Emerald Princess British Isles COVID.

[insidecabin]

2 hours ago, dog said:

This is not new. Twice at St Peter port we were in the pub & line ups pre pandemic. Tenders were packed.

Been standard procedure at St.P.P. for years.

[puggymom]

That looks like the same letter provided on the 5/21 sailing. I think it is provided to help set expectations for tendering. 

[caribill]

Not helping is that Princess keeps bringing larger and larger capacity ships to tender ports.

 

Quite a difference when ships of capacities ranging from 670 passengers (the dearly departed Pacific Princess) to 3660 passengers (Majestic) and on the next generation ship even more passengers, about 4300, need tendering.

 

Many tender ports can only accommodate one tender docked at a time so even a ship with many tenders cannot speed up the tendering process.

[caribill]

11 hours ago, SomewhereGirl said:

What is the usual capacity of a tender?

 

 

A typical Princess tender inside capacity-- 104 as tender, 150 as a lifeboat.

 

As a lifeboat people are really crammed in, possibly with some sitting on the floor.

 

Photo is of a tender on the CB.

 

 

 

[SomewhereGirl]

15 hours ago, puggymom said:

That looks like the same letter provided on the 5/21 sailing. I think it is provided to help set expectations for tendering. 

OK, that makes sense.  I completely misinterpreted the letter in post #137.  This thread had started off about Covid and I thought Princess was reducing capacity in the tenders for Covid reasons when really a capacity of 90 is about normal.

[momphoto]

We were on the June 2-14 Emerald cruise.  People ignored the elevator rule, and when told when they tried to squeeze on a already packed one, they just said 2 more won’t matter.  There were 2500 passengers.  I would say 90% did not wear masks.  We were on deck 12 and from the first day the front of the ship was closed off and we heard it was being used for crew who had tested positive.  Tenders were jammed in like sardines, tour busses full.  A few days in you could hear people coughing, it got worse as the cruise continued.  When they announced that mask were mandatory I would say 90% obliiged.  But we noticed many would sit in the lounges and keep a cup in front of them, many times we could see it was empty and they did not mask up.  Coughing got worse, some people sounded like they were coughing up lungs.  We saw people take their masks off to cough???  Staff did not enforce the masking.  People on the tenders took masks off, people on tours did not mask.  On our deck they moved the quarantine cabins on one side to the rear elevators.  At this point they just put tables outside of the cabins so you knew there was covid in that one.  We masked at all times, was nice to see staff masked.  I think this will be our last cruise for awhile.  It certainly took away from the joy of cruising.

[Happiest when cruising]

3 hours ago, momphoto said:

We were on the June 2-14 Emerald cruise.  People ignored the elevator rule, and when told when they tried to squeeze on a already packed one, they just said 2 more won’t matter.  There were 2500 passengers.  I would say 90% did not wear masks.  We were on deck 12 and from the first day the front of the ship was closed off and we heard it was being used for crew who had tested positive.  Tenders were jammed in like sardines, tour busses full.  A few days in you could hear people coughing, it got worse as the cruise continued.  When they announced that mask were mandatory I would say 90% obliiged.  But we noticed many would sit in the lounges and keep a cup in front of them, many times we could see it was empty and they did not mask up.  Coughing got worse, some people sounded like they were coughing up lungs.  We saw people take their masks off to cough???  Staff did not enforce the masking.  People on the tenders took masks off, people on tours did not mask.  On our deck they moved the quarantine cabins on one side to the rear elevators.  At this point they just put tables outside of the cabins so you knew there was covid in that one.  We masked at all times, was nice to see staff masked.  I think this will be our last cruise for awhile.  It certainly took away from the joy of cruising.

Keep an eye out for any symptoms, and test yourselves, if you can.  I do understand how that took away some of the fun. Unless everyone does their part, this is always going to be an issue. 
 

[majortom10]

3 hours ago, momphoto said:

We were on the June 2-14 Emerald cruise.  People ignored the elevator rule, and when told when they tried to squeeze on a already packed one, they just said 2 more won’t matter.  There were 2500 passengers.  I would say 90% did not wear masks.  We were on deck 12 and from the first day the front of the ship was closed off and we heard it was being used for crew who had tested positive.  Tenders were jammed in like sardines, tour busses full.  A few days in you could hear people coughing, it got worse as the cruise continued.  When they announced that mask were mandatory I would say 90% obliiged.  But we noticed many would sit in the lounges and keep a cup in front of them, many times we could see it was empty and they did not mask up.  Coughing got worse, some people sounded like they were coughing up lungs.  We saw people take their masks off to cough???  Staff did not enforce the masking.  People on the tenders took masks off, people on tours did not mask.  On our deck they moved the quarantine cabins on one side to the rear elevators.  At this point they just put tables outside of the cabins so you knew there was covid in that one.  We masked at all times, was nice to see staff masked.  I think this will be our last cruise for awhile.  It certainly took away from the joy of cruising.

We were on the same cruise and agree almost entirely with the exception of when we went to the theatre for the late night shows after the Captains announcement many did not wear masks and many also soon as the lights went down they took them off. Every day since we have been back we have done a test and amazed after being crammed into tenders at all 4 tender ports and wore masks inside the ship from the very beginning except for eating and genuinely drinking that we have not caught covid. Overall although we enjoyed the food in MDR and some staff being very polite it was our worst Princess cruise which was disappointing as this cruise we celebrated 500 cruise days aboard Princess. 

[caribill]

45 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Overall although we enjoyed the food in MDR and some staff being very polite it was our worst Princess cruise which was disappointing as this cruise we celebrated 500 cruise days aboard Princess. 

 

Is Princess still giving extra benefits on the cruise on which you celebrate 500 days?

 

Or is that another feature that Pricness dropped when the restart occured?

[Happiest when cruising]

18 minutes ago, akeasley said:

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Happiest when cruising
Wrong post

[MixerDave]

On 6/10/2022 at 2:06 PM, ProfMHC said:

Identical issues on 5/21 sailing. But no change in directives from the captain. No masks, stuffed lifts and tenders. Was it any wonder that multiple busses arrived at Radisson for folks to quarantine? Conference room was jammed — estimating 50-70 people with a like number of spouses and traveling companions jammed in another room. I tested + on the ship testing day and missed Normandy. Totally asymptomatic but it didn’t matter. DH stayed with me in hotel quarantine as he is my Prince. But we’ve sweated out his coming up + and my having to return alone while he would suffer alone through another10 day quarantine period. So THANK GOD for the change. WE WILL FLY BACK TOGETHER on Sunday! No test for him (not that he has any symptoms and I never developed any either.)

I do not understand I tested + on the ship testing day What is ship testing day.  And if you were asympom,atic why were you tested?

[junglejane]

18 minutes ago, MixerDave said:

I do not understand I tested + on the ship testing day What is ship testing day.  And if you were asympom,atic why were you tested?

I'm guessing she means that she got tested the morning of the last full day (LeHavre) in order to fly to the US on disembarkation day; she tested positive so had to miss her excursion to Normandy and go into hotel quarantine instead of flying home as planned. Of course now that the test-to-fly requirement has been eliminated by the US, more people will fly home not realizing they're positive. 

[MissP22]

On 6/17/2022 at 1:13 PM, caribill said:

 

Is Princess still giving extra benefits on the cruise on which you celebrate 500 days?

 

Or is that another feature that Pricness dropped when the restart occured?

At the very least, he could have been given breakfast in Sabatini's every morning.

[majortom10]

On 6/17/2022 at 6:13 PM, caribill said:

 

Is Princess still giving extra benefits on the cruise on which you celebrate 500 days?

 

Or is that another feature that Pricness dropped when the restart occured?

Yes we got a lovely bouquet of flowers a bottle of decent champagne and plate of chocolate dipped strawberries. We didn't get just breakfast in Sabatini's so as usual MissP22 is wrong again

 

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

We didn't get just breakfast in Sabatini's so as usual MissP22 is wrong again

You were screwed...big time.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Yes we got a lovely bouquet of flowers a bottle of decent champagne and plate of chocolate dipped strawberries. We didn't get just breakfast in Sabatini's so as usual MissP22 is wrong again

 

 

Thanks for your report on this.

 

In MissP22's defense, the post said that was the minimum that Princess should have provided, not that this was all you might have received.

[Yehootu]

On 6/17/2022 at 12:49 PM, junglejane said:

Of course now that the test-to-fly requirement has been eliminated by the US, more people will fly home not realizing they're positive. 

We flew home from Vancouver on first non test day. Got home, tested before seeing Grandkids, looks like another 10days before we can see the boys.

[Happiest when cruising]

28 minutes ago, Yehootu said:

We flew home from Vancouver on first non test day. Got home, tested before seeing Grandkids, looks like another 10days before we can see the boys.

Well, you can bet you weren’t the only ones flying with Covid. 
I hope you feel better soon. 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Happiest when cruising

[junglejane]

Well said @HappiestWhenCruising. I hope @Yehootu feels better soon.

[insidecabin]

Greenock today, one of the good scenic sailaway.

 

we have settled into a routine with dinner at 8pm and it's working for us in terms of avoiding busy spaces.

 

They have one of Sabatini or Crown Grill at a time no Steamers or Planks.

 

Adagio is only open when Sabatini is open and is very quiet for a drink/lounge no entertainment.

Same day time when I popped my head in, order on app.

 

Last night as we walked out of Adagio for dinner(near 8pm) I asked about availability and was offered a table for after 8:30 (passed)

 

After dinner we found a spot we were happy with in wheelhouse people were trotting of for the show.

 

No mention of the C word yet.

 

Most of the shows have been guest entertainment beginning to think the show team may be quarantine or maybe they are saving the shows for the later part of the cruise.

 

 

[BuckeyeMark]

1 hour ago, insidecabin said:

Greenock today, one of the good scenic sailaway.

 

we have settled into a routine with dinner at 8pm and it's working for us in terms of avoiding busy spaces.

 

They have one of Sabatini or Crown Grill at a time no Steamers or Planks.

 

Adagio is only open when Sabatini is open and is very quiet for a drink/lounge no entertainment.

Same day time when I popped my head in, order on app.

 

Last night as we walked out of Adagio for dinner(near 8pm) I asked about availability and was offered a table for after 8:30 (passed)

 

After dinner we found a spot we were happy with in wheelhouse people were trotting of for the show.

 

No mention of the C word yet.

 

Most of the shows have been guest entertainment beginning to think the show team may be quarantine or maybe they are saving the shows for the later part of the cruise.

 

 

On this cruise and itinerary soon so am interested in the up-to-the-minute updates on the good ship Emerald.  Thank you!

[SweetD323]

On 6/15/2022 at 9:06 AM, insidecabin said:

On the ship now.(in port so ashore)

 

As pointed out people can have very different experience depending on where they hang out and their timing at locations.

 

We avoid potential busy areas and it is fine so far but first days are often like that.

 

 

Easy early embarkation, on ship for 11:30 easy to manage your space as  terminal not busy no line more than 1 group check-in or security.

 

Not seeing many wearing masks.

 

Elevators do have mask and 6 max but does get ignored.

We have had to pass the odd one but the wait for the next is not long not in a hurry.

 

Anywhere we have been has been ok so far.

 

Shortline for dinner around 8pm seated in a few mins.

Good service and ok spaced tables in the area we were.

 

First night plenty of space in bars after 10pm when we finished dinner.

 

When the buffet got busy I heard they did try to get people to mask up terrible layout causes congestion.

 

Been a mix of served and self servicevwhen we have used buffet.

 

Will try to get pax count later today

 

Might waste 1/2 hour and do a deck walk to asses capacity, in our small area there is an empty cabin and a few solos.

 

 

Thank you for posting.  Please continue to post.  My husband and I will be on the Sept. 6 sailing.

[insidecabin]

Last day today, not much to report, this has been our smoothest round Britain cruise flat seas most of the way.

 

South Queensferry we got 2 local vessels to support the tenders our elite got us on when we were ready and return there was no real line or wait even though we got back same time as a couple of excursion coaches.

 

Local cruise bus(X99) is £10 for a full day ticket no need for the princess offering.

 

Our dinner at 8pm has worked out great same table every night.

This is way off routine for us as we are normally fully flexible(NCL fans)

 

Still no C word conversations the coughing has increased a bit, we had one passenger down our hall disappear, there was a trolley that looked like it was full of bedding with an orange cover and a person with sanitising equipment (not regular team) was in and out.

 

Today I did a walk about to find quarantine deck.

 

Aloha forward elevators locked off both sides.

Port side locked of back to the fire door between mid and aft most of the cabins aft of that empty including the suites.

Starboard back to the fire door between forward and  mid. Judging by the service trolleys normal use aft  from there.

 

There are around 100 crew leaving the ship in Southampton, last of the opening team, talking to a supervisor they are not sure if they will all get replaced, with transport and possibly of some having to quarantine if positive could leave them short.

 

I was told the issues with restaurants being shut and only Sabatini or Crown Grill is a chef shortage.

 

I posted elsewhere one surprise was over 1000 passengers were new to Princess this cruise.

Probably the great rates for us in the UK attracting business.

 

Any questions?

[SomewhereGirl]

Excellent info!  No big Covid outbreak is good!

 

Sounds like you're from the UK so this probably wouldn't pertain to you, but did you happen to see any paperwork about airport transfers?  I'm curious about the times.  I think there are usually different times based on flight departures.

 

This also wouldn't pertain to you as an Elite, but were the early South Queensferry tenders easy to get on?  Was the tender process smoother than in Guernsey?

[insidecabin]

The call to collect tender tickets was around 7:15, they were calling groups quite quickly at the start for quite a while.

We aimed for just after 9am and got on one of the support boats, there was a tour group already loaded and they called 3 more groups for that one.

The X99 hit traffic probably the train strike.

It's about 40mins each way.

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