OzKiwiJJ

We were dining around 8pm. It was usually quite quiet then and we rarely had to queue. If you prefer a two-seater table go to the Bordeaux restaurant and see if you can get a regular booking at one if these tables - 121, 122 and I think the third is 123. Angelito is the waiter for that group of tables.

Not over dinner.

Don't you dare! I'll come and haunt you if you do.

We've used those displayed menus in the past to decide whether we actually want to eat in the MDR or try to get a last minute reservation at one of the speciality restaurants. There used to be one menu, pre-Covid, that I really disliked.

Unless you're actually looking up something that has come up during a discussion at that table.

The menus are also posted outside the MDRs during the day. The MDR that does lunch on sea days shows the lunch menu in the morning then the dinner menu once lunch is finished. The other MDR has the dinner menu up all day.

My thoughts ... The numbers/Tiers can be misleading. Coral Princess reached Tier 3 during our cruise. Tier 3 on that ship kicks in at around 300 passengers and crew. Tier 3 on Majestic Princess doesn't kick in until around 500 passengers and crew. The bigger the ship the higher the number of cases needed to trigger each tier. On Coral Princess it was easy to see how much Covid was onboard as tables were placed in front of isolating cabin doors. Other cruise lines may not do this so passengers may not be aware of how much Covid is onboard. Covid is again spreading rapidly in the community with this new wave. Numbers in NSW increased significantly last week - around 50% more than the previous week. In an article in the Sun-Herald yesterday Professor Catherine Bennett of Deakin Uni reckoned that only a fraction of the cases on Majestic Princess would have been detected had they been onshore, and that probably only 10% of cases in the community are being counted. In other words the current wave is ten times worse than we are seeing reflected in the weekly stats. So the points to consider are: - how bad are the current variants of Covid? In my case it was milder than a normal head cold and I recovered quickly with the help of anti-virals, although I did get even milder rebound symptoms for two days later on. - will you feel safer at home or on a cruise? That depends on your lifestyle, I guess. If you have an active social life you could be as much at risk at home as on a cruise. Some people will be just as likely to ignore symptoms ashore as they would onboard a ship, and almost certainly would not isolate or wear masks ashore. - if your cruise is still a few months away this current wave may be over by then. Plus cruise lines may learn to be stricter with onboard Covid protocols.

Sorry to hear you're struggling with rebound symptoms. Yes, a real bummer that you tested positive after your cruise ended. I have to admit that having Covid on our cruise was easier than if we'd been at home, and because we caught it right in the middle of a long cruise we had the benefit of a few more days of enjoyable cruising after I tested negative. I still had a couple of days of rebound when we got home but luckily that didn't kick in until after we'd done the grocery shopping. Hope you fully recover soon. Try some XO - I reckon it scared my Covid away! 🤣

I think if you want the large table for just your group of people then you need to link all your bookings so that when you go to book your dining it sees you as one 'party". After that I'm not sure. However once on board talk to the dining room host - the person who sorts out which table you get each night - and ask for/confirm the same table each night. If it's Mariana in the Bordeaux MDR she is very helpful.

On our Coral cruise testing was required before going ashore at Fremantle, Busselton, Adelaide and Burnie. You had to take a photo of the result alongside a card with the current date printed on it and show the photo as you left the ship. I'm pretty sure that requirement weeded out a few people each time who were positive.

Given the increase in Covid cases in various states in the past week, especially NSW, I would be very surprised if there was no Covid onboard. Whether the ship knows about however number of cases there are is a different matter. Symptoms can be very mild and some people will just decide it's a cold and not get tested.

Sorry to hear this, Les. Take care.

As I understand it they were only Tier 2 yesterday morning which would mean less than 495 passengers and crew. However that was high enough to require all passengers have to do a RAT which identified another 300 passengers with Covid. OK, some of those passengers would have been asymptomatic so would not have realised they had Covid but I suspect many of them had symptoms but had not reported them because they didn't want to have to isolate on the last day(s) of their cruise. 🤔🙄😡 I wonder how many more people have contracted the disease in the last day or so. It's a shame the media doesn't report the real facts behind Covid outbreaks on ships instead of bad-mouthing the cruise lines.

Ditto. We still had a great cruise regardless of the few days in isolation.

Which is not surprising as the spread is exponential and people are usually infectious before they show symptoms or even test positive. Plus it would spread much faster on a ship as it's a closed environment populated by a few too many people who think mask rules don't apply to them or who cannot seem to understand that 'cover nose and mouth" means exactly that.

Be aware that there are limited places to smoke on cruise ships operating in the Australasian region. There is no smoking allowed inside the ships at all, so cigar lounges are closed while in our waters. There are usually a couple of smoking areas on the decks - on Princess one is usually on the Promenade deck aft (starboard I think) and the other is usually on one of the upper decks. I'm not sure about other cruise line smoking areas.

Mare and the Isle of Pines are not allowing cruise ships at the moment from what I've heard. I think Mare's wharf got damaged but I'm not sure what the reason is for the Isle of Pines.

Actually the Coral count of 300+ when it was Tier 3 was probably accurate. A passenger we sat next to at dinner one night walked every deck counting tables outside doors. He counted 253. If more than one person had Covid in say 20% of those cabins it would easily reach 300.

I saw a post on FB saying 800 cases, and another person that was onboard reckoned that was about right. 😯

That looks like a great excursion. I must look out for that one the next time we go to Airlie Beach.

Whitehaven Beach is gorgeous, and the boat trip there and back is exhilarating, but you only spend a couple of hours on the beach on the Princess excursion and the part of the beach we stopped at didn't have reefs for snorkelling. It was lovely for swimming though. The yellow RIB is the excursion boat. Looking the other way along the beach.

To reduce the risk. Embarking passengers fall into three categories: A. Have caught Covid, may or may not have symptoms, test positive. B. Have caught Covid, may or may not have symptoms, test negative. C. Don't have Covid, test negative. Every person who tests positive and therefore doesn't board the ship lowers the risk of transmission onboard. Then it's all down to how those Category B passengers behave onboard. Since they may be infectious but have no symptoms it's very important they follow the onboard protocols, especially about wearing masks and reporting any symptoms to the Medical Centre. Unfortunately a percentage of these passengers won't follow the protocols and that is why Covid spreads onboard.

Best of luck, Les. Let us know if there is anything we can do. How are you getting to Sydney?

I am! It's only five weeks until we fly to NZ for our Westerdam cruise. Aargh! 🤣🤣🤣

Disappointing is far too mild a term! 🤣🤣🤣