ALD18

You're spot on Fouremco in regards to how to "manipulate" your time after the cruise.  Part of the problem is, so to speak, is I don't believe you can have test on actual disembark day, you have to have it the day before getting off and not sure how late in day you can have it done.  Suspect it would be earlier rather than later in day to get your result.  That brings the first 24 hours pretty much while you are either on or just getting off ship.  Second # is the actual departure of your flight.  Apparently Canada PCR test is actual 72 hours, not calendar day.  So if you get tested and results at 12:00 on final cruise day your first 24 hours would be at noon on disembark day.  Not much time to do much.  Then you would have 48 additional hours for plane departure time.  It would need to depart by noon on second day on land.  Take into consideration airport arrival time you would basically get 1 full day at arrival city.  You would have to juggle how long you need/want to stay and make sure those time work for you.  That or get a PCR test on the 1st or 2nd day on land to extend those 72 hours.  Kind of complicated, but nothing that one can't work out.

Check with your cruise line and see their protocols.  We are working with Norwegian and Royal C and they both have different protocols.  Norwegian does an actual test at the dock before you can board the ship.  Royal states you must have a test within 2 days of boarding, antigen is ok.  Both provide free PCR testing before you get off, but not on the day you arrive.  So if you disembark on Saturday, you get tested on Friday at the latest.  Both had PCR tests to appease Canadian requirements.  However, with Friday test it would put you on the 72 hour departure clock which screws up if you would like to stay an extra day in disembark location.  It also sounded like it PCR test actually went down to the wire, so if you got the test at 6:00 pm on Friday your flight had to depart by 6:00 Monday.  Anything after 6:00 invalidated test.  Timing on your arrival at Canadian airport did not matter, just the departure time.  If I understood them correctly and they have not changed already:)

We are investigating a cruise in May and at present the return PCR test is included.  Issue though is timing if we wish to stay another day in disembarkment location.  Sounds like final day to get tested on ship is the day before you get off.  Dependent on what time you get it done could affect how long you can stay after the cruise.  Friends have a all inclusive booked in Mexico soon and cost of PCR test is not included.  They have to fork over $180 per person for the test.  Antigen was marginally cheaper, but cheaper none the less.  My concern is if we stay longer in European city after cruise, will exceed the 72 hours interval, how much and where can we get a PCR test in Europe.  Not a major issue, but a concern timing and financially wise none the less.

With the opening of the land crossings do you suspect the Federal Government will slacken or eliminate the PCR tests to reenter?  Possibly back to faster/easier/cheaper anitgen or no testing because of double dosed travelers?  Just wondering out loud:)

If making phone calls is so important while sailing maybe look into a satellite phone.  Eliminate the whole internet connectivity, speed, and costing all together.  Not sure if you can use it as a wifi hotspot to hook your laptop/tablet for web acess   Satellite phones aren't cheap, but over the long run maybe a prudent purchase/investment if you sail a lot to meet your communication needs. 

Sad to here the utter disrespect they are ALL showing for the mask mandates.  I personally don't give a dam* if anyone is an antivaxxer or refuses to wear a mask for any reason in these times with the science and medical proof that emerges every day.  But I dearly wish they would respect the rights and personal space of those who do.  It's hard enough for us to be vigilant at all times without these clowns so freely ignoring the rules.   

Another vote for the tiered internet approach on the ship.  If you have a cruise booked already look at the fine print of the freebie packages.  It basically says you have the free entry level wifi and it/you can only do certain activities with it.  For example, don't think you could sit in cabin and stream netflix.  You could, but would have to upgrade to at least second tier.  We always utilize email and wait to use physical phone calls on roaming package in port or when close to shore. 

No, not yet😀  I always worry I'll drop just a passport.  Regardless, you're going to be passing around a bunch of papers or phones.  I've wondered if they could come up with some type of stamp for your actual passport.  Similar to the ones you get when you enter certain countries.  Make it a big, easy to read one, stamp your passport to confirm everything is good, and move on.  Only issue may be booster shot proof down the road.  But that would be too easy..................

I guess here in Ontario is would be mildly simpler with the new vaccination passport requirements.  How customs would handle it may get difficult.  You already need normal passport to enter.  Have correct paper copy of your second vaccination receipt.  They could confirm passport and vaccination paperwork match id wise.  Enough?  Maybe a third reference and have you hand over health card to cross reference last 4 digits of vaccine receipt.  Or, as some would have it tossing cell phones around with images and swiping all over the place.  May get complicated, but doable.  Then you drop them on the ground passing them about.  You would probably need extra staff to get those who do not have the proper items turned around and pointed back, traffic mess?  Oh the bother......................  

Cleared cookies for CC site only and good so far.  I was going in and clearing all cookies and history before so this is much better.  Logging in and out only did not help.  Hopefully admins will resolve soon.

To far from the buffet:)

Another vote for no.  Cases rising slowly, especially Alberta, so can't see anything changing anytime soon.  Trying to keep optimistic................someday:(

Agreed, was a little surprised on cost, but guess they have similar operating costs and customer services that need to be paid for.  Fuel and food jump out right.  Some  itineraries seemed pretty interesting, but will probably wait until next year as well.  Fall cruise with the leaf colors would be nice though. 

Not leaving Canada for foreseeable future and was looking at some of the small ship, multi day cruises on the Great Lakes and/or St. Lawrence river.  Anyone done any of these and if so did you enjoy it?  Some have interesting itineraries and are reasonably priced.  Some are stupid expensive with poor itineraries.  Thanks:)

I admire your courage and tenacity to go on the cruise.  You deserved it after all the red tape and stress to get all the bureaucracy taken care to travel in these times.  Sounds like it was worth it.  Cut some of the deadlines close, but you got away with it:)  Glad you had a good time regardless. 

8 minutes ago, nbsjcruiser said:

We had 3 cruises booked up until about a month ago. Two Caribbean for the fall have been cancelled and we cancelled our British Isles for Spring 2022. I suspect that the next time we're on a ship will be because we happened to be in Florida and decided to pick up a last minute. That way we can see if the precautions in place are appropriate, that there will not be PCR tests required and that our vaccine regimen will be acceptable. Until I can get those 3 caveats covered, we wont be cruising anytime soon. Our next "planned" cruise is February 2023 10 day Southern Caribbean. I'd say that surely things will be back to normal by then but then again, who thought they'd see the Yanks making such a mess out of their situation. I put nothing by them at this point.

Spot on!!!!  Our philosophy as well, mid 2022 at the earliest.  Only change would be to expand Yanks to Global community.  Everywhere is struggling to get things figured and straightened out.

We are not considering any type of sailing until late spring, at the earliest, of 2022.  The picture is continuously changing and only by baby steps.  I think by summer 2022 the dust will be pretty much settled or all the rules/guidelines internationally will be far more defined.  Right now anything until spring 2022 would cause me to much stress and work to confirm it is even going. 

If it was me brontravel I would be on the phone, for however long it took, to talk to your cruise rep or travel agent directly.  With the mass of email they are probably receiving who knows when you will get your response.  Have a chat with them and ask at that time for an email confirmation.  I've found this works way better that just email correspondence.  Sure hope you get it straightened out in time and can go on your trip.  Marginally envious:) 

Or does this all come around to the CDC's inconclusive/confused status of Canada's vaccination program?  As in other posts some cruise lines are saying Canadians are not welcome because of CDC guidelines, but other Canadians have documentation that our fully vaccinated travelers, including those that have AZ shots, are OK to travel as per CDC guidelines.  We of course with our "definition" of fully vaccinated are allowing US travelers.  BUT, they are fully vaccinated, with the same vaccine, and within the designated schedule designated by the CDC and pretty much every other global vaccine authority.  So technically why would we not let those people in, other than to continue stopping the spread of the Delta variant.  I believe in the next month or two the CDC will come out with some definitive, conclusive guidelines on their opinion of our vaccine deployment.  Hopefully the border will open and we all can go on our merry way.  But until that data is analyzed to their standards, rules and regulations, and confidence that Canada's program did it right, they have to keep it closed. 

News papers also now reporting US keeping door closed at border until at least September 21.  Keep waiting..............................

Interesting letter Ciren219.  Sounds like AZ has been authorized after all.  With the criteria in the letter sounds like everything should go.  Only other instance I could think of is restrictions on destination ports and their criteria.  Thanks for sharing the document.

I'm not surprised at all that this whole vaccination issue has us Canadians completely screwed over.  Our vaccine deployment did not follow any medical or pharmaceutical guidelines and now it coming back to bite us in the backside once again.  The AZ vaccine, to the best of my knowledge, never was and still has not be approved for usage by the CDC.  So anyone up here having 2 shots, but one is AZ are out of luck.  Those of us, myself included, who where fortunate enough to have had a double dose of Pfizer or Moderna have the looming issue that dose 2 was not administered within the 4-5 week guidelines that were approved by everyone.  I still worry greatly that something is going to spring up and negate one of those because of that 12-16 week delay in Canada.  However, with Pfizer announcing the 3rd jab recommendation we can take some solace in that.  But, with the federal election in full swing what delay is that going to cause as they squabble on the campaign trail and whomever wins has to start that up again.  Hopefully as more and more data is analyzed and things become clearer things start to calm down and get better soon.  Hopefully the proper type of dosages, timings, and deployment of the next phase of vaccinations can get things straightened out to allow us back on the high seas and whomever is governing deploys it right this time.  Regardless, I count my blessing each day we moved our cruise starting dates to January 2023.  Best of luck to everyone struggling with this issue.  Truly hope you are successful in getting things straightened out and you can go.  

Been fortunate to have the double Pfizer doses, but have been waiting for the time interval between shots to rear its head.  Hopefully as stated above that the continued research shows/proves that deployment strategy was valid.  If not hopefully the proposed Pfizer booster shot will be adopted by Canada and deployed in a prudent manner and is sufficient for all agencies to accept as fully vaccinated.  I'll snag the booster asap, but am a bit concerned on the Moderna research, that is what wife was double dosed with.  We fortunately have time on our side as we do not sail until 2023.

And now this.......................

https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/pfizer-astra-vaccine-antibody-levels-may-decline-after-2-3-months-lancet-121072700475_1.html

The WHO/CDC/manufacturers have set guidelines in regards to vaccination deployment.  The Canadian government ignored those guidelines and implemented their own strategy.  Do we think if further upgraded, updated guidelines were established would the government follow them anyways?  I believe they MIGHT adhere to them in regards to a 3rd shot to those with mixed vaccines to allow travel, similar to what Quebec is doing plus we have far better access to available vaccines to do it.  Or they may snub their noses at them and say our way is right.  Their is also the looming issue of the Pfizer booster shot that will need to be addressed.  The adventure continues while we sit at home:(