mbglib

Thanks again for all the supportive comments.  I just looked, again, at the paper they gave me and it does have a diagnosis of Gastroenteritis and colitis of unspecified origin with a code, so, hopefully, that is all I will need.  I will start my insurance application process tomorrow.  It is sad for us that this overshadowed what was otherwise an amazing cruise.

6 minutes ago, Snaxmuppet said:

This post made me very cross with Princess.

 

We had covid on our last cruise and we were escorted off after everyone else had left and that seemed sensible to me as we were quite poorly.

 

Glad you are feeling better.

Waiting until after would be much more sensible and would have been fine with us. 

2 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

I have learned, and it sounds like you couldn't avoid it, but if you get sick, try to take care of yourself, because since covid, they don't care.

I have had this problem before and tend to get dehydrated very quickly and my bp goes down dangerously.  I did not want to have to go to the medical center, but it was unavoidable.  It would have been better had I been able to treat it myself, but I was not holding down anything I took.  I always carry lots of different meds onboard, but sometimes they just aren't enough. 🙂

Thank you, everyone.  I am better.  We spent the night in Houston and flew home to OKC this afternoon.  I have contacted Princess about our treatment.  I have not yet contacted them about medical records.

23 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I’m so sorry you two had to endure this treatment.  It is not right.

 

If you didn’t get your diagnosis code on the medical records, you will need it for insurance.  Here’s an email that could help.  That is the email address to request the medical records.

 

mrecordsrequest@carnival.com

Here’s an email for the medical team.  I would let them know how you were treated as well as customer relations.

 

guestmedical@hagroup.com

 

customerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

Again, so sorry and I hope you recover quickly.

 

 

Thank you so much for this info.  I am better now.  

54 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

I am SO sorry!!!!

I don't know what any misunderstandings might have occurred...

But, If they had wanted me off the ship THAT early,  THAT badly,  with no consideration for medical conditions...  I would have politely declined and politely but directly informed them that if they wanted to 'evict' us from the cruise, perhaps they could contact the local authorities.  If they want to 'evict' paying passengers for any reason other than 'criminal' type reasons, they should have an appropriate area, somewhere, for them to wait and to have assistance available.

 

PS:  Taxi's or Uber could be your 'friend'....

Princess should have 'been there' offering to make sure that you had transportation.

 

Thank you.  We complained and my husband argued, but to no avail.  We do use Uber, but we had a pre-arranged shuttle as Uber would be quite expensive going to Houston, I believe.  We did try to adjust our pick up time, but no seats were available.

1 hour ago, tonit964 said:

I'm so sorry this happened to you and I hope you are feeling better.

Thank you.  I am better.

6 minutes ago, TRLD said:

If one has symptoms that might be noro the normal process is to disembark either before or after normal disembarkation minimizing potential contact with other passengers and the facilities through which they might pass. When it happened to my wife we were given the choice to be taken off before normal disembarkation, or to wait in our cabin until everyone else was off. 

I understand the reasoning, but when we were mixed with everyone outside, the isolation was useless.  We were given no choices.  I felt very powerless, especially with the "security" personnel.

Hello, I don't post much, but I do follow the Princess board.  We have been on forty-four cruises, but have never before been treated like this.  I feel this rather long story is important to disseminate.  At least, I hope it will let others know to dress warmly if you are debarking at Galveston in February.  Also, don't ever get sick on the ship!  Here is the story:

On the February 11-18, 2024 Regal Princess cruise out of Galveston, we had a very nice cruise with great food, excellent entertainment, and nice accommodations. However, I am quite concerned with how we were treated at the end of the cruise. At about midnight the last night, I went to the medical center with severe vomiting and diarrhea. My BP was low and I was very dehydrated. I was treated well with an IV and other meds and was discharged at about 4 am. They told us to return at 8 am to get the paperwork for our insurance, and that we were on isolation and would need to call guest services when we returned to our cabin.

This is where the problems began. My husband called guest services and they told him we would be escorted off the ship at 6:30 am. He explained that we needed the medical paperwork at 8 as we had heard too many horror stories of how difficult, if not impossible, to obtain medical paperwork is after leaving the cruise. He also explained that our pre-booked (non-Princess) shuttle wasn't due until 10 am (since we were planning on remaining on the ship as long as possible) and since I had been sick all night, he didn't want me outside for three hours in the cold weather waiting. The worker told him we would be allowed to sit in the terminal. The worker couldn't help us beyond that, but said someone would call right back.

My 68 year old husband stayed awake, after not having slept all night, and waited for the call. It finally came at 6 am, and he explained the situation again. The person who called said he would look into it and call back, but he never did.

At 6:30, three men came to escort us to a lounge. I felt insulted as we were treated like criminals! At the lounge, I tried crew chat to try to get the medical records, but no one answered. We sat in the lounge with people who had Covid, but at least we were not close to them. Finally, someone did bring my medical records, a print out of charges, but no diagnosis, to the lounge. We asked about a print out of our onboard charges and were told we would get a final email. We did not get that email. Again we reiterated the problem with leaving the ship so early and our shuttle not coming until 10. He told us there was nothing he could/would do about it, but that we would be able to sit inside the terminal and, if we weren't allowed, to have terminal personnel contact him, but he did not/would not give us a number or his name, but simply said for them to ask for the night operation manager. In retrospect, I see that they no longer cared what happened to us, but only wanted to get us off the ship no matter what.

Next, we were called to leave and escorted out by the men. We saw the customs officer. When we were led off the ship, I heard one of the workers laugh and say oh are these more druggies or domestic disputes? Again I was so insulted and felt like I was treated like a criminal even more. I am 66 years old, and (fortunately) I have never been treated worse anywhere!

Then, we left the ship and were forced to walk quite a distance around the outside of the terminal. Mind you, I had been violently sick most of the night and had no strength. Additionally, my husband has a hard time walking any distance. But walk it we did. When we got to the front of the terminal, the men left us, so we asked a terminal worker where we would be allowed to sit indoors and, of course, he said, we couldn't! That is what we tried to tell the Princess workers earlier. One outside worker even went inside to confirm with someone else. We asked them about contacting the ship, but they wouldn't/couldn't.

So, we sat down in front of the terminal with the temps in the 40s and stayed there for three hours until time for our shuttle. All the while, people came out of the terminal and walked closely in front of us or sat with us. So, no point in isolating us on the ship.

If lying to passengers and sending sick people off the ship to sit in these weather conditions is typical Princess policy, and, apparently it is, SHAME ON YOU, PRINCESS!

On 5/15/2023 at 10:17 AM, Italy52 said:

Pricing sounds very reasonable and more personal than a crowded bus.  Think we might be leaning more towards this type of excursion.

We did the ship excursion once and saw very little wildlife (just a raft of otters and one whale tale off in the distance).  Glad the people had a good time on their boat excursion. 

I have been tracking the weather and it looks as though Alaska is seeing some warmer spots this year.  Guess I need to throw in a few light-weight tops into the suitcase.

Really, how long does it take to decide if your power bar is suitable for use on the ship?  I think that should be "a mention" on your after-cruise survey. 

They did the same thing with my fan and I wouldn't have gotten it back had I not told them that I needed it at night for breathing difficulties (true).  They finally returned it and told me to unplug it when out of the cabin.  It was confiscated at San Pedro before boarding, but my plug-in strip wasn't.  I have taken a fan on nearly 40 cruises and never had a problem with it in my carry-on until now.

I booked a casino offer online and the price appeared as it should when I booked, but when I received the confirmation, the price was much more expensive.  It took a few calls to find the right person who would/could fix it as when I would call the casino line, it would be automatically transferred to the regular line and they would tell me to call casino and so it went.  I did finally get it fixed, but I would think it would have been easier to call the casino line (if I could have connected to it) before booking.  This happened in early April, 2023.

17 hours ago, ericosmith said:

This is another option:

 

https://old300.org/

 

 

Thanks.  That looks like fun, but, if I am reading it right, the trolley doesn't start until noon and may not run during inclement weather.

2 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I think it ran every 30 minutes or so.  We missed a bus and had to wait about 10-15 minutes (when we were entertained by the volunteer).  There is a trolley that will also take you to town, when it is working.  It didn't go all the way when we were there last September.  

 

Great town to walk around.  No Diamonds Internationals....Get an early start. I think the last shuttle is around 3:30.  We saw lots of taxis show up after dark.

Thank you.  I saw the references to the trolley too if you are talking about the riverfront one, but I believe it didn't start operating until noon and might not operate in bad weather.  It did sound interesting though.

4 minutes ago, Buckeye10640 said:

We walked and did not use the shuttle, but just want to say we thought the Maritime Musuem was very interesting. We stopped at a few local breweries on the way back to the ship. 

Thanks.  We would like to walk too, but trying to plan in case of rain.  

42 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

The Shuttle is operated by the Visitor's Volunteer Group.  It is a round trip loop that drops you off/picks you up at either a town location or the Maritime Museum.  There was a very knowledgeable volunteer on our bus to town.  He spouted lots of history and pointed out interesting things along the way.  

I thought of another question, "Do you know how often the shuttle runs?"  Thank you.

Thank you for the information.

36 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

The Shuttle is operated by the Visitor's Volunteer Group.  It is a round trip loop that drops you off/picks you up at either a town location or the Maritime Museum.  There was a very knowledgeable volunteer on our bus to town.  He spouted lots of history and pointed out interesting things along the way.  

Thank you.  This is just what I was wanting to hear. 

18 minutes ago, iamaqt2 said:

Per the website it sounds like it only runs between the port and Downtown Astoria with no other stops in between.

https://www.portofastoria.com/Pier_Side_Activities.aspx

Thanks, I saw that, but I also saw mention elsewhere of it going to the Maritime Museum, so it made me curious.

Hello, we will be porting in Astoria on May 3.  The port website mentions an all-day shuttle for $15 a person.  Has anyone taken this shuttle?  If so, do you have a map of the stops?  Thank you.

What are the hors d'oeuvres at the PES party?

We like the DaVinci, because sometimes one can feel more motion in the dining room in the rear of ship.  I am not sure about show times.

4 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

A cabin change packing "hack" we use that's made things easier for us.

 

You're not going home so don't pack your bags that way. We pack our bags by cabin area. Grab a bag and take it to the desk. Put all the desk stuff in. Put all the stuff on the shelves around the refrigerator in your bags. Go to the night stands and pack them. Stay in the same area of the cabin until the bag is full or you've emptied that area.

 

Grab another bag and empty the all the bathroom items into it. If there's room left, grab the items on the shelves just outside the bathroom door. DW won't put items from the safe into a bag for the crew to move but puts all that into a carry-on and moves it personally to the new cabin.

 

Keep on doing this and unpacking is a breeze as all your items in each bag stay in the same kind of area in the new cabin. You aren't going back and forth placing stuff where it belongs.

That is a great idea.  Thank you!

3 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

When I was looking at the most recent cruise we booked (1-2 weeks ago), I selected a cabin, etc.   Last step offered the choice of using our FCD , use a credit card for the deposit, or do a Hold.   
 

We did the courtesy Hold, then the next day decided to move forward.    At this point, using the FCD was no longer offered as an option.  
I used Live Chat, and they were able to use our FCDs.   That took only a few minutes.   
No idea why we couldn’t do that ourselves.  
 

 

Mary

I did the same and the chat function applied all four of our FCDs!  It was a mess.

On 4/8/2023 at 8:37 PM, Elaine5715 said:

Were they the digital cards or hard copy ones that go through the reader?  I have seen those with digital limited but not regular gift cards.  

Digital

On 4/4/2023 at 7:05 PM, VIFP1987 said:

Is there truly a limit to the number of gift cards you can apply to you Sail and Sign account? 

On the Dream in January, I was limited to $2000 (at guest services as I couldn't seem to get them to load on the kiosk), but the limit could be raised if corporate approved.  I just stuck with the $2000.