Where in the world am I today?: At sea aboard the Emerald Princess
OK… I’ve got a bit of info to hand to you today that I stumbled over in the last week or so that pertains to travel and stuff I could have/should have/might have done prior to take off, but now have successfully looked after.
The First – For those Canadians traveling abroad, a service that’s provided by the Canadian Government for Canadians traveling to exotic destinations who want to have a bit of a back-up in place just in case things go sideways unexpectedly. If you go to this website –
You can register yourself as a Canadian traveler. Once you’re registered you can access your user account and provide details of any trips that you might have planned. OK, I’ll admit it, it was my Mom who pointed me towards this because I think she wanted to me to register, so I took the opportunity to take the system out for a little test drive on an upcoming trip that I’ll be doing to India to perform at Travel Trade Shows in Mumbai and Delhi. I’m not anticipating any issues with this trip, but who ever does. I was able to log-on to my account, provide my travel dates and destination and also provide an emergency contact in Canada should the government need to reach my wife if for some strange reason I disappear while on this trip. A nice little safety net, and a completely free service that I wasn’t aware of before this week.
Second – As part of the application process to get a VISA for India for the upcoming trip mentioned above, I needed to hand in my Canadian Passport to have the VISA applied to it. This meant that I didn’t have my Canadian Passport when it came time to leave to join the Emerald Princess where I now find myself. Luckily I was born in New Zealand and have maintained my New Zealand Passport and am using it for this particular voyage. As I entered into the United States I was told by the custom’s official that people who are traveling on Passports from countries eligible for a VISA Waiver Program (You fill in the Green I-94 Form as you cross the boarder) need to register on-line that they’re entering the United States. This doesn’t apply to Canadians and it’s the first time I had encountered it, but for anyone who is eligible, the online procedure is a breeze and you get an approval number that they suggest that you travel with. More information about all of this can be found here –
The Third and final piece of travel information that I came across this week came in the form of an email from Air Canada who informed me that –
Effective January 20, 2010, you may bring one standard bag and other necessary items into the cabin on flights from Canada to the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
This is a huge relief because after the attempted bombing in Detroit at Christmas time the Airport security two-step was getting a bit ridiculous and I was wondering how on earth I was going to successfully travel with my normal performance gear given the changes… I had already worked out my system to reduce things as much as possible and here they were wanting me to drop it down even more… Thankfully it seems like we’re more or less back to where were were before the incident in Detroit… Phew!
Happy traveling everyone!
