Yorkshirewanderers

5 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I'm pretty sure you contact them to say you have a positive test on the day you would get a FCC?

 

They wouldn't want you telling their staff that face to face in Southampton would they? 

 

We were due to travel on an earlier staycation and had to postpone 48 hrs before when our son got a positive Covid test and we had to self isolate 

 

We called P and O and they just moved us onto another staycation. Very smooth and easy

 

I really don't think they would tell you that you need to drive down to Southampton to fail another test with them in order to get your FCC

 

That would be irresponsible 

 

You would be travelling down knowing you have to say yes when they ask you if either you or a close contact has tested positive for covid in the last 14 days?

 

That stops you getting on regardless of their test doesn't it?

Responses crossed … trust that I have addressed that.  Would be worth a rapid local private PCR test to get confirmation before travel.  This would enable us to get a refund rather than FCC.  Too many other things booked to fit in another cruise at the moment especially if the FCC needs a lot adding to it.  So in reality, probably private PCR test before calling either insurer or cruise line.

I would take at least a second LTF - I have dozens of LTFs at home so would take a second one as a minimum.  I would probably talk to my insurer then contact Princess and ask what they want me to do … force one or both of them to make the decision and confirm that decision in writing.

I would not be taking the FCC so would want to make sure that I had an insurable claim (my insurance does cover COVID).  The FCC is pretty useless to me because the cruise was such a bargain and I wouldn’t want to be forced to book another one at a much higher price and then pay more as it is not my cruise line of choice … however, these are strange times so we make decisions as we go along.  
 

Our cruise was a steal and it was always just a contingency option for other holidays being cancelled (and they haven’t been recently so it remains an extra bonus holiday).

We wouldn’t travel with COVID or likely COVID if we could avoid so we would probably sort a local rapid, private PCR test.

5 minutes ago, GOQ said:

A weird thing happened with my onboard "return to home LFT" on my cruise last month. We were required to logon to the Chronomics website to register our test where it recorded the time of the test, then do the test, wait 15 minutes and upload a photo of the test cassette to the website. It then confirmed the result and issued a certificate.

 

All went well, the result was negative and I threw the used cassette in my luggage. However on arriving home, after I had received the same negative test result from my day 2 PCR test, I was about to throw the used “onboard return to home LFT” cassette away when I noticed a faint line against the positive marker.

 

Now the faint positive line wasn’t on the cassette 30 minutes after doing the test and my PCR tests at home were also negative. How reliable are these LF tests for false positives?

 

Yes, that is not surprising.  The instructions do say though that the test must be used within 30 minutes of opening so there is presumably a reason for that … perhaps you have found that reason!

Regarding false LTF results, I have a tenant who had symptoms in a flat that I own that tested negative with LTFs for 3 consecutive days before he showed positive on a PCR test.  However, you also get false positives which is a pain because UK government guidelines do not allow a negative PCR test to override a positive LTF test ( or at least that used to be the case).

3 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

So if you got a positive 

 

You would inform the ship knowing you would be disembarked next port?

 

Having had the idea I'm now thinking I would rather not know like everybody else 

 

 

Well, it is not clear if all passengers get disembarked or whether just those that might need hospital treatment.  I would not suggest that you don’t tell the crew at all … my experience has been more about return flights to the UK.  We have taken our own LTFs and tested ourselves the day before doing the required test to travel home (which is no longer required).  That way, you know if you have a problem early and have some time to kick off some planning before you are whisked away to god knows where.  It also gives you time to contact your insurance company early.

As I said, you owe it not just to yourselves but also your fellow passengers (which in my view also includes the crew)

4 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Anyone thought about taking their own covid tests on board?

 

The day we were cruising from Southampton we got up early and tested ourselves to make sure we were negative before driving 4 hrs to Southampton 

 

You could do the same on a cruise and if the worst happened practise your own form of self isolation in your cabin

 

Only take tests to go on shore if your own tests were negative first?

 

Just brainstorming some ideas before anybody has a go at me

 

The home Covid tests you can order are FOC

 

Thinking about it though it's not fair on the crew if the ship who have to handle your laundry or food trays etc

 

 

 

 

Sorry, meant to add this quote to my post above

That is absolutely what we do on every trip abroad now. It is only sensible, you owe it to yourself and your fellow passengers in the current situation.  Not only do we do it to make sure that we are well but also as a back up to double check because there are more false results from LTFs than PCRs

56 minutes ago, crusingdan said:

So we received notification on Friday (8th) that there was an itinerary change and Livorno was cancelled. We are at sea that day now and they’ve added Alicante in the day after.

 

No PLF or equivalent for any foreign ports although you do need to take a lateral flow test for £18pp onboard to be able to get off in Gibraltar. That’s for both organised excursions or getting off independently.

Was a reason given for not docking in Livorno given that other ships are going into Italy from France, Spain and others?

Yes, that sounds about right so you can spend USD 25 on a bottle ashore and pay the corkage for the same as the minimum priced bottle available on ship. That USD 25 bottle would cost you around USD 100 on board so you could splash out on something special ashore and end up quids in. Depends of course on where you are cruising but we are in the U.K. and for USD 30 we would get a very good bottle indeed.

Quick answers

1. No problem, everyone does it!

2. Never looked as would just bring wine onboard and pay corkage, quite a few people do this. No point paying inflated prices

3. Yes it includes gratuities but worth paying extra for the prestige package if you like drinks in bars as a couple of cocktails or martinis adds up, and also it covers drinks round the pool

4. Yes, they will store it and they will deliver it to any restaurant (and a previous poster also said they will also deliver it to an on board bar)

I’m not the OP however thought I’d post my experience. I’m currently sitting in an over the water bungalow in Hilton Moorea having just got off Air France flight this morning. I’ll do a full Marina review once I’m home....

 

We did Delta SEA/LAX code share with AF. Don’t know if Air Nui code shares. AF 11:55pm-6am flight was great. Upgrade to business unbelievably expensive ($3400 per person ... ah .... no!) so didn’t do it. Premium economy also very expensive and totally not worth it... read several seat reviews on seat guru and others that the recline was less than economy and these seats did seem rigid when I walked by and looked at people getting into their seats. I think Prem economy was over $1000 diff when I booked so again incredibly expensive for what little you got.

 

The AF economy seats are the thinnest/tightest ever!! Ugh! The good thing is They reclined the best of any economy I’ve ever been in, slept well. Food was great for economy also.

 

I’m flying back on AF as well. From the fantastic advice here on this forum from the likes of Hawaiian Dan and others, I really studied the whole air deviation vs. Get your own airfare thing. Amazingly enough I found my own airfare slightly less than Olife (this is supposedly rare for French Polynesia) so I took the Olife air refund and booked on my own.

 

Also I feel and was advised a must is flying in at least two days before and flying out a day or two after. Trying to fly home day of disembark meant at least $1200 per person more on airfare as well as those dreaded midnight flights... instead we stay at the intercontinental two nights post cruise and take cosy flights back on AF at 8:40am For $1200 less [emoji846]

 

I’ll be on Marina Mar 7 for the 12 night sailing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We are on the 19th March cruise on Marina. We are doing the same and going straight to an OWB at the Hilton in Moorea. We booked on the proviso that we could get AF business through Paris. When the flights were released Oceania offered us an insane upgrade cost. It was more expensive for the upgrade as it was for me to book business class direct.

In the end, Oceania refunded us GBP 1,450 per person and we booked Manchester-Paris-LAX (technical stop)-PPT then return from LAX to Manchester for GBP 3,450. Oceania wanted GBP 3,500 per person just for the upgrades. It is probably different travelling from Europe but I don’t think that we will ever let Oceania book our flights. Economy from UK to PPT is not something that we would consider.

Yes, Turkish Airlines in Business s indeed a good choice. You have done what we would have done.

Hi, the information above is not quite correct. You can book all La Reserve menus by phoning Oceania. We just had to do that for the new French menu on a March cruise. Menus are greyed out when they are fully booked but there seems to be a flaw in the system ... if you select a menu and put it in your basket it stays there for days or even weeks, presumably showing the restaurant as full. We booked the Odyssey menu and had it in our basket for 2 weeks before finally paying. We then phoned and asked about the new menu that was not available and got swapped over.

For some reason, Oceania decide not to put all dates up on the online booking system. I think that other dates may also be added later on so that guests can book whilst on board thereby allowing OBC to be used rather than having to pay in advance by card.

Hi, I always book flights separately because I get full control of the routing and I don't want to be a hostage to fortune with Oceania. One thing to bear in mind is that mixing classes a lot of travel has issues. You need to look carefully at hold and hand baggage allowances as you will find that usually the lower of the limits applies, so for example, if you fly transatlantic business or premium, you will be able to bring 2 or 3 cases but you won't be able to use the same allowance in economy in Europe. You will most likely be able to check your cases all the way through but the checked allowance will be the economy one, not the business or premium economy one. Premium Economy as such does not exist on short haul European flights so if you are carrying several bags you would need to upgrade to business for the European sector or pay excess baggage.

We are about to fly UK to Tahiti and Oceania offered business UK to LAX but only economy LAX to Tahiti which was useless. We then asked them to do Air France business class for the entire route but the upgrade cost was more than we could buy the business class tickets direct. Therefore we asked them to refund us the airfare credit which was GBP 1,500 (around USD 2,100) per person. Letting Oceania do the upgrades for us would have cost us more than GBP 3,000 extra which was about one third of the cruise only price on an 18 night cruise ... you have to look into these things very carefully.

In my opinion, (as long as you have independent traveller insurance) it is better to work it all out yourself so that you can get exactly the flights that you want well in advance ... long haul, the best fares in business are available as soon as they go on the market, one year in advance which is well before you know what Oceania are likely to book for you.

That is correct. Port is indeed a wine and it is a mistake that many people make. As I said in my original posting, port should be included but Baileys will not be.

Hi, I can answer some of the questions.

I didn't see any Russian menus on Riviera but there may be. However, try downloading the Google Translate app to your mobile and selecting English and Russian as downloaded/offline dictionaries. You can then photograph the menu and get the translation without needing a WiFi connection. There will also be some Russian staff around if you need help in the restaurant.

Getting onto the tender from Riviera was pretty easy. My wife hates getting onto boats but the staff are very helpful. Not sure about wheelchairs but people with limited mobility are given loads of help. My wife was very impressed.

La Reserve bookings are allowed from very early on. The main challenge is that they don't always open them up to online bookings fully. For example, on the cruise we go on in 5 weeks two of the menus Odyssey and Connoisseur were available whilst Connoisseur appeared to be fully booked. The new French menu that we wanted to book didn't appear at all. If you phone Oceania, they will sort it for you. I think that we booked around 120 days out. A tip - if you are not sure about a booking, you can put it in your basket and it appears to stay there for a while (I think that is why some dates appear to be fully booked as people have not released them). I also think they put extra days on depending on how busy La Reserve gets. Don't forget that you get 20% discount if you have a drinks package.

You should be OK with port if you have the standard drinks package but I think that Baileys will be fully chargeable. If you upgrade to the full package (I know it is expensive) but a glass of champagne by the pool and a couple of Big 'O' martinis in the Martini bar will soon prove to be value for money (remember, you avoid the 18% gratuity with a package which makes a big difference if you pay as you go).

If you buy a drinks package and leave your card face up on the table in front of you, the waiters will usually refill your glasses quickly without you having to ask. We also got the impression that you got bigger measures in Martinis but that may just be perception.

Getting extra reservations in the speciality restaurants was easy although we were PH category. The challenge was whether we could get the times that we wanted. Also, if you are willing to share (which I recommend as you will meet really interesting people) will get you in much more easily. On a 10 day cruise, we got 4 extra reservations over and above our allowance.

We got priority in PH and you will in Concierge. Note that it is better to sort the reservations yourself than to use the Concierge. If you have PH the butler will sort it ... if you are suite category you book in one place (La Reserve), concierge in another (Red Ginger) and all other categories on deck 5 - I believe that this is so that the prioritisation is more discreet.

You can also just drop by the restaurant on the night and speak nicely to the Maitre D' and you may well be lucky.

You will like the Riviera, she is a beautiful ship. If you enjoy the cruise and decide to go for a higher grade next time, book PH2 on Deck 10 instead of PH1 on Deck 11. In my opinion, PH2 is better because you don't suffer from the overhang on the balcony if you are one deck lower. Deck 10 is also quieter than Deck 11 which has public areas above some of the staterooms.

I reckon you will love Oceania. My wife never wanted to cruise so I decided to convince her by picking a special cruise line and a good cabin grade. In September 2016 we did the Med in a penthouse on Riviera and it was great. The food, the service, the fellow cruisers were way beyond what we expected and now my wife is hooked.

In 5 weeks we join Marina in Tahiti for an 18 night cruise through French Polynesia, up to Hawaii and across to LA. We can’t wait. Give it a go. If you don’t, you will never know what you missed out on. The Marina is an ideal size and offers great dining options. We have looked at other high end cruise lines but this size of ship works for us.

We are very fussy and if there were faults we would have found them. Forget recent Norovirus reports. It happens on all ships but it is not always reported unless the ship visits the US. Princess had several outbreaks recently so you are choosing between two lines which have had issues but have resolved them.