himan

When we were on RCL Independence of the Seas I did the ship tour but the wife didn't and at the end of the tour went to the MDR for a lunch and a speak and the young lady who took the tour phoned our cabin to tell my wife to come and join us (not a free lunch though as you've obviously paid for it) When the wife answered the phone she thought they were contacting her to say I had been involved in some sort of accident and she was going to have to go to the medical centre. 🤣

They weren't doing them when we were on her last year but will definitely ask in July when we board. If not I'll just have to make do with my usual daily tours of the watch shop! 😂

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply. Good to hear daytime talks are still happening and hopefully the ship behind the scenes tours will be reinstated by the time we go on next April. Been probably 4 years since we were on Britannia doing the Norwegian Fjords cruise as been doing Princess since then, in fact on Sky Princess end of July so only 8 weeks to go. Really like the look of Arvia though.

Just wondering if anyone can tell me if P&O are doing behind the scenes ship tours as on the point of booking Arvia for next April and this would clinch it for me. Also are they doing daytime talks with guest speakers? thanks in advance for any replies.

Definitely UK Coastguard chopper. It is based in our islands and the passenger was landed at the local hospital.

Thanks very much for that sound advice. I never actually thought about asking guest services once onboard. I'll definitely do that because who knows I may just get lucky and they re-instate the tours on my cruise (Won't hold my breath though! 🤣) As you say they will most likely start them again as it is a nice little earner for them. I did one on Independence of the Seas and the wife would like to do one after me telling her about the various areas we visited.

Just to say thanks to everyone who posted replies to my question re the ship tours. Been at work all day so just seen the replies.

Thanks very much for asking Rick, I'm grateful for that as there's nothing worse than hoping something like that will go ahead only to find it isn't. Most disappointing but I suppose there's nothing can be done about it. Guess I'll just need to be content with the public areas! 🤣 Enjoy the rest of your cruise. I'm starting to watch the forum avidly for updates on Sky as it's counting down to end of July when we board.

Thanks very much for that info Devon. We board her on 29 July and would like to do a tour but the culinary demo and galley tour will be interesting. Glad to hear there are models as we are trying to get models of all the ships we cruise on. Hope you had an enjoyable cruise.

Does anyone know if Princess are doing behind the scene ship tours this year in particular Sky Princess? Also are they doing models as I would like to get one of Sky. Thanks in advance.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look, I am extremely grateful to you for taking the time to do that as watches are not everyones cup of tea. I now know I will most likely have to buy one in Southampton before sailing or try for one in Gibraltar. Enjoy the rest of your cruise and glad to hear things are improving for you.

Exactly. I like the fact that they adjust the menus to cater for the areas of the world they are sailing in as that gives everyone a chance to try other dishes. Personally, I love the Indian curries on the cruise ships as I feel that they taste so much better than what we get at home from the local restaurants.

Sorry to hear your cruise is a massive letdown so far. I feel that with the money you pay for the cruise you expect decent service, hot food and the company should be able to provide you with anything that is on the menu, especially at the start of the cruise! I can understand coming near the end certain items may be getting low even more so after a couple of sea days but at the beginning that is just downright poor logistical control by the company and whoever is in charge of stock. Hopefully things will improve for you. Fingers crossed!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to look and respond to my question. Hope you are enjoying the cruise so far and hopefully the weather is better than when you left Southampton on Saturday. I watched Sky leaving hoping to hear the Love Boat theme on the ships horn but never happened. It's great that you and other members like you go to the bother of posting on the forum to provide info on the cruise and ship etc.

Thanks for that. I really appreciate it but if you forget or don't have time don't worry about it. It's Saturday lunchtime now and as I type this post I'm just a tad jealous of you as we have 84 days to go till we board. Enjoy your cruise and I'm looking forward to reading any posts you put up.

Enjoy your cruise Eglesbrech and it will be interesting to hear how you get on. We are on Sky end of July same stateroom as last year and are really looking forward to it and like you we are travelling from Scotland (well a good 70+ miles further north than the top of Scotland actually. If by chance you are in the watch shop onboard could you perhaps see if they have Tissot T Touch watches for sale ( they tend to be on rubber straps and have conventional hands on a dark watch face with digital display at the bottom). I only ask as I am wanting to purchase one of these and if none on the ship will buy in Southampton before sailing. Please do not go out of your way as you may never enter the watch shops while cruising. I myself frequent them quite a bit as I like to buy a watch while onboard. Thanks in advance for your thoughts on the refit and any other observations you make.

I guess it's best to say everyone is entitled to do whatever they feel most comfortable with. Me personally, I would never dream of wearing a mask while driving and often wonder when I see people driving alone with masks on why they are doing it but it is not for me to say what is and isn't right! Everyone has their own take on it and there may be underlying health issues or anxiety issues so I just say let everyone do whatever they want if it makes them feel safe or indeed does keep them safe. It's a free world (supposedly)! I would never mock anyone for wearing masks. I remember way back laughing at folks wearing seat belts when it was advised and first became law until I became one of them so live and let live I say.

To be honest I don't worry about catching Covid at all and choose not to wear a mask if rules don't demand it. It is just the fact that it inhibits your freedom of movement etc. The world needs to move on from this as in the UK you can now go to work if well enough and you don't need to test unless in healthcare environment, no free tests and just treat as normal cold or flu but Princess still test prior to boarding and if you have had Covid in last 3 months or whatever you can show Proof of Recovery paperwork to prove it should you fail the test at port. One small problem being "How do you obtain the Proof of Recovery certificate"? as the NHS don't supply it and if you can't even get a PCR test how do you prove you are positive on a certain date unless you pay for a test to be sent to your home address? I think the whole situation has now descended in to a farce so the countries should just get back to normal and treat the unfortunate people who get ill as they would in any major outbreak of flu etc. I am not wishing to sound callous as people have succumbed to Covid and it has caused a lot of suffering but so does every other disease in the world, the treatment of a lot of these having been neglected and diagnoses missed due to Covid.

Thanks for that reply and for picking up on the testing to come back on board! I actually never thought about how ludicrous it would be to test to come back aboard as the testing in the past was required by the country you were going ashore in if it was required at all. As far as testing at start of cruise goes a great percentage could inadvertently be taking it on board as they may only test positive days later as you say. I know people have posted on here saying they had to be disembarked from ship at the port they were docking in after testing positive to go ashore and depending on the rules of the country they could order the captain to offload infected passengers rather than quarantining on the ship. Thankfully those days seem to be behind us now though.

Can anyone tell me if you have to do a covid test to go on excursions and also when coming back aboard after the excursion (I am meaning Princess excursions), also any thoughts on whether there is a higher rate of covid infections due to going on excursions would be great. I know it's not an exact science and you can't say for definite that there are more cases as a result of excursions but we are at the point of deciding to go or not to go and just wondering what the majority view is. We don't worry about Covid but do not want to run the risk of infecting anyone and I understand that a lot of people do worry about it and we do not discriminate for any reason but it is the fact that you could actually end up in isolation even if you are asymptomatic just for testing positive.

In Europe when cruising started up again, some ports required negative covid tests before passengers were allowed ashore on excursions. This resulted in some being offloaded from the ship to be hospitalised in the country the ship was docked in or going to dock in for the excursion. I am led to believe that if the country demands removal of the infected passengers the Captain may not be able to overrule it even if quarantine facilities exist on the ship. At present Sweden does not require proof of negative covid test for UK citizens entering but Princess may have a different take on this.

We are booked on Sky Princess July 9 cruise from Southampton to Norway & Scandinavia and have an excursion booked in Stockholm to Abba museum through Princess. Just wondering if we have to test to go on the excursion and test again to get back on board. Also do they test any time throughout the cruise or when returning to Southampton? We are UK citizens and fully vaccinated with the booster.

Thanks again for that info. I actually emailed Prenetics last night asking them how far in advance I can order the kits.

Thanks for that info. Do you know how far in advance you can order these kits?

Thanks for the replies folks. Everything is a bit tight for getting kits sent to us as the weather often disrupts things. I assume 3 days ahead would mean testing on Wednesday if sailing on Saturday. If that is the case it is a possibility if we could order the kits in plenty of time. Are all these tests done with a video link and results emailed?