My Covid experience on Princess

[Wastegirl]

We are on the Grand Princess currently, with Covid. We are travelling up the East Coast and are in quarantine. I will try and keep this as short as possible staying with a list of the facts so people can make up their own minds whether the chance of getting Covid will make a difference to your travel plans. For us it was the little things that make it difficult. 
 

- Embarkation was a shambles we were all shoved in like sardines, inches from one another, no chance of social distancing. No checking whether you were in your right embarkation group just everyone flooded in.  We asked if they wanted to see our Rats but no, not necessary. This has to be fixed as given the timeline this is where we most likely caught Covid. 
- Everyone was wearing masks

- Our Dining Room experience was that we were all crowded together with little social distancing

- In the buffet there was a lot of self serve with the same tongs being used by multiple people 

- My husband and I were fanatical about health protocols, are fully vaccinated and have, until now, not had Covid

- My husband felt flat a couple of days before I got Covid but as he’s had a bypass this year it’s not unusual but now thinking about it he was already infected before me

- Husband got a cough and a bit of flem, that’s when we thought maybe Covid and then the same night I got a cough, tightness in chest and aches in my joints. We rang the medical centre who asked us to do a rats using a couple of kits I brought along and we were positive. She said not to go out of our cabin, sent us some Panadol, masked up staff to sanitise our room and told us the doctor would visit next morning. 
- Next morning we got two MDR menus delivered which we could order lunch and dinner from each day. 
- Were told there was no breakfast menus available and we had to organise that ourselves

- By 1 pm no visit by Doctor, had to chase them up, was told no visit but I could see a doctor if I came to the Medical Centre and they would send a staff member with a chair to escort me down. My husband was not allowed to come. 
- I was wheelchaired down in busy lifts, I was too sick to say anything at the time but I should have told the people in the lifts that I have Covid because the porter didn’t 😳

- Spent over an hour waiting to see a doctor who told me I had Covid (as if I didn’t know) and he would give me anti virals, briefly mentioning a 5 day quarantine starting with Day 0 not Day 1 and sent me on my way back up busy lifts. 
- To date there has been no official statement from Princess telling us we’re quarantined and what to do and we only found out today that our room steward did not know we had Covid

- We have to make our own bed and clean our own room

- Keep getting charged for room service which I then have to ring and say that we shouldn’t be charged. 
- A very little thing but we’re not getting our Patter (I know you can get it on the TV) it’s as if we’re non passengers

- Use the app for some room service orders but it’s too rigid, eg I can’t order a half strength latte or a Chai Tea

- Guest services do ring us twice a day to ask if we need anything like new towels, tissues, toilet paper etc

- When we arrived in our Deck 10 cabin there was no tub chair, was told they don’t have them in verandah staterooms anymore (I find that hard to believe) finally got one then asked for a second one later seeming we’re in quarantine, it hasn’t arrived yet after 2 days. 
- Room service is hit and miss, for example ordered specialty tea this morning with breakfast, got cups, hot water, milk but no teabags. A lot of orders have things missing off them

- Yesterday our lunch was late, stuck my head out of the door and the menus are still there at 1 pm, rang someone, the menus were picked up and we finally got something to eat at 2. Will check outside late morning each day now. 
- While I was not positive I was in the laundry and an unmasked American lady is holding forth on how this mask wearing and Covid is all a beat up and her son is not even vaccinated. She was but only because the Australian government wouldn’t let her in without. 
- Also before quarantine we got on the shuttle to Brisbane, it was cheek to jowl so I said to the bus driver I didn’t want to be shoved in the rear seat squashed up to my neighbours. He replied if I didn’t sit down he couldn’t leave and I was stopping the whole shuttle process. He was very aggressive about it and I felt I had to sit down or I’d cause problems. Well the poor people squashed up to me probably have Covid by now and I feel horrible for them. 
 

As for the cruise itself before quarantine, it was a little surreal, a lot of the “fun” vibe seems to be missing. 
 

Well that’s my experience for what it’s worth. We had a cruise booked for February but will cancel that. A cruise we have in May we might leave booked for the moment. 
 

As a side note stuck in a cabin with a husband climbing the walls can be challenging and I’m sure he thinks the same about me 🤣. Also Mitch our cabin steward has been very helpful. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Wow, that's completely the opposite to what we experienced on Coral Princess last month. 

 

Princess removed the tub chairs from standard balcony cabins some years ago, 2018 I think, much to the annoyance of most people. 

[MMDown Under]

25 minutes ago, Wastegirl said:

We are on the Grand Princess currently, with Covid. We are travelling up the East Coast and are in quarantine. I will try and keep this as short as possible staying with a list of the facts so people can make up their own minds whether the chance of getting Covid will make a difference to your travel plans. For us it was the little things that make it difficult. 
 

- Embarkation was a shambles we were all shoved in like sardines, inches from one another, no chance of social distancing. No checking whether you were in your right embarkation group just everyone flooded in.  We asked if they wanted to see our Rats but no, not necessary. This has to be fixed as given the timeline this is where we most likely caught Covid. 
- Everyone was wearing masks

- Our Dining Room experience was that we were all crowded together with little social distancing

- In the buffet there was a lot of self serve with the same tongs being used by multiple people 

- My husband and I were fanatical about health protocols, are fully vaccinated and have, until now, not had Covid

- My husband felt flat a couple of days before I got Covid but as he’s had a bypass this year it’s not unusual but now thinking about it he was already infected before me

- Husband got a cough and a bit of flem, that’s when we thought maybe Covid and then the same night I got a cough, tightness in chest and aches in my joints. We rang the medical centre who asked us to do a rats using a couple of kits I brought along and we were positive. She said not to go out of our cabin, sent us some Panadol, masked up staff to sanitise our room and told us the doctor would visit next morning. 
- Next morning we got two MDR menus delivered which we could order lunch and dinner from each day. 
- Were told there was no breakfast menus available and we had to organise that ourselves

- By 1 pm no visit by Doctor, had to chase them up, was told no visit but I could see a doctor if I came to the Medical Centre and they would send a staff member with a chair to escort me down. My husband was not allowed to come. 
- I was wheelchaired down in busy lifts, I was too sick to say anything at the time but I should have told the people in the lifts that I have Covid because the porter didn’t 😳

- Spent over an hour waiting to see a doctor who told me I had Covid (as if I didn’t know) and he would give me anti virals, briefly mentioning a 5 day quarantine starting with Day 0 not Day 1 and sent me on my way back up busy lifts. 
- To date there has been no official statement from Princess telling us we’re quarantined and what to do and we only found out today that our room steward did not know we had Covid

- We have to make our own bed and clean our own room

- Keep getting charged for room service which I then have to ring and say that we shouldn’t be charged. 
- A very little thing but we’re not getting our Patter (I know you can get it on the TV) it’s as if we’re non passengers

- Use the app for some room service orders but it’s too rigid, eg I can’t order a half strength latte or a Chai Tea

- Guest services do ring us twice a day to ask if we need anything like new towels, tissues, toilet paper etc

- When we arrived in our Deck 10 cabin there was no tub chair, was told they don’t have them in verandah staterooms anymore (I find that hard to believe) finally got one then asked for a second one later seeming we’re in quarantine, it hasn’t arrived yet after 2 days. 
- Room service is hit and miss, for example ordered specialty tea this morning with breakfast, got cups, hot water, milk but no teabags. A lot of orders have things missing off them

- Yesterday our lunch was late, stuck my head out of the door and the menus are still there at 1 pm, rang someone, the menus were picked up and we finally got something to eat at 2. Will check outside late morning each day now. 
- While I was not positive I was in the laundry and an unmasked American lady is holding forth on how this mask wearing and Covid is all a beat up and her son is not even vaccinated. She was but only because the Australian government wouldn’t let her in without. 
- Also before quarantine we got on the shuttle to Brisbane, it was cheek to jowl so I said to the bus driver I didn’t want to be shoved in the rear seat squashed up to my neighbours. He replied if I didn’t sit down he couldn’t leave and I was stopping the whole shuttle process. He was very aggressive about it and I felt I had to sit down or I’d cause problems. Well the poor people squashed up to me probably have Covid by now and I feel horrible for them. 
 

As for the cruise itself before quarantine, it was a little surreal, a lot of the “fun” vibe seems to be missing. 
 

Well that’s my experience for what it’s worth. We had a cruise booked for February but will cancel that. A cruise we have in May we might leave booked for the moment. 
 

As a side note stuck in a cabin with a husband climbing the walls can be challenging and I’m sure he thinks the same about me 🤣. Also Mitch our cabin steward has been very helpful. 

Thanks for sharing your experiences.  I'm sorry you feel disappointed with regard to lack of care and poor service.  I hope Grand Princess lifts their act and you start to feel better soon  . 

[Wastegirl]

What no tub chairs in the standard balcony😳. Admittedly we haven’t cruised Princess since 2019 and by the chair removal we’ll have to get a mini suite if we want to sail with them again. Looks like Celebrity and HAL will be our go to cruise lines from now on as they give you a full couch. Also noticed other little things missing, like only 1 room steward, no pillow chocs even on formal nights, no pens in the room, not a proper quilt cover in the bed and forget about getting a towel animal. The last are small silly things but cost cutting nevertheless. 

[Wastegirl]

3 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Thanks for sharing your experiences.  I'm sorry you feel disappointed with regard to lack of care and poor service.  I hope Grand Princess lifts their act and you start to feel better soon  . 

Thanks, am already feeling completely better, those anti virals certainly work well. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

18 minutes ago, Wastegirl said:

What no tub chairs in the standard balcony😳. Admittedly we haven’t cruised Princess since 2019 and by the chair removal we’ll have to get a mini suite if we want to sail with them again. Looks like Celebrity and HAL will be our go to cruise lines from now on as they give you a full couch. Also noticed other little things missing, like only 1 room steward, no pillow chocs even on formal nights, no pens in the room, not a proper quilt cover in the bed and forget about getting a towel animal. The last are small silly things but cost cutting nevertheless. 

Princess has only ever had one room steward since I've been cruising and rarely does towel animals, it's not a Princess thing. Celebrity cut back to one room steward in about 2017. 

 

Given all the cruise lines had virtually no income for a couple of years it's not surprising there are cutbacks in some areas. 

[Wastegirl]

2 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Princess has only ever had one room steward since I've been cruising and rarely does towel animals, it's not a Princess thing. Celebrity cut back to one room steward in about 2017. 

 

Given all the cruise lines had virtually no income for a couple of years it's not surprising there are cutbacks in some areas. 

I must be confusing old Princess ships that are owned by P&O who we cruised with the most in 2018 and 19 because they had some interesting Ports. Too many cruises and too many cruise lines get you muddled with whats what 😁. Of course it could also be age related 😂😂. We’re booked on the Coral next year in September for the Hawaii trip (which we have done before and was fantastic), looking forward to a smaller ship, I like the ambiance in those. 

[adelaidefc]

Thanks for your detailed experience. That really doesn't sound ideal, but I guess it's a risk we choose to take if we get onboard these days. 

I have to say, I'd probably keep the Feb cruise and reconsider the May one...you're extremely, extremely unlikely to get Covid on the Feb one. 

Hope you're both feeling better. 

[MMDown Under]

10 minutes ago, adelaidefc said:

Thanks for your detailed experience. That really doesn't sound ideal, but I guess it's a risk we choose to take if we get onboard these days. 

I have to say, I'd probably keep the Feb cruise and reconsider the May one...you're extremely, extremely unlikely to get Covid on the Feb one. 

Hope you're both feeling better. 

Would the Feb cruise have passengers escaping the northern winter?

[adelaidefc]

6 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Would the Feb cruise have passengers escaping the northern winter?

It's more the immunity induced by infection. The chance of getting it again within 3 months after both vax and an infection in late Nov is extremely low.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

27 minutes ago, Wastegirl said:

I must be confusing old Princess ships that are owned by P&O who we cruised with the most in 2018 and 19 because they had some interesting Ports. Too many cruises and too many cruise lines get you muddled with whats what 😁. Of course it could also be age related 😂😂. We’re booked on the Coral next year in September for the Hawaii trip (which we have done before and was fantastic), looking forward to a smaller ship, I like the ambiance in those. 

Coral is a lovely ship. Even better than Sea Princess which used to the Hawaii runs. Coral has proper speciality restaurants, plus an Explorers Bar as well as the Wheelhoyse Bar, Crooners and Good Spirits Bar. Crooners is a bit small though, compare with Sea Princess. The Universe Lounge (Vista Lounge on other ships) is set up to do the On the Bayou show which is a must see! I think it's unique to Coral these days.

 

I haven't cruised on P&O so don't know what their setup is. 

[Relaxing Robbies]

Unfortunately your experience sounds similar to our experience on the previous Grand cruise. At least you got menus delivered -we didn’t. Not much info given once you test positive, incorrect room service deliveries. Felt like a full time job just trying to get fed 3 times a day.

 

Hope you feel better soon.

[MamaFej]

I'm so sorry your experience was so very disappointing. I'm glad you're on the mend. 

 

As much as I absolutely hated having Covid, I'm glad I had it on a Viking ship (the Jupiter in Norway and the Baltic in August). We were treated extremely well, and got an FCC for our isolation days. 

 

I'm glad to read that those on the Coral had a better experience. We will be aboard that ship for a 28 day circumnavigation of Australia next October and November. 

 

It is clear that proper care of Covid positive passengers is absolutely possible. I'm sorry that it does not always happen. 

[Wastegirl]

We thought about keeping the February cruise but our hearts just aren’t in it, maybe when we get home we might change our minds but I doubt it. Menus didn’t get picked up again today, so it’s nearly 1.30 and no lunch yet. I can see the staff coming in in 3 days time to find our starved bodies mouldering in the room 🤣

 

We want to keep the May cruise as it’s Kimberly cruising up the west coast and we’ve been looking forward to that.  Cross our fingers Covid is not too bad then. 

[Fortunatefew]

The missing tub chair got me thinking… we had one in our balcony stateroom on Coral in October. 

[Fortunatefew]

28 minutes ago, Fortunatefew said:

The missing tub chair got me thinking… we had one in our balcony stateroom on Coral in October. 

On reflection it was just a standard chair, not a tub chair

[Wastegirl]

2 hours ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

Unfortunately your experience sounds similar to our experience on the previous Grand cruise. At least you got menus delivered -we didn’t. Not much info given once you test positive, incorrect room service deliveries. Felt like a full time job just trying to get fed 3 times a day.

 

Hope you feel better soon.

The food issue is serious. It’s now 3 pm in the afternoon and no lunch delivered. This time I rang Guest Services instead of Room Service and the girl says to me she’s having trouble getting through to them as well, If their own people won’t communicate with each other what hope have us Covid passengers got. I’ve just ordered Pizza on the app so hopefully that’ll arrive soon. You’re right it’s a full time job just getting fed. Paid all this money to clean my own room and starve 😳. I will be contacting Princess when I get home but don’t expect that’ll get me far. Apologies for grumbling but I’m at my tethers end at the moment. 

[Cruisers47]

22 minutes ago, Fortunatefew said:

On reflection it was just a standard chair, not a tub chair

Hi

our first princess cruise was on the diamond princess more than 10 years ago to NZ.  We had persuaded 4 friends to come with us.   Our only previous cruise was on Norwegian in Alaska.

 

we had a balcony but no couch or chairs on Princess.  I could not believe it as the Norwegian had a couch and lots of little extras like a jug to make coffee or tea.  We had brought champagne and nibbles on and we sat on the bed and brought the balcony chairs in for our toasting our first group cruise.  I laugh now but we were disappointed at the time.

 

now we cruise Royal Carribean although that always means a trip to Sydney or Brisbane.  Now with our free drinks and free washing I am happy with that.

 

I wish you all the best and hope you recover quickly and enjoy the rest of the cruise.

 

please don’t be put of cruising you could have gone to the local pub for dinner and got Covid.

 

eileen

 

 

[Wastegirl]

10 minutes ago, Cruisers47 said:

Hi

our first princess cruise was on the diamond princess more than 10 years ago to NZ.  We had persuaded 4 friends to come with us.   Our only previous cruise was on Norwegian in Alaska.

 

we had a balcony but no couch or chairs on Princess.  I could not believe it as the Norwegian had a couch and lots of little extras like a jug to make coffee or tea.  We had brought champagne and nibbles on and we sat on the bed and brought the balcony chairs in for our toasting our first group cruise.  I laugh now but we were disappointed at the time.

 

now we cruise Royal Carribean although that always means a trip to Sydney or Brisbane.  Now with our free drinks and free washing I am happy with that.

 

I wish you all the best and hope you recover quickly and enjoy the rest of the cruise.

 

please don’t be put of cruising you could have gone to the local pub for dinner and got Covid.

 

eileen

 

 

I’ve yet to try Royal Caribbean though we like Celebrity. I know I could have caught Covid at the pub but at least I’d be isolating at home feeding myself not paying $7000 for the privilege of cleaning my own room and starving.  Hopefully Royal Caribbean treats it’s passengers better, I hear other cruise lines are doing a much better job. 

[Cruisers47]

Hi Elise,

 

you are ofcourse correct.  It is disappointing as I had been following Julie who had Covid on Coral and was treated really well.

 

we are on Azamara for the Christmas cruise and we are first on at 2.00 so I  assume a good cleaning will be done.  ofcourse hoping Qantas gets us to Perth.
 

next Christmas on Celebrity to NZ so that should be good.

 

all the best.    My husband came back from golf and said one of his golf people got Covid on a recent cruise and were sent to 3rd level from the balcony cabin.  I guess you never know what you are in for until it hits you.

 

thanks for all the information you have given, it helps others making decisions.

 

Eileen

 

 

[Wastegirl]

Thank you Eileen, at least we weren’t kicked out of our verandah cabin to an inside as I’ve heard has happened. They would be dealing with my husband having a mental breakdown if they did, it must have been awful for those people. 

[buchhalm]

Tell me: If one had a beverage package but was locked up in quarantine, would they bring you cocktails or not?

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, Wastegirl said:

We thought about keeping the February cruise but our hearts just aren’t in it, maybe when we get home we might change our minds but I doubt it. Menus didn’t get picked up again today, so it’s nearly 1.30 and no lunch yet. I can see the staff coming in in 3 days time to find our starved bodies mouldering in the room 🤣

 

We want to keep the May cruise as it’s Kimberly cruising up the west coast and we’ve been looking forward to that.  Cross our fingers Covid is not too bad then. 

We rang room service for our lunch and dinner orders on Coral, and it was best done an hour or two before you wanted it served. The menus we got were just copies of the MDR menus with nothing to indicate they could be used as order forms.

[MMDown Under]

38 minutes ago, Wastegirl said:

Thank you Eileen, at least we weren’t kicked out of our verandah cabin to an inside as I’ve heard has happened. They would be dealing with my husband having a mental breakdown if they did, it must have been awful for those people. 

Reading the fine print I learnt they can do that, but one never dreamt they would.  From a verandah to an inside cabin, after years of saving to be able to afford a balcony cabin!  A credit would be valueless, as that would be the last cruise I'd do.  

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, buchhalm said:

Tell me: If one had a beverage package but was locked up in quarantine, would they bring you cocktails or not?

They did on Coral. In fact you didn't even need a beverage package as all drinks were free while in isolation. We had cocktails, beer, wine by the bottle, canned soft drinks, and cognacs delivered to our cabin. Most we ordered through the app but wine and beer with meals we ordered when we placed the meal order.