What happens in quarantine?

[MsSoCalCruiser]

2 hours ago, jwattle said:

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but if they're at a point of evacuating the ship, I think that Covid mixing with non will be low on the list of concern...just my thought...😉

Maybe plan A would be for Covid positive to go to a different muster area?

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, dockman said:

The first cruise covid crisis was the Diamond princess feb 2 2020.  That was 2 years and 4 months ago. Obviously we have all learned a lot about covid during that time.  While it has certainly been a changing dynamic regarding mitigation and containment I would think that Princess and other cruise lines would have a competent team that would develop and monitor protocols for their ships crew and passengers on  a constant basis adjusting as necessary based on facts.  I would think that a guideline would be provided to all ships in the fleet from corporate headquarters medical and legal teams. I would think each ship would be given printed protocols including detailed plans and procedures as to how and when various protocols would be recommended or required.  I would think corporate would distribute printed protocols along with detailed FAQS to be given to passengers on board.

 

However having lived through quarantine and a rather serious covid outbreak on Emerald and then reading a variety of other passengers stories /experiences on other princess ships it does not seem to me that there is a consistent message coming out of corporate,  As a result you have a mish mash of conflicting or no printed info being given to passengers.  Mask mandates seem to come and go at the whim of each ship being required on one sailing and then dropped to recommended on the next sailing.  Passengers are sometimes moved into quarantine floors and other times not.    Some (like me) never received a single piece of paper while in quarantine with detailed information on what I could expect regarding quarantine, procedures for back to back cruises when testing positive, procedures for disembarking while still positive, flight changes, hotel accommodations, room service ,close contacts, etc etc...all of those details that a quarantine passenger  is going to sit and wonder and worry about.

 

Again I realize it is a changing dynamic but I do not think Princess corporate has done a very credible job of planning and being ready to deal with the issues.  It is not like covid just popped up yesterday and said SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE or that it takes a rocket scientist to know that infected passengers are going to have a lot of questions that need to be thought out and prepared for before the ship sails.  There should be a plan A based on x criteria. a plan B based on other criteria etc.  Each plan should include detailed information along with printed information for passengers as to how each will be handled by Princess rather than letting passengers sit and worry.

 

There is a reason that senior execs are generally well compensated so perhaps a bit more time in the office planning, checking and rechecking, consulting with ship captains, hotel managers,.medical teams, CDC,  etc and a little less time at lunch or on the golf course would be appropriate.

Well written and stated.  I am not trying to be flippant, but it seems they were more focused on how get bodies onto ships, so it was "sell, sell, sell" and they have obviously been consumed on that side with a myriad of guest challenges to get registered for cruises and having a lot of negative sentiment in that regard.  Lump all this with short-staffing and you have the scene of the little Dutch boy trying to plug all the holes in the dike - or Whack-A-Mole - whichever you prefer. 

 

I am sure if anyone could sit down and interview Jan Swartz and ask her if this is what Princess intended, I am sure she would surely say "NO WAY".  I do worry how they can recover from all their miss-steps.

[ImperialLady]

19 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Well written and stated.  I am not trying to be flippant, but it seems they were more focused on how get bodies onto ships, so it was "sell, sell, sell" and they have obviously been consumed on that side with a myriad of guest challenges to get registered for cruises and having a lot of negative sentiment in that regard.  Lump all this with short-staffing and you have the scene of the little Dutch boy trying to plug all the holes in the dike - or Whack-A-Mole - whichever you prefer. 

 

I am sure if anyone could sit down and interview Jan Swartz and ask her if this is what Princess intended, I am sure she would surely say "NO WAY".  I do worry how they can recover from all their miss-steps.

I agree with all you said...however I will add that it doesn't seem like Ms. Swartz, or Princess as a whole, is trying to make it better, fix it or even care what they are doing to their guests. To many this, is cruise is supposed to be a trip of a lifetime... I think it will take many years for Princess to recover.

[plaidsmom]

On 5/30/2022 at 8:52 PM, PescadoAmarillo said:

Quarantine and close contacts. There was a letter from the hotel department in my husband’s quarantine cabin that spelled out his dining options. As a close contact who had to eat only in my cabin, I was supposed to get information like that, too, but never did. Finally one night I ordered two starter items from the Crown Grill through Guest Services when I couldn’t get through to Room Service, and they were delivered. I was never charged. However, a day later, when I wanted a slice of pizza, I got the whole pizza and was charged. 

I am so glad to hear I’m not the only one.  I ordered what I thought was 4 slices of pizza for my husband and I and received 4 full pizzas and was charged for them. I hated wasting all those pizzas but geesh maybe they could have called to check if we really wanted 4 pizzas. 

[plaidsmom]

On 5/31/2022 at 6:53 AM, Drews_Cruise said:

The staff is poorly trained on many things right now, but the service elevator was inside that corridor so it would be one option for escape.   If I could have arranged for a helicopter, I would have used that elevator to get to the sky deck.   Nobody told us what to do though and we were never even given a new muster station.  Any evacuation would have been disaster for the entire floor that was in isolation. 

I think you need a special key card for those elevators or at least on the Caribbean you did. 

[caribill]

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

 

 

My suspicion is that the quarantine cabins are all in one, or at most two, muster stations, by themselves, so that they can be segregated.  In an actual emergency, I also suspect that the "special needs team" which are tasked with escorting those with disabilities to the muster, will be augmented by other crew who will set up teams to escort the quarantined passengers, and crew, to their muster stations. 

 

On Princess, the Muster Stations are assigned by vertical location of the cabin. In other words, for example, all passengers near the front of the ship on all decks will go to the same muster station.

 

It has been reported on Princess that entire sides of one deck have been used for quarantine, so if there five muster stations on the ship, the people in quarantine would essentially be apportioned to all of those stations.

 

As someone pointed out, the door to each cabin shows the muster station for that cabin. With 99.99+% certainty, I can say that Princess did not set up a special station for those in isolation and change all those signs, especially as the deck used for quarantine has often changed on the same Princess ship from one voyage to the next.

 

Posts above have indicated in some cases printed information promised info about what to do in emergencies would be provided, but no one reported having received such information.

 

Lacking any new information about what to do when the muster signal sounds, I would expect all those in isolation would head to the muster stations assigned to the cabins they are in (or maybe to the muster station for their original cabin) and be intermixed with the general population there.

 

Princess muster stations are all very crowded in such a situation and physical social distancing is not possible. Muster stations range from showrooms to restaurants to even the casino where many will be sitting on the floor.

 

I sincerely doubt that at each muster station those from quarantine will be separated by crew from the general population of passengers.

[caribill]

34 minutes ago, plaidsmom said:

I think you need a special key card for those elevators or at least on the Caribbean you did. 

 

Elevators are not used during an emergency except possibly for some handicapped passengers who are assisted by staff.

[tetleytea]

6 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but if they're at a point of evacuating the ship, I think that Covid mixing with non will be low on the list of concern.

 

Here's the thing, though:   that would make sense.

 

[kluv2cruz]

12 hours ago, ImperialLady said:

I agree 

Re solo…. On another CCL owned sister ship, in April, I was COVID positive, and therefore in isolation for 7 1/2 days. VERY grateful my travel buddy kept up a rambling chatter with me (Facebook messenger) about her antics around the ship. She wasn’t able to eat or drink in public (due to close contact with me, her roommate) so partially it was to keep her company while she watched music in a venue solo, or enjoyed a towel animal takeover of the pool area early one morn, or a little bit of light chatter about who she chatted with while waiting for her cappuccino. But, for me, it kept me sane. I’m usually pretty positive and easy going, but that’s a lot of days to be just me by myself eating cold take out, wondering if food will arrive?, watching movies and reading books & magazines (thank goodness for my library downloads!) Very easy to wallow and have a few emotional minutes … if not for her, they would have been more frequent and deeper. Easy to see how isolation could go wrong, very quickly. 

Edited June 2, 2022 by kluv2cruz

[dddone]

On the Regal, quarantine guests are served meals with real plates and utensils.  Printed menus from the dining room are printed and slid under the door each morning.

[PacnGoNow]

12 minutes ago, dddone said:

On the Regal, quarantine guests are served meals with real plates and utensils.  Printed menus from the dining room are printed and slid under the door each morning.

How nice!  I hope fleet wide, they implement this procedure.

Are they on a quarantine deck or in

their original cabins?

 

 

 

 

[dddone]

25 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

How nice!  I hope fleet wide, they implement this procedure.

Are they on a quarantine deck or in

their original cabins?

 

 

 

 

Moved to quarantine deck.  

[PacnGoNow]

Just now, dddone said:

Moved to quarantine deck.  

Thanks for sharing.  I hope everyone recovers quickly!

Take care

[Drews_Cruise]

1 hour ago, PacnGoNow said:

How nice!  I hope fleet wide, they implement this procedure.

Are they on a quarantine deck or in

their original cabins?

 

 

 

 

I agree,  but we were able to use the app for the menu.  How did you get your order placed?  nobody answered the phones for us.  

[PacnGoNow]

5 minutes ago, Drews_Cruise said:

I agree,  but we were able to use the app for the menu.  How did you get your order placed?  nobody answered the phones for us.  

I assume this was a previous post of mine about room service?

 

I ordered in the App, but it did not show

the free drinks, like iced tea at lunch,

so I called to say I just ordered lunch,

and please add iced tea, etc.

 

This was on the CB in March and the room service line was answered.

 

The covid was low at that time, and we could get through quickly, usually.

 

After it went through the canal on the 18 day, I heard it was a lot more difficult to get through.  

 

 

[PacnGoNow]

15 minutes ago, Drews_Cruise said:

I agree,  but we were able to use the app for the menu.  How did you get your order placed?  nobody answered the phones for us.  

I see,  you meant to quote dddone, not

me.  They must have more room service 

employees to answer the phones?

 

Maybe dddone will answer?

[dddone]

13 hours ago, Drews_Cruise said:

I agree,  but we were able to use the app for the menu.  How did you get your order placed?  nobody answered the phones for us. 

[dddone]

13 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

I see,  you meant to quote dddone, not

me.  They must have more room service 

employees to answer the phones?

 

Maybe dddone will answer?

Room service on the phone is working.  Sometimes it take a while to get through.

[Linsifer]

On 5/31/2022 at 3:53 AM, ontheweb said:

I wonder if they have trained the crew what to do about those locked in a corridor if there was an emergence and a call to muster.

That’s my question, too! 

[Linsifer]

On 5/31/2022 at 6:33 PM, MsSoCalCruiser said:

You are actually locked in? What if there was an emergency? Are you able to exit in an emergency or do you have to wait for someone to come in let you out?

This is one of my biggest fears, even during NON pandemic times.  Can’t imagine being locked in and forgotten. Eeek.

[Linsifer]

On 6/1/2022 at 4:22 AM, chengkp75 said:

There is no way to lock a cabin door so that the occupants cannot get out.  The fire screen doors in the passageways cannot be locked.  Passengers cannot be trapped in any space by locked doors and not be able to get to their muster stations in an emergency.  The ship relies on surveillance cameras in the passageways to determine if someone in quarantine is leaving their cabin, and will send security as a response.

Thank you!  I needed that reassurance.  I couldn’t imagine actually being LOCKED in. 

[Linsifer]

On 6/1/2022 at 5:29 AM, JF - retired RRT said:

One person what was in isolation said that the ship personnel took their "key". Ergo: you could leave the cabin, but couldn't get back in (unless you kept the door from closing). Can't remember is that was Princess.

That doesn’t make sense. So they don’t care if an infected passenger is outside his or her cabin roaming the halls, even if it’s a quarantine ward?  

[Linsifer]

On 6/1/2022 at 7:15 AM, PescadoAmarillo said:

😉 I was quite ill for several weeks, and then so anxious to return to normal life that I found any and all excuses not to get back to blogging. I was beating myself up though…”must get that done before we start planting annuals!”  Didn’t happen. “Must get that done before this track meet, or that one”. Nope. Once graduation season started there was no hope. But the day after the USAFA graduation, I guess I was inspired by the graduates’ discipline, sat down and just hammered it out in a few hours. 

I saw the words “track meet” and immediately thought of my husband whose whole life is about track meets.  First as an outstanding distance runner and then as a coach (also cross country) and now in retirement, a race timer with fancy timing equipment.  We have to book cruises around track and cross country meets.  So much for retirement. 😉 

[2 cruises a year]

2 minutes ago, Linsifer said:

I saw the words “track meet” and immediately thought of my husband whose whole life is about track meets.  First as an outstanding distance runner and then as a coach (also cross country) and now in retirement, a race timer with fancy timing equipment.  We have to book cruises around track and cross country meets.  So much for retirement. 😉 

That is a good problem to have. Too many people retire with nothing to do. 

[Linsifer]

5 minutes ago, 2 cruises a year said:

That is a good problem to have. Too many people retire with nothing to do. 

You’re right!  And during 2020 I could really see how much he missed those track and cross country meets.  Yeah, we got hooked on Netflix and got in a lot of walks together.  But, that can get awfully old after awhile.