Grand Princess Delayed Disembarkation

[OzKiwiJJ]

5 minutes ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

It was interesting to see the difference in protocols between Coral and Grand.  Initial positive cases were moved to cabins on Deck 12, but they soon ran out of iso cabins and left people in their original cabins, including inside cabins. Those unfortunate people in inside cabins probably suffered greatly. 

 

No information sheet was provided re how to order food or other supplies. We rang room service and enquired about food and what we could order. Originally they did not mention that we could order from the MDR menu, so gave very limited choices.

They were completely overrun due to the number of cases. Orders were a lottery,you never knew what would actually arrive. Coffee and hot water arrived in large insulated jugs, but there once there were no cups provided. Cereal arrived, but no bowls to eat it from. Cereal ordered for 2 people, but only 1 provided.

 

When we found out we could order from MDR menu, we ordered 3 courses and tea and coffee. The first 2 corses arrived on one tray, fairly promptly. They were hot and good. We assumed that the missing desserts and drinks would arrive later, but had to ring room service an hour later to enquire where they were. They had no idea, so said to reorder. The reorder arrived with only 1 dessert which was not what we ordered anyway. The whole experience was very frustrating.

 

They did not put tables outside cabins for deliveries, so they would knock on the door and hand you a heavy tray full of food and you were expected to somehow hold open the door and take the heavy tray from the deliverer - a very difficult task.

 

When cases started to increase and we were instructed to wear masks, we were given 1 surgical mask per person. The captain’s instructions were to change them every 3 or 4 days - completely useless. They later instructed everyone to wear KN95 masks, but cabin stewards did not have any to distribute. Fortunately we had brought our own supply of surgical masks and a KN95 each from home.

 

The captain’s announcements did not mention that onboard testing and treatment for Covid was free. There were  many  passengers coughing that seemed like good candidates for testing. We took our own Rats from home and did use them when my husband showed symptoms.

 

Our cruise was less enjoyable than previous cruises because we could see the trainwreck that was coming. We did not go to any shows in the theatre for the 2nd half of the cruise because too many passengers were showing signs of illness. We avoided crowds as much as possible. It was a different experience, but we still had a good time and enjoyed the company of 3 different groups of friends we had met on previous cruises. We will still cruise on Princess in the future, but are now more wary. They have had a lot of time to learn and get things right, but they seem to be doing only the minimum that is required, not what is necessary to look after their guests properly. This will cause many to lose confidence in cruising Princess, and will probably hurt them long term.

 

What surprises me is that Princess, or perhaps Carnival Australia, don't seem to have communicated the lessons learnt on Coral - both with the July outbreak and the Round Australia outbreak - to other ships in the fleet(s) operating here. Each ship seemed to be doing it's own thing regarding mask mandates and dealing with Covid cases. Or did the officers on each ship stick their heads in the sand and say it won't happen to us? 

[MMDown Under]

3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

What surprises me is that Princess, or perhaps Carnival Australia, don't seem to have communicated the lessons learnt on Coral - both with the July outbreak and the Round Australia outbreak - to other ships in the fleet(s) operating here. Each ship seemed to be doing it's own thing regarding mask mandates and dealing with Covid cases. Or did the officers on each ship stick their heads in the sand and say it won't happen to us? 

The Guest Advisory from Carnival was to Carnival Luminosa and Carnival  Splendor  - "Update on Masks and Travel Insurance".

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, MMDown Under said:

The Guest Advisory from Carnival was to Carnival Luminosa and Carnival  Splendor  - "Update on Masks and Travel Insurance".

That's a different matter - a communication to passengers, not to the ship's crew.

 

I mentioned Carnival Australia as they are always quoted as the local authority for all Carnival, Princess and P&O Australia ships operating here. 

 

I would have expected directives to go out to each ship warning that Covid was on the increase in the Australian community, especially in major cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and that ships should follow Covid protocols closely.

 

By the time Grand and Majestic started operating here the Coral outbreak was well underway. Signs of Covid on Coral were noticeable probably from about day 8 from the Sydney embarkation - I can't remember exactly when we saw the first table in our corridor but it was around the time we reached Darwin (day 10) and may have even been a day or rwo before that.

[LittleFish1976]

58 minutes ago, icat2000 said:

I'm public servant we have a hybrid arrangement. Some days WFH some days office. However, i'm talking about lots of empty buildings where no desks or fitout. Lots of shops empty. Personally, Melbourne is dirty horrible cold city. Nothing appealing about it.

 

Personally speaking I've never met anyone from the country or from a regional centre who liked coming into Melbourne!

 

The city is what it is. And quite a number of companies realise they can save money on huge offices and are doing things differently. People prefer to shop locally and covid reinforced that. I don't go out much at night but people tell me the city is super-busy at night. I don't think it's the disaster the media would like you to think it is.

[arxcards]

50 minutes ago, Relaxing Robbies said:

It was interesting to see the difference in protocols between Coral and Grand.  Initial positive cases were moved to cabins on Deck 12, but they soon ran out of iso cabins and left people in their original cabins, including inside cabins. Those unfortunate people in inside cabins probably suffered greatly. 

 

No information sheet was provided re how to order food or other supplies. We rang room service and enquired about food and what we could order. Originally they did not mention that we could order from the MDR menu, so gave very limited choices.

They were completely overrun due to the number of cases. Orders were a lottery,you never knew what would actually arrive. Coffee and hot water arrived in large insulated jugs, but there once there were no cups provided. Cereal arrived, but no bowls to eat it from. Cereal ordered for 2 people, but only 1 provided.

 

When we found out we could order from MDR menu, we ordered 3 courses and tea and coffee. The first 2 corses arrived on one tray, fairly promptly. They were hot and good. We assumed that the missing desserts and drinks would arrive later, but had to ring room service an hour later to enquire where they were. They had no idea, so said to reorder. The reorder arrived with only 1 dessert which was not what we ordered anyway. The whole experience was very frustrating.

 

They did not put tables outside cabins for deliveries, so they would knock on the door and hand you a heavy tray full of food and you were expected to somehow hold open the door and take the heavy tray from the deliverer - a very difficult task.

 

When cases started to increase and we were instructed to wear masks, we were given 1 surgical mask per person. The captain’s instructions were to change them every 3 or 4 days - completely useless. They later instructed everyone to wear KN95 masks, but cabin stewards did not have any to distribute. Fortunately we had brought our own supply of surgical masks and a KN95 each from home.

 

The captain’s announcements did not mention that onboard testing and treatment for Covid was free. There were  many  passengers coughing that seemed like good candidates for testing. We took our own Rats from home and did use them when my husband showed symptoms.

 

Our cruise was less enjoyable than previous cruises because we could see the trainwreck that was coming. We did not go to any shows in the theatre for the 2nd half of the cruise because too many passengers were showing signs of illness. We avoided crowds as much as possible. It was a different experience, but we still had a good time and enjoyed the company of 3 different groups of friends we had met on previous cruises. We will still cruise on Princess in the future, but are now more wary. They have had a lot of time to learn and get things right, but they seem to be doing only the minimum that is required, not what is necessary to look after their guests properly. This will cause many to lose confidence in cruising Princess, and will probably hurt them long term.

 

A bit sad, as they are supposed to be experts at mitigating spread. It all worked well for them in the US - on cruises of 5 to 7 nights. I have less confidence in their expertise now than I did a month ago.

 

I hope the Captain changes his undies more often than he changes his mask, although at least he can turn those inside-out on alternate days.

[OzKiwiJJ]

25 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

Personally speaking I've never met anyone from the country or from a regional centre who liked coming into Melbourne!

 

The city is what it is. And quite a number of companies realise they can save money on huge offices and are doing things differently. People prefer to shop locally and covid reinforced that. I don't go out much at night but people tell me the city is super-busy at night. I don't think it's the disaster the media would like you to think it is.

In March last year we spent a few days in Melbourne on our way back to Sydney after a trip to South Australia. We stayed in an apartment at the top end of Lonsdale St. We were quite surprised how busy the city was at that time despite Covid, both during the day and by night. Sydney was dead by comparison. 

[icat2000]

59 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

Personally speaking I've never met anyone from the country or from a regional centre who liked coming into Melbourne!

 

The city is what it is. And quite a number of companies realise they can save money on huge offices and are doing things differently. People prefer to shop locally and covid reinforced that. I don't go out much at night but people tell me the city is super-busy at night. I don't think it's the disaster the media would like you to think it is.

I've lived most of my time in suburb Melbourne (Carnegie) which is near Caulfield. I only moved to the Regional area in 2016. 

[getting older slowly]

Another point about how things were handled.  was lack of public area for people to gather... as they all went to appointed area (ie Elite and Platinum  to the Casino 850+ people when we walk through it was packed ) we ended up sitting in Alfredo''s on deck 5 thankfully quiet....

 

Then because people where everywhere they dumped the staging areas, and called groups to disembark...   The only thing was instead of one group at time it was four or more....  meaning people everywhere... somewhat kaotic.....

 

I don't remember the captain saying anymore than   wear masks at all time except cabin, drink or eatting, as we ""have some cases on board""

 

Cheers Don 

[Pushka]

We were in Melbourne this weekend. It was very busy, Unis back to normal and restaurants and cafes packed Thursday through to when we left Sunday. A huge change from last February. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Pushka said:

We were in Melbourne this weekend. It was very busy, Unis back to normal and restaurants and cafes packed Thursday through to when we left Sunday. A huge change from last February. 

Restaurants and bars were pretty packed when we were there last March. I was quite surprised. Our granddaughter wanted to take us to one of her favourite bars at the Spring St end of town but they were all chocka so we went to our apartment and opened a bottle of wine instead.

[possum52]

15 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Restaurants and bars were pretty packed when we were there last March. I was quite surprised. Our granddaughter wanted to take us to one of her favourite bars at the Spring St end of town but they were all chocka so we went to our apartment and opened a bottle of wine instead.

Each time I've been to town or driven through in the past 12 months, the city has been busy. My husband goes in each Friday either driving or by train and says it is very busy, the roads and trains are back to pre covid conditions.