YVRBassElectric

On 6/25/2021 at 6:33 PM, RumRunner2021 said:

 

@Gracelyn  I must have missed that you are from Canada and it appears that your government may be restricting you from taking any cruises, even if they sail from the US or elsewhere.  Is that the case?

Canadian government is asking all Canadians to avoid non-essential travel

Ask people who got stuck in UK at Christmas when all flights were cancelled or who have been stuck in India since flights were cancelled in April 2021

My travel medical insurance expired in April 2020 & the insurance company told me I could not get medical insurance while an advisory is in place -  so we are not traveling outside of Canada until advisories are lifted.

For cancellation insurance, aren't NCL deposits refundable? (advisories should be lifted before final payment date)

Just checked last Bliss sailing disembarks in Seattle on Oct 23, doesn't start again until LA on Nov 7 - might be an interesting partial Panama or 2 short Pacific Coastal/Mexico or time to get Joy crew back?

Thanks for pointing this out, you have peaked my interest

Another note - I wanted to go on an Alaska cruise for our honeymoon in 2000 & no cruises were running that late, this year they are running to Oct 23! I'm cold just thinking about it 

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Those of us who took the FCC can now still just get a cash refund if we want. It would have been NUTS for me to turn down 150% FCC when I had every intention of sailing NCL for years to come way back in March of 2020.

we were scheduled on he Joy in DOS in April of 2020, when it was canceled I looked to book a Haven AFT (same cruise April 2021) and the 125% FCC didn't cover the cost, so I took a refund. 

4 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

We will likely lose the $690 FCC before we've had time to try many (any?) other lines. That specific FCC was set to expire in Dec. 2020 but they extended it to Dec. 2021, since we didn't have the opportunity to use it. If we don't use it this year, I doubt they would extend it again.

extending it would be my first demand of my PCC! As far as I'm concerned expiry dates should be extended for the amount of time COVID shut down cruising. We have 8 CN that expire Sept 2022, how they are handled by NCL will weigh in on my decision to cruise again

can you Cash out, sell your CruiseNext/CruiseFirst, try another line (or 3) before giving up the $690 of FCC and moving on from NCL altogether?

NCL corp office has irritated me in the past (nothing like this cr*p with the Joy) but I haven't found another line that I like the onboard experience as much as NCL

5 minutes ago, AdoraBelle said:

Who do you blame in all the other countries, i.e., almost all of them, that also put cruising on hold? 

at least Canada gave lots of warning cruising wouldn't happen this year

34 minutes ago, mianmike said:

 

What's interesting is the Victoria stop was originally going to be from 2pm - 9pm , I now see before they dropped Victoria all together they had changed and shortened the Victoria stop to 2pm-5pm.  Three hours is too short to do anything which infers to me they were looking at doing a technical stop in Victoria.  Interesting

2019 our stop in Victoria was 3 hours, some sailings the stop was 9pm to midnight, so not actually a technical stop but not time to do much other than walk to town & grab a beer

22 minutes ago, MamaMia2 said:

 

With the Canadian ban on cruise ships, does that mean that the train can go into Canada since it is not a "cruise ship" and there is no port in Yukon Territory? Just thinking "out loud".

Canadian border is open only for Canadians, permanent residents & a few essential exceptions - I don't expect it to open fully until COVID is controlled worldwide 

I don't think USA will want to open the border until 75% of Canadians are fully vaccinated - might happen before Aug 7

we stayed in the Seattle Marriott Waterfront, as we could  walk to the port, with our luggage

The Waterfront on the Bliss wasn't busy for our Alaska cruise, if you dress warmly it is beautiful (but about 60 degrees)

Bring a rain jacket

excursions were very expensive (in 2018 & 2019) it was amazing to take the helicopter onto the Glacier

I've sailed B2B at several USA ports. I would highly recommend that you DO NOT stay on the ship. USA customs must confirm the ship is empty, this has taken from 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hours (in Miami that meant outside in the blazing sun, in LA inside the stuffy port both without chairs)

21 hours ago, troyphoto said:

 

 

Others have suggested balconies, but I find the railing cuts right across where my line of vision falls. So I don't get the horizon. Just a steel and wooden bar. And, I'm a writer, so cafe table with chair is best. Need to keep the word count up each day.

The Waterfront restaurants have table & chairs available before dinner service is set up (at least until 3pm in my experience). Usually very quiet as no food service is available in the area before dinner. The bar has more comfortable seating closer to the bar

3 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

Very interesting, I also have found butlers hit or miss. This is excellent information.  The best Butler’s by rating could be getting the more expensive suites.  My last butler was in a Spa Suite and was ok, not great.  Thank you

We sail mostly H6 & have had good to great service (we never eat in-suite & are pretty low maintenance) but Getaway was disappointing!  We hit 2 storms, missed Azores, I was in bed sea sick, celebrating my Birthday & Butler didn't even call. We scheduled Oceania after that trip but hubby hated it. (medically I wasn't able to travel, so won't get to try Oceania)

Butler's do make a huge difference in the trip (something I wouldn't have believed before sailing the Haven)

we sailed the Bliss H2 in April 2019 (our 4th on the Bliss from April 2018)

The largest difference was the attention of the Butler and the room steward - they made themselves available and looked for ways to assist. They were much more obvious in the attention, without being obnoxious. Our 7 month old GD got lots of attention from Butler, crew & officers!

I sailed the Getaway in Oct 2019 in H6 and the Butler didn't recognize me at the "disembarkation meeting" on a 19 day cruise - was certainly different from the Bliss 

Hubby has already commented about missing the ocean view from the bathroom (we've sailed H6 several times) 

Originally booked HA because I thought that was going to be equivalent to H6 - no separate bedroom/master, doesn't look like there is a couch

5 hours ago, graphicguy said:

The most likely stop would be in Vancouver (a city I dearly love).  I believe Vancouver would LOVE the tourist revenue from a cruise ships porting there, again.

 

While not Alaska, same would apply to sailing from NYC or Boston to the east coast of Canada.  

 

I live in BC and no large gathering will be allowed this summer (expectation we will be over 80% fully vaccinated by Sept).

Our Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, has already said her orders will not be changing to allow international travel or large gatherings - therefore no cruising in 2021

Nova Scotia is currently dealing with their worst COVID outbreak and Canadians are not allowed to enter for non-essential reasons (work, moving) & must quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. Definitely not allowing cruise ships this summer 

8 minutes ago, Pat.D said:

I work for large Fire Dept and we don't really have "travel restrictions" in place for the simple reason all leave and vacation time has been cancelled under the Emergency Measures act.  All stations are full staffed until the state of emergency is lifted.

 

Many measures were put in place to protect us and the public we serve.  Vacation time cancelled, our rotation was modified, all 68 stations are isolated from each other (so no sending personnel from one station to another) to limit breakouts to single stations, full station disinfection protocol at the start of every shift, required to stay home and get tested if you or someone in your house have ANY flu or cold like symptoms (with no loss of pay) and when this started in March all vacationners (like me) returning to Canada had to undergo a 14 days Quarantine (with no loss of pay).

 

Up to now it seems to have worked well as we've only had around 30 cases (out of 2400 firefighters and 300 chiefs, dispatchers, management and clerical workers)

 

 

so nice to hear good news out of Quebec - thanks for sharing! 

if you are interested in railways or the gold rush - a stop in Skagway for the Whitepass railway is interesting. We really enjoyed the helicopter trip onto the Glacier in Juneau

We have done the Alaska trip 3 times - 14 days (2 - 7 day B2B) from Vancouver was our favourite, we were in port long enough to explore the scenery 

The 2 round trips from Seattle were more about the ships than Alaska, the port times were very short. 

My April 19 cruise was cancelled on March 30, I received an email from NCL quoting my reservation number, I saw a post on FB and several threads on CC all confirming the cancellation

On April 3, I received an email stating the amount of FCC (125%), split equally between passengers (cruise was paid for on one credit card)

On April 13, I was able to request a refund for the cancelled cruise and expect to see to see it in July. My credit card company considers 90 days to be reasonable in these extraordinary circumstances - no charge back allowed until then.

I requested a refund of the deposit I paid for a Sept 2020 cruise, on March 24, received that April 28

I personally wouldn't make final payment 120 days in advance of a cruise when they aren't sailing & Ports are closed

2 hours ago, K_e_short said:

If it is an Alaskan cruise that has a Canadian port you should be paying attention to how Canada is reopening.

 

Canada is being way more cautious and I doubt that by September B.C. will be open for business. If the port isn't open the cruise will be cancelled.

 

I was on the Jewel last year and it left Vancouver.

 

Now if you are leaving from Seattle just ignore my rant 🙂

BC is being EXTREMELY cautious, summer events including our Fair in August are already canceled and the Provincial Health Officer has said the limit of 50 people gathering will stay in place for months. My bet is if our Ports open before there is a vaccine, it will be against her advice & I will be very surprised

Just now, tallnthensome said:

All things considered I would expect (hope) in the next 5 business days. Did you get an emailed cancellation invoice? 

yes, I followed up with PCC when my April cruise was cancelled and he confirmed it will be 90 days for each refund. Unfortunately my CC company considers 90 days to be reasonable in these extraordinary circumstances .

I am grateful that I can stay safely at home & my vacation fund will be replenished before we are able to travel - lots of other people have worse things to worry about.

2 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

 

Were you inside or outside of the 120 day cutoff for your cruise(s)? 

outside - deposit paid for Sept cruise, final payment was due May 24

I requested refunds of deposits paid on Mar 3 & 24 (cruise not canceled) haven't received either

2 hours ago, the_thunderbird said:

 

I agree with that, but come about mid-March we knew what was up... And many lines continued as per normal a week past that. Several articles outline the events quite well. For Canadians we got the don't sail guidance March 11th. 

In BC our Health Minister said he wouldn't cruise on Mar 7 & I think that helped stop our cases from getting out of control, Spring Break was a week later and lots of people didn't travel

2 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

Here in Ontario way behind everywhere else it seems. Every time there’s a glimmer of hope that our cases are declining, we get a huge jump. And the outbreaks in care homes show no signs of ending 

We were starting to see glimmers - now outbreaks in Acute care & chicken processing plants.

LTC getting out of control in Ontario & Quebec pisses me off - BC's first case of community spread was in LTC & I expected other Provinces to learn & get on top of it!