Live from Coral Princess - Round Australia October 2022

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

In hindsight it might have been smarter for Princess to require shipwide tests before the Darwin port stop. That would have weeded out those people concealing their symptoms earlier so it would not have spread so much. Perhaps on long cruises like this there should be mandatory tests once a week.

It would have been smarter for Princess to require supervised Rats or pcr tests 24/48 hrs before check in. Those who lied about or faked rats might have been thwarted. 

[NSWP]

27 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

As only Frank is positive, I’m allowed to go to horizon and get food & drinks and take to cabin. I’d be happy to grab you some stuff, even if it’s just rolls and soup if you like. I can just pop them on your table and holler “room service” in my best philipino accent 😂

Good idea, you might even get a tip, US$ of course. 

[NSWP]

27 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

I guess it’s because the MDR is not open for lunch as it’s port day and same tomorrow

But the galleys should be operating full on to prepare your cabin deliveries.

[NSWP]

30 minutes ago, BulldustHHH said:

The problem with blanket testing is the rate of false positives. RATs have a lowish false positive rate (2% according to an Australian health department video I just checked), but that means testing a lot of people, or everyone on board, will throw people into isolation who are not sick with Covid. We keep seeing 2,000 passengers quoted for the Coral Princess, so even ignoring the staff, that could yield 40 'cases' which are false positives. I would be cancelling my Xmas cruise with Princess right now (Majestic) if they suggested they were going to test everyone periodically on board. 

They might do regular testing now on all Princess ships in this region after the. Current situation.

[bvm49]

19 hours ago, Cbtours said:

Do you think that’s cos of having package though? I ordered ginger ale for Frank via the app and it showed as a charge

The girl said you have to phone her on 9000 to order drinks free.

[Cbtours]

15 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Good idea, you might even get a tip, US$ of course. 

Nah, happy to help fellow cc ‘s

[Cbtours]

3 minutes ago, bvm49 said:

The girl said you have to phone her on 9000 to order drinks free.

Thanks, will give that a try ❤️

[gazpam]

49 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Lunch was very slow today. It took over an hour for my lunch to be delivered. I suggest ordering it just before midday tomorrow.

Ordered it at about 10am. It still hasn't arrived.

[NSWP]

4 minutes ago, gazpam said:

Ordered it at about 10am. It still hasn't arrived.

You might need to order some brekkie, waiting 6 hrs for lunch is no good. It would appear they cannot handle the orders.

[LittleFish1976]

37 minutes ago, NSWP said:

They might do regular testing now on all Princess ships in this region after the. Current situation.

 

I really hope they do. It helps everyone - passengers, cruise company - everyone, if there is less spread of covid.

[timtam2]

It's very unfortunate that the mask mandate was dropped before this cruise. If it had remained, perhaps so many people would not have a spoiled cruise.

[gazpam]

39 minutes ago, NSWP said:

You might need to order some brekkie, waiting 6 hrs for lunch is no good. It would appear they cannot handle the orders.

It would help if they actually kept you informed. Hubby so angry now, that apart from our paid for, Christmas /New year cruise, once we get home, all future Princess cruises will be cancelled. 4 cruises. 

[BulldustHHH]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

Those who lied about or faked rats might have been thwarted. 

Or they might be in the 20% of false negatives, which you expect to get with RATs. RATs will only pick up Covid once the virus reaches a higher threshhold than would show up with PCR. One could also be in the early (pre-contagious) phase and not be picked up by a RAT. If the case goes on to be asymptomatic (which is arguably not even a 'case'), there's no reason the passenger would know. There's a tendency to think these tests are a lot more effective than they are.

Edited October 28, 2022 by BulldustHHH

[BulldustHHH]

On a lighter note, and seeing as the Coral is hanging around for another day, here's a few handy links for the Freo/Perth region:

That said, after the fine weather today, tomorrow's is going to be a lot sketchier:

http://www.bom.gov.au/wa/forecasts/perth.shtml

Edited October 28, 2022 by BulldustHHH

[Cbtours]

12 minutes ago, gazpam said:

It would help if they actually kept you informed. Hubby so angry now, that apart from our paid for, Christmas /New year cruise, once we get home, all future Princess cruises will be cancelled. 4 cruises. 

Oh dear. Are you sure I can’t nip up and grab something 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, BulldustHHH said:

The problem with blanket testing is the rate of false positives. RATs have a lowish false positive rate (2% according to an Australian health department video I just checked), but that means testing a lot of people, or everyone on board, will throw people into isolation who are not sick with Covid. We keep seeing 2,000 passengers quoted for the Coral Princess, so even ignoring the staff, that could yield 40 'cases' which are false positives. I would be cancelling my Xmas cruise with Princess right now (Majestic) if they suggested they were going to test everyone periodically on board. 

I imagine they would follow up RAT positives with PCR tests. Isolating some people for 24 hours would be far better than having people with Covid roaming the ship spreading the virus which is what I suspect has happened since the beginning of this cruise.

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, timtam2 said:

It's very unfortunate that the mask mandate was dropped before this cruise. If it had remained, perhaps so many people would not have a spoiled cruise.

The mask mandate was not dropped on this cruise. The majority of passengers, plus all the crew, have been wearing masks when moving around the ship and in the theatre. But, of course, there are always some who think the rules don't apply to them, and others who apparently never breathe through their noses. There are even some people who seem to think they breathe through their chins! 🤔🙄😡

Edited October 28, 2022 by OzKiwiJJ

[Cbtours]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I imagine they would follow up RAT positives with PCR tests. Isolating some people for 24 hours would be far better than having people with Covid roaming the ship spreading the virus which is what I suspect has happened since the beginning of this cruise.

 

 

They haven’t done pcr in frank, told them we’d done our own rat we brought with us, and it tested positive. I can’t imagine someone telling them they’re positive if they are negative. They accepted our report and just told us they would send med team to do test on 1 November 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, gazpam said:

Ordered it at about 10am. It still hasn't arrived.

Did you try to contact them again? Mistakes do happen. I'm not sure how their system works but it is possible someone accidentally signed off your order as completed by mistake.

[Cbtours]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The mask mandate was not dropped on this cruise. The majority of passengers, plus all the crew, have been wearing masks when moving around the ship and in the theatre. But, of course, there are always some who think the rules don't apply to them, and others who apparently never breathe through their noses. There are even some people who serm to think they breathe through their chins! 🤔🙄😡

I haven’t seen ANY staff members WITHOUT a mask. And most passengers seem to wear them

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Cbtours said:

They haven’t done pcr in frank, told them we’d done our own rat we brought with us, and it tested positive. I can’t imagine someone telling them they’re positive if they are negative. They accepted our report and just told us they would send med team to do test on 1 November 

But Frank had symptoms, didn't he?

 

If someone tested positive on a RAT but didn't have symptoms they might retest with a PCR test. Those people would probably demand to be retested anyway.

 

Personally I'd prefer they erred on the side of caution. Better to have a few people who don't have Covid inconvenienced for a day or so than have Covid spreading throughout the ship as it has done on this cruise. I certainly would have preferred that all those people coughing in the theatre, lounges, bars and MDR were isolated. Then I might not have caught Covid.

Edited October 28, 2022 by OzKiwiJJ

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Cbtours said:

I haven’t seen ANY staff members WITHOUT a mask. And most passengers seem to wear them

I wasn't referring to crew members just passengers. 

[Cbtours]

2 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

But Frank had symptoms, didn't he?

 

If someone tested positive on a RAT but didn't have symptoms they might retest with a PCR test. Those people would probably demand to be retested anyway.

 

Personally I'd prefer they erred on the side of caution. Better to have a few people who don't have Covid inconvenienced for a day or so than have Covid spreading throughout the ship as it has done on this cruise. I certainly would have preferred that all those people coughing in the theatre, lounges, bars and MDR were isolated. Then I might not have caught Covid.

Yes he had a cough and sort of sniffly cold symptoms. But I was thinking if anyone tests positive with rat they should just do the iso as protocol. Do you mean if they don’t have symptoms they don’t iso?

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Cbtours said:

Yes he had a cough and sort of sniffly cold symptoms. But I was thinking if anyone tests positive with rat they should just do the iso as protocol. Do you mean if they don’t have symptoms they don’t iso?

No but BulldustHHH stated there would be a lot of false positives if/when all passengers had to take RATs. Positive should definitely mean iso but those without symptoms should be allowed to get a PCR test in case the RAT was a false positive. 

 

And, of course, anyone with symptoms has to isolate for 24 hours even if their first PCR test is negative which is what happened to me. 

 

Err on the side of caution to minimize the risk.

[Cbtours]

8 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I wasn't referring to crew members just passengers. 

I was meaning (but obviously didn’t finish) that even though it was commented that it may become optional with staff on 27th, it obviously hadn’t on board yet (maybe that’s overseas). There are more passengers wearing masks than I noticed in june