Princess Internet and Covid screwed up big time Princess are a joke

[phillipahain]

Just got off Sky Princess Miami to Southampton      12th March to 28th March 2022 

 

Just 2 days of internet only out of Madeira    Princess agreed new contract with ?.........??????   They agreed a Hopeless satellite at a 10th of previous contract 

 

No consideration for anyone who needed to contact family or arrange pre flight Covid tests before flying back to USA 

 

Without Internet could not even book Covid tests at Heathrow .....Princess did not test anyone at all 

 

Apparently CDC issued instructions that no one could enforce Hand Sanitisation 

 

What a total mess ?

 

 

Covid on board ...CDC   Red warning    told 100 but also more likely 700 

 

Fed up with idiots refusing to wear masks 

Way too many Walking around Hand sanitisers and even when officers are alerted NOTHING IS DONE 

 

Sorry but long time Princess Cruisers will not be back again and we are definitely  not alone 

 

 

[Lady Arwen]

Thank you for sharing your experience on Sky Princess.  It sounds like Princess has dropped the ball with their internet service.  Agreed, some folks rely on it to reach family members in cases of emergency.  Unacceptable for sure.

As for lack of Covid safety protocols, I can imagine how stressful that would have been.  I do, however, question your estimate of 700 people possibly being infected.  That seems quite disproportionate to what we’ve heard.

Sorry that your cruise was not enjoyable.  I would also feel frustrated right now.

[DHP1]

Princess has definitely changed in the last 2 years. You can’t even call them anymore without waiting for a hour or longer. 

[Yehootu]

1 hour ago, phillipahain said:

Just got off Sky Princess Miami to Southampton      12th March to 28th March 2022 

 

Just 2 days of internet only out of Madeira    Princess agreed new contract with ?.........??????   They agreed a Hopeless satellite at a 10th of previous contract 

 

No consideration for anyone who needed to contact family or arrange pre flight Covid tests before flying back to USA 

 

Without Internet could not even book Covid tests at Heathrow .....Princess did not test anyone at all 

 

Apparently CDC issued instructions that no one could enforce Hand Sanitisation 

 

What a total mess ?

 

 

Covid on board ...CDC   Red warning    told 100 but also more likely 700 

 

Fed up with idiots refusing to wear masks 

Way too many Walking around Hand sanitisers and even when officers are alerted NOTHING IS DONE 

 

Sorry but long time Princess Cruisers will not be back again and we are definitely  not alone 

 

 

Not just Princess. In a week  on Carnival Panorama in late Feb, saw 1 person using hand washing station in a WEEK. Crew member was actually blocking station asking people to mask up in buffet

[Mikel1733]

Are you saying Princess did not offer testing in SouthHampton for those returning to the U.S. at the port?

[phillipahain]

6 minutes ago, Mikel1733 said:

Are you saying Princess did not offer testing in SouthHampton for those returning to the U.S. at the port?

Yes there was absolutely no testing by Princess in or before Southampton 

No information 

 

Beyond get tested at Heathrow ...which ignored fact you have to prebook such tests and there was No Internet for pretty much entire cruise 

Edited March 28, 2022 by phillipahain
Info

[GonzoWCS]

Wow...

[wen_c82]

2 hours ago, phillipahain said:

Yes there was absolutely no testing by Princess in or before Southampton 

No information 

 

Beyond get tested at Heathrow ...which ignored fact you have to prebook such tests and there was No Internet for pretty much entire cruise 

I’m not sure what happened but my brother was also on this voyage. He was tested the day before disembarkation and already boarded a flight back to US.

[GatorMomInNC]

My sister and BIL on this cruise.  They heard rumors of 600+ with COVID but could not verify.  They were not tested upon disembarkation, but they weren't flying home right away (flew to Greece).  

[alanstarr]

16 hours ago, phillipahain said:

Yes there was absolutely no testing by Princess in or before Southampton 

 

 

This is an outright falsehood. They tested over 800 passengers on Sunday, including myself. They took over one of the dining rooms for the day; results were delivered to our cabin at the end of the day.

 

]And I agree that there were a fair amount of positive cases, but 700? Sounds like you're just making up a random number (which is 30% of the passengers), or passing on some wild rumor. They'd have to block off multiple floors of cabins for quarantine, and it was obvious that only Deck 9 was needed.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by alanstarr
edit photo for personal info

[Jadn13]

Internet issues must be new, I was on the Sky in December and had 0 issues and even streamed content.

It most likely has to do with ship positioning and satellites, and not overall with the ship itself. 

[Daniel A]

21 hours ago, phillipahain said:

Apparently CDC issued instructions that no one could enforce Hand Sanitisation 

 

What a total mess ?

Covid on board ...CDC   Red warning    told 100 but also more likely 700 

 

 

I just now checked the CDC dashboard.  Where did you see Sky was coded red by CDC?  Sky isn't even listed on CDC's dashboard. Most likely because it's no longer sailing in U.S. waters.  I'm really interested where you got the "Red warning..."

Edited March 29, 2022 by Daniel A

[dog]

Were those in quarantine given a choice to disembark in the next port to quarantine in a hotel or did they have to remain on ship to complete quarantine until they reached Southampton?

Edited March 29, 2022 by dog

[*Miss G*]

3 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

Internet issues must be new, I was on the Sky in December and had 0 issues and even streamed content.

It most likely has to do with ship positioning and satellites, and not overall with the ship itself. 

 

I would say it’s their provider because it definitely works on other lines.  We had two days of excruciatingly slow internet at two of the ports but nowhere else for 16 days.

[*Miss G*]

21 hours ago, phillipahain said:

Yes there was absolutely no testing by Princess in or before Southampton 

No information 

 

Beyond get tested at Heathrow ...which ignored fact you have to prebook such tests and there was No Internet for pretty much entire cruise 

 

There was a form to fill in if you required testing for onward travel.  

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by *Miss G*

[Mikel1733]

Do you show the paperwork to the airline when returning to the U.S.?

[Daniel A]

2 minutes ago, Mikel1733 said:

Do you show the paperwork to the airline when returning to the U.S.?

When I flew back into the U.S. recently, I had to show the airline my negative test result from a healthcare provider and in addition I had to complete, sign and give to the airline a CDC Covid Attestation form.

[alanstarr]

2 hours ago, Mikel1733 said:

Do you show the paperwork to the airline when returning to the U.S.?

 

British Airways has an app called Verifly, where you upload the test results. You can't do online check-in without it. 

[Alcairns]

So the internet was working on all other Princess vessels with the exception of Regal which was also on a transatlantic. Are you saying princess have separate providers for each of their ships and  that they  changed the provider for Sky only? Sounds a bit far fetched to me! On Sky now and internet is working well. Crew  say that the problem was a problem with needing replacement equipment which they could only get and install on arrival in Europe. 

[Sussex Cruiser]

14 hours ago, Alcairns said:

So the internet was working on all other Princess vessels with the exception of Regal which was also on a transatlantic. Are you saying princess have separate providers for each of their ships and  that they  changed the provider for Sky only? Sounds a bit far fetched to me! On Sky now and internet is working well. Crew  say that the problem was a problem with needing replacement equipment which they could only get and install on arrival in Europe. 

I wish they had just been honest about it rather than coming out with all that rubbish about so many people using the internet etc.  We all knew it was a ship issue, that was perfectly obvious with the Medalion app being down most of the time as well.

[soccermommy]

I was on this cruise as well. I have to agree with the OP, the internet was a disaster. But, imo, Princess was very good about testing. At the beginning of the cruise, there was a questionnaire about needing Covid tests to return home. We needed them and got another letter giving us a time to get tested at Soleil. Passengers only got a call if there was a positive result. We got the printed results around 2am Monday, the day we left the ship, which was a little stressful, but not too awful either. 
As far as Covid case numbers, I never heard a number, but the Captain did say there were a number of positives found from Sunday’s tests. We had earlier noticed there were a few quiet removes from rooms, and we were required to wear masks the last full day of the cruise, but I found very little was impacting the ship or passengers otherwise.

[nbsjcruiser]

On 3/28/2022 at 12:28 PM, DHP1 said:

Princess has definitely changed in the last 2 years. You can’t even call them anymore without waiting for a hour or longer. 

Unless you want to book a cruise then you sail right through. Same with Royal Caribbean fwiw. We have 2 cruises booked for the fall - Liberty of the Seas in early Nov and then the Sky Princess in late Nov. I had to call in to RCI to make a change on the Liberty sailing, gave up after 30 mins on hold. Called in first thing Sunday morning instead and got through quickly. 

 

[nbsjcruiser]

2 hours ago, Sussex Cruiser said:

I wish they had just been honest about it rather than coming out with all that rubbish about so many people using the internet etc.  We all knew it was a ship issue, that was perfectly obvious with the Medalion app being down most of the time as well.

My experience with Princess internet has been exceptional even last fall. Strange that they would make an excuse that too many people were using it when it was apparently equipment failure. It would seem to me equipment failure would be a much more viable and easier to swallow excuse than too many people using it.

[TXcruiser13]

I was on this Moroccan Passage cruise and the lack of internet also zapped the Medallion app plus made our cabin tv unusable much of the time. It really sucked! We felt isolated and frustrated. Without internet we couldn’t reach family back home, couldn’t get any work done, couldn’t confirm travel arrangements, or research excursions/ports. Without the app we couldn’t order food or drinks, couldn’t check our shipboard accounts, etc. These features might not be such a big loss on a seven-day cruise, but we were on a 16 day Transatlantic, with stops in several countries. Not having any access to information, maps, etc was a big problem. Our flight home from London was canceled and we just had to wait until we got to a port to re-book. This caused some very real anxiety during this trip. We arrived home late last night just utterly wiped out. 
 

We had a lovely time for much of this trip, but the combination of missed ports, bad weather, covid cases, and zero communications whilst onboard were challenges that detracted from the voyage. Unfortunate. 

[GateGuardian]

I was on the 14-day TA on the Regal and actually enjoyed the first 7 days without internet. Technically internet was available, but it was just super slow. I just left my laptop and phone on overnight and was able to download the stuff I need in batches. Once we got to Spain, I was able to connect with cell service, so it wasn't that bad. The only issue I had was I forgot to put my Spotify in offline mode before we left FLL and I wasn't able to enjoy my music while hanging out by the pool.