Today we learned that Brazil has paused the Visa requirement until April. All of the work, stress, and money for nothing. I’m sure our money will be refunded since we don’t need the Visa. That’s what any good government agency would do. Later in the day we received a notice that there will be no refund but the Visa is good for 10 years! Exciting news!
The Chinese Visa was another experience. Many of the countries that require a Visa also have a timeline that must be followed. An application can only be submitted so many days or months in advance. For China, 6 months in advance for a 10 year Visa.
The Chinese Visa application is available online. It must be filled out online and submitted. Then an appointment must be made. The the applicant must print the application and hand it to a Chinese Consulate at the scheduled appointment time. Where is the consulate? Chicago handles the midwestern states. We drove to Chicago in early October and showed up at our appointment time of 1 pm. Unfortunately, 40 others had the same 1 pm appointment time. We were given a number and a place to sit. The 3 consulate workers behind the glass windows behaved like typical government workers. There is really no one that they report to so they make up the rules as they go.
Out turn came at about 2:30. Efficient. I handed the consulate our application along with 2 copies of each of our passports and a signed agreement that everything is correct, by penalty of law. We also need two copies of our drivers license. This we didn’t have. There was a copy machine in the room but we had no change. Terri scrambled to find quarters. Someone in the room generously gave us some change. Back to the counter. Everything submitted. The consulate took our passports and application, wrapped it in a rubber band and put them both in a pile. “Ready next week.”
Huh?
Can’t you mail them to us?
“No”, said the consulate.
We live near Detroit, I said.
“Have a friend pick them up”, said the consulate.
“Huh? What friend?”
We nervously left our passports and I made plans to return the next week. Each Visa was $180. There are companies that will secure the Visa for you. $1000.00 plus the cost of the Visa. The train ride out to Chicago the next week went well. I felt better when I had the passports back in my hand.
Government at it’s finest.
After breakfast I went to the MainStage to listen to the presentation of the upcoming HAL excursions. Our first Port of Call is Tobago. We have a tee time at 10 am but I wanted to be sure we weren’t going to miss some great excursion.
Terri did some laps around the promenade.
Team trivia went well again. I think this is a winning combination. We missed 3 answers this time. We missed the nautical term RMS but did get the woman who moved in with Don Johnson when she was only 15 and the country that invented the suits on a standard deck of cards. Who knew?
2nd place for our team.
We booked a regular table in the dining room that we will have for the rest of the cruise. Near the window. Great for sunsets.
We ran into Janet and her husband from the 2019 cruise. Janet was a regular on team trivia. Her husband was just an occasional player and it may take a few more days to remember his name.
The evening entertainment was Chris Ritchie promoted as one of the UK’s most sought after entertainers. Chris did impressions of some major male vocalists. Elvis, Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Tony Bennett. He also sang “Old Man River” from Showboat. Good voice, great range. Nailed most of the vocalist styles. I thought his Tony Bennet was the weakest of all. While he sang he had photos of the musicians behind him. Nice touch but more were needed as they got old during the tune. The house band rocked. They are solid!
We finished the evening on the rear of the Lido with a deck of cards. Terri let me win. I’m up by one!