Coffeeluvr05

I was booked on the Lido deck and moved to deck 8/Emerald/Aft. Kind of strange.

We logged in to check some details of our October sailing on the Discovery only to see that our cabin changed from a lido MF mini-suite to an aft ME mini-suite. Not sure if they consider that an upgrade, but I sure don't and would have really liked a heads up. We also have a do not upgrade on our booking so we wouldn't have to deal with this. I contacted our TA and they contacted Princess and I guess Princess is giving some sort of Covid quarantine explanation as to why we were moved. Whaaaat?!? So our TA was told that in 3 business days we would receive an email from Princess with our options for cabins since our original one is not available. I do not know what is going on at the Princess corporate office but I am starting to lose confidence in their ability to perform even minimal customer service. Has anyone else experienced this? Our TA said this is new and they are finding it very strange as well.

Ruby Princess 5/20 sailing

There was a notice in our cabin upon embarkation that instructed us to notify the ship's medical staff at the onset of any symptoms. While yes, it requires honesty, I cannot imagine anyone not wanting to get tested to be sure that they don't have Covid knowing that some will not have minor symptoms should they catch it. I have been back for two weeks and I still have a pretty bad cough. I also had a secondary infection that I had to get an antibiotic to help with.

When we experienced symptoms, we followed directions by calling and reporting it and they sent a medic to our room to administer the Covid test. We were notified a little while later that we had a positive result and instructions on how we would proceed. I should also mention that we also did our own self test before calling as well and we let them know that we had performed the antigen self test. They did a PCR test.

@MudderBear How did you know it was just a head cold and not Covid? Did the ship's medical staff do a PCR test once your symptoms presented? The reason I ask is a bad head cold is exactly what I thought I had and I had Covid. 😬

Yes, Paxlovid is available by prescription on board. We did not choose to get it.

Currently in quarantine on the Ruby. The ship is providing Tylenol, sudafed, cough syrup, and throat lozenges complimentary. They just brought us more cough syrup today when we needed more. I wished I had packed my Kleenex from home. I went through a couple of boxes of the terrible cheap stuff and they brought us two big boxes of actual Kleenex brand tissue. My nose had already taken the hit though. I wish I had aquaphor for my nose. And some comfy clothes, not just pajamas. I wished I had packed some of my essential oils. I had sinus pressure so bad the first day my teeth hurt. Oils usually help me with that. Other than that you have to have what makes you comfortable away from home. Our ship crew has been amazing and have been taking excellent care of us. We get calls daily sometimes twice to check on us. I have zero complaints thus far!

I had considered asking them about an antiviral but I would prefer my own doctor’s input. Other than the paramedic who initially came to our room to administer the PCR test when we first reported it we have only been contacted by Guest Services each day to see how we are doing and if we need anything. We seem to be doing fine with Tylenol, decongestant, and cough medicine. Even our room steward calls and asks if we need anything even though another team actually handles stuff. Everyone has been really great. I wish I had all their names because it is times like these when it really counts.

Yes, we are here for the rest of the cruise. We are identified somehow to all crew as “in isolation”. When they were here swapping out our towels and emptying trash we heard “we have an open door” over their radio so they must know when our door is open. I would never leave in this condition though.

Thanks for the well wishes. Yes, very much like a bad cold. Went from bad sinus pressure to just a lot of congestion and now it is in my chest. I would most certainly not want to be walking around the ship in this condition even if I didn’t have Covid. I sound horrible!

We are on the port side. Those are gorgeous photos! Thanks for sharing!

Being quarantined on the Ruby has been a bummer since it happened half way in but I must say we are being well cared for! Someone calls us and asks us what we want for lunch and dinner before we are even hungry. We have had great meals from the MDR. It’s not the same as being there but they are trying! The medical staff has brought us Tylenol and cold meds. Today our bed linens were changed which I was not expecting. Our room steward brought us real Kleenex today instead of that rough stuff we have been using. Oh my how appreciative I am! My nose is raw! We get to stay in our original cabin because we asked for a room with a bathtub like what we have and they didn’t have one so they let us stay in our room. We are in a mini suite. Of course I would much rather be in the comfort of my home while being sick, this could be so much worse.

We were told by the person who checks you in with the medallion scanner but we confirmed with the head waiter on our way out from dinner on our first night. They told us even if we are going to go to a specialty restaurant one night not to cancel our MDR reservation. They said our table is held each evening and if we are more than 20 minutes late then they can release it to someone else.

Captain just announced the swells are 4 meters or about 13 feet. I googled it! Ha! Crown grill and Sabatini's are both fully booked on the nights we want so we asked to be on the wait list. They alternate nights so they are not both open each night. The MDR was not crowded during our dining time of 5:20. Lots of empty tables. We were told we would have the same table each night but we still needed to check in with our medallion with the hostess instead of just walking to our table. Our waiter was happy to hear that and so were we.

You will be notified on the ship in the papers they leave in your room where it is located and what time each evening.

For those of you wanting to know the schedule of what days are formal nights.

I had the pan fried Alaskan cod last night and it was delicious! I’m not a big fish eater and this was really good!

Movies Under The Stars

Whoa. I am definitely not a first time cruiser, but next year will be my first Carnival cruise on the Panorama and I've been a little hesitant about the whole thing and when I read this post and saw the word roaches I am almost ready to cancel my cruise. I have NEVER seen them on any cruise I've taken and I would just die if I saw them in my cruise cabin. It would likely ruin my vacation. That may sound extreme to some, but I cannot deal with that. I have a pretty severe aversion/phobia to that kind of thing and it really would ruin my trip. This is a family trip for a special occasion with our daughter, her husband and our grandkids and her husband has never cruised and I am afraid this would ruin cruising for him if he had this experience the first time. 🙁

So with the OPs scenario, Princess would always just lump the OBC into one bucket in the end to apply to the entire account? I've always wondered this.

We do not travel with kids (ours are grown) but I don't think there are restrictions as long as kids are accompanied by an adult in the lounges when games are being played. Trivia is fun for the whole family...at least I think so! We sailed once during a holiday period where there were a lot of families on Board and I seem to recall there being games in the Piazza that all could join in too. Like folding a paper airplane and seeing who could fly it the furthest. There were other fun games in the Piazza like that too. I think it really depends on the cruise director and their staff TBH. There are also ping pong tables. Some of the entertainment in the Princess Theater is really good and I would consider most of the comedy clean. Not all kids would get the comedy but it is mostly clean.

When we were on the Majestic in February for a Mexican Riviera sailing the Hollywood Conservatory was an adult only area. I'm not sure why it would be different for other sailings. I think it is meant to be an adult relaxation area from what I understand. The online chat reps are notorious for giving incorrect information. Sorry.

Why are we talking about what another cruise line offers? This is a Princess discussion. Way to confuse the topic peeps!

I think I would feel less complainey about all of this if I could opt to purchase it for myself and not my husband (either Plus or the stupid "Premier"). Or offer a non-alcohol version of both packages for the individuals who do not drink. Believe it or not, Princess, not everyone in the same cabin wants the same thing and isn't just wanting to opt out of the purchase to cheat the system and share a package! I can only imagine how confusing this is going to be for the servers. I imagine getting lots of Premier drinks even if I have the Plus package in the beginning of this 😁