arxcards

Might be tainted a bit when you have a wife named Barb and she sells seafood for a living. The logo is awesome, so we tried to buy some merchandise, but had to settle for a few basket liners. The pickle boats are cool. I will have to come back to use my "good for one hop" token.

There have been crew on the cruises I am aware of too, including a CD. The difference in the communication elevation was the quantity of cases. Unfortunately for the ship, the crew don't get to disembark and test positive when they get home as the passengers have been doing.

Mmmm, Victoria. Barb's Fish & Chips and the pickle boats are my fondest memories. It is great when you return to the pier and it looks like a parking lot for ships.

If you are about to board a cruise that has elevated levels of covid, the cruise line has to inform you (as with the earlier message for Coral from a couple of says ago), and they are allowing you to decide if you still want to cruise, or be credited/refunded/rebooked.

Where have they been. There has been covid on every cruise so far for P&O and Coral, and has been discussed here and on social media.

It usually takes a grumpy passenger to feed the media. I wonder if they didn't get enough volunteers, and a few got bumped.

Started back on 31st May, and so far are doing mostly short Australian domestic cruises. Typical P&O. I don't have a patter handy. I was supposed to scan them a couple of weeks ago, but just haven't got to it.

March on Majestic. Is that a goer?

Not sure where what around the news yet. Coral departed Brisbane yesterday evening and is currently off Woolgoolga. Not out of the question though that some future cruises are to be cancelled or modified.

No, if I wanted to book this cruise direct with Princess today, final payment is 22nd July. It was dependent on the time of booking/promo on whether it was 90 days or 75 days out for final payment. All of the conditions for our booking carried over from Royal Princess Oct 2021 to Royal Princess Nov 2022 to Majestic Oct 2022 - price, packages, OBC's and final payment period.

Not sure of the arrangement at the time of booking which could have varied on the promo of the day. I have asked about ours, and final payment date through the travel agent is 18th July. Princess final payment date for this cruise currently shows as 22nd July. Looks like I need to bite the bullet this week and put faith in the cruise fairies that it will all go to plan. It is a lot of money to have to kick onto another cruise later, but worth hanging onto, as the booking would be $2200 dearer if booked today and there is $400 of OBC as well.

That is a great move. If they are down on staff, it will suit to have less passengers to serve, and allow those that are reluctant to cruise to find an alternative. Not sure how they will go finding passengers, as this cruise was already split in half and they had the option to move over to something else then. Lets hope Princess are on top of this, and that transmission through the crew has been isolated.

Most likely.

The first signs. Protocols require the ship to communicate to passengers when there is an elevated level of infection/transmission. And they have.

About time Les invested in a pair of Crocs 😁

There is an obligation there that comes with penalties for non-disclosure that go all the way up to the Captain. I don't think they would risk it.

The cruises will show on the app once payment has been transferred. We encountered that delay on our switchover cruise from Royal to Majestic. It makes a lot of sense to have that date deferred. Similar with the first P&O cruise, we were advised not to transfer over the deposits from our cancellations, as they couldn't be transferred until after final payment date.

Could have been natures way of saying - don't go near Coral Princess 😁

We do. It is only code yellow. It would change to code red somewhere around 75 to 80 cases. At that number, they may as well call it code Ruby Red, as everyone will know about it.

I was under the understanding that close contacts were able to be confined to their cabin and tested daily if they wished, while positives had no choice but be moved to the quarantine area.

Pretty much. Thanks. I have met Chris Frame on a couple of cruises, where he often lectures on the history of Cunard or cruising in general. I have long been a fan of his work.

Yes, the liner days were all about speed. QM2 was built with speed in mind, but also partly compromised by the need to be a good cruise ship too. She likely has the fastest top speed of any current passenger ship, but doesn't use it - not because of comfort, but fuel economy. 10 years or so back when the price of fuel shot up, they added a day to each of their Transatlantic voyages, so they were no longer trying to get from Southampton to New York as quick as possible, which is against the ethos of a line voyage. Even at speed though, QM2 is quite comfortable. Yes, a cruise ship is generally built for comfort, and will usually slow down when conditions aren't favourable. On one of our Noumea to Sydney crossings, Radiance was going 5 knots faster than we have travelled on QM2. The current must have been good that day, as we were going faster than the ship specs say for her top speed. It was a little less comfortable, but a fun afternoon to soak it up on the promenade deck.

It is just in the terminology. Cruise ships are for holidays, cruise liners are for transport. Way back when, ships were used for emigration and transport, with the Transatlantic route being the most frequented. The decline of passenger liners was due to the advent of reliable international passenger flights. In that sense, QM2 isn't really a liner either. Sure, some passengers use a Transatlantic as a line voyage instead of flying, but most just board again and do the return trip, aka a B2B cruise.

Reserving these quarantine cabins is part of the protocols, regardless of the number of infections expected. Nobody knows how many will be filled until the cruise is underway. From what I recall, this cruise was pretty much sold out prior to those protocols being imposed. There may have been a few that chose to be bumped because they didn't want to be jabbed to cruise, but it is otherwise hard to move people to another cabin of their choice when the ship is effectively full. Still wrong to downgrade you, but I am pretty sure it is covered in the updated passenger contract. Yes, I would be peeved too. I have checked our 2 x Coral bookings, and still have the same cabins on D and A decks. When we get the time, we would love to do one of these cruises. In the current climate, I would prefer 4 weeks in tender 14 vs it being split into 4 x 7 night cruises in a mini-suite.

Definitely not an upgrade, but a downgrade from BE to BF. You should have been offered an option of taking a different cabin, moving to another cruise, or getting a refund. Tough times for them, but they shouldn't be downgrading your booking without your consent.