mini-live from the Grand Princess: first Hawaiian sailing post covid--Jan 4-19, 2022

[JF - retired RRT]

3 hours ago, travelin.sisters said:

dinner at Sabatini's

 

The Sabatini's menu doesn't offer me a lot, but I'd eat there just to get that dessert!

[c-boy]

4 hours ago, travelin.sisters said:

dinner at Sabatini's

holy cow ! that looks tremendous.

[partybarbie]

I can hardly wait to board the Grand in March! Thank you so much for all of the fabulous food pictures. Sabatini's is my favorite shipboard restaurant. We will be dining there for sure. 

 

[travelin.sisters]

18 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

For passengers on board the Grand Princess returning to San Pedro:

 

San Francisco tested on embarkation day for the Ruby voyage to Hawaii today.

 

Holland America tested in San Diego on Koningsdam on embarkation day to Hawaii today.

 

January 19 passengers say they haven't received word for San Pedro.

 

This is a big mystery to me since I have not heard a word on Oahu/State regarding mandatory testing embarkation day of passengers cruising to Hawaii.  Port Agreement did not mention testing embarkation day.  It does mention testing on the way over.

 

I am trying to be fair to the State of Hawaii that testing on embarkation day is a mandate from the state.  I know there are a lot of discussion about a booster required to be "fully vaccinated" but that has not been announced....YET.  Trying to sort through who is responsible for requiring the test to board before leaving.

 

If anyone on current cruise can find out and confirm informaition, that would be most useful.

 

Mahalo Nui Loa

Ok today I asked the medical person who came & did my COVID test about testing all the passengers before boarding & she did not think that was the plan currently, just midway there like ours, she said things could change at any time. In my mind this means one of three things:

1. they are, in fact, actually not doing this testing, 

2. they are doing it but haven't communicated it to the staff, 

3. they are doing it, but using shore-side resources rather than the shipboard medical (who I was told by the paramedic who did my tests yesterday are stretched very thin) 

of course there are always options:

4. something else entirely

&

5. whatever it changes to between now & then

 

I know this isn't much of an answer, but it's the closest I've gotten to actual info on the topic. 

 

[cr8tiv1]

@travelin.sistersNot to be prying into your personal medical history...but

 

I thought they ween't testing on the way back?

 

Thanks for your multiple choice options.  

[Connie1966]

12 hours ago, travelin.sisters said:

flower lei making

 

[Connie1966]

Just now, Connie1966 said:

 

Was there a cost to the lie making class ?

[travelin.sisters]

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

@travelin.sistersNot to be prying into your personal medical history...but

 

I thought they ween't testing on the way back?

 

Thanks for your multiple choice options.  

no worries, I put it out there, planning on doing a post about it as I think it is information people have questions about & few answers...I had a sore throat yesterday AM & felt the responsible thing was to report it, they tested & it was negative but told me I needed to isolate in my room for 24 hours until the retested. This morning they retested & it was still negative so they let me back out. The front desk person I spoke with today said several other people had been placed insolation yesterday. 

[travelin.sisters]

1 minute ago, Connie1966 said:

Was there a cost to the lie making class ?

the flower leis & ribbon leis were put on by the cruise staff & were included in the price of the cruise. the straw (fluffy) leis were taught by the Hawai'ian Ambasador Leialoha & there was a charge for those.

[Connie1966]

2 minutes ago, travelin.sisters said:

the flower leis & ribbon leis were put on by the cruise staff & were included in the price of the cruise. the straw (fluffy) leis were taught by the Hawai'ian Ambasador Leialoha & there was a charge for those.

Do you by chance know if you had to reserve a spot for the class ahead ?

[Connie1966]

16 hours ago, travelin.sisters said:

THREE MORE SEA DAYS (DAYS 10 TO 12)

 

Thursday morning, we were back to sea day activities…we got up early to get tickets for flower lei making. Flower lei making with Natalie was great. We really appreciate that they do tickets for the activities that will get full & break them into groups; we have been on ships where they just make people wait in long lines to try & get a space, which have led to very angry passengers. Natalie is a great instructor & so very organized!

 

‘Ukulele & hula classes resumed with Tiki Dave & Leialoha as well as the Enrichment Talks. We have really appreciated that the enrichment & port talks are available on the TV later as there are many activities (or naps) at the same time as these. There had been Naturalist Talks & Production Shows on the Journey View (app) schedule but they have been removed so we are enjoying what is available

 

Thursday was our second formal night & a chance to wear our flower leis. We had formal night photos taken to use the free print from our TA. There are way fewer photos being taken on this ship…one place on arrival but none getting on & off at our ports of call & none wandering around the dining rooms during meals. They are offering a free, no obligation photo session where a photographer will take you or your group around the ship & take photos.

 

For dinner, they served the much awaited (not by me as I am allergic) & tiny lobster (my sister had both the lobster & the steak…a do-it-yourself surf & turf & my brother had 2 lobster dinners…for those who have not sailed Princess before they do not just add an extra lobster to a dinner, they send an entire extra entrée, so they both ended up with two dinner plates to get what they wanted). After dinner, I watched my first Movie Under the Stars (after many cruises…always something new to try). The wind made it feel cold even with the provided blanket, which sadly is not long enough to cover both toes (I’m a California girl, sandals are my footwear of choice) & shoulders at the same time unless you curl up but it was a fun experience.

 

Friday was supposed to be our second COVID test but we were notified earlier in the cruise that they would no longer be doing these so it was just a normal sea day. Moving slowly but steadily toward home. Caught up on some enrichment talks we had missed, ate, rested, ate some more. We were happy to see our original waiter Francisco back after five days…we were told he was covering different venues during that time & we had three different waiters. Tony his assistant took good care of us while he was gone sharing our preferences with each new waiter but together, they are a great team. There has been a lot of shuffling of dining room staff this cruise, we have had three different head waiters to assist with allergy special orders which is very unusual when dining in the same place at the same time each night. Sometime during the night, we must have encountered tsunami waves but didn’t feel anything.

 

Saturday, we enjoyed another craft class with Natalie and in the evening the Captain’s Circle Cocktail Party for Platinum & Elite members. The captain shared that there were 320-some first time Princess cruisers on this sailing, which was a little surprising to me. They also announced the most sailed guests with the couple with the most days having sailed 2045 days! Dinner was at Sabatini’s thanks to our Travel Agent. We had never dined there & it was delightful!

 

It has been quite calm & thus far warmer than going to Hawai’i on our trip back & we are looking forward two more relaxing sea days & Ensenada (no plans to go anywhere there) before returning home to San Pedro.

What was the drink offers at the captain circle party?  Free drinks or drink tickets? I've read different things

depending on the cruise.

The last cruise we were on didn't have a captain circle party!

[travelin.sisters]

11 minutes ago, Connie1966 said:

Do you by chance know if you had to reserve a spot for the class ahead ?

the did the sign ups at 8AM the first sea day out of San Pedro & the first sea day out of Hawai'i...watch your patter for it or the wake show...they gave out tickets & divided it into 4 groups for each class.

[travelin.sisters]

Just now, Connie1966 said:

What was the drink offers at the captain circle party?  Free drinks or drink tickets? I've read different things

depending on the cruise.

The last cruise we were on didn't have a captain circle party!

they gave us drinks which is what we have had in the past

 

[vikkiw]

Thank you for all the great info and pictures of your tip. Would anyone be able to let me know what the cost is for self-service laundry on the Grand? Will be on the April 4 cruise and planning my packing list. 

Thank you in advance!

[azbirdmom]

2 hours ago, travelin.sisters said:

no worries, I put it out there, planning on doing a post about it as I think it is information people have questions about & few answers...I had a sore throat yesterday AM & felt the responsible thing was to report it, they tested & it was negative but told me I needed to isolate in my room for 24 hours until the retested. This morning they retested & it was still negative so they let me back out. The front desk person I spoke with today said several other people had been placed insolation yesterday. 

 

Glad your tests were negative.  Sure hope you stay that way and that you well enough to enjoy the rest of your cruise!

[caribill]

5 hours ago, vikkiw said:

Thank you for all the great info and pictures of your tip. Would anyone be able to let me know what the cost is for self-service laundry on the Grand? Will be on the April 4 cruise and planning my packing list. 

Thank you in advance!

 

Standard Princess charge is $3 wash, $3 dry. One drying cycle may or may not be enough.

[Gert2011]

8 hours ago, vikkiw said:

Thank you for all the great info and pictures of your tip. Would anyone be able to let me know what the cost is for self-service laundry on the Grand? Will be on the April 4 cruise and planning my packing list. 

Thank you in advance!

Someone posted that there were free tokens there because the laundry wasn't converted to medallion yet.  I don't know this for sure.

[kiwimum]

Last night was the final formal night on the Grand returning from Hawaii.  Today on my Facebook memories was a post from January 17, 2015 commenting on the items on the menu.   Very little has changed.   Escargot, lobster, Beef Wellington,  Butternut crepes

[kiwimum]

Laundry is currently free on the Grand Princess  and do not require tokens.  There is a container of tokens for laundry products.   The machines I have used over the last couple of weeks work fine, dryers run hot so be careful.

[san diego sue]

Glad to see that Travelin sisters is so responsible and care about your fellow cruisers. Reporting your minor illness was the thing to do. So glad that you didn't have Covid. Enjoy your last day on board.

We were to board tomorrow but unfortunately, my Covid test yesterday was positive. I would never have thought I was even sick and feel fine. This is to show how contagious Covid is right now and you can have it without even knowing. My husband is negative. CVS ran another test for me, after my disappointing results. It was accurate, verified by the second test.

We are so careful and pretty much have been staying at home.

[smbt1]

Testing on pier confirmed for Grand Jan 19 Hawaii cruise. Just got email from Princess.

[travelin.sisters]

MINI QUARRANTINE & ENSENADA

 

Sunday morning I decided that I should report that I had a sore throat (not bad, something I would normally just ignore, but didn’t want to spread COVID if I should have it & with the symptoms of the new variant often starting with throat issues, it felt like the right thing to do), so after checking the Medallion App & the TV health info, finally decided to use Crew Chat to figure out how to actually contact the Medical Center, they told me to call the Customer Service Desk & ask to be transferred. I spoke with someone in the Medical Center who took my name, cabin # & symptoms & said someone would call back. I received a call back pretty quickly from Tim, a paramedic, who confirmed my information & our vaccination status, then came up & did a nasal swab that was much deeper than the self-administered one we did earlier (PCR test) & a throat swab & took vitals he also did a nasal swab on my sister who is sharing a cabin with me. He said he should get back to me within an hour. Good news, both of us tested negative…not so good news, I needed to isolate in my cabin for 24 hours & be retested…sigh. Fortunately, my sister was free to go out as she had no symptoms. She was willing to bring me food (including my daily peanut butter cookie fix from the International Café). The food delivery menu is not very exciting (although the chocolate cake is delightful). There was some confusion about room cleaning…first they told my room steward that the special team would clean it, then told her that she should while I went out to the balcony…I figured that if I am not safe to got out about the ship it is not reasonable to expect her to come in her & clean so asked if she could just bring us some ice & we were good. Hopefully tomorrow they will retest me & decide that either I am sick or safe & that will be that. Our dining room team did give my sister a serving of the night’s chocolate journey to bring back to me so that was a nice surprise. I missed the third formal night & the second meal of the cruise where they served lobster (I think this is a first on any Princess cruise I have been on…not positive as I am allergic to shellfish so don’t actually eat it anyway). Also missed the opportunity to try again to get a portrait where we all liked how we looked as our TA had gifted us a photo. All in all, not how I would have chosen to spend the day but not that bad.

 

On a side note, for those who have been wondering about Medallion Net connection…I have been able to attend my home church services live by Zoom both Sunday mornings of our sailing…this week was great with no lagging or dropping…last week (on the way into Honolulu harbor) I lost the connection a couple of times, but that occasionally happens at home as well, so may or may not have been related to the ship’s connection. On the whole I have been very pleased with the connectivity & speed (granted we are sailing at limited capacity).

 

Monday, we ordered from the room service menu card & I have to say I will need to be desperate to do that again. The croissant & apricot jam was good & you can’t really mess up apple juice but the breakfast sandwich was not enjoyable. Apparently, they do not think people on cruises actually drink milk as we ordered 2 milks & received a carafe of coffee (which we did not order), 2 cups, sugar & 2 creamer pitchers of milk…my sweet sister who stayed & ate with me got to drink her glass of milk out of a cup. I was happy that they came & tested me about 10 AM & said that once the results were back, they would discuss them with the doctor to see if I could be released if the results were negative, apparently this was not an automatic thing since my throat was still sore. Before I got a call from medical services, I got one from guest services to arrange for me to disembark separate from the other passengers. I said I was hoping to be set free that day so after several calls we agreed that they would wait for the doctor’s decision to proceed. Happily for me, the fourth call of the day confirmed that this test was also negative & I was free to leave my room & continue as normal!!

 

I learned a few things from various sources during this adventure with COVID symptoms, testing & quarantine. They only let me stay in my room to isolate because my first test was negative, if it had been positive, they would have relocated me & they do still have available space to do that. The exact protocol for when & how long to have people isolate is not set in stone, the doctor makes a decision for each case based on test results, symptoms, etc. following CDC guidelines. As many on this cruise have surmised, there are a good number of crew sick, tested positive or otherwise in isolation. They are not really doing contact tracing/testing except cabin mates of people with symptoms. Staff have to stay within their own department & are not allowed to mingle with guests or one another except for official duties. Staff who have been exposed to those with COVID but who test negative can continue working but must eat alone in their rooms. Several other passengers were put into isolation on the same day as I was. If you are in isolation you can order from the dining room & specialty dining menus not just the room service one (I only learned this after sending my poor sissy to the buffet to get me real food for dinner & eating the less than delightful room service breakfast). Passengers who test positive are quarantined for 10 days on Aloha deck.

 

I was able to enjoy the rest of my last sea day with various activities. One was straightening out an issue with my stateroom account. Apparently, while quarantined in my room, I went to coffee & cones & spent $11 on something…guest services were able to reverse that immediately & sort out another account issue but could not tell me if I would receive the prorated FCC for the day (s) I was in isolation, if fact he didn’t even know about it. We enjoyed the last afternoon tea of the cruise & tried again to get portraits we like. Dinner was lovely & my sister got a birthday cake for her birthday later this month, very little singing at her request. Finally, I listened to a bit of EULA (Tiki Dave & Leialoha)’s set before returning to our room. It was good last sea day.

 

We had not planned to go into Ensenada or take a tour as we have visited multiple times but thought we might go to the little shopping area pier side. This was closed so I only went out long enough to take photos of the sealions by our ship.

 

The ship did a test of their power systems which was announced but, as you may know, ship announcements can be easy to miss. The test caused the elevators to be shut down for maybe half an hour which caused disruption for those passengers who wanted to get off the ship or go elsewhere on the ship. The test started as I was getting back on from my sealion photo shoot & after waiting a bit (they only said the elevators would be shut down briefly not for how long), decided to go up from deck 4 to 5 & take photos around the ship. After taking pix of all of deck 5, I went up & did 6 & 7 & then started around the outside of 7. This led to a bit of an adventure…starting on the aft portside of deck 7, I went as far as possible, then saw a couple coming down some stairs so decide to try those which led to some more sealion photos & video & eventually led to deck 8 forward which took me all the way around the bow. This was interesting as I did not realize that there was bow access on the Grand. After finding the steps down on the starboard side I was ready to go back into the ship but the doors were closed off as they were painting & doing other maintenance, so I ended up having to go all the way back up & around the bow & back down to get in the ship, fortunately the elevators were running by now, so I was able to return to our room.

 

We had a relaxing day enjoying many lasts for this trip & finishing up packing (I had started when in isolation…one problem with living just miles from the port is you tend to over pack). I took the Stanley bear ‘ohana (we have 3…2 we bought on our Panama Canal cruise & 1 I won on our last Hawai’I cruise on the Ruby) to explore & photograph the top part of the ship. After a lovely last dinner (no waitstaff parading with the baked Alaska, but they did still serve it) we were back to our, now undecorated, cabins early to finish sorting stuff & to bed with the Princess sleep program playing (trying to figure out how to get this for home). Tomorrow we will be back home in San Pedro.

Edited January 19, 2022 by travelin.sisters
typo

[HaveDogWillTravel]

@travelin.sistersI have really enjoyed your posts. Thanks for doing them. I have my first Hawaii sailing booked for this November.  I do hope you will post your Stanley pictures on the thread I started for pictures of Stanley and McKinley enjoying their Princess cruise. I love the Grand.  

[pcvtmom]

What a thorough and informative review!  I am a Carnival cruiser (soon to be top tier...Diamond), but saw your live Hawaii review.  I will be on the Carnival Miracle to Hawaii next year, at about the same time frame as your cruise.  Never having been to Hawaii (east coast traveler!), I was super interested in your review and general take on things.  I cannot thank you enough for the insight!

[greenie082756]

 

@travelin.sisters 

Thank you so much for doing this vlog. 

We will be on the Grand next April to Hawaii and it's nice to know some of the things you have shared.

You have taken the time from your cruise to do this, and I thank you.