CDC Ship Colors

[Ronnieslady]

Anyone noticed that many ships are in Orange category.  Just a coupon of weeks ago Grand was Green.   What has changed??
Any ideas?   More Passengers?   Masking protocols recently changing?

[Cruise Raider]

I thought the CDC dropped that.  ????

[cruzrbachoua]

I am part of a thread on another site where someone on board is saying there are covid positive cases on the Grand...one is her son.  

 

Could be cause the masks were dropped and possibly more sailing than before. 

[Ronnieslady]

13 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I thought the CDC dropped that.  ????

The CDC now calls it the Dashboard I’m pretty sure.

[Ronnieslady]

2 hours ago, cruzrbachoua said:

I am part of a thread on another site where someone on board is saying there are covid positive cases on the Grand...one is her son.  

 

Could be cause the masks were dropped and possibly more sailing than before. 

Wonder if they will bring the mandatory masking back??

[KLM3164]

4 hours ago, Ronnieslady said:

Anyone noticed that many ships are in Orange category.  Just a coupon of weeks ago Grand was Green.   What has changed??
Any ideas?   More Passengers?   Masking protocols recently changing?

Since masking has now been dropped it appears COVID cases are going up on the ships. I’m not surprised by this fact. I’ve seen posts on other threads where people are reporting several people coughing on the ships, no one wearing masks and by the end of the cruise the coughing has gotten more pronounced throughout the ship. In addition ships are carrying more passengers which will also contribute to an increase in COVID numbers. 

[KLM3164]

4 hours ago, cruzrbachoua said:

I am part of a thread on another site where someone on board is saying there are covid positive cases on the Grand...one is her son.  

 

Could be cause the masks were dropped and possibly more sailing than before. 

Do you know if the son was put in an isolation cabin?

[Ronnieslady]

2 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

Since masking has now been dropped it appears COVID cases are going up on the ships. I’m not surprised by this fact. I’ve seen posts on other threads where people are reporting several people coughing on the ships, no one wearing masks and by the end of the cruise the coughing has gotten more pronounced throughout the ship. In addition ships are carrying more passengers which will also contribute to an increase in COVID numbers. 

Maybe the CDC will step in to change it back to mandatory inside masking. I’m sure it will have to come from the CDC since Princess just wants #s & they don’t want it to be uncomfortable for the passengers, could hurt their #s.   Just makes some of us worry more.

[cruzrbachoua]

13 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

Do you know if the son was put in an isolation cabin?

Yes she stated he was moved to a balcony on deck 12.  She had tested negative and was in their original cabin but was required to test each day for the next 5 days...it is a Hawaii cruise. also said that when she or the son went to the medical center as they were leaving another person came in saying they had symptoms as well.  She has not reported back since.

[beg3yrs]

13 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

Since masking has now been dropped it appears COVID cases are going up on the ships. I’m not surprised by this fact. I’ve seen posts on other threads where people are reporting several people coughing on the ships, no one wearing masks and by the end of the cruise the coughing has gotten more pronounced throughout the ship. In addition ships are carrying more passengers which will also contribute to an increase in COVID numbers. 

I recall long before COVID we'd often see this. A few passengers come on board with a cough (probably caught on their flights) and by the end there would be lots more passengers with the cough. We called it Cruise Crud. Certainly wasn't COVID though, just an upper respiratory infection or whatever. These days many people think that a cough always means COVID. It doesn't.

[Level six]

8 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

I recall long before COVID we'd often see this. A few passengers come on board with a cough (probably caught on their flights) and by the end there would be lots more passengers with the cough. We called it Cruise Crud. Certainly wasn't COVID though, just an upper respiratory infection or whatever. These days many people think that a cough always means COVID. It doesn't.

I have only been on one cruise out of 30+ where I didn't get sick.  The cruise I didn't get the "cruise crud" on was when I cruised on a "mask required" cruise in November 2021.  (15 day, only 600 onboard)

 

But, either way, there were many, many people coughing on our last, mask free Majestic a few weeks ago(March 5-19).  Just like you said it started with a few and the last night  3/4 of the theater was coughing.  Who knows if it was covid or just a cold(which I got because have since home tested negative  3 times for covid). 

 

My point is, I have never personally known anyone who has died of a cold, flu, etc.  But I have personally known 6 people who have died of covid in the last year.  That is the difference IMO. 

[KLM3164]

31 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

I recall long before COVID we'd often see this. A few passengers come on board with a cough (probably caught on their flights) and by the end there would be lots more passengers with the cough. We called it Cruise Crud. Certainly wasn't COVID though, just an upper respiratory infection or whatever. These days many people think that a cough always means COVID. It doesn't.

Yes I remember those days as well. The difference now is they will put you in isolation if you are COVID positive, even if you don’t have symptoms or minor symptoms like a cough. I was never put in isolation when I got the Cruise Crud on past cruises. I want to avoid the isolation cabin so I’ll wear the mask while around others and hope it helps me so I can enjoy the freedom of being able to walk around the ship and enjoy my cruise. I’ve sailed 3 times since August and all 3 cruises masks were required and our group of 4 were all fine. No one had so much as the sniffles. If I knew I wouldn’t end up in isolation if I get mild COVID then I wouldn’t wear the mask, but until the isolation goes away I’ll continue to mask. The great thing about cruising now is everyone has a choice. I respect those who choose not to wear masks as well as those who do. 

[Daniel A]

Orange now means .3% (three tenths of one percent) of passengers and crew have tested positive.  In the case of the Grand as an example, the ship has a capacity of 3750 passengers and crew.  In the current climate, let's assume only 1600 passengers and 900 crew totaling 2500 souls are aboard.  In order to get to orange status, 8 people testing positive out of that 2500 would trigger a raise from green to orange.  If the transmission rate aboard is sustained or other factors are present, then the ship would go to red.  Another way the ship would go from green to orange is if the ship submits its daily covid report late.  CDC then punishes the ship by coding it as orange even if there were no covid cases reported in the delayed report.

 

The new chart is below:

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Daniel A

[Level six]

2 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Orange now means .3% (three tenths of one percent) of passengers and crew have tested positive.  In the case of the Grand as an example, the ship has a capacity of 3750 passengers and crew.  In the current climate, let's assume only 1600 passengers and 900 crew totaling 2500 souls are aboard.  In order to get to orange status, 8 people testing positive out of that 2500 would trigger a raise from green to orange.  If the transmission rate aboard is sustained or other factors are present, then the ship would go to red.  Another way the ship would go from green to orange is if the ship submits its daily covid report late.  CDC then punishes the ship by coding it as orange even if there were no covid cases reported in the delayed report.

 

The new chart is below:

 

Agree, but with mostly 7 day cruises, few, if any, cases are being reported on board.  It is only when someone returns home that they find out they have covid(it they test).....then it is not reported on the cruise ship. 

I think your good point is how will the crew be affected.  If the crew numbers stay down, then that is the real indicator IMO. 

[CACruiser1973]

I am onboard the Grand now.  Despite numerous attempts at resetting my password on my iPhone, I keep being told that my account (Waimea’sMom) has the incorrect password. So I gave up and created this account now. 
 

When we booked this cruise the mask mandate was in place. After it was lifted, I was unable to get our money back and the Grand had a Green rating the last time I had checked, so we decided to go ahead and cruise, and keep our masks on while onboard. We wear them everywhere, and I have even been keeping mine on at meals - I do the sip and cover method. 
 

I asked at the Passenger Services Desk and was told that there were over 2,000 Passengers on board this sailing.  And I would estimate about 20-25% are wearing masks. 
 

I have been hearing coughing all cruise long but it does seem more pronounced of late. We also have had the same table at Da Vinci’s for breakfast and lunch - one that is a private table for two, socially distanced by a column. Over the course of the cruise, we are now on our fourth waiter at the table.  One day we overhead the head waiter asking our first waiter if he had gone to the doctor and could not hear his response. We never saw him again. A couple of days later, our assistant waiter left and we never saw him again either. 
 

For the vast majority of cruisers, I am sure that this has been a great cruise.  For me, it has been a nightmare, and I cannot wait to get off this ship tomorrow. I have seen tons of people coughing onto their hands in the Atrium, and then touching chairs and tables, even saw one mask wearer take off his mask to sneeze.  
 

I do wish people were showing more respect for differences in comfort - they don’t socially distance at all in line - inches away from the back your head - I had one older man literally sneeze onto the back of me.  I also think the Hawaiian ambassador Rowena is a lovely lady, and very friendly, but it is very uncomfortable for me that she constantly makes the rounds maskless hugging and touching people in the Atrium each night. I don’t really feel comfortable only an inch or two away from someone unmasked that just hugged a hundred other people. I finally just stopped going to their shows as I didn’t want to be rude to her and I was clearly the only passenger uncomfortable with the practice. 

I don’t know the numbers of positive cases onboard (I do wish I could read the thread another poster mentioned was live on another site), no way are they advertising that. But I do know I have seen three different cocktail servers in the Atrium double masking.  So they seem concerned too.  
 

I know - I am concerned and so I shouldn’t have gone. But I didn’t want a ton of money in future cruise credits and mistakenly thought it wouldn’t be too concerning.  
 

If you are among the vast majority that seem to be fine mask free - I wish you a lovely time onboard. If you are even remotely risk averse, or nervous, I would say stay home, at least until the new Omicron variant runs its course. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by CACruiser1973

[Level six]

CACruiser......I hope the rest of your cruise goes well.  I am with you.  We booked on Majestic when masking was the rule and it changed only a few days before we sailed.  We masked the whole time too but most people didn't and we didn't even eat in the dining room......we ate outside in the back...all by ourselves.  

Our only saving grace was being upgraded to a mini suite and we spent a lot of time there.  

Good luck and try to enjoy the rest of your cruise. 

[Ronnieslady]

1 hour ago, CACruiser1973 said:

I am onboard the Grand now.  Despite numerous attempts at resetting my password on my iPhone, I keep being told that my account (Waimea’sMom) has the incorrect password. So I gave up and created this account now. 
 

When we booked this cruise the mask mandate was in place. After it was lifted, I was unable to get our money back and the Grand had a Green rating the last time I had checked, so we decided to go ahead and cruise, and keep our masks on while onboard. We wear them everywhere, and I have even been keeping mine on at meals - I do the sip and cover method. 
 

I asked at the Passenger Services Desk and was told that there were over 2,000 Passengers on board this sailing.  And I would estimate about 20-25% are wearing masks. 
 

I have been hearing coughing all cruise long but it does seem more pronounced of late. We also have had the same table at Da Vinci’s for breakfast and lunch - one that is a private table for two, socially distanced by a column. Over the course of the cruise, we are now on our fourth waiter at the table.  One day we overhead the head waiter asking our first waiter if he had gone to the doctor and could not hear his response. We never saw him again. A couple of days later, our assistant waiter left and we never saw him again either. 
 

For the vast majority of cruisers, I am sure that this has been a great cruise.  For me, it has been a nightmare, and I cannot wait to get off this ship tomorrow. I have seen tons of people coughing onto their hands in the Atrium, and then touching chairs and tables, even saw one mask wearer take off his mask to sneeze.  
 

I do wish people were showing more respect for differences in comfort - they don’t socially distance at all in line - inches away from the back your head - I had one older man literally sneeze onto the back of me.  I also think the Hawaiian ambassador Rowena is a lovely lady, and very friendly, but it is very uncomfortable for me that she constantly makes the rounds maskless hugging and touching people in the Atrium each night. I don’t really feel comfortable only an inch or two away from someone unmasked that just hugged a hundred other people. I finally just stopped going to their shows as I didn’t want to be rude to her and I was clearly the only passenger uncomfortable with the practice. 

I don’t know the numbers of positive cases onboard (I do wish I could read the thread another poster mentioned was live on another site), no way are they advertising that. But I do know I have seen three different cocktail servers in the Atrium double masking.  So they seem concerned too.  
 

I know - I am concerned and so I shouldn’t have gone. But I didn’t want a ton of money in future cruise credits and mistakenly thought it wouldn’t be too concerning.  
 

If you are among the vast majority that seem to be fine mask free - I wish you a lovely time onboard. If you are even remotely risk averse, or nervous, I would say stay home, at least until the new Omicron variant runs its course. 

I am super concerned about your situation & especially since Princess will never tell the passengers the truth about the amount of cases. Do they feel it’s none of our business.   Why keep it a secret ❓❓How dare they treat us like we are in Ru……. Or Ch……        I guess they never told us the truth regarding Noro either 

Edited March 25, 2022 by Ronnieslady

[Ronnieslady]

8 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Orange now means .3% (three tenths of one percent) of passengers and crew have tested positive.  In the case of the Grand as an example, the ship has a capacity of 3750 passengers and crew.  In the current climate, let's assume only 1600 passengers and 900 crew totaling 2500 souls are aboard.  In order to get to orange status, 8 people testing positive out of that 2500 would trigger a raise from green to orange.  If the transmission rate aboard is sustained or other factors are present, then the ship would go to red.  Another way the ship would go from green to orange is if the ship submits its daily covid report late.  CDC then punishes the ship by coding it as orange even if there were no covid cases reported in the delayed report.

 

The new chart is below:

 

Did you leave off the ships❓

[Ronnieslady]

1 hour ago, CACruiser1973 said:

I am onboard the Grand now.  Despite numerous attempts at resetting my password on my iPhone, I keep being told that my account (Waimea’sMom) has the incorrect password. So I gave up and created this account now. 
 

When we booked this cruise the mask mandate was in place. After it was lifted, I was unable to get our money back and the Grand had a Green rating the last time I had checked, so we decided to go ahead and cruise, and keep our masks on while onboard. We wear them everywhere, and I have even been keeping mine on at meals - I do the sip and cover method. 
 

I asked at the Passenger Services Desk and was told that there were over 2,000 Passengers on board this sailing.  And I would estimate about 20-25% are wearing masks. 
 

I have been hearing coughing all cruise long but it does seem more pronounced of late. We also have had the same table at Da Vinci’s for breakfast and lunch - one that is a private table for two, socially distanced by a column. Over the course of the cruise, we are now on our fourth waiter at the table.  One day we overhead the head waiter asking our first waiter if he had gone to the doctor and could not hear his response. We never saw him again. A couple of days later, our assistant waiter left and we never saw him again either. 
 

For the vast majority of cruisers, I am sure that this has been a great cruise.  For me, it has been a nightmare, and I cannot wait to get off this ship tomorrow. I have seen tons of people coughing onto their hands in the Atrium, and then touching chairs and tables, even saw one mask wearer take off his mask to sneeze.  
 

I do wish people were showing more respect for differences in comfort - they don’t socially distance at all in line - inches away from the back your head - I had one older man literally sneeze onto the back of me.  I also think the Hawaiian ambassador Rowena is a lovely lady, and very friendly, but it is very uncomfortable for me that she constantly makes the rounds maskless hugging and touching people in the Atrium each night. I don’t really feel comfortable only an inch or two away from someone unmasked that just hugged a hundred other people. I finally just stopped going to their shows as I didn’t want to be rude to her and I was clearly the only passenger uncomfortable with the practice. 

I don’t know the numbers of positive cases onboard (I do wish I could read the thread another poster mentioned was live on another site), no way are they advertising that. But I do know I have seen three different cocktail servers in the Atrium double masking.  So they seem concerned too.  
 

I know - I am concerned and so I shouldn’t have gone. But I didn’t want a ton of money in future cruise credits and mistakenly thought it wouldn’t be too concerning.  
 

If you are among the vast majority that seem to be fine mask free - I wish you a lovely time onboard. If you are even remotely risk averse, or nervous, I would say stay home, at least until the new Omicron variant runs its course. 

The latest on the CDC site is:    Ships that are in the Orange:

                                                                     GRAND  , RUBY,    MAJESTIC & 

                                                                   CARIBBEAN 

Seems like the masks were helping  after all.   And of course social distancing.

We board the Grand on April 4 for Hawaii 

[KLM3164]

3 hours ago, CACruiser1973 said:

For me, it has been a nightmare, and I cannot wait to get off this ship tomorrow.

Very sorry to hear about your cruise experience. I wish you safe travels home and that your diligence in masking has kept you free from any viruses. I do wish Princess would be transparent on the number of cases onboard the ships. This information might be helpful for people in deciding what they want to do onboard to keep themselves healthy. 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience on the Grand.

Edited March 25, 2022 by KLM3164

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, CACruiser1973 said:

I am onboard the Grand now.  Despite numerous attempts at resetting my password on my iPhone, I keep being told that my account (Waimea’sMom) has the incorrect password. So I gave up and created this account now. 
 

When we booked this cruise the mask mandate was in place. After it was lifted, I was unable to get our money back and the Grand had a Green rating the last time I had checked, so we decided to go ahead and cruise, and keep our masks on while onboard. We wear them everywhere, and I have even been keeping mine on at meals - I do the sip and cover method. 
 

I asked at the Passenger Services Desk and was told that there were over 2,000 Passengers on board this sailing.  And I would estimate about 20-25% are wearing masks. 
 

I have been hearing coughing all cruise long but it does seem more pronounced of late. We also have had the same table at Da Vinci’s for breakfast and lunch - one that is a private table for two, socially distanced by a column. Over the course of the cruise, we are now on our fourth waiter at the table.  One day we overhead the head waiter asking our first waiter if he had gone to the doctor and could not hear his response. We never saw him again. A couple of days later, our assistant waiter left and we never saw him again either. 
 

For the vast majority of cruisers, I am sure that this has been a great cruise.  For me, it has been a nightmare, and I cannot wait to get off this ship tomorrow. I have seen tons of people coughing onto their hands in the Atrium, and then touching chairs and tables, even saw one mask wearer take off his mask to sneeze.  
 

I do wish people were showing more respect for differences in comfort - they don’t socially distance at all in line - inches away from the back your head - I had one older man literally sneeze onto the back of me.  I also think the Hawaiian ambassador Rowena is a lovely lady, and very friendly, but it is very uncomfortable for me that she constantly makes the rounds maskless hugging and touching people in the Atrium each night. I don’t really feel comfortable only an inch or two away from someone unmasked that just hugged a hundred other people. I finally just stopped going to their shows as I didn’t want to be rude to her and I was clearly the only passenger uncomfortable with the practice. 

I don’t know the numbers of positive cases onboard (I do wish I could read the thread another poster mentioned was live on another site), no way are they advertising that. But I do know I have seen three different cocktail servers in the Atrium double masking.  So they seem concerned too.  
 

I know - I am concerned and so I shouldn’t have gone. But I didn’t want a ton of money in future cruise credits and mistakenly thought it wouldn’t be too concerning.  
 

If you are among the vast majority that seem to be fine mask free - I wish you a lovely time onboard. If you are even remotely risk averse, or nervous, I would say stay home, at least until the new Omicron variant runs its course. 

If I may ask as we will be on a 18 day PC cruise next month, how many times have you been tested once you arrived at the terminal on embarkation day after, of course, providing a negative antigen/PCR test certificate upon arrival? I’ve read on other threads folks are tested at the terminal as well as 2 days afterwards. Did this happen on your cruise?

[CACruiser1973]

29 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If I may ask as we will be on a 18 day PC cruise next month, how many times have you been tested once you arrived at the terminal on embarkation day after, of course, providing a negative antigen/PCR test certificate upon arrival? I’ve read on other threads folks are tested at the terminal as well as 2 days afterwards. Did this happen on your cruise?

 No!  Not even once have they tested us. I think they don’t want to know the answer. Like ostriches with their heads in the sand.  We showed up with our negative test on 3/10 and were never tested again. 

[Ken the cruiser]

51 minutes ago, CACruiser1973 said:

 No!  Not even once have they tested us. I think they don’t want to know the answer. Like ostriches with their heads in the sand.  We showed up with our negative test on 3/10 and were never tested again. 

I was just curious and I’m sorry you’re not having a great time on your cruise. This will be our first Princess cruise since cruising started back up, but we’ve been on 9 Celebrity cruises (one B3B and 3 B2Bs) where we only tested the day before transition day, and 8 of the 9 cruise legs masks were not mandated.
 

I was going to post how we were able to improve our chances for not catching C19 so we could pass the transition day test, but the details were a little lengthy. Suffice it to say we treated our strategy like a game where we would figure out how we could avoid folks in various uncomfortable settings, whether it was in the MDR or buffet, in the theater, riding in a elevator, walking from one end of a crowded ship to the other, or in a crowded tour bus.
 

But if anyone is interested, just let me know and I can post them.

[Ronnieslady]

4 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

Very sorry to hear about your cruise experience. I wish you safe travels home and that your diligence in masking has kept you free from any viruses. I do wish Princess would be transparent on the number of cases onboard the ships. This information might be helpful for people in deciding what they want to do onboard to keep themselves healthy. 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience on the Grand.

After this story I’m not sure if Princess knows what transparent is.   Hey Princess , it’s telling the true facts when we are onboard so people can choose to make their own decisions based on those facts.   Like masking, social distancing, riding an elevator. It’s very unfair to do otherwise 

[Daniel A]

12 hours ago, Ronnieslady said:

Did you leave off the ships❓

Yes, I did leave out which ships were coded Orange.  Last month, CDC changed the color codes and thresholds for each color.  I was answering your initial question which started this thread by giving you the new designations and thresholds.  That is one change that occurred, partially answering your question.  You didn't ask which ships were in which color category.  

 

As an aside, as mentioned in my previous post, CDC requires all ships in the program to submit daily reports of Covid case counts.  Why isn't the CDC releasing those daily numbers to us?  Instead, they are using a vague color coding system which gives very little information to the public.  Either they think the public is too stupid to understand the difference between actual numbers and color codes or they want to stoke some fear in the public about cruising by not giving us the whole truth and facts.  Wouldn't it be nice to know if the numbers on any given ship are either going up or down while still in the same color category?