NownZen

This was done last month. Notice the word "most". There are still two cruises under the enhanced protocol voyages that require testing.

This brings up an interesting point since quarantine is not required on shore. Friends were on NCL and tested positive a few days before the end of the cruise. They had to wait until everyone else disembarked and then the people in white suits showed up to escort them off the ship and left them at the taxi line.

This is one of the best reasons for pushing one over the edge into buying the package. There are lots of specialty drinks etc that cheap people like me would not order to try otherwise. The other reason is that the wine pours are so small that you need to keep them coming to have any effect.

We were on the Island in may and while waiting for the sail away they were loading rolls of carpeting which ended up being put into the buffet. I did not see anything wrong with what they had. We had no plumbing problems, no smells, no worn fabric. We were very happy. The number of covid cases is all by passenger reports and may not be representative of the different ships. There was another ship before we left where they "reported" hundreds of cases. However, there was lots of coughing. It may be that there seemed to be more cases as al large fraction of the passengers were doing a b2b and there was a test before the second phase.

Interesting. Musk has put up a lot of satellites which should help both bandwidth and coverage. The ones that Princess uses are aimed mostly at the land masses and are much better closer to the equator. Maybe Princess should change their motto to "Not the worst internet at sea"/

The weak link is probably the satellite bandwidth. Get a thousand people streaming and you start needing gigabits per second. The system is probably underdesigned or there is just not that bandwidth available. To be fair, Princess said the best internet at sea and that is relative if others are worse. Better does not seem to mean good.

Also scanning your passport could put your middle name in and it does not like that.

You made the unfounded assumption that things would stay the same. They did not. None of the points you made were guaranteed.

They show up at the port with their paperwork just as we did in the past. There is no need for the app.

The Grand did have them and January.

The availability of wines and liquors is subject to change. There have been several threads about a shortage of wines. If you have the plus package and get something more than $12, you pay the difference (plus the 18% tip). For us the plus package at $50/day works best as all beers, most cocktails and some wines are included. Remember that the package also includes crew tips and internet access. I do not know much about the liquors but on various live threads people have posted pictures of the drink list.

I am between the point of acknowledging my mistakes and just making everything up. You are right. I should be particularly aware of this as we have a cruise coming up on the Sirena.

Thank you for posting all this information. For me, the take away is that there is not a huge difference in the costs. We all make cost decisions (inside versus balcony versus suite) according to what experience we expect. To me, the experience is the point. We travel also on other lines and do not choose on direct cost. Often it is itineraries. Oceania, for example, ends up about twice the cost of Princess but they go places Princess does not. If we want to go there, we make a value judgement and make a decision. For others, specialty restaurants are key. Others, entertainment. I am curious to hear about your onboard experiences.

You have a good point. I really miss a small couch. That was one of the joys of the smaller ships.

On the Island in may/june there were only a few tables outside the doors. I walked two decks (about 500 cabins) and saw 10 tables. Just before the end of the cruise it seemed like every other cabin had a table in front and they were using the glass top tables from the rooms. It seems that this was from the tests on the B2B passengers. Someone said that of the 800 going on, that there were around 200 who tested positive. That is consistent with what we saw. It also is consistent with the amount of coughing we heard around the ship.

I think there is an inverse correlation with the desirability of the ships and the age. My favorite ships are the small ships (as in the old Royal, Ocean and Pacific Princess ships). The newer ships are much more inward oriented and they lose much of the feel of being at sea. We also sail with Oceania (which has the old Pacific Princess as the Sirena). We like the promenade decks and sitting and watching the ocean both at the front of the ship and the wake. We were on a cruise a couple of months ago on the Island and were very happy. Our favorites are the Grand class ships. They are big but do not seem overwhelming. I cannot imagine being on a ship with 6000 passengers and the crowding that comes with that. But we cruise either for the destinations (more often Oceania there) or for relaxation (like the Hawaii runs). We are not into the shows or casino or restaurant choices so YMMV.

This post should take a prize for the accomplishment of having everything in it wrong. It is not worth replying to individual points since he is not capable of understanding his glaring mistakes. His arrogance shields him from seeing his ignorance. By the way, you claim that gambling on a cruise will get you lots of money and free cruises. How is that working out for you?

Me neither. That is why it struck me as odd they would even list that.

They were available on our cruises this year.

Thank you for all your efforts. Let us know how you are doing with recovery.

With the exception of Princess, have you ever been asked for your vaccination card?

This is a strange sign. Masks have not been required (except for doctor's offices) for almost two years. No one will ask for your vaccination card unless you are getting a booster. No one wears masks anymore.

It is a bit hard to tell timing as this just started very recently. However, there are some reports of about 3 weeks prior to sailing. This would make sense as they want to wait to see if higher bids will come in but do not wait so long that they cannot offer your room as an upgrade bid to others.

You can upload a picture of the card on the app but for us it always said "pending approval". They never looked at the app at checkin for anything. Only wanted the documents. A bit of vaccination humor. We got our bivalent booster the other day but forgot to take our cards with us to the pharmacy. They said we could come back with the cards later or just fill them out ourselves. We have the official state records but it casts some doubt on the effectiveness of having the cards.

If you are in the buffet and order through the app, they go to the dispensers that you can go to to get the hot water. I do not know if there is any effect but in the US McDonalds was sued because the tea or coffee was too hot and burned someone (even though it was her son's fault). She got something like $8 million dollars. They turned down the temperature after that.