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The Norwegian Star has been in cold lay-up awaiting its turn to return to service. Our January 16, 2022 cruise is the first passenger cruise since March of 2020 onboard the Star. Each day since we made final payment Katie has been tracking the location of the ship. She onboarded crew and quarentined in Bar, Montenegro back in October/November. Since that time she has been in port in Naples, Italy. At about 1pm ET, 7pm in Italy on Christmas Eve she sailed away from the port and is en-route to Barcelona, Spain before her transatlantic journey to Buenos Aires!

This is finally feeling real that the pieces are coming together. The most important piece for our cruise is that there actually be a cruise ship and she is now moving with three weeks before we board!

Status Update from Prior Post: Chile Mobility Pass

Katie received her approval this morning for her Chile Mobility Pass ID and Vaccination Verification. Joe and Mac will no longer be leaving her aboard the ship and exploring on their own.

Of course we picked one of the most stringent Hague Convention countries to travel through with Mac on the one trip Chuck isn’t able to make. Typically we plan our trips for Summer or Spring Break when Chuck is off of work. This trip geography plays a role, it is a Summer trip…for the Southern Hemisphere. School is in session at home that Chuck has to stay behind.

We are a blended family, we are used to needing to obtain documents and permission to travel. That was all a cake walk compared to what is required for traveling through Argentina. I could only find the requirements on the Atlanta Argentina Consulate Website and confirmed via phone call to the Washington DC Consulate.

Step 1: Official Birth Certificate

Step 2: Apostille Registrar of Vital Records on Birth Certificate from Maryland Secretary of State. This required a trip to Annapolis to present the document in person.

Step 3: Complete Travel Consent Form

Step 4: Notarize Travel Consent Form. A requirement for notary acceptance is the embossed seal not the notary stamp. The third notary had the needed embossed seal.

Step 5: Verification of Notary by Clerk of Court. Quick trip to the local courthouse to obtain this verification.

Step 6: Apostille Clerk of Court from Maryland Secretary of State. Second required trip to Annapolis to present this packet in person.

Step 7: Translation of above documents into Spanish.

All of this is now complete and with our documents for travel. The cruise line changed our itinerary thankfully without any new countries added. We’ll just keep that email with the packet.

Joe and Katie spent hours pouring over the Norwegian Cruise Line website as well as each individual countries foreign travel websites as well as the United States Embassy Website for each country. The final result is the above calendars mapping out the time frames and requirements for each portion of the trip.

There are four main entry requirements:

Travel Insurance (proof of having Travel Health Insurance that covers COVID-19)

COVID-19 Vaccination Card or Digital Passport

Negative COVID-19 test (either antigen or PCR based on county requirement)

Completion of Attestation Form

Interesting Tidbits:

In reading through all of the requirements we opted to go with the most conservative interpretation of the requirements.

For Example: Uruguay requires that anyone testing COVID positive not enter their country for 20 days. As a result we will COVID-19 test on December 27th as peace of mind that we will be able to take the trip.