pschweig

I second what cccole said! For those of us with Oosterdam cruises coming up, we all appreciate both the information and your taking time to provide it. It is exactly for what I’ve been searching.

When you are in Katakolon, could you please confirm if there are buses at the end of the pier for which you can purchase round-trip tickets to Olympia?

I wish you a wonderful cruise! I am looking forward to your report. I’ve read negative comments about the ship on other forums and look forward to your comments about its physical condition and quality of food.

After reading your post, I checked my boarding pass and it also says disembark time of 8:30. Thank you for offering to verify if this is correct when on board. If possible, could you also find out if HAL will do Covid testing on Sat morning before disembarking for those with Sunday flights to the US?

Thank you so much for starting this thread! A question that I hope you will be able to answer once on board - how do you find out what time to which you have been assigned for your complimentary transfer to Marco Polo Airport?

My extended family of 6 is boarding this ship on July 2. I have looked every day for information from people who have completed a recent cruise and appreciate your comments.

I can identify with your frustration! Both myself and my TA dealt with Flight Ease and Lufthansa with the exact same issue - not assigning our return flights’ seats for our July 2-16 cruise. After 2 months, we finally were able to secure seat assignments this week. This is what we did: log into Lufthansa with your Lufthansa confirmation number (not Flight Ease). On the page which opens, you will see “seat details” on the far right. I’m doing this from memory but if tickets have been issued, you should see a ticket number (it’s either on this page or the one where you select seats). Follow this to select seats. Of course, it won’t let you and gives you a message with a telephone number to call in a box in the upper right hand corner of the page. We spent 2 days calling this number every 30 min until it was answered. We then spent over 30 min on hold. Once a representative answered, we were able to secure our seats. Please forgive the lengthy explanation if this is what you have done. If you have not called this number, I hope this will work for you.

We are on the July 2-16 Oosterdam Med cruise. HAL still hasn’t posted shore excursions for Nafplion and Trieste, which replaced Santorini and Venice. I’m curious - if you are on an earlier cruise visiting these ports, has HAL posted any shore excursions yet?

THAT is what I understood about tours leaving Piraeus! Thank you so much for confirming. Hopefully, Greece will change its requirements to a negative test 3 days before embarkation prior to our cruise’s departure.

I am confused. When you open HAL’s European cruises protocol pdf, it specifically gives different requirements for Greece. “All guests ages two and above will require a medically observed, negative viral COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen) result taken within 3-days of embarkation (for Greece, testing is required within 1-day of embarkation). Children under 2 years of age do not need to be tested prior to cruising.”

I remember threads last summer discussing passengers’ experiences being bussed by HAL to Trieste after Venice closed to cruise ships. Could someone provide a link to these threads? I have not been able to locate them in my searches. I am looking for information describing how HAL handled embarkation and disembarkation procedures when the port was changed from Venice to Trieste.

When you book a HAL private van shore excursion which includes a guide and driver for a day, are you responsible for putting the itinerary together? Or, does the guide do it? If so, does anyone contact you in advance telling you the itinerary and entrance fees required? Thank you in advance for your answers. I’ve never done this before - just tagged along on private tours put together by CC members.