Covid on Ambience

[tring]

There have been reports of  a notable covid presence on Ambience (with more than 100 people leaving the cruise infected yesterday), on social media. It seems people on the ship have been advised to wear masks at certain times/places, but it is not being imposed at all, nor are any other controls or testing taking place.  Also seems people are being isolated in their own cabins with no quarantine area and one person claims they were told to go to the restaurant to eat as room service would not be given to them.   All sounds rather lax to me, if it is indeed true.

 

Does anyone have first hand knowledge about this, or from someone they know who has been on the ship?  I am never too trustful of social media comments,.  We are due in the ship for a three week cruise soon, so it is all sounding quite alarming to me though.  I would expect covid to be present to an extent and accept that, but would also expect a strict clamp down by the cruise line if there was a big presence of it.

 

I have also read that there has been problems with the ship being very hot and the cabin thermostats not working.  Again, can anyone offer any information on that and if it is still the case?

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by tring

[twotravellersLondon]

21 minutes ago, tring said:

There have been reports

 

Difficult to give any "reports" credibility unless one knows where they have originate from and so it's right to be skeptical...  

 

We were once of a ship which "according to reports"...  which originated from one person and one person only... was running out of fuel, food and water (nothing could be further from the truth). By afternoon tea the rumour mill was in full swing and  "according to reports" we would soon lose all power,  electricity, heating, water, sanitation and navigation and end up drifting through ice-bergs... (we didn't) 

 

So it's right to ask for other information because we don't know who made the original post or posts, who they are, what they do, or what their agenda could possibly be.. 

[tring]

11 minutes ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

Difficult to give any "reports" credibility unless one knows where they have originate from and so it's right to be skeptical...  

 

We were once of a ship which "according to reports"...  which originated from one person and one person only... was running out of fuel, food and water (nothing could be further from the truth). By afternoon tea the rumour mill was in full swing and  "according to reports" we would soon lose all power,  electricity, heating, water, sanitation and navigation and end up drifting through ice-bergs... (we didn't) 

 

So it's right to ask for other information because we don't know who made the original post or posts, who they are, what they do, or what their agenda could possibly be.. 

 

Thanks, yes I agree, though must admit I have read posts from a number of people on a cruise group, so not an isolated comment or rumour.  I do find this site generally more reliable, but few people will have clear knowledge of what is going on as yet. 

 

I now see the person who was refused room service had not been tested, but it is not clear if she had told the medical centre she was not well, or just told room service.  There is now a report that the ship is still hot from someone who has just disembarked though.  Like me the person is asthmatic, so struggled on the ship.

 

I am not a happy bunny.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by tring

[tring]

On ship now in sunny but cold Reykjavik.  Lots of people having problems with A/C in cabins as expected, some extremely hot, some cold, others did not work at all!  The public areas all at a good temperature though.  I must say the food is very good, though service not so good in way it is served, though things do come quickly.  Many staff well meaning though, just very badly trained imo.

 

Ship only about half full, @750 pax, so can fit everyone in one sitting as some always go to self service etc.  We can arrive anytime between 6pm and 8pm.  It does mean the restaurant gets very full and also the self service very busy for late breakfast- I hate to think what that would be like if ship was full.  Previous cruises did need two sittings, from what we were told.  Also only one show.  Lots of speakers of mixed quality.  Theatre gets very full, masks advised as we are told covid still much in evidence, but very few masks seen tbh. We are well so far, but keeping fingers closed.  I will do a full review on return, but maybe not on here again during cruise as most ports now in Greenland.

[paulatsea]

Thanks for the sit. report Tring 

Hope you are enjoying the cruise despite the issues.

[tring]

45 minutes ago, paulatsea said:

Thanks for the sit. report Tring 

Hope you are enjoying the cruise despite the issues.

 

Not too bad overall, though not easy to sleep.  Ports are great, so got to be good as long as we do not catch something 🙂

 

[tim_london0]

Can confirm what tring says

 

AC controls in cabins do not work.  The amount of heating/cooling is set once and remains like that.  My cabin was over warm when the ship was in port and became too cold overnight whilst at sea.  You can get it adjusted to be a bit warmer or colder, but that wont affect the difference.  If you get it set so that it is just right in port, it will be even colder when at sea (or vice versa).

 

Food was overall good, but reports from people who ate in the restaurant was that service was lacking.  Apart from the Solo's welcome lunch I always ate in the self service, where there are 7 different choices - surely enough for anybody?

Breakfast was a different matter.  Both the sausages and the baked beans were cheap and nasty rubbish.  The pastries had little taste (but I guess that down to the modern style of not putting salt in the mix).  So, apart from a trip to obtain my daily shot of Orange juice, I decided to skip breakfast - there's more than enough alternative opportunities for eating. 

Other bad points were sliced chicken breast that was as tough as old boots (I really should have left it and gone back for something else) and the braised veal on the final day was very chewy and tasteless (Veal's supposed to be a tender cut, cooking it to be this bad must take some skill 😀).  By the end of the trip they were running out of stuff.  On the final days there was no orange juice, no grilled tomatoes and the bananas had run out over a week before.  One bad thing about self service is that Ice cream was never an available desert option, whereas it's available almost daily in the restaurant

 

Anyhow, back to the title of the thread.  I got a cold the first week and tested myself as negative, but a week later, when the cold had more or less gone, and all I had was a sniffy nose, tested again as positive.  Had to stay in my room, have all my food delivered from the restaurant menu and be tested daily.  After 5 days I was negative again and was let out of my confinement.  So whilst in my room I got to sample the restaurant fixed plated food option instead of my normal mix-and match approach.  And I was amazed at the stupidity of some plates - 80% protein, 10% carbs and 10% veg.  How's that suppling a balanced diet?  Cleaner wouldn't attend to my room after I had been positive (he would deliver clean stuff but not take dirty stuff away).  Apparently, the de-contamination team has to clean it after I left the ship on the final day.. 

[tring]

2 hours ago, tim_london0 said:

Can confirm what tring says

 

AC controls in cabins do not work.  The amount of heating/cooling is set once and remains like that.  My cabin was over warm when the ship was in port and became too cold overnight whilst at sea.  You can get it adjusted to be a bit warmer or colder, but that wont affect the difference.  If you get it set so that it is just right in port, it will be even colder when at sea (or vice versa).

 

Food was overall good, but reports from people who ate in the restaurant was that service was lacking.  Apart from the Solo's welcome lunch I always ate in the self service, where there are 7 different choices - surely enough for anybody?

Breakfast was a different matter.  Both the sausages and the baked beans were cheap and nasty rubbish.  The pastries had little taste (but I guess that down to the modern style of not putting salt in the mix).  So, apart from a trip to obtain my daily shot of Orange juice, I decided to skip breakfast - there's more than enough alternative opportunities for eating. 

Other bad points were sliced chicken breast that was as tough as old boots (I really should have left it and gone back for something else) and the braised veal on the final day was very chewy and tasteless (Veal's supposed to be a tender cut, cooking it to be this bad must take some skill 😀).  By the end of the trip they were running out of stuff.  On the final days there was no orange juice, no grilled tomatoes and the bananas had run out over a week before.  One bad thing about self service is that Ice cream was never an available desert option, whereas it's available almost daily in the restaurant

 

Anyhow, back to the title of the thread.  I got a cold the first week and tested myself as negative, but a week later, when the cold had more or less gone, and all I had was a sniffy nose, tested again as positive.  Had to stay in my room, have all my food delivered from the restaurant menu and be tested daily.  After 5 days I was negative again and was let out of my confinement.  So whilst in my room I got to sample the restaurant fixed plated food option instead of my normal mix-and match approach.  And I was amazed at the stupidity of some plates - 80% protein, 10% carbs and 10% veg.  How's that suppling a balanced diet?  Cleaner wouldn't attend to my room after I had been positive (he would deliver clean stuff but not take dirty stuff away).  Apparently, the de-contamination team has to clean it after I left the ship on the final day.. 

 

Sorry to hear about your positive test.  Is it the Greenland cruise you were on and if so, did you miss most of Greenland?  A lot of people were sneezing/coughing etc. though appart from suggesting people wore masks (not mandated and ignored by most), the crew were really not bothered.  Also, apart from entering the self service restaurant from the lifts, no one seemed to use the hand sanitizer, including when returning to the ship- - again staff not at all concerned.

 

 

They did try to adjust the temp in our initial cabin, which cooled a bit the next day, though it just got steadily hotter again after that, not going below 26C!  Our cabin steward told us the people in the balcony cabins were complaining of then being cold (door seals not intact so cold winds in cabins), hence all temps increased for that part of deck ten.  We had also been told that midship was a bit better than our mid fore section or the mid aft, in that respect.  After the first few days we were offered another room to sleep in over night, but that was only about 1 degree C less and had had a very prominent rattle, so I moved back at 3am.  I had asked if we could pay for an upgrade if there was another cabin that would be better (the ship was only half full, otherwise that was unlikely to be possible).  The next day (sea day before Qaqortoq) we were offered two cabins which were considerably cooler (too cold for most people I suspect), and we moved to one on deck nine, which was a great advantage for us and made the cruise far better.  Otherwise I do not believe I could have stayed on the ship any longer.  Yes temp of that second cabin fluctuated, getting warmer late afternoon and cooling in the early hours. 

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by tring

[tim_london0]

Yes and No.  I tested myself after return from the final port in Greenland with no expectation of a positive test.  I had exactly the same (actually fewer) symptoms than I had had the previous week when I tested negative.

 

So I spent the 4 at sea days, plus the day at Orkney (which I had not planned to visit anyway as I have done it all before) locked up in my cabin. 

 

Sorry to hear about your temperature problems, I hadn't heard any that bad from the people who I met on the boat.  Most just said that the maintenance man came and tinkered with something in the roof to make their cabin cooler - and then it was too cold 😀.

[tring]

16 hours ago, tim_london0 said:

Yes and No.  I tested myself after return from the final port in Greenland with no expectation of a positive test.  I had exactly the same (actually fewer) symptoms than I had had the previous week when I tested negative.

 

So I spent the 4 at sea days, plus the day at Orkney (which I had not planned to visit anyway as I have done it all before) locked up in my cabin. 

 

Sorry to hear about your temperature problems, I hadn't heard any that bad from the people who I met on the boat.  Most just said that the maintenance man came and tinkered with something in the roof to make their cabin cooler - and then it was too cold 😀.

 

Not too bad then, at least you made the Greenland ports. We came back with a slight sniffle and tested ourselves on return and today, but clear negatives showing, so perhaps there was something else around on the ship.

 

The cabin we moved to the day before Greenland was fine for us - cooler most of the time (16C one morning), but did get up to 23C on a couple of days later in the cruise for late daytime and for the early night, which was a tad hot for us, though not a real problem by any means.  We had plenty of warm clothes, so we were quite happy with the cooler cabin - just needed to use a pool towel to wrap around me when I got out of bed before getting showered.  That was a mid ship window cabin as well and yet they did not ask us to pay anything beyond our initial booking price for a Guarantee inside (when it first came down - not the even cheaper price which it fell to for the last few weeks), so not bad going at all.  If we had taken the balcony, they only wanted £360 pp, which did not sound at all bad, but we were warned we would feel cold wind in the cabin - the door seal was clearly perished with a visible gap and the carpet felt rough, so we assumed it was one which had been badly flooded in the storms towards the end of the previous cruise.  Hence that did not seem like a good idea (it was very good of the girl from reception who showed us the cabin being so honest about that).  We had spoken to people in balcony cabins that were very cold before Greenland (not sure if that got better) and another couple who changed balcony cabin because the A/C packed up entirely.  There are clearly a fair number of cabins that are currently not fit for purpose and I feel we only got a better cabin because there were so few cabins occupied on that cruise.  It sounds like it is the only cruise when they did not have two sittings for dinner, so there must have been a higher occupancy on the other cruises, so we would not risk the ship again, unless it sounded like the temperature problems really have been sorted.  Plenty of other options around though,

 

Barbara