or Exemptions on the other cruises you mentioned.

I was hoping to find just one Aussie who had RECENTLY done this cruise for up to date information.

However it seems to me that Exemptions are ok BUT it is up to each country whether they accept that . Worst case seems to be you would have to stay on board for that port.

I will wait for closer to sailing to try and get Regents most up to date advice.

Thanks everyone for your input.

That is correct. Wanting recent experiences of people going to countries on west coast of Africa and if they were ok for entry with a proper medical exemption for YF rather than a vaccination certificate.Were they even asked for anything when visiting from a cruise ship for a day.

I am OK with re entry to Australia.

I have looked into requirement for returning to Australia and advice is that even if you do not have a Vaccination Certificate and have been to countries which have yellow fever,you will be allowed in and need to monitor symptoms . You do not have to be quarantined.

Apparently medical advice is that YF vaccination is not recommended for over 60’s ( risk out weighs slight chance of actually getting YF).

Cruising down West Coast of Africa is relatively new and am hoping to find Aussies who have done it recently and what their experience was as to acceptance of the Exemption letter for counties in West African region.

Not so worried about returning to Australia  , 

Question about recent experience  of need for Yellow Fever vaccination OR Exemption letter. We are cruising November 2024 West Coast of Africa ending in Capetown .Advice is conflicting but some countries say they require proof of YF vaccination OR Exemption letter .Due to our age apparently Vaccination is not recommended.

Wondering what procedure was for anyone who has recently done similar cruise .

Further to this thread , we were told on the ship we would receive a cheque and some people here have confirmed that. However today we received an email from HKSB Refunds dept in the UK ? Saying they will be processing our refund and we need to provide a registration number. We do not have this. The email appears genuine, it has the exact amount we are due and have doubled tapped on heading and it seems correct. However we cannot progress this without a registration number.

wondering if anyone recently has received a cheque refund OR contact from HKSB ?

Thank you, that seems to be the opinion I am getting from many . Luckily our local DR ‘s surgery is a Yellow Fever clinic as well so we can get the exemption easily.

Thanks Dave, yes we finally just got confirmation from Regent that we WILL be covered by a blanket Visa as we are going on ship excursions exclusively for all ports .We will however need a Visa for Ghana.The ship will arrange that Visa at cost to us. Such a relief to have that cleared up. Just need to confirm that an official Yellow Fever Exemption form will be accepted.

Thanks for your correct advice.

Thanks. Yes was hoping to hear from Australians who did your cruise to try and clarify Visa issues. I can’t believe we have to apply for so many, some seem to be e visas and some you can get on arrival but unclear if port applies or has to be at airport. !! 
 Can I also ask if you also heard anything about Yellow Fever Exemption Certificates  being Ok as we cannot get the vaccination but can get the exemption certificates .

really appreciate your help.

Can any Australian passengers help me ? We have paid a deposit for a similar cruise later in the year and now find we have to get Visas for Cape Verde, Ivory Coast ,Senegal,Ghana, São Tomé and Toga. Just wondering if any Aussies on this cruise found they had to do the same and if so was the process easy or did the ship do the Visas for you at your cost ?

Can I also ask if you had a Yellow Fever Exemption Certificate and has that worked ok ?
Thanks so much in advance.

Thanks for responding. It seems a bit different for Australians.For example Senegal do not require Visas from UK or USA passengers but definitely for Australians. What concerns me is that they say I have to send my actual passport to an Embassy( we don’t have one in Australia) and I don’t want to let it out of my control.Appears we need Visas for 6 ports i.e Cape Verde,Ivory Coast,Sao Tome, Senegal, Ghana and Togo.

Thanks for the reply. Will wait a few more weeks and try and get Regent to confirm.We thought we may also need one for Cape Verde but it isn’t clear at all.I suspect that as cruising here has gathered momentum it may lead to clearer advice.

With the new West African routes ( replacing Suez Canal options) does anyone know or have experience of Regent helping with Visas ? We are doing Barcelona to Capetown 6 November 2024  and we call at a number of countries on West coast of Africa into South Africa itself.The information on various Visa websites is confusing to say the least and seems to change depending on which site you go to.

I am specifically looking at requirements for Australians but really asking if Regent will help with Visas  On board, at my cost of course.

Thanks in advance.

We are doing a Barcelona to Capetown cruise 6 November 2024 on Voyager. We stop at a few African countries ( west Africa) , some do not require Visas but some do. We are Australian citizens and will ONLY be doing ship excursions.Regent site seems to indicate  we would be covered by the ship’s blanket visa if on ship tours but then goes on to say visas are the responsibility of the passenger. Quite confusing as we will only be in each port for less than 24 hrs.

Has anyone ,particularly Aussies done this cruise recently and could advise ?
countries we think need Visas are Cape Verde,Senegal,Ivory Coast,Ghana,

Thanks in advance .

Thanks everyone. I suspected it would not be a quick refund process especially as we are in Australia. It just seemed to me that if only one credit card was used to pay for all excursions it could simply be refunded to that card.No one would dispute payment.

Just returned from Majestic cruise to NZ where we missed the first two ports due to weather. We had booked two ship excursions pre cruise for those ports using credit card ( over $600). The money was shown on our final statement as a refundable credit but we were told onboard that it would not be refunded to our credit card but rather a cheque would be received “ in due course”.That cheque would come from “head office”.

This seemed unreasonable to me as we paid by credit card but now have to wait who knows how long to get refunded.

Anyone have experience with this arrangement and how long did it take to receive cheque?

We have been to Santorini 4 times , it was always such a magic place. Sadly we would not go again after our last experience. We too had no option offered other than cable car return, a wait of 90 minutes in the heat with numerous people just pushing in.There were 4 ships in that day so far too many people to move around the streets at all. There was another excursion on a boat to thermal waters which was a lovely few hours. I would go again to see the excavation sites but not into either tourist town.

4 hours ago, CoG72crewz said:

If anyone is looking for clarification on where to meet the bus in Venice, it is Tronchetto - NOT Piazzale Roma as some of the info from Azamara states. Several of us departing today had conflicting info from Azamara so I had guest services at our hotel call Trumpy Tours directly.  There are representatives at Tronchetto to check people off a list for transfers and then they load the bus.  We are on the bus and on our way to port! 😊

We found out from our taxi driver so we were ok but information was confusing and misleading. Glad you made it !!!

14 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

 

Thanks for posting. It would be really helpful if you could you let me have a few more details for the spreadsheet.

- date you got email offering the chance to bid

- minimum bid allowable & was your bid weak or strong (or in between)

- cruise date and area cruising

Thanks.

Really sorry, cannot find all that information now as we did not expect to get the upgrade. From memory the offer was made in June , the minimum bid was about $500 AUD  and maximum about $2500 AUD so our bid was considered weak. Cruise 17 August Greece Intensive.

Just got notification of our successful upgrade bid on our 9 day Journey cruise starting soon from P1 Veranda Plus to a Club Continent Suite. Bid EACH was $950 Australian (approx $677 US) . Not expecting to get it as bid was low in our opinion but very happy we did. First time Azamara cruisers so can see it will be a lovely cabin.

9 hours ago, medd83 said:

Does anyone know how it works with the Covid Test for the second part of a B2B cruise? Does one need to take one (especially when the second part starts in Athens)? Any experience with that?

Thanks,

Martin

We are on this cruise B2B  in August with Athens in the middle and have been advised we will “probably” have to provide a negative test ( the ship will do the test for free). However since Azamara dropped the need for any test pre boarding it was unclear. The requirement is a Greece thing not Azamara but not clear if it applies to people who are already on board and may not even get off in Athens to sightsee.