bookbabe

Squawkman has explained it well. As an example, our March 2024 cruise is 35 nights, which should have an essentially non-refundable $1000pp deposit. It’s much easier to walk away from $25pp if things go sideways again.

However, if you already have another Viking cruise on the books, the pay in full date can be set to six months out. We booked a March 2024 cruise using the offer, final payment due September 2023, total deposit $50 Cdn. We are pretty happy with the offer. We don’t use cruise airfare, so the free/cheap flights offer that’s more common is no no interest at all to us.

Azova has a few Europe options that they will teleproctor, plus lots of Canadian ones in addition to the US tests. https://www.azova.com/travelvideo/

No idea, but I’d assume so. Most cruise lines accept whatever test is authorized in your home country. They’d definitely work to get back into Canada, though.

We’ve used our iPads with Azova without any issues. Not sure about other companies

ArriveCan can also be submitted on their website, and then they email you a receipt which you could print out (or you could print out the screen showing the receipt when you submit if you don’t have email) and take that printout along for embarkation. https://www.canada.ca/en/border-services-agency/services/arrivecan.html

We’ve combined that route with the Iconic Mediterranean Treasures, ending up with a 35 day Istanbul to Bergen in the spring of 2024. Running it as a test to see if, as the PPs have mentioned, we can stand that long in the same cabin/ship in hopes of doing a WC at some point. The 35 day will be our longest yet, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

The charge you see on NCL’s website is per cabana, not per guest. It’s technically assigned to Guest 1, but you can have as many people in it as the stated capacity allows, all for that same price. (So only put ONE cabana in your cart, under whoever is guest 1 so you can use the excursion discount.)

I think there’s a group on a certain popular social media site, FB. I think I remember seeing posts mentioning selling them there. Maybe ask in one of the NCL groups over on that site, and I’m sure someone could point you in the right direction.

We used our Ontario freebie “green box” tests with Azova proctoring from our hotel room in Seattle for boarding our NCL cruise in May, no problems at all. You can book far ahead or at shorter notice, and it was really easy. https://www.azova.com/travelvideo/

@molymoo OT question, but have you ever been to Toronto, Canada? I know a person with your username as her nickname, and I was just curious. Either way, glad your cruise started off on a high note, and hope it continues the same!

I blame this thread for the fact that we just booked Istanbul to Barcelona for 2024. Doing one of the Antiquities options has always been on the “someday” list, but this thread moved “someday” to “soon” and we just couldn’t wait. (It’s my PCC’s fault that we’re following that one with Barcelona to Bergen on the same ship and in the same cabin, though. He’s an enabler, and having one $25pp deposit cover the combined journey was too good to pass up.)

If you can’t get Walgreens, try Azova. They’ll teleproctor either your free govt tests or home ones you’ve bought at a pharmacy. https://www.azova.com/travelvideo/

Docked at Puerto Plata on December 28, at the new cruiseline-supported Taino Bay port area, with Norwegian Encore. I've seen lots of questions but very few answers, so I'll post this here and then post a link in all the different threads so I only have to upload pics the once. If anyone else visits, please feel free to tag on with your comments or pics, and we can make this a good info thread for future cruisers. A variety of shops with a mix of the usual tourist trinkets and crafts, plus a duty free and the obligatory Diamonds International, a couple bars that also seemed to have food, a nice pool area, all in a bubble for cruise passengers. Beach area is just for sitting, you can't actually swim in the ocean, or at least hubby couldn't find a spot where it wasn't blocked off for entry. Best part for us was Monkey Island, which isn’t an island, but it’s a big enclosure where you can pay $25pp to go hang out for half an hour while monkeys climb all over you. Very fun. You can buy tickets for that at the tour desk as you enter the complex, or right at the attraction.