njhorseman
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Posts posted by njhorseman
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1 hour ago, PORT ROYAL said:
If a quieter venue required, then take a look at Dorado Beach…....
Which is over 20 miles from San Juan and very, very expensive so probably requires a boatload (no pun intended) of points .
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33 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:
Thank you. I read a little about the terminal business that's dragging on and on. But I'm still a little confused as to exactly where the famous berths and terminal are located, and how close anything is to wherever we berth. But I imagine in Panama City, it really doesn't matter much, as I'll likely just take an excursion there, or possibly some pre-arranged taxi tour of the city. We'll see!
The cruise terminal isn't in Panama City, it's in Fuerte Amador on Perico island, about 8 or 9 miles from Panama City itself. You can see it in this photo from Google Maps.
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1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:
It's a lot later now, but I've just rolled through 8 pages of this interesting photo gallery (thanks!) and wondering if someone can try to help me with some questions. I'll be on a cruise doing a daytime transit of the canal in Mid December. Is there any place that shows a port schedule for Canal transits, or do you have to go to various cruise mapping sites to find if you'll be with other ships? I'd like to look at ships going through the canal on Marine Traffic, and also see if we'll have much company in the canal in December.
All I know at this point is that we'll be on Oceania Marina (239 metres long and 32 wide, gross tonnage of 66,000) coming from the Caribbean and overnighting in Panama City, with an anticipated dock time of or by 8 PM. We spend the next day in Panama City. Until I can get more info later, should I assume we'll start the transit around 6 AM? Is there any way to anticipate which canal (new or old) we'll go through? And can someone tell me what the current status of the Fuerte Amador cruise location is, or might possibly be, come December? And of course, as mentioned earlier, I'd love to find an official port web site schedule if it exists.
Thank you essiesmom, and BillB, for the
I can't help you with a schedule website for Panama Canal transits, but I have made a full transit on the Oceania Marina with an overnight at Fuerte Amador, but before the docking facilities were built...we had to tender in .
You can assume your transit will begin in the early morning...5 or 6 am. There's 99.99% certainty of using the original locks, with the new locks only being used if there's some type of problem in the original locks or if they're somehow overbooked and Marina draws the short straw and has to move to the new locks.
The docking facilities at Fuerte Amador have been in use for quite some time but exactly when the cruise terminal will be completed is anyone's guess. Construction has dragged on and on.
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2 hours ago, zqvol said:
Make sure you take both passports with you. When you get a new one the old one is supposedly canceled. Just because NCL took the number doesn’t mean that is valid for travel.
The poster you're responding to sailed last year.
The poster is European, not a US citizen. Perhaps unlike in the USA the issuance of a new passport doesn't invalidate the old one. I don't know, but perhaps the old passport is still valid until its expiration date.
I'll resist the urge to make another zombie thread comment...🙄
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1 hour ago, Treasure Hunter said:
You could be right which is why we added the first week from Trieste . I want to be the first to sleep in that bed. But our TA was repeatedly told that all maiden voyage events will take place after Athens.
I don't doubt that the maiden voyage events will take place after Athens...again so as to not anger those who booked what was expected to be the maiden voyage.
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1 hour ago, Treasure Hunter said:
We were told that the July 18th cruise is not the inaugural cruise but a shakedown cruise.
The press release I cited calls it the inaugural sailing. Unless you spoke to a senior executive at Oceania since it's an official press release I suspect that wording comes with the approval of someone higher on the Oceania food chain than the person you spoke to.
I think what you were told is just a thinly veiled attempt to not anger those who had booked the original inaugural sailing and now will not be on the inaugural.
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4 hours ago, G-DawgMN said:
It's as unlikely to happen as cow tipping is...
https://modernfarmer.com/2013/09/cow-tipping-myth-or-bullcrap/
Based on the analogy used by the author perhaps it's not as unlikely as you think. The article was written in 2013 and says "...we feel confident in saying this happens at a rate roughly equivalent to the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series."
Well...three years later the Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908...
Maybe, just maybe, those cows and ships aren't as hard to tip as was thought...😁
We'll now return to your regular programming.
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2 hours ago, Canuker said:
San Juan Cruise Port Terminal (the port's own website): "San Juan Cruise Port Schedule By Year and Month".
No, it's not the "port's own website". There is no official site for the port of San Juan.
2 hours ago, Canuker said:San Juan's own site (the third one) does NOT show my ship in port the day she's there. The reason: she's not scheduled to dock at the usual "Cruise Port Terminal" but will tie up at another cruise ship dock nearby.
It doesn't show up because this is some private website masquerading as something official. There are numerous cruises that don't show up on this site. it's basically a worthless junk site.
Of the three sites you cited this is the last one I would rely on.
Why you would think that any third party site should be used over the cruise line's own published itinerary that is listed on your cruise confirmation and boarding documents is beyond me. Yes, times can and sometimes do change with little or no notice, but unofficial sites won't have access to this information. In fact even official sites may not have it in advance because changes can be made right up until docking time.
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51 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:
I am pretty sure Coral Princess will sail from Brooklyn, not Manhattan
Coral Princess has a 36 day world cruise segment departing from Manhattan in July.
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1 hour ago, crystalspin said:
I was speaking of non-Russian Europe, also don't remember any immigration in South America or on a turn-around day San Diego on a B2B Mexico. Certainly at the final disembark but seems like not for "in transit". Haven't yet done Caribbean, or Polynesia!
I agree there are some ports that may have immigration even for day visitors.
We've done numerous B2Bs from with turnaround at three different US ports, NY, Los Angeles and San Francisco and there was always an immigration check. In almost all cases not only did we go through immigration, we had to disembark the ship to do it and were not allowed to reboard until the ship reached a "zero count"...meaning every passenger had disembarked.
I also gave you the example of a common Canada/New England itinerary. Those cruises generally start in NY or Boston, make port calls in Canada...often Halifax NS and Saint John NB at a minimum and then make a port call or two in New England on the return leg at ports like Bar Harbor, Portland, Boston or Newport. There is always an immigration check at the first US port call after Canada. In fact a frequent question on the Canada/New England board is something like "How long does it take to go through the immigration check at (take your pick of ports) because I want to book a private tour."
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55 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:
Yes, if cruising to the countries that require it, but not across the board.
Correct. NCL has never done it across the board.
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18 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:
In all the years I’ve been here on CC I’ve never heard of ncl requirements of having 6 months left on a passport for international travel.
They do for certain itineraries as I and others have already documented with reference to NCL's documentation FAQs, which I'll repost: https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/cruise-travel-documents
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4 minutes ago, IAcruising said:
I believe a cruise line can set any rules they wish concerning what they do and do not require. As long as it is not in conflict with another country's laws. In other words, I believe NCL can set a 6-month rule for any country, but they cannot set a 3-month rule if a country requires 6-months.
That's correct every cruise line and airline, international ferry service, railroad or any other travel provider must obey the laws of the countries to which they are traveling.
However they can set rules that go beyond the minimum legal requirements. For example the super-premium and luxury cruise lines generally require all passengers to carry a passport with six months validity even if none of the countries on an itinerary have that requirement. For example NCL's corporate sibling Oceania requires six month passport validity of all passengers on all itineraries, even itineraries that US citizens don't need a passport for at all. For example Oceania does a few closed loop cruises between NY City and Bermuda in the summer. Under the law a US citizen can legally take that cruise using a birth certificate and government issued photo ID but Oceania will not allow you to board the cruise without a passport with at least six months remaining validity.
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Just now, IAcruising said:
No, it doesn't, but you do you. My passport will never be expiring within 6-months.
Your never allowing your passport to be expiring within 6 months is your choice and that's fine, but not relevant to the discussion about what the actual requirements are .
I have more than a little bit of experience in the travel business and have a pretty good handle about where to find the government and cruise line requirements At the agency I owned we never had a case of a customer having an issue with their documentation caused by our advice.
I'll leave it at that.
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26 minutes ago, crystalspin said:
There should be no "immigration" for either shore excursions or DIY walking around -- what port(s) are you thinking of that would have that?
The trick for early ShoreExes is ROOM SERVICE.
Not for run of the mill Caribbean island port calls, but you may have to go through an immigration check in many countries. For starters in the USA at your first port call after a foreign port itinerary...for example something as ordinary as your first port in the US after visiting Canadian ports, such as Portland Maine after visiting Halifax Nova Scotia.
Off the top of my head I've had to go through immigration in Russia (obviously no cruises calling there now) and French Polynesia among others that I would have to dredge out of my aging memory.
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2 hours ago, IAcruising said:
Yes, you corrected me, maybe. I still don't know the definitive answer. Also, the OP is embarking in Canada, so....
Since US citizens entering Canada are only required to have a passport that is valid at the time of entry into Canada (Source: US Department of State at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Canada.html ) ;
And, your US passport is valid for reentering the US through its expiration date;
And, NCL's documentation FAQ page for US citizens only lists cruises departing a non-US port on Europe, Asia, South America and Australia itineraries as requiring a passport with 6 months validity the evidence seems to be crystal clear that an NCL cruise departing Canada and ending in the US does not require a passport with 6 months validity based on US and Canadian law and regulation as well as NCL rule.
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13 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:
Thanks this is useful info. I had an excursion credit so i think it only cost me like $9 to get there via NCL.
The $7 fare @Charles4515 quoted is one way, so $14 roundtrip. I have used NCL's excursion because with the shore excursion credit I didn't have to pay a dime. Last time i used it the excursion was $49 so it was fully paid by the $50 shore excursion credit. It's quite possible the price has increased since I last used their shore excursion.
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28 minutes ago, IAcruising said:
In my post #22 I understood that it may be NCL policy regardless of the country visited. It has seemed to grow exponentially from there, and I'm still not sure if I am right, or have been definitively corrected. (Closed loop cruises are a different animal)
I corrected you in post #29, giving examples of itineraries where NCL requires a valid passport, but doesn't require 6 months validity on the passport.
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39 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:
Are you folks claiming that NCL has a blanket requirement that you can't board a cruise anywhere if your passport is expiring in less than six months?
I'm certainly not, and earlier in the thread I cited information from NCL's FAQs that clearly show there are itineraries where NCL requires valid passports, but without the six month validity requirement.
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15 minutes ago, WexIrl said:
You are mistaken, the decision to renew the passport was taken after speaking with an NCL representative which took place after my posts enquiring.
I had corrected my post (too late apparently for you to see) to say you had stated that on this thread rather than the other thread.
I guess you spoke to NCL during the approximately one hour gap between your first post and your statement that you were going to apply for new passports so I misspoke about the timing.
Note: My misstatement about the timing of your posts doesn't change my opinion about zombie threads one iota.
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10 minutes ago, WexIrl said:
Read back over the thread, see where, and why the thread was 'unnecessarily reopened' and the context.
I was interested to understand the outcome of the original poster and sub poster with a very similar set of circumstance to mine with regards passport expire date & NCL policy within Europe. Private messaging for both posters is disabled hence I posted to inquire in the titled thread as the most appropriate place I could find to get their attention/outcome.I may be mistaken, but I thought you had already stated on this thread that you had decided to apply for new passports. That would make your question here moot.
In any event reopening a zombie thread is generally not a good idea as some people apparently can't be bothered to read posting dates and start answering posts and offering opinions about things that were settled long ago. The result is made even worse because some people can't be bothered to identify who they're addressing by either quoting the post or naming the poster, leading to this type of quicksand filled discussion where no one knows who is talking to whom.
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58 minutes ago, erisajd said:
issues? Yes. Go check the admission requirements for the EU and Britain. . . .you can't get in
with your passport as stated. NCL won't let you on, neither will most airlines.
I will say that currently most passport renewal times using standard and non-expedited is 8-12 weeks in most parts of the country.
If you are traveling sooner you need to pay for expedited. Or, wait til you are inside two weeks and go to a passport office and renew in person with an appt.
Oh, and PS: there are NO cruises on mainline non river cruises that are US ports only. You could not afford it.
I'm not sure who or what post you're addressing but if it's the OP the post is a year old and no longer an issue because that ship sailed both literally and figuratively a long time ago.
By the way, with regard to your last paragraph there certainly is "a mainline non river cruise" that only visits US ports. It's NCL's Pride of America, which does Hawaii-only cruises every week and has for many years. Now if you meant "mainland" rather than "mainline" there are those cruises too. Try American Cruise Lines for one...they do lots of them.
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1 minute ago, graphicguy said:
They will tell you what NCL requires. That part doesn't change.
Don't rely on that. What thy tell you about NCL requirements may be wrong because their training and source materials are inadequate. Again...the words spoken by a telephone customer rep are not binding on NCL.
In any event it appears that for some reason people are addressing a post made a year ago, probably because someone unnecessarily reopened a zombie thread.
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4 hours ago, graphicguy said:
Not going to pile on, but really it is this simple.
It's not that simple. Calling NCL will get you nowhere, except possibly into trouble if you listen to them. The telephone customer service reps aren't sufficiently trained and can't be relied upon to have knowledge of detailed passport requirements. Any answer they provide doesn't bind NCL to allowing what they say. If you get denied boarding at the pier because of improper documentation quoting what you were told by a customer service is of zero value.
Marriott Hotel recommendation pre-cruise
in San Juan, PR
Posted
The former Sheraton Old San Juan has just been remodeled and is now the Hotel Rumbao, still under the Marriott umbrella . A great location to access all the conveniences of Old San Juan and just a short taxi ride to the Pan American cruise terminal where your ship will be docked.
It wouldn't be the quietest location but it's hard to find someplace quiet that's close to conveniences such as Walgreens and CVS. Stores like that are usually going to be found in busy areas. You may have to trade off one preference to satisfy another. Either of the hotels you mentioned would be OK too.