OzKiwiJJ

But you have the whole length of the bath to wash in plus a convenient "ledge" at the end to put a foot on while washing the lower leg. Much easier than trying to bend down in a tiny shower cubicle. On HAL we had both a shower cubicle and a shower over the bath. After one shower each in the shower cubicle we both opted to use the shower over the bath for the remainder of the cruise.

As long as the price difference isn't too big we're booking mini-suites now as I find the shower over bath is much better than trying to shower in tiny cubicles. However I will say the balcony cabin shower on Grand Princess was one of the bigger Princess ones we've encountered outside of a suite. They must have shrunk them since she was built!

I've heard of it with some cabin types on various ships but wouldn't expect it in a minisuite. However the deck plans show both the furtherest aft minisuites on that deck are twin beds only. Yikes! I would not like that!

Ask me again in November - we're doing a Japan cruise on her then. We cruised on her in 2018 and liked the ship. She is the best of the Grand Class ships that we've been on so far in my opinion.

We will never cruise HAL again after the cruise we did over Christmas. Although the cabin was lovely almost everything else was below what we expect on that level of cruise ship.

I'd happily see the vaccination rule dropped as long as all passengers wear masks when moving around the ship, in theatres and other crowded venues ie trivia and bingo, on tenders and excursion buses, and get tested if they develop symptoms. That way the spread of Covid and any other respiratory illnesses would be minimised. I'm sure, like me, that many other regular cruisers have caught the dreaded cruise cough or a cold or even flu while on a cruise in the past. It's a pity we didn't get into the habit of wearing masks years ago instead of spreading germs all over the place.

Essentially instead of garnering sympathy from the cruising public this person has been shown up as a grasping idiot but, unfortunately, has damaged the reputation of cruising yet again to those who have never cruised before.

What saddens me is how quickly people forget the hygiene precautions including mask wearing in busy spaces. Precautions that not only reduce the risk of Covid but also colds and flu. Too many people have gone back to sharing their germs with all and sundry. Plus both of us saw people leave public toilets onboard Grand without washing their hands. Seriously! 🤬

Ditto from getting Covid on Coral, early May for me as well, but I fared better than you, thank goodness - a short bout of rebound Covid a week after disembarking and I was fine. It sounds like you have Long Covid, hopefully you will recover from the fatigue soon. And that's one of the reasons I keep on with the boosters - to reduce my chances of sevete illness or Long Covid.

If one is From Australia and the other is To Australia then I always think it's better to fly first and cruise home so would choose the To Australia one unless there was a significant difference in ports on the other.

My worry would be that if major compensation was given certain people would claim to have a missing (imaginary) suitcase just to get the compo.

Yes, there were definitely cases among the crew. We heard of a few crew members thay we'd got to know over the five cruises that caught it. Mostly b) and c) I suspect judging by the amount of coughing in the theatre just before I went into iso. I agree with the previous comment - people who have only had the two vaccinations and no boosters are now no better off than someone who is unvaccinated as far as potentially catching and spreading the virus but may still retain enough immunity to lessen the severity of the illness. It's clear now that vaccinations don't stop people catching the virus so everyone on current cruises can still catch and spread it. Still I'd prefer to have less medical emergencies affecting my cruises - we saw experienced quite a few medivacs last year, and even one return to port which cost us about seven hours, put us right in the middle of a storm, and resulted in the cancellation of yet another port stop on that cruise.

Only If the cruise line was genuinely at fault ie the missing suitcase was "lost" in the service areas of the ship not in someone elses cabin. I haven't watched the TV piece but, seriously, anyone who can't find a basic replacement capsule wardrobe in a city the size of Christchurch is either being far too fussy or is incompetent. All she needed to do is ask someone where the nearest big shopping mall is - which would probably be Westfield Riccarton which has a Farmers department store, Kmart, a Bendon lingerie shop, a Hannahs Shoe shop, and probably a fair number of other clothing and shoe stores. I managed to pick up a very nice pair of black trousers in just a few minutes in an Auckland Farmers store and I'm a plus size.

I agree. We took reasonable precautions on the five cruises we did last year, wearing masks when moving about the ship, and in the theatre and at trivia, but not when seated in bars having a drink. I caught Covid during the second week of the last of those cruises, the long Round Australia cruise, and I'm 95% certain I caught it from someone standing right next to me in the Good Spirits bar while they talked to their friends seated behind me. They were coughing heavily with no mask on.

Princess seems to be making some unpopular decisions since the new CEO took over: - Removal of the coffee card - Increased price of Plus package with unpopular "premium desserts" and fitness classes added - which many people don't want and won't use. Increase of drinks limit countered by increase in drinks prices to the point where some wines are selling at ten times (1000%) the retail price. - Reduction of the use by date of FCDs to one year - no free internet any more for Platinum and Elites, just a 50% discount, although this is probably more to do with how the new MedallionNet works ie not feasible to track minute-based usage. - I saw a post elsewhere this morning where someone said they could not use their FCDs to book a cruise under a certain promo. To use the FCDs they would have to pay a higher fare. Possibly a mistake by a phone support person or maybe not. I'll be watching this closely in future.

Typically one bottle a day between us. Pre-Plus we would usually have 2-3 bottles on the go at any one time - a crisp white, sometimes a chardonnay, and a red. Yes, we may be able to buy wine at some ports but that's not always easy to do when you don't know the towns or the wines, and may not have time to explore if doing excursions However there are some decent wines available onboard, but not many by the glass, especially white wines. They had run out of two white wines by the bottle on our recent Grand cruise but luckily not our favourite. I'm hoping Princess may have improved it's wine list by then though.

Exactly.

Based on what I saw on my Round Australia cruise last year, where I caught Covid, I'd say most don't. The known Covid numbers jumped significantly while I was in iso and I reckon that was due to the WA government requiring all passengers to test before going ashore in Fremantle (days 5 & 6 since I developed symptoms). In our section of corridor, between the mid-ships and aft lifts there were two cabin in iso (including me) when I tested positive. When I came out of iso there were ten cabins. A passenger we sat next to at dinner one night said he walked the whole ship and counted 329 iso cabins.

Yes, so I've heard, but you can't do it online.

I'm trying to figure out how many cases of wine we'll need to take onboard for the world cruise next year. We did get the Plus fare at $40pp per day for that so will leave it in place for the internet, coffees, bottled water and cocktails, plus the 25% discount on some of the better wines by the bottle (there are a few), but we'll need to take some on with us.

It is possible that a passenger had the missing suitcase in their cabin, delivered there by mistake, and couldn't be bothered doing anything about it. Someone posted on another forum that something similar had happened to her and her friends sharing a cabin. Each thought the suitcase belonged to one of the others and it took a couple of days before they realised it wasn't anyone's in that cabin. But I still find it hard to believe that she couldn't find anything to wear in Christchurch, not even any new underwear.

Probably a combination of both. CovidLive reports the number of cases per week by state and those numbers have been increasing lately. However the cases reported are probably only the tip of the iceberg as many people probably don't report getting Covid, and some may be asymptomatic so don't even realise they've caught it.

I have read posts, both here and on other cruise forums, of Princess allowing one passenger in a cabin to book Plus and the other to book Standard but it did require a phone call to Princess.

The price of some wines have gone up to ridiculous levels. It really irritates me when it costs more than double the retail bottle price for a single glass of very vin ordinaire. I agree about the coffee package. We rarely drink sodas but like espresso coffees. Under the old coffee card system we even saved a tiny amount on those coffees so always bought coffee cards. Since the Plus package has increased in price it is now very borderline for us due to the poor quality of most of the wines offered under the package. We ended up buying four bottles of wine on our recent 10 night cruise even though we had the Plus package.

No-one is going to notice if you wear sneakers to dinner in the MDRs. I often see passengers with mobility issues wearing smart clothing with sneakers. In fact my new "shoe cheat" for nights when I don't feel like wearing my dressy shoes, or if the ship is bouncing around a bit, is a pair of black Skechers. I doubt anyone would notice me wearing them and even if they did so what? For all they know I might have a health issue that necessitates me wearing comfortable shoes. Yes, a mistake was made by the cruise line and perhaps there is a need for extra checks when dropping off baggage - perhaps luggage receipt tags like airlines and hotels use when storing bags. Yes, the passenger was inconvenienced but partly because of her own lack of forward planning. Whether you hand over your bags to an airline, a cruise line, or a hotel porter, there is always a risk that one will not be delivered. That's why it is always recommended that valuables and medications are put in carry-on bags, and sensible travellers also include a change of clothing - not only in case your luggage goes AWOL but in case of a mishap along the way that damages what you are wearing in some way or other. Also it's not a good idea to expect the airline/cruise line/hotel to replace missing or damaged items - that's what travel insurance is for. It's certainly nice when they do help out but it can't be taken for granted.