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Live - Island Princess Oktoberfest cruise Sept. 27 - Oct. 7

Rick&Jeannie

By Rick&Jeannie,
in Princess Cruises

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ldubs

ldubs

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1 hour ago, ExploringTheGlobe said:

I was also on this cruise.  I loved the itinerary but found it rather port intensive and felt I needed to return to work for a break!  This was my 37th Princess cruise so I know the ships quite well.  I had been on the Island once before but only for a 3 day cruise.  After this cruise, I will never sail on her again.  The layout was odd and I kept getting turned around.  I missed the international cafe and having a place to dance (there was never any good dancing music in Explorers lounge like the patter eluded).  The casino is tiny.  Loved Crooners and that is where I spent much of my time. 

 

To the person on the previous cruise talking about covid onboard- I spoke with several people who had been on that cruise as well.   They discussed the removal of seats at the bar, etc. and the amount of people who were quarantined to their cabins.  We did not have the same experience for our cruise.  I walked quite a bit down the hallways (because I kept getting turned around on that damn ship!) and I only saw one cabin with a table in front of the door. 

 

My all around favorite ships are the Grand class.  I had previously been on the Coral so knew what to expect size-wise on the Island.  I also like the International Cafe but knew going in it wasn't on the Island.  And, it took a little while to figure out which elevators went to which decks.  Seemed to me most of the dancing was happening in the Wheelhouse on this cruise.   It was port intensive, but again we knew that going in.   One positive for those who needed a break is some of these ports were really conducive to quick look-sees and return to ship.   We had a fun cruise.  I wouldn't avoid the Island if the itinerary were good, but it would not be at the top of my list for preferred ships.  

 

Getting turned around, reminds me of using the Medallion locator.  I tracked Mrs Ldubs going the wrong way on one of the decks.  Was able to call her and turn her around.  haha.   

 

BTW, Crooners is one of my favorite places to hang out on Princess ships.  The one on Island was pretty nice.  

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Rick&Jeannie "Live from...." Rare

Rick&Jeannie

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Crooners (on many ships) is situated to the side of the Piazza, still allowing easy listening to whatever music is being played down on the lowest level.  On the Island it is not to the side but situated on the centerline of the ship, still overlooking the Piazza.  I know it really shouldn't have made any difference at all but I liked this layout a bit better.

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Rick&Jeannie "Live from...." Rare

Rick&Jeannie

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9 hours ago, ExploringTheGlobe said:

... I only saw one cabin with a table in front of the door. 

That may very well have been the cabin on our deck (Dolphin).  There was one cabin maybe about 8 or 9 down from ours that had the small table.  However...rather early on in the cruise we got on an elevator with another gentleman who was wearing a mask and pulling his luggage.  He got off on 8.  This was in the evening after dinner.  I *think* the ship had already left port.  The only thing we could figure was that he was moving to the (supposed) quarantine deck.

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NownZen

NownZen

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24 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

That may very well have been the cabin on our deck (Dolphin).  There was one cabin maybe about 8 or 9 down from ours that had the small table.  However...rather early on in the cruise we got on an elevator with another gentleman who was wearing a mask and pulling his luggage.  He got off on 8.  This was in the evening after dinner.  I *think* the ship had already left port.  The only thing we could figure was that he was moving to the (supposed) quarantine deck.

On the Island in may/june there were only a few tables outside the doors. I walked two decks (about 500 cabins) and saw 10 tables. Just before the end of the cruise it seemed like every other cabin had a table in front and they were using the glass top tables from the rooms. It seems that this was from the tests on the B2B passengers. Someone said that of the 800 going on, that there were around 200 who tested positive. That is consistent with what we saw. It also is consistent with the amount of coughing we heard around the ship.

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travelin.sisters Great Review Rare

travelin.sisters

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On 10/3/2022 at 11:33 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Well phoney! I just had a long posting describing our tour in Copenhagen disappear when I clicked "Submit". I'll try to recreate it...

my first live I wrote the 'best ever in the history of CC posts' that was lost to the interspace, now I write them in my word processor & copy & paste (very helpful on our last cruise with horrible internet where it often took a dozen tries to get a post to actually post)

 

thanks for doing this, I love the Island we did the Panama Canal on her & it was delightful

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travelin.sisters Great Review Rare

travelin.sisters

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again, thank you for sharing your trip...it was lovely to 'sail' with you...makes me wish my sister would fly so that we could do itineraries like this...I think you did a great job of remembering, it is hard to keep track of all the new places & experiences when every day is another new place (it's actually one of the reasons I do lives, so that I have a record of what happened where...like a modern travel journal)

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Mackenzie1

Mackenzie1

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On 10/6/2022 at 12:34 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I do not have any first-hand knowledge of any covid case forsure...but just down the hall (deck 9 Dolphin) for the past week there has been one of those very small tables blocking the cabin door and usually with a finished tray on it. I don't know any other explanation for this but our cabin steward told me that deck 8 was the quarantine deck.

Thank you for your reply. I’m looking forward to our cruise, but since it will be 28-days, it seems that precautions are still warranted. 

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DesertGirl28

DesertGirl28

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Well, I finally got my notes all written up. Thanks Rick for your post. We were on the Northern Lights after this one so my notes are long. We were on deck 5 and never saw any tables during the 5 times we did laundry. I had heard (I think from someone who was on the previous cruise) that they had a lot of COVID and were restricting things. But most of those got off so it was just down to masks at the buffet. By the end of the next cruise even the dining staff showed their faces. There was still some on board but not that bad. For us, we are double vaccinated, triple boosted and had it during the 2nd half of May. We weren't worried. 

 

Here's our story

 

24 Day Cruise-Adventures.odt

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voljeep

voljeep

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29 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

 @DesertGirl28...I'm probably just doing something wrong but I cannot read your trip story.  I'm not familiar with an ".ODT" file.  What app was that done with?  You might want to post in a different format to reach the widest possible audience.

it opened in a "Word" format when I clicked on it

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Rick&Jeannie "Live from...." Rare

Rick&Jeannie

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12 hours ago, DesertGirl28 said:

Well, I finally got my notes all written up. Thanks Rick for your post. We were on the Northern Lights after this one so my notes are long. We were on deck 5 and never saw any tables during the 5 times we did laundry. I had heard (I think from someone who was on the previous cruise) that they had a lot of COVID and were restricting things. But most of those got off so it was just down to masks at the buffet. By the end of the next cruise even the dining staff showed their faces. There was still some on board but not that bad. For us, we are double vaccinated, triple boosted and had it during the 2nd half of May. We weren't worried. 

 

Here's our story

 

24 Day Cruise-Adventures.odt 38.02 kB · 16 downloads

Oh my gosh!  I just *thought* we've had some travel drama! Nothing like what you have experienced.  We would probably been at each other's throats long before the end of the first leg.  So sorry you had to deal with that but it sounds like you "made the best of it".  Thanks for sharing!

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shirazcruiser

shirazcruiser

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On 10/27/2022 at 8:13 AM, DesertGirl28 said:

Well, I finally got my notes all written up.  

You sounded very calm with your luggage disaster.  I would have gone crazy.  One of our first cruises 30 years ago, DH's suitcase didn't arrive until the first port day...he only had the clothes on his back. Ever since, we cross pack our 3 bags.  We're going to buy Air Tags for our next cruise and you mentioned you had them...did they indicate where your luggage was at all times since you went all the way back to Heathrow on your turn around day?  

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