shastatroy

On 8/11/2022 at 7:59 PM, fpsphil said:

Any word if they are being moved to Sapphire?

Sorry I was away. My contact moved to the Sapphire Saturday morning (08/20/22), I don't know if everyone moved to that ship. The Diamond will move to Long Beach and be at anchor for a while.

On 8/9/2022 at 12:25 PM, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Hi @shastatroy.  Been a very long time.  Hope you are doing well.

 

When I spoke to my MRD crew, they told me that one of the problems was getting visas and other necessary documents for international crew.  Many expired during the pandemic.  They said that there were a lot of friends wanting to rejoin the ship, but the process was taking a long time.

 

Add covid/isolations and coming on board quarantine and you have a problem with staffing.  

 

I see that Princess has a few options.

1.  Fill the ships to less capacity with keeping crew ratio pre-covid ratio.

2.  Salvage current ships online by cannibalizing ships that are not online (Sapphire/Diamond).

3.  Scrap Galveston.

4.  Consolidate Ships/ports.  Carnival has one ship in Long Beach that does 3 and 4 day cruises (= 7 day cruises).  The Panorama is HUGE.  No thanks.  Princess removed back to back cruises to Hawaii.   They replaced them with Hawaii, then Mexico, then Hawaii.  I didn't like that then but maybe Princess needs to rethink scheduling.  

 

The Crown will be going into drydock.  But the time is not long enough to move the crew to other ships.  

It has been a long time! I'm doing great, I retired in February so life is good. Hope we cross paths again soon.

On 8/9/2022 at 3:57 PM, voljeep said:

so this crew member you spoke to ... what was the reason Princess 'can't' fill crew staff?  Are past crew now not willing? No new crew applying? Visa's? Covid? Training?

Hi, all crew that arrived in LA on Sunday are on the ship in San Pedro, they are still waiting to hear from Princess where they will be sent. All she told us was that they can't fill the dining staff, I am assuming it's visa issues. 

19 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Interesting that Princess would sail the Diamond across the Pacific (she was just in San Pedro) and then cancel all her cruises just a few weeks away.  What will they do with the Diamond?

 

I am sorry for the disappointment in not doing the Sea of Cortez.  Is if one of my favorite West Coast itineraries.  

 

I am booked for a Japan Cruise.  It will be interesting if they sail the Diamond back to Japan and start the cruises when Japan is still struggling to open to tourism.  

 

I'm glad I did not jump on a chance to do a short trip out of San Diego.  Gave it some thought, but nothing seemed to draw me in.  Fares were outstanding.  

Just spoke to a crew member with the Diamond, Princess couldn't fill the staffing for the dining rooms, so they canceled the sailing until they can find enough crew members. 

I am on the January 19th cruise and I want to thank everyone onboard who have taken time out of their cruise to update us.  It has been very helpful.

Being vaccinated doesn't mean you won't get covid, it reduces your risk of getting sick. This is silly, the entire county is finally lifting its restrictions, it's time the CDC gets on board.

Got verified, booked a cruise in March which as now been cancelled. Don't think I will be booking one prior to December 9th, hope they expend the deadline.

Great perk fo all of us that have been working the front lines this year.

I bet the businesses in the port cities are not to happy about this.

CDC suddenly stopped all crew transfers today of coast of San Pedro. They were not coming into port but transferring between anchored ships. No explanation was given, so they still sit anchored off the coast.

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

Was this Happy Hour;  if not I bet it was after you drank those

Lol, part of the tour is learning to pour the perfect glass of Guinness. The guide shows you how and tells the group, whoever pours the best glass gets his glass in addition to your pour. I won! 

Azores

On 3/22/2020 at 5:42 PM, Wehwalt said:

The State of California will not let cruise ships dock. IMHO it didn't do so great a job with the Grand Princess anyway.

Hmmm, there are 2 Princess ships in San Pedro, 3 Carnival ships in Long Beach and several ships in San Diego. 

Rancho Palos Verdes checking in here. I am "essential", so I go to work everyday. All vacations have been cancelled through May, which sucks but since everything is shut down it's OK. I see the 3 Carnival ships everyday as there is 1 docked and 2 are anchored in Long Beach. I see the Star and Royal when they are in port but they have been out and about quite a bit lately. The USS Mercy is currently docked where the Star usually is so I don't believe both ships will be in port at the same time any time soon. 

Hope all are doing well and this will be over soon enough.

Of course, as soon as a sale which includes OBC is offered. The current promotion isn't of value to me, so I'll wait.

So the question I have is, was a crew member from the Diamond relocated to the Grand?

2 hours ago, denmarks said:

Street tacos at the Salty Dog. As a Californian I know what tacos should taste like. These were dry and no toppings such as salsa,  tomatoes, lettuce, etc were available.

 

Captain's Party. What is the purpose other than getting dressed up for a free drink? I remember in the old days on Sitmar you received a crystal glass and a photo with the captain free.

 

Cheap prizes at the cumulative trivia contest. You would think that after 9 days of contests the winning team should get a better prize than the daily trivias.

 

Worthless free artwork when leaving the art auctions.

As a fellow Californian, one does not put tomatoes or lettuce on a street taco. A regular taco yes but never on a street taco.

Out of cabin by 8am, last group off ship was 9:15am. 

Just an FYI- but on a Medallion cruise (Caribbean Princess) if you swap out for 2 coffee cards, they go onto the medallion and expire at end of cruise, which isn't worth it, in my opinion for a 7 day cruise. No actual cards are available. 

Just off the Caribbean, and yes it was on the dining room menu the last night.