Lady Chew

We were on the Serenade in late January/early February, and remember Hannah quite well.  She was a hoot and a half.

Her account is quite good, obviously there have been difficulties for her, but overall she seems very upbeat.  Nothing negative to say about the way she is being treated - no "Horror"  I guess no newspaper is allowed to print anything positive about cruising …   

Thank you for sharing your journey with us, the good & the bad.  Your positive attitude throughout is admirable.

(We met very briefly on the last day of the 2019 GWV, we chatted a while in the Ocean Bar, while we were getting ready to disembark.  I think you were staying on to go back through the canal to California)

At any rate, wishing you safe travels, whenever they resume!

9 hours ago, greykitty said:

 

Sorry about the duplicate posts … 

9 hours ago, greykitty said:

 

9 hours ago, greykitty said:

My question would be how will cruise lines modify cleaning of personal and public spaces between cruises going forward.  It seems to me from reading here that every cruise line basically practices minimal cleaning between cruises; people get off at 9:00 am and people get on around noon same day, a schedule like that?  

 

If that's true, obviously there is minimal sanitizing cleaning being done - possibly even less than the local Comfort Inn between guest arrivals. 

 

Should cruise lines be mandated to allow for actual sanitizing of spaces between cruises?  Even if that means taking an entire day, or two, between cruises?  And, yes, of course fares would go up to reflect this loss of 'days'.  Fair trade?

I've wondered about this myself.  With so little time between passengers getting out of the cabins and back into the cabins, how thorough can the cleaning actually be?   I know they change the linens, and vacuum, and give the bathroom a good wipe down (I doubt they do any actual sanitizing) … but they certainly don't clean (and by clean, I mean wash) out the drawers or shelves or safes … or clean the remotes or the phone ...

This is now a real concern for many of us … and I certainly don't "have" to get on the ship by lunchtime or "have" to get in my cabin by 1 pm!

Your posts have always been a real treat, you are always so upbeat, even with this year's problems.  Thank you so much for sharing the good & the bad.

If I can ever get Mr Chew to take another GWV (we did 2019) I hope we'll be able to meet you!

Safe travels home!  

(We stayed in the airport Rydges a few years ago, before & after an Australia circumnavigation.  Loved it!)

1 minute ago, Roz said:

 

I've wondered the same thing but was reluctant to post it.  This whole situation lesson for us all, both for ourselves and our elderly relatives.  The stress of the whole ordeal is going to take its toll on some of the passengers.

Thank you.  It was very hard to write.  I pray that there is none of the virus on board.

5 hours ago, cruiserchuck said:

If someone is fit enough to go on a four month cruise, you would think they probably are fit enough to take a long international flight.  

Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case.  We were on last year's GWV and were astounded at how many elderly people were on board who were incapable of getting off the ship because of various disabilities/illnesses.  Many of them were very delightful people and we enjoyed their company at various activities, but we had to wonder why they were even on such a long journey, especially those who were unable to get home on their own if needed.   We even asked one of our favorites, and she said "so that I will be waited on all the time"

A cruise around the world goes to many places with substandard medical/health care & facilities … many of them are very far away from home for everyone … and there are never any guarantees on cruises that you won't have to disembark somewhere other than the original disembarkation port.

Based on what happened with the Diamond Princess, I'm sure that HAL does not want to have the same outcome.  There are many elderly people on board with fragile health who would be severely impacted by the coronavirus.   If there are any issues, you are better off in Australia than you would be on board a ship for an unspecified amount of time.  

I'm sure many of you will be unhappy with this post, but this is the reality.

4 minutes ago, SavvyAdam said:

I am really glad you posted this. 

Setting sail on Silhouette on Sunday and still planning on going unless the US Border is completed closed (I am from Canada) or Celebrity cancels between now and Sunday. 

 

Happy Cursing Everyone ! 

Oh, dear!  

1 hour ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

The worst thing about the cruise ship is how easily the government can refuse to let it dock. It's more difficult to quarantine everyone who was on a plane with someone who has come down with the COVID virus. People disperse quickly after a flight. But on a ship, one person has symptoms and there's a captive population to be quarantined. It's just the nature of cruising that makes ship passengers easier to keep out of a port. Just look at how Westerdam was jerked around by countries that still had flights arriving and departing.

This is exactly right.  Right now, we have no travel scheduled at all until late May, but we do have 5 cruises booked within the next 8 months.  We still have a while before final payment on any of them and we haven't made any flight reservations.  Just hotels, which can all be cancelled with no penalty.  

I am more concerned with catching the virus in an airport or airplane than on a ship, but am definitely more concerned about being quarantined on a ship than on land.

We've also seen people who were served 6 drinks at dinner, one at a time, over the course of an hour or two.  It may not be a frequent occurrence, but it can & does happen.  

 I think you SHOULD report this incident to HQ.  This was totally mishandled by staff.  Unrolling soiled bedding in the cabin?  Not removing ALL of the bedding to be replaced?  Not wiping down (sanitizing) walls & other surfaces that may have been contaminated?   Completely & utterly wrong, and it should be passed on.  Seems like everyone from Guest Services to Housekeeping to Cabin Steward needs training.  

Sounds like this was the flu, rather than Noro, which I think causes eruptions at both ends.  If a ship can't handle that, how on earth can they hope to deal with the Coronavirus?

The Hotel Director needs to called out for this as well.  

We were on the same cruise (although not in a suite).  I can confirm that it was total chaos once you got outside of the terminal.  Probably the worse we have ever experienced.  The lack of signs to direct you to taxis or shuttles or Uber contributed to the confusion.  Shuttles & taxis & private cars were pulling up willy-nilly, so people simply jumped the lines to grab one, as did we.  There was no order and no one to help direct passengers as there usually are.  There was one female porter who wasn't actually portering (?) but kept yelling nonsense at passengers.  Porters were plowing through the lines, first on the right then on the left, then back on the right, expecting people in line to keep moving their luggage from one side to the other …

Total Chaos.

There were eight very large ships in port, so obviously meant the port was crowded, but there is no excuse for the port authorities poor handling of the morning.  Clearly more outside direction and help were needed.

I was on the Celebrity Silhouette earlier this month.  Went to get some ice tea to go with my lunch.  Saw a woman who was unable to figure out how the drink dispensers worked (!) so she was pulling on the spouts to try to get her drink.  All five of them across the dispenser, back & forth, back & forth.  I told her "use the buttons" and then immediately flagged down a manager and told him what had happened.  He did close the station and a few minutes later I saw someone cleaning the dispensers.

But - no more ice tea for me!!  At least not from the dispensers in the buffet!

We are sailing from Sydney in October into November, and are not too concerned at this point. The Aussie govt seems to be taking very serious & good precautions to keep the virus from spreading into their country.  We intend to keep watching what happens over the next few months before final payment.  Will wait until then to make flight arrangements.  Hotel reservations can be cancelled anytime without penalty.

South!  I agree with PhoenixCruiser!!

 If you want HEAT, you need to go south!

We have had some cool days on both east & west itineraries in this time frame.  Nice enough weather, but not hot.

Maybe we should all just stay home … 🙄

Since we are just two weeks away from Serenade of the Seas, followed by Celebrity Silhouette, when we got the notice from Celebrity about the increase, we were also wondering if Royal would increase as well.  We asked our TA and she checked, told us that they would not be increasing grats in the near future, as they just did sometime last year.  

1 hour ago, Denny01 said:

Now that we understand he’s not wrapping a true American flag around his waist to use as swim trunks and it’s only red white and blue in color, you probably could have asked if it was ok to wear swim trunks that represented one of the following countries or territories that have red white and blue (in various shades) in their flag:

 

Akrotiri American Samoa Ashmore and Cartier Islands  Australia Bermuda Bouvet Island British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Cabo Verde Cambodia Chile Clipperton Island Cook Islands Coral Sea Islands  Costa Rica Croatia  Cuba Czechia Dhekelia Dominican Republic Falklands Faroe Islands Fuji France Guam Haiti Heard Island Iceland Jan Mayen North Korea Laos Liberia Luxembourg  Montserrat  Navassa Island Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Norway Panama Paraguay Pitcairn Island Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Martin Samoa Serbia Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia South Georgia Island Svalbard Taiwan Thailand Turks and Caicos Island United Kingdom United States wake Island

 

Den

 

Sheldon?  Is this you?

20 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

 

If you didn't like them the first time why did you keep coming back?

 

We LOVE their music … but in concerts they amp up the sound way too much for many people, including us.  The first time it happened, people started walking out in droves with their hands over their ears, after about 3 songs … the second time, we brought some very good earplugs and they did nothing.  Same thing happened, people left with their hands over their ears.  At some point Mr Chew found one of the sound techs and asked about the sound levels, and was told that's the way the band wants it, louder than anyone else ever sets the volume.  (This was at the Classic East Concert a few summers ago)

So, no more live Journey for us, but maybe a good tribute band at "normal" loud rock'n'roll volume would be just the ticket!

I hope you can't hear it in the surrounding cabins?, next door, under, over, wherever.  Not that I don't enjoy piano music now & then, but only when  I  want to hear it, not coming through the walls or ceiling when I don't want to hear it!

We've walked out of several concerts by Journey … I can't imagine how bad it must be to walk out on a tribute band!!

I'm sure that there are many worse things than sand that get into/onto the towels, and I'm sure that ALL of the towels are properly treated & cleaned, no matter what kind they are.  

1 hour ago, cruisestitch said:

was any Celebrity ship involved?  Why is this on the Celebrity board?

Why not?  It's always interesting to see how interesting & different the discussions can be on different forums, from different points of view!  Some folks never go to forums for cruise lines they don't sail … and you never know what you might learn from an incident like this.  

Just as I posted this, the thread was moved to the Carnival forum.  I think that's a real shame that we can't talk about it on the Celebrity forum, or whatever forum anyone likes to visit.