stan1

Does anyone know what standardized documentation showing a passenger's prior covid-19 immunization  injections  are acceptable to airlines, cruise lines, and foreign country immigration sites, analogous to a passport? Any country's passport with photo is adequate for all airline, cruise line and foreign country entries but what is  the proper document for covid-19 immunization proof?

The HAL defenders are admirable in their loyalty, but that's all folks. Other cruise lines

in the HAL class offer excellent itineraries, port calls, first-class evening shows ( if you can stay awake to see them), excellent meals in buffet and MDR, AND good hygiene ( with no toilet sewer smells). And HAL can do it also, and does it well on the newer larger vessels ( Nieu Amsterdam, Konigsdam, Eurodam) . Unlike Princess ( also owned by Carnival) and Royal Caribbean-Celebrity, which do excellently maintain their older, smaller ships (we sail all of them), provide generally better food than HAL, provide superior evening entertainment, HAL management elected not to spend the $$ to provide better and higher grade food provisions, upgrade their galleys, and finally fix their continuous plumbing problems. Specific complaints have been posted for years, but I had a conference call with senior Seattle staff some time ago, and theyacted as if it was news to them. Conversely on a recent Royal Caribbean cruise I met one of the named VP's who told me that RCI/Celebrity assigns an emplyee to scan Cruise Crititc and other cruise critique websites daily tocopy any comments good or bad about any of their ships and to submit that file daily to top management. He told me that every complaint is quickly investigated with the ship Hotel Manager required to report findings and corrective action if any to Miami. This may explain the tremendous Royal Caribbean/Celebrity growth and profit and increased stock share value. It is not a secret: Provide a fine cruise product at a fair price and cruisers will return. Comparison: the major American Airlines downgraded the passenger experience in many ways, knowing there usually no travel alternative. HAL has done the same on their older, smaller ships, and thousands of cruisers have booked elsewhere on many travel itineraries. HAL can fix it if they wish, not I'm not sure they want to.

I think it depends where our ship is anchored. Our ship anchored outside the main yacht and ship harbor. The tender brought us to the same area where cruise ships tie up. I took an elevator up to a walkway that eventually lead to a cruise departure area higher up, and its exit on a street led directly to the large Cousteau marine museum. The street continued to the church where Princess Grace and Prince Ranier are buried and then led to the large court in front of the palace. We watched the changing of the guard and then bought tickets to tour the Palace, which was not ( tourist area) very fancy.

Hope this helps.

stan

We will be on Eurodam which will be in Naples 6/29/16, Rome 6/30/16 and would like to find or share a private tour from the Civitavecchia port to and from Rome ( full day) and a similar tour from the Naples cruise terminal ( downtown) to and from Pompei. We are two American adults ( parents) and two teen agers. Any suggestions appreciated. You can email me direct: size1atsbcglobaldotnet

Thanks

Stan

The fastest way to Burano and Murano is to take the vaporetto from the Piazzale Roma dock, if you are at the cruise terminal( take people mover). The vaporetto ticket seller ( get a 24-48-72 hr. ticket good on any vaporetto)told us to take a vaporetto to a distant dock and change to another ( she provided vploretto numbers and schedule) to get to Burano, since the direct vaporetto from Piazzale Roma made a circuitous route , about 40 minutes longer than changing. About 90 minutes each way, had lunch in Burano, very worth doing.

Stan

We will be in Toulon for the day on the Eurodam in July 2016. Does anyone know of a local tour guide for Toulon and Cassis?

Stan

We confirmed on this and another website with a current June 2014 posting that the AC, plumbing, and cleanliness Zuiderdam problems continue so that we cancelled out planned Sept. 2014 Zuiderdam cruise from San Francisco to Ft. Lauderdale. We are 4-Star ( many cruises) HAL passengers and noticed that except on 3 ships (New Amsterdam, Eurodam, Amsterdam) service, dining room and Lido food, and overall ship conditions have deteriorated. My travel agent said that his other clients have comments similar to mine, and his HAL bookings have dropped substantially. Some passengers are very loyal to HAL and overlook problems not encountered elsewhere. We are now cruising on other lines and would only take a HAL cruise on one of the above vessels. I noted that HAL is now substantially discounting cruise prices that other lines with nearly identical dates and itineraries are not discounting.

Cruise lines actually aim at specific demographics, and operate their ships with special featurs to appeal to that demographic: Carnival aims at a younger group of cruisers with entertainment, menus, other activities aimed to particularly please that group. Holland America aims at an older somewhat affluent group of cruisers and the mean age of the many HAL cruises I have taken was about 65, with many wheelchairs, walkers, scooters. Celebrity, Princess, RCL aim somewhere in between, with Celebrity with a higher quality product ( menu, food, service, entertainment). NCL has changed hands so much and varies so much with each ship that I think it is now aimed at a similar crowd as Carnival. My wife and I are older, and prefer Celebrity, HAL, Princess in that order, but the itinerary is the real determinant, since prices are similar per day ( unless there is some special sales campaign).

I was at Pier 70 (Drydock location) in San Francisco yesterday. The facility is not capable of major rapid vessel renovation/remodeling, and is really utilized for modest hull, propulsion, and relatively simple repairs, cosmetic changes ( carpeting, painting, furniture, light fixtures, etc.). The major work associated with a plumbing overhaul, which often discovers unanticipated repairs, etc. cannot be done in a 10 day limit, although much can be surveyed then so that when the big project occurs, the replacement parts, etc. will be ready. This project on this ship should have been done over a year ago, but management has delayed the major drydock to increase the possible revenue from the ship.