travelbug615

Many Thanks Pete for such a informative and lengthy review of Gus's presentation.  I really appreciate your time and effort, for this reporting as well as all the other information you are making available on your website. 

I wonder if you had anyway to determine if the majority of the complaints were with  passengers whom had done world cruises prior to 2023?  Do you have any sense of the level of complaints with passengers for whom are sailing on a WC for the first time in 2023.

On 11/4/2022 at 1:51 PM, Noesja said:

Unfortunately I tested positive on my latest cruise and had to isolate for 6 days. I'm looking to book a new cruise, but the FCC I'm supposed to get doesn't show in my account. Anybody with experience on this matter? How long before it will appear? I know I can make a phonecall, but figured asking here is so much faster 😉

Do you have any updated information about your situation?  We also caught Covid  during a cruise  last month and were isolated for 5 days.  The paperwork given to us onboard stated we didn't have to do anything to receive our FCC.  HAL would process it since we had HAL insurance.  We are wondering how long it will take to get the FCC and if we truly don't have to contact HAL or if we need to start complaining after a certain time period.   

We are currently on the NS and my husband tested positive for Covid two days ago.   I’ll summarize our experience for the information of others making decisions.  
 

We brought our own Covid tests with us. My husband woke up day 8 of our 28 day cruise with symptoms, so we tested ourselves. He was positive and I was negative.  We contacted ship’s medical and they sent a nurse up to retest us with the same results.  Husband has to quarantine for five days and get retested the 6 th day.  I have to retest on day 2 ( tomorrow).  We have a balcony cabin so we are allowed to stay in our original cabin.  I do not know if we were in an inside whether or not they had a vacant balcony room to put us in.  
I am allowed to go anywhere I want on the ship wearing a mask , they did ask that I eat inside our cabin.  
T his morning  I saw the nurse entering a room down the hall from us to test someone else.  She passed me saying “busy,busy” 

We took HALs platinum insurance for this cruise. We had always self insured the cost of our cruises and had a year long GeoBlue policy for medical coverage as we traveled internationally an average of 120 days per year. 
On our 3 cruises since Covid we have taken the HAL insurance, mainly so we could cancel at the last minute.  So far we have been happy with the HAL response to my husband being positive.  We have already received paperwork about getting cruise credits for his days in quarantine as well as paperwork for his recovery if we need that for travel home.  
I am just hoping I remain negative. We don’t have room to isolate from each other in a cabin.  
The ship is full. Crowds lined up for the dining room and full theater 20 minutes before show time.  One thing I have noticed is there is no one telling you to wash your hands before you enter the lido or asking you to use hand sanitizer before entering the dining room, this was routine before Covid.  
HAL did not put a red dot on our door so walking the halls you can’t tell how many rooms are quarantined. 
We have had all five vaccine shots and are 65 with good health. Neither of us has had Covid to our knowledge before.  
 

24 minutes ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

Sorry to hear that your husband tested positive.   Did your husband get tested because he had symptoms or as part of a ship wide screening?

He had symptoms. We have heard a lot of people coughing on board the last couple of days. Husband had a headache, sinus congestion and chills overnight but no cough . We both got the new bivalent booster in early September.  We are traveling with another couple so we tested ourselves right away because we have been sharing a lot of time and meals for the past week and didn’t want to share Covid if that was the cause of husband’s symptoms.  We thought it more likely it was the flu. 
Our sailing had no pre cruise Covid test requirement.  I wouldn’t be surprised if lots of people don’t  get tested when they come up with symptoms on board or prior to boarding and will just continue with all their cruise activities, especially if it is a bucket list or their one cruise for the year.  
It will be interesting how  Covid quarantining on HAL will evolve in the near future. 

 

We have been on the NS for 8 days of our 28 trip (two 14 night B2B sailings). My husband tested positive for Covid this morning and I tested negative.  I would guess less than 10 % of passengers wearing masks.  Glad for the crew to not have to wear the masks when so few of the passengers wear them.  But our friends told us the crew on NS this morning were still wearing masks.  
We are waiting to hear what they will do about quarantine for us.  Hoping we can stay in our present cabin. 
 

Anyone know when HAL will announce the Oct-Nov-Dec 2023 Caribbean sailings?    

Thanks

Thanks for sharing.  It is a wonderful resource for DIY

44 minutes ago, brovol said:

Does anyone have the direct link to the AARP cards?  The original post has a link to the AARP rewards page, but I cant find the HAL gift cards through that link.

I got the above link to work today and was able to buy 5 cards.  You do have to log into an AARP account first

On 2/5/2022 at 9:34 AM, grest said:

Thanks so much.   Wondering if you noticed any large print books available?

Yes, I did notice at least one book that said it was in large print, sorry I don't remember the title.  Since I wasn't looking for large print editions, there may have been more that I didn't take notice of.

We were on the Rotterdam in January.  I just wanted to say I loved the library on the Rotterdam.  I am so glad HAL is dedicating the space onboard for a library.  It  is like a small bookstore with multiple copies of books.  I am a big reader and belong to a book club.  I have read quite of few of these selections before hand and I think whomever made the selections did a good job.  So good in fact, that I took photos of the books to make a list of possible new selections for my bookclub at home.  I am "iced in" at the moment due to a storm, so I took the time to make an excel list on this dready day.  Thought I would post this in case it might interest anyone.  I didn't take photos of the Young Adult/ Children  or Poetry Sections.  The list is from the Fiction, Mystery, Non Fiction, Romance and  Featured Sections.  There was also a bookshelf to leave books you brought and finished onboard.  

I received it as well.  Live in TN.  I have 3 cruises currently booked. I wonder if that had a factor in my getting the survey?

33 minutes ago, NMCruiser123 said:

Today has been passing pretty quickly.  I worked with my dumbbells for a while, did a crossword, and have been torturing my friends and family for hours on FaceTime.  

Glad time is passing quickly for you.  I have a question about your ability to FaceTime.  Are you doing that through the ship Wifi only?  and if so has the ship's Wifi been strong enough for you to do this  for your whole voyage?   

I am thankful that you have an electronic contection to the world.  We have been on so many sailings preCovid where the ships Wifi hardly worked at all for hours at a time.

I don't know if the ship would have access to add a yoga, tai chi or stretching video series to its onboard offerings on the TV.  A follow along exercise video would be good to help pass the time and give people a mood boost while they are in isolation in their cabins. 

Continued good vibes being sent your way.   

Thanks for making the effort to share your experience with others.   I hope you remain asymptomatic and your days pass quickly.  Maybe you can have some interesting conversations with you next door neighbors via your balconies.  Lots of us here on CC pulling for you.  Best Wishes.

We are booked this month on a 13 night Caribbean itinerary that returns to Fort Lauderdale mid cruise.  It is also possible to book the 7 night and 6 night portions as B2B cruises.  Has anyone sailed recently with a itinerary that returns to Fort Lauderdale mid cruise?  If so did the ship test you for covid mid cruise?  From what I have read on CC people are getting tested by ships if they are doing B2B,  but I haven't heard about about mid cruise testing in passengers that have booked longer itineraries, like we are booked.  We will be on the Rotterdam.

Thanks

I Just saw a posting on FB today with a photo of an offical letter stating that the Jan 8th sailing on Nieuw Amsterdam has been cancelled.  The letter offered to have the passengers move to the Jan 9th sailing of the Rotterdam.  Anyone with more info on this?

Just saw a  person on FB posting that HAL has cancelled the  Nieuw Amsterdam Jan 8th sailing and the person posting said HAL wanted to move them to the Jan 9th sailing on the Rotterdam.  Have you heard anything about this onboard?

Even more NCL cruises cancelled today

1 minute ago, dollyd said:

Thank you to Parkerson I’m sure it’s your car that made a difference. I will update when I’m out of here.

I wonder if while in Medical you can find out how many people on board are positive now, and if the number is more than they can handle at the moment?  There must be some reason for the ship being so unresponsive to you.  Wishing the best for you and your fellow passengers going thru this.  

13 minutes ago, dawei said:

We're also booked on Rotterdam's Jan. 16, 7-nighter, if  it's a HAL cruise you're also booked on.

This is not the first time I've found disagreements between a Caribbean island's requirements and those for a cruise ship visit. One example is testing for visits to the ABC islands. The ABCs' websites have European-like requirements that a cruise would never be able to meet (PCR, quarantines). However, those requirements all refer to visitors traveling by air; no mention of cruise ship visits.

Since Half Moon is owned by Carnival Corp., I can't believe HAL would not have let us know if there's a different testing requirement and how it could be met. 

I've learned that a PCR test isn't a quick one; it takes something like 2-3 or possibly more days for results. How that's possible with a cruise ship visit is unknown to me.

 

David

We are on the Rotterdam as well, 13 night itinerary for us, with two visits to Half Moon Cay.  If the PCR test is required, I beleive HAL would have to cancel Half Moon Cay as it would be too hard/expensive to test everyone  with a PCR.   

I  believe I have read that HAL has cancelled other ports when the port call was mid cruise and the port wanted a 2 day prior to port AG test for everyone, which would require on board AG testing of all passengers.

 I am trying to figure out the impossible, i.e.  what are the chances of actually visiting each port of call on our intinerary?    It would  be nice to know if anyone was keeping tabs on the number/percentage of port calls that have been cancelled in the last week and being able to watch if the percentage of cancel port calls is rapidly rising or staying constant.  

We are booked on a Jan. 16th sailing that includes Half Moon Cay.  I found the below update on website  ttps://www.bahamas.com/travelupdates.  Anyone aware of this new testing requirement and how it will effect port stops at Half Moon Cay?  

• Effective Jan. 7, 2022, fully vaccinated persons must present a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR (including PCR, NAA, NAAT, TMA or RNA) test.
  • COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Tests will no longer be accepted. Travellers must obtain a COVID-19 RT-PCR test.

I have always done all the research, selected our cabin and then booked our 25+ cruises  with a big box TA to get OBC/cash cards.  I basically just tell the TA everything, and don't rely on any information from them.   I am wondering if there is any negative to this for booking a world cruise.  Did anyone learn any lessons in 2020 when the WC was cancelled mid sail that might be relevant to booking the 2024 WC this way?

I have used luggage forward twice.  Once I sent my bag from the U. S.  to a cruise ship leaving from Yokohama.  Bag made it directly to our cabin fine.  Second time we had a bag taken from the ship at the end of a cruise in Singapore and sent to the U.S.  We were directed to deliver the bag to the ship's  front desk.  We asked the cruise ship's front desk to confirm the arrangement.  It took the cruise staff several days to confirm this arrangement.  That bag made it to the US earlier than Luggage forward had promised.  No one was home, and they left the bag at our front door.  We were not notified before hand of the  early delivery date and had not made provisions for someone to be home when it was delivered.  It  arrived several days earlier than scheduled.  That was the only issue we had.  We did recieve an email it had been delivered. After reading the email we were able to have our house sitter come and get the bag inside. This could have been an issue, I didn't like that we had a large suitcase sitting on our front porch for most of the day.

I would use the company again.  We used the service as we were traveling on land by ourselves pre cruise and post cruise and didn't want to haul an extra bag around to mulitple destinations. 

A couple we are traveling with on an upcoming cruise may have to cancel the cruise after final payments have been paid.  They understand that they will  lose the cost of the cruise as it is after final payment and they have no travel insurance.  My question  is there any difference in calling Princess and letting them know that they have to cancel the cruise  versus just not showing up? (they would be calling only a few days before the sailing)

Will they get their port tax fees refunded if they call Princess?  Will they get their port tax fees refunded if they don't show up?  

It will just be a few days before the actual sailing date, when they will know for sure whether they can go on the cruise or not.

They also have a small refundable OBC with their booking.  Will a check reimbursing the refundable OBC be sent to them if they call Princess to cancel and/or if they are no shows?

We have cruised alot, but have not come across this problem ourselves.  I would like to hear if anyone has experienced this scenario.

On 10/18/2019 at 9:22 AM, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

We're glad to hear that they enjoyed their excursion . Princess may only be able to cruise around Antarctica a couple of more years but that tours runs from Puenta Arenas , Chile so it may continue to operate from SA .

I see someone posted about new safety codes for the ships sailing around Antarctica.  Are there extra  safety measures taken on oboard that you could notice on current sailings on Princess ships?