FangedRose

Not a supply problem. They have been phased out. At first first it was a Covid thing. Now they are citing reduction in plastic use. The one's you got on Iona must have been the remains.

A poster on annother thread, specifically regarding Iona has posted that Epicurean and Glass House are closed.

I was on 5th July cruise. Dining issues were resolved on day three. Did not notice any closed bars. Yes, speciality restaurants were closed, in common with most other P&O ships. And Cheese and Biscuits have been reintroduced on the present cruise.

It was no problem after the second day, when I remembered. Just go along port side corridor until reach aft lift lobby,then cross the lobby. It us only the cabins directly behind the lifts that are shut off.

The previous policy was a waste of time and money.(Never mind the stress of trying to upload test without a PC). It never prevented the massive outbreak on Arcadia J212.

In phone calls with tablemates I was told that the MDR was deserted. The Palladium had blocked a third of the seats and there were still spare places, the daily programme (which we still got delivered), was very sparse with a lot of activities cut. In general the ship was very quiet. Did you walk down the cabin corridors and counted how many tables were outside rooms? Each table indicated a covid cabin, and that did not include the isolation cabins behind the aft lifts on every floor which were full. Some had to isolate in inside cabins. If you had seen the queue stretching from the Palladium to the doors of the mdr at 7.05am yesterday (we had been told not to leave cabins before 7am) wearing ship issues ffp3 masks you would have seen how many of us there were.

Well, unless you self reported that is what happened. There was no proactive "Track and Tracing", or pouncing on chronic coughers in the theatre etc. Totally relied on people being altruistic.

Yes, of course, but backed up by other comments, both on here and fb. P&O will never publish official figure.

I never felt "ill". Others did, I just had a tickly, annoying cough.

If you reported symptoms you were told to stay in your cabin until a test could be done. I did my own test, but a nurse came and did their own test and confirmed the result. If one person in a cabin was positive everyone in the cabin was in put in isolation.

Well, it is a bit of a guesstimate. But, the queue for disembarkation of isolation passengers stretched the length of the ship. They ran out of isolation balcony cabins, those already in balcony cabins stayed put, only those in sea view and inside were offered them, by Friday (four days before Southampton) there were none left. On my stretch of cabins (maybe 17) five or six were in isolation, and that's only the ones I glimpsed when putting my food tray out. We were being ticked off a list as we disembarked, and the list covered five sides of A4 paper, in normal 12 point font. One quarter of the baggage hall was solely for covid passengers (we had been given yellow tags to put on our cases).

Me, on board, joining the ship long queue for isolation disembarkation. Being in cabin for a week listening to people walking by coughing exactly the way I did.

Well, the previous policy didn't work. All 1800 passengers on Arcadia J212 produced negative test certificates before boarding, it didn't help the 400 or 500 passengers (and those were the ones who admitted having symptoms and got tested) disembarking from isolation yesterday.

Seems that P&O have realised that their previous policy of requiring a negative test certificate is useless in preventing covid from getting on board. As the certificate states "you likely do not have Covid at the time the test was taken" . You could have contracted it two or three days before, but not produced enough antibodies to register Or, you could contract it on the journey down from a service station. Or, unscrupulous passengers could get somebody else to do the test for them. The test certificates are a waste of time and money. All of the 400 or 500 passengers who were in isolation at the end of Arcadia J212 yesterday all produced a negative test certificate before boarding.

They were on Aurora in September 2019.

Are they not giving you FCC? Did you not get travel insurance with cruise cover and COVID cover?

All those changes were in place on my last cruise three years ago.

I was number 3. I had fetched my own test kits onboard, left over from work, assumed my coughing and sneezing was the air con. Heard rumours so did a test which proved positive much to my shock. Informed medical centre who did their own test and confirmed it. Was a little perturbed (but not surprised) when my table companions (solo traveller, fixed dining, large table) phoned me to find out why I had missed an excursion and dinner. I had assumed (hoped) that some form of test and Trace would have been in operation, and at the very least asked them to take a test. But, I suppose confidentiality comes into it. During the call with my table mates to take a test because at least one of them had the same symptoms as me, but much worse. I don't know whether they did or not.

Well, that's the ones that have issued to passengers on Arcadia. Isolation passengers have been given ftp2 masks for answering the door.

In my own as it has a balcony. I was asked if I wanted to move. But no point really. Would be worth moving from an inside or sea view.

Thanks. I feel perfectly fine, apart from the cough, which is giving my throat some stick. In fact, if this is COVID I've had it at least twice a year for the last 65 yrs. I know everybody is not so lucky. But, if I was at home, and not working, I wouldn't have even bothered doing a test.

It must have been a very fast acting variant then, because I tested positive less than 18 hours later. And through a ftp2 mask too.

Well, yes they are, but only if you can connect to it, and even then it is very, very slow. I've given up with trying to use it and using data whilst in port.

Maybe not such a joke. The new captain. Martin Sharples, was meant to join in Southampton but tested positive (yes really) and joined in Reykjavik. He was doing the rounds, introducing himself. He told us Quoiters that he had only been appointed two years ago, in the middle of COVID, and this was the first ship he was in charge of with paying passengers, and not to be surprised if we ended up in Barcelona 😂

Unfortunately I am stuck here until Southampton ☹️