Blogging from the Ruby Princess

[BLJBLJ]

Thank you Yellow Fish for the update.  Hoping for the best for you both.  Brenda

[Solara]

Pescado Amarillo,

Thank you for your update. You are living my worst nightmare & why we still aren’t cruising. Hope you are both ok. Hope you do decide to go home tomorrow before anything else happens & your husband can travel home soon after.  Sending hugs.  

[ceilidh1]

@PescadoAmarillo I am so sorry you are both going through this, but thank you for keeping us updated on how this stuff really works from a first hand perspective, I am obviously very naive since, although I knew the risks of getting Covid on a ship (or anywhere for that matter) I also truly believed that if I tested positive during my cruise I would be well taken care of. These reports are showing this is not the case! I wonder if it is unique to this ship or the fact that there are many cases and the staff are overwhelmed, or is this just simply the way it is! 

 

Thinking of you both and hoping you get through it with your always positive outlook!

[mellon1]

Yellow Fish, praying for you and your husband.  You are such a strong person and thoughtful...thinking of others during this most difficult time and keeping others informed of situation.  Totally trust all your posts and blogs. You are a real trooper girl.  All the best to you and hubby.

[Thrak]

What a huge letdown after all the planning and anticipation. I have a question regarding masking onboard. Is Princess still providing N95 or KN95 masks to passengers or should I bring a supply of my own? We board Royal Princess in Vancouver on May 2nd. We have the "advantage" of being the first passengers to board this ship since the shutdown so there will be no previously positive passengers already aboard but I'm still wondering about mask availability.

 

We get our second boosters tomorrow. Hopefully that will also help to mitigate circumstances. Best wishes for the two of you. It might have helped G to weather isolation if he had stockpiled some potato chips.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Thrak

[SSAtlantic]

Thank you for the update. I hope you have safe travels should you leave the ship early and G is feeling well and gets home soon also. We cruised in early January during the Omicron surge and did not give much thought to what we would do if one of us became ill. The recent threads have certainly been eye opening and given us things to consider. 
Again, best wishes for you both and safe travels. 

[ocean sounds]

@PescadoAmarillo

Thanks for sharing your experience.  Hoping you stay negative, and prayers for your husband for quick recovery, 

 

After being exposed to CoVid in my household (3 of us, and I tested positive last - 10 days after the first), I say run (no fly 🛫) off that ship.  
The thought of you not testing positive until later - and then having to quarantine in a hotel is a possibility.  
 

Best wishes to you both.  I’ve really enjoyed your past yellow fish blogs.  You have a wonderful way with words.

 

Take care,

[jovisoul]

33 minutes ago, Thrak said:

What a huge letdown after all the planning and anticipation. I have a question regarding masking onboard. Is Princess still providing N95 or KN95 masks to passengers or should I bring a supply of my own? We board Royal Princess in Vancouver on May 2nd. We have the "advantage" of being the first passengers to board this ship since the shutdown so there will be no previously positive passengers already aboard but I'm still wondering about mask availability.

 

We get our second boosters tomorrow. Hopefully that will also help to mitigate circumstances. Best wishes for the two of you. It might have helped G to weather isolation if he had stockpiled some potato chips.

On the Ruby last month there were two KN95 masks in our cabin when we boarded and they gave us another set the second week of our 15 days.

[dickinson]

I too am sorry for the situation both you and your husband are in.  Thanks for your informative post.  It is a tough decision to decide to fly home but might be the right one.  The cruise you have is not the cruise you had looked forward to having.  I hope that you remain Covid negative and G, if feeling symptoms, has a speedy recovery.  We're all pulling for both of you.  Sending virtual hugs.  🤗

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

@PescadoAmarilloyour detailed account and the information on being able to leave the ship early are simply invaluable. Thank you so much for doing this during such a trying time. I hope your food comes quickly and hot. I do hope someone is calling  G for his food orders instead of him having to wait on hold like Joy reported started happening for her.  

Whatever you decide to do I hope you stay well and I hope G recovers quickly. 

 

Best wishes and just all the positive energy I have goes out to you and G. 

[JimmyVWine]

Thank you for sharing your experience. For many years we have followed along with your journeys, good or bad, and you have pulled no punches and for that we are all grateful.  Your strength and composure under these circumstances is a true inspiration. My best to you and G and we pray that you come out of this with nothing more than stories to share. 

[Britter16]

G stayed negative with all his precautions for weeks then caught it Friday or Saturday, just tells us how contagious this virus can be.

Can people standing together for 2 hours bring on enough viral load to infect the whole ship? Best to get off as soon as possible.

Not what anyone who enjoys your your blog was expecting, just wow.

[Joy_K]

So sorry to hear about G testing positive.  It was day 4 when I did, but was put in same room with husband.  I use a scooter so I had to depend on room service to bring all my meal before being moved.  After a few days my tolerance ran thin waiting for room service to answer so I will advise you to call guest services and tell them you need help placing you order.  They would not give me their "magic phone #" but within seconds I had someone on the line asking for my order.  I hope G is getting the courtesy we are now of 3 calls a day to place orders and a followup within 5 minutes of delivery to make sure it arrive and was right and what time we want our next call.  We have had a couple misses that were quickly remedied....how do you get a carafe of cold coffee????  

 

Hubby's day 5 test was positive yesterday so he remains until day 10 and then released with no testing which will be my day 6 for possible release through testing just in time for Hilo. 

 

Always hard to know what decision to make and wish you both the best.

[Marjan1]

Thank you for keeping us up to date J.  I hope G is ok and his symptoms aren’t too severe.  
My brother in law tested positive, quarantined at home for a week with my sister who never caught it.  Same for two other friends - one had covid , spouse never caught it.  So you may be ok.  
I am in Australia, just contemplating our first cruise here (cruising restarts in June) and we have until December to use A$9K in credits.  
Thanks to you your clear explanations of what to expect, we have almost certainly decided on a 7 day return cruise from our home port.   That seems to eliminate some of the risks even though it is not an ideal itinerary.   Depending on how we go we can make further bookings with the credits.  
(The credits are bonus ones after a full refund, so no financial loss to us if we don’t use them.)

[arizonaperson]

Joy,thanks for the update on you and your husband,darn on his latest positive Covid test. Hope Princess continues to get food and whatever you need to both of you.

[Lucky TGO]

OMG this is an Awful thing to happen to everyone. I feel so bad for you and your husband. 
I hope and pray that everything turns out OK for you. What you’re going through is the main reason I refuse to go on a cruise at this time. 
Tony 

[Joy_K]

Only thing I have asked for and can't get is soft kleenex and we have a friend picking up some tomorrow when we get to Hawaii.

[queensquared]

Jeannie.......Yvonne and I dismayed by the circumstances for you and G. Mojo......tons of mojo being sent your way.

Thanks for the update.

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

2 hours ago, Joy_K said:

Always hard to know what decision to make and wish you both the best.

Joy, thank you for responding. Sending you good wishes.
 

You’ve made it much easier for me to know what decision to make. And for that I thank you too. 
 

Thanks everyone, so much, for the good wishes. This is definitely the worst cruise I’ve ever been on…and I was in a shipwreck!

[Pink-belle]

Thank you for updating us with what you are experiencing on the Ruby.  I hope G is being well looked after in isolation.

Personally, I would take the flight, 

[MissP22]

.

[FlorenceItaly]

I feel so bad for you!  Thank you for sharing your experience.  It IS helpful to others.  If you decide to fly home TAKE THE FIRST CLASS FLIGHT.  Trust me on this.  It will be the best money you ever spent after this horrible experience.  Best wishes to you and yours.

[bronzey214]

@PescadoAmarillo - thank you for the update - I wish you luck with whichever direction you decide to go and I am disappointed in how Princess has treated you and your husband (and others that have tested positive/had close contact).

My fiancé and I were on the Enchanted in March and decided to not mask unless we showed as Yellow/Orange on the CDC Ship Dashboard (we never moved from green - note: we're not anti-maskers - we've been masking to literally everything at home, grocery stores, NHL games, etc and this was entirely an act of mask exhaustion).

This thread (and the locked Ruby Princess thread) has shown me how reckless that decision actually was and how it could have ruined our trip.

I know that Princess is basically letting it up to the individual on their risk profile, but the number of cases impacts the crew. At some point, something is gonna give.

[1025cruise]

Thank you for updating. I was afraid the situation was as you described (at least in some form). Please be well (as well as G).

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, bronzey214 said:

I know that Princess is basically letting it up to the individual on their risk profile, but the number of cases impacts the crew. At some point, something is gonna give.

It's been working fine on the Enchanted without any cases of Covid since the beginning of March.