Shoalwater

1 hour ago, healthworker said:

Supposed to cruise March 14. Cancelled and asked for fcc Friday when they announced new policy  
am I entitled to refund as well,ie option 2 if I cancelled already last week?  Thanks if anyone has this answer!

Please read the Princess notice.  Your question is answered there.

58 minutes ago, hpeabody said:

UPDATE Thursday night here in the Indian Ocean

 

We started getting the word something was going on about Suspending all cruises at the end of dinner.  People were starting to see things on the internet.  During the show the Captain came on PA and told us there was a video we need to watch on Channel 43 and THAT WAS ALL.  The video told us nothing about what will happen to us.  That's all we have at this point.

From the Princess announcement at their website concerning current cruisers on a voyage. "Those currently onboard a cruise that will end in the next five days will continue to sail as expected through the end of the itinerary so that onward travel arrangements are not disrupted. Current voyages that are underway and extend beyond March 17 will be ended at the most convenient location for guests, factoring in operational requirements. Princess will do everything possible to return each guest home with the greatest amount of care possible. During this time, our operations and medical teams across the fleet will remain vigilant in their care and service for guests and crew onboard."

Looks like you'll have to make your way home from somewhere in Africa.  Strongly recommend you read the announcement and the future cruise credit policies Princess has proposed.  I suspect they will figure out the fare balance for your unused portion of the WC voyage and base your options from there.  Good luck.

The ships are safe, but the passengers are another question.  I would not be cavalier in dismissing COVID-19 and its transmissability.  The appearance and spread of this in Italy and Iran is surprising, and points out how  barriers of entry or travel may not be all that effective.  People are spreading it, and when it lands, it seems to take hold.  This could be the pandemic long predicted by infectious disease folks.  It wasn't H1N1, HPAI, MERS or SARS, but some virologists I know are jittery about this one.   This seems to be a very contagious virus, with an overall case fatality rate some 10-20 times that of influenza.  We're scheduled on a cruise in April, Sydney to LAX and will go, but we'll be keeping an eye out for risks.

So the same CDC site you reference about Zika in Mexico shows the same risk levels for the entire USA.  There's another CDC site that gives information about infectious diseases for travel destinations https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list .   When you ask about Mexico, dengue or even malaria pops up but not Zika.  Zika was overplayed by the press.  In my opinion you can travel to the Mexican Riviera and not have to worry about Zika.  Listen to your ObGyn, she's giving you good advice.

4 hours ago, RachelNYC said:

 

Ahh - ok.  Got it 🙂

 

I really don't want a "kid ship" for Alaska.  My kids will be in 3rd and 5th grade and I really want them to appreciate and learn about Alaska.  I don't particularly want them to be distracted by flying on a trapeze or bumper cars!

 

Do you think there are ANY family activities on PP?  Name That Tune? Kareoke? Family Friendly Trivia?

We have sailed PP many times, and it's our favorite Princess ship.  Generally few kids and so no, they didn't have "family/kid" oriented activities like you are asking.  The passenger participation things like trivia were at the adult level (adult does not mean risque here, but means younger kids probably wouldn't be able to add to the game).   IMHO this ship may not be ideal for your situation and for what you are looking to experience as a family.  As for large passenger numbers, you will probably be landing at a port along with the large mega-ships, and so won't avoid the crowds just because you're on a small ship.  In your case I would recommend one of the Grand class ships like the Grand Princess.

A lot depends on getting through the exit from the Shengen side (Switzerland is a Shengen Agreement country) to the international transfer side.  This requires a passport control check.  BE SURE to tell any of the uniformed aids controlling the crowds at this control point that you have a SHORT CONNECTION, and they will let you into the shorter bypass line.  If you stay in line with the crowd you stand a good chance of being denied boarding for late gate arrival, especially if Delta is using a distant gate in G.

Been using free fax web services for years with no problem.  As for email, I believe the real issue is not with broker account codes being readable since you could attach a PDF of the statement with the info redacted (which is what I formerly did before they banned email submission).  I think its more that malware can be attached to email and enter their IT systems.  A ransomware attack on CCL would cost many millions to ransom a return of access to their data.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the OM app lets you play casino games from the comfort of your cabin or wherever on your smartphone, 24/7 as long as the ship is not within zones where the casino cannot operate.  CHACHING!!!  Forget about all the other smokescreen reasons for OM, this has real revenue potential.  "Yes dear, I'll put the phone down and go to sleep as soon as I recover my money in one last game.".

Mix in with the folk.  Take the people mover from the port to Piazalle Roma and buy a Vaparetto ticket to St. Mark's.  The ride itself is worth it, and you can keep going around the island to return after your visit.

13 hours ago, LSGDRG said:

I am in the minority but I like the idea of reserving a seat.  It would mean that I wouldn't have to arrive so early for a show

If they went to this practice, every show would be fully reserved, but attendance would be much less as people decide to do something else instead of honoring the seats they reserved.  

We use plastic zip ties to keep the zipper slider from accidentally opening.  Locks on any zippered case are meaningless as you can see in the video link here: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+open+a+locked+zippered+suitcase&t=ffnt&atb=v164-6&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=9JvmAktLvFg

On 4/29/2019 at 8:52 AM, Jim Avery said:

Reminds me of this one time on Princess when a sport tried to bring his fishing gear onboard.  Wanted to fish from his balcony......😳

Same thing observed on Viking Sky, San Juan PR to Barcelona.  Saw the fellow at disembarkation and asked if he caught anything.  He said no, was never able to even unpack his gear as ship was going too fast for trolling 😆

44 minutes ago, VK3DQ said:

hi Folks

 

Some of you have asked about liferafts

 

There any many systems in use today but here is an example you might like to see

 

 

 

Regards

 

John

Works nice in a "swimming pool".  Now look at the ship motion of the Sky and imagine trying this under those conditions.  IMHO you would be dumped from the slide on the way down, and if not, pitched mover the side of the raft. 

We board Viking  next Friday in San Juan for a repositioning to Barcelona. Looking forward to it.  No big deal, engineering history is filled with iterations until its right. Personally not put off one line or another because of mechanical issues, but never the less, it just seems like there's a common cause lurking somewhere in the Viking design just like on the Boeing 737 max's.  Looking for Viking to someday say "Eureka!".

In following the Viking Ocean boards for a few years, is it just me or does it seem like Viking has some type of design issue with their engines? It seems to me that several ships have fallen victim to poor performing engines causing missed port of calls, early termination of a voyage or the like.  Thus far these have been inconveniences with low hazard outcomes.  Now today I read that the Viking Sky lost engines during high winds close to the Norwegian coast.  Drifting towards the rocky shoreline 2km away the ship issued a Mayday and now authorities are in the process of evacuating passengers and crew by helicopter.  I pray that all can be safely removed, but this is a very serious event that I hope will cause Viking to do a deep dive into identifying and fixing the root cause(s) of the string of incidents. 

Charles,

Although we never met, I have been following your 2019 WC postings and am at a loss for words to try and offer solace.  I am drawn to two quotes by Wm. Shakespeare written in Macbeth.  These seem to encompass what I might try to say, only much better.

"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word,
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow......."

and

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.”

You have a long, sad journey home to bring your wife to her place of eternal rest.  May you be comforted along the way by the memories of the good times shared and the love exchanged.

Not unusual in the cruising industry to have to pay a single supplement even if the cancelled passenger was fully pre-paid.  I take it the passengers in question did not take out trip insurance which would have covered this situation.

UPDATE: Never did get a response via email on my request to expedite my refund. I called Viking today and was told my refund was being expedited by the accounting department as of Aug 28. It will now take take 7 business days for an "expedited" request. Amazing! What a business model. More to come.

Yes, business model = HOLD OTHER'S CASH AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

So, as the US greatly improves the immigration process with technology, and not just for Global Entry participants but everyone, the Shengen countries by and large, especially the UK have degenerated the process into a fiasco. I think its all about job security and the unions staging for more member workers at the kiosks. Waits of multiple hours in the UK in a hot, jammed lines are not uncommon. Because of my airline loyalty level I am usually able to jump to the priority line, avoiding the misery. I also make every effort to enter or leave the Shengen Agreement group of countries for America through Schipol, Amsterdam. The Dutch are wonderful, hard working and efficient. I use AMS when traveling to Tanzania, and dread when I have to go to Morocco and suffer the through CDG.

 

......The next day we took the free shuttle into Dunfermline. It is an awesome little town that has the Robert the Bruce Abbey and Carnegie’s birthplace.......

Isn't Dunfirmline a wonderful little town. We enjoyed our one day visit there instead of heading into Edinburgh for our third visit. Nice manageable museum, the old castle and Carnegie's bitrthplace and museum. One of our sons is on faculty at Carnegie Mellon Univ. in Pittsburgh, and we presented him with a nice photo of AC's birthplace for his office and of course....a Carnegie tartan tie for faculty meetings :D. A great easy alternative for those who don't want to trek into the big city.

I believe the Regal is the ONLY ship to have *****. It is stalled at about 100 staterooms and it would seem no further installations are happening. Since Princess has received the benefit from many months of advertising this “great advancement” and has now eliminated any obligation to its paying customers they would no doubt see no need to hurry. As the software companies would say, you have been sold “vapourware” — something which does not exist. But since Princess has your money and a cruise contract which protects them from you, they don’t see it as a pressing issue. Sent from my iPhone using Forums

While aboard the Caribbean Princess July 7-14 the "mailboxes" on all decks, outside the cabin door that were used to hold your name and advertising promotional pages were removed in advance of moving to *****.

I'd be disappointed at the loss of space in this area …..

 

the gimmick of a planetarium on QM2 died out quickly …. on our last QM cruise it was 'lost space' with few attending the shows and hard to repurpose the area

 

unless improved fm QM I think VO missed the target on this one …..

Looks like its a small footprint and doesn't take up the entire deck area.

Well, the Shore Excursion desk will do their best to try to place you in the same tour group if space is available. Usually not a problem for the included tours, but if one of the extra excursion tours is sold out then not much that can be done. If your pre-sign ups don't match, both parties should head to the ShoreEx desk immediately upon boarding and work with them to get the the best tour packages available for both of you.

To Jim and all the contributors on "our" WC, many thanks. Your postings helped me "experience" the WC and reach a decision on the pending 2019 one that we held reservations for, and we cancelled. It was by daily following along we could vicariously place ourselves on the ship (sailed 3x with Viking Ocean, once with Heather, the "best"), and when the roulette wheel stopped spinning the ball landed on "no". We have been to over half the ports on the 2019 voyage, and so gains did not outweigh costs. However, it was great to open up this post and see what new things you and the others discovered, both to your surprise and enjoyment, and to your disappointment. You and others presented the whole enchilada. So, as y'all disembark for what must be a slightly melancholy moment, Godspeed in all your onward journeys in the years to come, and maybe we'll share a voyage or two before the "ship" heads to the breakers.

We had soot on the aft balcony aboard Pacific Princess. Seems like a general problem of solids being ejected and depending on size, weight and ship/wind speeds, falling to earth where they will.