Live from Sky Princess! - March 4-11 & 11-18 B2B - East & West Caribbean

[TenneSea]

On 3/10/2023 at 5:17 PM, yogamom said:

I crochet so it's really cool that they have knitters and knatters!  Do they supply the crochet or knitting needles and yarn or do you bring your own project to work on?

 

You bring your projects.

[celebrityxxo]

Hey! 👋 we're  currently on Sky as well..PERFECT weather!   Champagne  waterfall tonight woohoo🥂.. enjoy this week!

[MountainEER74]

On 3/7/2023 at 10:37 PM, corncat said:

At 1 pm there was an announcement that our staterooms were ready. We went down to our interior cabin on deck 10and met our steward, Bernabe. She is so cheerful! Her smile is infectious and she got us even more excited for the journey ahead.

We just got off the Sky yesterday, 3/11, and we were also on deck 10. Bernabe was our steward and we absolutely loved her.  We may have been across the hall from you,

[corncat]

Hello!!

 

I am so sorry for the long delay between updates! I promise I will do better this week. We had an unexpected turn of events on our first week and I wasn't able to update on here. So now I will do a short (it's not very short) summary of the last few days!!

 

Monday, March 6, 2023 - Sea Day!

 

I woke up with a migraine still 😞 and with a terrible allergic reaction to something. Couldn't stop sneezing and had hives and a rash! Managed to pull myself out of bed around noon to go find some food. Felt much better after leaving the room... so the allergy was something in there. 

It never occurred to me before hand that the ship would be so full and busy on sea days!! The lido deck especially was packed! 

One thing I forgot to mention before is, I can't believe the number of people that don't wash their hands before going into the buffet! I stop at the hand washing station every time I go in, but I have only seen a handful of other people use them. There is also hand sanitizer there, but those barely get used as well. I go on autopilot and automatically use the hand sani like 5 seconds after I wash my hands at the sink!! Haha! 

Today in the Piazza there was a first time cruisers "Welcome to Princess Celebration" where the cruise director Paul (who is AMAZING by the way) gave some basic ship and medallion class introductions and gave away a ton of prizes! We received an invitation to go to this event in our cabin on embarkation day. It said to bring it with us and to write down the reason for our cruise or if you were celebrating something. At the end of this cruise, we are actually celebrating me being one year tumour free!! I had a tumour removed from my ear last year and thankfully it has shown no signs of regrowth or complications, so I would say that is cause for celebration! 

At this introduction event, they raffled off a whole bunch of prizes from tons of departments across the ship. Then they went through everyone's forms we filled out and chose 3 guests to win a "grand prize"! And we were one of the selections!! Awful ear tumour was worth it in the end!!!! We one a free day pass for the Enclave for both my mom and me. (And believe me, by the end of this post you will see why we need it lol)

After that we raced to our next event: steel pan class! Wilson, the steel pan player on board, is the chillest, coolest guy I have ever met. He is so laid back and awesome. I want to be him when I grow up hahaha! The class was very fun! My mom and I are both musicians so we found it very easy, but fun none the less! 

I had another nap in the stateroom in the late afternoon to early evening, but woke up with another allergic reaction. I was not having a great time sleeping this trip!! 

Spotlight Bar was the next production show featured this cruise! It was fantastic! Less of a plot than 5 Skies, but just as fun I think! This show was more featured around the dancers, and the singers were more background characters. It takes place in a bar, and through the dances you are introduced to the lives and thoughts of the dancers' different characters! It was really fun. Also there was a tap number !!! with cowboys !!!!!! that were shirtless!!!!!!!!! That was worth it in itself to be honest, but the whole show was incredible once again. It was also the final performance of this production cast!! 

I wanted to go see the second show of Spotlight Bar, but my migraine was reaching a peak I couldn't stand anymore. So I headed to bed. 

 

 

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - San Juan, PR

 

I woke up with another allergy attack. Yay for benadryl. We realized maybe I was allergic to the feather pillows!! Our wonderful room steward, Bernabe replaced the pillows for me and when I had a nap that afternoon, I felt sooooooooooo much better!! I could finally sleep! It had never occurred to me before, but I remembered my grandma is very allergic to feather pillows as well, and usually as a precaution when we travel we always just request foam pillows right from the start! What a difference it makes! 

It was a lovely port day, and was especially nice because everyone got off the ship and it was nice and quiet!! I spent most of the day in my cabin with my nice new pillows catching up on sleep though. I don't have much to report from today. I just slept really. 

My mom went to the comedic magician and said it was just alright. I didn't miss much by not getting out of bed apparently. 

 

Wednesday, March 8, 2023 - Amber Cove, DR

 

First day waking up without hives from the feather pillows!!! Woohoo!!!!! Its going to be a great day!!! (spoiler: it would not last long)

Most people went to land, so the ship was empty! A beautiful sunny day!! The mountains on the island were beautiful!! What a lovely view!!! 

Read a bit, checked out the enclave so we could decide when to use our prize, then laid around and read some more. 

After lunch I went back to the room to change... and felt... weird. Something was wrong. It wasn't the allergies anymore, but my nose had started running again. But different. The benadryl was not the answer anymore. 

Back to the medical centre for a covid test!!!! 

... ...

... positive. 

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

As someone who is deemed "extremely vulnerable and high risk" for Covid, this was not great news. This was my first time having it. On the other hand, as someone who is deemed "extremely vulnerable and high risk" and lives in BC, Canada, I had early access to all the best dosages of the vaccines. 3 years and 4 shots in, and I am ready to put my vaccines to the test. 

By some miracle, my mom tested negative. The rules they gave us were these:

- JJ cannot leave the stateroom until a negative test. 

- JJ will get tested again on Saturday (usually they do 5 days from symptoms, but because of the weird allergy thing, they decided to call that day one and see how the results were and how I felt on Saturday)

- To receive room service, you cannot open the door unless you are wearing a mask

- Because Mom had negative test, she was allowed to leave the room, but only if she wore a mask when out in public. And she had to sit alone at a table to eat (I am the only one she usually sits with anyway haha so that didn't change much)

- Mom also had to test again on Saturday to see if I ended up giving it to her

 

It seemed weird to us that she was still allowed out, even though we were staying in the same room, so for the most part she just stayed in anyway. We didn't want to risk getting other people sick. 

 

Thursday, March 9, 2023 - Grand Turk (apparently)

 

I slept through most of this day. The seas were a little rocky, which lulled me to sleep like a baby all day. The doctors gave me medicine that I could take for my sore throat... but I didn't have a sore throat. Never did. I told them that and they said to "take this for your sore throat". Oh well. 

I felt a lot better today. Clearly my vaccines did their job, because the allergic reactions to the pillows were way worse than how I felt with Covid. At least I could sleep now. 

They set us up with menus from the MDRs, so we could order room service from there as well! That was a really nice! The customer service this whole time was really great and they took great care of us. 

When my mom went out briefly to get some fresh air (and to escape me I'm sure), she mentioned to Sarah, the assistant cruise director (also AMAZING) that I was sad I was going to be missing the crafts this week. That night, we received a big backpack full of oragami instructions and paper, and a couple other fun crafts to try! And a hand written card from Sarah! It was so kind and really cheered us up! 

My mom said Grand Turk wasn't as pretty of a port as Amber Cove and San Juan. She conveniently forgot to take pictures, so I am not sure if she was just saying that to make me feel better, or if it was actually true. 

We looked at the MDR menu for tonight and it was lobster formal night!!! So we ordered our surf and turf, and got dressed up in our covid formals (our PJs and robes) and ate steak and lobster in bed. It was lovely. The steak was DIVINE. The lobster was alright. I'm sure to lobster lovers it was great. I love crab, and always go into eating lobster with crab in mind, then am always disappointed that it isn't crab. 

 

Friday, March 10, 2023 - Sea Day (could've been anywhere really. I don't have a window)

 

I felt much better today!! But still couldn't leave the room, so I slept a ton again. I was probably only awake for 6 hours today! I read lots. Finished one of my books. My mom left the room briefly to go get me a piece of lemon pound cake in the morning, and said it was so busy out there. So she stayed in the room the rest of the day too. She watched a bunch of movies and worked on her crochet. I slept more. 

In the afternoon, one of the immigration officers came and scanned our passports, because there was a chance I would still be positive tomorrow when we got back to Ft. L. and my mom might test positive too. In that case we wouldn't be allowed off the ship with our in transit cards and would have to just stay on board in our room. Someone from the staff would go through immigration on our behalf and sort it all out. 

 

Saturday, March 11, 2023 - Fort Lauderdale (turn around for second half of B2B cruise!)

 

I felt great when I woke up this morning! No symptoms and back to normal. I was hoping, praying, (begging), that I would get a negative test and be allowed out! 

The doctor came just before 9 am and did our tests. He left right away after and said he would call us as soon as he had our results. We waited... it was like waiting for a pregnancy test. "Please be negative... Please be negative"

The phone rings.... WE ARE BOTH NEGATIVE!!!!!! FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!

I jumped around and danced in the middle of the cabin while my mom stared at me. 

We called guest services to see if we needed to go out and do the transfer now, even though it was late and they had scanned our passports the night before. The lady said "no, just wait in your room. We already have your passport stuff."

Half an hour later we get a call from a guy going "where are you??? Why aren't you here with the rest of the transit guests???????" ...Um, because you told us to stay in our room! We explained, they checked a couple things on their end, and called us back later. Turns out now they have decided that my mom does need to get off after all, but I stay in the room. So away she goes. The process was surprisingly quick and she was back way earlier than I expected! 

I saw a post on Facebook later that day in a Princess group where another in transit guest was saying "who was the idiot that couldn't follow instructions and made everyone wait?" and the comments were filled with people saying things about "self centred guests that don't think the rules apply to them". I didn't respond, but I guess we were the "self centred idiots", that were given a bunch of conflicting information and instructions. A good reminder that there is usually more to the story than someone just being selfish! I hope the extra 10 minutes that man had to sit in a chair while on vacation wasn't too awful for him haha! 

 

 

I am super tired now, so I will do another update in the morning talking about my first day of freedom and fresh air, and then our first sea day today! I will also try to interview my mom about what the process was like for the in transit guests. Stay tuned. 

 

My computer doesn't want to cooperate and upload my photos, so tomorrow I will also upload the patters and some pictures I took. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions! I will get back to proper updates now!!! Thank you for being patient with me! I am awake for more than a few hours per day now, so I should be set for this week. 🙂 

 

-JJ

 

 

 

[Happiest when cruising]

23 minutes ago, corncat said:

Hello!!

 

I am so sorry for the long delay between updates! I promise I will do better this week. We had an unexpected turn of events on our first week and I wasn't able to update on here. So now I will do a short (it's not very short) summary of the last few days!!

 

Monday, March 6, 2023 - Sea Day!

 

I woke up with a migraine still 😞 and with a terrible allergic reaction to something. Couldn't stop sneezing and had hives and a rash! Managed to pull myself out of bed around noon to go find some food. Felt much better after leaving the room... so the allergy was something in there. 

It never occurred to me before hand that the ship would be so full and busy on sea days!! The lido deck especially was packed! 

One thing I forgot to mention before is, I can't believe the number of people that don't wash their hands before going into the buffet! I stop at the hand washing station every time I go in, but I have only seen a handful of other people use them. There is also hand sanitizer there, but those barely get used as well. I go on autopilot and automatically use the hand sani like 5 seconds after I wash my hands at the sink!! Haha! 

Today in the Piazza there was a first time cruisers "Welcome to Princess Celebration" where the cruise director Paul (who is AMAZING by the way) gave some basic ship and medallion class introductions and gave away a ton of prizes! We received an invitation to go to this event in our cabin on embarkation day. It said to bring it with us and to write down the reason for our cruise or if you were celebrating something. At the end of this cruise, we are actually celebrating me being one year tumour free!! I had a tumour removed from my ear last year and thankfully it has shown no signs of regrowth or complications, so I would say that is cause for celebration! 

At this introduction event, they raffled off a whole bunch of prizes from tons of departments across the ship. Then they went through everyone's forms we filled out and chose 3 guests to win a "grand prize"! And we were one of the selections!! Awful ear tumour was worth it in the end!!!! We one a free day pass for the Enclave for both my mom and me. (And believe me, by the end of this post you will see why we need it lol)

After that we raced to our next event: steel pan class! Wilson, the steel pan player on board, is the chillest, coolest guy I have ever met. He is so laid back and awesome. I want to be him when I grow up hahaha! The class was very fun! My mom and I are both musicians so we found it very easy, but fun none the less! 

I had another nap in the stateroom in the late afternoon to early evening, but woke up with another allergic reaction. I was not having a great time sleeping this trip!! 

Spotlight Bar was the next production show featured this cruise! It was fantastic! Less of a plot than 5 Skies, but just as fun I think! This show was more featured around the dancers, and the singers were more background characters. It takes place in a bar, and through the dances you are introduced to the lives and thoughts of the dancers' different characters! It was really fun. Also there was a tap number !!! with cowboys !!!!!! that were shirtless!!!!!!!!! That was worth it in itself to be honest, but the whole show was incredible once again. It was also the final performance of this production cast!! 

I wanted to go see the second show of Spotlight Bar, but my migraine was reaching a peak I couldn't stand anymore. So I headed to bed. 

 

 

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - San Juan, PR

 

I woke up with another allergy attack. Yay for benadryl. We realized maybe I was allergic to the feather pillows!! Our wonderful room steward, Bernabe replaced the pillows for me and when I had a nap that afternoon, I felt sooooooooooo much better!! I could finally sleep! It had never occurred to me before, but I remembered my grandma is very allergic to feather pillows as well, and usually as a precaution when we travel we always just request foam pillows right from the start! What a difference it makes! 

It was a lovely port day, and was especially nice because everyone got off the ship and it was nice and quiet!! I spent most of the day in my cabin with my nice new pillows catching up on sleep though. I don't have much to report from today. I just slept really. 

My mom went to the comedic magician and said it was just alright. I didn't miss much by not getting out of bed apparently. 

 

Wednesday, March 8, 2023 - Amber Cove, DR

 

First day waking up without hives from the feather pillows!!! Woohoo!!!!! Its going to be a great day!!! (spoiler: it would not last long)

Most people went to land, so the ship was empty! A beautiful sunny day!! The mountains on the island were beautiful!! What a lovely view!!! 

Read a bit, checked out the enclave so we could decide when to use our prize, then laid around and read some more. 

After lunch I went back to the room to change... and felt... weird. Something was wrong. It wasn't the allergies anymore, but my nose had started running again. But different. The benadryl was not the answer anymore. 

Back to the medical centre for a covid test!!!! 

... ...

... positive. 

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

As someone who is deemed "extremely vulnerable and high risk" for Covid, this was not great news. This was my first time having it. On the other hand, as someone who is deemed "extremely vulnerable and high risk" and lives in BC, Canada, I had early access to all the best dosages of the vaccines. 3 years and 4 shots in, and I am ready to put my vaccines to the test. 

By some miracle, my mom tested negative. The rules they gave us were these:

- JJ cannot leave the stateroom until a negative test. 

- JJ will get tested again on Saturday (usually they do 5 days from symptoms, but because of the weird allergy thing, they decided to call that day one and see how the results were and how I felt on Saturday)

- To receive room service, you cannot open the door unless you are wearing a mask

- Because Mom had negative test, she was allowed to leave the room, but only if she wore a mask when out in public. And she had to sit alone at a table to eat (I am the only one she usually sits with anyway haha so that didn't change much)

- Mom also had to test again on Saturday to see if I ended up giving it to her

 

It seemed weird to us that she was still allowed out, even though we were staying in the same room, so for the most part she just stayed in anyway. We didn't want to risk getting other people sick. 

 

Thursday, March 9, 2023 - Grand Turk (apparently)

 

I slept through most of this day. The seas were a little rocky, which lulled me to sleep like a baby all day. The doctors gave me medicine that I could take for my sore throat... but I didn't have a sore throat. Never did. I told them that and they said to "take this for your sore throat". Oh well. 

I felt a lot better today. Clearly my vaccines did their job, because the allergic reactions to the pillows were way worse than how I felt with Covid. At least I could sleep now. 

They set us up with menus from the MDRs, so we could order room service from there as well! That was a really nice! The customer service this whole time was really great and they took great care of us. 

When my mom went out briefly to get some fresh air (and to escape me I'm sure), she mentioned to Sarah, the assistant cruise director (also AMAZING) that I was sad I was going to be missing the crafts this week. That night, we received a big backpack full of oragami instructions and paper, and a couple other fun crafts to try! And a hand written card from Sarah! It was so kind and really cheered us up! 

My mom said Grand Turk wasn't as pretty of a port as Amber Cove and San Juan. She conveniently forgot to take pictures, so I am not sure if she was just saying that to make me feel better, or if it was actually true. 

We looked at the MDR menu for tonight and it was lobster formal night!!! So we ordered our surf and turf, and got dressed up in our covid formals (our PJs and robes) and ate steak and lobster in bed. It was lovely. The steak was DIVINE. The lobster was alright. I'm sure to lobster lovers it was great. I love crab, and always go into eating lobster with crab in mind, then am always disappointed that it isn't crab. 

 

Friday, March 10, 2023 - Sea Day (could've been anywhere really. I don't have a window)

 

I felt much better today!! But still couldn't leave the room, so I slept a ton again. I was probably only awake for 6 hours today! I read lots. Finished one of my books. My mom left the room briefly to go get me a piece of lemon pound cake in the morning, and said it was so busy out there. So she stayed in the room the rest of the day too. She watched a bunch of movies and worked on her crochet. I slept more. 

In the afternoon, one of the immigration officers came and scanned our passports, because there was a chance I would still be positive tomorrow when we got back to Ft. L. and my mom might test positive too. In that case we wouldn't be allowed off the ship with our in transit cards and would have to just stay on board in our room. Someone from the staff would go through immigration on our behalf and sort it all out. 

 

Saturday, March 11, 2023 - Fort Lauderdale (turn around for second half of B2B cruise!)

 

I felt great when I woke up this morning! No symptoms and back to normal. I was hoping, praying, (begging), that I would get a negative test and be allowed out! 

The doctor came just before 9 am and did our tests. He left right away after and said he would call us as soon as he had our results. We waited... it was like waiting for a pregnancy test. "Please be negative... Please be negative"

The phone rings.... WE ARE BOTH NEGATIVE!!!!!! FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!

I jumped around and danced in the middle of the cabin while my mom stared at me. 

We called guest services to see if we needed to go out and do the transfer now, even though it was late and they had scanned our passports the night before. The lady said "no, just wait in your room. We already have your passport stuff."

Half an hour later we get a call from a guy going "where are you??? Why aren't you here with the rest of the transit guests???????" ...Um, because you told us to stay in our room! We explained, they checked a couple things on their end, and called us back later. Turns out now they have decided that my mom does need to get off after all, but I stay in the room. So away she goes. The process was surprisingly quick and she was back way earlier than I expected! 

I saw a post on Facebook later that day in a Princess group where another in transit guest was saying "who was the idiot that couldn't follow instructions and made everyone wait?" and the comments were filled with people saying things about "self centred guests that don't think the rules apply to them". I didn't respond, but I guess we were the "self centred idiots", that were given a bunch of conflicting information and instructions. A good reminder that there is usually more to the story than someone just being selfish! I hope the extra 10 minutes that man had to sit in a chair while on vacation wasn't too awful for him haha! 

 

 

I am super tired now, so I will do another update in the morning talking about my first day of freedom and fresh air, and then our first sea day today! I will also try to interview my mom about what the process was like for the in transit guests. Stay tuned. 

 

My computer doesn't want to cooperate and upload my photos, so tomorrow I will also upload the patters and some pictures I took. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions! I will get back to proper updates now!!! Thank you for being patient with me! I am awake for more than a few hours per day now, so I should be set for this week. 🙂 

 

-JJ

 

 

 

As soon as you talked about the migraines, I just knew what was coming. I’m glad you are able to carry on with your cruise and you feel ok. 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

Happy to hear that you’re feeling better and that your mom is negative.  I’m looking forward to your review.  Enjoy your cruise!  

[Senga]

@corncatWe had inside cabins before COVID but now would never consider not getting a balcony, just in case!  Hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation and that it is uneventful!

[cruzfiend]

could you tell me how many outlets are in the cabin?

 

[corncat]

49 minutes ago, Senga said:

@corncatWe had inside cabins before COVID but now would never consider not getting a balcony, just in case!  Hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation and that it is uneventful!

I would still get an inside cabin in the future. The price and the darkness is worth losing a window or balcony over. 🙂 

[corncat]

46 minutes ago, cruzfiend said:

could you tell me how many outlets are in the cabin?

 

I'm not in the cabin right now, but from what I recall, there is a USB outlet on each bedside table lamp, and then two North American and two European plugs on the desk. And then one in the bathroom for razors. It has been more than enough for us, but we don't use a ton of devices, and the ones we do use, don't all have to be charged at the same time. We considered getting one of the power bars that every one always suggests, but we decided against it, and haven't regretted it. 

[cruzfiend]

Thank you, Corncat

[corncat]

Saturday, March 11, 2023 (Ft Lauderdale turn around. Part 2)

 

My mom had private escort through the in transit immigration process, do to the staff confusion earlier in the day. She says it was very easy and quick. She had to sit and wait in the terminal for maybe 15 minutes and then they were heading back on board. The terminal staff were a little less friendly and helpful than the ship staff are. Maybe they were having a bad day. 

Freedom!!! I was released from my room and finally back to the ship! I headed up to the lido deck to grab some lunch and watch the sailaway. In the outside aft lido deck, right beside the doors to go back inside and to the buffet, there is a sort of hidden spot with these big orange couches. It is really nice and often not occupied! There isn't a lot of air flow, so it does get a little hot, there is a great view and comfortable calmness in that spot. I stayed there to eat and work on my computer for a bit while the wifi was good. Checked some work emails and got some work done (have to keep making money so I can go on another cruise!!) before heading back to the cabin for a short nap. The heat always makes me sleepy. 

After the nap, it was back up to the lido deck for the sailaway! It was fun to watch the new cast perform for their first time. They looked like they were having a blast! 

We watched the Celebrity Edge go first, then a Holland America ship (I can't remember the name). Then it was our turn! 

We enjoyed watching the land slowly disappear and waving to everyone back on land. We saw some people on the grass waving and they had a giant Princess flag!! I had seen them post on Facebook several times over the last few months, and it was so exciting to see them waving to us now too! 

 

...I can't for the life of me remember what we did between that and the show. I'm sure we must have done something. But I can't say what lol.

 

Then it was off to Rock Opera!! We got there nice and early as usual and grabbed perfect centre seats. I had heard so much about this show, I was excited to see it. 

And then the show started and it was very much... not Rock Opera. It was Ross Hunter! Apparently they had had to change the schedule around and we never got the memo. Oh well. I don't think I would have chosen to go to the concert if I had known, but I am so glad I was tricked into going!! He is such an incredible singer. He sings a very wide range of songs, and has such and wonderful presence and energy on stage. He very clearly loves what he does. I really enjoyed his concert, and would recommend everyone go see him perform. 

After the concert, we stopped at the Yes No Gameshow briefly to watch a couple contestants. Princess Live was packed, so we didn't stay long. 

We went back to my favourite place, Take 5, the jazz lounge. It is always fairly quiet and has wonderful jazz playing. It is a beautiful little club that people often overlook. The waiter that always serves us there was excited to see us back again and took our orders. I can't remember his name right now, but I will get it next time I'm there. 

We enjoyed some jazz then headed for bed. A great day and a start to another wonderful week! 

[corncat]

Here are some pre sickness pictures!! 

San Juan Patter

A picture of San Juan from the ship

A cute towel puppy we found in our room

A cruise duck (unicorn) that I found! 

 

 

[nini]

@corncat Just FYI... the on land crew is typically not necessarily Princess employees... therefore the difference in attitudes. They work for the port.

[Happiest when cruising]

16 hours ago, corncat said:

Hello!!

 

I am so sorry for the long delay between updates! I promise I will do better this week. We had an unexpected turn of events on our first week and I wasn't able to update on here. So now I will do a short (it's not very short) summary of the last few days!!

 

Monday, March 6, 2023 - Sea Day!

 

I woke up with a migraine still 😞 and with a terrible allergic reaction to something. Couldn't stop sneezing and had hives and a rash! Managed to pull myself out of bed around noon to go find some food. Felt much better after leaving the room... so the allergy was something in there. 

It never occurred to me before hand that the ship would be so full and busy on sea days!! The lido deck especially was packed! 

One thing I forgot to mention before is, I can't believe the number of people that don't wash their hands before going into the buffet! I stop at the hand washing station every time I go in, but I have only seen a handful of other people use them. There is also hand sanitizer there, but those barely get used as well. I go on autopilot and automatically use the hand sani like 5 seconds after I wash my hands at the sink!! Haha! 

Today in the Piazza there was a first time cruisers "Welcome to Princess Celebration" where the cruise director Paul (who is AMAZING by the way) gave some basic ship and medallion class introductions and gave away a ton of prizes! We received an invitation to go to this event in our cabin on embarkation day. It said to bring it with us and to write down the reason for our cruise or if you were celebrating something. At the end of this cruise, we are actually celebrating me being one year tumour free!! I had a tumour removed from my ear last year and thankfully it has shown no signs of regrowth or complications, so I would say that is cause for celebration! 

At this introduction event, they raffled off a whole bunch of prizes from tons of departments across the ship. Then they went through everyone's forms we filled out and chose 3 guests to win a "grand prize"! And we were one of the selections!! Awful ear tumour was worth it in the end!!!! We one a free day pass for the Enclave for both my mom and me. (And believe me, by the end of this post you will see why we need it lol)

After that we raced to our next event: steel pan class! Wilson, the steel pan player on board, is the chillest, coolest guy I have ever met. He is so laid back and awesome. I want to be him when I grow up hahaha! The class was very fun! My mom and I are both musicians so we found it very easy, but fun none the less! 

I had another nap in the stateroom in the late afternoon to early evening, but woke up with another allergic reaction. I was not having a great time sleeping this trip!! 

Spotlight Bar was the next production show featured this cruise! It was fantastic! Less of a plot than 5 Skies, but just as fun I think! This show was more featured around the dancers, and the singers were more background characters. It takes place in a bar, and through the dances you are introduced to the lives and thoughts of the dancers' different characters! It was really fun. Also there was a tap number !!! with cowboys !!!!!! that were shirtless!!!!!!!!! That was worth it in itself to be honest, but the whole show was incredible once again. It was also the final performance of this production cast!! 

I wanted to go see the second show of Spotlight Bar, but my migraine was reaching a peak I couldn't stand anymore. So I headed to bed. 

 

 

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - San Juan, PR

 

I woke up with another allergy attack. Yay for benadryl. We realized maybe I was allergic to the feather pillows!! Our wonderful room steward, Bernabe replaced the pillows for me and when I had a nap that afternoon, I felt sooooooooooo much better!! I could finally sleep! It had never occurred to me before, but I remembered my grandma is very allergic to feather pillows as well, and usually as a precaution when we travel we always just request foam pillows right from the start! What a difference it makes! 

It was a lovely port day, and was especially nice because everyone got off the ship and it was nice and quiet!! I spent most of the day in my cabin with my nice new pillows catching up on sleep though. I don't have much to report from today. I just slept really. 

My mom went to the comedic magician and said it was just alright. I didn't miss much by not getting out of bed apparently. 

 

Wednesday, March 8, 2023 - Amber Cove, DR

 

First day waking up without hives from the feather pillows!!! Woohoo!!!!! Its going to be a great day!!! (spoiler: it would not last long)

Most people went to land, so the ship was empty! A beautiful sunny day!! The mountains on the island were beautiful!! What a lovely view!!! 

Read a bit, checked out the enclave so we could decide when to use our prize, then laid around and read some more. 

After lunch I went back to the room to change... and felt... weird. Something was wrong. It wasn't the allergies anymore, but my nose had started running again. But different. The benadryl was not the answer anymore. 

Back to the medical centre for a covid test!!!! 

... ...

... positive. 

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

As someone who is deemed "extremely vulnerable and high risk" for Covid, this was not great news. This was my first time having it. On the other hand, as someone who is deemed "extremely vulnerable and high risk" and lives in BC, Canada, I had early access to all the best dosages of the vaccines. 3 years and 4 shots in, and I am ready to put my vaccines to the test. 

By some miracle, my mom tested negative. The rules they gave us were these:

- JJ cannot leave the stateroom until a negative test. 

- JJ will get tested again on Saturday (usually they do 5 days from symptoms, but because of the weird allergy thing, they decided to call that day one and see how the results were and how I felt on Saturday)

- To receive room service, you cannot open the door unless you are wearing a mask

- Because Mom had negative test, she was allowed to leave the room, but only if she wore a mask when out in public. And she had to sit alone at a table to eat (I am the only one she usually sits with anyway haha so that didn't change much)

- Mom also had to test again on Saturday to see if I ended up giving it to her

 

It seemed weird to us that she was still allowed out, even though we were staying in the same room, so for the most part she just stayed in anyway. We didn't want to risk getting other people sick. 

 

Thursday, March 9, 2023 - Grand Turk (apparently)

 

I slept through most of this day. The seas were a little rocky, which lulled me to sleep like a baby all day. The doctors gave me medicine that I could take for my sore throat... but I didn't have a sore throat. Never did. I told them that and they said to "take this for your sore throat". Oh well. 

I felt a lot better today. Clearly my vaccines did their job, because the allergic reactions to the pillows were way worse than how I felt with Covid. At least I could sleep now. 

They set us up with menus from the MDRs, so we could order room service from there as well! That was a really nice! The customer service this whole time was really great and they took great care of us. 

When my mom went out briefly to get some fresh air (and to escape me I'm sure), she mentioned to Sarah, the assistant cruise director (also AMAZING) that I was sad I was going to be missing the crafts this week. That night, we received a big backpack full of oragami instructions and paper, and a couple other fun crafts to try! And a hand written card from Sarah! It was so kind and really cheered us up! 

My mom said Grand Turk wasn't as pretty of a port as Amber Cove and San Juan. She conveniently forgot to take pictures, so I am not sure if she was just saying that to make me feel better, or if it was actually true. 

We looked at the MDR menu for tonight and it was lobster formal night!!! So we ordered our surf and turf, and got dressed up in our covid formals (our PJs and robes) and ate steak and lobster in bed. It was lovely. The steak was DIVINE. The lobster was alright. I'm sure to lobster lovers it was great. I love crab, and always go into eating lobster with crab in mind, then am always disappointed that it isn't crab. 

 

Friday, March 10, 2023 - Sea Day (could've been anywhere really. I don't have a window)

 

I felt much better today!! But still couldn't leave the room, so I slept a ton again. I was probably only awake for 6 hours today! I read lots. Finished one of my books. My mom left the room briefly to go get me a piece of lemon pound cake in the morning, and said it was so busy out there. So she stayed in the room the rest of the day too. She watched a bunch of movies and worked on her crochet. I slept more. 

In the afternoon, one of the immigration officers came and scanned our passports, because there was a chance I would still be positive tomorrow when we got back to Ft. L. and my mom might test positive too. In that case we wouldn't be allowed off the ship with our in transit cards and would have to just stay on board in our room. Someone from the staff would go through immigration on our behalf and sort it all out. 

 

Saturday, March 11, 2023 - Fort Lauderdale (turn around for second half of B2B cruise!)

 

I felt great when I woke up this morning! No symptoms and back to normal. I was hoping, praying, (begging), that I would get a negative test and be allowed out! 

The doctor came just before 9 am and did our tests. He left right away after and said he would call us as soon as he had our results. We waited... it was like waiting for a pregnancy test. "Please be negative... Please be negative"

The phone rings.... WE ARE BOTH NEGATIVE!!!!!! FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!

I jumped around and danced in the middle of the cabin while my mom stared at me. 

We called guest services to see if we needed to go out and do the transfer now, even though it was late and they had scanned our passports the night before. The lady said "no, just wait in your room. We already have your passport stuff."

Half an hour later we get a call from a guy going "where are you??? Why aren't you here with the rest of the transit guests???????" ...Um, because you told us to stay in our room! We explained, they checked a couple things on their end, and called us back later. Turns out now they have decided that my mom does need to get off after all, but I stay in the room. So away she goes. The process was surprisingly quick and she was back way earlier than I expected! 

I saw a post on Facebook later that day in a Princess group where another in transit guest was saying "who was the idiot that couldn't follow instructions and made everyone wait?" and the comments were filled with people saying things about "self centred guests that don't think the rules apply to them". I didn't respond, but I guess we were the "self centred idiots", that were given a bunch of conflicting information and instructions. A good reminder that there is usually more to the story than someone just being selfish! I hope the extra 10 minutes that man had to sit in a chair while on vacation wasn't too awful for him haha! 

 

 

I am super tired now, so I will do another update in the morning talking about my first day of freedom and fresh air, and then our first sea day today! I will also try to interview my mom about what the process was like for the in transit guests. Stay tuned. 

 

My computer doesn't want to cooperate and upload my photos, so tomorrow I will also upload the patters and some pictures I took. 

 

Let me know if you have any questions! I will get back to proper updates now!!! Thank you for being patient with me! I am awake for more than a few hours per day now, so I should be set for this week. 🙂 

 

-JJ

 

 

 

I read the whole thing…and just went back to the part on March 10, where you said you I didn’t have a window. Aren’t they moving passengers to balconies anymore? Or…did you request to just stay in your inside cabin? 

[nini]

Just 10 months ago, cruisers with covid were treated like lepers... removed from their cabin by crew wearing "spacesuits", leaving their partners behind. They were moved to the Aloha deck balconies and quarantined with good luck getting your food and beverage orders. And this was on the day BEFORE disembarkation. Then they were privately bussed to a Heathrow hotel and required to remain their for 10 days before flying home.

[wowzz]

40 minutes ago, Happiest when cruising said:

I read the whole thing…and just went back to the part on March 10, where you said you I didn’t have a window. Aren’t they moving passengers to balconies anymore? Or…did you request to just stay in your inside cabin? 

As I understand it, there are no quarantine cabins anymore. So, you stay in the one you booked.

I'm surprised that Princess enforce quarantine.  Other cruise lines merely ask you to avoid contact with other passengers, and certainly do not compel you to remain in your cabin if you test positive. 

[Happiest when cruising]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

As I understand it, there are no quarantine cabins anymore. So, you stay in the one you booked.

I'm surprised that Princess enforce quarantine.  Other cruise lines merely ask you to avoid contact with other passengers, and certainly do not compel you to remain in your cabin if you test positive. 

Here’s the section from the Princess website. I do see the words “most likely”, which is why I was asking the OP the question. 
I’m ok with people being quarantined and I’m surprised to hear other lines are not doing the same as Princess. 
 

Positive cases that do not require admission to the ship’s medical center, or medical disembarkation, will most likely be moved to a different stateroom for the duration of isolation

Edited March 14, 2023 by Happiest when cruising

[Happiest when cruising]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

As I understand it, there are no quarantine cabins anymore. So, you stay in the one you booked.

I'm surprised that Princess enforce quarantine.  Other cruise lines merely ask you to avoid contact with other passengers, and certainly do not compel you to remain in your cabin if you test positive. 

1 hour ago, nini said:

Just 10 months ago, cruisers with covid were treated like lepers... removed from their cabin by crew wearing "spacesuits", leaving their partners behind. They were moved to the Aloha deck balconies and quarantined with good luck getting your food and beverage orders. And this was on the day BEFORE disembarkation. Then they were privately bussed to a Heathrow hotel and required to remain their for 10 days before flying home.

Thanks for that information.  I’ve heard many stories about what used to happen, but I’ll wait to hear back from the OP on what is currently happening on her ship. 

[arizonaperson]

This is what happened to OP . For those posting what the Princess website  says.... Doesn’t seem op was offered by Princess to move to a different cabin Nor her mom.

Would be nice to hear what is currently happening to Covid + passengers on all Princess ships though,just for curiosity and planning for what if...

 

By some miracle, my mom tested negative. The rules they gave us were these:

- JJ cannot leave the stateroom until a negative test. 

- JJ will get tested again on Saturday (usually they do 5 days from symptoms, but because of the weird allergy thing, they decided to call that day one and see how the results were and how I felt on Saturday)

- To receive room service, you cannot open the door unless you are wearing a mask

- Because Mom had negative test, she was allowed to leave the room, but only if she wore a mask when out in public. And she had to sit alone at a table to eat (I am the only one she usually sits with anyway haha so that didn't change much)

- Mom also had to test again on Saturday to see if I ended up giving  it to her.

Edited March 14, 2023 by arizonaperson

[Happiest when cruising]

16 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

This is what happened to OP . For those posting what the Princess website  says.... Doesn’t seem op was offered by Princess to move to a different cabin Nor her mom.

Would be nice to hear what is currently happening to Covid + passengers on all Princess ships though,just for curiosity and planning for what if...

 

By some miracle, my mom tested negative. The rules they gave us were these:

- JJ cannot leave the stateroom until a negative test. 

- JJ will get tested again on Saturday (usually they do 5 days from symptoms, but because of the weird allergy thing, they decided to call that day one and see how the results were and how I felt on Saturday)

- To receive room service, you cannot open the door unless you are wearing a mask

- Because Mom had negative test, she was allowed to leave the room, but only if she wore a mask when out in public. And she had to sit alone at a table to eat (I am the only one she usually sits with anyway haha so that didn't change much)

- Mom also had to test again on Saturday to see if I ended up giving  it to her.

Thanks, I read all sections of this whole report.
 Your post does not seem to answer my question, though. 

[wowzz]

6 hours ago, Happiest when cruising said:

I’m ok with people being quarantined and I’m surprised to hear other lines are not doing the same as Princess

Well, human nature being what it is, if you thought you had Covid,  and knew you would be quarantined if you tested positive,  the reaction would be simply to not get tested.

By not enforcing quarantine,  people are more likely to test themselves, and then take appropriate distancing procedures. 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

Well, human nature being what it is, if you thought you had Covid,  and knew you would be quarantined if you tested positive,  the reaction would be simply to not get tested.

By not enforcing quarantine,  people are more likely to test themselves, and then take appropriate distancing procedures. 

If I thought that I had Covid I would get tested.  I would feel horrible if someone caught Covid from me, and was extremely ill or worse.  

[pedirn]

17 hours ago, cruzfiend said:

could you tell me how many outlets are in the cabin?

 

Just off Sky on Saturday.  Be aware USB ports in lamps are very slow at charging.  It took almost 24 hours to charge my I Pad.    Phone took about 12 hours.    Both were new at Christmas so it is not like they were older with lower battery life.    I will also say that since I forgot my charging block for I Pad (and new I Pads use C connectors) I was using a brand new cord purchased in San Juan so that was not the issue.   My husband’s I Pad and phone are older but took the same amount of time or even longer to charge.       

 

Just for anyone who forgot cables/chargers.   There is a Walgreens just a short walk from terminal in San Juan which had a large selection to choose from.   And there were many people purchasing so I wasn’t they only one who forgot theirs.

[memoak]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

Well, human nature being what it is, if you thought you had Covid,  and knew you would be quarantined if you tested positive,  the reaction would be simply to not get tested.

By not enforcing quarantine,  people are more likely to test themselves, and then take appropriate distancing procedures. 

In my opinion anyone who has covid and does not quarantine should be keel hauled. You are putting others, many elderly at risk of serious illness or death. Yes people are still dying from covid