Aus Traveller

Sorry if I haven't been totally precise with my wording. I only have a short time this morning as we are heading off on a cruise today - on Princess.🙂

I thought Princess announced that the crew would receive two month's pay including the usual gratuities that they receive. I don't think there was any indication that they would be short-changed.

We don't know when these people contracted the virus. One Chinese researcher claims the incubation period can be as long as 21 days for some people. Many people with the virus apparently can be asymptomatic for a period of time, an unknown period of time. This is a new virus and the medical experts are still learning. It is a fact that several people (seven in Australia, one in Israel and several in USA) tested negative just before leaving the ship, but they have now tested positive. It seems that the virus can lie undetected for some time, once again, time unknown. With this virus, there are a lot of unknowns. It cannot be stated with certainty, that those now testing positive contracted the virus after the quarantine was put in place. Equally it cannot be stated with certainty that they contracted it before the quarantine was put in place.

I understand the term "medical officer" on Princess ships to be a doctor. It is worrying if the medical officer (doctor or nurse) was consulting with crew members while not wearing a mask - with the comment that that he has it anyway.

During the Swine Flu epidemic, doctors were quoted as saying that it would become "just another strain of the flu". Maybe the same will happen with the coronavirus. I still don't want to get it.🙂

I agree that others passengers could have been exposed to the virus, but I don't think the crew would have. It was announced that food and drink were placed on each seat before the passengers boarded. The crew stayed in the upstairs section of the plane and the flight crew were in their cabin with a different air supply. All crew will stay at home for two weeks before returning to work. BTW, they were all volunteers.

But the OP is Australian. Your post gives the incorrect impression.🙂

Not so. The OP is in Australia. I was told by a Princess rep in the Sydney office that the stock statement has to be less than three months old at the time of the cruise. The request for the OBC has to be submitted more than three weeks prior to the cruise. So the window to apply is between three months and three weeks before the cruise. With my last request, I included details of three cruises we have booked between April and December 2020. I have yet to see the OBC applied. It will be great if they don't now require a new stock statement for each cruise, but I don't really expect the policy to have changed.

It appears from what you said that in NZ you have to apply for the travel insurance under your ANZ visa card and that is what you refer to when you said "new customer". We don't in Australia. We just have to meet the qualifying criteria.

When you say "no new customers" do you mean cruises booked after 30th January?

Lizmore who posted the information about the '6 months before a trip' lives in NZ. I don't know where 'LittleFish1976' is based. Our Australian ANZ Visa Platinum card does not have a restriction of 6 months. We just have to spend at least $250 of the travel cost on the card, be Aussie citizens/residents less than 80 yrs old, and have a return ticket to Aust (this can be a cruise ticket). I think I have covered all the restrictions.

Yes you are.😁 In Australia you either fax the request, with supporting documents to Carnival at (02) 8326 4550, or write (snail mail) to 'Carnival Cruises, P.O. Box 1429, Chatswood, 2057'. They don't accept emailed requests. The Australian office doesn't act as quickly as the US one. My last request would've been received by Princess five days ago and it still isn't showing up. I will be away on a cruise for two weeks. If the OBC isn't on my Personalizer when I return I will phone them. 🙂

Two months' pay is more than "an extra few hundred bucks". It is thousands.

I question a few of your comments: 1. "Crew working 16+ hours". Which crew would that be? Usual working days are around 10 hours. Why would they be working 16+ hours when no cabins were being cleaned and no waiters and bar staff doing their normal duties. Who has stated this as a fact? I suspect the working hours would have been reduced from the normal level for most of the crew. 2. "Arrange for isolated sleeping on ship in one person tents". Would this help much when they were working several hours a day with others. 3. "Let crew communicate with their family freely/frequently". They would have had access to the internet as they usually do. 4. "Arrange for counselling from home country". Maybe this would be better than the counselling available on board. 5. "two months' worth of contractual minimum". Princess announced that they would receive their normal pay and (in the case of those who usually get tips) the equivalent amount to what they usually get.

I agree that putting people in a hotel exposes a lot of others to risk of infection. Just consider the Canadian entertainer from the Westerdam who was quarantined in a hotel in Phnom Penh. He bragged how he went out the back door of the hotel because there wasn't any security on that door. He booked flights and went to Bangkok, then Dubai, then to Canada where he went home.