TexasBrit

Sorry if this had been discussed previously, I searched for it and nothing came up.

So, does Disney offer OBC for shareholders of Disney Company, like Carnival and RC do?

If so, what is the rate?

Thanks

8 hours ago, satxdiver said:

We went to the Captain's Circle party tonight.  The captain can be pretty funny as he told stories mostly about himself.  Probably the most personable captain we have ever come across.  Here are the statistics for our cruise for those interested:

 

First timers 1956

Gold (after one cruise) 558

Ruby (after three cruises) 199

Platinum (after 5 cruises) 298

Elite (after 15 cruises) 132

 

1st most - 1799 days

2nd most - 1034 days

3rd most - 993 days

 Earlier I was told 360 minors aboard.  

Many of those first timers may have been on cruises with other companies before.

I understand that Princess was undercutting Carnival and RC prices for the Galveston cruises in order to get people on board, as this is their first time back in Texas after many years.

This may have tempted people who may have taken a cruise from Galveston anyway to select Princess this time, as well as totally new cruisers who suddenly could afford the prices being offered by Princess but Carnival and RC were out of their price range. This may have been particularly true for those cruises during the Spring Break weeks that were fully booked and had hundreds of children aboard.

It is a pity that everyone had bad luck with the weather situation on this particular cruise.

I think that people who were on many of the previous weeks cruises on Ruby were very pleased with their experience.

4 hours ago, ingesey said:

 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

No one thinks that the weather is Princess’ fault, but I do think that we could have docked at Roatan, that the Captain gave up too soon.

 

 

 

This Captain has been bringing his ship into port at Roatan every week for a few months. Do you really think that you know better than he does regarding docking his ship under various conditions?

Are you aware of the years of training and experience a person has to have before being appointed as a Captain of a huge passenger ship?

He is aware how disappointed the passengers would be about the missed port they have looked forward to visiting. I am quite certain he did NOT take this decision lightly and certainly not did give up too soon!

When the Caribbean Princess did a TA a few years ago and called in at Liverpool, they brought on Pete Best of all people!

54 minutes ago, LeeW said:

Usually they have local people with Princess signs in all the baggage areas.  These folks will check you in and direct you to the bus loading area.  They know the flight schedules of all people who have booked transfers.

Thank you.

We are driving to IAH and leaving the car there, so it will be there when we fly back from SF. So we won't be on any flight schedule going in. We will have the parking lot shuttle bus take us to Terminal C as mentioned above.

Does anyone know what is the location to board the Princess transfer bus at Houston Bush (IAH)?

There are several separate terminals there.

2 hours ago, negn said:

Just of Enchanted.   OBC was on my account.   I did charge casino play  to my room and it was subtracted from the OBC.  

I was told that not all types of OBC can be used for casino play. Specifically excluded was the shareholder OBC and maybe the military OBC.

Any further input would be appreciated.

1 minute ago, Times Prince said:

Better check the date for your cruise that's in your signature.  We're at sea on 4/23.

Short for April 2023, just like all the other dates on there, month/year 🤣

6 minutes ago, eclue said:

It could be the other poster never went to the buffet. We ate daily in the buffet and it was on Saturday when they opened the place to self serving....we had dinner there. I remember.

Thank you.

This was the Saturday that was the last full day of the cruise, right? So from Sunday to Friday the food was served by the crew?

Maybe cubfan63 did just not go there on Saturday or Sunday morning.

We are booked on Ruby next month which is why I am very interested to get as much correct info as possible. 😇

1 hour ago, cubfan63 said:

Just off Ruby Princess March 5 - 12, 2023, and now sitting at IAH waiting for flight. 

 

The crew serving the passengers in the buffet throughout the Cruise.   

8 minutes ago, eclue said:

Actually they ended the crew serving the food at the buffet on the Saturday of the cruise. We were then able to serve ourselves at the buffet.

I

 

 

Why are there two totally different comments about this? Which one is correct?

5 hours ago, TenneSea said:

Hand sanitizer does not kill Norovirus.  It will kill Covid, but not Noro. 

As mentioned in some earlier posts, it is the 65% alcohol sanitizer that is not effective against Norovirus. The 85% alcohol sanitizer is effective. It is available in some stores and online. Also Norovirus is not spread by the airborne route as COVID is, so masks would be no good anyway.

11 minutes ago, sammyjoanne said:

Going on the emerald in a few weeks time, so I am forewarned thanks to this thread.

Will definitely take some soap, maybe a nail scubber and bring own shampoo shower gel products.

I know sanitizer doesnt do much for noro, but will take it anyway when on trips.

It is the common 65% ethyl alcohol sanitizer that is ineffective. But the 85% ethyl alcohol sanitizer that Purell sells is effective. It is hard to find but Walgreen's had some, see my earlier post. I see you are in UK, so I don't know where you can get it there. But I expect someplace will sell it, perhaps Boots?

2 hours ago, VibeGuy said:

The one with the research backing it is the stuff in the onboard dispensers - Purell VF Plus. 

FYI, Walgreen's (and maybe other retailers) have the 85% sanitizer. It's called Purell PRIME DEFENSE. I just picked up the  last 4 oz bottle at my local store and will be looking for another one when they restock.

3 hours ago, ldtr said:

I was not dismissive of the article.  I was just responding to the individual that talked about that something was unique with the Ruby since it had a much larger outbreak than any of their 4 cruises.

 

 

 

so far this year you have

 

Princess Cruises Ruby Princess 2/26 – 3/5 Unknown

Royal Caribbean International Jewel of the Seas 1/28 – 2/3Unknown

Royal Caribbean International Brilliance of the Seas 1/16 – 1/21Unknown

P&O Cruises Arcadia 1/3 – 4/13 Norovirus

 

In 2019 there were 10.  If anything the numbers have been lower since the restart, probably due to lower passenger density.

 

There were no outbreaks on my 4 cruises that I knew about or heard about. I am sure if there had been a substantial number of cases we would have known about it and would have seen some precautions put in place.

By contrast there were almost 300 people hit on the Ruby 2/26-3/5, which brought about the introduction of precautions and also a deep cleaning before the next cruise, which does makes it unique in that regard.

I am guessing you wrote unknown for this cruise because the actual causative agent has not been conclusively identified so far, but it doesn't take a Nobel prize winner to figure out what caused it.

Lower passenger density so far since restart is one contributing factor to the lower numbers compared to 2019, although two of the cruises I was on were almost at capacity, but also probably due to the extra care passengers were taking with precautions, including hand washing,  in order to prevent COVID. And also we are barely into the third month of 2023, so who knows what the entire year will look like. I know that masks and the standard 65% ETOH hand sanitizer are ineffective against Norovirus. I suspect that now the worry about COVID has substantially lessened, so has the vigilance to stay safe.

1 hour ago, memoak said:

Noro has been on ships since I started sailing in 1991. This is not really NEWS

Yes Norovirus has been on the ships often in the past. What is new, and news, is the recent large outbreak on one particular ship. I have been on 4 cruises since the restart and did not see or hear about any cases of Norovirus on those ships. There were none of the precautions that I had seen previously when there had been some outbreaks, such as the frequent cleaning of surfaces, and plates being handed out in the buffets as you enter, rather than picking them up off the  large stack, etc. which we are now hearing about on Ruby. Of course people were more concerned with COVID precautions, some of which may have helped the Norovirus situation as well.

Complacency is one of the problems that lead to these outbreaks.

7 hours ago, VibeGuy said:

Purell VF Plus is the proprietary 85% ethanol formula.  This paper specifically discusses how it inactivates norovirus, leaving it unable to infect gastric cells. 
 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7756425/

 

Here’s another paper comparing it to BAK:

 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.869087/full

 

The previous cruise ship strength formula was VF481, a 70% ethanol/6% isopropanol formula with a modified pH and a copper salt - it was the first to be substantially better than 70% ethanol gels which are literally 10-20x better than isopropanol scrubs. 
 

Food Code compliant refers to model food code Section 2 301.16 - which is both an efficacy claim on particular foodborne pathogens and that the ingredients are food safe without rinsing the hands afterwards.  
 

I was not on team gel prior to the development of VF481 specifically because of their lousy performance on non-enveloped viruses.  Two things changed my mind - one was a move away from whether gels reduced viral loads as measured by PCR to tests based on reductions of infectious capability - you can PCR the DNA in a Dorito really easily but you can’t plant one and harvest corn on the cob later. Better cell culture techniques make infectivity testing a better choice for evaluating sanitizer claims.  
 

The other thing that changed my mind was the very rapid improvement in the gel performance, due in part to research sponsored by the cruise lines - they’re tired of the association of Noro with ocean vacations, when it is endemic in childcare and healthcare environments shoreside.  While a 3.3log decrease isn’t particularly impressive on, say, fecal coliform species, it’s darned impressive on such a tenacious virus as Noro.  99.97% reduction in infectivity, when used properly, is enough to prevent a lot of cases.  The old formula was good enough to convince me to use it as an adjunct, the new formula is demonstrably better. 

I would like to see the automated systems on more ships - they’re effective and the sanitizers can be updated/swapped as new threats emerge.  Until then, I’m just going to assume that literally every other guest has infectious fecal matter on their hands and add an additional kill step after touching shared utensils, even though my hands are usually still damp with sanitizer when I’m touching said utensils.  I’m not a germaphobe.  I’ve literally consumed chicken sashimi.  I just don’t trust the hand hygiene of people who can’t be fired for improper handwashing when it comes to food. 

 

 

Thank you for posting this useful information. As a retired research scientist I appreciate real scientific factual data and information rather than the uninformed opinions of people who don't know what they are talking about. I knew the usual 65% EtOH hand sanitizer that is available everywhere (because it is effective against COVID-19) was not effective against norovirus due to the protein capsid but hadn't yet heard of the stronger version. We will be sure to bring and use the 85% EtOH formula sanitizer on our next cruise on this ship.

51 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

 

You said they dance on the tables, I said no, on platforms. This looks like the platform to me. Does it look like a dining table to you?

3 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

How do you know for sure there is a deck 13?  Most understand that deck 13 is removed during const'n and they put #14 right on top of #12.  That is why major shipyards have a deck junk pile filled with all those #13's that were never used.   Apprentice shipwrights often cut their teeth erasing the "1" so they can be retasked as deck 3's.   

Sure they do, sure they do. Now take your medicine and have a nice lie down.

1 hour ago, skynight said:

Decks have both names and numbers. Believe elevator buttons have numbers. No Princess ship has a deck 13. They all go from 12 to 14.

There actually is a deck 13 though. They just number it as 14! It's the same on most other cruise ships, and also hotels and large office buildings. Triskaidekaphobia!

On 2/28/2023 at 12:25 PM, caribill said:

 

Another difference: On Princess the waitstaff does not dance on top of the dining room tables.

They do dance on Carnival, but NOT on the dining tables. There are special platforms that a few of the waiters dance on. The others dance on the floor. Our teenage granddaughters loved that aspect of the dining experience, but we can see where others would find it annoying. However most of the other passengers seemed to enjoy it also and several joined in the dancing, with others taking photos of the FUN!

1 hour ago, PrincessLuver said:

Ships were much much smaller 30 years ago so it really has more to do with scale then rising costs.  Less services equal less crew needed which leads to less expense.

But if costs have gone up and prices have been reduced, even if some savings are made elsewhere, the overall result is lower quality for the consumer. This has happened. Nobody thinks the quality on any of the mass market lines is anywhere near what it was 30 years ago. And this was true before the COVID shutdown, and is even more so now, especially as the companies are trying to erase all of their red ink. We have been on four cruises after the restart and were not particularly happy with any of them, for different reasons, not always food-related, although some were better than others. We have one more scheduled which is on Princess hence I have been following this board. So far it sounds very similar to our recent experiences.

On 2/24/2023 at 9:00 PM, JimmyVWine said:

I don’t spend any time reading any other cruise line boards on CC but out of curiosity, are there any lines where the loyalists are routinely posting: “I’m so happy that there haven’t been any cutbacks since the restart”? It might be that you will have to pay luxury cruise line prices to get what the mass market cruise lines used to provide. For some that will be a good trade. For others, paying mass market prices still works even if the Fettuccine Alfredo has now transmogrified into Lasagna. 

30 or so years ago a 7-day cruise on most of the MM lines was around $700 or so. This is about $1600 in today's money. But a 7-day cruise is still $700 or less now. Food prices and other costs have increased substantially over this time period. This is why things are not as good as they used to be. So yes, the alternative is to go to the higher priced lines if you still want this level of service. I imagine we will be doing so also, but this will mean less frequent cruises than we have been used to recently.

6 hours ago, SAKay said:

@TexasBrit Hello, we also will be on the Ruby out of Galveston in April for the Panama Canal cruise. To allay some of your concerns, we went on our first cruise since the shutdown in Dec 2022 on the Caribbean Princess. This was our fifth Princess cruise. We had a wonderful time and are really looking forward to the April cruise. We were on the cruise with my daughter and her family, including my 3 grandchildren. We all loved our cruise ! 
 

While nothing is perfect in life, overall our cruise was great !  Here are some of our experiences:

 

-
 

Thank you. We did not cancel, so we will be taking things as they come. Our expectations will not be high, after our recent experience on HAL, but we can live with it for the itinerary.

We were on the Caribbean Princess several years ago for the transatlantic which was fine. If our Ruby Princess Panama Canal is at least at that level, it will be okay.

29 minutes ago, Cruise Suzy said:

 

Once onboard, you can reserve a time for open dining - same time every day or different time each day. Can do in Navigator, at the kiosk or by phone. Canaletto had a special entree each day, we like the ones for Sunday and Wednesday.

Could not do open dining reservations on the app on our recent NS cruise. Only by telephone or at the booking stand. However popular dinner times get filled up quickly especially for 2-tops, we could never get one. It seems they can only reserve 50% of the available tables. But there was no waiting for a table after the first night which was quite chaotic. 20-30 minute wait in the Ocean Bar with a buzzer, after a slow line to get to the host desk at the door. Several people got fed up of waiting and decided just to go to the buffet instead asking nearby people to return their buzzers for them!

Our recent experience as new to HAL on the NS in December.

As you Wish or Anytime dining can be a mixed bag. Sometimes there is a line at the door and then another wait for a table up to 30 minutes. This usually happens on the first night. For subsequent nights seating was essentially immediate. Getting a 2-top is sometimes a slightly longer wait than taking a shared table.

It is possible to make a reservation by telephone, and then you get a separate line and check-in desk. However reservations for the popular times go early and are hard to get (compared to some other cruise lines that use apps). I found out after some questioning that they only do reservations for 50% of the available tables.

They will usually assign to the same general seating area each time. But if you don't like your seating area, they will assign you to a different one if you ask on your next visit.