hobo1937

2 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

chicken ladies are on now...things are changing for them...last night got call from their governor...I think it is Nevada and they are going to get tested before they fly...apparently test used is fast results? If positive they stay in Ca. if not fly home and self quarantine.  I am wondering if this is special for them?

We live in Nevada and the local news reports that the  49 Nevada passengers will return to Nevada if they test negative. There will be secure travel back to Nevada and there are certain conditions they have to abide by set up by the Dept of Health. They will have to sign a Declaration of Self Quarantine and will self quarantine for 14 days.  The Health Dept will provide ground transportation to avoid exposure to the community.

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3 minutes ago, Teresa! said:

According to the Santa Barbara website, they are closing themselves to cruisers through June. https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/waterfront/events/cruiseship.asp

 

We're supposed to be on the April 5 Pacific Coastal on Eurodam. Guess we'll see what the rest of the ports decide in the coming weeks.

Yesterday,  I read that Monterey CA is also closed to cruise ships.

2 hours ago, Coralc said:

 

Cruise ships don't ever go under the Bay Bridge because the only place on the other side is the Port of Oakland. And it is a cargo/container port without passenger facilities. 

It was either 2005 or 6 we did a Coastal Cruise on RCL Vision of the Seas and we docked at pier 30-32 in SF, which is just south of the Bay Bridge. Back then Pier 35 was the main SF cruise pier and they did occasionally use pier 30-32 if they needed an overflow dock.  

12 minutes ago, NSWP said:

How far is Point Mugu from San Francisco? 

Approximately 400 miles. Closer to LA

The 2008 recession continued into 2009. In October of 2009 Princess offered  SF-Sydney and Sydney-LA 30 day cruises, which could be done back to back. We did the 60 day sailing on the Star in an Oceanview cabin for 9K.  Haven't seen anything like that since then.  

9 minutes ago, christieSF said:

I wish they were tabulating the cases from the past sailing of the Grand.  Living in San Francisco, I would really like to know what the numbers look like.  So far, it seems like 2 in Placer, 2 in Santa Clara, 2 in Toronto, 1 in Alberta, and now these 2 new ones in Contra Costa.  I have yet to find a single source so I've been trying to keep track on my own.  

There is a presumptive case in Washoe County Nevada(Reno)

Looks like HAL is also affected. Similar notice on their website. 

Evidently Princess Cruises is also affected. Similar notice on their website. 

Just reported Sonoma County CA has a second presumtive coronavirus case. The person was recently on a Mexico cruise from SF, which according  to the time frame was probably the Grand Princess. No evidence she contracted the virus on the ship or if she caught it before or after the cruise. They are trying to determine all that. 

Just read on the LA Channel 4 app that the CDC was attempting to transfer as many as 50 coronavirus patients from Travis AFB to a facility in Costa Mesa CA, which is some 430 miles away from Travis. Evidently, the city was only informed about this on Thursday night and the transfer was to take place as early as Sunday. The city got a judge to issue an emergency restraining order to stop the transfer until steps to could be taken to make sure the site is suitable and all necessary precautions can be taken. The city will be holding a press conference this afternoon and there is a further court hearing on Monday. The facility in question appears to be in a residential area and had been used to treat mental health patients.  The article did say these people had tested positive for the virus. 

11 minutes ago, em-sk said:

 

Looks like in the case of Canada;  Canada Board Services is comparing incoming international flights against the passenger list and meeting passengers at aircraft for a medical assessment and to provide instructions to self quarantine with the local health authority checking up.  

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/westerdam-cruise-canadians-return-home-1.5466131

Looks like Canada is being proactive. Just read about a local Henderson NV couple who returned home from the Westerdam via Singapore and LAX and they say they are going shopping at Costco. We have 2 here in Henderson and I would love know which one so I can avoid going there!

1 hour ago, jondfk said:

 

I may well have been on the same cruise with you (October 4th???).  I found this extremely frustrating.  Sure, after a couple of meals we learned to bypass the line waiting for Anytime dining, but there was no need for this confusion as the main Anytime entrance was on the other side of the ship.  It was just folks trying to cheat the system who were lined up at the Club Class desk.  

We were on the Oct 19th cruise so looks like it was still working the same way.

We were on the Royal in October and yes the Club Class dining was open for lunch on embarkation day. Only issue was the same entrance to the dining room was for regular diners and club class , the line was long and there was no separate line for club class. So I excused myself for bypassing the line so I could to ask the maitre'd if we also had to wait. He said come in immediately, so I went to get my husband who was waiting in line and we were seated right away. 

1 hour ago, CruiseNut24 said:

We went to Customer Service. and they just said to call dine line,  when you call, you can ask to sign up all 12.  You can also speak with the head Matri d, and ask about possibility of getting the chefs table for 12.

Not sure which ship you are sailing on but the Chef's Table on the Royal Class ships is a bit different from the regular Chef's Table. First of all the cost is $115 pp. The Chef's Table is called Chef's Table Luminere. There is a separate permanent  dining area in the Allegro Dining Room specifically for the Chef's Table. After being seated, a curtain of light comes down to surround the group so you are out of sight of the rest of the dining room. We did it recently on the Royal and they only had 10 people, not sure if 12 people could fit around the table as it is a special made table with a murano glass floral insert in the center. We had done the regular Chef's Table several times but the Luminere was over the top and a fantastic experience. 

13 hours ago, Mike45LC said:

On-site parking is $18 per day,

 

There is a package of one hotel night plus parking for the cruise nearby, with shuttle to and from the pier, but I don’t have the current numbers.

Price is now $19 a day. We paid $133 last Saturday when we disembarked the Royal Princess on a 7 night cruise. 

On 10/17/2019 at 10:44 AM, hobo1937 said:

I will be happy to share the readings on this thread.

Just wanted to come back and post the decibel readings we got on our apple watches from the Piazza on the Royal. The readings on deck 5 during loud music ranged from 96-100. On decks 6 and 7 they ranged from 85-90. Those readings indicate being exposed to 95-100 decibles would cause short term hearing loss after 3 minutes at 100 db and 10 minutes at 95 db. The 85-90 db range would cause short term hearing loss of 30 minutes at 90 db and 1:45 minutes at 85 db. Feel sorry for the crew that have to work in those areas. 

14 minutes ago, jondfk said:

 

Our experience on Grand / CB and Ruby was exactly as you describe.  In all cases Club Class and only Club Class used the Starboard side entrance while Anytime used the Port side.  I'm not sure why Royal uses a different system - CC used the Port side.  ATD used both sides (starting at 7:30 as noted above) this had the Club Class host serving as the de facto coordinator for the entire dining room which was at best inefficient.  As Pooh noted, once you were recognized by sight you were indeed pulled forward, in my experience this took 3 or 4 dinners.  We never settled on a fixed table but did dine most evenings with either Marina or Abraham who were both very good waiters though quite different in style.

Just curious if this same scenario took place for breakfast and the sea day lunches. 

Also on the Star ,the host did some food prep, a special  pasta dish at lunch and caesar salads at dinner. Sounds like the Royal host wouldn't have time for that. 

8 minutes ago, PoohUnderstands said:

The lines discussed are ATD people waiting to eat when the DR opens for ATD at 7:30pm. Before this the DR is traditional early dining.  If anyone was waiting to enter, we just politely went around them and took our same seat in the CC dining area.  Didn't have to wait for the receptionist person (this is of course after the first night when you first check in.)  And once you have sat at the same table(to get the same wait staff you like), usually at least for us, we would go to eat within 6:00-6:30 and "our" table would be waiting for us(we like a booth/chairs table for 4 and then DH and I both sit on the booth portion.  Once the staff saw this, they had it ready for us!  We were on a 24 day itinerary, so this was very nice.

 

Pooh

Sounds like the management of  CC is not consistent between different ships. On the Star in April, there was a separate entrance for CC on the opposite side of the dining room from the main entrance.. We usually went to dinner around 7:30 and rarely got the same table or waitstaff two nights in a row let alone for the whole cruise, which was 12 nights. Sometimes we had to wait for a table.

12 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I will be on the Royal with you.  Please share your decibel readings so I can share with my audiologist daughter 😊

I will be happy to share the readings on this thread.

1 hour ago, jondfk said:

 

Re Club Class.  If you can slip in the 'out' door on the left side - do so and then signal the reception person.  On the subject of table availability we never had any issue, once we managed to reach the reception person we were seated immediately.  Most nights we dined as 2, one night we joined two friends and a table for 4 was created upon request.  Because they borrow space from the ATD (and the space they take is prime window space) most tables are at most one or two tables from the window.

 

Thanks for the tip.  What is interesting is the Princess Website lists "Private Entrance with Host" as one of the benefits of Club Class. Guess they mean using the "out" door on the Royal Princess!

 Regarding the noise levels, Apple recently added a noise app on the Apple Watch that gives decibel readings... I intend to check it out in the piazza next week. 

Thanks so much for your review. We are also Elite 20+ Princes cruisers on our first Royal  Princess cruise leaving this Saturday. We are also booked in Club Class and your description of the access to the Club Class dining doesn't give us a warm feeling. We did club class on the Star in April and there was a separate CC entrance from the regular ATD entrance with a sign that said Club Class. That ship also had some  CC tables next to the ATD tables. 

Did you have any issues with having to wait for a table in Club Class?

Seems like many of the Princess ships have been "cranking up" the music in the Piazza but what you experienced seems excessive. 

I think its crazy that HAL would let this large group do a NYE cruise and take over the early dining.  My curiosity got the better of me so I googled this group and found a link for this cruise. They are having about 5 entertainers, which could mean the showroom would be taken over in addition to the dining room. They will also be having various sessions during the week which will close venues to the other passengers. Just google Turning Point Ministries Nieuw Statendam cruise and you get an idea.  Hope every thing works out for you. 

Sign us up too!  We did the 12 day RT Alaska cruise from San Pedro on the Star Princess this past April/May. Were a bit apprehensive about going so early in the season but the weather was typical Alaska(some days overcast and drizzle and other days beautiful sun), seas calm and beautiful snow still on the mountains. Also no crowds! 

Princess is doing a series of 14 day RT Alaska cruises  out of San Pedro next year. The ports are Ketchikan, Icy Straits, Juneau, Hubbard Glacier, Skagway, Sitka and Victoria. No reason HAL couldn't do this out of San Diego. 

This new wine list is exactly what we hate with this type of format. Say I want a Chardonnay.  I found them under 7 different headings and then they were not all listed together but mixed in with other varietals. We experienced this type of list on Celebrity years ago. Hated it then and hate it now! 

We live in Las Vegas and when we first started cruising in 2003 most of the cruises we wanted to do required flying longer distances. As the years went on , and the flying became more of a hassle, we started looking for ways to lessen the number of long flights. Luckily,  we were able to take some cruise that allowed us to do that. In the fall of 2009 Princess offered a back to back 60 day SF to Sydney and Sydney to LA cruises. Never saw this itinerary again but sure glad we did it at that time. Also some friends wanted to do a Med cruise on the Ruby from Venice to Ft Lauderdale in 2013. Weren't thrilled to fly to Venice so again luckily  we found a Holland America Cruise that went from Ft Lauderdale to Rome that gave us a few days enjoy Italy before doing the Ruby Cruise.Again, never saw this option again. For those  in the So Cal/Nevada/ Arizona area Holland offers  a San Diego-Lima Peru round trip. So there are options out there but if you see something that interests you jump on it if you can as it may never happen again.