Noro Virus Outbreak on Xmas Cruise? Sun Princess

[MicCanberra]

Hi It was not meant to be a 'review' just a few comments in reply to questions. I usually do a 'live from' but this cruise was to be a lazy one and so I did not do one this time Happy to answer questions

It was appreciated anyway.:D

[bazshirl2]

Hi, Windsor26 Thank You for doing a quick review of the ship. Glad to hear that you had a good time. Some of the reviews on this ship lately haven't been that good.

its a shame that your Xmas dinner wasn't what you had expected i thought that this would have been great as it was a special cruise being Xmas and the chef would have excelled in this area.

Thanks Zanny:)

Hi Zanny,

We did a northern Australia cruise shortly after the Sun's refurb a few months ago.

We loved the International Cafe on Deck 5 which has been added which was a very popular meeting place for snacks, coffees etc. This feature is on many of Princess ships not based in Australia.

Suspect Dawn and Sea ships will have this added on their next refurb. Understand Dawn (the next oldest ) is due around May 2015.:)

[MicCanberra]

Hi Zanny,

We did a northern Australia cruise shortly after the Sun's refurb a few months ago.

We loved the International Cafe on Deck 5 which has been added which was a very popular meeting place for snacks, coffees etc. This feature is on many of Princess ships not based in Australia.

Suspect Dawn and Sea ships will have this added on their next refurb. Understand Dawn (the next oldest ) is due around May 2015.:)

That will certainly make the ships more popular for the aussies. We loed the coffees on the Diamond.:D

[OzKiwiJJ]

Would say - as I did on my paperwork to Princess - the Christmas dinner was the worst we have ever had on Princess cruise ship. Perhaps our hopes were too high but I did expect a rich dark hot christmas pudding (cold pale tan colour with little fruit) and the mince pies were no fruit but a sort of marzipan crumble inside. Did not eat either after the first taste.

Spoke with the Dawn Princess cruisers who were in Dunedin with nus and they had hot black puddings so down to the Chef it would seem.

 

That's disappointing to hear. We are currently looking at booking the Fiji & South Pacific cruise over Christmas this year. It will be our first ocean cruise.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

That's disappointing to hear. We are currently looking at booking the Fiji & South Pacific cruise over Christmas this year. It will be our first ocean cruise.

 

That's the itinerary we did this Chrissy. Loved our Christmas dinner on the Sea Princess, so I think it is up to the chef as Windsor suggested.

[MicCanberra]

That's disappointing to hear. We are currently looking at booking the Fiji & South Pacific cruise over Christmas this year. It will be our first ocean cruise.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

That itinerary is a great one to start with for your first ocean cruise. Food can be subjective and as stated they were expecting a really special Xmas dinner which didn't eventuate. They didn't actually say the dinner /food was bad as they had posted "the Christmas dinner was the worst we have ever had on Princess cruise ship. Perhaps our hopes were too high but I did expect a rich dark hot christmas pudding (cold pale tan colour with little fruit) and the mince pies were no fruit but a sort of marzipan crumble inside. Did not eat either after the first taste.". So I wouldn't be put off by that except to not expect a really special Xmas dinner. Enjoy.:D

Edited January 7, 2014 by MicCanberra

[windsor26]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

That itinerary is a great one to start with for your first ocean cruise. Food can be subjective and as stated they were expecting a really special Xmas dinner which didn't eventuate. They didn't actually say the dinner /food was bad as they had posted "the Christmas dinner was the worst we have ever had on Princess cruise ship. Perhaps our hopes were too high but I did expect a rich dark hot christmas pudding (cold pale tan colour with little fruit) and the mince pies were no fruit but a sort of marzipan crumble inside. Did not eat either after the first taste.". So I wouldn't be put off by that except to not expect a really special Xmas dinner. Enjoy.:D

 

Quite correct any meal I have not had to shop for and then prepare and cook must be a good one but having said that I do think the Christmas dinner was extremely poor quality and content for a Princess ship (I am not knocking Princess I am reporting on what - to me - has not been the best Head Chef we have come across in 400 odd days. If they are not told they will not know. My first cruise with Princess was on the Sun for 76 days and in that time every meal was great - in fact one evening when I really did not feel like a heavy meal and just said tot the waiter I was not hungry he got me a mushroom omelet which was the best one I have ever tasted. I may have been because for 3 weeks of this cruise the Big Honcho for the whole cooking business on all Princess ships was on board and gave several displays

[OzKiwiJJ]

Thanks, folks. I guess every chef has his/her vision of what a Christmas pud is. At least it sounds like it wasn't a problem across the whole line as one of the other ships did have hot rich pud. The chef wasn't Italian by any chance? "cold pale tan colour with little fruit" sounds very like Pannetone which is popular in Italy at Christmas. Also marzipan is common in countries like Germany at Christmas.

 

I'm finding this site very useful indeed and look forward to having great chats with folk here about that specific cruise, and cruises in general.

[MicCanberra]

Thanks, folks. I guess every chef has his/her vision of what a Christmas pud is. At least it sounds like it wasn't a problem across the whole line as one of the other ships did have hot rich pud. The chef wasn't Italian by any chance? "cold pale tan colour with little fruit" sounds very like Pannetone which is popular in Italy at Christmas. Also marzipan is common in countries like Germany at Christmas.

 

I'm finding this site very useful indeed and look forward to having great chats with folk here about that specific cruise, and cruises in general.

That is what we are here for, to gather and to give information about cruises, cruising and anything else at all.:D

[eljay62]

Hi, Eljay62. glad that you are having a good time? Have you done the ships tours or organized some yourselves? We are going on the same iterenery on Jan 25th cruise. i have noticed on the web cam that the seas have been calm? Hope we don't get a cyclone.

What would the average age be on your cruise? my son and his mate are going and they are 22 and 23 i have told them that this ship attracts the older age group but they wanted to go to Fiji?

Another question do they still have Guess jewelery on the ship? and have they still got a good range of Clinique cosmetics on board.

Thanks Zanny:)

 

Sea has been the calmest we've ever experienced, could do with a few waves to liven things up a little :p

 

We did ships tour for Denarau to South Seas Island & it was a fabulous day on an uninhabited island with entertainment, drinks & BBQ included. Suva we again did ships tour to cultural centre for fire walking which was fun but over priced for what it was. Savu Savu we went to a village for Kava Ceremony & entertainment which we found very interesting & got to talk to a young Fijian man John who was 20. He gave us a lot of insight into their way of life etc. Dravuni was a great day of swimming & snorkelling & tomorrow is Noumea but we have stayed before so will jump on a local bus & head over to Anse Vata to catch a water taxi to Duck Island for the day to snorkel.

Age demographic is wide this cruise & for once we have had a lot of 40-55 year olds. There's 290 kids on board but you wouldn't know it & the ones we've met are very well mannered.

Not sure about Guess or Clinique but next time I'm passing I'll have a look. I know perfume is more expensive by about $20 than what I can buy for in Sydney.

[MicCanberra]

Sea has been the calmest we've ever experienced, could do with a few waves to liven things up a little :p

 

We did ships tour for Denarau to South Seas Island & it was a fabulous day on an uninhabited island with entertainment, drinks & BBQ included. Suva we again did ships tour to cultural centre for fire walking which was fun but over priced for what it was. Savu Savu we went to a village for Kava Ceremony & entertainment which we found very interesting & got to talk to a young Fijian man John who was 20. He gave us a lot of insight into their way of life etc. Dravuni was a great day of swimming & snorkelling & tomorrow is Noumea but we have stayed before so will jump on a local bus & head over to Anse Vata to catch a water taxi to Duck Island for the day to snorkel.

Age demographic is wide this cruise & for once we have had a lot of 40-55 year olds. There's 290 kids on board but you wouldn't know it & the ones we've met are very well mannered.

Not sure about Guess or Clinique but next time I'm passing I'll have a look. I know perfume is more expensive by about $20 than what I can buy for in Sydney.

Sounds like the makings of a great cruise to me. Hope the weather keeps calm for you.:D

[Zanny]

Hi, Eljay 62. Thanks for your reply. I gather things are going along fine on the ship now witrh no noro then ( i suppose every cruise does have some case) but we only hear about it when uit gets out of control. Are they still enforcing the had sanitizers?Enjoy yyour last port of call noumea.

 

Regards zanny:)

[eljay62]

Hi, Eljay 62. Thanks for your reply. I gather things are going along fine on the ship now witrh no noro then ( i suppose every cruise does have some case) but we only hear about it when uit gets out of control. Are they still enforcing the had sanitizers?Enjoy yyour last port of call noumea.

 

Regards zanny:)

 

Didn't hear of any Noro the whole cruise. Hand sanitizing was strictly enforced with dining room attendants actually holding squeezy bottles & liberally squirting your hands & I never saw anyone escape the squirt. Horizon Court had attendants manning the automatic sanitizers at all times too.

 

I saw Guess products & Clinique as well ;)

[kootz]

Can you tell me whether the electrical outlets are American or Australian?

[eljay62]

Can you tell me whether the electrical outlets are American or Australian?

 

There's one Australian & one USA behind TV & one USA above desk. My cabin steward got me an extension cord so I could go anywhere in the cabin with appliances plugged into the Australian power point...heck I could have gone up to the top deck with it..lol

Edited January 12, 2014 by eljay62

[OzKiwiJJ]

I found a really good travel powerboard at Bunnings yesterday. Two USB ports, two standard three pin sockets, 1 meter cord that neatly wraps around the base when not in use, and surge protected. $29.

 

I've been looking for something like this for the past year or so.Not just for cruises but for travel in general. Some places we stayed in the UK last year had very awkward power points. Something like this, with the appropriate adaptor, will work really well everywhere that has 220-240V power.

[eljay62]

I found a really good travel powerboard at Bunnings yesterday. Two USB ports, two standard three pin sockets, 1 meter cord that neatly wraps around the base when not in use, and surge protected. $29.

 

I've been looking for something like this for the past year or so.Not just for cruises but for travel in general. Some places we stayed in the UK last year had very awkward power points. Something like this, with the appropriate adaptor, will work really well everywhere that has 220-240V power.

 

Power boards are not allowed with Princess. Saw many bags down in security waiting for owners to unlock & remove power boards & irons. I was there because I had a small hand clothes steamer which was showing up as an iron but once seen they let it on board.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Interesting! I've seen posts elsewhere on this forum that seemed to indicate that they were OK, and other posts saying that double adaptors were OK. Maybe it depends on the size of the powerboard? One with six sockets would be a big issue. If appliances and chargers were plugged into all those sockets that could cause a power overload. The Bunnings one is essentially a double adaptor with a couple of USB ports, and USB ports don't draw much power. Oh well, I shall see in due course. Might have to pack a separate USB charger just in case.

[NSWP]

Re power boards, easy for us, we don't need them anyway, no phones, no lap tops (don't have a lap top anyway.) When away we are mainly ex communicado ! Except to occasionally check our G Mail on the complimentary internet on Princess (Elite pax.) On land we often stay in business type hotels, e.g. Holiday Inns and use their complimentary business centre computers, printers etc.

 

Way to go, travel light, travel smart. We want to forget everything when we go away, even family, well not quite. We are Dinosaurs, still send post cards, LOL.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We have Kindles so need to be able to charge those via USB port.

 

I use my smartphone for all sorts of things other than just a phone: it's my alarm clock, I have some games on it that I enjoy as a break from reading, and most importantly all my travel notes and documents are downloaded on to it using Evernote. So that needs USB charging as well. Also my phone is my WiFi hotspot when travelling within Australia with a laptop, saves me hunting down free WiFi hotspots or paying exorbitant hotel WiFi rates.

 

My new camera has one disadvantage. It has a specialised battery that needs a charger and power socket :( and this is one of the reasons I've bought a combined USB / power socket travel power board.

 

Sometimes when I'm travelling I take my laptop so that also needs a socket. Over the years I have found it useful, and it was invaluable on our UK trip last year after my handbag (including phone) was stolen. However I probably won't take it cruising.

 

Australian and Asian hotels are usually pretty good with easy access power sockets but not so in the UK & Ireland. We really needed a powerboard there.

[yatchet]

Maybe if we cruised with the top of the range, expensive all inclusive Silversea Cruises, there wouldn't be any Noro.......Would there?

 

http://www.skagwaynews.com/SNEWStopstories080913.html

 

Scroll to bottom of page!

 

What's that old saying? You get what you pay for.:D

[yatchet]

That will certainly make the ships more popular for the aussies. We loed the coffees on the Diamond.:D

Did you mean loved or loathed.:D

[MicCanberra]

Maybe if we cruised with the top of the range, expensive all inclusive Silversea Cruises, there wouldn't be any Noro.......Would there?

 

http://www.skagwaynews.com/SNEWStopstories080913.html

 

Scroll to bottom of page!

 

What's that old saying? You get what you pay for.:D

Apparently not always.:eek:

[MicCanberra]

Did you mean loved or loathed.:D

LOL, :D We loved the free coffee as it was drinkable where as on X and NCL the free coffee is bad. Also loved the specialty coffees (paid for) from the Cafe', on X , the Cafe' has the best coffees and NCL these are the only types that are drinkable.

Is it any wonder people drink so much alcohol, when the coffee is crap.:D