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EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022
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Footprints for the Oceania TransAtlantic Crossing ... from Miami to Athens … with three weeks added in Turkey to visit family. Read more
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  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    O Loyalty Cruise … ✔️

    February 1, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 32 °F

    At the time we canceled our fall Bazaars to Beaches cruise on Oceania's [O] Sirena, we transferred the deposit to a cruise this spring on O’s Insignia … a cruise made possible only because Oceania has had to shift the itinerary for this year’s Round the World voyage. You know … COVID-19 complications.

    Final payment was due for this cruise, which sails from Miami on 23 March, the same day we booked it. But because we wanted to claim this cruise as our free loyalty cruise for being platinum cruisers, the company gave us a payment extension until 4 February.

    Well, we didn’t have to wait that long. I got my revised invoice today ... for the 12 extra days that we’ll be cruising beyond the 14 free days. Final payment's now been made!

    We’ve been trying to claim our free cruise since we reached platinum in the Oceania Club in 2019. Our previous claims all fell victim to COVID-19. Keeping 🤞🏻 that we’ll actually get to board the ship this time and complete the sailing, which will disembark us in Athens in mid-April.

    Of course, being that close to Turkey when we leave the ship, you know that we will squeeze in a couple of weeks of family time.

    More on all this later.    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    Logistics ✔️

    February 3, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 37 °F

    With the cruise booked, it was time to turn my attention to the logistics.

    But wait. There was one more piece of information I needed.

    Honestly. How could we think about going all the way to Athens on our cruise and not spend time in Turkey visiting family? We couldn’t. So, we hemmed and hawed, scribbled some calculations to work around existing plans. And came up with a block of time that worked.

    Our visit won’t be a long one this time. Not like the four months we spent in Turkey last year. Perhaps because of that lengthy stay, however, we’re OK with just three weeks or so this year.

    With the dates set, it was now time to work on the logistics.

    I’ve got our airfare booked to get us from Colorado Springs to Miami … going in a day early as we usually do. Our United Airlines [UA] award tickets are out of DEN [Denver International Airport] … non-stop beats connecting flights from our smaller airport even if we do have to start our day with a 1-hour+ drive to get to DEN.

    We also have a place to stay the night before we embark Insignia. Since we don’t plan to rent a car, we wanted a hotel that was centrally located near the port … convenient to restaurants. After researching options, we settled on the YVE Miami. It’s located across from Bayfront Park and will serve us well I believe.

    We were hoping to disembark Insignia in İstanbul when the ship overnights there before continuing on to Athens. Turns out that’s a no-go during COVID-19 times. So, we have booked our airfare to get us from Athens to İzmir. Alas, the schedule for the only airline that flies nonstop to İzmir did not work for us. So, we’ll be flying THY through İstanbul instead.

    The flights that will return us to the US following our add-on family visit are booked as well … UA award tickets that will fly us to Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport [IAH] and home from there. We’ll need to stay overnight in Houston as we did last year … we don’t have enough time after the long haul flight lands to make the connection to COS [Colorado Springs Airport]. We’re used to that. I’ve already booked a room at the Houston Marriott at IAH … convenient.

    Now to begin planning shore excursions.    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    Excursion Plans ✔️

    February 7, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 45 °F

    Those who know me well, know that I enjoy planning our trips. I really do. But COVID-19 sure takes some of the joy out of the process. It wouldn’t be so bad if we were arriving at all of the ports we will be calling on by air. That information is readily available. If you’re arriving by sea, however, it’s a whole different story. Frustrating!

    So, here’s the plan I came up with to keep myself stress-free. Oceania is supposed to give us COVID-19 entry requirements for each port approximately 30 days before we sail from Miami. I’m going to wait to see that information before I attempt any further research on my own.

    In the meantime, I’ve been doing my port research … following my usual modus operandi to figure out what is of interest to us. Armed with that info, we’ll be able to decide later what we want to do … hopefully without having to book bubble tours.

    With a few exceptions, I’m planning for us to explore most of the ports on foot. This is our favorite means of visiting the places we call upon. Maybe have lunch ashore as well. I've got tours planned in three ports — one of them will be semi-private … six fellow passengers will join us; the other two will be for just Mui and me. We have one port where we will be mixing our modes of exploration by renting a car one day and walking around the next day.

    The tour and car rental arrangements all have 24-hour cancelation requirements … and will be paid for on the day-of. So, should bubble-tours be required by any of the ports … well, no harm, no foul. But keeping 🤞🏻 that will not be the case.

    By the way … we did a zoom meeting with the family yesterday and broke the news of our April arrival to them. As expected they were surprised … in a good way.    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    O Changes the Rules

    February 10, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 48 °F

    I got an email from Oceania (O) on 8 February announcing rule changes for COVID-19 precautions. It’s not just O, of course. Every cruise line is changing its requirements … and sooner rather than later. At least O’s changes don’t go into effect until 1 March, so they can monitor to see if they want to back down.

    I’ll be frank. I’m not sure I like the new rules. But hey … short of canceling the cruise, we’ll have to go along with them … with our own added precautions as necessary. And who knows? Things might change again. After all, hasn’t that been the word of the day with COVID-19? Change … again and again.

    So, the mask mandate for passengers will be no more come March. O still strongly encourages people to continue to wear masks when they cannot social distance. We’ll definitely do that, but you know most people are not going to follow those rules. A poster on CruiseCritic mentioned that the crew will continue to be masked, but I have no official confirmation of that.

    As for the pre-embarkation testing. The responsibility now lies totally with us. We were going to do the pre-departure test 72-hours in advance since the small print called for us to do that in order to get financial protection should we test positive when we submit to the O-testing just prior to embarkation. Now, the testing is to be done by the passenger 48-hours prior to embarkation day with no pier-side testing at O’s expense.

    My big concern with all this … how many passengers will test positive after we set sail. It’s happened on practically every cruise … on every line since cruising recommenced in 2021. Worse yet, how many will attempt to hide their symptoms so as not to test positive and be forced to quarantine?

    But as I said before, nothing to do but cancel at this point. And we won’t be doing that. So, we’ll continue to keep ourselves safe and stay away from crowds as much as possible. And hopefully, the continued requirement for passengers to be fully-vaccinated will alleviate the ramifications of these new rules for cruising.    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    Reminiscing: Bermuda

    February 15, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 55 °F

    Now that my excursion planning for our European Crossing on Insignia is complete, I thought I would reminisce a bit about some of the familiar ports on our itinerary. As I find time, that is, since my “travel platter” still has other trips for which plans need to be made.

    We’ve been on several cruises that have called on Bermuda … most recently during our 2017 world cruise on Oceania’s Insignia.

    The visit that is the most memorable, however, was our first cruise to Bermuda … in October 2001 … a 7-day cruise with a Bermuda-specific itinerary … meaning that it was the only country that we called on.

    After 9/11, President Bush encouraged us all to get on with our lives … to not let fear of the attacks on the US stop us from living our lives … doing the things we love. He said to go out and travel. So, we listened to him.

    In the aftermath of 9/11, Celebrity Cruises had changed the home port for one of its ships, Zenith, from New York City to Baltimore … only an hour’s drive from where we lived on the outskirts of Washington, DC. Too good an opportunity to not take advantage of. So, we booked a last minute cruise when the ship recommenced sailing.

    Two days at sea to get out to Bermuda; two days at sea to return to the US; three days exploring Bermuda in between.

    Zenith was small enough to dock in the heart of Hamilton, making it a simple matter of stepping off the gangway to wander around the city. And wander we did. For two days we walked our feet off visiting the attractions in the city … taking the local ‘pink buses’ when our explorations took us further afield. Fort Hamilton … Happy Valley Road with its colorful houses, white-washed terraced roofs, and mystical moongates … the pink-sand beaches of Horseshoe Bay and Warwick Long Bay … Gibbs Hill Lighthouse … Royal Naval Dockyards … and more.

    Zenith had been scheduled to sail through The Cut on our last day in Bermuda to overnight in St George’s. But it didn’t happen … a storm brewing in the Atlantic made the passage through The Cut too dangerous to attempt. So, we remained in Hamilton … moving to a nearby dock to make room for the original Love Boat, which had the right of way since we weren’t supposed to be in Hamilton.

    No matter. We still got to explore St George’s … we just had to take public transportation to get there. We left no stone unturned in our exploration of Bermuda’s first capital … the Town Square with its ducking stool … Somers Park where an admiral by the same name literally left his heart … the Unfinished Church … Tobacco Bay … Fort Saint Catherine … and more. It was a very full day.

    (By the way, we watched as Insignia threaded its way through The Cut in 2017. So, now we know that the captain of Zenith was right in not making the attempt in 2001.)

    Remember the storm that was brewing in the Atlantic? That was Subtropical Storm Karen, which hit Bermuda on 11 October, with damaging winds as high as 100 mph. By then, we were back at sea, heading to Baltimore. We didn’t quite escape unscathed, however, as waves exceeding 15 feet welcomed us with open arms as soon as we rounded Fort Saint Catherine as we left Bermuda behind. We rock and rolled our way back to Baltimore … our first real encounter with stormy seas in our then-limited cruising experience.

    What a wonderful cruise it was. And what sweet memories by which to remember our time in Bermuda — the dark days of 9/11 and the storm notwithstanding.    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    Reminiscing: Azores

    February 16, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 41 °F

    “I don't know what it is about distant lands that make me want to visit them. Forget Paris or London. Give me the polar regions, or islands in the middle of nowhere ... like the Azores.”

    Those are the opening sentences for the footprint I posted when we stopped @ São Miguel, the largest and most populous of the islands in the Archipelago of the Azores. Accompanied by mom and Aylin, my sister, this 2019 stop aboard Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam was our one and only visit to the Azores, so I didn’t have to pick and choose memories as I did with Bermuda.

    Even as our ship was departing Ponta Delgada at the end of the day, Mui and I had already added the Azores to our must-return to places. Lush green scenery … deep blue of bodies of water big and small … smoking fumaroles and bubbling mud pots … beautiful azulejo tile details on white-washed buildings trimmed with black lava stone … tasty lunch of cozido das Furnas (the local stew cooked underground using geothermal heat) … and even tastier quijadas (Portuguese milk tarts). All excellent reasons to return.

    Little did we know then that we would actually be stopping in the Azores on another cruise ship before we had a chance to do a land-based trip.

    (For a bit more detail on what we actually did — and larger images from our day — you can check out the original post @ https://findpenguins.com/8pccjefaitoru/footprin….)    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    Itinerary Change

    February 17, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 23 °F

    We received an email from Oceania today. The purpose was to advise us of a change in our itinerary.

    Looks like we'll be docking in Valletta on the Island of Malta instead of anchoring offshore from Mġarr on the Island of Gozo. Both islands are part of the Maltese Archipelago, so no change to the country ... just to the port.

    We've been to both islands before. We've enjoyed both. As the largest of the three islands in the archipelago, Malta has more to offer, so we're good with the change. I just need to do a little research to see what we want to do this time. Good thing our plans for Gozo were fluid 😉.

    I wonder how many other changes there will be to our itinerary when all is said and done! Flexibility is definitely the key to travel during COVID-19 times.    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    Beyond Monet in Miami

    February 18, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 41 °F

    Yesterday afternoon, we booked tickets for an interactive art exhibit featuring Monet’s work … in Miami! I had no idea this exhibit was running during the very limited time we will have in the city prior to our EuroCrossing on Insignia.

    This only came about because I was doing research for our pre-expedition days in Toronto this summer. I noticed on Google Maps that there was a Beyond Monet exhibit running there. Alas … only through 13 March … we don't arrive in the city until the end of July.

    We enjoy these immersive exhibits, so I checked online to see if it might be coming to Denver. No, but it was running in Miami ... through 27 March. Works for us. So, we purchased tickets for 23 March. Yes, that is embarkation day, but we have plenty of time to do something fun before we head over to the port.

    We're very excited about this. Beyond Monet will be our third immersive exhibit … after Klimt in Malaga, Spain, and Van Gogh in Denver, Colorado.    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    Reminiscing: Trapani, Sicily

    February 19, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 45 °F

    In 2015, when we deposited our 2017 world cruise on Insignia, we had yet to do a cruise on Oceania. We figured it would be a smart thing to "test the waters," so to speak, before we were committed irrevocably. So, later that year, we sailed on a Mediterranean cruise on sister-ship Nautica ... in the twin of the aft-facing cabin we'd booked as our home away from home for 180 days on Insignia.

    One of the ports of call on that cruise was Trapani ... in western Sicily. This call was our first taste of Sicily ... one that we would satiate on later cruises. But we never made it back to Trapani. COVID-willing we'll be revisiting it this year.

    The most popular tour from Trapani is to the mountaintop town of Erice. Alas, clouds were wreathing most of the mountain when we pulled into the cruise terminal that morning. So we decided it wasn't going to be a smart move to go up there. The clouds cleared later in the day. Brilliant sunshine and blue skies graced us. But, by then, it was too late to visit Erice.

    No problem. One of our favorite ways to explore a new-to-us place is on foot ... a meandering walk that takes us here and there and wherever. We strolled along the waterfront, noting the fortifications that still stood strong; found cobblestoned side streets lined with buildings painted a brilliant yellow; checked out the fresh fish market where the bounty of the sea was still wriggling on the display platforms; craned our necks to view the beautiful murals in the cathedral; taste-tested (not once but twice) delicious gelato and cannoli in out-of-the-way cafés where the locals were more than happy to let Mui practice his rusty-Italian on them.

    We made great memories in Trapani in 2015. We hope to add more memories this year.    Read more

  • EuroCrossing & Türkiye 2022

    COVID-19 Entry Requirements

    February 27, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 43 °F

    No one said it was going to be easy to cruise these days ... even if the world seems to be moving from a pandemic to an endemic stage for COVID-19.

    I received an email from O a few days ago outlining the COVID-19 entry requirements for the various ports of call on our cruise. Missing were Turkey and Greece. But I found those on the O website, so all’s good. I’ve already developed a checklist to deal with each requirement as they come due throughout our cruise.

    Bermuda, the first port of call after we sail from Miami, seems to have the most onerous requirements … mostly because we will have to deal with them prior to embarkation. They include a PCR test 96 hours ahead of our arrival at the port of embarkation; an online form that we need to complete 72 hours ahead of embarkation … and for which we need to cough up $75pp; a PCR test on arrival. All doable.

    There is one requirement mentioned by O for Bermuda that is confusing, however … mandatory pier-side testing at the Miami terminal on embarkation day. Is this in lieu of the recent 48-hour testing O is requiring of us? Or is this in addition to that test? That is the question. I’ve sent my O contact an email asking for clarification.

    The remaining ports are requiring either PCR or antigen testing ... or the completion of a passenger locator form [PLF] ... or both. All but one test will be handled by O at no cost to us. Israel is requiring a PCR test on arrival at our expense … which O may or may not cover.

    When all is said and done, between home and our arrival in Piraeus, we will undergo 9 tests and complete 6 online forms. On the latter front, I’ve already completed the forms for Morocco and Malta. The PLF for Italy is pending until after 1 March because the requirement for no-testing is changing then and the form will be updated accordingly. The remaining forms have to be done 24-72 hours in advance of the port arrival … fingers crossed the internet signal on the ship cooperates or that O has an alternative option for paper forms.

    As well, we have to complete an online entry form for Turkey … within 72 hours of our flight from Athens. I can deal with that when we are in İstanbul or on arrival in Piraeus, where we have quite a bit of time prior to our flight.

    Of course, all this could change between now and when we embark the ship or before we arrive at those ports of call. We’ll be checking the requirements again about five days prior to leaving home. Fingers crossed that any changes are for the better and not the reverse.    Read more

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