new_cruiser

Maderia is high on my list too. The gardens are beautiful. The people are friendly. We didn't have any Portuguese speakers, but came upon a tiny wine bar where we had pre-dinner wine and snacks. The other patrons seemed be regulars who knew each other. We asked for dinner recommendations and one of them called in a reservation for us. I'd like to go back for a week and explore more of the island.

Not sure where you and your Dad live. If you wanted a passport, there is an urgent passport process that can ge a passport within 14 days of travel. The applicant has to travel to a US passport office in person to do it, so difficulty/expense depends on how close one is to an office. One needs to pay the fee to expedite the passport ($60). It requires an appointment. Appointments seem pretty available if one is calling 13 days before travel, but hard to get if travel date is nearer. One can avoid the in person visit by paying an expediter but that adds lots of cost. Just putting the option out there for you. Not trying to pressure you to go one way or another at this difficult time.

The Kaiser Permanente brochure on International Travel says they cover emergency care world wide. When I was on jury duty in the juror selection for a medical malpractice suit, jurors were asked who their provider was and more than half said Kaiser - so it seems that, at least in my area, many (most?) people have emergency medical coverage out of country. I had surgery and hospitalization for a compound fracture in Thailand. Submitted the receipt to Kaiser and they reimbursed everything but the hospital copay I would have had to pay if they treated it.

I have a dietary issue with some alliums. It was handled similar to your experience with Celebrity - choosing appetizer(s) and entree the night before so they could adapt them. (I didn't pre-select dessert because my food issue doesn't appear in desserts.)

We booked a 9 June cruise a bit over a month ahead. Initially, I booked an ocean view guarantee. Then, 6 May, the balcony guarantee went down to about $200 pp more than my OV fare. It took me too long to decide and the balcony guarantee was gone when I tried. So then I started checking every day or two. On 23 May, the balcony guarantee was back at an even lower price - just over $100 more pp than my OV. I jumped on it. In between, there were times when balcony cabins showed as sold out. There must be some fluctuation in cabin availability due to Royal up bids being accepted and people upgrading outright. But also, sometimes there were cabins available but no guarantee rate and then the rate would come back. You might as well watch the cruise to see if the guarantee comes back. That is probably true for booking a specific cabin because that cabin either is or isn't booked already. But offering a guarantee room is a marketing decision. There were times on my cruise when there were balcony cabins available but no balcony guarantee offered. The same applied to ocean view guarantee. Guarantee cabin availability can come and go depending on how much Royal wants to push selling those cabins. In my case, this was happening within 30 days of sailing when there is no refund for cancellation.

I was worried about MTD but it worked out fine. The first night 7:30 was the earliest available (we wanted earlier). Also, we hated tge table we got - an eight seat oval for the six of us too close to the next table so we were spread out on one side and the two ends. After the meal, I told the reservation person the issue and were booked in a six seater at 6:30 for the rest of the cruise. That worked fine for us.

Yes, Radiance of the Seas, debarked yesterday.

I have a less common food sensitivity and they were very good about it. Each night the head waiter would bring the menu for me to choose for the next night. They were always willing to make what I needed. It worked out better with some dishes than others. E.g. sometimes n es they would just leave the topping off and the dish would be kind of dull. Other times, they would improvise an alternative topping and it would be good. Some in our party were vegetarian and one of the children was disappointed to see a meat lasagna on the menu with no vegetarian version. The head waiter said he would check on what they could do. The next night, there was a very nice vegetarian lasagna for all in our party who wanted it. For what it's worth, I found the food to be lightly salted.

We did a trip some years ago where we flew into Victoria (YYJ). We took a helicopter to Vancouver to board our cruise. The helicopters and float planes land right in Victoria and downtown Vancouver very near the cruise terminal. The downside for some would be that both have baggage weight limits. For Helijet, it is two pieces per person totalling no more than 50 lbs. For the float planes it was way less unless you paid a lot extra. 50 pounds worked for what we usually travel with. We were also told that the helicopter fleet has better instrumentation so they can fly in low visibility weather where the float planes have to cancel flights. I don't know if that is still the case.

Two people in our party have tested positive for COVID. Two more may have it. Our cruise ends in Vancouver on Friday. They have hotel reservations for two nights and a flight back to the US on Sunday. How is Canada/Vancouver currently handling people who arrive with COVID? I'm currently fine. Because I'm over 70, I had another booster a couple of weeks ago so I'm hoping to stay that way.

A passport card is valid for a cruise like that. We used our passport cards to board a Vancouver to Seward cruise some years ago. We had our passport books with us because we had flown into Vancouver but passport cards were new to us and I wanted to see if it worked. Yes, I hope they get wait times down to more normal soon.

No one knows. Permanent is a long time.

Was the repositioning from one US port to another or ending in Canada or Mexico where one might come back to the US by land (e.g. by car or train) or sea? In that case, a Passport Card would be fine. You can't use one for crossing the border by air but for land or sea crossings from Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Bermuda, it is a passport. Calling within 14 days of travel is to get an in-person passport appointment. Note, within 14 means travel needs to be less than 14 days away. So if you call, for example, on the 1st to leave on the 15th they will tell you to call back tomorrow. That's what happened when I called. I didn't get any pushback when I called the next day. They gave me an appointment at the nearest passport office for two days before my departure. People who have called closer to departure have in some cases not being able to get an appointment or only having one available at an office far away.

None of those reasons seems to fit needing a passport to travel with while your main passport is being renewed.

Renew with the urgent process. To do that yourself, call for an in person appointment when within 14 days of departing on a trip (i.e. call on the 1st if departing on the 14th). You will either pick the passport up later on the day of the appointment or have to come in the next day. If you don't want to go in person, you can pay an expeditor to do it for you. Or wait for now and hope renewal times will go down before you need to renew.

And I saw bear 🐻 cubs by Steep Creek at Mendenhall Glacier in August. Also saw bears on a trip in May on meadows in Kenai and Misty Fjords. Seeing bears isn't unlikely but It's hit or miss. Whale sightings on a whale watch are nearly 100% sure. Seeing a bear is more chancy.

I've often heard this, but never have seen the claim accompanied by a scientific research paper. My own broken 2 broken bone injuries in my 60's healed no slower than the one I had in middle age. Indeed, no slower than my children's childhood breaks.

Her circumstances may vary, but in my late 60s, I broke my arm in Thailand - complex fracture so surgery and a 3-day hospital stay was needed. With doctor's okay, I flew back home to California right from the hospital. So.e years before. I broke my leg ankle a couple of days before a business trip and was able to fly to the meeting. My leg did swell a bit in the flight but that was just a couple of days after the injury. Perhaps a leg surgery changes the issues but it seems hopeful that 4 weeks after it will be okay with the Dr.

I understand completely. Most of my cruises are on a small ship line, Windstar, where everything seems much simpler. Nothing to reserve ahead unless there's a particularly special excursion. All non-alcoholic beverages included and we don't drink enough for the alcohol beverage plan to be worth it. I'm going on this ship to be with family but I'm a bit nervous about it after reading the comments here about the food especially since I have some foods I have to avoid. BTW, the price drop I got was about 16 days before my cruise.

You don't mention when the cruise is. If it's more than a few weeks away, you could continue to watch the prices and call to request an upgrade if there is a price drop/sale. I'm on my way to an Alaska cruise now. I'd initially booked an ocean view guarantee. The balcony guarantee price dropped to about $200 pp but that was gone a couple of days later when I'd decided to go for it. Price was way up but I kept checking it and one day the price was down even lower so I called and they changed me to a balcony guarantee for an extra $120 pp. This is on a fairly full sailing after final payment. There were times when one class or another showed as sold out.

I sometimes like a Gin Rickey which is gin, lime juice and soda water served over ice with a lime garnish. Almost no bartenders today know what that is. I have to ask for gin, lime juice and soda water. Even ordering it that way, I had once where it was sweet and I sent it back being specific that it shouldn't have any simple syrup or other sweetener. What came back was still sweet - I suspect that they were using a sweetened lime mixer instead of plain lime juice. Many of the modern drinks are too sweet for my tastes. I sometimes like a mildly sweet drink with sour components like a margarita but I don't enjoy a very sweet drink.

However, questions do usually get helpful answers so if you have a question, post it.

I guess gloves may be less of an issue in August and perhaps also less important for the zodiac where you can put your hands in your pockets some of the time. I was on a kayak in May. Probably still nice to have in August if you hit a cool spell.

Either that deal has gone or the price isn't available booking from the USA. When I check their website, it shows $9438 for a solo port-to-port (i.e. just the cruise, no airfare, no transfers) and $7550 pp double occupancy. Your price is much better than the current per person double occupancy price in the US.

Sounds like it's time to call the passport agency to see what's going on. I was amazed how quickly my Global Entry card arrived. Especially since I'd received emails from them that my card was expiring which included: "Due to a significant increase in application volume, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is extending the grace period from 6 months to 1 year for any Trusted Traveler member who has a valid membership and who has submitted a renewal application. This means you will continue to receive full benefits for 1 year while U.S. Customs and Border Protection is finalizing your renewal application." That made it sound like renewal could take months or even a year. Mine came quite quickly like yours. On the other hand, when my husband renewed, he got a letter saying it was approved but that he would have to go in for an interview again to pick it up. We tried doing the interview on the way back from an international trip when we arrived in Dulles, but were told that that terminal didn't have it. In the end, he had to schedule an interview and drive to SFO for it. I've no idea whether needing to go in person to complete the renewal is a random thing or based on some criteria. My husband has a very common name so that might be a reason. I've renewed multiple times and never had to go in person. It would be great if passport renewal was more like Global Entry.