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On Ruby now, but never again

julia

By julia,
in Princess Cruises

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ebeluga

ebeluga

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, geocruiser said:

I went and read the thread posting that were after their cruise.  WOW! so many positive for covid.

 

And to think that they had to pay good money to get Covid.  

Think of it as the equivalent of getting a booster shot.  lol.

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Me by the Sea

Me by the Sea

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:


On Discovery read that deck 9 (Dolphin) was for quarantine cabins but also saw several deck 15 (Marina) cabins with the little tables outside their doors.


 

F128BF8A-D9FD-4906-8443-56915AF05691.jpeg


If you were exposed, while waiting for your test results, you are allowed to isolate in your cabin, hence the tables.

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Astro Flyer

Astro Flyer

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, ebeluga said:

There was no fire door to keep one away?  I will conduct a reconnaissance mission next week on board since I need to get away from crowds...lol


Wide open hallways! Our goal was to also avoid crowds whenever possible.
 

Most of the deck 8 washers & dryers (free including detergent) didn’t work so we ended up going to deck 15. Unlike other Princess ships we’ve sailed all laundromats were in the aft portion of the ship and on 11 & 15 it was 2 separate rooms.

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AnyMajorCruiseDude Holiday Sharing Rare

AnyMajorCruiseDude

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Me by the Sea said:


If you were exposed, while waiting for your test results, you are allowed to isolate in your cabin, hence the tables.

We were exposed on the transfer bus ride to pier 50, and quarantined to room until testing completed.  False positive followed by several negatives.  Medical staff fully engaged contrary to other reports.  

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PescadoAmarillo "Live from...." Rare

PescadoAmarillo

Posted
Posted (edited)
31 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:


Thanks for the explanation.

Asteoflyer, we had a table outside our cabin on the Majestic Princess in August. I had symptoms, reported them to medical, they came and did a medical assessment and tested me and I was negative. I had to quarantine in our cabin for 24 hours and be tested again. Once that was negative I was free to go out again. The table appeared to serve my food on and our cabin was disinfected after the 24 hours. So I never tested positive but had the table. 
 

The Majestic Princess handled that really well. I got flowers for being honest and a nice FCC for the day I missed. 

Edited by PescadoAmarillo
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portiemom

portiemom

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, K.T.B. said:

I keep reading about all these issues in SF and Ruby, but when my wife and I sailed out on February 25th we had zero issues.  

 

Arrival time was "scheduled" between 11:00-12:00, but we got there at 10:45 with an expectation of having to wait, though we didn't need to.  Dropped off our luggage, walked right in, started the process, which included Covid testing.  We were on board by noon.  Even with the additional step of testing, it was the quickest we've ever boarded a ship on any line from the time we got out of the taxi until we stepped on board. 

 

My only guess as to why it's taking so long now is staffing.  When I embarked they looked to fully staffed or darn close to it.

Agreed. We were on this cruise also. No issues. There was a short line outside but it moved quickly. Inside everything seemed very organized, and there was plenty of staffing. Didn't know how lucky we were! I'd be fuming if we had embarked under the conditions reported here. smh.

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Wavesprite

Wavesprite

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

 

Our funds on CC will be returned for refund. 

And our FCC's will have a new expiration date of 1/10/23

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you expand on this?  I thought that cruise with confidence switched everything to FCC?  It’s good to hear that if we panic it will go back on the credit card! 

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CalLuvsCrusingToo

CalLuvsCrusingToo

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

Needless to say we didn't want to Cancel our Ruby cruise, but just couldn't bear going thru what many of you are going thru.😟

 

FYI-  For those who want to CANCEL?  It's not too late.

 

Finally able to get thru this Am to Officially cancel our Ruby cruise April 16...Today.

 

After 2 emails to customerrelations@princess.com and a couple others to a different email?  I got No response, or was emailed they received my email, and I'm in the que.🤨

 

Cruise with Confidence cancellation, cuz we had No confidence in Ruby safety.

 

Not having much faith in them, with our cruise approaching in a few days, we definately Didn't want to join all the Unmasked coughers onboard.....

I was determined to Call and get thru to a Person, no matter how long I was on hold!  Luckily only about 40 mins first thing this morning.  But its finally Cancelled.

 

Our funds on CC will be returned for refund. 

And our FCC's will have a new expiration date of 1/10/23

 

(We have a few more cruises already booked on Ruby this year.  I am taking them

one at a time, in the hopes Princess comes to their senses asap and reinstates safety protocols.   If Not,  Cancel,  Cancel, Cancel.... )

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple asked if we had Insurance?  No.

 

During the call, I was put on hold for another 20 mins while he asked? 

He came back on talking about my FCC's & refund. 

I also didn't mince words explaining Why we didn't want to be on Ruby at this time, with virtually No safety protocols.  We are Elite, but I don't know if that mattered. 

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bmc alabama

bmc alabama

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Me by the Sea said:


Princess does not go out of New Orleans!

EA6D65A7-D15E-4E5C-B231-4B81CDB8F2F8.png

You are correct.  NCL and RCCL use it but not on a constant basis.  It has the reputation of not operating as smoothly as Carnival’s Julia St terminal next door.  My point was that there are some ports that this tends to occur more often at (in other words, it wasn’t Princess specific).

 

However, a good Princess analogy would be when they used to use the Houston terminal and the ships would get delayed in the fog in the Houston ship channel.  That happened quite often as well.  I am not surprised they are back to Galveston rather than Houston.

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macmarsue

macmarsue

Posted
Posted

I was on the Ruby 3/27 sailing. I can tell you that it is a rust bucket! I was shocked that they are sailing a ship in that kind of shape. I will say the inside looks good but the outside was atrocious! We were in a mini suite and it was pretty bad. Even the metal table was full of rust. Crew was outstanding, but it was very disappointing seeing all the cutbacks. Don’t even get me started on the cigarette smoke constantly pouring out of the casino. It was so bad that you couldn’t enjoy the Piazza and all the different venues that were located there. We managed to stay safe from Covid but we only ate in the  MDR and almost always wore our masks. Especially in the elevators. Princess never said a word about Covid. I only knew from cruise critic. The topping on the cake was how long it took to get off the ship and then we sat on the charter bus waiting for passengers to be let off the ship. We waited 2 hours on that bus. We were the last  bus to leave the terminal and I saw them put 2 passengers in a ambulance. That was at 12:15. I’m thinking that could have been why there was such a delay. When we pulled out I saw the hundreds of passengers lined up all the way to pier 39. I felt so bad for them. Not a great experience with Princess.

 

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Nebr.cruiser

Nebr.cruiser

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Ombud said:

That's my plan. Hope it still works

We were on the Discovery inaugural.  Tried to schedule an arrival time many times on the app; it alwasy said all times were full.  Strangley my sister, cruising with us but in her own cabin, was able to select a time even though she started trying later than I did.

 

Not that it really mattered.  There was a huge mess once check-in was over waiting for shuttle buses in the terminal, since we had to shuttle to a different dock to embark.  As far as we could tell, the finally ordered more buses and then everybody was sent to buses with no regard to supposed arrival times, status, or anything else.

 

We were on floor fifteen and never noticed any of the little tables in the halls.

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edspec

edspec

Posted
Posted

I was in the 11 o’clock boarding group, so one of the first to arrive in the waiting room. At around 11:45 we were told there were still 11 pieces of luggage waiting to be claimed, and that the ship didn’t yet have a zero passenger count. A b2b passenger later told me that they’d heard there was confusion with ground transportation which led to delays for disembarking passengers. Bottom line, seems like it wasn’t the cruise line’s fault. 
Was it cold and miserable in the line, waiting room, and during boarding? Yes, but disruption, waiting, and uncomfortable conditions are the norm when traveling right now. If a flight leaves on time, a room is cleaned daily, the restaurant has what I order I take it as a win. If you’re not prepared to deal with uncomfortable or less than ideal conditions you probably shouldn’t travel right now. My DS is autistic and I wouldn’t dream of taking him on a cruise right now…just too risky given current conditions.

 

 

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c-boy "Live from...." Rare

c-boy

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, ebeluga said:

There was no fire door to keep one away?  I will conduct a reconnaissance mission next week on board since I need to get away from crowds...lol

what is this 🤨 a new type of excursion 😀

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boom op

boom op

Posted
Posted

Do you think the delays in embarking and disembarking could be due to the lack of shoreside personnel?  Like any other business in the Bay Area I'm sure they are having trouble finding workers. Most of the staff that works in the terminal are retires, and I wouldn't be surprised if the company that hires them are having a hard time finding enough staff.  We have sailed out of SF about 5 times and every time on disembarking it was almost impossible to find a porter to help with bags, I can only imagine how hard it will be on our next cruise on the 30th.

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