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STAR LEGEND FROM LONDON, SEPTEMBER 4 AND SEPTEMBER 16


Barrycat
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There are a series of Legend departures from London starting on September 4 for a London London cruise and on to our 29 day London to Athens cruise an September 16.

Lots of uncertainty still regarding when/if the UK will open to American tourists and under what conditions and our final payment is looming.

We have a few people  chatting on a Roll Call but I would like to hear from anyone else who is planning on going on any of these London  based cruises. 
Hopefully we can share any information on entry requirements, boarding information and some other thoughts on options for ground based excursions.

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The latest I heard in the UK is that the UK and US are hoping to open up a travel corridor in September but that probably doesn't help much! They were hoping to open one up in July and it hasn't happened yet and our infection rates are soaring at present - though people don't seem to be getting so ill with it now that so many are vaccinated.

 

We have the same problem in reverse for our Star Breeze cruise in the Caribbean at the end of this month. Our route to St Maarten was via Miami but we're not allowed into the US so can't use that route. We can get direct flights to Antigua and I asked Windstar if we could board there as that's the first stop, But they have said it's not possible so we're pretty stuck. We can get connecting flights from Antigua to St Maarten but then have to comply with 2 different sets of Covid rules and it all just gets too complicated so looks like we'll have to cancel! 😢

 

Maybe we need to swap cruises?!

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Mocamps

We MAY be allowed into the UK as in transit passengers if we go directly from the airport to the ship.

You might look into this possibility if you just change planes in Miami. Just a suggestion

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Thanks. We looked into it but we have to stay overnight as our flight arrives in the early evening and the St Maarten flight doesn't go until next morning. And there are no airside transit hotels in Miami.  Also, we have transited through Miami before (to Guayaquil and to Panama) and we had to go through Immigration THEN collect our bags and then check back in again! So I don't think it will work.

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Here is some information about transiting through the UK. It appears that entry is allowed if you follow this procedure. On July 19 the UK plans to go to Plan #4 which hopefully will relax restrictions.

 

FROM U K WEBSITE

Transiting through England

There are different rules for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Passing through an airport in England while on the way to another country is called ‘transiting’. Some travellers call it a ‘layover’.

There are 2 types of transiting:

  • ‘airside’ - you do not pass through UK border control before you leave on your connecting journey
  • ‘landside’ - you do pass through UK border control, but come back through it and leave the UK within a short amount of time (usually 24 hours)

Before travel to England

If you will be transiting through England, you need to do the following before you travel:

If you will be transiting landside through England, (including to the Crown Dependencies), you need to do the following when you complete your passenger locator form.

  • select ‘Stay in the UK’ under the Your travel plans section
  • reply ‘I will be travelling for an exempt reason’ to the question about whether you are required to self-isolate on arrival
  • select the Exemption options, and then select ‘Transit Exemption’

Note, you should be prepared to provide evidence at the border of your onward journey and your stay in the Crown Dependencies.

When you transit through England

You do not need to quarantine on arrival or take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 and day 8 if you are transiting airside or landside to a country outside of the Common Travel Area or, from 4am 29 June, to one of the Crown Dependencies (Channel Islands or Isle of Man).

If you are transiting landside, you must be entering England for the sole purposes of continuing a journey to a country outside of the Common Travel Area or to the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

You must either:

  • remain within your port of entry until your departure from England, or
  • travel directly from your port of entry to another port of departure in England

 

 

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Not only is the ability to enter the UK a bit involved but I checked the entry requirements for France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Morocco. Many of the countries on the itinerary have fairly liberal policies for Americans coming from America. Where it gets complicated is when you have been in another country, not the US, prior to entering the country in question. Some require PCR or antigen tests not longer than 72 hours prior to arrival in the case of PCR tests. The test you needed to get on the plane to London probably doesn’t apply, it was too long ago.

I wish I was more comfortable with believing that Windstar is on top of all of these requirements and has figured out how to comply. Their experience in the Caribbean is not very encouraging. That was simple, get the crew vaccinated, gaining entry to seven different countries in Europe is not so simple. 
Only viewing the Barcelona skyline from the deck of the Legend is not my idea of the ideal way to experience Barcelona

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  • 3 weeks later...

As it turned out the UK lost it’s lead position as our greatest concern about this trip. pour plan was  to go directly from the airport to the ship by entering London as in transit passengers. We would then avoid the quarantine and second day shot requirements. Today’s announcement just makes spending a bit of time enjoying London prior to embarkation a possibility. Since we recently cancelled this cruise this is interesting but academic to us. Besides the excursion requirements, the necessary mask requirements and the recent Delta variant surge in the countries we were scheduled to visit, the possibility of contacting the virus despite full vaccination concerned us. The possibility of flunking one of the many required tests during the cruise, despite no symptoms, and facing the local quarantine requirements probably turned out to be the final nail that caused us to cancel.

We are sorry but safe and we look forward to already booked Windstar cruises in the future.
 

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16 hours ago, Barrycat said:

As it turned out the UK lost it’s lead position as our greatest concern about this trip. pour plan was  to go directly from the airport to the ship by entering London as in transit passengers. We would then avoid the quarantine and second day shot requirements. Today’s announcement just makes spending a bit of time enjoying London prior to embarkation a possibility. Since we recently cancelled this cruise this is interesting but academic to us. Besides the excursion requirements, the necessary mask requirements and the recent Delta variant surge in the countries we were scheduled to visit, the possibility of contacting the virus despite full vaccination concerned us. The possibility of flunking one of the many required tests during the cruise, despite no symptoms, and facing the local quarantine requirements probably turned out to be the final nail that caused us to cancel.

We are sorry but safe and we look forward to already booked Windstar cruises in the future.
 

We have cancelled our Nov. TA for the same reasons. Better safe than sorry. We love Windstar and will definitely sail with them in the future.

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