gardenbunny

Your sunset and wake photo is absolutely beautiful!  I saved it to my photo gallery.  Will give you credit when I  use it 😊

14 hours ago, Luckiestmanonearth said:

Thats what she said

I ordered and received my “free” government tests (and was sent the USA Abbott Binax! vs the China ones!).  Seriously thought about using them the morning of the cruise, the 11th, but getting CVS test on 10th so hoping I will be negative.  I have a slight paranoia over the testing 😂

If I did not bring my personal cup, I don’t leave the plastic straw in my glass.  I drop it back in my carry bag 😀

More of the testing confusion.  I did not know people could still test positive many many days after recovery.

In your case, I understand you knew you had it, recovered 2 weeks ago and still positive.

Makes me wonder if people who are testing positive now and asymptomatic really had it, had no idea, and still testing positive like yourself

OR

really have it now and contagious…..

Surely a doctor letter will be sufficient for you.

I have said this many times - I get so anxious to test for travel.  Have a test coming to board on 11th 🤞🏻

I take an insulated cup/glass with the hard formed plastic straw in my carry on.  We mostly just get the soda package.  I order my diet Coke and pour it into my own cup!  

I also bring a ziplock bag of normal plastic straws!

The paper straws they give you sort of last, but I don’t like the feel of the paper on my lips.  

2 hours ago, Carolina Cruisers 2 said:

 

Greetings

Well, we never made it out of New Bern to Charlotte. American rescheduled our flight three times and the last change had us arriving at 3:35 pm and there was no way we could retrieve our luggage and be on ship by 4 pm.  Same for brother and SIL.  Also friends Joanie and Sam flew from PA to Charlotte yesterday and never got out of Charlotte so they are flying back home as I type.  What the heck is going on. Some weather and some staffing.

Wishing all a great cruise.

 

I'm pulling for Carolina!  😉

 

so sorry you missed your cruise.  I am not a fan of American.  Twice we missed cruises using them in 2019 and 2020. 2019 was a flight from Atl to NYC at 8 in the morning.  We never fly same day but little over an hr. flight and ship leaves at 7 pm to Halifax.  What could go wrong - famous last words.  First delay was no plane.  A couple hrs later they sent us to Miami to catch a flight back to NYC arriving at 2 pm.  Horrific rain t-storm just before boarding and airport shut down til storm passed.  Left at 4!  Got to NYC at 6:30.  No way to make it to Brooklyn terminal.  Luggage never came.  It had been sent to Baltimore and was on way back to NYC.  Got it at 8.  In the meantime had TA on phone trying find us flight to Halifax (first port) that night.  Had us on Delta leaving at 9 pm.  Had to take bus shuttle to that terminal.  Just as we got to Delta counter flight cancelled due to mechanical trouble and reschedule for 8 am.   Got hotel to spend the night and be at airport at 6am.  Plane did not leave til 10!  Got in at noon.

But we had a nice extra day in Halifax until we finally got on ship the following morning.  It was EZAir so at least paid for!

2020 was even worse!  Won’t bother those details but it involved spending the night on chairs in Miami airport…..

Now I am back to only using  Delta.

Pleased to post that today I had no issues checking in on the Medallion for our cruise in 36 days on Emerald Princess!  Had a difficult time setting it up the first time for our Enchanted NYE cruise in December.  Had no idea what to expect today but ALL my previous info was still there.  I just checked the terms and conditions for cruise and health and got Green and QR code!!!

And went ahead this time and booked a MDR table for the same time every day for our party of 5.  Didn’t do that on last cruise and had a really bad experience with getting a table.

Happy cruiser 😁

Thank you to all above who replied.  We did 2 World Cruises on Pacific Princess and purchased the access to an area similar to this on the front of the ship.  Hardly ever used except by us.  It was our routine to go in the late afternoon, watch sail away or sunset then clean up for dinner.  The jacuzzi was like a hydrotherapy pool.  We would bring our own beverage - they would have a cart with fruit infused water and a bowl of fruit.

I suspect we will enjoy our access to this on Marina.

Our TA upgraded us today to a Concierge Veranda for our Feb 11 on Marina!  How very nice.

One of the amenities is for the AquaSpa Terrace.  This will be our first Oceania trip and so excited.  I looked on website but could not find any specific details about this.  I did see where it is located on the deck plans and what looked like icons depicting a pool and loungers?

Could anyone provide a few details.

Thank you very much.

I do not remember what I answered.  Might have been No on both, or Yes on first,….LOL. no clue

Not sure it mattered because I got the appt

1 hour ago, mlgb said:

Which type of rapid test, PCR or antigen? I assume antigen as rapid PCR is usually even more expensive.  

 

You can still get rapid antigen at CVS in Southern California if you can find an appointment. I was surprised that new appointments popped up in Seal Beach a few days ago. Maybe they got a batch of test kits. PS They also had the free N95 masks, just ask at the registers.

I noticed the word travel was missing from when I did my first one Dec 28.  Thanks for confirming that I thought something was different.  We did rapid antigen - the one with results in hours vs days.

1 hour ago, ORV said:

1 hour ago, ORV said:

For most cruises leaving from Miami,  we only come in the day before, and really aren't that interested in doing much in Miami. We usually stay at a property that has an airport shuttle, then uber to the port the next day. 

Edited 1 hour ago by ORV

 

We are staying at Wyndham Garden Miami Springs. 4909 36th.  3 miles from Airport.  Free airport shutttle.  9 miles to port.   We are taking Uber.  No free bfast but McDonald’s across street which works for us.  And Old Tom’s Sport Bar 1 block.  

My TA was able to get 3 segments we wanted -  8, 9, 10 - Dubai to Barcelona.  And got our same OV cabin on Deck 4 that we had on Pacific Princess WC 2017 and 2019!  

Now will be watching next year to see if there are any rate reductions.

Never booked a trip 2 years in advance - usually 18 months is my max.  But still very excited.

That is awesome.  Thanks so much for sharing.  Early on I heard ours might have 300.  Was there still any entertainment?

Did you have to do testing for your ports?

We are a different itinerary on Feb 11 with several ports requiring passengers be tested within 48 hrs of visit.

But with so few passengers, testing should go quickly.

I think it is the hand held device the crew has to use is the biggest problem for charge errors.

I have had charge errors using the former plastic cards, also.

But as far as them tracking where you go all the time, RFID isn’t a bad idea.  

But I do like to use it for opening door!  About the only thing I use it for except getting on and off ship.

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! We’re booked on a Panama Canal cruise on the Caribbean leaving SFO Apr 26 and hope Cartagena is open then as well. We always love going to the “free” zoo near where we will hopefully be docking. 😎

 

We have never been to Cartegena or Limon - hope they will all still be open !

2 hours ago, t&atravel said:

This has always been the case on Princess, only the person listed as passenger #1 is able to see the charges for both people on the folio.  If you want it to be you, next time change the way you book.  😂 

There are other rules with regard to passenger #1 vs #2 that I won’t detail here.  

 

I agree.  Good suggestion.  I might mention that to my TA.  She always lists DH first.

And in order to see the excursions you booked, you have to download the Ocean Concierge App.  I asked at the Medallion help desk.  When if first came out you had to have several apps for different things.  They have combined them but getting all functions to work on the one app is still  a work in progress.

Good job Ken the Cruiser!   Actually I remember reading about that on Enchanted in early January that a ship could not stop because of 7 cases.

We had just booked on board our March 13 Canal cruise.  I said well maybe it will be open again by March.

Guess they decided now it was too much economic impact since ships stopped coming.

2 hours ago, chubbypiggy said:

How much you paid for your test at CVS?

They took my Kaiser Senior Advantage HMO.  Was not sure if Kaiser would pay.  I went on line the other day to look at my claim history.  It was billed at $159.  Kaiser paid $112.  Not sure if there were any markdowns but so far I have not gotten an invoice and test was taken Dec 27.

Maybe that new rule that all  insurance companies have to pay for tests worked.  But I submitted my insurance again so see if they pay twice.

And I have another cruise March 13!

No one will take the ones the government are sending out becasue they are not proctored. Just for your own personal use to see if safe to go to school, family gatherings, etc.

Everyone has their favorites but chiming in here as a person who did 200 days on Pacific Princess (now Onward) for 2 World Cruises in 2017 and 2019.  After years of cruising thinking you must have a balcony, we soon learned we rarely used it.  We enjoy being out and about on the ship.  So we changed to OV or interior.(saves a lot of money also)

We did our WC in OV and never missed a balcony.  As long as we could get up and see where we were docked, it was good.  We were either out on the back terrace off the buffet or on a deck chair on deck 5.

Not sure how new configuration will be now.

But we realized how much we love small ships.

Today we booked 3 segments of the 2024 WC with our same OV room we had on our Princess trips!

There had been a reference to checking account often in different topic earlier this year.  I was glad I had read it - my NYE cruise had 4 wrong charges that Customer Service removed.

We have March 13th RT FLL partial Panama Canal that we booked on our NYE cruise.  Our itinerary shows FLL, Grand Cayman, Cartagena, Passage, Limon, Ocho Rios, FLL

More variables than usual due to Cocid testing, passage time, etc.

Stay flexable 😀. 

We had Rapid test at CVS in Ponte Vedra FL for our Enchanted NYE cruise. It was easy and had results in about 3 hrs. 

I am using a CVS where I live in suburb of Atlanta  on Feb 10 for my next cruise before flying to Miami

Very interesting about the Captain having to avoid passengers so as not to get Covid.  That thought had truly not even entered my mind.  Who can take over the helm if he should fall ill for any number of issues?

55 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

on the menu.

 

Crooner's has always been our favorite. It's been, traditionally, a daily stop for some sort of martini-esque cocktail. 

 

It wasn't like that this time. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it just wasn't the same. It could easily be the entertainment; it was the same man all week, and he wasn't very impressive. These were also the least friendly servers on the ship. (Not unfriendly; just not as eager to please.) 

 

I tend to agree.  We were on 12/30-1/9. My impressions were for one it is larger - which had also been a frequent topic of wishing it were larger.  However, previously there were always several servers coming around as soon as they saw you sit down, and would put the napkin down to let other servers know you were being served.  They were also very easy to engage with as their eyes were always looking aroundmthe room.  Many would play little games with you, bits of magic, etc.  Always entertaining.  And always remembered what you wanted every visit.

That said, I felt the Medallion may have had an impact - in all the dining, pool and bar venues it seemed to me they were very busy being delivery servers vs. the personal servers.  

No one ever really stopped to ask you if you needed anything.  And if you were able to catch one as they walked by on their delievery destination, they put your request in the device and left, someone else delivered, and no one ever came back  to check see if you would like a refill or another beverage.

That disappointed me.  But it was only the first cruise back for us.  We are on Emerald March 13 so will see if any difference.