ALD18

No surprising, reduce the lines costs.  Will significantly increase bureaucratic and financial mess for returning passengers.  Especially needing the PCR test in a timely manner.

I'll be intrigued on how this plays out.  The part that surprises me the most is the passenger and crew count of 6000.  Very small % of that infected, but must have been sailing at pretty near full capacity.  How the cruise line, CDC, and forthcoming booked passengers react to it will be interesting.  Panic or calm?  Not sure what I would do if I was booked on that ship in near future.

Feel for you Froufie on the flight issues.  We recently went through a similar reschedule and working with 3rd party booking agents, ours was FlighHub, is a challenge at best.  All the administrative costs for them to make changes are frustrating, but if you read the details before signing up it is right there, you just ignore it to save some $ and then it comes back to bite you.  We will be searching for the best pricing with the booking agents, but will then contact the carrier directly.  Price is usually the same.  Best up luck with your "negotiations". 

With you waiting2 retire.  Watch endless onboard ship tours and ports of call on Youtube😄 

Indeed you are right with clarification.  Sorry for misinformation.

If you have a connector flight and can remain inside the arrival/departure area in the same terminal there should be no issue.  If your bags are checked through to final destination they get moved internally.  If you can remain in arrival/departure area you find a tote board, find departure gate, and go there with out need to pass security again.  Unless flight delays eat up the 2.5 hours you're good.  If you have to move to another terminal then things may get messier, getting your bags, and going through security may cut it close.  We have a similar situation in May, but leave Pearson with a 1.5 hour layover in Ottawa before going on.  Ottawa airport web page specifically states you can remain in arrivals/departure area if you have second boarding pass in hand and bags are checked through.  Do a bit more research and interact with flight provider to see what you need to do.  Regardless, another bit of duress to endure.  Best of luck and hope things work out for the best for you.  Check this out

https://www.torontopearson.com/en/connections

I'd be really looking hard at cancelling anything through January 2022 as I think that is cutting things close in regards to the global communities responses to Omicron, not just Canada, let alone all the bureaucracy of getting to and from the cruise.   I think by February/March the scientific and medical community will have things back under control on how to handle Omicron effects and treatments.  But one never knows how things will shake out at this time. 

Totally agree, and then have to adapt again in a few days.  The hardest part of these travel advisories and changes is how and/or when to pull the plug on your plans.

Late Friday announcements take some of the heat off of bad news.  People don't pay as much attention to news at that time and gives announcements "the weekend" to settle down.  Supposedly some further provincial announcements here in Ontario later Wednesday.  The federal decision making process make take a while longer to announce, conveniently late Friday afternoon😉

Pick a media outlet this morning and check out the proposals.  Nothing overly shocking or unexpected.  Premiers weighed in with their piece of the pie and feds to make an announcement on actual changes relatively soon after considering that information.  Wait and see.................

DHP1 I follow Brian Lilley on Twitter.  Further to his original Tweet this:

Hearing: Must be vaccinated to enter. No non-citizens. Advisory against non-essential travel. Feds will also push provinces to enact domestic measures including limiting Christmas gatherings, even family.

Media rumblings Trudeau meeting with provincial premiers later this afternoon.  Speculation is feds bringing back travel restrictions, possibly non essential travel ban.  No word on border closures or how severe these restriction may or may not be.  Wait and see......................

1 Baltic -  Start and end Amsterdam

2 Panama Canal

We use a lot of government apps at work and Chrome is what they recommend and definitely works best.  Would be interesting to see if it works better on your devices.  Test time😀

We're booked for May 2022 and presently are still planning on going.  Both of us are double vaxxed and soon will get boosters.  Omicron has us concerned, but at this point unless the cruise lines shut down again we'll do any testing or take any necessary precautions to get going.

Wow lots of km2 that sounds nasty.  Your experience is the most glaring reason I'm afraid of this whole computer/cell/tablet based apps.  Soon as one piece of that puzzle doesn't work you're toast.  I'm an IT guy and am usually comfortable using these things, but in this instance I would FAR RATHER have a face to face test and a piece of paper with my results.  Best of luck getting things straightened out and hope you have a safe, speedy run home. 

Let's hope it is a calendar day 24 hours instead of being "on the clock" 24 hours.

1 minute ago, bookbabe said:

I wonder if they will segregate arrivals at the Canadian airports, so that non-US arrivals go through different lines so they can be given the extra arrival testing info that the US arrivals don’t need.  If not, it’s likely going to make the customs lines longer…oh, joy.  Hopefully the Nexus lines will still move relatively fast, since the majority of people in that line will be coming from the US.  Fingers crossed…

The article I read this morning was extremely gloomy by the airport authorities.  As stated above they have no where near enough staff or floor space to do the testing in the customs area.  They said with current situation arriving passengers could expect several hour delays waiting to get tested.  I can only imagine what it would be like at Pearson with 4-5 BIG planes dumping passengers at the same arrival time.  They did state there was a marginal chance that to stream line things that passengers would be given self test kits, allowed to go home to quarantine, and do the required testing withing a given time frame.  Again, this stuff is all changing extremely fast as everyone reacts to the unknowns of Omicron.  Heres hoping the science and medical cats can figure it out and our current vaccines work.  That may relieve some pressure across the board testing wise.  If the vaccines don't protect heavens knows what will happen and unfortunately, in my opinion, would be very bad across the board for travel for some time. 

25 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

Our cruise is Jan 2 and now it is really in doubt.

 

all is closed jan 1, the pearson airport testing site opens at 5 am , our flight is at 8 am...so cant make it back on time....have to be in line 3 hours ahead...

 

quarantine for 7 days...so how can we get onto the ship...

 

returning, have to take PCR test at airport and quarantine for 3 days....

 

Just cant see how we can cruise under such conditions. 

Keep an eye on things as the whole testing scenario is morphing at a very rapid rate.  Check all the pharmacies in your area to see if they do testing AND are open Jan 1, if so you are good.  Don't think Canadians have to quarantine on the way in.  As for coming home, again sounds like Canadians do not have to quarantine.  They do need the PCR test upon arrival, but you are allowed to go home, quarantine there, and wait for results.  There are other issues with Canadian airport authorities kicking up their heals because the have neither the staff or floor space to do the required testing at the airports.  The common word is chaos throughout.  Unfortunately with your dates your reaction time is really under the gun.  Keep a close eye on the media and find as many government web pages giving details.  With the Omicron as it is this stuff is changing almost hourly.  Best of luck and hope you can get the trip done😀

Geez.........are we ever going to have sore noses when we get home☹️

To a degree it was an assumption that the test at the airport would now be the PCR test to enter Canada.  If you have to do the test at the Canadian airport before entering one would "hope" you wouldn't have to do another before arriving at Canadian airport.  Seems needless and waste of money other than if you test positive you never get to Canadian airport.  Two tests withing 72 hours seems excessive.  Will wait and see as things unravel.  

With all the other Arrivecan stuff, customs, baggage pickup, and now testing Canadian airports are going to be absolutely chaos.  Who knows how layovers will be handled.  One positive might be that you won't have to worry about testing prior to disembarkation of ship now unless the airlines or departure airport require it.  Going to need a holiday to calm the nerves, effort, and anxiety when you're done your trip.

This is a good attitude to take at this time.  Give the medical and scientific world a chance to get a hold of it, study it, and figure out if current vaccines are sufficient to protect us and contain it.  Obviously we have to be aware of the situation and be ready to take the necessary steps as they pan out, but I agree with the cruiseamm and try to be a bit more optimistic. 

Celebrity is sure "rocking the boat" in regards to all the various testing requirements they are imposing.  Agree with above, a phone call at the minimum is required.  I would suspect the Canadian version should be ok as it is probably based on the same scientific methods.  But who knows...............

Yup............just what we needed😢