Mrs CruisinCritter

26 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

no fearmongering at all..simple facts..."only" three is not a very smart thing to say....if you had been following you will know how virulent this virus is and asymptomatic many with it can be...14 day incubation is really a tough component to this epidemic. Those remaining Chinese as well as anyone could have it...now they will be on planes for hours. Okay if that is fearmongering so be it.

It is fearmongering because there are many parts of China that have not been impacted by the virus. You are not stating facts. You specifically stated “many sick” and “something going around the ship.” Nowhere in the media reports does it say where these pax are from and it likely won’t due to HIPAA since this involves medical information. Also, only the 3 Chinese nationals were reported as having pulmonary issues. No other pax were reported to have had any symptoms of illness. Illness between groups traveling together can be common. It is cold and flu season after all. It is likely 3 family members sharing the same illness. 
 

After viewing media reports and seeing that EMS and other medical personnel are not wearing protective clothing or masks, it is likely that they have deduced that the illness these 3 pax are suffering from is unlikely to be the 2019-nCoV. They have, after all, been working with the CDC on this and the CDC isn’t taking the 2019-nCoV lightly as you can tell by the quarantining of US citizens in other parts of the country after returning from impacted areas of China. A little common sense goes a long way these days.
 

I could be wrong, but I don’t think the CDC would take the chance by allowing RC to embark pax today if there was fear that the 3 Chinese nationals being transported to hospital had the 2019-nCoV. I don’t believe they would risk having to take responsibility for potentially having to quarantine a cruise ship full of mostly US passengers if there was a chance the n-CoV tests could come back positive like in the case of the Diamond passenger. Yes, people can be asymptomatic, but so can every other person you come across as you go about your daily life. You may as well stay home and never leave your home if you’re that scared because you may catch the flu. It is much more dangerous in the US right now and has killed a much higher number of people in this country. 

16 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

this just keeps getting worse and worse...now RCC Anthem of the Seas is docked in New Jersey with many sick Chinese passengers....something going around the ship.  Correct me if I am wrong but with each passing year more and more Chinese including people from Wuhan are traveling for tourism around the world...including cruises...bus tours etc. and this is far from over....back with Sars I have to think not quite so many traveling. This will impact so many economically but the cruise lines will take the biggest hit.

Only 3 of the Chinese nationals on the Anthem were showing symptoms of illness and those passengers are being transported to Newark Hospital to be treated in isolation units. The remaining Chinese nationals that were on the ship had no symptoms of illness and are being transported to the airport and flown back to their home airport(s). 
 

Please stop with the fearmongering. I have been following these threads as an avid cruise enthusiast and out of genuine interest in what is going on with the Diamond Princess, but you have done nothing but try to spread fear and misinformation and I couldn’t stay quiet anymore. 

1 hour ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

I don't know.... a 14 day free cruise to no where? Doesn't sound too bad....

I’ve been following along on the Princess boards and it’s not something to make light of. The passengers are confined to their cabins for the 14 day quarantine period. Room service is being delivered, but they had to wait almost 15 hours before they were able to begin delivering food according to passengers posting to social media from the ship. 
 

It’s a mess. I couldn’t imagine being stuck in an inside cabin for 14 days and the only time I am able to open my cabin door is for health checks and to pick up/hand out room service trays. It would be like a prison cell. The only relief they have is that Princess has opened up the WiFi and phone lines. One can only watch so much TV and so many movies before they go crazy. 
 

I booked my first interior (with picture window) for a cruise in June trying to keep it budget friendly and this kind of thing has me considering an upgrade to a balcony which is what we usually book. It probably won’t be an issue by then, but this situation got me thinking. If something would cause me to be quarantined to my cabin, especially for 14 days, I would definitely want a balcony so I have access to fresh air. 

We ran into a weird issue when we booked excursions through a bundle sale on our Horizon cruise that put us into a similar situation in regard to needing to make changes.
 

We noticed after booking that the system booked our then 6yo son on different departure time slot than DH and I because we must have bought the last 3 tickets. We called the shore excursions number as soon as we realized what happened a few days later when one of us was looking at the booking and noticed the issue. They advised that we wait until we board the ship and explain what had happened to the shore excursions desk so they could correct the issue and get all of us booked for the same departure time. Since we didn’t notice the issue until after the sale price was no longer being offered, that was the only way they could make an adjustment and honor the bundle price. It had to be done on the ship. We asked the rep to send an email to my husband’s email account explaining what she said, just to be safe, so we could take it on the ship, but it wasn’t needed. 
 

Fast forward several months, we get on board and wait until the first sea day to go see the reps at the shore excursions desk. Once we explained that we booked during a bundle sale but wanted to make changes to our excursions, the rep swapped our excursions around with no issues and they honored the bundle sale discount. We even completely changed one excursion out for a different one because we decided we would rather have a beach day instead of sight seeing in Curaçao. We didn’t have to show them the email from the rep that we took just in case. They just did it automatically because the bundle sale was in the system where we booked it that way.
 

We even managed to get a small refund on one excursion that we didn’t make any adjustments to because it had come down in price and was almost $10 cheaper per person than when we had originally booked it several months prior. It was a win-win. There were no fees when cancelling or adjusting any of our excursions, even the one that we decided the change because we had just changed our mind about it.
 

Cancelling the day of the excursion may incur a penalty or fee, but cancelling before the day of shouldn’t incur a fee if done onboard the ship unless something had changed very recently. 

Good luck with your surgery. I hope all goes well. 
 

We completely understand the disappointment in cancelling the cruise after all of the anticipation. Two days ago, I had to call and cancel our cabin on the Legend Trans-Atlantic because hubby found out he can’t go and I didn’t want to go without him. 
 

Hopefully you will recover quickly and be looking forward to the next cruise soon! 

Family Harbor Suite 2410 on the Carnival Horizon was by far the worst cabin we have ever been in.
 

It sounded like they were running carts with metal studded wheels across the galley floor just going back and forth all night. I barely slept for the entire 6 night cruise. DH could still hear it despite using ear plugs which normally make him completely deaf. He buys the really nice ones. I tried borrowing the back up pair that he brought, but I have narrow ear canals and can’t wear ear plugs to sleep in. They won’t stay in no matter how they’re inserted. Luckily our son listens to an Audible chapter book each night so he can sleep with loud noises. 

On our last few cruises on the Vista and Horizon, the final round was to borrow clothing from fellow cruisers to put together the wildest outfit and try to form the longest conga line around the Lido deck.
 

Make sure you and your group (if you’re traveling with one) bring whatever large, shiny or gaudy items you have to help you make the wildest outfit you can manage. Last November on the Horizon, one of the men came prepared. One of the ladies in the group brought a weave that she must have worn to the club. It was great to see him dancing around with it held on by a gorgeous scarf that he borrowed from someone else. 😂 The Fun Squad also provides some props to help out. 

I just used wifi calling in Nov 2018 (my last cruise). I had the value internet package. Just put my phone in airplane mode, turned on wifi, turned on wifi calling in my phone settings (Samsung Galaxy Note), and it worked with no problems. We've done this many times without issues. 

22 minutes ago, babe97 said:

 

From the ships cell towers. They use cellular at sea, but it's billed through your cell company. Up until this last cruise I never had an issue. My highest bill was an extra 9 bucks. As long as roaming data is turned off all is good..... But like I said on the last cruise texting just didn't work and I haven't been able to find out why. Verizon so far has been completely useless. I might try going into a store and hoping someone is working who isn't a complete bone head. 

The newer Verizon phones, especially the Samsung Galaxy phones, require cellular data to send/receive text messages. It was part of one of the updates they did almost two years ago. You used to be able to video call from Sansung phones over wifi on Verizon, but they also removed the ability to do that too and now you can only video call if you use cellular data. That update came before the texting update. 

To send texts over the ship's wifi, you have to go into airplane mode or the phone will always default to attempting to use the network first. It will require purchasing at least the value internet plan to communicate with others off of the ship, but you can also use your phone and make phone calls over wifi too. We've been able to let our son call my mom numerous times throughout our cruises to talk to her before bed as used to be his routine and I have been able to take work calls (not by choice) to help prevent payroll errors made by the person covering for me while I am away. 

NBC News' article has more information regarding the investigation into the incident.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/carnival-horizon-passenger-dies-fall-cruise-ship-balcony-n1085491

35 minutes ago, Mrs CruisinCritter said:

 

I tried to find the app in the Google app store and didn't see it so it may not be available anymore, but the book is still available. Here is what it looks like. 

I have been a T1D since I was 11 years old. There used to be a book, I don't know if they still make the print version anymore, called the Calorie King Carbohydrate Counter. It helped me so much in determining the nutritional values in foods. I believe they have it in an app you can purchase and download to your smart devices now. I highly recommend it. 

It offers nutritional information for restaurants, individual food items such as potatoes, apples, etc. and even breaks the items down by size such as small, medium, and large. It is a great guide to use for a newly diagnosed T1D to help with learning what is in different foods. After a few years, it becomes much easier to eyeball and estimate carb counts, but the apps are always helpful. 

The value plan will work. We have used it in the past to watch the live feed on the video cameras at our dog boarder's to check in on the dog every now and then. We aren't crazy dog parents, but she gets rambunctious and likes to escape through open doors if an opportunity arises so we check to make sure she is still there. lol 

I bought a Hero 6 while we were on a cruise when they first came out. Pixels runs the same promotions that you see on land typically, but sometimes they will have promotions that aren't featured on land. When I purchased my Hero 6, I researched pricing online before I decided to buy and it was cheaper at Pixels on board. They also had bundle pricing to get accessories too. 

3 hours ago, Shaded Lady said:

True... more than anything I thought we were pretty well treated by Carnival over the whole Vista propulsion issue!

Agreed! Given those circumstances, I think they did the best they could. 

I hope everyone booked on the Miracle is able to make travel arrangements that work for them and are able to enjoy their cruise! 

38 minutes ago, Shaded Lady said:

Wow- $100 OBC for shortening your cruise by 3 day... we got $200 pp OBC on the Vista recently because they extended our cruise by one day, from 7 to 8!

Yes, but there is a big difference between only giving cruisers notice of a change a few short weeks before their cruise versus 8 months in advance.

Thankfully these folks have more time to make adjustments to their travel plans and will have more options available with this advance notice. Hotels won't be out of rooms and flights will still have available seats. There will even be cabins available if they choose to cancel and book a different cruise. 

We just did this excursion in November. There are no restaurants, but they did sell some snacks at Monkeyland. They were bags of chips. I would advise that you take a few bottled waters and some snacks on the excursion with you if you fear that they will be needed. I am a type 1 diabetic. Have been for 23 years now and I didn't have any issues, but if your mother's blood sugar is sensitive and fluctuates easily then buy some granola bars or some other pre-packaged snacks to take with you on the cruise for the excursion.

There is a good little uphill walk just to get to the buses and then there is a lot of walking at the first stop before Monkeyland if your bus goes to the coffee and cocoa place first. I'm sorry I cannot remember the name of the place at the moment. 

We have Verizon and I am able to text anyone no matter what carrier they have over Wifi. Easy peasy.. that's how I was able to help my co-worker do payroll for me without messing it up too badly so it didn't create too much stress on me when I returned to work and he had AT&T service. I just pre-pay for the value internet plan before the cruise so I can save some money on the price and then I keep my phone logged in to the internet when on the ship. With Verizon you can also make and take phone calls via Wifi too if you need to. 

Just be sure to put your phone into airplane mode first then turn on Wifi only so only the Wifi antenna is active. 

Someone asked John Heald about them and this was his reply... 

We've stayed in coves on both Horizon and Vista. The forward cove balconies are quiet. The ones further aft were not. It is hit and miss with those depending on what is in the galley area above them. I recommend choosing one in the forward section. We were in 2308 on Vista. It was quiet and there was no lifeboat directly above it so we had a good view with some sun. The only downside was the spray off the bow kept the balcony very wet so we had to take the beach towels out to sit on and wipe the railing down so we didn't get wet and salty lol. 

As far as the elevators go, it was very frustrating trying to get one on deck 2, but the workaround for this was to walk up one deck to deck 3. We rarely had to wait long for one by doing that because people were constantly going to 3 from the higher decks. 

I would worry more about TSA at the airport if it's in your carry on bag if you're flying. I had two bags of candy from Cherry On Top in my backpack post cruise at Miami International and I got pulled aside for special screening because the candy looked suspicious lol. Apparently drugs can be disguised as candy these days.

My husband and I had a good laugh about it afterward although my son was upset because he was worried that they were going to confiscate his candy. 🤣

7 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

 

How much time do you spend with the monkeys? The excursion also includes a tour of a village, so was wondering how they divided it up. I read some reviews on TripAdvisor that said it's about 45 min. with the monkeys. Also, they climb on you, but you're not allowed to touch them. Is all of that true?

We spent about an hour with the monkeys. It is true that they tell you not to grab or touch the monkeys, but it is for safety reasons for the monkeys. They can slip and fall off of you very easily so you're asked not to grab them. Honestly, all you have to do is stick your arm out and they will jump right onto it. They jump and climb all over you. There's no reason to grab them. Just be mindful that they are wild animals and they may potty on you. A man on our tour had a monkey pee on his head and a woman had one go on her shirt/arm. 

You don't tour a village, but the buses do drive through the countryside and through a city. The other stop that people and the tour refer to is at a house in the middle of the rainforest which is only a few miles away from Monkeyland. They have cocoa trees and they grow coffee beans among a few other things. The guide will walk you through and you get to watch how they process the cocoa beans and use the shells to make cocoa tea. You also get to watch them grind the coffee with a large mortar and pestle. Then you get to taste them. The cocoa tea is really good. The coffee is sweet. They add cinnamon to the coffee so if you or anyone on the tour with you are allergic, steer clear of the coffee. 

On 3/17/2019 at 10:04 PM, RTR 21-0 said:

Thx everyone for the info.   So disappointed.  Monkeyland is sold out & that was basically all I wanted to do at that stop 😟 looks like that will be a sleep in day. 

They will have spots open when you get on board the ship. Go to the shore excursions desk when your board and book it. Just be sure to go on embarkation day as soon as you can if you still want to book it. 

3. Yes and no. On the Horizon, you don't have to wait in line at the ATD desk to request a table. You can do it through the Hub app and skip that desk entirely. It will ask you how many people will be in your party and give you an estimated wait time. You will get a notification through the Hub app letting you know that your table is ready and it will give you the table number. You then just have to check in at the ATD dining room and they will escort you to your table. If you have a specific time that you're wanting to go to dinner then check on the app to get the estimated wait time and plan to make your request accordingly to get as close to your preferred time as possible. 

4. Yes, Quest will be listed in the fun times. If you use the Hub app, you can view the schedule of activities for each day of the cruise to see when it will take place. You can look through the activities for the whole cruise on embarkation day. Makes planning out your activities much easier than waiting until the night before to get the paper fun times for the following day. 

5. Yes, they will have the audition and various show times listed in the funtimes. The CD will also make multiple announcements advertising the activity as well. 

We recommend going to Monkey Land in the Dominican Republic. It was one of the best excursions we have ever done and we've been on 15 cruises so far. You get to spend a lot of time with the monkeys. The guides give each person a small dish and keep filling them with food. The monkeys just climb all over you. We have several pics of each of us with monkeys sitting and climbing on our arms, shoulders, and heads that we took with our phones. You can take your own pics and the guides take some as well that you can purchase at the end if you want, but they don't pressure you to buy anything.