Blogging from the Ruby Princess

[IJustWantToGo36]

4 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Of course it was. I posted that so others could see how the PVSA violation is handled and gets charged directly to the onboard account. 
 

As for needing to file an insurance claim for on board medical expenses (which these are not; not sure why you even mentioned that), it’s always been that way. I know I’ve talked about it several times on my blog and on Cruise Critic, because I’ve had to do it every season we’ve cruised. In fact, to be totally accurate, you file first with your own health insurance, and then file that EOB with any secondary health insurance, and then file with the travel insurance in case you still ended up paying anything. The only time you don’t do that is if Medicare is your only insurance. They already know that Medicare doesn’t pay out of country (and a cruise ship is considered out of country even if sailing in US waters). In that case, you can just go ahead and file the insurance claim claim with the travel insurance. 
 

But NOT what this is about at all. 
 

BTW, you should not have had to pay $25 for a detailed medical bill from the ship. They’re free. Guess those flowers weren’t a gift after all. 

Are you sure the insurance will cover PVSA ?  Most policies exclude govy fines.

ALSO- if you have Medicare Advantage or Medigap, that should cover emergency care.   

Please update on how all the insurances play out.

[PacnGoNow]

6 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

They said I was not leaving for a medical reason. No, it is totally out of pocket. As I said, this was a $2500 decision ($900 for penalty, $1600 for flight). It was not made lightly. 

Thank you 

 

7 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

They said I was not leaving for a medical reason. No, it is totally out of pocket. As I said, this was a $2500 decision ($900 for penalty, $1600 for flight). It was not made lightly. 

I’m sure it was a very hard decision with everything going on.  Thank you and others for the explanation.

Take care.

[PacnGoNow]

13 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

It was their her personal choice to end the cruise early and fly home, as difficult of a decision as that it was for her. 
J was very willing to pay it and knew ahead of time that she had to pay it when she made the decision. I’m sure she was just pointing it out to show princess charged it to her folio and that’s how she paid. 

Thank you for explaining. I misunderstood.

[Moustique]

As mentioned before, we are booked on 2 cruises.  We have to use our FCC’s before the end of the year.  The first one is May 20th out of Southampton.  We have decided not to book our flights with EasyAir.  We want to be in control of our mouvement.  We don’t care if the cruise in cancel, we can modify our flights without fee and would not care spending time in Europe on our own. So we have 2 weeks to decide if we want to cancel and get our FCC’s back. 

 

A lot can happen in the next 2 weeks.  We already saw the cancellation on Caribbean Princess.  If Princess does not do something about enforcing mask wearing on its ships, the situation will get ugly.  They are punishing people that get infected because of others not following the rules.  People need to share their experience on social media.  This is good pressure on Princess.  People in management must be starting to feel the heat.  

 

If we end up going on the cruise, we have a strategy.  Thanks to everything for preparing us to what might happen.  We will have home test with us.  If we ever start feeling unwell, we will test.  If we end up positive, we will get off the ship at soon as possible.  We dont mind having to pretend a family emergency to be able to get our luggage of the ship.  We will do everything in our power to avoid the ship medical office.  It is getting obvious that if we get unwell, they will be the last person to help us.  If we have to leave the ship, we will follow the quarantine rules of the country where we will be and the Canadian rules for our flight home.  

 

We are taking COVID very seriously.  We have never been infected and have travelled extensively in the past 2 years.  We follow all rules.  But we have to take care of ourselves first.  We cannot rely on Princess collaboration for this.

 

Eventually the dust will settle and things will get back to normal.  I doubt very much we will cruise with Princess again.  This company only has itself to blame for loosing faithful customer.

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, mellon1 said:

Medallion tracks everyone...I am assuming someone who had it was in close proximity to him thus the testing.  This is just what I am thinking.  Best to leave the medallion in the safe or better yet, the bathroom!  LOL

That sounds like a good option or better yet use a rfid wallet when walking around.

 

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

Thanks to Kate (who notified me) and to the moderator (who deleted the post at my request)…

 

I am re-posting the letter I received as a close contact, and the somewhat unhelpful exchange I had hours later on crew chat. As you can see, I never received answers to questions about getting dishes removed from my cabins whether I could take dishes back to the buffet, could I order from the dining room menus, etc. The best info on room service came from Loyd who just happened to bring me my coffee one morning. I was told (when I got through to room service one day) that I wasn’t entitled to order anything from the dining room menu. I asked for a supervisor to call me back, and he made it happen. 
 

 

[ceilidh1]

19 minutes ago, Moustique said:

 We will do everything in our power to avoid the ship medical office. 

I think I am inclined to agree with this! There appears to be no incentive to report to medical unless you are really unwell. I would much rather manage my own isolation...

[IJustWantToGo36]

1 minute ago, ceilidh1 said:

I think I am inclined to agree with this! There appears to be no incentive to report to medical unless you are really unwell. I would much rather manage my own isolation...

So far haven't heard any reports of medical doing anything for anyone who felt unwell.

[Marjan1]

4 hours ago, Thrak said:

I wonder if Princess is not allowed to "force" staff to enter the quarantine wing and has to rely on volunteers to bring food, drinks, etc. to the passengers in that area. If so, it's likely they can't find people willing to risk themselves by tending to the quarantined passengers. I'm not trying to make excuses for the atrocious lack of care but simply wondering if something like this might be part of the problem.

So what will they do if there are no “volunteers”??

 

Allow covid+ passengers in quarantine to starve?  
Refuse them medical care?

 

It is Princess’s responsibility to provide adequate care for all passengers, something that seems to be lacking for quarantined people.  They have a legal duty of care to all passengers.  
 

If staffing was the issue, I would expect Princess to fly in extra staff to the first available port.   Covid outbreaks on cruise ships (as elsewhere) are inevitable, and I would expect all cruise lines to have contingency plans in place to ensure proper care for all passengers.   

Edited April 3, 2022 by Marjan1

[PacnGoNow]

The SF news reported the Ruby came in to SF with 73 covid cases.

 

[Host CJSKIDS]

@PescadoAmarillohappy to have done it.  Sorry I wasn’t able to edit the pictures.  Can only do the words on the post.  

Glad you made it home and hope G gets sprung soon from his confinement and that your test remain negative so you don’t miss any senior year events you had planned on.

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

If you Are uncomfortable with the situation you have to choose and pay any associated costs.  Don’t  know why so many think everything should be free.  We are onboard now, and everyone seems to think they should get hazard pay for being on the ship.  Pretty sure we all know the risks and need to accept the consequences or stay home.

[IJustWantToGo36]

1 hour ago, Marjan1 said:

 

If staffing was the issue, I would expect Princess to fly in extra staff to the first available port.   Covid outbreaks on cruise ships (as elsewhere) are inevitable, and I would expect all cruise lines to have contingency plans in place to ensure proper care for all passengers.   

Where do they find this extra staff?    Does the line have 50 employees sitting around waiting to be called in someplace?

[PescadoAmarillo]

11 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

If you Are uncomfortable with the situation you have to choose and pay any associated costs.  Don’t  know why so many think everything should be free.  We are onboard now, and everyone seems to think they should get hazard pay for being on the ship.  Pretty sure we all know the risks and need to accept the consequences or stay home.

Who is saying things should be free?  I must have missed that part. If people on the ship are discussing hazard pay, I am unaware of it and it has nothing to do with this thread. Of course I didn’t speak with even one fellow guest on the ship other than those in the elevator with me who all got off when I said my husband had COVID. I kept to myself even before that happened, because I didn’t want to get sick

 

In fact, I think I made the point earlier that, as a close contact, I wasn’t entitled to any compensation on the cruise that I paid for (and had Princess Plus on). I said that we knew we had no insurance claim for the PVSA penalty, and, of course, would not be reimbursed for my air home (or the air home on April 11 that I won’t be using). So all those unexpected expenses and I never claimed that things should be free. So please do explain your statement. 

[dickinson]

3 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

 

BTW, you should not have had to pay $25 for a detailed medical bill from the ship. They’re free. Guess those flowers weren’t a gift after all. 

 

In February I did not have to pay for my bill to the Medical Center but I did choose to pay $28 for my medical records.  I didn't know if I would need them or not for insurance so figured I better get them because once off the ship it would be too late!  Medicare is primary so filed with secondary who paid the $99 medical bill.  They don't pay for OTC medicine and didn't pay that $28.  I have filed with AON but it all is just assigned to an agent.  We'll see how long it takes.

[Moustique]

23 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Who is saying things should be free?  I must have missed that part. If people on the ship are discussing hazard pay, I am unaware of it and it has nothing to do with this thread. Of course I didn’t speak with even one fellow guest on the ship other than those in the elevator with me who all got off when I said my husband had COVID. I kept to myself even before that happened, because I didn’t want to get sick

 

In fact, I think I made the point earlier that, as a close contact, I wasn’t entitled to any compensation on the cruise that I paid for (and had Princess Plus on). I said that we knew we had no insurance claim for the PVSA penalty, and, of course, would not be reimbursed for my air home (or the air home on April 11 that I won’t be using). So all those unexpected expenses and I never claimed that things should be free. So please do explain your statement. 

[canadianbear]

40 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

If you Are uncomfortable with the situation you have to choose and pay any associated costs.  Don’t  know why so many think everything should be free.  We are onboard now, and everyone seems to think they should get hazard pay for being on the ship.  Pretty sure we all know the risks and need to accept the consequences or stay home.

I wonder how you will feel if being on board now, you test positive & get quarantined.   

[Moustique]

@PescadoAmarilloYou have just answered the question I did not dare to ask. So Princess is denying you access to much of there services (meals option), but they wont compensate you in any way.  This is only confirming my opinion that if you get COVID on the ship, don’t say anything.  Just run away from the ship.  No way I would put one $ on a Princess Cruise right now.  Only trying to use up FCC’s.  Even this does not sound like much a a good idea anymore.

[KLM3164]

@PescadoAmarillo@Joy_KI want to thank you both for all the information you have provided on your experiences with COVID and quarantine on Princess. Hubs and I are going on a 7-day cruise in 19 days. We had almost booked B2B’s but are thankful now we didn’t. Your information has allowed us to have conversations on the “what ifs” when we cruise on April 23. We have decided not to cancel but we have developed plans on what we will do when we are on the cruise. We are also sharing your experiences with friends who are cruising on April 16 so they can be prepared for their upcoming cruise. 

 

You have both been a wealth of information and words cannot express how much I appreciate your posts! Please take care and know that so many people are thinking about you and your families.

 

[KLM3164]

8 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

A traveling companion was charged $25 for an itemized statement from medical on our Australia /New Zealand cruise in 2019. Fortunately, the insurance company reimbursed her that cost and yes the insurance was thru Princess...

That’s Princess….consistently inconsistent.

[milogurd]

13 minutes ago, KLM3164 said:

That’s Princess….consistently inconsistent.

I've been saying that for years!

[PescadoAmarillo]

30 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

A traveling companion was charged $25 for an itemized statement from medical on our Australia /New Zealand cruise in 2019. Fortunately, the insurance company reimbursed her that cost and yes the insurance was thru Princess...

Inconsistent is the right word for it. I was on the Ruby Princess and the Majestic Princess in Australia in 2019/20 and had medical center visits. Never received a charge for an itemized bill. But if, in fact people are being charged, I fully admit I was wrong when I said there were no charges. 
 

It still has nothing to do with what is happening right now on the Ruby Princess and the warning I am trying to convey about the realities of being in isolation on a Princess cruise ship. 

[TnTom]

I disagree with the blanket statement, "We all know the risks," and I see it in a lot of places where it seems intended to discount the opinions and concerns of others- often in a condescending way. Frankly, we don't know what all of the circumstances will be when we step onto a ship, so the risks will vary. Can we expect to be seated socially distant in the MDR if we want to be, or will we be required to share a table? Will the buffet suddenly switch back to self serve, where everyone is handling the utensils and food? Will masks once again be required if the covid case count on the ship rises significantly? If we end up testing positive and being quarantined, will we receive adequate food and medical attention (it appears not to always have been the case in the Ruby Princess)? The answers to those questions may be totally different with every sailing.

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

1 hour ago, canadianbear said:

I wonder how you will feel if being on board now, you test positive & get quarantined.   

Already happening, thanks 

[PescadoAmarillo]

2 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Already happening, thanks 

How in the world are you running into people every night looking for things for free if you’re quarantined?  No one on this thread has mentioned free things, of course it was an attack. Why mention it otherwise?