curtdesilets

We didn't feel terribly inconvenienced by any of the precautions either. There were lines sometimes to get into the buffet, but they moved quickly, and to be honest, I thought it was nicer once inside because it was controlled and not too crowded. In fact, we felt safer eating in the buffet than the MDR. In the MDR they didn't clean the menu covers (easily the most germ-infested items in any restaurant) and they didn't divide the serving and clearing duties. The assistant waiter would bus the table next to you and then turn right around and put down new silverware on your table for the next course.

 

We were also delighted when they cancelled the Captain's Circle thing that we had no plans to attend (I guess Captain Andy didn't want to shake all those hands, lol) because the apology note came with drink tickets good at any bar on the ship. My husband parlayed them right into martinis at Crooner's and they gave him olives. He didn't get the fancy olive platter that he loves, but he got olives plopped into the glass.

 

It could have been worse. A couple of years ago Celebrity had a sick ship and they repeatedly splashed bleach over every surface imaginable. People leaning against railings or sitting in deck chairs had their clothes ruined with no compensation. And the fumes! Anyone around these parts at the time might remember the talk about the bleach cruise. The threads were legendary! Good times.

It may have been the best they could do. And most employees were very accommodating, I agree. But we had some pretty cramped seating areas, and the other inconveniences I had mentioned. Apparently from a post on this board, the virus is still there.

my in-laws got on crown princess fri 3 june,were told about the virus on previous cruise,spoke to them sunday and they said buffet was still being served by staff who were also getting your tea /coffee.they said it was disorganised and long queues. if the out break was near the beginning of previous cruise and them passengers have got off surely should be no virus as every whereshould have had a good clen.

It blows. Believe me, the buffet business was a mess. Have your in-laws eat in the MDR. Much better bet. - OP

Jeez - years ago my son got norovirus in a college dorm. I should have demanded a tuition refund for the classes he missed!

 

It sure looks like all the whining by the OP is an attempt to 'rationalize' a future request/demand for monetary compensation.

OP's just explaining the facts. Try re-reading some of my posts. This statement about a refund was satire. :D

I don't understand. In your opening post, you used the words 'draconian' and 'mess', whislt complaining there were no nibbles served with drinks and you could not serve your own food at the buffet.

 

Now it seems that these dracnian measures were insufficient as areas in the buffet were not swabbed and sterilised before soemone else sat down?

 

So are you now saying that the draconian measures that were imposed did not go far enough?

 

Cruise lines have to try and minimize and conatin any outbreak of norovirus that occurs. The most obvious precautions to take are around food, rather than chairs, tables or perfume sprays.

My initial post using the phrase "Draconian Measures" may have been overstated. We simply felt that 10 days of code red for the buffet was excessive. You were scolded if you touched anything anywhere. It defeats the exact purpose of a buffet wherein you could put ice cream on a salad if you so wished. My wife and I were eating breakfast about 8 days into this nonsense when we witnessed the sneezing/gagging incident previously described. The Code Red measures at that point proved absolutely useless as the waiter/server/code red enforcer Princess employee basically reversed anything the ship was attempting to do. Other reviewers said that the code red was wearing out the staff.

As many posts here had suggested, by far the best advice is to AVOID the buffet and eat solely in the MDR or specialty restuarants should a "Code Red" situation occur. I would advise that if you get Code Red.

I noticed you will be on the same ship later this month. I am very interested in hearing your review afterwards, especially if Code Red is the colour of the day (or weeks).

Hope in some way this helps.

It is foolish to consider the Princess preventive medicine actions as right or wrong unless one has all of the facts at hand. Each Princess ship has a qualified physician well versed in preventive medicine who advises the Captain on steps that should be taken to prevent a wide spread outbreak of disease aboard the ship.

 

Norovirus, while usually not life threatening, is highly contagious and spreads very quickly among a closely confined group, such as on a cruise ship.

 

Preventive medicine actions are much more effective than treatment of disease entities after the fact.

 

Control of the spread of norovirus demands rapid and rigid attention to sanitation. Unfortunately, in a population of 2000 - 3000 people in close quarters that is not always possible for some will not adhere to the conditions needed (as cited in some posts above).

 

Second guessing of the actions, unless all of the medical facts are known is foolhardy. Were they right or wrong, only the ship's physican who advised the Captain truly knows.

Responding to your last line:

Second guessing of the actions, unless all of the medical facts are known is foolhardy. Were they right or wrong, only the ship's physican who advised the Captain truly knows.

What I've described is that the waiting staff truly had no idea what they were doing. And I doubt seriopusly that the medical officer or the captain knew how badly the buffet situation was. We watched as a guy sneezed and coughed and drippped all over a table and plate. Busboy took plate away. Another passenger sat there. We told the busboy to thoroughly clean the area; one swipe with a rag and the next guests continued to eat. Same server/busser than proceeded to serve drinks to next customers, etc. There was NO CONTROL whatsoever of any viruses in what we observed.

Agree.. No problem here except for the cancellation of our Chef's Table..

They Cancelled the Chef's Table as Well?

I'll have to add that to my list. Princess ought to refund some of our money.

I am surprised that they kept it on the whole 12 days unless more cases came up. Did you ask? As I was on the Coral with Cruise Junky and we were under code red until there were no new cases not the entire cruise. I can tell you they really wiped down the Horizon Court tables on the Coral and they left them wet for them to air dry. I hated sitting and waiting for the table to air dry but it was a minor inconvience and did not affect the quality of my cruise. I did hear some people grumbling about having to be served but they were always ready and capable of serving us.

Since they cramped everyone into one sitting area and one buffet line, there was no time for the tables to air dry. As soon as someone got up, another sat down and waited for a quick cleanup of the table. Again, Princess on this cruise dropped the ball at least on the buffet portion.

It was exactly as you're describing it. There's absolutely no use in getting so worked up that it overshadows your cruise... be the leaf.. go with the flow, it's a lot less stressful ;). I did a review of my cruise and Noro didn't even enter into I have a feeling it would take centre stage in yours which is sad.

This site is called Cruise Critic. Healthy criticism is all I have offered. Reread my posts and reassess.

Oh come on! Drama much? we just went through Code Red on Coral last month and went through exactly the same things you did. A minor inconvience at best.

Perhaps...not all Code Red's are created equal. your experience was probably different than ours. Just saying. :p

WOMEN? It's the men who are the worst offenders and they're the ones who are more "feely touchy" than the women. :eek:

Agreed, except for the $10 watch and handbag sale :>)

Just wanted to add like other posters, yes, as inconvenient as the Code Red is, it's really the only way to go.

 

However, having just returned from the Crown's trans Atlantic (the previous itinerary to the poster), I was very surprised at the lack of hand sanitizers around the ship. (On HAL last year someone was at the entrances to the buffets and MD with a large container of hand sanitizer. It was difficult to get past him without being 'squirted'). Even returning to the ship in port there were no sanitizers in sight. And even more shocking to me were the number of people going into the buffet who didn't bother sanitizing their hands. And don't even get me started on the number pf women who flounce out of the public bathrooms on board without washing their hands.

 

I prefer the overkill procedure than not enough.

 

 

Whew, now that I've got all that off my chest......... sorry I did go on a bit....

Thanks for the info. We noticed the same lack of hand sanitizers at the beginning of the cruise. Thus Princess may have been somewhat responsible for the outbreak. The ship was well clean during this Code Red, except for the buffet eating area.

so how was the cruise and the ports????

The cruise was overall excellent, apart from the Code Red Nonsense mentioned. 10 of 12 days were ports, so lots of excursions and exploring. Not much activities on board during those days. Sea days had great acrivities, but got a bit crowded. No sitting room for entertainment in Explorer's Lounge for instance.

Best ports for us were Dublin, Glasgow, Inverness, and Edinburgh.

We reallly really love Scotland! Great people and unbelievably warm people.

Blarney Castle is worth seeing, just for the Blarney Stone kissing thing.

Saw Loch Ness and Stonehenge and Edinburgh Castle. all Bucket List items.

We generally took half day tours, as the 8-9 hour tours WILL Exhaust you if you try them every day. Those entail getting up early, eating and off the boat around 8 am and returning around 5pm

It is worth taking this cruise, as this is a very unique itinerary.

I just wish Princess was better equipped and informative for the Norovirus thing.

BTW, all google searches showed no hits on Crown Princess getting this Norovirus...so it's as if it didn't even happen.

CDC only gets notification if a ship ports in the US and the outbreak exceeds 3%.

I won't repeat what the others have said, but your statement above leads me to ask: did you do a survey? How did you come to this conclusion? Did it ever occur to you that when crew gets sick, NONE of them are elderly?

We are in our 40's and were in the lowest percentage of age brackets. By observation over 12 days, one can assess the age of passengers. I would say the vast majority were 60's to 70's and active seniors. The two cases of quarantine that I witnessed were elderly. When a room is quarantined, they are evaluated by a "Hit Squad". I talked to them about the passengers affected. So at least 2 were elderly. But you are right. Maybe I am generalizing. Princess does a good job of misinformation, so it's hard to assess.

In response to the responses that I'm just a bitter cruise critic that doesn't get it....

I'm glad they did take the outbreak seriously, but there are details missing that overshadow the generalizations that Princess's response was on the up and up:

Some Random observations:

Both Maitre d's that I talked to said very few (i.e less than 20) were affected but that they went to Code Red to be preventative. There was apparently a large upswing (perhaps all 20 in one day) in new cases on the second day that prompted the code red.

Coming back from excursions, it was hit or miss whether or not you were squirted with hand sanitizer. Likewise for most restaurants and the original embarkation. There were no fliers or anything to inform guests of all the precautions one should take. There were also a lot of foreigners (Chinese in particular) that I'm sure had no idea what the Captain was saying over the PA. And all he really said was to use your own bathroom.

The cafeteria situation was the worst hindrance to the cruise experience.

Same guys/gals who are bussing and cleaning tables (like plates that people just sneezed on) are now handing out sugar, salt and pepper, drinks etc. without re-sanitizing hands between every action. It seems if anything, this will spread more virus than contain it. BTW, most tables were not well cleaned! And there were a lot of hackers, sneezers and gaggers with common colds/flus and other contagious things! It was difficult to watch and eat. Someone on another board said the best thing to do with Norovirus is just eat in the MDR. Of course, I read that AFTER we got back.

The lack of freedom to get ANY of your own food for 10 straight days really smarts. You have no control over proportions. Imagine a salad prepared by randomly selected sizes of each item, usually misinterpreted by the serving personnel. This includes dressing. Now imagine that for each and every food item that you attempt to eat over the course of a 12 day cruise. It was like a Laurel and Hardy scene! Although the lauhter fades after the first day or so.

It was as if the entire CROWN PRINCESS restaurant crew was not trained to do any of this. It seriously was a mess.

Order coffee with creme and they might serve you upwards 4 ounces of pure creme (not half and half) in the cup. The coffee was entirely white! They ALWAYS over-served whatever you asked for.

Order creme on the side and they fill an entire 8 oz glass full of creme in which you might use 1 tablespoon and have to toss the rest (WASTEFUL).

10 dollar sale...no restrictions whatsoever! There were hundreds of people touching all the watches, handbags etc.... Irony? Consistency? What gives Princess? Same with the casino chips/cards. Seems it's okay for hundreds of people to touch those without any problem

Canceling all Captain Club events Huh?????

Taking away all complimentary items like salty snacks with your cocktails?

It goes on and on...

What Holland America does is they do a Code Red sort of enforcement for the first 48 hours or so, and if everyone is fine, they open up the buffet. Princess is opposite. They are lax in enforcing clean hands at the beginning, and once an outbreak occurs they go into paranoia model for the rest of the cruise. For 5 days of a 7 day cruise, that might be okay.

For 10 days of a 12 day cruise...ridiculous!

I welcome more thoughts on the subject.

Again apart from this, we had a wonderful time. Princess just needs to re-evaluate this Code Red procedure.

We just returned from the 12 day British Isles Cruise that left Southampton on May 22. We were notified by the captain on day 3 that the cruise had acquired Norovirus. They went to something called "Code Red" which meant that all food at the buffet was handed to you, amongst about another dozen other Draconian measures.

The cruise itself was fabulous; the "Code Red" business was a disaster. I'll give you more details later, but here is a sampling:

They canceled all "Captain Club" events, took the drink and fruit stations away from the spa area, closed down the international food court for dinner, took the cologne and perfume testers away, minimized the number of buffet stations open to one! No snacks, peanuts, olives, or cherries were served with any drinks, and were not even available upon request. Why? Who knows? It was a mess and really created a bad cruise experience.:mad:

I had info from some officers and managers that the total number of people hit was "under 20", amongst a cruise of about 3000 guests. The cruise was primarily retirees given the departure date of mid-May, and thus sickness numbers will spike regardless. So 20 or so supposedly sick elderly people and Princess's idiotic response measures affected the other 2980 passengers considerably.

Anyone else experience this Code Red nonsense before?

Anyone here just get back from this cruise who has opinions on the mess?

I totally agree that the other thread got wayyyy off topic! There where many many non-secrets there that I had to filter though. Here are some tips I found (BTW it took me 8 solid hours of reading 48 pages and 951 posts) These are the things that caught my eye and I made note of:

 

• Complementary plate of assorted stuffed olives at the martini bar.

• Pre purchase internet minutes before you leave you’ll get free minutes based on the package you pick.

• Escargot!!!

• Insulated travel coffee mug

• One of the dining rooms will be open for lunch on embarkation day.

• Volcano dessert, available on children's menu basically a huge banana split.

• When you open the little door under the TV for the plug, well, there are extra outlets not being used. But not if it’s a flat screen

• Ask for Egg crates, top sheet, robe, slippers, bed topper, and upgraded pillows.

• Always ask if there is a charge.

• Under your bed is more bedding.

• Cocktails for $2.99 in all the bars after 8.00pm.

• Request that the steward remove the soft drinks and bottled water from inside and on top of the fridge to make room for our own drinks.

• Request extra hangers.

• Passenger Service Desk (also called the Hotel Manager) will make a hole in our card which we hang on lanyards. They will also do that for you in the casino and give you a lanyard.

• There is another electrical point under the bed.

• Bring a roll of quarters and laundry supplies.

• If you decide to eat in a specialty restaurant you may want to make the reservation for the last night

• Sabatini’s reservation for the night that they are serving Italian food in the main dining room.

• Reservations for the steak house ask to sit at the counter overlooking the kitchen area, fun to watch the staff put it altogether and see the teamwork involved.

• The Fettuccine Alfredo!!! Plus it’s served in a Parmesan bowl, a crispy melted cheese bowl.

• Bring along a small electric alarm clock.

• On the first day, we simply ask to see the week’s menus and look over what’s happing for the week. Then make plans for the week there and then. The MD or any head waiter can show them to you.

• Can go up to the Spa to shower.

• Take 3 or 4 of those black metal binder clips or plastic clothes pens and hang them on the bottom edge of the shower curtain.

• Computer station in the Future Cruise booking area or Internet Cafe, free e-postcard, 300 character limit but you could send more than one message to the same email address if you need to get a longer message out.

• Befriending the maitre'd, the head waiter, and everyone who takes care of you.

• Appetizers and sushi are free in the Vines wine bar but not the cheese.

• When you get off of the elevator to go to your room, one side of the ship on every passenger deck the hallways have blue carpeting. The other side has blue carpeting but there is some red in that side.

• Duck liver pâté appetizer.

• Various lamb entrees.

• Last night of the cruise, head up to the Horizon Court (or the International Café) for some pre-travel treats. Cookies are always available. We put a couple cookies in our zip loc bag(s) for our travel home the next day.

• Ask for anchovies on your caesar salad at dinner.

• Take a pop-up mesh hamper for your dirty clothes.

• Empty luggage? The Steward will stow it for you.

• Find out when/where the Muster drill is and go get your life jacket. Take it with you a little ahead of time and "beat the crowd".

• Highlighters for Princess Patters and highlight times/ places/ activities, etc for the next day

• Sticky notes for when spouse sleeps in to leave a note on the MIRROR or DOOR

• Magnet to put it on the door.

• Water bottles for on shore.

• Clothes line in the bathroom for swimming clothes

• On disembarkation day if you are trying to get on an elevator to get down to the disembarkation decks, push the up button, ride up and then down as the up elevators are not full.

• We take our empty water bottles up to the buffet and fill them from the water spigots there (late at night just before we go to bed) oh and we might pick up some desserts to eat too lol!!!

• twice-baked goat cheese soufflé,

• Lobster and Scampie Dinner with a side of Alfredo.

• Purex 3-in-1 strips

• air freshner

• waterproof case, that will go around your neck and will hold your ID, cruise card, credit card etc. while swimming/snorkeling in port.

• empty beach bag a place to put all your purchases

 

 

I hoped this helped and I really hope this thread stays on topic instead of fighting with each other like the last one :)

This is the berst post ever!!!! :)

25 people on the balcony still will require some wiggle room and possibly some spilled drinks from elbow infractions;)

To: SCOTTAMILLER

 

"I personally LOVED my C1 hump cabin #1243 - about triple the size of a standard balcony - it was HUGE!!!!! Literally the largest non-suite balcony on the ship! The balcony was great for hosting cocktail parties - we had 25+ people out there one day! Being on the aft part of the hump there was virtually no wind issue to deal with. "

 

thanx for the tip

just switched our C1 to 1120 on Solstice.

Now will need to find 25 foks for a cocktail paty.

Great news, we have booked resort deck 2110 for our May Equinox Cruise. Seems only drawback might be the lack of forward visibility, but a big deck without wind and soot (i.e truly aft cabins sometimes get soot) seems awesome! :D

I personally LOVED my C1 hump cabin #1243 - about triple the size of a standard balcony - it was HUGE!!!!! Literally the largest non-suite balcony on the ship! The balcony was great for hosting cocktail parties - we had 25+ people out there one day! Being on the aft part of the hump there was virtually no wind issue to deal with. We got sun when we wanted it, and shade if desired as well. Due to balcony depth there were no privacy issues related to the angled shape.

 

There are 58 +/- cabins with the same size balcony we had - they are:

 

Resort Deck: 2105, 2109, 2106, 2110

Penthouse Deck: 1547, 1552, 1601, 1605, 1606, 1610

Sky Deck: 1075, 1044, 1231, 1243, 1247, 1108, 1120, 1124

Panorama Deck: 9155, 9192, 9209, 9215, 9237, 9241, 9266, 9270, 9292, 9296

Vista Deck: 8199, 8162, 8255, 8259, 8281, 8285, 8228, 8232, 8254, 8258

Sunrise Deck: 7159, 7206, 7215, 7219, 7241, 7245, 7260, 7264, 7286, 7290

Continental Deck: 6155, 6156, 6209, 6215, 6237, 6241, 6210, 6214, 6236, 6240

 

Most of these are on the hump, but some are forward where the ship starts to indent. The rooms run the range from Category 2C, 1A, C1, or AQ (with the exception of 6209/6210 which are categorized as 07 Obstucted Balcony - great balcony at a small price!). There are also many cabins adjacent to the ones I listed that also have oversized balconies that are about double the size of normal ones, but I would go for the triple sized ones first :D

 

Hope this helps!

Scott

 

P.S. - I'd also tend to choose the ones that angle to the aft over the ones that angle towards the bow as the forward facing ones could tend to get windy .....