Princess cruises Feb Australia

[Pippawhipper1]

On 7/14/2020 at 11:06 PM, By The Bay said:

Norfolk island would be financially suffering during the pandemic.

Hi I am joining you but get on in Perth on the 10 traveling solo.

Can't find a roll call I will try and set on up.

[Reina del Mar]

5 hours ago, christodan said:

And Reiner I forgot to add, that Qantas has cancelled all flights except to NZ until next March, so that should give you some guidance in your decision making.

 

Thanks...very useful to know...we would travel with Emirates or KLM (code share group) but haven't looked into if they are flying yet. 

 

Not feeling hopeful. Will see which ships are expected to sail in 2022 and see if it is possible to delay for a year...who knows what might happen before final payment?

 

Thanks again.

 

 

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, Pippawhipper1 said:

Hi I am joining you but get on in Perth on the 10 traveling solo.

Can't find a roll call I will try and set on up.

Fremantle to Sydney - 11 days, looks like a good little journey. Hope it proceeds, all the best and 'Come Back New.'

Edited July 17, 2020 by NSWP

[Pippawhipper1]

3 hours ago, NSWP said:

Fremantle to Sydney - 11 days, looks like a good little journey. Hope it proceeds, all the best and 'Come Back New.'

Thanks

[Pippawhipper1]

3 hours ago, Reina del Mar said:

 

Thanks...very useful to know...we would travel with Emirates or KLM (code share group) but haven't looked into if they are flying yet. 

 

Not feeling hopeful. Will see which ships are expected to sail in 2022 and see if it is possible to delay for a year...who knows what might happen before final payment?

 

Thanks again.

 

 

Emirates still taking bookings just booked

[NSWP]

17 hours ago, Pippawhipper1 said:

Emirates still taking bookings just booked

Emirates code share with Qantas through Dubai to LHR and Gatwick.  So one could now still book through Qantas but be on an Emirates aircraft, been that way for a while now.

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Unless a vaccine is available or the virus disappears from the world long distance flights may not be advisable:

 

"WA health authorities question whether coronavirus was active on flight to Perth.

 

Western Australia's Health Minister has questioned whether passengers on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Perth earlier this month could have contracted COVID-19 on board, after 20 travellers tested positive for the virus.

 
A 43-year-old Romanian man is the latest confirmed case of COVID-19 in WA, after three new cases were identified overnight.

 
The technical engineer had flown to Perth as part of a maritime crew swap-over and was on board flight EK420, which landed on July 1.

 
The man is one of 20 passengers on that flight who were infected with coronavirus, making it the highest number of cases linked to a single event since the breakout on the Al Kuwait livestock ship which docked in Fremantle in May.

 
Health Minister Roger Cook said the Emirates cases raised questions about whether the travellers could have been infected mid-flight.

 
"It does give you some cause for concern about what happened on that particular flight," Mr Cook said."

[The_Big_M]

Sounds unlikely. Would need to see the seat maps to see where they were seated, but as that is not mentioned, just based on what is written it's unlikely.

 

There have actually been flights with more infected onboard e.g. a flight to Hong Kong back in June actually had 26 infected on the flight, and there have been others. However, what was found was it was actually the passengers e.g. that flight those infected were all coming from Pakistan which was a virus hot spot, and there just happened to be that many on that flight. As seen already with most infections here, they've also been travellers bringing it from overseas, and I daresay that's the case here, just happened to be a large number on the flight (but there aren't many international flights a day to Perth so it's not really surprising that you'll get large numbers at times as they'll be on the flight and there isn't origin screening. That's why we have quarantine.

 

What is it with WA politicians and them making sweeping coronavirus allegations???

[MicCanberra]

I think infection on a plane is highly possible, just like any public area where bathrooms are shared and people are touching the same things over and over, (i.e chairs, tray tables, etc), it only ales one.

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

I think infection on a plane is highly possible, just like any public area where bathrooms are shared and people are touching the same things over and over, (i.e chairs, tray tables, etc), it only ales one.

Can the virus be circulated in the Air Con ? like on aircraft, ships, retail and commercial areas?

Edited July 18, 2020 by NSWP

[OzKiwiJJ]

41 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Can the virus be circulated in the Air Con ? like on aircraft, ships, retail and commercial areas?

There are some thoughts now that the virus spreads through fine droplets, such as are exhaled when breathing or speaking, rather than just heavy droplets from coughing or sneezing. The fine droplets stay in the air longer and travel further. So depending on the airflow within the plane they could infect further than just adjacent seating. Spreading via air-con would depend on how much of the air is recirculated and what filters the air-con has. There was some debate about whether it spread through the cabin air-con on ships, as opposed to public areas, but I don't think any clear conclusion was reached. 

[Aus Traveller]

34 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

There are some thoughts now that the virus spreads through fine droplets, such as are exhaled when breathing or speaking, rather than just heavy droplets from coughing or sneezing. The fine droplets stay in the air longer and travel further. So depending on the airflow within the plane they could infect further than just adjacent seating. Spreading via air-con would depend on how much of the air is recirculated and what filters the air-con has. There was some debate about whether it spread through the cabin air-con on ships, as opposed to public areas, but I don't think any clear conclusion was reached. 

From the technical explanation given by an engineer (Cheng75), air is brought into each separate cabin and does not circulate between cabins. However, when passengers move into public areas (as they obviously do), all bets are off. They are at even more risk in the lifts, seated in the lounges, on staircases near other people and standing in a queue in the buffet, then seated close to other people.

[NSWP]

Thanks for the replies, and therein lies the problem...public areas.

[OzKiwiJJ]

25 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

From the technical explanation given by an engineer (Cheng75), air is brought into each separate cabin and does not circulate between cabins. However, when passengers move into public areas (as they obviously do), all bets are off. They are at even more risk in the lifts, seated in the lounges, on staircases near other people and standing in a queue in the buffet, then seated close to other people.

Yes, I don't think they ever proved air-con transmission in either situation, especially not when confined to cabins. Chengkp75's explanation was very detailed and very informative. 

 

It's the public areas that are the danger - even more so if the fine droplet transmission theory is accurate. Lifts are a real problem, as are tenders and queues. The seating in lounges isn't too bad but passing traffic could be a issue. The lounges on many ships are also thoroughfares. Seating for dining can be crowded, especially in buffets. The MDRs are usually spaced out more on some ships, although it was quite crowded on Ruby compared with other Princess MDRs.

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, I don't think they ever proved air-con transmission in either situation, especially not when confined to cabins. Chengkp75's explanation was very detailed and very informative. 

 

It's the public areas that are the danger - even more so if the fine droplet transmission theory is accurate. Lifts are a real problem, as are tenders and queues. The seating in lounges isn't too bad but passing traffic could be a issue. The lounges on many ships are also thoroughfares. Seating for dining can be crowded, especially in buffets. The MDRs are usually spaced out more on some ships, although it was quite crowded on Ruby compared with other Princess MDRs.

I think the halycon days of the cruise ship buffets are over. Crikey, imagine embarkation day, trying to feed thousands in the MDR?   Tender ports will be minimal, if any.

Edited July 19, 2020 by NSWP

[OzKiwiJJ]

6 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I think the halycon days of the cruise ship buffets are over. Crikey, imagine embarkation day, trying to feed thousands in the MDR?   Tender ports will be minimal, if any.

No different to feeding thousands every night and for lunch on sea days. Embarkation would probably be staggered - if so I hope they all do it like Carnival and allow you to select your embarkation time, it seriously annoys me the way Princess tries to stagger the embarkations by the deck your cabin is on.

 

Buffets will probably end up being like food courts but with seating allocated as you arrive. You get your table, go up and order from whichever outlet you like, give them the table number and the food is delivered to your table. Tables would need to be spaced out more as well.

 

Yes, tender ports wouldn't be popular. Ships may have to carry more tenders instead of some of the lifeboats, so that more tenders can be deployed to ferry passengers back and forth and numbers restricted to about 50 per tender (which I think is about half of what they put on them now).

[Kiwi Kruzer]

21 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

 

 

Buffets will probably end up being like food courts but with seating allocated as you arrive. You get your table, go up and order from whichever outlet you like, give them the table number and the food is delivered to your table. Tables would need to be spaced out more as well.

That’s how Regent run their buffets. You are greeted ,select a table , they are all set , and the waiter lays the folded napkin flat on the plate which indicates to any one coming in that the table is taken .Coffee or juice is then served and  you are then free to graze the offerings ,or order to have delivered to your table number .

[OzKiwiJJ]

52 minutes ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

That’s how Regent run their buffets. You are greeted ,select a table , they are all set , and the waiter lays the folded napkin flat on the plate which indicates to any one coming in that the table is taken .Coffee or juice is then served and  you are then free to graze the offerings ,or order to have delivered to your table number .

Much better than the "pig troughs" on other lines. 

[By The Bay]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, tender ports wouldn't be popular. Ships may have to carry more tenders instead of some of the lifeboats, so that more tenders can be deployed to ferry passengers back and forth and numbers restricted to about 50 per tender (which I think is about half of what they put on them now).

I can imagine transfers similar to how it is done in Beona, Bali. Large vessels with greater capacity.

 

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, By The Bay said:

I can imagine transfers similar to how it is done in Beona, Bali. Large vessels with greater capacity.

 

That can only be done where there are the boats in the port to transport the passengers.

 

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, tender ports wouldn't be popular. Ships may have to carry more tenders instead of some of the lifeboats, so that more tenders can be deployed to ferry passengers back and forth and numbers restricted to about 50 per tender (which I think is about half of what they put on them now).

The cruise ship could use more of its lifeboats (with 50 on board), but often the limitation is docking space ashore.

[By The Bay]

Just now, Aus Traveller said:

That can only be done where there are the boats in the port to transport the passengers.

 

The cruise ship could use more of its lifeboats (with 50 on board), but often the limitation is docking space ashore.

That is a good proposal. Loading and unloading would be quicker than filling up the tenders.

[OzKiwiJJ]

25 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

I can imagine transfers similar to how it is done in Beona, Bali. Large vessels with greater capacity.

 

Large vessels take a lot longer to load, even if running at half capacity. We waited ages fot a big catamaran to fill at Port Douglas once. Luckily we didn't have anythibg plannedcthat day other than visiting a couple of favoyrite cafes and a walk on the beach.

[OzKiwiJJ]

29 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

That is a good proposal. Loading and unloading would be quicker than filling up the tenders.

Yes, and with a quicker turnaround there shouldn't be docking issues.

[possum52]

17 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Large vessels take a lot longer to load, even if running at half capacity. We waited ages fot a big catamaran to fill at Port Douglas once. Luckily we didn't have anythibg plannedcthat day other than visiting a couple of favoyrite cafes and a walk on the beach.

The same at Airlie Beach using the big cat, took ages to load and then unload. Quite a comfortable trip though. At Benoa we had a tender and as the ship is anchored a fair way out, it took such a long time to travel in and out. The sea was fairly rough going in, we were sitting near the stern and got quite wet as all the windows were open. Being hot we dried off quickly.

 

Leigh

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

The best tender ride I ever had was last year on Ruby at Mystery Island. We were newly Elite and it was our first priority tender experiance on Princess. We went to the dining room where Elites were to meet. We had to wait a bit longer than I expected but eventually we were sent down to the tender. We got there to find there was only our small group, about 12 or so, on that tender. For some odd reason the regular tender was taking a long time to fill up, and they wouldn't send it off until it was full, so they sent a special tender over for us Elites. Awesome! However I won't expect that to happen every time. 🤣