Royal Princess Update

[MFR]

Just now, SedNabokos said:

 

Ruby's already in her berth at Circular Quay, but it sounds like they're not allowing anybody to embark or disembark.

 

Ruby did get in at 6 but disembarking was delayed, don't know why.  They keep moving the time we can board.  We were told 12:30 when we first got to the terminal,  now it's 5.

[PrincessLuver]

15 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

I fail to understand why people are determined to go on these cruises when they know about all the bad things that can happen. In fact, I am stunned. I have been on over 25 cruises and there is no way I would go on one now. Does the government have to step in? It looks like it is already happening. 

 

We have sailed on Princess over 30 plus times and we are canceling all of our cruises for the rest of the year.  Why take the risk of all the disruption that can happen at anytime during the cruise for who knows what reason.  This may be the new normal for Princess and other cruise lines.  Maybe the government is not letting ships sail until they have in place the new guidelines they all agreed today with the US government?

[caribill]

3 minutes ago, Pushka said:

 

Circular Quay is smack in the middle of Sydney. If there was a Corona Issue I'd have thought they would have been sent to White Bay mooring. 

 

I do not think the Ruby can fit under the Sydney Harbor Bridge

[possum52]

3 minutes ago, Pushka said:

 

Circular Quay is smack in the middle of Sydney. If there was a Corona Issue I'd have thought they would have been sent to White Bay mooring. 

Ruby is too big to go under the bridge so can't dock at White Bay. There are two ships at White Bay also today.

 

Leigh

[SedNabokos]

2 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Circular Quay is smack in the middle of Sydney. If there was a Corona Issue I'd have thought they would have been sent to White Bay mooring

 

She's too tall to fit under the coathanger.

 

"Air draught of the Ruby Princess is 59 meters/194 feet"

 

The Ship Clearance of Sydney Harbour Bridge is 49 Metres.

 

 

[RecliningPanda]

Well they letting people check in then leave the terminal to come back 5pm which is in two hours time. So far no reason given. But if you left the terminal and got lunch they would reimburse you up to 30 bucks which won’t get far in the rocks area 🙂. So far so good. Will be interesting to see when we leave. 

[battst]

7 minutes ago, Pushka said:

 

Circular Quay is smack in the middle of Sydney. If there was a Corona Issue I'd have thought they would have been sent to White Bay mooring. And I cannot imagine NSW letting any risky people disembarking. 

The Ruby can't get under the bridge to White Bay.

[Pamster]

1 minute ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

We have sailed on Princess over 30 plus times and we are canceling all of our cruises for the rest of the year.  Why take the risk of all the disruption that can happen at anytime during the cruise for who knows what reason.  This may be the new normal for Princess and other cruise lines.  Maybe the government is not letting ships sail until they have in place the new guidelines they all agreed today with the US government?

We cancelled our booking on the Royal Fortoday when we heard about the Grand off of SF. I am strongly considering canceling the rest of the year, too, until this is resolved. We are both in the high-rush category and it’s not worth the chance. Might keep the December booking for a while to see how things go. 

[LMaxwell]

8 minutes ago, Granny DI said:

Just heard from my TA who was supposed to sail on the Royal. Crew member OK. Passengers on last cruise OK. Computers out on the ship. They were given money for lodging, refund and free next cruise. 

 

You buy this fable? 

[Sunwanabe]

31 minutes ago, Psoque said:

If he was working on Royal Princess the whole time, just testing this person is not enough.  And the incubation period of this virus is not as well understood...the current guess is 1-14 days.  So if he tests negative, there are three possibilities:  1) he never contracted the disease, b)he has already recovered from the disease, c) he is has the virus but testing negative....so testing just this person does not rule anything out.

 

With so many variables as to who is or isn't infected, how can any cruise line still operate. I can see a temp halt to all cruises until some kind of assurance is provided to customers to board. It's a bit out of control at present. 

[Ella2]

11 minutes ago, Granny DI said:

Just heard from my TA who was supposed to sail on the Royal. Crew member OK. Passengers on last cruise OK. Computers out on the ship. They were given money for lodging, refund and free next cruise. 

 

Umm, don't think so.  This post is from a cruiser supposed to sail as well.  Very different story regarding the cause.  It's not "computers out on the ship."

 

 

[By The Bay]

16 minutes ago, RecliningPanda said:

Well they letting people check in then leave the terminal to come back 5pm which is in two hours time. So far no reason given. But if you left the terminal and got lunch they would reimburse you up to 30 bucks which won’t get far in the rocks area 🙂. So far so good. Will be interesting to see when we leave. 

Go to Harry de Wheels for a good tiger pie and keep the change.😁

[KruzPrincess]

This is from the roll call. Cruise is canceled, but apparently there are some back to back passengers still on the ship. 

[wl2cruise]

Email received tonight 

 

Dear Princess Guest,

 

 

We are very sorry to inform you that your Royal Princess cruise scheduled to depart today has been cancelled. 

 

Yesterday Princess Cruises was requested by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to share information about a crew member who previously served on Grand Princess and transferred to Royal Princess fifteen days ago. The crew member is now 15 days past last potential exposure to COVID-19, has always remained asymptomatic, and had no known contact or exposure to other guests and crew who became symptomatic. 

 

After sharing all information and details about the crew member, the CDC approved clearance for Royal Princess yesterday with no restrictions placed on the vessel. However late this afternoon, they informed us of their decision to issue a no-sail order until the crew member was tested for COVID-19. We have unfortunately been unable to obtain this test given the late timing of the request. As the crew member testing process and timing is uncertain, we have cancelled the cruise. We share in your disappointment and offer our sincere apologies. The safety, health and well-being of our guests and crew is always our top priority. 

 

 

 

All guests will receive a full refund of their cruise fare, Princess Air, Princess Cruise Plus pre- and post-cruise hotel packages, Princess Vacation Protection, prepaid shore excursions and other prepaid items purchased through Princess, and taxes, fees, and port expenses. Your refund will be processed automatically via the method of payment used to pay for your cruise. As your cruise has been cancelled so close to departure, each guest will also receive a 100% Future Cruise Credit equal to the cruise fare paid on this voyage. The credit may be applied to any future Princess cruise that is booked by March 31, 2021 or any existing booking not yet paid in full and is non-refundable and non-transferable. 

 

Guests booked on Princess Air
We are making arrangements for one night’s stay at a LAX-area hotel tonight at our expense and will provide you with a complimentary shuttle from the pier to your hotel. We will provide you with your new homeward flight arrangements at your hotel.

 

Guests who booked their own Air or have alternative homeward travel plans
If you did not purchase your air travel through Princess Cruises, we are unable to change your flight arrangements. Please contact your travel advisor or the airlines directly to revise your travel plans and secure your homeward travel. We have a list of area hotels with availability for you, and will provide a complimentary shuttle available to take you to LAX should you be staying in a hotel in the LAX area. 

 

We understand this change may cause you to incur unexpected expenses. Air change fees, increased flight costs, and transportation expenses will be reimbursed, and we will reimburse you up to $300 per booking for one-night’s hotel costs in Los Angeles. Other expenses will be considered on a case-by-case basis. A Refund Request Guide & Form is available at https://www.princess.com/refund-request; please complete and submit this form and any relevant receipts and documentation for our review. If you purchased Princess Vacation Protection or independent vacation travel insurance, please submit your claim through your carrier before submitting a reimbursement request. 

 

Again, we extend our deepest apologies and hope we have the opportunity to exceed your cruise vacation expectations in the near future. 

 

 

Kind regards, 

 

 

Princess Cruises

[flyguyjake]

Well if that ship doesn't sail within 14 days we will know if this is true or not. Perhaps they will have to test every crew member on the ship.

[caribill]

27 minutes ago, wl2cruise said:

Email received tonight 

 

(exerpt)

Yesterday Princess Cruises was requested by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to share information about a crew member who previously served on Grand Princess and transferred to Royal Princess fifteen days ago. The crew member is now 15 days past last potential exposure to COVID-19, has always remained asymptomatic, and had no known contact or exposure to other guests and crew who became symptomatic. 

 

After sharing all information and details about the crew member, the CDC approved clearance for Royal Princess yesterday with no restrictions placed on the vessel. However late this afternoon, they informed us of their decision to issue a no-sail order until the crew member was tested for COVID-19. We have unfortunately been unable to obtain this test given the late timing of the request. As the crew member testing process and timing is uncertain, we have cancelled the cruise.

 

Does not sound like the complete story to me. Even if the testing could have delayed the sailing for a day, the ship could have sailed (assuming a negative test result) if one of the ports was dropped from the itinerary.

 

I can't guess what others would have decided, but I would be willing to take a 14 day cruse instead of no cruise at all.

[giustot]

Perhaps I'm  missing something here. If you have one crew member transferred from the Grand who may have been exposed to the virus but shows no symptoms, why not remove him from the Royal and properly test and treat him off the ship as opposed to canceling the cruise, denying 1,000 passengers boarding, refunding their money, giving them a 100% FCC, and reimbursing air fare expenses?

[caribill]

7 minutes ago, giustot said:

Perhaps I'm  missing something here. If you have one crew member transferred from the Grand who may have been exposed to the virus but shows no symptoms, why not remove him from the Royal and properly test and treat him off the ship as opposed to canceling the cruise, denying 1,000 passengers boarding, refunding their money, giving them a 100% FCC, and reimbursing air fare expenses?

 

It was the government and not Princess that did not allow the ship to sail.

 

The "why" is probably the fear that he, if infected, may have transmitted the virus to one or more of the Royal crew which means it could spread to new passengers.  Without proper testing to show he never had the virus they would not let the ship sail. Princess said they could not get the testing done in a timely manner.

 

I guess the government can now claim they stopped a potential repeat Diamond/Grand experience and that this is a great achievement of the new task force.

[ceilidh1]

The situation is insane since they already let off all the guests! Stands to reason that if the crew member is positive then there is a chance some of those guests must be too!!! It seems like CDC and Government are reacting after the fact rather than being proactive and establishing an actual plan/procedure! CDC already cleared the ship and then suddenly decided they had questions AFTER everyone left?

[asm777]

Was there any resolution as to why Royal Princess cruise was cancelled?

 

From Carnival forum, looks like Panorama got cleared to disembark and going forward with a shortened 6 day cruise after getting negative COVID-19 test result back.

[PekingeseLady]

I wonder if they got a negative test back on the one Royal crew member???  Has anyone heard anything on that issue?  I heard the Panoramas guest test came back negative, but nothing about the Royals crew member.

 

On the Royal 3/7 roll call their mentioned how at 8:30pm last night the last 35 B2B folks needed to be off the ship at 9:30pm.  This why I'm guessing their test came back negative.  Kind of rude to kick them off like that. IMHO

[kywildcatfanone]

So, is the Royal now included in the affected ships?  I might have to cancel our April cruise now.  I don't want to, but I also don't want to be potentially stuck on the ship in my room for 2 + weeks either.  Ugh.  I'm going to have to call my airline and see what options i have with them.

[Cannavaro]

8 minutes ago, Pstcrik said:

excuse me but I think you are off topic.  this is suppose to be about the Royal Princess.

Yea.... This was never a post about the government, covid19 facts, responses, beliefs etc...

 

It was a post for two situations pertaining to the Royal Princess only:

1.) The embarkation delay of Royal Princess on 3/7/20 due to the 1 transferred crew member from Grand Princess on 2/21/20

2.) The test results of said transferred crew member because if positive, that would affect close to 7,000 passengers from the 2/22/20 and 2/29/20 Royal Princess sailings.

 

I'll continue to scour twitter and the web for an update on the test results but have not found it yet. 

[caribill]

https://www.princess.com/news/notices_and_advisories/notices/coronavirus-update.html

 

If you use as an example what has happened to the Royal sailing yesterday, there is much to be worried about by the new protocols.

 

The sailing was cancelled effectively by the US Government. One crew member on the Royal had come there over two weeks ago from the Grand which has had a virus outbreak and has still not been allowed to dock in the USA.

 

That crew member has not shown any signs of illness for the more than two weeks and had not interacted before that with Grand crew who have been tested positive. Princess was unable to get a virus test on this crew member in a timely manner and thus the voyage was cancelled with (I assume) about 3000 passengers at the port waiting to board.

 

The new protocols call for enhanced screening of both disembarking and embarking passengers.

 

So if a disembarking passenger has a temperature or a cold or even the flu, what happens next?

o Will boarding for the next voyage be delayed while any such person is tested for the virus?

o Will all disembarking passengers who have not yet exited the ship be stopped until any tests come back?

o And what will then be done with the remaining passengers if that test is positive?

o Will the next voyage have to be cancelled as was done when a crew member with no symptoms the entire time he/she was on the ship could not be tested in a timely manner?

o Or will all the embarking passengers need to wait in the cruise terminal (possibly until the next day) until testing can be done and with a negative result?

o Will any required testing cause the loss of one day out of the voyage and thus in many cases cause the loss of a port (most likely the first one) on a cruise?

 

If a ship has 2000-3500 passengers disembarking, what are the chances that not one of them will have an elevated temperature, a cold, or other illness symptoms?

 

And what about the embarking passengers. The protocols say that anyone with an elevated temperature (for any reason apparently) will be denied boarding as well as anyone with symptoms that might possibly resemble the virus symptoms. So what happens next:

o Since that person had obviously been near others in the check-in area will anyone that had been near him be put in on shore quarantine and not allowed to cruise because they may have become infected if that person (without testing yet) was thought to potentially have the virus?

o What about passengers who had been near that person and had already boarded?

o Will the voyage be cancelled if testing of that person was not possible in a timely manner?

o Or will be voyage be delayed until such testing can be performed and come back with a negative result? Will all those who have not boarded yet be allowed onto the ship or will they have to wait in the terminal  (possibly overnight) until the results have come back?

o Will any required testing cause the loss of one day out of the voyage and thus in many cases cause the loss of a port (most likely the first one) on a cruise?

 

Again, what are the chances that 2000-3500 embarking passengers will not have one person with an elevated temperature or a cold or some other illness symptoms?

 

Will people be cancelling cruises just because after traveling what can be long distances to get to a port the voyage might be  cancelled at the last minute because one person disembarking or embarking has a cold?

 

I certainly do not have the answers to these questions and possibilities, but neither do I think does Princess.

[springfire]

7 minutes ago, caribill said:

https://www.princess.com/news/notices_and_advisories/notices/coronavirus-update.html

 

If you use as an example what has happened to the Royal sailing yesterday, there is much to be worried about by the new protocols.

 

The sailing was cancelled effectively by the US Government. One crew member on the Royal had come there over two weeks ago from the Grand which has had a virus outbreak and has still not been allowed to dock in the USA.

 

That crew member has not shown any signs of illness for the more than two weeks and had not interacted before that with Grand crew who have been tested positive. Princess was unable to get a virus test on this crew member in a timely manner and thus the voyage was cancelled with (I assume) about 3000 passengers at the port waiting to board.

 

The new protocols call for enhanced screening of both disembarking and embarking passengers.

 

So if a disembarking passenger has a temperature or a cold or even the flu, what happens next?

o Will boarding for the next voyage be delayed while any such person is tested for the virus?

o Will all disembarking passengers who have not yet exited the ship be stopped until any tests come back?

o And what will then be done with the remaining passengers if that test is positive?

o Will the next voyage have to be cancelled as was done when a crew member with no symptoms the entire time he/she was on the ship could not be tested in a timely manner?

o Or will all the embarking passengers need to wait in the cruise terminal (possibly until the next day) until testing can be done and with a negative result?

o Will any required testing cause the loss of one day out of the voyage and thus in many cases cause the loss of a port (most likely the first one) on a cruise?

 

If a ship has 2000-3500 passengers disembarking, what are the chances that not one of them will have an elevated temperature, a cold, or other illness symptoms?

 

And what about the embarking passengers. The protocols say that anyone with an elevated temperature (for any reason apparently) will be denied boarding as well as anyone with symptoms that might possibly resemble the virus symptoms. So what happens next:

o Since that person had obviously been near others in the check-in area will anyone that had been near him be put in on shore quarantine and not allowed to cruise because they may have become infected if that person (without testing yet) was thought to potentially have the virus?

o What about passengers who had been near that person and had already boarded?

o Will the voyage be cancelled if testing of that person was not possible in a timely manner?

o Or will be voyage be delayed until such testing can be performed and come back with a negative result? Will all those who have not boarded yet be allowed onto the ship or will they have to wait in the terminal  (possibly overnight) until the results have come back?

o Will any required testing cause the loss of one day out of the voyage and thus in many cases cause the loss of a port (most likely the first one) on a cruise?

 

Again, what are the chances that 2000-3500 embarking passengers will not have one person with an elevated temperature or a cold or some other illness symptoms?

 

Will people be cancelling cruises just because after traveling what can be long distances to get to a port the voyage might be  cancelled at the last minute because one person disembarking or embarking has a cold?

 

I certainly do not have the answers to these questions and possibilities, but neither do I think does Princess.

Excellent post!