nini

Sorry, it sounded like you were humoring me. I certainly hope it is ok with you. What do you think of the hundreds, if not thousands of posts regarding testing, by people who do absolutely NO research on their own, whether it be on CC, cruise line website, or elsewhere? I may not have posted on CC over 24K times, and I hold back on posting questions for fear that the answer is "in there somewhere."

Thank you all for your responses. I was blasted elsewhere for being ignorant and stupid. I honestly am fairly active with my research on CC and did not recall reading about this issue. We will use our hotel address for the first ArriveCAN. We are arriving by land (driving up) a day ahead. It just seems so redundant. It also seems strange that Canadians also need to do this. Wow... imagine if we needed to do this in the USA each time we traveled to another state. If you’re not joining the cruise immediately, enter the address of your hotel. You must also submit a second ArriveCAN submission no more than 72 hours before boarding the cruise. This applies even if your second ArriveCAN submission is within 72 hours of the first submission. Safe Travels to ALL!

I apologize for not being tuned in to your specific posts. It is rather odd to be chastised for my innocent question and post, while hundreds of others need the covid testing guidelines repeated several hundred times with absolutely no research at all. My apologies........

Honestly, I have probably read the ArriveCAN posts both have NEVER seen a reference to needing to do a SECOND one before embarkation. It seems extremely redundant.

Princess Alaska cruisers with Vancouver departure... any comments on this?

The following is from the https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise This is the very first I have heard about this. I have not seen any mention on CC. Thought I would post. I did not find this on: https://www.canada.ca/en/border-services-agency/services/arrivecan.html Comments? Entering Canada by land or air before embarking on a cruise You must complete your ArriveCAN submission before entering Canada, no more than 72 hours of boarding your flight or before entering Canada by land. If you’re flying in to join a cruise immediately, enter the address of your terminal. If you’re not joining the cruise immediately, enter the address of your hotel. You must also submit a second ArriveCAN submission no more than 72 hours before boarding the cruise. This applies even if your second ArriveCAN submission is within 72 hours of the first submission. Upon your entry to Canada by air or at a land border crossing, the border services officer may notify you that you’ve been randomly selected for a mandatory arrival test. Mandatory random testing is part of the Government of Canada surveillance program to track the importation of COVID-19 virus into Canada, and identify new variants of concern.

The following is from the https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise This is the very first I have heard about this. I have not seen any mention on CC. Thought I would post. I did not find this on: https://www.canada.ca/en/border-services-agency/services/arrivecan.html Comments? Entering Canada by land or air before embarking on a cruise You must complete your ArriveCAN submission before entering Canada, no more than 72 hours of boarding your flight or before entering Canada by land. If you’re flying in to join a cruise immediately, enter the address of your terminal. If you’re not joining the cruise immediately, enter the address of your hotel. You must also submit a second ArriveCAN submission no more than 72 hours before boarding the cruise. This applies even if your second ArriveCAN submission is within 72 hours of the first submission. Upon your entry to Canada by air or at a land border crossing, the border services officer may notify you that you’ve been randomly selected for a mandatory arrival test. Mandatory random testing is part of the Government of Canada surveillance program to track the importation of COVID-19 virus into Canada, and identify new variants of concern.

I would be surprised if she does not receive negative comments. Thanks for the heads up,

No problem. I just wanted you to know that there are other "peasant" balconies on different ships which are the larger ones. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

@jsn55 As others have stated, it is the Canadian government requiring the test and not the cruise line. We will embark in Vancouver, BC this Wednesday and will test the two days prior with the antigen test. We planned this so we could test at home on Monday before driving to Vancouver the day before embarkation. I feel your frustration as we tested in our London hotel last May. The hotel staff were fabulous as was their WiFi (used our IPhones). They printed out our results as well as e-mailed them to us.

Thanks for the info!

@harryfat1 Not all Princess ships offer only "peasant" balconies". Depending on the ship, there are many "peasant" balconies with the larger balconies... they may not have a loveseat, but we enjoy our larger balcony. It just depends on the design and ship class. We have a large balcony on the Grand on the Caribe deck.

Yes, the aft is for the crew. The smoke wafts up to our aft balcony. It is time to move them back to their crew area where they have always smoked. Yes, smoking is in the casino which rules out a very high percentage of potential gamblers. There is a smoking forum close to beginning of the Princess board. I typically try to determine the smoking areas for the ship that we are considering so I can book away from them. Keep in mind, that passengers who are quarantined are allowed to smoke on their balcony... yeah, that will help them heal. So now we need to know the quarantine deck which is challenging.

Aft on the Promenade decks are currently for a crew smoking area. This is a covid invention and infuriates PAYING passengers who love their aft balconies. Many Princess ships have a real promenade that goes all of the way around We may cancel a 30 day cruise due to this incredibly stupid decision by Princess.

Thank you all for your responses. I have no problem avoiding the hard sell at the end. I am also a strong believer in getting a deep tissue massage once a month! @Thrak You are fortunate to have a skilled therapist in the family. I think that massage therapy is very important for our well being in many ways. I will keep my eyes open for when they will have a "massage tester" and will NOT bend to the hard sell.

We are excited to be boarding the Grand next week for a 12 night Alaska itinerary! I realize that there are staff changes, however, has anyone experienced a good massage therapist on this ship? I am talking about a skilled deep tissue massage. I have seen that some Patters are listing an offering of a 5 minute "Massage Tester" and I thought that might help determine the skill of that therapist. Thanks!

This is in response to my own comment on the "no paper or pen" in the cabin. As @caribill had stated that in the beginning we were not sure about the spread of covid. As an extreme measure, I guess our cabin should have been empty, due to covid. My sarcastic statement is NOT directed to our @caribill, it just seem a bit much .... the pen and paper would most likely be taken with the guest. Regardless, our steward kindly brought us the items. We touched the kettle in our room too. This was in May around the British Isles.

We have the weather app on our phone. You can set up any city/ cities. It will be rainy... we sail on September 14th for 12 days.

We have many cities on our IPhone weather app and can keep informed that way.

In our experience, the first evening is pretty casual in the dining venues.

As I recall, the ship was at about 80% full. But, it sure seemed crowded as compared to other pre-covid sailings. I think our friends had "reserved" their table for 7:00 pm each night.

Understandable. We belong to the Alaska credit card and get miles. Alaska also is part of One World network which also includes Virgin Air, British Airways and more so it works well for us- we get special. "" Companion Fates" annually.

For domestic flights, we book our own and use Alaska Airlines. To fly to Europe, we book through the cruise line because it is much less expensive. We have found that there really is not a real difference in cost for domestic flights when going through the cruise line.

In addition to flights being canceled and eliminated, I would be concerned about the time of year; November. We had EZAir for Seattle to Dallas Ft. Worth to London. The first flight was delayed and delayed... This meant we would not make our connection to London. There really was not time to call EZAir but American Airlines got us on a different flight that allowed us to make our connecting flight ( the most uncomfortable flight ever). And to the OP- Your non-stop flight may turn into needing a connecting flight just like ours did. AA had eliminated their direct flights from Seatac to LHR. We could have changed, but by then, the rates had skyrocketed.

There are no "for sure" guidelines. We boarded in NYC one time (Red Hook port?) and it was the most chaotic crazy boarding we have ever experienced. The port staff were inconsistent and did not appear to know what was happening. We also had priority boarding and after at least and hour and a half, we were able to "check in", only to wait in the "Elite and Platinum" area for at least an hour. It turned out that the ship had their Health Inspection that morning which was one of the reasons for the wait. The happy ending is that the crew in the Horizon Court (Regal) were absolutely beaming! They had scored a 100% on their inspection! Each port is different and circumstances are different. As @skynight also mentioned, Galveston is a new port and may have a breaking in time.