Jonibme

On 5/4/2023 at 8:50 AM, 555 said:

 

Thanks, my eye's aren't what they used to be. 

I thought they might have a chocolate banana. 

Guess not. 😥

You can order a Virgin Dirty Banana! The last time I was on the Sky another passenger was ordering as I approached my favorite Aft bar and she ordered a Virgin Dirty Banana… it was made with ice cream, chocolate syrup and a frozen banana in a blender! We watched them make it for her! I think she had a drink package so I don’t know what they would charge for it if you didn’t… she said it was too early in the day for the “adult version” but she would be back for that later!!

On 9/17/2022 at 12:32 PM, Pioneer327 said:

Is the Drink package in effect on Embarkation day or does it take effect at 6 AM the next morning?  Could not find that answer in the T's and C's.

 

Everything starts when you cross that gangway after check in on Embarkation Day!

Bon Voyage!

14 hours ago, GloriaF said:

We had planned on using the BinaxNOW tests.  How did you know the website to use for proctored results?

If you go to Youtube.com and search for BinaxNOW tests they have some really good step by step demonstrations of the entire process. You will need to download another app called Navica to get your results. Go watch a Youtube video about the Abbott tests. It will be crystal clear in about 15 minutes and you will not be worried anymore.

On 1/30/2022 at 10:45 AM, chubbypiggy said:

If I buy the Abbott BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test 3-pack kit for $99.99, can my family of 3 persons each use our own cell phone to get a personal virtual visit with an eMed Certified Guide who will help us properly administer the test and the third-party verifies the result? Will each of us be provided via our own email address with the official eMed Labs report in order to board our cruise? Or each of us needs to buy our own test kit?

Yes - you can order one 3 pack and each of you use one of the 3 tests. You have to set up an account on Navica - that is where you enter your email address and where your test results come in to show them in the port or in the American airport if needed to return from travel outside the US. Each of you uses your current personal email address when you register on Navica.

On 8/3/2021 at 9:28 PM, beshears said:

Arzeena, I am really surprised that through Celebrity, you have to use Celebrity excursions.  I have never cruised on Celebrity, but have cruise 4 or 5 "different" cruise lines, and I have always been (if I wanted) to book whoever I wanted, or who to use at whatever port we would stop at, and NOT use the cruise line itself.

I think this is just a part of the Covid protection protocols Celebrity implemented .

The upgrade fairy gave us our first aft cabin and it is our favorite ever since. In fact, we have one booked for 14 days on the Sky leaving 2/5! 

That being said, I agree with JerrySue that the vibration during docking early in the morning can be a bit unnerving if you like to sleep late! 

We LOVE our aft cabin wake views and larger balconies and try to get one every cruise now.

Smooth sailing and following winds!

7 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I started noticing this in Nov/Dec 2021 for my 2022 and beyond sailings. In fact that option is gone from all my future bookings.
While I was on board the Ruby (Nov 22 to Dec 7) I spoke to Diana who answers the phone for the daytime shift of room service. She sent up a price list and said that they were going to continue allowing us to buy bottles of spirits for our rooms. 
 

Now might she simply not have been told yet of a change in policy for 2022?  

I board the Ruby in 2 days and one of my first phone calls will be to Diana to say hi and get some items sent up. I’ll ask and if your question hasn’t been answered by then I’ll let you know what’s happening on the Ruby at least. That’s a picture of me and Dianna.  She is really a wonderful person and works incredibly hard. 

Thank you for posting the beautiful picture of Diane - I love her smile! Yes please update me if I do not get an update soon? I don't mind calling room service to get a bottle of rum and 6 pack of coke or vodka dna 6 pack of ginger beer but I just want to know the plan if possible... no matter what we will have fun and go with the flow... but ordering our little cabin bar set up was always part of my pre-cruise routine and it feels strange not to be able to "check that box"!

Enjoy your cruises and I Look forward to hearing about your chat with Diane!

I can find where to order wine by the bottle and various pre-pay beverage packages, but we used to order a couple bottles of our favorite whiskey and rum and a 6 pack or two of mixers... I can find the 6-packs of soda but the hard liquor is hiding from me?!

Anybody have any insight to offer?

Yes we bought Princess Plus but it is nice to enjoy your own "pour" when you want it rather than ordering or going out to get one ...

Oh no… CDC in general is just losing credibility with many people based on their criteria. They appear to be singling out this industry without good scientific cause. The thresholds they use for reporting and determining risk levels are lower than criteria applied to on-shore resorts and businesses… 

We are looking at a February cruise and doing our homework… if we missed every port we would still be happy to be back on board…it’s all good to us…

22 minutes ago, nocl said:

The key point is during one cases went from less to 200 to over 5000 in adjacent two week periods.  While might have been some changes in passenger numbers, most cases in both cases are identified in the crew which, unlike passengers are subject to testing every week.  Most passengers are not tested unless they are symptomatic and report to the med center, are on B2B, or need testing for travel to other countries. In some cases the cruise lines have moved on going travel to the pier and off the ship.  So those cases might not even show up in he numbers in the later period.

 

Based upon the testing I expect 80% are probably crew.

 

Note that the CDC does have access to the full data set and the ability to analyze it in detail and in looking at it raised the risk level.

Also note that the CDC puts a ship on the “investigate and observe” list if one TENTH of one percent of passengers test positive. If there are only 500 or fewer passengers on board… 1 positive test would put knock that ship out of the green category. 
 

Without the full statistical picture they can really only feed our fear…

Everybody must decide for themselves… but so far I can’t find anything in the statistics we are provided with that causes me any alarm. I admit that we are vax’ed and boosted and both survived Covid-19 last year with no lasting effects. Even though we are in our mud and late 60’s, we have no pre-existing conditions and are in excellent health…

19 minutes ago, nocl said:

The CDC usually does not put numbers related to cruises on their web site.

 

Will this do

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2021/12/30/cdc-cruise-warning-omicron/9055443002/

 

Between Nov. 30 and Dec. 14, cruise ships operating in U.S. waters reported 162 cases of COVID-19 to the CDC. Between Dec. 15 and Dec. 29, cruise ships sailing in U.S. waters reported 5,013 COVID-19 cases to the CDC.

It would be much more meaningful information if the full statistical picture were represented.

5,013 cases out of how many people tested? What’s percentage of the crossing population is this? If it is still below in local on shore outbreak rate, it matters… What itineraries were they on? Is it possible that specific ports should be avoided due to local outbreaks that exposed cruisers? Other trend related data… understanding the case count vs total population and vaccination status would be the best case scenario.

Just now, nocl said:

Unfortunately we are not still in the June to October period.  If we were there would not be any recommendation. Current CDC data had over 5000 cases on cruise ships between Dec 15 and Dec 30.

Please send that link? I’m searching the CDC site at the moment and not finding that data. 

On 10/31/2021 at 1:55 AM, Snaxmuppet said:

There is some truth in what you say but as always... but if you look in more detail then it looks less good regarding cruising.

 

If we were all under 50, with no underlying health issues and all just had our 2nd dose or booster 14 days prior then I would agree that the risk is likely to be extremely small (but not zero).

 

However, the reality on cruise ships is quite different. The age mix is skewed very heavily towards older people... the vast majority of those dying from covid are over 70. As a result of the skewed age there are likely a lot of people on board with other health issues. 

 

But the main reason I would suggest that the risk is not as low as you suggest is that many older persons had their 2nd jab quite a while back... their resistance will be waning now and they may not yet have had their booster. If everyone had had their boosters then risks would be hugely lower. We are on board... yes, fully vaccinated, but 6 months ago... we couldn't get out booster until our return (we tried!). So the protection from our vaccination is now waning. I don't think this should just be ignored. A lot of people seem to think that just being double jabbed gives good protection... well it does but it then declines over time and like me it is quite possible that a lot of people on board had their jabs 6 months or so ago so they are nowhere near as protected.

 

You can't just say "double jabbed so I am protected"... it isn't as simple as that.

Would you consider 1300-ish positive Covid tests in 1.1 million cruisers to be a high infection rate or high risk?
 

 Numbers released by the CDC show about 1,350 cases on ships between June and October. (Note: This figure was before Omicron.) That may sound like a lot, but comes out to about a 12 cases per day across all the ships sailing and hundreds of thousands of passengers and crew.

 I think that’s safer than the numbers would be if they tested everyone attending parades and final games this week! I’ll take my chances.

12 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

I am surprised that gets past security.

We just put our multi-tools in our checked luggage... no issues then ... but yes I can tell you first hand that they will take it from you at security if you forget and put it in your carry-on and the TSA Screener is awake enough to catch it!

On 12/26/2019 at 8:12 PM, gbenjo said:

So was that a silly question  about American football or a question about silly American football 😂😂😁😁🤔🤔 I am pretty sure that it will be shown on the ship. The big events like the Super Bowl etc are pretty popular down under.

Thank you for reading the humor into it! I figured it the question could be considered silly from more than one perspective so I just through it out there. It's all about having fun! 

It is great to hear that the game will probably be available. It is always fun to watch these sorts of events with a more international crowd.  We caught it once on a Panama Canal cruise and it was quite interesting to watch with Germans, French and Asians... they laughed at the commercials a lot more than I did... but it was lots of fun.

On 12/26/2019 at 3:16 PM, GUT2407 said:

I would be surprised if it is not shown either on the satellite sport channel or in a bar.

 

the Super Bowl will be on land TV here, (Chanel 7 I think) but you won’t find many people that regularly follow the game, most Aussies are put off by the constant stoppages and all the protective gear. It gets a bit of a boost every time an Aussie looks like they may get a go.

 

Many years ago I played in a local competition mainly as a linesman and quickly decided if the ditched the padding, the stoppages and the idea of separate teams for attack defence and for goodness sake even kicking I could have grown to like the game. But all those things meant there was no attrition due to players tiring and 3 or 4 hours to play a game that could have easily been wrapped up in an hour and a half was just crazy.

 

 

Yes I can certainly see how those things about the game would annoy me more (they already do in some cases) if I had other options! I have watched your game and find it to be lots of fun!

Thanks for the great insight! I am sure it will be fun to watch with an international crowd!

Good day!

Some of us Americans are fans of the National Football League. We love our Football! Well, there is an annual event known as the "Super Bowl" scheduled to be played on February 2nd, 2020 in Miami Florida. I know that would be played on 2/4 by your calendar down under... We have been at sea for SUper Bowl games before and it was always televised in  one of the theaters or at MUTS on the Princess ships we were on...

It occurred to me that those ships all sailed out of American ports so the passengers were more American than global tourist by demographic... so probably more interested passengers on those manifests... So I wondered if the Super Bowl is popular Down Under? Should we expect it to be televised on the Sea Princess or should I be looking for a way to stream it? My Princess Travel Planner had absolutely no information for me on this topic... Obviously we will have a glorious day at Sea regardless of viewing the Super Bowl... but I am curious...

Thanks for your opinions and information!

Joni

14 hours ago, Jonibme said:

Greetings from dark and snowy Alaska!

DH and I will be arriving in Brisbane on January 26th to explore for a week before boarding the Sea Princess for NZ. I was beginning to plan our day trip activities for that pre-cruise week and thought I should be taking the impacts of the current wildfires into consideration. Can someone tell me what it is like in the Brisbane area right now?

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

Last summer, here in Alaska, we had  approximately 1.4 million acres consumed by fires. Even though the largest of the fires was nearly 2 hours drive from me, there were very smokey days and there were also very clear days... it all depended on weather movement and winds... and it could change in a very short time!

I just wanted to see how things were now and I will continue to watch as we get closer. We are ok with monsoon rain and know it is a blessing when it comes in hot dry summers so I hope you get a nice long wet streak before we get there!

Thanks everybody!

Greetings from dark and snowy Alaska!

DH and I will be arriving in Brisbane on January 26th to explore for a week before boarding the Sea Princess for NZ. I was beginning to plan our day trip activities for that pre-cruise week and thought I should be taking the impacts of the current wildfires into consideration. Can someone tell me what it is like in the Brisbane area right now?

Thank you!

3 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

Frigid?? You want to escape, this week we are expecting temps around 45°c, around 123°f. Careful what you wish for.

Yeah - I have lived in parts of the US where that is typical summer... I am hoping for highs in the 80s F when we are there in February? Might be a bit wishful?

On 8/13/2019 at 7:38 AM, nini said:

Jonibme- What B2B are you doing? Ship and dates? We are also looking into this.

Thanks!

Sea Princess - 14 day New Zealand out of Brisbane and then 7 Day out of Brisbane where we will focus on the Great Barrier Reef trips......  We fly out of Frigid Anchorage Alaska in 36 days and 10 hours... not that I am counting! LOL!

It took me less than 10 minutes to do both my application online and my husband's and we had our approvals in less than 15 minutes. Completely painless.

Joni

On 8/12/2019 at 11:36 AM, cruising sister said:

Please be ready when using the app that the picture happens very fast. I never laughed so hard after seeing  the pictures it took !  When you do it online there is no picture. Do they take one when you get there?

Thank you for the warning!

On 6/9/2019 at 12:17 AM, getting older slowly said:

Hi Jonibme

 

We are also doing our first B2B in November 2019....  to make a 26 nighter......

 

I think the best thing will be knowing they when everybody else is ending their cruise..... and disembarking

 

You will be starting the next leg on your cruise..... and you are all ready unpacked.....

 

So have a relaxing turn around day... and enjoy

 

Cheers Don

Don,

I couldn't have said it better! I am pretty excited about that special day. I always get a case of the "last day blues" when we pull out the suitcase and start packing... I will be celebrating a lazy morning on this "last day"!

Cheers to you too!

Joni

On 8/13/2019 at 10:53 AM, ggprincess2004 said:

Oh, Jonibme, forgot one important thing, contact Princess or your travel agent, and make sure your bookings are linked. Just then touch base at the passenger services desk during the first leg to make sure they roll your account folio over to the next leg.

I now have that note in my planner!  Thank you!