OzKiwiJJ

Interestingly there is only one inside cabin available for selection on the cruise - forward on Baja deck, all the rest are guarantees only.

I presume you are referring to the Coral Princess cruise from Fremantle? Where did you get the idea that was the launch fare? I had the launch brochure on file for that cruise and these were the fares when it was released - see below. The current fare is outrageous, of course.

I understand your concerns and think you have made the right decision given your health issues. I think the cruise lines - at least Princess & P&O Australia - did make serious efforts during the restart phase but realistically they probably can't continue at that level especially when local governments have removed all or most Covid restrictions. There seem to be mixed stories about embarkation, disembarkation, and even port stops. Our first cruise embarkation, in Brisbane, was a bit chaotic but everyone was on a learning curve then with the medallion stuff. Sydney embarkations were much better. Melbourne seems to be having the most issues recently, including when we stopped there for the day on the Round Australia cruise where the ship wasn't cleared until an hour or more later than expected. I believe HEPA filters have been installed in the public areas air-con on Princess but I don't know about cabins however I don't believe there is shared airflow between cabins - each cabin has to be discrete otherwise you wouldn't be able to change the temperature to suit. I'm sure the shorter cruises do disguise the spread of Covid as it spreads exponentially and people who catch it are usually infectious for a couple of days before developing symptoms. The Omicron variants are very contagious. I'd love to see the cruise lines crack down on inconsiderate passenger behaviour but it would be very difficult. Some people are very self-entitled these days and get quite aggressive if challenged. I'd certainly like to see more mandatory testing onboard, I'm sure having to test before going ashore flushed out a number of people on our cruise who had caught Covid but refused to report having symptoms, or who were asymptomatic. Hopefully you will feel confident in cruising again in the not to distant future. Take care. 🥰

We haven't received our credits yet but I've heard it can take a couple of months, and based on past experience with cancelled cruise FCCs that's probably accurate. They will probably just show up on our account. Again, that's what happened with other FCCs. I received the following letter once I'd tested positive.

My fish pie recipe is very easy. I use salmon plus a white fish like ling. I precook the fish in milk in the oven for about 20 mins, until it's just starting to flake - the ling usually takes longer than the salmon. I saute some leek in butter, then add flour and the strained milk to make a white sauce. I add lemon juice, chopped parsley, and the fish in bite-sized chunks. Put it in a greased baking dish, top with flaky pastry and bake until the pastry is cooked. Serve with mash and peas.

They were 7:30pm and 9:30pm on our Coral cruises. We found dining around 7:30pm-8pm worked for us to get good seats at the 9:30pm shows.

I have absolutely no complaints about the way Princess treated us when I caught Covid on Coral Princess. As far as I was concerned I'm glad I caught Covid on Coral Princess rather than at home, and so was my husband. We had delicious meals delivered to our cabin, free drinks so we could indulge in an XO cognac as a nightcap, free medical treatment, a very comfy bed to sleep in even if we had to change the sheets ourselves, and a balcony for fresh air (sometimes too fresh!). If we'd been at home it would have been far harder - just having to deal with getting meals for ourselves would have been stressful.

We carry a small amount of cash but these days we only use it in a couple of cafes, just for coffees. Everything else goes on the credit card and is paid off each month.

Our well-stocked Kindles kept us sane during our Covid isolation. We read a lot anyway so it was just a case of having to stay in one place for a while instead of visiting other places around the ship. However by the last day or so I was missing being able to walk around the ship. Just walking to and from the cabin to either the midships or aft lifts stretched the legs enough to feel good.

Can I come too? I have to admit I've never made a fish chowder but I make a mean fish pie. Since I love flaky pastry I use that as the topping then serve mash and peas on the side.

All the best, Les. 😘 If there is anything you need just let us know - we're just down the road essentially.

It varied on our Coral cruises, especially the earlier ones. There were just as many self-entitled young ones as there were stubborn old coots! 🤣🤣🤣 One middle-aged woman, very well dressed, looked quite offended when told to wear a mask to enter the Universe Lounge for one of the Captain's Circle cocktail parties. Mind you masks didn't stay on very long at those events as most people seemed to think "sip and cover" means take your mask off completely and leave it off as long as there is a drink in front of you.

Selfish gits! We noticed quite a bit of coughing on a couple of the Coral cruises we did. That's how I think I caught it - sitting in Good Spirits having a drink and someone came and stood right next to me while they chatted to friends sitting behind me, with no mask and a cough. We'd been so careful with wearing masks etc too.

Good to hear you've recovered. I really hope your husband tests negative tomorrow. I must admit I was starting to feel a bit antsy at the end of my isolation period. It's very strange how two ships of the same cruuse line have handled Covid so differently. I would have thought the initial experiences with Coral - what to expect as an outbreak ramps up, what worked and what didn't - would have been documented and transmitted to the other ships operating here. Grand seems to be dropping the ball all over the place whereas Coral managed the situation on my cruise very well, with only minor hiccups as the number of cases grew. I'm beginning to think the current CEO of Princess isn't doing his job properly.

We've always prefered to go to the late shows as we dine late. That's one of the reasons we like Princess - their late show is late enough to go to after dinner. On Celebrity we had to go to the early show then to dinner so we tended not to go to many of their shows.

Same here regardless of occupancy, and also at Trivia.

According to their website they have not changed their policy, and they should clearly state in advance if they are going to do so. Here's a current screenshot of relevant section from their website.

It was funny-sad watching how many masks came down or off as soon as the lights went down in the theatre. 😯🙄😪

That actually sounds sensible as the smoke wouldn't affect anyone other than those in that cabin.

Hope you feel better soon and that you can get the antivirals. They work very well.

There was a sign by the Sanctuary Pool on Coral saying masks were not to be worn in pools or hot tubs. We've cruise for 66 days on Princess this year and were quite comfortable wearing masks. We took a good supply of KN95 masks with us. By the time we finished the last cruise it felt odd when we were not wearing a mask (such as on outside decks). We continue to wear them at shopping centres and supermarkets.

Photo of RAT result alongside photo id, ie drivers licence, and something showing current date and time - I used DH's phone lock screen when taking my photo.

In one way I wasn't surprised that we didn't have to test on the changeover day of the B2B cruises because Irene had already mentioned that about their June B2B cruises. There were quite a few people doing the 3rd Sept / 13th Sept cruises B2B but there wasn't much sign of Covid on Coral at the end of those two cruises. The next cruise we did, 26th Sept, was 12 days but, again, there was little sign of Covid onboard at the end of that cruise. We re-embarked three days later, on the 11th October, and we noticed to first table outside a cabin door in our part of the ship about 10 days later. That was about the time the current wave started and the latest versions of Omicron are apparently far more contagious so it wasn't surprising.

On Grand Tier 2 would kick in around 112 cases, Tier 3 at 375 cases. The Tier 2 figure could be less than what is in your local community right now.

We only did one B2B and didn't have to test between those two. We had a few days at home between the others so tested before re-embarking. There will undoubtably be people who are infectious on embarkation day. The pre-embarkation RAT would only identify a very small number of people who had the virus at that point in time. RATs aren't as effective as PCR tests, and even PCR tests aren't infallible. I didn't test positive until the second day of having symptoms. The PCR test on the first day was negative. Australia had just started the current Covid wave when Majestic arrived here. Since there are no requirements for isolation in the community it's not surprising cases got onboard. It's been known for years that some passengers falsify their health declarations - how many times have you heard people coughing heavily on the first or second day of a cruise. From my personal experience coughs that bad don't develop instantaneously. The really interesting fact was that Majestic jumped from Tier 2 status, less than 500 cases onboard but exact number unknown, to Tier 3 status with 800 cases onboard after a mandatory RAT was required. Which means 300+ passengers were either asymptomatic or did not report having symptoms. The spread of Covid is exponential. So with shorter cruises the numbers don't build up enough onboard to be noticeable. Most people who catch it near the end of their cruise will have disembarked by the time they develop symptoms. 10-14 days seems to be the timeframe where there are enough cases floating around the ship to become obvious. More regular RAT testing onboard would be sensible but unless ports demand it I doubt it will happen. Although numbers on Coral were never announced I'm sure the number of cases jumped after WA required a RAT before going ashore in Fremantle. I think Princess has been very generous in providing free medical treatment for Covid so far. Would the restart cruises have been as popular if they hadn't? We'll never know. However they will have to draw the line somewhere. Expensive antivirals may indeed be the first thing to go. Of all the cruise lines Princess could clamp down on passengers who don't follow the mask mandates. The medallion makes it easy for crew to identify passengers who are transgressing so they could implement a "three strikes and you're out" policy and disembark anyone who repeatedly refuses to comply with the mandates. Can you imagine the outrage if Princess did such a thing though? But why should they have to? The majority of passengers are adults, not unruly children. Furthermore everyone has to agree to abide by the Covid rules during the Medallion check-in process. Of course there will be a number of people who tick the box without really reading the requirements, and even more people who selfishly don't care. Unfortunately living with Covid means living with those selfish idiots and that means Covid will continue to plague longer cruises.