True Grand Princess Sailing April 4th-April 19th

[Ronnieslady]

My version is a little less glorified.  I realize Princess  has to makeup up lots of lost money, but I didn’t really think  it would be so obvious. Also many passengers  were sailing using their FCCs that will  expire the end of this year.  I will touch on a few things. Please ask if you want more details, or specifics. No embarkation lunch in the MDR.  They said because they were short staffed.  But I thought how did they think they were going to serve dinner❓
   We were in Club Class dining.  There was always many dishes to order,  but most of them was NOT anywhere up to par, or what we were given  last November on the same ship. Many items were room temp that should never have been, like Lamb,  beef sticks , prime rib & many fish dishes.  Prime rib was very gristly & couldn’t be chewed.  Many were talking about it.  Over  half had to be throw out.  The Mahi-mahi was very dry & way over cooked.  The romaine lettuce in the Caesar salad sometimes tasted like it was the core, but there was no core in it, Weird. The chicken you couldn’t chew.  No chicken in the chicken salad they have @ International Cafe .  Just chopped up Apples.  

       Entertainment mostly lacking, but with a few exceptions, like Carlos Oscar, British Invasion & Soul or Motown.  We didn’t go to the other production show Stardust. We already knew it wasn’t our kind of music, but was told it didn’t have any story, just singers singing different songs.   The Entertainment Director did the best he could with what he had to work with.  Most of his helpers were sweet girls, but couldn’t speak very good English & didn’t know what they were doing.  For instance, the poor girl running the golf that was continuing everyday, didn’t know anything @ all about golf. That’s what she told my DH.   The only exception was DJ Lovely, but she couldn’t do everything. I bet she wished she could.  
          I heard this cruise was on the news & rightly so.  There’s no caring or enforcing anything about Covid precautions once you are on the ship.  That’s definitely the feeling they wanted people to get.   It’s a free for all.  By the last few days you could hear passengers with that deep barking cough with lots of phlegm, sneezing,  people holding their throat like they were in pain.  I am sure the crew was glad to get rid of us.  No one would dare report they had any symptoms, who wants to go in quarantine & ruin their fun.  I’m sure about half of the 2200 passengers that disembarked in LA. had Covid or will.   My DH has a nice big cold, but is testing negative.  Me even with all precautions & double boosted has Covid & testing positive.  Never had a cough like this before.   This was a bad time for Princess to start sailing almost full on 15 day cruises with No masking.  
So if you want to get Covid or just plain don’t care if you get sick , then sail, because in my opinion there’s no way to not get it unless you stay in your cabin & not go anywhere. 

             

 

         

Edited April 22, 2022 by Ronnieslady

[Cessna140]

This is what I am afraid of.......we are scheduled to sail in May on the Ruby and I am torn between going or staying home. We have been very careful for two years and are so looking forward to our trip but I am worried about getting sick onboard and having little to no medical care. The things I have read about being in quarantine are awful. We are vaxxed and double boosted and will wear masks on board but I fear even that won't help much. 

[azrose]

I tested positive for Covid the next day after cruise.  Symptoms are pretty mild … like a sinus cold … 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

I had two separate, unrelated, sets of clients just return from a 14 day sailing on the Emerald Princess.  They echoed many of your comments about service issues, noticeable cutbacks in food quality/presentation, lack of covid preventions/controls.  3 of the 4 have tested positive for Covid, all are vaxxed and boosted.  One couple who have cruised with Princess 25+ times had me cancel their 3 upcoming sailings for the remainder of 2022/23 and have stated they will not be cruising with Princess again. 

 

The cruise lines are apparently putting short term revenue before safety or product quality, endangering peoples health and driving future business away.  Sad

[cr8tiv1]

I agree with your statement: This was a bad time for Princess to start sailing almost full on 15 day cruises with No masking.  I was on the previous two cruises (the March one that started with no protocols).  I remained uninfected, but was constantly concerned (not worried).  I was also on the less passengered cruise in October.  That was really nice.

 

I was in Club Class and heard that several crew were either isolated or quarantined.  I was told that lunch was not going to happen on embarkation day.  The others tried to make up for the slack.

 

But my meals were excellent.  Meats were done to perfection.  I was disappointed that the "extra" specialty dish in Club Club was nothing to write home about.  I enjoyed Stardust more than the other two productions.  Entertainment was mediocre to poor.  I was not surprised that the CD caught COVID as did some of the performers/dancers/singers.  

 

It is sad that Princess is not learning from past errors.  It is sad that passengers have to resort to NOT reporting illnesses to avoid being quarantined without support.  

 

My next Princess cruise is not for a long while.  I resumed cruising because of all the FCCs I had and thought it would be safe.  What do I want Princess to do?  I am a stockholder and am conflicted to what Princess needs to do.  

 

The first change should be to remove smoking in the casino.  Or at least limit the days.  What happened to smoke free formal nights?  I like the idea of putting up a partition or build an enclosed smoking area within the casino. Maybe automatic doors?  

 

@RonniesladyI am so sorry your vacation ended with Covid.  Hope you are on themend.

 

 

 

 

[AZjohn]

1 hour ago, Ronnieslady said:

 No one would dare report they had any symptoms, who wants to go in quarantine & ruin their fun.

This seems to be a sad fact we keep reading reports on here.

 

We are supposed to visit our 1-year-old granddaughter directly after our cruise in October and this seems to be a disaster waiting to happen. We refuse to put our daughter or granddaughter in harm's way as well as any other person we know or don't know.

 

I just don't know how this is going to get under control.

[HBCcruiser]

I had a very different “True” experience as reported here:

 

Sorry your experience was different. 

[Ronnieslady]

3 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

I had two separate, unrelated, sets of clients just return from a 14 day sailing on the Emerald Princess.  They echoed many of your comments about service issues, noticeable cutbacks in food quality/presentation, lack of covid preventions/controls.  3 of the 4 have tested positive for Covid, all are vaxxed and boosted.  One couple who have cruised with Princess 25+ times had me cancel their 3 upcoming sailings for the remainder of 2022/23 and have stated they will not be cruising with Princess again. 

 

The cruise lines are apparently putting short term revenue before safety or product quality, endangering peoples health and driving future business away.  Sad

We have sailed with Princess around 20 times all in full suites, so they have us @ around 40 cruises.   Also we never once on this cruise ate in the buffet. We ate every sea day lunch in our suite or balcony.  So that’s 10 out of 15 days. The evenings we never sat with anyone or near anyone in the dining room.  Sadly many people will not cruise if they have to be masked. So Princess may not ever go back to mandatory masking, since it will hurt their cruising numbers.  

[Ronnieslady]

3 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I agree with your statement: This was a bad time for Princess to start sailing almost full on 15 day cruises with No masking.  I was on the previous two cruises (the March one that started with no protocols).  I remained uninfected, but was constantly concerned (not worried).  I was also on the less passengered cruise in October.  That was really nice.

 

I was in Club Class and heard that several crew were either isolated or quarantined.  I was told that lunch was not going to happen on embarkation day.  The others tried to make up for the slack.

 

But my meals were excellent.  Meats were done to perfection.  I was disappointed that the "extra" specialty dish in Club Club was nothing to write home about.  I enjoyed Stardust more than the other two productions.  Entertainment was mediocre to poor.  I was not surprised that the CD caught COVID as did some of the performers/dancers/singers.  

 

It is sad that Princess is not learning from past errors.  It is sad that passengers have to resort to NOT reporting illnesses to avoid being quarantined without support.  

 

My next Princess cruise is not for a long while.  I resumed cruising because of all the FCCs I had and thought it would be safe.  What do I want Princess to do?  I am a stockholder and am conflicted to what Princess needs to do.  

 

The first change should be to remove smoking in the casino.  Or at least limit the days.  What happened to smoke free formal nights?  I like the idea of putting up a partition or build an enclosed smoking area within the casino. Maybe automatic doors?  

 

@RonniesladyI am so sorry your vacation ended with Covid.  Hope you are on themend.

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much. We are stockholders also.   And I agree about the Casino smoking, but there again that bottom line.

[Ronnieslady]

3 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

I had a very different “True” experience as reported here:

 

Sorry your experience was different. 

Not sure we were even on the same cruise.  It was a petri dish.

I should say the veal we had in club class was better than the veal I had in Sabatinis.  Your high numbers I definitely agree with,  when it comes to the desserts. 

[shellbeachjim]

As far as I’m concerned, they should ban smoking in the casino. The smell coming out of the elevators on deck 6 was just awful whenever the casino was open. We had mostly good dinners in club class, although there were a few misses. There were also a number of crew members who were under quarantine when we boarded which definitely caused some service issues. 

[Ronnieslady]

49 minutes ago, shellbeachjim said:

As far as I’m concerned, they should ban smoking in the casino. The smell coming out of the elevators on deck 6 was just awful whenever the casino was open. We had mostly good dinners in club class, although there were a few misses. There were also a number of crew members who were under quarantine when we boarded which definitely caused some service issues. 

Maybe they let them come back early because they were so short handed & that is why all the cases. And did they quarantine all their friends that they were around.  That’s the reason everyone was having that deep real phlegm hacking   cough & , sneezing .  I even saw passengers holding their throats with a pretty miserable look on their faces by about the 11th day . 
We were in Club Class also being in a suite.  many of my meals were especially the main dishes were room temperature.   I noticed they didn’t want people waiting by the door in Club Class, when there was no table available.  They asked that people come back.  Probably so as not to show other passengers that even though it’s Club Class we still had to wait .  Princess knew they would be under staffed due to break outs & sailing almost full. In November when we were on the Grand (with under 600 passengers)  I asked that maitre d

how they were going to handle it when more passengers were on board . He said he didn’t know & didn’t seem to think it would be any busier.  
So glad you had better luck with the things you ordered in Club Class.  

[emmak8]

Thank you all for posting. Your experience does not bode well for Princess. Similar reports on the Sky, the Ruby and the Discovery. Why cruise ? I sailed in January and February when low capacity and protocols worked. Now it's a free for all. The stories about quarantines are frightening. I will cancel 2022 cruises and wait for safer times. Sad.

[riffatsea]

It is sad to read some of these posts

We were on the Grand in December when masking was being enforced

It was one of our best cruises ever!

We were in again in March with cr8tiv1 

We wore our masks diligently and stayed away from crowded areas where few were masked

We remained healthy and enjoyed that cruise as well

We were also in club class and thought the meals were quite good!

The attitude of some folks who were almost eager to get sick was upsetting but we stayed safe and are happy about that

We have another cruise booked for August and we expect to continue our procedure of masking indoors and not hanging out in the crowded bar atmosphere where noone is wearing them

These are difficult times !

[HBCcruiser]

7 hours ago, shellbeachjim said:

As far as I’m concerned, they should ban smoking in the casino

Amen to that! I was open to playing craps but the smoke kept me away. 

[milolii]

Ty for the review.   It is good to hear different experiences.  

[JF - retired RRT]

14 hours ago, AZjohn said:

I just don't know how this is going to get under control.

Sad to say...it's not. We're almost to the point where it's endemic, like the "common" cold, flu, etc.

Respiratory viruses are very hard to control. At least, we have vaccines that mitigate symptoms for most.

[Yehootu]

14 hours ago, AZjohn said:

This seems to be a sad fact we keep reading reports on here.

 

We are supposed to visit our 1-year-old granddaughter directly after our cruise in October and this seems to be a disaster waiting to happen. We refuse to put our daughter or granddaughter in harm's way as well as any other person we know or don't know.

 

I just don't know how this is going to get under control.

We help with our 3yr and 1yr old grandchildren. Last thing we'd want is to bring home covid. Our next cruise is on the Royal out of Vancouver. The ship will only have been in service since May 2nd so hopefully cases will be low. Our fun or seeing the grandkids, I know which one will win.

[jwattle]

17 hours ago, Ronnieslady said:

My version is a little less glorified.  I realize Princess  has to makeup up lots of lost money, but I didn’t really think  it would be so obvious. Also many passengers  were sailing using their FCCs that will  expire the end of this year.  I will touch on a few things. Please ask if you want more details, or specifics. No embarkation lunch in the MDR.  They said because they were short staffed.  But I thought how did they think they were going to serve dinner❓
 

             

 

         

It's rather rude to call your version less glorified; maybe call it your version or your perception; they had their cruise, you had yours...it definitely doesn't invalidate their experience...

10 hours ago, Ronnieslady said:

Maybe they let them come back early because they were so short handed & that is why all the cases. And did they quarantine all their friends that they were around.  That’s the reason everyone was having that deep real phlegm hacking   cough & , sneezing .  I even saw passengers holding their throats with a pretty miserable look on their faces by about the 11th day . 

No matter how short-staffed, they would not shorten crew quarantine if they were sick. You're really reaching with that one...

[Astro Flyer]

47 minutes ago, Yehootu said:

The ship will only have been in service since May 2nd so hopefully cases will be low. Our fun or seeing the grandkids, I know which one will win.

That’s what I thought when boarding Discovery’s inaugural cruise & after the 2nd cruise the ship had moved from Green to Orange like all other Princess ships carrying passengers.

 

We know of a group of 7 that at the end of the first cruise had 5 positive cases. Very few people wearing masks which likely contributed to the spread of the virus but even some who said they wore masks, were vaxxed & boosted became infected with this highly contagious variant. We avoided most public events except for eating & wore masks and didn’t get sick. However our decision resulted in a less enjoyable cruise & unless things improve we’re considering canceling our Fall cruises (14 & 10 days) and taking a pause from cruising.

 

In my opinion there are no definitive experiences & as can be seen different people can have different experiences & opinions. I appreciate reading all of them to consider when making a decision about cruising. If this is endemic then cruising is not for us now. I merely share my experiences which certainly are no more valid than anyone else’s opinions.

 

 

[shellbeachjim]

11 hours ago, Ronnieslady said:

Maybe they let them come back early because they were so short handed & that is why all the cases. And did they quarantine all their friends that they were around.  
 

We talked to a few of the quarantined crew members and they were not allowed to come back early. Also, some had to quarantine if they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive.
 

I wore my mask whenever I was moving about the ship. I can’t say that of most people on the cruise. The mask wearing was sporadic at best. 

[Ronnieslady]

2 hours ago, jwattle said:

It's rather rude to call your version less glorified; maybe call it your version or your perception; they had their cruise, you had yours...it definitely doesn't invalidate their experience...

No matter how short-staffed, they would not shorten crew quarantine if they were sick. You're really reaching with that one...

I see what you mean about their experience. And I do agree with that. But sometimes when I was reading I almost had the feeling someone was working for Princess.   I’m not  sure I’m reaching. Was the crew that went back to work negative with a PCR test?. Or just asymptomatic ? Do you trust what Princess tells us onboard or even puts in writing??  I have been reading many posts here on CC besides the news.  I’m sorry to say Princess has money to make & to do  that they have to protect their reputation & cutback everything they can.  They have been in the Orange for quite sometime.  And had plenty of time to bring in extra help & train them also.   

[Ronnieslady]

2 hours ago, shellbeachjim said:

We talked to a few of the quarantined crew members and they were not allowed to come back early. Also, some had to quarantine if they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive.
 

I wore my mask whenever I was moving about the ship. I can’t say that of most people on the cruise. The mask wearing was sporadic at best. 

That’s really nice to hear.    We were maskers also.   But still got sick.  

[jwattle]

57 minutes ago, Ronnieslady said:

I see what you mean about their experience. And I do agree with that. But sometimes when I was reading I almost had the feeling someone was working for Princess.   I’m not  sure I’m reaching. Was the crew that went back to work negative with a PCR test?. Or just asymptomatic ? Do you trust what Princess tells us onboard or even puts in writing??  I have been reading many posts here on CC besides the news.  I’m sorry to say Princess has money to make & to do  that they have to protect their reputation & cutback everything they can.  They have been in the Orange for quite sometime.  And had plenty of time to bring in extra help & train them also.   

They have a set length of time for quarantine, same as anyone else. I do think that their protocols may not be as rigid as I would like, but that they do follow them. I know personnel onboard and they do not take shortcuts; they do follow their protocols. Yes, I do trust them. The news was one snapshot of, I believe, one group's story. The "live from" didn't show an outbreak. Pretty much all the cruise lines are experiencing Covid.

As for staffing: all of the cruise lines are competing for the same people, and a lot less of them are wanting to come back right now. The lines are having to get creative and competitive to motivate them, between Covid and time away from families with this newer generation of employees, plus the fact that getting crews vaxed isn't always as easy in other countries.

And no, HBC doesn't work for Princess, neither do I for that matter. That's a hell of an accusation to level at someone and I would suggest you walk it back a bit. You're talking to and about people with some years as well as experience posting on these boards; we also have breadth of experience.

Some of us may have just had a different and better cruise experience and / or attitude, and to call yours "true" implies that theirs wasn't.

 

[Ronnieslady]

2 hours ago, jwattle said:

They have a set length of time for quarantine, same as anyone else. I do think that their protocols may not be as rigid as I would like, but that they do follow them. I know personnel onboard and they do not take shortcuts; they do follow their protocols. Yes, I do trust them. The news was one snapshot of, I believe, one group's story. The "live from" didn't show an outbreak. Pretty much all the cruise lines are experiencing Covid.

As for staffing: all of the cruise lines are competing for the same people, and a lot less of them are wanting to come back right now. The lines are having to get creative and competitive to motivate them, between Covid and time away from families with this newer generation of employees, plus the fact that getting crews vaxed isn't always as easy in other countries.

And no, HBC doesn't work for Princess, neither do I for that matter. That's a hell of an accusation to level at someone and I would suggest you walk it back a bit. You're talking to and about people with some years as well as experience posting on these boards; we also have breadth of experience.

Some of us may have just had a different and better cruise experience and / or attitude, and to call yours "true" implies that theirs wasn't.

 

You said it all in your 1st paragraph.  Which gives me a slant of where your opinions come from.  There’s no point in arguing, that they are not my opinions.  Isn’t that what makes the world go round, as they say.