PRINCESS CRUISERS: HOW ARE THINGS WHERE YOU ARE?!

[rocklinmom]

On 3/28/2020 at 5:54 PM, Thrak said:

 

Not sure where we can get disinfecting wipes. The stores where she lives have nothing. I don't know about here as the only time we went to the store was a couple of weeks ago and there were empty shelves all over the store. We will have to try going out early for the "senior hours" and see what can be had. Of course once they are here we will need to shop with/for them as well and they can't go in during the "senior hours". We will, of necessity, figure it out. Compared to those who were in the fires we are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of the game. Perspective is important.

Wow Thrak, lots of changes for you. I can't imagine. Take it one step at a time and everything will work out eventually. Most importantly take care of yourself. You are indeed in the high risk category so be very careful. You and your wife are extremely generous and loving to take in your daughter and her family, she is lucky to have parents like you. Please keep us updated. 

[TheSweetLife220]

My town just contracted two positive cases last week. My county now has 6 positive cases. We are sheltering in place. If I go out now I will probably start wearing a mask. Most everything has been closed. We only have 5 grocery stores within a 100 radius.

 

[40yearcruiser]

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. It helps to share the frustration and get ideas for passing the time while in isolation. We were to be in Fiji on the Ruby Princess right now. Our 8-week trip, including a trans-Pacific back to the US from Australia, was cancelled 2 days before we were to fly out. Fortunately, the hotels we had booked in Australia were all free cancellation so that is taken care of. And the upside is that we didn't get quarantined in some distant country.

We live in a suburb of Jacksonville, FL, and there are a number of COVID-19 cases in the surrounding counties. Everything around here is closed up, as in most of the country. This week they even closed the beaches so now I can't go out and walk there. We have been sheltering ever since our trip was cancelled, except to shop for food. We have been having very warm weather so are spending a lot of time outdoors working in the yard. Have even been swimming in the pool, which is unusual for this early in the Spring. Having most of our meals outside on the patio. 

I've been visiting the Princess website daily to read the latest updates and search for where to cruise after this is over. Will have a lot of FCC to use up! We are in the "older" age bracket so not sure how soon we should plan another trip. Found a cruise we like in August but don't know if that's too soon to hit the seas again. We have a New Years cruise booked on the new Carnival Mardi Gras to take our granddaughter--if it doesn't get delayed again in construction. Think we might try for Fiji again next year.

Everyone stay safe and healthy!

 

[LoriPhil]

Shortage of masks here so I wore a bandana under a buff for my blood test today, and took the earliest lab appointment they had at 7am.  Went home and immediately showered thoroughly and washed  my clothes.  Amazing how paranoid I’ve become. 😱

[reemab1]

Well we're all in Lock Down in the UK - cant even visit my elderly parents unless its to leave food on the doorstep- 1 walk a day and only out for necessities such as food and medicine - having said that feel that we personally are doing Ok.  Doing our best to assist those who need it - and sending positive thoughts to those who need it.

[2gonow]

Nice idea to start this thread,

Our plans were to fly from Portland, Or on Mar 30 to Florida, spend a week visiting with my brother and his family.  Then board the Coral Princess April 6th for a 15 day cruise to LA via the Panama Canal.

 

During our "stay home, stay safe" time I have been able to fill a couple of photo albums with pictures from our last 2 cruises,

Coral Princess LA to LA Asian Circle Sept 2018

Royal Princess Ft. Lauderdale to LA around South America Feb 2019

 

We are taking walks in the neighborhood along with a couple of trips to the grocery store as everything else is closed for now.

Best to everyone,

Bill & Ann

 

[sprint180]

I Nebraska - the virus hasn't gotten here , YET.  But, it is getting closer now in communities 100 miles away.  Stores have plenty of food, except TP, bread, flour and potatoes.  All of those you can get if you are patient and just check back if you need.  People stayed home the first week and a half but are starting to venture out more.   Unfortunately this is happening as the virus is getting closer.  I want to go on a cruise so bad I can taste it.  I was just on a cruise in January so maybe a year would be the soonest but since I can't boy do I want to go now.  The weather here is beautiful but chance of snow Thursday.  Hope all are well.

Vicki

 

[pris993]

San Mateo California, 30 miles south of San Francisco... on 3rd week of stay home orders, now extended another month.    Most people here taking it seriously, only stores, banks, pharmacies and take out places open.  We were scheduled to flight from San Francisco to Israel non stop in May, re booked our trip to September.  We shop one day a week, was hard to get toilet paper, paper products and cleaning products initially... stores restocking.  Amazon busy and hiring extra help.  I am taking walk in my neighborhood, streets empty.    Very few cars on freeway, drove to San Jose over weekend for family needs. 

[Thrak]

NEWS FLASH!!!

 

Chuck Norris tested positive for corona virus!

 

 

 

 

...they had to quarantine the virus

[Thrak]

Our middle child (second son) is a Sergeant for the California Highway Patrol and gets lots of state updates on virus stuff. He was freaking out about us going down to Lompoc on a 3 day trip to move our daughter up here. He was pretty adamant that we really shouldn't be doing that and how our daughter and her husband should be able to handle things themselves. My wife called and talked with our daughter and it's been agreed that they will move themselves. We arranged for a U-Haul and a storage unit (U-Haul offered one month free with the trailer rental) so they will be doing the move on their own. They will still be moving in with us for a while but it will hopefully not be for long.

 

Pinnacles National Park hasn't closed yet. It isn't like a lot of the other parks and doesn't attract a bazillion people. One entrance is closed and it is the one where the climbers tend to go into the park. The campground is at another entrance. So far they say they are staying open for camping so maybe we can get away for a bit to ease the household situation. There's also a fairly local primitive campground we like to go to but it's too early in the year. It's still snowing there.

 

I've spent the last few days organizing and throwing stuff out or packing it to donate. Have to make some order and some room if we are going to have other here with us. It's amazing how much "stuff" one gathers. I think child proofing is going to be a bit difficult but we're "working on it". They pick up the trailer on the Saturday the 4th so I imagine they will be here on Sunday. The trailer has to be turned in here on Tuesday morning. At least I don't have much hair left to pull out!

[Host CJSKIDS]

I just wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread. It’s really been something to read how things are going and how our lives have all changed so much. 
 

Miami continues to have new cases daily. We are up to 2123 cases as of this evening. Of course there is such a massive shortage of tests available that who knows what the real amount is. They now believe it’s been here since before the super bowl and with all the international travel, crowds, positive people getting off untested from cruise ships and everything else, we are expected to see that number go much higher. 
 

I can see many cruise ships both anchored off shore as well as docked and watch them daily. One ship even lit up stateroom a couple of nights ago to say Love u 305. Could see the Costa ships and watches on the local news them taking the ill crew members off. Another got taken off another ship here today 

 

finally ventured out for a walk today in Brickell and honestly came home quite a bit scared. Brickell is normally so lively but without that, we are getting a larger homeless population that are getting aggressive and following you not keeping their distance. It’s not normally an issue here and I’ve gotten to know the few homeless people over time that are normally here to say hello or wave as we pass all the time. This is a whole new world. 

Living in a high rise in a city brings a whole set of complications that I’m not a huge fan of right now.
 

As everywhere else, life is strange. What I would give to go back to complaining about the insane traffic.

[HappyInVan]

Just watched a CBC national report. Quebec (pop 8 million) has just 4k cases. Already dangerously low on some medical supplies (only “3-7 days”). They used up a year's worth of some supplies in just weeks.

 

I'm glad that we closed the border.

[MamaFej]

My daughter is home and  "attending" a 22nd birthday party via Zoom for one of her sorority sisters. She has consumed a significant portion of the tequila she got for her own 21st birthday at the beginning of March. 

 

I am not in any way going to judge her. I'm just asking her to keep the volume to a level which allows her dad to sleep. 

 

I'm a terrible sleeper, so her volume isn't really bothering me. 

 

Also, her dad could fall asleep on a roller coaster during an earthquake after consuming a triple espresso.

 

Be well, fellow posters. Be well.

[jodi58]

I’m beginning my third week of self isolation.

 

I work in healthcare but home because of immune system issues.

 

i retire in a few months and am devastated that I am not there for my crew at the hospital.  I’m not front line but help keep things running.  I am worried for my coworkers.

 

Spring  cleaning and Skyping with Grandbabby keeping us busy.

 

A Fall TA was to be my retirement cruise but will reschedule for Fall 2021, hopefully!

[LoriPhil]

Thrak - thanks for for the update!  So glad you discussed with your law-enforcement son and were successful in turning that around!  Storage locker also sounds like a great way to keep tons of stuff out of your house.  Whew!  👍

Edited April 1, 2020 by LoriPhil

[LoriPhil]

Storage locker.  Ummmm, wonder if they have power and water... so does your son-in-law and daughter enjoy camping?  😜

[NorthwestCruiser]

Well, I live in Anacortes (Skagit County) and it was a bit surprising to find my county in the New York Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, and others.   We have a choir that plays in Mt Vernon and many of their members got infected at a choir practice, and unfortunately at least two have died.   We looked up (on the county assessor's website) the people who were infected and then interviewed for the story and one of them lives about two blocks away from my house.    Another lives about three blocks away near a friend of ours, and one of the people who died lives near our grocery store.   That brings this whole thing uncomfortably close, we have two grocery stores so obviously these unfortunate people shopped at the same store that I did.    It is also depressing and scary to see people younger than me perishing from this plague in other parts of the country.

 

We have been self isolating to an increasing degree; if you have read my posts from early on you will see that I have been worried about this for several months, so we are reasonably well supplied so that we don't have to go out.   We are going through our paper towels a lot faster than I anticipated, though.   Amazon is our lifeline, now when a package arrives I disinfect it with Chlorox wipes, unbox it out in the driveway, disinfect the plastic wrapped items, and then quarentine them in the garage for a few days.    I feel like a paranoid person, but this stuff lasts for several days on plastic and many Amazon workers are infected.   I think this lifeline will break pretty soon unless we come up with something clever.

 

We (the state) are under an isolation order, we are able to drive to a  place where we can take a walk, unfortunately the very good state parks near us are closed.   Whidbey Naval Air station is still operational, we hear the jets practicing quite a bit now that we are stuck at home.   (They are *loud*, nothing like a commercial jet, but that is an issue for another day.)    I have a boat that most likely needs attention, at least washing, but I'm not sure if I can justify the trip to the marina.   It is a little enough thing to worry about compared to the heartbreak that others are experiencing but it does make me sad to think of it just sitting there decaying covered in seagull droppings.    Another small issue is that lawn mowing is not considered essential, perhaps not much of an issue since we can't go anywhere but a lot of people around here do not even own lawnmowers so this area is going to get pretty shaggy.

[NorthwestCruiser]

19 hours ago, HappyInVan said:

Just watched a CBC national report. Quebec (pop 8 million) has just 4k cases. Already dangerously low on some medical supplies (only “3-7 days”). They used up a year's worth of some supplies in just weeks.

 

I'm glad that we closed the border.

I suppose that it helps with social distancing but this is really like closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out.   The genetics apparently show that about %80 of our nearly 6,000 cases came from a single person, who immediately called the health department and went into voluntary isolation as soon as he felt sick.    (We didn't know about the pre-symptomatic infections back then.)   At some point we will have to decide if closing the border is worth it, since the infections are on both sides.   Really, if we want to close anything we should shut down aviation and the interstates to all but trucks and emergency personnel.

[RenRan]

Northwest Cruiser

We live in South Everett and my lawn mowing company said they have been classified as "Essential". They said they can mow lawns but can not do any landscape projects. We always enjoy visiting Anacortes and Skagit County. Missing seeing the tulips!

[HappyInVan]

1 hour ago, NorthwestCruiser said:

I suppose that it helps with social distancing but this is really like closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out.   The genetics apparently show that about %80 of our nearly 6,000 cases came from a single person, who immediately called the health department and went into voluntary isolation as soon as he felt sick.    (We didn't know about the pre-symptomatic infections back then.)   

 

 

The literature that I have seen suggests that asymptomatic infection is not a significant factor. Rather, the most important factor has been the lack of large scale testing until 10 days ago.

 

We'll keep the borders closed until the infection rate is similar. Perhaps, wearing of masks will help?

 

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-coronavirus-cases-deaths-105634996.html

 

 

 

[4cats4me]

What a nice thread! We are doing okay in the San Francisco Bay Area, having been sheltering in Place since 3/17. I am lucky enough to still have a job, although I haven’t been working due to being in a ‘high-risk’  group, but I plan to go back on 4/7, since we won't be encountering the public, so I won’t have to be around too many people. Our shelter in place has been extended to 5/3.  Schools closed for the remainder of the season, through JUNe.  In my county we are up to 257 cases, and 2,500 for the Bay Area. 

People seem to be abiding by the social distancing requirements for the most part.   We have plenty of toilet paper.  LOL

The masks finally arrived from Amazon.  Our state is now recommending that we all wear masks  now.   

(My friend had Covid in early March, almost all the hallmark.   symptoms.  She’s feeling well now.  )

 

 Have been Zooming with friends.  Four of us had a 

virtual cocktail party last Thursday night and five more of us had a virtual zoom cocktail 

party on Friday night.  

Getting a lot of housework done. 

Can’t wait to cruise again soon.  We were supposed to be on a cruise in a couple weeks.  

 

Wishing everyone on this forum good health!

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by 4cats4me

[4cats4me]

21 minutes ago, 4cats4me said:

What a nice thread! We are doing okay in the San Francisco Bay Area, having been sheltering in Place since 3/17. I am lucky enough to still have a job, although I haven’t been working due to being in a ‘high-risk’  group, but I plan to go back on 4/7, since we won't be encountering the public, so I won’t have to be around too many people. Our shelter in place has been extended to 5/3.  Schools closed for the remainder of the season, through JUNe.  In my county we are up to 257 cases, and 2,500 for the Bay Area. 

People seem to be abiding by the social distancing requirements for the most part.   We have plenty of toilet paper.  LOL

The masks finally arrived from Amazon.  Our state is now recommending that we all wear masks  now.   

(My friend had Covid in early March, almost all the hallmark.   symptoms.  She’s feeling well now.  )

 

 Have been Zooming with friends.  Four of us had a 

virtual cocktail party last Thursday night and five more of us had a virtual zoom cocktail 

party on Friday night.  

Getting a lot of housework done. 

Can’t wait to cruise again soon.  We were supposed to be on a cruise in a couple weeks.  

 

Wishing everyone on this forum good health!

 

 

I took this picture one day before the order to shelter in place.  

Such a magical sky.  We rarely see anything like that here.  

 

[taznremmy]

What a gorgeous photo!  Lucky you.

[getting older slowly]

We are doing OK, but live in an apartment no balcony..... food shopping is all right.. but have to change dinner plans while shopping.... also have to go to two supermarkets to get the thing we need.......

 

Starting to get a bit down after read it looks like 6 months of lock down..... had a local cruise book late in the year.... but I am doubtful....    would love to go for a drive... for a change of scenery... but not allow....

 

Wish one lived in a house,, at least you could potter in the garden.....

 

Shouldn't complain at least being retied can't lose by job, like so many other people....

also luckily have no mortgage and no debt .......

 

Just miss going away.....

 

stay save everybody    Don       

[Thrak]

My but times have changed...

 

2019 - Drinking alone at home

Sad

Disturbing

Loser

 

2020 - Drinking at home alone

Citizen

Inspiration

Hero