StLouisCruisers

A quick check in to update everyone. Nice to see our Jacqui @kazuand our Joy @Seasick Sailorposting today. Thank you both for your prayers and concerns for me and my loved ones. I am very lucky we both tested negative because Princess kicked all the positives off the ship along with their spouses whether they were + or -. All 800 B2B passengers were tested Saturday and word is 200 were positive. All I can say is I hope masks are required this voyage and not recommended or we’ll go through the same thing all over again. Also since the Covid people across the hall left Roy @rafinmdyou can remove me from the Care list (for now). 🙄

my friend has COPD and it sounds terrible when she coughs. I hope they’re not contagious too! Yes we have been required to wear masks the past 7 or 8 days.

@Heartgrove, I’m so sorry to hear how difficult this time is for your family. I do understand the tragedy of losing more than one family member at a time which may be happening to you soon. We experienced that last June. Prayers for a peaceful end of life for your siblings. 🙏🏻 @smitty34877Terry, what heartbreaking developments for Tana. I’m so sorry she is struggling lately. Bless you and your family for being such wonderful caretakers. @aliaschief, @Sharon in AZ, @dfish, and @Quartzsite CruiserI totally agree with you all on HAL’s quarantine halls! We should register our complaint downstairs in addition to adding this to our after cruise survey. It makes total sense.

Good morning friends from the English Channel where it is afternoon of course! About 10:45 am we saw the White Cliffs of Dover and it brought back memories of our little hike taken there a few years back. Good times! Well, we went for our Covid tests this morning at 8:45 am as directed. When I asked about results, the woman told me we should hear by this evening. ?? So we asked someone else as we left and she said within about 30 minutes if positive, so we are thinking there will be a letter delivered showing our negative results by this evening and that is what the first woman meant. You'd think they'd be specific about things like this since it's pretty important to the guests, right? Well we haven't gotten any phone calls and it's now after 3 pm here so no news is good news I guess. It is really hard to stay away from some of these positive Covid passengers. More than once one or both of us have almost walked right past an open Covid cabin doorway as the guest inside places their dirty dishes/tray on their little table. This morning we were coming around a corner and a man was doing just that, and you could hear a woman inside the cabin wheezing and coughing! We came to an abrupt halt and went back to the elevator foyer to walk down the opposite side of the ship. Then when we were going back to our cabin after our testing, we saw a nurse standing in the hallway testing the passengers across the hall from us. We had no idea how long the door was going to remain open so we turned around to do something else for 5 minutes. At that same time, the woman and man in the cabin right next door to us came out into the hallway calling out to the cabin steward, then the woman began coughing up a storm right there in our hallway! I can hear this woman coughing day and night next door and yet there's no little table outside her doorway. I wonder if she is staying on and was tested this morning too? I hope she goes home actually. Can you imagine if she was positive also, and I had a table across the hall and right next door to me? OMG I can't even fathom what I'd do! So we are trying our best to remain well but sometimes it feels like that is an impossible task. 🤧😷🙏 I hope next time you hear from me it isn't with the sad news that they were so overwhelmed with positive people that it took them all day to phone us, and that we are not part of that group. Think positive (but Covid negative)!!! Take care everyone, and we shall try to do the same.❤️

We were notified today that we will be Covid tested tomorrow morning because we are staying on for the next sailing. Fingers crossed we are negative! My fear would be if positive they would make us leave in Southampton Monday instead of staying here to quarantine and then be able to enjoy the rest of the cruise. Sometimes policies don’t make much sense to me. 🤷‍♀️

Good morning friends! It's actually past noon here about 60 miles from England at around 55 degrees north. I don't have a map handy to determine where that is exactly. We should be off the shores of Dover tomorrow around noon. Last night the Captain announced the change in our itinerary about the same time we went to dinner. Due to Tropical Storm Alex we had to avoid the route from the Shetlands to Cobh/Cork, and go the long way around England. No replacement port for us as it will take quite a bit longer that way, so our next scheduled port is Cornwall (Falmouth) on June 12. Many disappointed passengers I'm sure. Thank goodness we've already been to Cobh/Cork but I really wanted to shop for some beautiful silver Celtic knot necklaces as gifts. I have one and love it. I hope there will be another chance in the future. Before I read it was iced tea day, I made up a bottle of peach iced tea with a small packet of Crystal Light peach iced tea I'd brought along with me. I have it at home all the time. Well, I haven't been to Portland Maine before. I'm keeping a list of the destinations so when I get home I can update my spread sheet. Miss you all! Have a great Friday.❤️

Thank you so much for that! I would never be able to search for that info on this crummy WiFi. It takes 3 minutes to proceed to the next page - it's like dial up back in the '90s!! Ann, I don't know about UV bulbs. I'll ask DH. We have two huge filters, one for each floor's HVAC unit. We've never seen any mold on them. Yes, indeed, Scotland is known for the cold damp weather, isn't it? I saw a woolen shop today with many lovely hand made items in it. I took note of it because all the knitting ladies talk about at Knitters and Knatters is buying wool (yarn) at our cruise ports. Graham, that's a nice looking car. Enjoy it! That is, if you can figure out all the electronics and safety features these new cars have on them. I haven't figured out my year old car yet, and doubt I ever will. That's a good one! @ger_77Your early morning jaunt outside to confront the stranger would keep me up the rest of the night, too. It sounds like something you'd see on a TV comedy, but scary in real life. @AncientWandererand @JazzyVthanks for your well wishes. We hope to stay healthy, too. I can't believe we've avoided Covid for 2 1/2 years now (knocking on wood as I say that).

Note that I am having to repost the following due to no response when I submitted it. I apologize in advance if this is duplicated due to gremlins today. Good morning friends from Lerwick (Shetland Islands), Scotland. I'm having a tough time keeping up with the Daily since the internet does not work on this ship the past week or so. Thank goodness my WhatsApp chats are able to be sent and received with WiFi. I keep in touch with family that way. DH's tiny laptop is the only device that I can use to access Cruise Critic. And since I'm 5 hours ahead of the east coast I have to wait until afternoon to read up. I did tell you we had to go back to mask wearing here on the Island Princess, didn't I? Sunday the room across the hall from us gained a table in the hallway in front of their door. So Covid is actually that close to us. I hope we continue to be safe from that virus while on this cruise. Only 20 more days, and I'm going to hope like heck the Covid tests prior to departing are negative! Otherwise I guess we will be doing our quarantining in a hotel near Heathrow! I wonder how Kay and her DH Jim are faring. I haven't seen them around the ship lately and I forgot what her room number is. 🤔 Kay @kb4683if you read this and want to leave a phone message with your room number and how your health is, our number is 10527. One thing I've noticed being away from home is that my chronic cough I've had for the past 3 years or so, is a lot less on the ship. I wonder what I'm allergic to at home? All my allergy blood work says I don't have allergies to trees, grasses and pollen but why am I a cougher at home and not here? Well I'm sorry I haven't been able to catch all the news so let's just say I pray for all our members on the Care list. That includes your hip Roy @rafinmd. Cheers to all on the Celebration lists as well. Take care everyone!

Good morning friends. I feel like I've been gone forever from the Daily but I guess it was Thursday when I was able to post here last? Not sure. Our internet on board just went kaput and we didn't get it back until sometime earlier today. We had our five days at sea Tuesday through Saturday and today are docked in Reykjavik. They said it would rain but this morning was just cloudy so I told DH I was walking to the Hallgrimskirkja church with him or without him. He elected to walk with me. We had a few spritzes on us as we returned to the ship at the end of the "excursion". Total walking distance was 6.97 miles and my legs were feeling it. This afternoon's weather has deteriorated and it's wet out there, with fog hiding the mountains in the distance. Tomorrow we stop at Isafjordur where the low will be 29F and the high 39F with partly sunny skies according to my weather app on the phone. That's alright - tonight they will have snow showers! When we got back from our long walk we found face masks and a letter on our bed telling us we would be required to wear our masks inside at all times except while eating or drinking and outdoors where we aren't able to social distance. I suppose numbers have risen to a certain point and they don't want a further spread of Covid. The Captain's Circle hostess was not present at the Most Traveled Guest luncheon at Sabatini's yesterday. She hasn't been seen in 8 days and I overheard the Cruise Director Olivia say the hostess was still under the weather. We had a nice lunch and chatted the whole time with a British couple who moved to Canada, then to the U.S. with his automobile business background. @HeartgroveJack I'm sorry to hear the unhappy news about your sister's decline and the troubles with your brother at the rehab facility. I hope you have a safe trip to Chicago. @kazuJacqui I hope you are well. I'm sure we would all enjoy hearing from you again soon. Take care! @ger_77your visit with the birth mother's family and the internment sounds like it went well. I'm glad you were able to connect with them all. Yesterday was the first anniversary of my DS Nancy's death. A sad occasion for us all and I've been thinking of her all week as well as the two great grandsons of hers who were born and passed that same day. I'm happy to say I'm a melanoma skin cancer survivor and also had some minor skirmishes with basal cell. I hope that's the last cancer my body sees! It's been so long without internet I can't remember what I told you about Buddy. The latest is the oncologist has decided the surgery on his spine and scapula must wait because they need to begin treatments immediately and that would delay it. They say his lung cancer is moving too fast! This scares me to death. In the meantime they have installed a pain pump and put him in a back brace which is so claustrophobic to him he has had panic attacks wearing it. My niece had to drive their youngest child to a welding school he enrolled in. He graduated high school last month and is still only 17 years old. I'm not sure how far away this technical school is but while Amy is away her youngest sister Lyndsey (she works in Radiology) will sit with Buddy and make sure he is safe and comfortable. He is wearing an oxygen cannula in case he stops breathing due to the pain meds. Another scary thought. Sometimes I can hardly believe this isn't a soap opera. The only good news I've heard lately is that DGS Ren's soccer team, the Michigan Tigers Gold '05 won the Michigan State Championship yesterday 5-0. Life really is a soap opera. I've been trying to post this repeatedly for 30 minutes so I hope it only goes through once, not 3 or 4 times! Ship internet is the pits!