My Covid experience on Princess

[Wastegirl]

4 minutes ago, buchhalm said:

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

Yes your beverage package still works with room service but by the time the cocktails get to you they’re melted a bit. 

[Wastegirl]

3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

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.

I’ll try that tomorrow, we actually have check boxes for ordering and were told to fill it in and leave outside our room. Only worked on quarantine Day 1, your method might work better. They’re still using our Beverage package no free wines for us, if my husband orders a more expensive red he’s still charged the difference. BTW lunch never turned up, but paying for a Pizza to be delivered worked. We only ate half of it in case our dinner doesn’t show up. Wine and drinks I’d ordered through room service never showed up either. Just placed an order on the app and got my fingers crossed. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 minutes ago, Wastegirl said:

Yes your beverage package still works with room service but by the time the cocktails get to you they’re melted a bit. 

They really have lost the plot on Grand. On Coral they managed to get espresso coffees to us piping hot, and the cocktails were icy.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Wastegirl said:

I’ll try that tomorrow, we actually have check boxes for ordering and were told to fill it in and leave outside our room. Only worked on quarantine Day 1, your method might work better. They’re still using our Beverage package no free wines for us, if my husband orders a more expensive red he’s still charged the difference. BTW lunch never turned up, but paying for a Pizza to be delivered worked. We only ate half of it in case our dinner doesn’t show up. Wine and drinks I’d ordered through room service never showed up either. Just placed an order on the app and got my fingers crossed. 

We noticed a few charges go onto our account initially but they were reversed before we finished isolation.

[Wastegirl]

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

We noticed a few charges go onto our account initially but they were reversed before we finished isolation.

As soon as we have freedom I’m heading down to the services desk and try to get the extra charges removed, especially if we have to live on Pizza for the next few days 😂. We haven’t been getting the value out of our Beverage Package while in iso, you just don’t feel like drinking that much when you’re just sitting around. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Wastegirl said:

As soon as we have freedom I’m heading down to the services desk and try to get the extra charges removed, especially if we have to live on Pizza for the next few days 😂. We haven’t been getting the value out of our Beverage Package while in iso, you just don’t feel like drinking that much when you’re just sitting around. 

We got a letter delivered to us stating drinks were free while in isolation.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I found a Caipirinha was a great cocktail while I had Covid. Lots of fresh lime juice for vitamin C! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!🤣🤣🤣

[Wastegirl]

8 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We got a letter delivered to us stating drinks were free while in isolation.

No letter or acknowledgment of any kind from Grand Princess and if I hear the Captains twice daily report one more time on how passenger comfort and safety is important to Princess I’ll march up to the bridge and bop him on the nose. 

[Cruisers47]

25 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

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.

Julie,  did you even know you had Covid after all those drinks ..,ha ha

 

you have got to laugh…my husband would have gone troppo and I would have had to deal with it!🥶

 

really the problem is we have a new Covid when we all thought we were moving on with all the vaccines etc.   but we will never be over this..,we just have to deal with it.

 

now all I have to deal with is keeping Covid free and also hoping Qantas does not lose our luggage or cancels our flight.   
 

we just have to keep calm.👵

 

eileen

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

21 minutes ago, Cruisers47 said:

Julie,  did you even know you had Covid after all those drinks ..,ha ha

 

you have got to laugh…my husband would have gone troppo and I would have had to deal with it!🥶

 

really the problem is we have a new Covid when we all thought we were moving on with all the vaccines etc.   but we will never be over this..,we just have to deal with it.

 

now all I have to deal with is keeping Covid free and also hoping Qantas does not lose our luggage or cancels our flight.   
 

we just have to keep calm.👵

 

eileen

 

 

We were very lucky as we scored a minisuite for our very last minute booking so that helped keep us sane. We both like to read and had loaded Kindles so it wasn't too bad. We were able to go out on the balcony anytime we wanted although it was a bit cool to sit out there some days.

[OzKiwiJJ]

25 minutes ago, Wastegirl said:

No letter or acknowledgment of any kind from Grand Princess and if I hear the Captains twice daily report one more time on how passenger comfort and safety is important to Princess I’ll march up to the bridge and bop him on the nose. 

That's really bad. Make sure you fill in the post-cruise Princess survey to let them know how awful things were for you. 

 

It's weird how things can be so different on two ships in the same fleet. We had such good care when I had Covid. Sure, there were a few minor things, but nothing even worth mentioning, and Coral had 300+ cases on that cruise.

[Wastegirl]

3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's really bad. Make sure you fill in the post-cruise Princess survey to let them know how awful things were for you. 

 

It's weird how things can be so different on two ships in the same fleet. We had such good care when I had Covid. Sure, there were a few minor things, but nothing even worth mentioning, and Coral had 300+ cases on that cruise.

From what I’ve read the Coral is a bit different to the other Princess ships, better service all round, have heard good things about it. 

[sayaguru]

Oh no you poor things. We are on Grand on Thursday. Fingers crossed. 

Will report back (hopefully Covid free).  

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Wastegirl said:

From what I’ve read the Coral is a bit different to the other Princess ships, better service all round, have heard good things about it. 

We thought she was so good we kept booking more cruises on her. 66 days in total since the restart, most of them in September & October. If she was homeporting in Sydney instead of Brisbane we'd be tempted to do more! 🤣

[Ozwoody]

I know it won't make your trip any better Wastegirl, but believe me your doing heaps better than our experience on P&O Aust.

Hil came down with covid morning of the third day of our trip, took rat test confirmed positive.

Contacted medical, they said doctor would come see her. Well a nurse turned up three hours later, confirmed positive result, confined us to cabin, (I was negative, but still mostly restricted to cabin.).

Nurse said she would send anti viral med, told me I could go up to Pantry (Horizon on Princess) wearing a mask to get meals, but had to bring them back to the cabin to consume them.

The anti viral meds did not arrive until early that night after dinner.

Hil had to chase the service deck re room service, they eventually sent us a normal room service menu, with a very small selection of food to choose from. I spent most of the rest of the cruise running up the stairs then down the lift with food for us as it was far more practical than waiting on the room service. No offer of free alcohol, indeed straight out advise that no alcohol would be sent to us. Not that Hil cared she doesn't drink alcohol, but dam it I do, and I was NEGATIVE!!!

Like you we were grateful for our balcony cabin, doubly lucky in that just before the cruise, our TA got us relocated to a spare disabled balcony cabin, and that extra room was a massive blessing as it turned out.

They did give us a sheet of paper that said our cabin had been stocked with spare sheets and towels and cleaning and disinfections sprays. Well no they didn't and when nothing turned up after two days we contacted them, requesting them, they said a special teem would visit us, NO they didn't, two days later we chased them again, the next day we said don't worry as we were departing the next morning.

We assume all the other covid pax had similar experience. Not Good.

That nurse by the way was the last contact with the medical centre we had until night just before disembarkation, then only to to tell us ignore our nominated time, we were to stay in our cabin and that we would not disembark until everyone else was off the ship, approximately 10am.

Our next contact was when Hil rang them at 10:45am to ask what happening, she was told we should be leaving about 10:30-10:45am, they will come for us in about 10-15 min.

20 minutes later they rang us and told us to head down to deck 7 forward stairs. where we were grouped into a small passage next to the stairs with about 30 other covid people waiting to depart.

After about another 15 or so minutes we were herded together off the ship to collect our bags pass through customs, then to ward waiting taxis. fortunately we had parked our car at the BICT carpark,

so we escaped the last bunching and wait to be allocated transport.

 

I definitely will never travel P&O Aust again, felt them very lacking in interest in our health or comforts.

 

Regards

Edited November 25, 2022 by Ozwoody

[Wastegirl]

59 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

I know it won't make your trip any better Wastegirl, but believe me your doing heaps better than our experience on P&O Aust.

Hil came down with covid morning of the third day of our trip, took rat test confirmed positive.

Contacted medical, they said doctor would come see her. Well a nurse turned up three hours later, confirmed positive result, confined us to cabin, (I was negative, but still mostly restricted to cabin.).

Nurse said she would send anti viral med, told me I could go up to Pantry (Horizon on Princess) wearing a mask to get meals, but had to bring them back to the cabin to consume them.

The anti viral meds did not arrive until early that night after dinner.

Hil had to chase the service deck re room service, they eventually sent us a normal room service menu, with a very small selection of food to choose from. I spent most of the rest of the cruise running up the stairs then down the lift with food for us as it was far more practical than waiting on the room service. No offer of free alcohol, indeed straight out advise that no alcohol would be sent to us. Not that Hil cared she doesn't drink alcohol, but dam it I do, and I was NEGATIVE!!!

Like you we were grateful for our balcony cabin, doubly lucky in that just before the cruise, our TA got us relocated to a spare disabled balcony cabin, and that extra room was a massive blessing as it turned out.

They did give us a sheet of paper that said our cabin had been stocked with spare sheets and towels and cleaning and disinfections sprays. Well no they didn't and when nothing turned up after two days we contacted them, requesting them, they said a special teem would visit us, NO they didn't, two days later we chased them again, the next day we said don't worry as we were departing the next morning.

We assume all the other covid pax had similar experience. Not Good.

That nurse by the way was the last contact with the medical centre we had until night just before disembarkation, then only to to tell us ignore our nominated time, we were to stay in our cabin and that we would not disembark until everyone else was off the ship, approximately 10am.

Our next contact was when Hil rang them at 10:45am to ask what happening, she was told we should be leaving about 10:30-10:45am, they will come for us in about 10-15 min.

20 minutes later they rang us and told us to head down to deck 7 forward stairs. where we were grouped into a small passage next to the stairs with about 30 other covid people waiting to depart.

After about another 15 or so minutes we were herded together off the ship to collect our bags pass through customs, then to ward waiting taxis. fortunately we had parked our car at the BICT carpark,

so we escaped the last bunching and wait to be allocated transport.

 

I definitely will never travel P&O Aust again, felt them very lacking in interest in our health or comforts.

 

Regards

Good heavens Ozwoody, red wine is the only thing that’s keeping my husband sane 😁. Having been on P&O I know their food is lacklustre but also know their room service menu is pitiful. What would have happened if you were positive as well, I shudder to think.  At least we’re getting offerings of clean towels etc. I can see people will start booking cruises with lines that give Covid passengers better support. 

[arxcards]

7 hours ago, Wastegirl said:

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. 

Get well, and hopefully you can get some time out of iso before the end of your cruise.

 

You will get credited for your days in isolation, so a much cheaper way of not being fed. It concerns me when they can't keep up, as it hints there are quite a few in isolation that they have to try to look after.

 

It all seems to be ship by ship, as I know people that were blowing-up deluxe about the way Royal's Quantum handled isolation passengers last month. In the main on Princess, at least your get to keep your cabin vs being moved to a quarantine block of inside/outside cabins. As bad as it may be, I don't think any ship is worth catching covid on. We were given the luxury of getting to take our covid souvenirs home. Yes, we got to have a nice holiday, only to feel like crap a couple of days later. No credits for us, even though it felt like we hadn't just had a holiday.

[arxcards]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's really bad. Make sure you fill in the post-cruise Princess survey to let them know how awful things were for you. 

 

It's weird how things can be so different on two ships in the same fleet. We had such good care when I had Covid. Sure, there were a few minor things, but nothing even worth mentioning, and Coral had 300+ cases on that cruise.

Surveys are hit and miss from Princess these days. Of the 3 cruises this year, we only had the opportunity to return one survey.

[Ozwoody]

9 hours ago, Wastegirl said:

Good heavens Ozwoody, red wine is the only thing that’s keeping my husband sane 😁. Having been on P&O I know their food is lacklustre but also know their room service menu is pitiful. What would have happened if you were positive as well, I shudder to think.  At least we’re getting offerings of clean towels etc. I can see people will start booking cruises with lines that give Covid passengers better support. 

Fortunately we were only on a Saturday to Saturday cruise so Isolation was only 5 and a bit days.

But Hil kindly gave covid to me two days after we returned, but I hardly knew I had it, just very lethargic and a mild bit of a mind fog.😁

 

Hope you recover quickly.🤞

[NSWP]

Wastegirl, I really feel sorry for you and Hubby. Sounds like a horror story for you on Grand Princess. Thank God you have a balcony cabin. I hope your meal issues are sorted, pretty sad effort by Princess.

 

Chin up and soldier on.😁

Edited November 25, 2022 by NSWP

[MMDown Under]

28 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Wastegirl, I really feel sorry for you and Hubby. Sounds like a horror story for you on Grand Princess. Thank God you have a balcony cabin. I hope your meal issues are sorted, pretty sad effort by Princess.

 

Chin up and soldier on.😁

Can you imagine Americans putting up with this lack of service re food delivery, etc?  Sometimes I think Aussie are too accomodating.  The squeaky wheel gets the attention unfortunately.  I think they should write a letter to CEO of Carnival.  People are going to stop cruising, if heaven forbid they catch covid on a cruise, and aren't cared for with compassion.  

[NSWP]

34 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Can you imagine Americans putting up with this lack of service re food delivery, etc?  Sometimes I think Aussie are too accomodating.  The squeaky wheel gets the attention unfortunately.  I think they should write a letter to CEO of Carnival.  People are going to stop cruising, if heaven forbid they catch covid on a cruise, and aren't cared for with compassion.  

The Americans would be sueing Carnival Corp if they were treated like Wastegirl on Grand Princess. I agree we Aussies are often too easy going and often reluctant to complain.

Edited November 26, 2022 by NSWP

[Wastegirl]

34 minutes ago, NSWP said:

The Americans would be sueing Carnival Corp if they were treated like Wastegirl on Grand Princess. I agree we Aussies are often too easy going and often reluctant to complain.

Don’t worry I’ve been complaining 😁. Got a message delivered with our menus this morning stating how room service was going to be handled going forward. Seems like I wasn’t the only one complaining. We’ll see if it improves today.  Still it took them 90 minutes to deliver breakfast from the time I ordered but considering yesterday’s performance that was blistering fast.  Our coffee was piping hot so I can forgive them if they got held up at the coffee machine. 

[MMDown Under]

24 minutes ago, Wastegirl said:

Don’t worry I’ve been complaining 😁. Got a message delivered with our menus this morning stating how room service was going to be handled going forward. Seems like I wasn’t the only one complaining. We’ll see if it improves today.  Still it took them 90 minutes to deliver breakfast from the time I ordered but considering yesterday’s performance that was blistering fast.  Our coffee was piping hot so I can forgive them if they got held up at the coffee machine. 

You made my day with your blistering fast 90 min breakfast delivery.  I hope you enjoyed your piping hot coffee. A problem shared is a problem halved!

[getting older slowly]

Elisa.... I am sorry to hear about your time on the Grand,,,, particularly as we got off on the 17th Nov after 13 nights the next day testing positive... Feeling better now but still lack of energy  ( flat batteries.. lol )....

 

We did find Guest Services a bit hit and miss.... once stood there for 5 minutes and were ignored ... just walked off in disgust....

 

We would think they would have their Covid plan down pat....

 

Now I am not so Confidante booking more cruises  

 

Cheers  Don