Questions related to all things Covid testing relating to Princess Cruises

[devonuk]

1 hour ago, ruimin said:

Oh no! we have 1PM flight on Thursday, leaving Southampton port 8:15 AM with private transfer, hopefully we will make it. Thanks again for answering.

 

I have a very early flight out of LHR this Tuesday and Lufthansa are still recommending a minimum of 3 hours to get through security etc. 

I’m sure you’ll be okay but damn those timings will be tight 😳

[nini]

3 hours ago, ruimin said:

Oh no! we have 1PM flight on Thursday, leaving Southampton port 8:15 AM with private transfer, hopefully we will make it. Thanks again for answering.

 

You should be fine. Our transfer arrived about 8:15 am and it was a Saturday morning. We were at LHR in plenty of time. our flight was to depart at 1:50 pm

[SargassoPirate]

I found a nice summary of the covid color chart for cruise ships and some explanations.  I was surprised to learn that the target for "green" is zero cases.  With that goal, we are likely to never be free of testing.  But, consider this.  If the color chart were to be used nation-wide, is there any operation or organization that would be testing green?

 

The CDC needs to shift away from using tests as the barometer and use actual illnesses. 

 

Cruise Ship COVID Status Tracker (June 2): Daily Update Chart & News | Cruzely.com

[mina]

6 hours ago, nini said:

You should be fine. Our transfer arrived about 8:15 am and it was a Saturday morning. We were at LHR in plenty of time. our flight was to depart at 1:50 pm

Did you do self walk off?  Thank you.

[wowzz]

11 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

Monday late morning. Just Google Heathrow chaos and you'll get an idea of what things are like. Seems like any day is a problem.

We flew  out  of LHR (T5) on Friday May 20th at lunchtime . Took 30 minutes from arriving at the terminal to sitting in the departure area.  (We had luggage to check in)

Arrived back on Saturday afternoon.  Again, only 30 minutes from leaving the aircraft to exiting the terminal.

You can be unlucky, but LHR seems to be improving. Other UK airports are a diferent kettle of fish altogether!  

[wowzz]

17 hours ago, nini said:

Having to wait until one hour before your flight takes off to find and get to your gate is insane.

No, it is calked dynamic gate management,  and is common in airports throughout the world.  One hour is more than sufficient time to get to your gate.

[optmax]

In case anyone from Princess monitors this forum…what is the reasoning for imposing European Union Healthy Gateways Guidelines for cruises ex UK, not a member of the EU, to Norway, also not a member of the EU and a country without any COVID related entry requirements?

 

If it has been imposed by corporate insurance requirements then why not be upfront and say so?  
 

Changing COVID boarding requirements at the last minute for upcoming cruises is even more galling when Princess hide behind EU regulations/guidelines that don’t necessarily apply in the UK an other non EU countries.

[nini]

8 hours ago, mina said:

Did you do self walk off?  Thank you.

Yes, we did.

[nini]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

No, it is calked dynamic gate management,  and is common in airports throughout the world.  One hour is more than sufficient time to get to your gate.

I do not care what it is called, as was stated, we prefer more organized and considerate airports than LHR. You may think an hour is plenty of time, but YOU did not almost miss a connecting flight from LHR to Rome and we knew the gate before we landed.

[Userclown]

31 minutes ago, nini said:

I do not care what it is called, as was stated, we prefer more organized and considerate airports than LHR. You may think an hour is plenty of time, but YOU did not almost miss a connecting flight from LHR to Rome and we knew the gate before we landed.

Extremely stressful 

[wowzz]

39 minutes ago, nini said:

I do not care what it is called, as was stated, we prefer more organized and considerate airports than LHR. You may think an hour is plenty of time, but YOU did not almost miss a connecting flight from LHR to Rome and we knew the gate before we landed.

LHR is no different to the likes of JFK, CDG etc. Yes, we would all like to fly from small, "considerate" airports,  but in the real world,  any airport handling 80 million passengers a year is going to be a totally different experience to a small city airport.

[devonuk]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

We flew  out  of LHR (T5) on Friday May 20th at lunchtime . Took 30 minutes from arriving at the terminal to sitting in the departure area.  (We had luggage to check in)

Arrived back on Saturday afternoon.  Again, only 30 minutes from leaving the aircraft to exiting the terminal.

You can be unlucky, but LHR seems to be improving. Other UK airports are a diferent kettle of fish altogether!  

To be fair T5 is probably the best of the terminals for a speedy ‘getaway’ 👍

[leck57]

12 hours ago, wowzz said:

We flew  out  of LHR (T5) on Friday May 20th at lunchtime . Took 30 minutes from arriving at the terminal to sitting in the departure area.  (We had luggage to check in)

Arrived back on Saturday afternoon.  Again, only 30 minutes from leaving the aircraft to exiting the terminal.

You can be unlucky, but LHR seems to be improving. Other UK airports are a diferent kettle of fish altogether!  

 

That is a domestic flight? Perhaps they have domestic departures under control but it's a different story at terminal 2. Just Google it if you want to read what is happening. 

[leck57]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

LHR is no different to the likes of JFK, CDG etc. Yes, we would all like to fly from small, "considerate" airports,  but in the real world,  any airport handling 80 million passengers a year is going to be a totally different experience to a small city airport.

 

You can defend LHR as much as you like but as far as our experience was just last week, it was the worst international airport we have ever been through. There were many Brits in the line ups with us who were equally stunned by the chaos.

As for dynamic gate management I have not seen it at any other international airport. In our case we went through security and just stood around waiting for a gate number to appear for a flight due to leave in 45 minutes. Couldn't head off for a coffee in case we went the wrong way in what is a large terminal. Arriving at Singapore on the way home was such a pleasure. There is a comparable airport that LHR could learn from.

[nini]

5 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

You can defend LHR as much as you like but as far as our experience was just last week, it was the worst international airport we have ever been through. There were many Brits in the line ups with us who were equally stunned by the chaos.

As for dynamic gate management I have not seen it at any other international airport. In our case we went through security and just stood around waiting for a gate number to appear for a flight due to leave in 45 minutes. Couldn't head off for a coffee in case we went the wrong way in what is a large terminal. Arriving at Singapore on the way home was such a pleasure. There is a comparable airport that LHR could learn from.

Thank you @leck57 for the back up! 

P.S. PDX is not in a "small town". It is an international airport. One of the lovely qualities of PDX is that NO shop or restaurant charges more than the regular locations in town.

[wowzz]

6 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

That is a domestic flight? Perhaps they have domestic departures under control but it's a different story at terminal 2. Just Google it if you want to read what is happening. 

No, international flights.  

[wowzz]

6 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

You can defend LHR as much as you like but as far as our experience was just last week, it was the worst international airport we have ever been through. There were many Brits in the line ups with us who were equally stunned by the chaos.

As for dynamic gate management I have not seen it at any other international airport. In our case we went through security and just stood around waiting for a gate number to appear for a flight due to leave in 45 minutes. Couldn't head off for a coffee in case we went the wrong way in what is a large terminal. Arriving at Singapore on the way home was such a pleasure. There is a comparable airport that LHR could learn from.

In my experience, gate announcements 45 minutes or so ahead of time are common in many major international airports. Your experience may differ.

I thoroughly concur with your comments about Singapore. 

And I am not trying to defend LHR - the situation there at times over recent weeks have been abysmal, although things are now slowly improving.

[wowzz]

40 minutes ago, nini said:

Thank you @leck57 for the back up! 

P.S. PDX is not in a "small town". It is an international airport. One of the lovely qualities of PDX is that NO shop or restaurant charges more than the regular locations in town.

PDX pre- pandemic, handled 20 million passengers a year. LHR handled 80 million.

PDX is a small city airport in comparison. 

[memoak]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

PDX pre- pandemic, handled 20 million passengers a year. LHR handled 80 million.

PDX is a small city airport in comparison. 

As a Portland resident I have to agree. One of the downsides to PDX is the lack of non stop flights to the east coast. That being said it has always been one of my favorite airports. So accessible and charming 

[nini]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

PDX pre- pandemic, handled 20 million passengers a year. LHR handled 80 million.

PDX is a small city airport in comparison. 

Got it. I can also do the math. Regardless of the numbers, my opinions and those of @leck57 still hold. Yes, I realize that it is an opinion, but our experiences and observations are fact.

[nini]

13 minutes ago, memoak said:

As a Portland resident I have to agree. One of the downsides to PDX is the lack of non stop flights to the east coast. That being said it has always been one of my favorite airports. So accessible and charming 

 

We have flown from PDX to the east coast and back many times; on non- stop flights; possibly because these were well established and common routes.

Parking at PDX (short and long term) is also a dream; as well as picking up travelers.

[memoak]

8 minutes ago, nini said:

 

We have flown from PDX to the east coast and back many times; on non- stop flights; possibly because these were well established and common routes.

Parking at PDX (short and long term) is also a dream; as well as picking up travelers.

Well we have a Canal cruise out of Fort Lauderdale in March 2023 and so far there are almost no non stops except for red eyes  We May have to take a flight  that gets in at 8:30 pm the night before the cruise. 

[nini]

3 minutes ago, memoak said:

Well we have a Canal cruise out of Fort Lauderdale in March 2023 and so far there are almost no non stops except for red eyes  We May have to take a flight  that gets in at 8:30 pm the night before the cruise. 

So true, Alaska Airlines have let us down. Ft. Lauderdale is a tough one and as we have considered cruises from there, the arrival times are not attractive. You hate to fly into a port so late and not be able to enjoy it.

We really enjoyed our PC cruise but we left from LA (San Pedro) for the full transit. We rented a car in Ft. Lauderdale and drove to Orlando for the Space Center and Epcott. We flew home from Orlando which was a direct flight. That is how we "got around" not having a direct flight from F. Lauderdale.

It just seems so strange that a popular cruise port would not have more direct flights like Orlando and Miami.

[memoak]

6 minutes ago, nini said:

So true, Alaska Airlines have let us down. Ft. Lauderdale is a tough one and as we have considered cruises from there, the arrival times are not attractive. You hate to fly into a port so late and not be able to enjoy it.

We really enjoyed our PC cruise but we left from LA (San Pedro) for the full transit. We rented a car in Ft. Lauderdale and drove to Orlando for the Space Center and Epcott. We flew home from Orlando which was a direct flight. That is how we "got around" not having a direct flight from F. Lauderdale.

It just seems so strange that a popular cruise port would not have more direct flights like Orlando and Miami.

We have done the canal both directions but prefer east to west now to get the long flight over before the party starts

[nini]

1 minute ago, memoak said:

We have done the canal both directions but prefer east to west now to get the long flight over before the party starts

Excellent point. Maybe we will try that if we go another time. Flying home from S. Cal is easy.