Princess messages the new cruising guidelines.

[clo]

7 hours ago, pinotlover said:

We show up for embarkment at 15:00-16:00

A year ago before our first O cruise from Rio we had lunch at a fave place on shore and, yeah, boarded around 3. After a couple of caipirinhas (each) we took naps and had room service burgers for dinner.. Like y'all not worried about missing a meal 🙂

[Silver Sweethearts]

5 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

I have no desire to get into the "first Hog to the Trough" mentality of "sophicate's (entitled) passengers.

 

Some of us may indeed have a suite including the early boarding perk, and we aren't about to waste it.  If we are told we can board at 11 a.m. or noon, we'll take the cruise line up on the offer and have time for a leisurely lunch before things get busy.  It really is quite a nice way to start a cruise.  Not first hog to the trough (how lovely to be described that way) or entitled.  To each his/her own.

[pinotlover]

38 minutes ago, Silver Sweethearts said:

 

Some of us may indeed have a suite including the early boarding perk, and we aren't about to waste it.  If we are told we can board at 11 a.m. or noon, we'll take the cruise line up on the offer and have time for a leisurely lunch before things get busy.  It really is quite a nice way to start a cruise.  Not first hog to the trough (how lovely to be described that way) or entitled.  To each his/her own.

SS;

 

No one is disputing someone taking advantage of an assigned 11 or 12:00 boarding time. I think Dan’s and my comments were about lines being created by all the multiple people showing up before noon with a 1:00 or later assigned boarding. 
 

FWIW, if one reads the MSC blogs, assigned boarding times correlated with expected cabin availability times. Cruisers were able to go directly to their cabins upon boarding. Part of the social distancing plan. Believing this will be carried forward by other lines, lower cabins will have late assigned embarkment times.

[Hawaiidan]

44 minutes ago, Silver Sweethearts said:

 

Some of us may indeed have a suite including the early boarding perk, and we aren't about to waste it.  If we are told we can board at 11 a.m. or noon, we'll take the cruise line up on the offer and have time for a leisurely lunch before things get busy.  It really is quite a nice way to start a cruise.  Not first hog to the trough (how lovely to be described that way) or entitled.  To each his/her own.

please take exception.....I was describing the hell bent to begin the food consumption that  so many seem to hold as their mantra. " Where is the food...let em at it."     This I why I always avoid the " lunch at boarding" and the pandemonium you refer to. I can be a feeding frenzy that the Germans  call "Fressing"

  I realize you special situation as you have described prior and  well.    Do not lump you selves in with  those who are cut from a different  cloth.

AND....Merry Christmas and God Bless to you................. Dan

[clo]

55 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

please take exception

Dan, I hear ya. I guess if you cruise from one place that doesn't have any inviting dining enticements, then sure. But our cruises have all been from places with GREAT places to eat. So why jump on the ship where we'll have total opportunities to indulge.

[CintiPam]

1 hour ago, Hawaiidan said:

This I why I always avoid the " lunch at boarding" and the pandemonium you refer to. I can be a feeding frenzy that the Germans  call "Fressing"

  I realize you special situation as you have described prior and  well.    Do not lump you selves in with  those who are cut from a different  cloth.

AND....Merry Christmas and God Bless to you................. Dan

Dan, I heartily disagree with your association of Oceania cruisers with the German term “fressen.” Perhaps you are confused with a different cruise line.
 

Although I never board before 3 pm when starting a European cruise, always preferring to enjoy the delights of my embarkation city as long as I can, I often board earlier in Miami, and never have witnessed such behavior.

 

In my experience, many simply board early to commence changing gears into vacation mode, relax, enjoy the excellent service, explore the ship, etc.

Edited December 7, 2020 by CintiPam

[tvmovielover]

Long ago, essen was what humans did and fressen was what animals did.  I first heard fressing as a Yiddish term for pretty much eating like a pig.  The only time we were onboard during "free lunch", there were way too many people in the dining room to bother.  It was boring to sit around if your room was not ready so I think that must be why so many people ate.  It was in Southampton and many arrived too early to have a room ready.  We have since always visited the town rather than board early.  DH did wisely visit the town that time and enjoyed it.

[Shawnino]

This is one of the joys of O.

25% less riff, and 40% less raff.

[Nashna]

We typically fly to the port a few days prior to departure.  The two times we requested late hotel checkout, we were denied.  This forced us to head to the pier an hour earlier than our cruise confirmation indicated.  We enjoyed those early arrivals as they allowed us to acclaimate ourselves to the ship. If given the opportunity, we would opt to be one of the early arrivals.  I'm not a fan of buffets so I avoid them whenever I can. 

[Hawaiidan]

12 hours ago, CintiPam said:

Dan, I heartily disagree with your association of Oceania cruisers with the German term “fressen.” Perhaps you are confused with a different cruise line.
 

Although I never board before 3 pm when starting a European cruise, always preferring to enjoy the delights of my embarkation city as long as I can, I often board earlier in Miami, and never have witnessed such behavior.

 

In my experience, many simply board early to commence changing gears into vacation mode, relax, enjoy the excellent service, explore the ship, etc.

Schone....Du hast ein gute verstatten auf Deutsch habben.  . ****   Ich auch hast diesen volk  gesehen......viel ziete.    Spater, und gute risen habben.....

[LHT28]

41 minutes ago, Nashna said:

We typically fly to the port a few days prior to departure.  The two times we requested late hotel checkout, we were denied.  T

We have found most hotels  will store you bags  after check out so you can go enjoy the sight or lunch until time to head to the port

B & B's  may not  be as accommodating 

[LHT28]

12 hours ago, CintiPam said:

I often board earlier in Miami, and never have witnessed such behavior.

 

 

 I agree

some people like to embellish things  for affect

[pinotlover]

41 minutes ago, Nashna said:

We typically fly to the port a few days prior to departure.  The two times we requested late hotel checkout, we were denied.  This forced us to head to the pier an hour earlier than our cruise confirmation indicated.  We enjoyed those early arrivals as they allowed us to acclaimate ourselves to the ship. If given the opportunity, we would opt to be one of the early arrivals.  I'm not a fan of buffets so I avoid them whenever I can. 

We never request late checkout, but have always found that either the hotel staff or Concierge will gladly keep watch over our worldly belongings as we explore the port town and have a delightful lunch in town. Then the hotels gladly call a taxi or car for us to haul us off to the ship.
 

Though we occasionally use Airbnb for some road trips, their inflexible nature would make them unusable for a pre cruise stay.

[sunlover12]

13 hours ago, CintiPam said:

Dan, I heartily disagree with your association of Oceania cruisers with the German term “fressen.” Perhaps you are confused with a different cruise line.
 

Although I never board before 3 pm when starting a European cruise, always preferring to enjoy the delights of my embarkation city as long as I can, I often board earlier in Miami, and never have witnessed such behavior.

 

In my experience, many simply board early to commence changing gears into vacation mode, relax, enjoy the excellent service, explore the ship, etc.

I agree with you, CintiPam. I've never witnessed this on Oceania. I've seen the feeding frenzy on one of the mass market cruise lines (Royal Caribbean) but never on O. 

 

On our last O cruise we were in a PH and we boarded sometime between 11-12.  As I recall, our bags arrived to the cabin before we did. We like to do the unpacking so that we can then relax and enjoy the ship. We ate lunch in the Terrace and it was orderly and relaxing. 

[Tranquility Base]

The electronic safety drill will become common on many cruise lines I think.

 

The ability to check crowd sizes in venues electronically may be useful. 

Obviously more relevant on large cruise ships as opposed to Oceania size ships .

 

It will be interesting to see where the track & trace aspect of this goes.

If  Covid appears again on a cruise ship, being able to rapidly identify recent close contacts  & casual contacts, and differentiating between the two, may aid in where & how to direct initial countermeasures.

 

Some countries are trialling bluetooth enabled cards which will register when in close proximity with another similar card. This is to try to ring fence an outbreak if one should occur in an otherwise Covid free environment.

 

Many authorities around the world will be using the old adage ..."Never let a crises go to waste."

I feel we are soon to enter the next stage of track & trace abilities around the world.

Especially in the field of travel.

 

The excuse which will be used...." We must be better prepared for the next pandemic. It may arrive sooner than we think"

Edited December 7, 2020 by Tranquility Base

[Daniel A]

I'm normally a Princess cruiser.  In the past, Suite, Wedding, Elite and Platinum passengers got priority early boarding.  After that, Princess asked passengers to arrive at the pier by assigning boarding times to those passengers according to their deck.  The only real enforcement of the policy was for the priority boarders, after that, there was nobody checking to see what deck you were on.

 

When Princess says you will be able to select your boarding time, they will probably give passengers time slots to select from a list of available times for their particular deck level or loyalty level.  As long as Princess makes clear that these boarding times will now be strictly enforced, people who arrive on EZ- Air flights or pre-cruise extension hotels will probably need to board buses according to the times offered.  I would imagine in Princess' case they would most likely place those passengers in another priority time slot group.  It would most likely be after the high loyalty level priority boarders as I cannot imagine how all the 'Elite' level passengers would scream about the need to play second fiddle to somebody who just got off a plane.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens for sure but it'll all get sorted out.

[pinotlover]

8 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

I'm normally a Princess cruiser.  In the past, Suite, Wedding, Elite and Platinum passengers got priority early boarding.  After that, Princess asked passengers to arrive at the pier by assigning boarding times to those passengers according to their deck.  The only real enforcement of the policy was for the priority boarders, after that, there was nobody checking to see what deck you were on.

 

When Princess says you will be able to select your boarding time, they will probably give passengers time slots to select from a list of available times for their particular deck level or loyalty level.  As long as Princess makes clear that these boarding times will now be strictly enforced, people who arrive on EZ- Air flights or pre-cruise extension hotels will probably need to board buses according to the times offered.  I would imagine in Princess' case they would most likely place those passengers in another priority time slot group.  It would most likely be after the high loyalty level priority boarders as I cannot imagine how all the 'Elite' level passengers would scream about the need to play second fiddle to somebody who just got off a plane.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens for sure but it'll all get sorted out.

I agree with most of this, even for Oceania. If you come in on O Air, they will transfer you to an intermediary comfortable holding area and then take you to the ship on their arranged schedule. All others will choose from times based primarily on cabin readiness. Those in inside cabins on Deck 4 will choose from 4:00 or 4:00. Those higher up will have more options to choose from.

[Tranquility Base]

On a list of 100 things the cruiselines must do to get cruising again, starting from the most challenging to the easiest, I reckon controlling embarkation procedure is about # 98.

[Hawaiidan]

2 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

.

 

 

 

 

 

Some countries are trialling bluetooth enabled cards which will register when in close proximity with another similar card. This is to try to ring fence an outbreak if one should occur in an otherwise Covid free environment.

 

 

OK...... I do not have a clue as to what your saying ....some sort of passengers carrying around on them some sort of transmitter thing.????    

[Tranquility Base]

52 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

OK...... I do not have a clue as to what your saying ....some sort of passengers carrying around on them some sort of transmitter thing.????    

No. It's a card carried in everyday life.

It creates a "digital handshake" with another person's card when certain time & distance parameters are meet.

It may be able to be used to improve contact tracing in an otherwise Covid free environment.

That way, if an isolated case does occur, close contacts of the infected person can be rapidly identified in order to better quickly ringfence the outbreak.

[pinotlover]

18 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

No. It's a card carried in everyday life.

It creates a "digital handshake" with another person's card when certain time & distance parameters are meet.

It may be able to be used to improve contact tracing in an otherwise Covid free environment.

That way, if an isolated case does occur, close contacts of the infected person can be rapidly identified in order to better quickly ringfence the outbreak.

Not wanting to be tinfoil hatish, but have you noticed the cruise lines that are advertising new touch less doors? The cabin doors will read the key and automatically unlock as the card holder approaches. No need to touch a door handle! Do you not believe the chip in that card isn’t transmitting continuous location . They know not only what other cards one comes into close contact with, but where you’re at and where you’ve been. No new technology in play, but a new use of the technology. Contact tracking, of course.

Edited December 7, 2020 by pinotlover

[Tranquility Base]

18 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Not wanting to be tinfoil hatish, but have you noticed the cruise lines that are advertising new touch less doors? The cabin doors will read the key and automatically unlock as the card holder approaches. No need to touch a door handle! Do you not believe the chip in that card isn’t transmitting continuous location . 

Yes, very aware,

I have cruised with Princess, but not actually onboard with one of the Medallions as shown in the original post on this thread.

I have no doubt that onboard contact tracing with these devices will be one of the many Covid fighting tools able to be used. 

[Daniel A]

1 hour ago, Tranquility Base said:

Yes, very aware,

I have cruised with Princess, but not actually onboard with one of the Medallions as shown in the original post on this thread.

I have no doubt that onboard contact tracing with these devices will be one of the many Covid fighting tools able to be used. 

I took a Princess Medallion Class cruise in February.  While the cabin door will unlock as you approach the door, you still need to manually turn the door handle.  Also for many onboard purchases you needed to hand the medallion to the bartender/ shop clerk so although the medallion reduces surface contacts it doesn't make the cruise completely contactless.

[clo]

4 hours ago, pinotlover said:

They know not only what other cards one comes into close contact with, but where you’re at and where you’ve been.

So what? If you haven't by now figured out that there's no privacy then...well, I don't believe it. You're clearly intelligent. I do nothing that I give a doo-doo if someone else knows about.

[Hawaiidan]

4 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

No. It's a card carried in everyday life.

It creates a "digital handshake" with another person's card when certain time & distance parameters are meet.

It may be able to be used to improve contact tracing in an otherwise Covid free environment.

That way, if an isolated case does occur, close contacts of the infected person can be rapidly identified in order to better quickly ringfence the outbreak.

oh.....you mean you would have no control over it.......That sounds a bit 1984 big brother where  governments could track your every move.....for any reason the choose.   Scary potential to be used for any purpose.