BestGuessed

Thank you Camgirl. 
It is looking quite likely that your cruise will go ahead I think🤞.  
Ours isn’t until April and we are fairly hopeful that this omicron variant will be waning by then and we might start edging back towards some sort of normality.  What has happened in Denmark is interesting ……!!

Camgirl please can I ask which cruise you will be on and when it is?  

Would you report back to us please about all things “dancing” as my husband and I are also dancers and would like to know what is happening on board.  
We love to dance to live music whether it is the orchestra or a singer and band but I believe The Yacht Club only has recorded music at present.  

Any information would be very gratefully received !!

Thank you Barrie and BigMac for your replies.  I am wondering whether there is any chance this may change back to not having to wear a mask when dancing  by mid April  …..   🤔  I think that going back a few cruises you were allowed to dance without a mask if dancing with your own partner.
 

BigMac, I agree the inconsistencies are very strange. From the protocols imposed in the theatre I presume that we are far more likely to catch Covid whilst seated and watching a show than we are when chatting in a bar or seated in the Britannia dining room sharing a table for six with other fellow passengers. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Hi Barrie … please can I ask whether masks were required while dancing in the Queens Ballroom and in the Yacht Club on your cruise?  
Looking at what another poster has written about the current QE cruise it seems masks are required for both and I am wondering if this is new and has only just been imposed or whether this was the protocol on your cruise too.
Thank you. 

Hello Kinshasa.    Thank you for posting about the present ballroom and club mask protocols  … It is of special interest to us as dancers.  
Please would you keep posting and give us as much information as possible with regard to all present protocols on board as every detail is helpful.

We won’t be cruising until April but we would appreciate whatever you have time to share. Have a great cruise.

Thank you in advance. 👍🏻BG.

We too have decided to explore alternative options and are looking closely at the new Ambassador ship “Ambience” soon to be launched … (yes I know it’s CMV reincarnated!!)

I can’t see it being comparable with Cunard, Celebrity or Saga but it could possibly find a niche in the market somewhere around the current P&O/Princess standard?  
Also it is mainly adults only which is a big attraction.

We will be having our first Saga cruise onboard SoA in July.  Really loving hearing all about the ship and seeing the photos.  Thank you so much for posting Linda.

We did likewise Majortom.

We would have loved to have been onboard now but the risk of being offloaded in a foreign port was personally unacceptable to us and although that risk is minimal the “what if” worry would have blighted our cruise.

Having said that we really envy everyone who is onboard at present and hope you all have the most fantastic cruise. 🌞🍾🥂

Hi Matelot70  We will look forward to receiving your news whenever you are able to post … Thank you for reporting back to us !!

Have an absolutely wonderful cruise.   Wish we were sailing too.
Enjoy your first evening on board 🍾🥂

Thank you Gary, I am really glad to hear that you are having a great time and there have been no obvious issues.  

There have been many reports regarding QM and we would have been on the cruise after yours on QE but we got twitchy when the balance became due, so now our next cruise will be in April going to the Western Mediterranean.

Can I please ask if the usual amenities are all still open … ie the spa and the gym and is there dancing in the Queens Room to music from the orchestra?  
Also is the Yacht Club open as usual?

Thank you for updating us in with the current situation.  

Enjoy your cruise and make the most of the lovely sunshine while you can. ….. Although today has been a nice sunny day here in Kent we have had some really miserable weather since the 6th January !!

Thank you again.

BG

Hello to everyone who is currently onboard Queen Elizabeth, we hope you are having a lovely cruise with beautiful sunshine and calm seas.

For those of us who have upcoming cruises and an interest in what is happening at present, would any of you be able to give some updates as to the current protocols and your personal observations please?   
Any information you can provide about what is happening (or not) would be very gratefully received !!

Thank you in advance.

BG

I have such enormous admiration for your attitude.  
If only there were more people like you … You are an inspiration.  
I hope you are reunited with your husband very soon and you are both are able enjoy the final days putting this unenviable event behind you.  
Have a safe journey home. x

My husband and I were booked on QE for the 18th January Atlantic Coast Adventure cruise but due to threat of being offloaded when the balance became due for payment in December we cancelled and moved the deposit to another cruise much later this year.  
Our thoughts were that should the offloading situation change we would be able rebook at the last minute.  

It was through these boards (I apologise for mostly being a lurker rather than a regular poster!) I had gleaned enough information to realise that the possibility of being offloaded was very real and in any case the “what if” worry would spoil our cruise.    

We all appreciate that current situation is a nightmare for the cruise lines but would it not be an option to resume sun seeking cruises without docking anywhere so people who are willing to just enjoy the onboard experience will book a cruise holiday?  
It isn’t ideal for those who only cruise for the ports and itinerary but there are some of us who would be satisfied with a little winter sun and the luxury of being on a ship again.  

Could this not be the answer for the cruise lines at the moment?  

If we were assured that the worst we could expect to happen (emergencies excluded obviously) would be to isolate in our own cabin as would be the case during an outbreak of norovirus, we would find that acceptable.  The prospect of being offloaded at a foreign port is not.

Sadly we have now resigned ourselves to the fact that we will not be cruising for a while.

Hi Terri (silkworms). I had exactly the same problem when onboard Britannia back in September and I posted on here at the time.  
teddyd33  very kindly replied with a solution that worked.  You can still see my post from 30th September on page 12 of this board if you scroll back through and perhaps what teddy told me to try will work for you too.  
Hope this might be of help.

9 hours ago, devonuk said:

This info is absolute tosh. In October I was on the Sky when we had 2 days of terrible weather and sea swells returning to Soton via the Bay of Biscay whilst in L103 and there was NO restrictions whatsoever..! We did venture out onto the balcony in the stormy weather for the fun of it and it certainly cleared the cob webs 😁

Thank you to Jimbo1683 for finding and posting the original thread.

Thinking about this in more detail, I think the restriction is due to the position of the four mini suite cabins on the front corner of the ship above the bridge (ie.   L107, L108, M107 and M108).     As these balconies are wrap around, high up, and therefore very exposed I think it is most likely a safety precaution to prevent anyone being blown overboard.  

Thinking about this further ….  Relatively,  these cabins are very spacious but not exceptionally expensive, but it also seems they are not very popular and are often the last to sell.  This would point to there being a reason and I think this is possibly because the balcony cannot be used when the ship is in motion.      
However,  I think that if Princess are not allowing use of the balcony when sailing they should use a different phrase to describe these cabins and include the word “prohibited” instead of “limited” which give two different impressions.

My personal theory (and I could well be wrong here!!) is that the balcony for cabin L103 (along with the other balconies directly across the front of the ship) is not exposed as much as the corner cabins and therefore doesn’t have quite the same risk of a person being blown overboard when the ship is in motion.

Thank you to everyone who has commented on this thread, it has all been very helpful.
 

After our findings today we have changed our forward facing mini suite cabins (L107 and M108) for two cruises on Sky Princess.  
Our TA contacted Princess on our behalf just to check the “limited” use of the balcony whilst ship is at sea and we have been told that on both Lido deck and Marina deck these balconies cannot be used when the ship is in motion. 
Our TA was as shocked as we are … it means that when sailing at five knots along a fjord we wouldn’t be permitted to make use of the huge balcony.  So what is the point of having (and paying for) a wonderful spacious balcony with such a restriction? 

From what I have seen written on here, it would appear that this applies to Sky Princess but not to Royal or Regal Princess, yet the word “limited” is used to describe the forward facing balconies on all these ships when “prohibited” is more appropriate for Sky Princess.   (We have only been told this with regard to the mini suites so I can’t be sure about the balcony cabins but it seems most likely that these would be affected too).
We have to wonder whether this will now be brought in for all the newer ships but this rule needs to be made very clear by Princess to people who are booking these cabins.

When we cruised on Island Princess through the Panama Canal in 2013 we found the ship feeling old and tired.  The air conditioning struggled with the heat and barely worked in our balcony cabin. I am sure the ship has been refurbished at least once since then and would have been updated but in our opinion Equinox is a much nicer ship and having cruised on her twice and her sister ship Eclipse five times we would most definitely opt for Celebrity Equinox.  Hope this helps !!

Yes that is most definitely something to consider however the itineraries we are looking at will probably not be conducive to sitting outside for long periods of time.  Standing to admire the view and take some photos will be fine for us.  
Thank you for pointing that out though !!

Thank you nini and franktown for your replies.

So the limitation of balcony use is down to the position of the cabin making it windier than most and possible adverse weather conditions, rather than the door being locked when we are at sea?  
Whilst we have no intention whatsoever of using the balcony when it is unpleasant or unsafe to do so, we want to be sure that we can make use of it when cruising along a fjord for instance, or during sailaways.  

The phrase “balcony access limited while ship is at sea” almost seems to suggest that we would not be permitted to use it when the ship is moving.

Thanks for the clarification.

Please could anyone who has experience of the forward facing balcony cabins on Sky Princess please comment about the “limited” usage, particularly on Lido and Marina decks?  Does this apply to all sea days and only permit use of the balcony when the ship is in dock or does the restriction only apply for safety reasons when the ship is out in open rough seas?  
The phrase   “Balcony access limited while ship is at sea”   is rather woolly !!
Thank you in advance to anyone who can help.

Hello again …. firstly to answer Mrk2868 …. No you cannot book a time/table in either of the two MDR’s unless you want to eat at 6pm or 6.15pm.  You have to join a virtual queue via the app when you are ready to eat or a little before you are ready.   The alternative is to go to the desk and if there are no tables available at that time you will be given a pager.  

With regard to wifi, we started with the standard package but after two days we upgraded to premium as the wifi is very poor.
All I can say is the premium package works “adequately” !!

Secondly, as promised,  I asked about whether the Freedom Dining system that is operating at present is here to stay and I have been told “No” … (thank goodness for that!!).  
Apparently they had hoped to have resumed Club Dining by the time the international cruises started but they are still using the Oriental restaurant for staff dining to enable social distancing which has meant they only have Meridian and Peninsular restaurants available for guests at present, hence this system.
So from what I learned, Club Dining will eventually be brought back but not just yet.

It’s a bit vague, I know, but the good news is that the Freedom Dining system isn’t set to be permanent from what I was told.

Something else I will add here is that there are massive queues today to get into The Live Lounge to take advantage of the free wifi the ship is providing for the purpose of completing the PLF.   

My husband’s advice is that anyone who struggles with IT should perhaps ask someone at home to set up the account before you leave to make it simpler once on board.

He set ours up before we left home so that all he had to do was log into the account and finalise the details using this iPad but using our personal email addresses.   

It was quick and fairly easy process because he had completed everything he could do beforehand, while still at home. 

The problem is, that if on future cruises Passenger Locator Forms are still required and you haven’t purchased a wifi package and haven’t got a 4G enabled phone, you will have to queue to use the facility the ship is providing unless you are able to find some free wifi when ashore.

Forewarned is forearmed so hope this might help.

Yes we are at 75% capacity, so reasonably full, however The Peninsula and Meridian restaurants are the only two main dining rooms in use at the moment. The Oriental isn’t being used so probably the other two dining rooms are catering for what would be considered normal numbers.

If I have the opportunity, I will ask at the dining room desk this evening to see if they can provide any insight as to whether this Freedom Dining is forevermore or whether the Club Dining option is likely to return and I will post the reply tomorrow. …. Watch this space !!

5 minutes ago, bee-ess said:

Excellent report.... Thanks

 

This is the first I have heard about no fixed dining on Britannia, we are on her in January and am expecting fixed dining and have had no notification about Dining options changing. Has there been an announcement I have missed ?

 

We weren’t informed beforehand and had expected to be on the 8.30pm sitting which we had opted for.   However once we were onboard we were told that everything would be freedom dining unless you want to eat at 6pm or 6.15pm for which you can pre-book a table.

My husband and I are on day twelve of the first Britannia cruise out of British waters post Covid.  I am posting our observations and opinions about how everything is running on onboard at present, the good and the bad, in the hope that it might be useful to others. 

The staff are excellent as always and they have made us very welcome. Sadly, the Club Dining option is not operating (will it ever come back?) so there is no rapport with “your own” waiting staff at meal times.  The dining arrangements are that you have to join a virtual queue via the app or turn up and be given a pager at busy times.  The waiting times are very long at popular times.  See traffic light notification that is part of the daily Horizon newsletter.

Tables are selected randomly for you so you rarely get to sit in the same section two days running.    We think this is a shame as the rapport we built up with our waiters was always a big part of our daily dining experience.  From comments made, it seems that the waiting staff don’t like this arrangement either.
Something else that has changed is that you are now asked to choose your dessert when you initially place your order. This isn’t always very satisfactory as it is difficult to gauge how full you will be feeling and which dessert will appeal once you have consumed the first two courses.  However, we found that if we made a request to look at the menu again later, we were able to do so.

Whilst on the subject of dining, if you want to book a speciality restaurant or The Limelight Club and the app shows the venue to be full, most definitely go to see the staff in person and most times there are tables available.  They do not book all the tables out via the app and you will more than likely be able to book if you ask in person.

Passengers are now permitted to get off the ship and explore independently in the ports.  Temperatures are taken at the point of leaving the ship using a device pointed at your forehead so it is very quick, giving instant results and creates no queues or backlog.

We have been told that the ship is sailing at around 75% capacity but most evenings a “House Full” sign is put outside The Live Lounge during the mid evening performance and a queue forms.  The band “Pulse” are excellent and they are very popular. 
Theatre shows and performances in The Live Lounge normally have three showings/sets and the early and late performances are usually the least well attended so we have opted to organise our evenings around this.  There are organised ballroom and sequence dancing sessions in The Crystal Room for an hour most evenings and some afternoon sessions. These are supervised by dance hosts and there are lessons on most sea days.  Masks are not required unless dancing with someone other than your own partner.
 

Our advice is to think ahead and plan what you want to do in advance.  It isn’t what we usually expect to do when we are on holiday but there has been very little spontaneity on this cruise !! 

Other notes that might be useful … our cruise is fourteen nights long and there are four formal nights which I believe is the way it used to be.  Some passengers on this cruise were rather surprised as they didn’t expect that there would be so many.

I will finish by adding a few of our own personal opinions and things that we have found to be  talking points …

On every ship we have been on in the past there have been two live bands on board.  On Britannia there is only one upbeat band who are the fantastic “Pulse,” plus the Britannia orchestra, and these musicians all produce the most phenomenal sounds.  There are couple of other quieter entertainers.
However there is no music filling the atrium and as a result the ship totally lacks any sort of holiday atmosphere.    
Dancing to live music anywhere on the ship is banned.  Disco dancing is allowed to recorded music between live performances in The Live Lounge but this doesn’t have the same feel good factor to it and it must be soul destroying for the musicians to be playing to a dead dance floor. Dancing is not allowed in The Limelight Club either and tables have been placed on the floor to prevent anyone using it.

This could make some sense if other protocols didn’t contradict it.  Guests are allowed to get off and explore ports independently and eat with other unknown people at the same table in groups of up to six.   Everyone mixes and mingles maskless in the bars yet masks are required when walking around the ship. In the past few days a sign appeared in the lifts to say we should refrain from talking which makes no sense as everyone happily chats maskless to one another in the lounges and dining rooms and there is not very much distance between tables.

So, in our opinion, the protocols seem to be rather pointless.    We were told that during a bingo session you should not call “Bingo” but clap instead !!!!

In the conveniences washbasins are sealed over with film printed DO NOT USE but there are more cubicles in use than washbasins which then causes a queue waiting in a confined area to use the basin.  
 

So, to sum up our findings on this cruise;   We haven’t been able to make sense of the inconsistencies and we have felt very frustrated at times.  
Having said that, we sailed with Celebrity onboard Silhouette for eight nights in July and everything on board apart from mask wearing, was cruising as we had hoped it would be and have previously enjoyed.  Therefore perhaps our expectations of this cruise were overly high as we were hoping for a similar experience.  I think if we had come with less expectation we wouldn’t have been disappointed and I think that might be the key.  

So our advice would be to expect many changes and come prepared for the fact that things will be different.  On a very positive note, the glorious sunshine we have had on this cruise has lifted our spirits tremendously and it has been a lovely break.
 

16 hours ago, Cruiserjules said:

I'm so sorry all, I've just looked on the bottom of the emailed receipt - and there it is!

Hope you  enjoyed the pretty upside down pictures of the box!

 

Panic Over!

Jules x

 

Hi Jules, we have just got back from a very good excursion in Cartagena and I have checked this thread … very pleased to learn that you have now found the required reference number.
Perhaps I should have said that you would find it on the email you received when you booked the test … 🤔… it’s not on the box !!😆😆

You can relax now anyway !! 👍🏻😄😎