charmed1959

My latest luggage is llama print.  No one else has it yet…

I wouldn’t call Viking and ask.  My husband has an infection in a knee replacement.  They wouldn’t let us postpone the cruise, not would they let us substitute anyone for him.  If he didn’t show up they would charge $8.5K for a singles supplement, though we already paid for the room.

So then he said he would go but maybe he could bring a scooter.  They said absolutely not.  Wheelchair? No.  They told us he couldn’t even bring his walker, which they did not ask any dimensions.  We thought perhaps we misunderstood, so we had our Travel agent call and ask again about the walker.  They again said no, and now said he couldn’t board without a note from his doctor saying he could cruise.  Now it was in our records.

However, once on the cruise there were indeed folks with walkers, a few wheelchairs, and at least one electric wheelchair.  I asked one of the people with walkers if they had by chance asked about bringing one, and they said no.  

So don’t ask.  Just bring what you need.  Once onboard the crew does everything to help out.  They carried his food at the World Cafe and reserved the front seat in the coaches so he could get on.

On 8/13/2023 at 6:14 PM, CCWineLover said:

Linda - we ate them too!

Maybe just part of the overall small portions approach they are doing.  I do recall someone complaining that the portions in the restaurants were quite a bit smaller.  I said, why don't you just ask for more, they won't refuse you!  If you want it, you can have it!   And in this way, there is less wasted food.  Don't think she comprehended 🙂

 

My husband and I appreciated the smaller portions in the restaurants.  At first we were skipping the restaurant as we didn’t want that big of meal, so we headed to the cafe.  One night we just wanted to sit and have things brought to us and noticed the portions were small.  Went to the restaurant every night after that.

We flew back SAS to London, Virgin Atlantic to Orlando.  The passport control for SAS was less than 5 minutes at 7:15am.  

For our 7:55 flight we got to the airport a little before 6am, and spent much of the time in the SAS club.  The security line was also about 5 minutes. If you have priority boarding you have a bit more leeway.  And no, the SAS business class seats didn’t lie flat, or even go back as far as the Icelandic air seats.  Not even domestic first class, they were the same seats as the rest of the plane, but you got a box breakfast.  And you got priority security lines.

3 hours ago, loriva said:

 

Well, I got three out of four correct when I started this thread!  Missed "Duets" and some of the names.  (In my defense, I was trying to figure out how to get a bean bag into a cornhole target from the stairway in the Atrium as I was listening to the information from the entertainment staff on the new shows...  I know, excuses, excuses!)

Nailed one from the top landing today, and I’m terrible at cornhole.  Earned that mimosa.

I have coffee in the atrium every morning.  I don’t mind the classical background music but it’s not what I would choose.  A few days ago a couple came down to play cards with their own music.  I was just far enough away the music was clashing.  I much preferred their music, and was trying to decide if it would be too creepy for me to move really close to them.  In the end I moved farther away so I could only hear the classical, but if I were to voting.

9 minutes ago, Mariastreby said:

How was the Rock and Roll one, if you attended? Or heard others discuss it? If all it did was cover songs only to the early 70’s, and were way more pop than rock, then once again they missed the mark. We are 68 and 73, and listen to classic rock music. I love the Doors, also Lynyrd Skynyrd, CCR, the Who, Aerosmith, the Stones, etc. Or they could try the rock “anthems” by Kansas, Boston, and lots of others. One show we saw on the Mars last May was called something else, but at least it wrapped up with a decent rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. The audience was on its feet when that ended. 

 

Every cruise has a show by the Cruise Director, and the assistant CD, depending on how long the cruise is. On the Star last December, we had a guest guitar player, backed by the band, who could sing, played multiple styles of songs, and even told whacky jokes in between. Far different from the guy in the Explorers Lounge. But I wouldn’t want to hear either another classical pianist or an opera singer, as we’re exposed to enough classical music in the Atrium. On our Oceania cruise in the spring, they had a guest comedian, and that was fun. 

The Rock and Roll one had some songs from Journey, Queen (but not Bohemian Rhapsody), Beatles, Alabama, Kansas.  A few more “power ballads” slow songs than high energy Rock, but not bad.  Our assistant CD is a former ballroom dancing champion, and claims he does not sing, so that is probably where the Viking Vocalist solo show came in.  (She was good, sound mixing needed work.). I agree, I skipped the pianist, and sat in the back for the Opera singer as I wasn’t sure I’d like her show.  It was short, 45 minutes, and included “Summertime” and “Moon River”, which are some of my favorite songs.  I’m not sure I’ll go to her next one.  Our cruise director had quite a few Opera songs in his show, and even the Duet show had the Celine Dion/Andrea Botticelli song “Prayer”. (As did the cruise director.). I think I’m tired of that song now.

I’d love a comedian.

On our Iceland/Norway cruise thus far we’ve had Duets and Rock and Roll.  Tonight is the West End musical one called Stage Door.  Other entertainment was two nights of a piano virtuoso they brought in.  An Opera Singer that was last night and will again perform tomorrow night, a deck dance party around the pool, and two solo shows, one by one of the Viking vocalists, Tina, and one by the Cruise Director, Damian.  I don’t know how common that is.

4 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

We had planned on taking the shuttle into town but after hearing other folks who said there wasn't much there (even our guide on the morning trip said the same thing) we elected to not go. They said there was one block of shops and a mall. 
 

It was unclear to me why we stayed so late there unless perhaps the guest performer (an opera singer) who boarded  in Tromso was disembarking after her 9pm show🤔

We walked back to our rooms after her show and they were already pulling the mooring ropes.  We actually pulled away from the dock at 9:56, a couple of minutes before the “everyone on board” time.  Apparently, everyone was on board.  

The Opera singer will be performing again tomorrow.

We are on a Homelands cruise right now and the free excursions range from great to not good.  It often depends on luck of the draw, as some buses on the same excursion have much better guides than others.

The ports are busy, and having a hard time hiring buses and guides.  We had a guide in Longyearbyen with a very heavy Italian accent that was hard to understand, though some folks had great guides.  Going to CapeNord we had tag team room mates that worked out who was covering what and were wonderful, while others said their guides on the way up and back did not coordinate, so they heard the same things twice.  

In Tromsø they brought in extra buses, and ours was a city bus that was not comfortable for the long bus ride.  Neither the driver or guide knew the route.  The guide was either struggling with English or what she was supposed to say.  And the tour didn’t reflect the description of the tour we signed up for.  Others had better buses and guides.  Others had worse (one couple changed to our bus halfway through and said our guide was much better than theirs, who said nothing on the tour and then cut it short.)

If we paid for these tours I would be disappointed when they don’t go well, but either way you do get a lay of the land for what else you want to do in port.

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

No as long as he is wearing a collared shirt under them. 
 

I think the goal is to try to not have T-shirts.  I often wear short sleeve polos. 
 

 

If he could fit a collared shirt under them he would be skinny enough to bring his long sleeved dress shirts.  So, we’ll go with camp shirts and polos.

Now that we are in the midst of packing for our Viking Ocean Cruise I ran across this thread and am a bit puzzled about the “collared shirt rule”.  My husband has a few cashmere pullover sweaters he was planning to bring for fancier dinners, since his collared shirts tend to be short sleeved and less formal.  It sounds like the sweaters wouldn’t be allowed, and we should just leave them at home.  Is that true?

Is there any dress code for the dining room on these Iceland/Norway cruises?  Or will the leggings and sweaters we are wearing on the tours be okay for dinner, or should we bring dressier clothes. We will be on the Saturn on the 19th out of Reykjavik, and I’m already packing.

I believe the idea is, if all unvaccinated folks are limited to RCL excursions and later someone on the excursion tests positive the folks in port can track down the driver/tour guide and test or quarantine them.  If the unvaccinated folks are wandering around the town or are on independent tours RCL has no idea who they came in contact with, so they can’t do any contract tracing.

RCL’s biggest profits come from being able to return to these ports, rather than be banned due to spreading the virus.

It might be pretty simple.  Vaccinated people have different colored room cards/wrist bands.  All public areas of the ship you need to wear a mask, but the cruise line would change some number of venues, in line with the number of vaccinated guests and safety protocols, to be vaccinated only.  You want to eat at the buffet, show your wristband.  Want to lounge at the vaccinated (adult) pool without a mask, show your wristband.  Want to enter the comedy club/show on a vaccinated night so you don’t need to wear a mask, show your wrist band.

I’d guess the special wristbands would be for those who are fully vaccinated, and proud to show it to anyone.

We booked our first ocean cruise for summer 2020.  When it was cancelled rather than getting a refund we asked to be rebooked on the same cruise a year later.  Now that cruise is cancelled and they said they will only get us a voucher that cannot be refunded for 2 more years.

does this sound right?

I would guess you would have needed to be vaccinated at least two weeks before your cruise.  When the doctors talk about those fully vaccinated they always mention two weeks after receiving the last shot.

I’ve ended up sick on vacation twice in the last 10 years.  Both times I was thankful I was in a room I was comfortable to spend some time in.  When cruising that is my criteria.  Pick a room I’d be happy to spend the entire cruise in.  Just in case.

15 minutes ago, Himself said:

My question is:  When HAL stars sailing again, how will they get the people back to the ships?

I’m guessing commercial flights.  If it’s not safe enough to fly commercial it’s not safe enough to sail.  
 

These ships are too big to be able to get enough passengers for a revenue positive sailing without any of the passengers flying to the embarkation.

On 4/1/2020 at 8:10 AM, gottagocit said:

Then consider for each group of cruise ship passengers where it’s determined someone is infected, everyone onboard is typically tested, quarantined and or treated (at the expense of the cruise company). 

That would be a great suggestion, that when someone is infected everyone onboard would be tested.  But that did not happen on any of the ships that docked in the US, either California or Florida.  For the Grand Princess the Vice President and the cruise line said they would all be tested before leaving quarantine, but that did not happen.

17 minutes ago, pris993 said:

I understand is never a good thing being ill or sick on a cruise ship, reading this article, I guess I don't see what Princess could have done differently????    Princess is as much a victim of this virus as any passenger.    If I was these folks, of course, I would like to get off and home asap, but that is no longer in the cruise lines control.  Anyone who cruises should realize this.  

 

The change in transportation rules did throw them for a loop, but there are a few things they could have done.

They could communicate.  They could send twice daily updates of what passengers left and how many healthy passengers are waiting for planes, just so people still on board know they are not alone.  They could explain the ambulances, if there are ill passengers or crew it would be nice to hear from the captain rather than find out on the internet.

 If there are really only 287 left on board they could set the front desk with help to call every party and make sure they are sending them to the right place.  They may find people are flexible, and will fly into different airport than they flew out of, and that would help consolidate charters.  They may find some people left a car at the airport, or have friends that will drop their car at the airport, so they don’t need chauffeured rides to their homes.  And best of all, everyone left on board know they were not forgotten.

They could return their luggage.  Give them a few hours to repack.  Yep, that means they need to spray down the luggage again, but at least people are leaving with clean clothes.

Won’t get them home faster, but won’t take anymore time, and won’t cost much money to make people feel like they care.

29 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Using that logic, no self-isolation or mandatory isolation would ever end.  As for the sick passengers, there were only fourteen passengers taken to hospitals.  That would leave the Zaandam with only one, and we know that is not the case.

Self isolation, as suggested by our local health services, is having 14 days of provisions dropped off outside the door, and having those in isolation disinfect the package of supplies, and cook and clean for themselves for 14 days.  No outside interaction.

Reading exhibit B from Holland America in their package to the port commission there were 14 sick people taken to hospitals; 10 passengers from the Zaandam, 3 from the Rotterdam, one crew unspecified which ship.  There were an additional 13 passengers on each ship showing symptoms for a total of 26 passengers.  Those passengers were not allowed to disembark until they recover, and are still either on both ships, or perhaps 13 from the Rotterdam were moved to the Zaandam.  In addition, 50 crew members were showing symptoms.  It did not specify the ship the sick crew members were on.

Even if those people have quarantined in their cabin for 14 days, if any of the people who made their food, plated their food, delivered their food, folded the extra sheets and towels, etc became infected from being around infected crew or picking up dishes or linens from infected cabins then everyone’s 14 days needs to start over.  
 

When the Hal ships docked there were 13 passengers on the well ship, the Rotterdam, that were sick.  Another 3 passengers from the Rotterdam were taken in ambulances to hospitals in Florida. Again, that’s the non-sick ship. Hal said 50 crew in addition to the one sent to the hospital are actively showing symptoms.  It did not say which ship they were on.  It’s not a stretch to assume all the people on those flights were exposed.  As for the lady without the mask, she looked winded, like she was having respiratory issues.  From that small snippet of film she looked like she could be infected.

Florida track cases pretty well.  In my small elderly county 12 of the first 26 cases were travelers from cruises.  I was thinking there could not possibly be cruisers still coming off of ships, but there are.  

We have learned a few things during this crises that have less to do specifically with Covid19 and more to do with the way the cruise industry is able to deal with virulent diseases.

1) the crew is not immune

Though it is probable a crew member originally caught the corona virus, and in the past a norovirus, from a passenger, it is clear to me once the crew is possibly infected there is no plan in place to ensure they won’t infect others.  Crew quarters are close, and there is not a system set up to quarantine possibly infected crew.  From my perspective, it looks like the crew spread the disease to passengers while they were quarantined on the Diamond Princess.  Considering there were more crew with respiratory disease on the Zaandam than passengers it would not surprise me to find passengers were infected by those that cooked their food, plated their trays, or delivered their food.

2) medical facilities on board is not sufficient for a large outbreak of infectious disease

The shortage amount of supplies and number of personnel meant getting to port was an emergency. To make me feel safe on a cruise ship, I’d like to believe if there was an outbreak the ship’s medical team would be able to handle it.  Right now I’m not convinced that is true.

3) love that cabin you pick, you may be spending weeks there.

In the past I kept hearing the size of a cabin didn’t matter, you only sleep there. Yeah, no.

4) the cruise line may not know what they are talking about when they say it’s safe to travel.

There were many people that didn’t cancel cruises because they didn’t want to lose money.  The cruise line said it was safe.  In hindsight, everyone lost money, and no it wasn’t safe.

5)Countries will prioritize the safety of their citizens over the safety of those coming in off their shores.

This seems to be a surprise to the entire cruise industry. 

To get people like me, the occasional cruiser, back on ships, they need to find a way to make it safer.  

Change policy to ensure any crew that is possibly sick is not working and not in contact with other crew members or passengers.  Like Viking, quarantine crew members for two weeks before they get on the ship and in between assignments.  

Those inside and port hole cabins are going to be a hard sell anyway, convert them to hospital/quarantine/crew quarters to be able to divide out the infected or possibly infected crew.  Quarantining crew might mean they actually need more crew, as backup.  Here is your additional crew quarters.  They could also convert some of the crew quarters to increase the size of the onboard medical center.  Have more room for testing facilities, ICU beds, and common drug storage.

Ease up on the cancellation policies.  If passengers could get a full refund, I’m guessing there would have been very few passengers would have gotten on a cruise ship the first week of March.  By then they knew the Grand had problems stemming from a trip to Mexico,  Northern Italy and Iran had huge outbreaks, and cruise ships were already being denied stops in the Caribbean.  Airfare is a huge issue, and the Airlines should also ease up on cancellation policies.

Give sick people full refunds before and cruise credits after they get on the ship.  The present cancellation policies encourage people to coverup flu symptoms before they embark, so they don’t lose all that money.  They lie about symptoms when on the ship because they paid for it and they don’t want to be stuck in their room.

Give up on the huge ships.  I’m not getting on anything that has more than 1000 passengers.  When it comes to smaller countries or economies, the difference between helping 800 people and helping 3000 is a big deal.  Those ships with close to 7000 passengers, I’ve been on them, they are cool.  However, in case of an outbreak I can’t see any country offering to take in 1000 sick people at once.  I wouldn’t touch one of those again.

Bigger changes in the cruise industry as a whole that would make me feel safer is having the flagged country mean something.  If a ship is flagged to a country that country guarantees them a safe port and medical services to their crew and passengers.  Cruise lines may then chose to flag their ships in countries with a more robust infrastructure.  And there would be somewhere they are sure they can port in a pandemic storm.

45 minutes ago, RMLincoln said:

Some thoughts:

And it's not over yet for the Zaandam...  many passengers are still on the ship, and the crew isn't doing all that well either.  Captain Ane Jan Smit still has a lot to deal with.  Many are still in need of miracles.  Let's keep them all in our hearts.  Along with the next set of ships that are currently searching for harbors of last resort....  

 

Maureen 

Not over for the Rotterdam either.  According to exhibit B, as of April 1st there were 10 passengers on the Zaandam and 3 on the Rotterdam that needed on shore medical treatment.  In addition, there were 13 passengers on each of the ships showing symptoms for a total of 26. There was one crew member needing shoreside medical attention and another 50 showing symptoms.  It did not say which ship the affected crew were on.