arxcards

Curious if anyone has cruised into Portland, Oregon? Is it scenic or not? Crown Princess is currently there, and it looks like a like a long transit in from the coast. I have seen Astoria on plenty of itineraries, but not many for Portland.

Lol, Foodjammer. Why haven't I thought of that 😂

I agree, and I don't disagree with much of your opinion anyway. Either way, it doesn't matter what we think as we have paid public officials that will decide, and I am merely putting forth where they are at. They don't give a toss about my personal opinion either, and they aren't taking a poll of CC to decide what to do next either. Just about to board for our 3rd cruise under these rules. At times masks are a pain, but we will continue to wear our masks as required.

I hope they know how to weld.

Still works, and looks more awesomer than before.

The article is nearly 6 weeks old. These rules are continually under review, and the response will be determined by the health of the first few transpacific ships as they arrive. The US has only recently lifted much of their protocols, but not everything for longer cruises. We regularly do longer cruises than their routine 7 nighters. No, the mandates are not silly. It isn't about you or me, but the operational security of a ship that is sailing with limited medical facilities. For short cruises, that risk has passed - ships are close to the coast, and healthy boarding will result in no strain on medical facilities. They could remove protocols for them now, but then, would travel insurance follow suit?

I will be keeping a bit of a checklist. Specific numbers of infections will likely be unknown, but they will have a NSW health colour code when they arrive. Carnival Splendor - had a healthy crossing, even to the point that masks weren't required for the last part of the trip. Majestic Princess arrives on 20th October. There has been positive tests, and would currently be code yellow if the numbers mentioned are accurate.

Queen Elizabeth has just departed Barcelona.

The government currently requires vaccination and testing as part of conditional cruising protocols. If the cruise line doesn't want to test as required, they will not be allowed to cruise. While being informed and accepting the risk, you could still sue if they were negligent with their responsibilities. As with the Ruby class action, it would be a tough nut to crack.

When I saw the picture, I realised the angle would have likely blocked Explorer from view.

A reality check. CRUISE LINES DO NOT DECIDE THE MINIMUM PROTOCOLS IN AUSTRALIA, OUR GOVERNMENTS DO I had a friend quote to me last week that vaccinations and masks were no longer needed on Princess. US articles relating to operating in the US or other countries operating without restrictions are general, and do not apply to Australian cruises. Ignore the word global that is quoted in the article, as there are around a dozen countries that still apply restrictions for NCL's cruise ships. You would think one would go to the NCL site to confirm, instead of taking articles written for the US market as gospel. Norwegian will be told when they can ease restrictions in Australia, not the other way around. https://www.ncl.com/au/en/travel-requirements-by-country There is no references to masks, which may/may not be still mandatory when Norwegian Spirit arrives here in December.

It isn't an app update. Just the format of the page being loaded from the Princess server is different, and the name of the app has changed.

I think this is mostly cosmetic, but will have a bit of a play, as I will have to make sure for boarding on Saturday. Mine greets me with: Good morning, First Name Only! The timer is nice to be there bold, but looks like it is based on a US time zone.

Ditto ditto. And that has been the Australian way on land as well.

Westerdam is on the way, and Quantum of the Seas tomorrow.

No, they are still mandatory in most indoor public areas of the ship, and will remain that way at least until the emperor sees some successful arrivals into Fremantle. Also wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks as most of the Transpacific cruises arrive.

Solved?

More perfecter - 5 days. 🚢🥳

Great to finally see Coral Princess pointing toward PNG. Enjoy your day at Conflict Islands tomorrow. They put up this pic on their social media a couple of days ago.

They have been juggling this now for months, and have been pretty successful at it. Scheduled testing on longer cruises does prevent a massive surprise at the end of the cruise. Hospitalisations from cruise ships are so rare, that there is no way you could compare anything to Diamond or Ruby. For numbers, these are the highest risk - passengers transiting from various countries and cities, then sharing a confined space for a month. 22 is a blip on 4500+, but happy if it remains as a blip, everyone is isolated in time, and recovered in the next 17 days.

True. Barb doesn't wear a lot of pearls, but if they have something she likes, we wont be in Lombok for our 30th. I had considered a gift of Norwegian Pearl, as she will be in Sydney for our anniversary. Unfortunately, Sydney Nova Scotia was a bit too far off the radar. Perhaps I can just tell her the cruise is for our Coral anniversary, but getting it 5 years early. I guess that means I will be keeping an eye out for whatever Coral Princess is going to be doing in October 2027. I have a general idea of the right price of pearls and pearl jewellery, and if they don't have something suitable, I will hunt around our local jewellers the following week.

At this stage of their journey, Carnival Splendor was also getting tests, but the lack of positives meant the passengers could go mask free for the final part of their crossing. Not what I wanted to hear though, and I hope they can at least prevent numbers from going up. On the numbers you gave, the ship would be at code yellow, and I know there are plenty of passengers staying aboard for the following cruise - our cruise.

We were on the first cruise back on P&O on 31st May. I felt that there was covid aboard, and it turns out some friends tested positive a couple of days after returning home. We tested negative, but followed what we would consider as hygienic cruise habits, which also seem to apply to covid. We also cruised on Coral Princess in August, and much less coughing. Generally, most people do the right thing most of the time, but you still have to rely on your own personal protection. It is your own mask that is your last line of defences. Come February, there is no guarantee that masks will still be mandated, but there is always personal choice. There were a few affected cruises in July with elevated case numbers aboard. As with land based infections, the number of infections on cruise ships has come way down. Each ship reports numbers for any potentially infectious disease to the state authority the day before arrival. For the past month +, all ships have been reported as "green status", referring to little or zero positive covid tests aboard. While the risk of exposure is minimal, it only takes on, and that all comes down to personal choice.

Lol, Herbert Adams, Mrs Macs. Will see if I can get a better wall from that. Princess, Cunard, Carnival, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean - oh yeah, I get those already.

Double Down Bar is next to casino. This used to be Crooners prior to the lockdown. There doesn't appear to be much of a change in layout, but it has taken on a wall of TV screens. It seemed strange for a Crooners to be closed away in a room, but I am sure they will still do an awesome martini there.