Originally Posted by
gretchendz
Looking for people who have cruised in the past few months to give a report here. What was good? Bad? Hard?
I'll start.
I took a Pacific Coastal cruise on HAL's Konigsdam Nov. 7.
The lack of people on board was delightful (capacity is still somewhat limited by CDC for US waters). Below is a picture of the pool area in the afternoon on an AT SEA day. Never a problem finding a chair!
Crew was always masked.
Here's a few key points.
- Provide proof of vaccination
- Provide negative Covid results within 2 days of sailing.
- Wear masks when indoors (except in cabin dining, drinking). There was very high compliance with this.
- HAL had a gift of a HAL mask for each guest.
- Several itinerary changes occurred prior to the cruise due to local restrictions.
- We arrived a bit early for check-in and were waived through. It was quite efficient. First, check in the show Covid vaccination card, then negative results, and of course boarding card.
- Muster drill has been replaced with: 1) Watch saftey video in your cabin and 2) Check-in to your muster location so they know you know where it is. Big improvement!
- No nightly turn-down service. If you call for more towels, etc. they came immediately. Only downside to me is you have to find a place to get your little chocolates.
- Crew was delightful. Most expressed happiness to be working again.
My TATL cruise on Regal Princess last month was similar:
- We had to take pictures of our passport and Covid vaccination proof in their app before the cruise.
- No prior Covid test required; instead everyone was tested in the cruise terminal. (UK required all to pay for a test within 2 days after UK arrival, but since I was departing on the cruise by then I did not have to actually take this test.)
- Upon arrival at the cruise terminal and dropping off our luggage, everyone first had to stand in line (1st 50% outside, rest in a room with very high ceilings) to take a Covid test - the line took ~15-20 minutes. After the test, the next stop was the "departure lounge" in the terminal, where we had to wait for our test results - we were told this would take 20-30 minutes, but my test came back negative in just over 15 minutes. At that point we could go to a check-in desk to confirm that all was in order, followed by security screening and immediate boarding. Social distancing was poor in the initial line and a little better in the departure lounge, but excellent after that.
- Roughly 40% occupancy; masks required everywhere except in cabin, out on deck, while seated in a restaurant or the Platinum lounge (not sure about bars), and briefly when consuming drinks during trivia etc. Anecdotally I saw ~98+% compliance.
- One itinerary change (Vigo dropped but replaced by a 2nd day in Cherbourg).
- As this was a 14-day cruise. we also had to take 2 additional Covid tests - one roughly a week into the cruise, and the other a day or 2 before disembarkation.
- No gift of a mask, but several locations had paper masks available for free (shop was selling cloth masks for $10-12); Muster drill, turndown service, and crew attitudes were the same as above.
The other major difference for me was the use of Princess's Medallion instead of a room key. This could track everyone on board, so that contact tracing could be easily done if anyone came down with Covid. I would be very leery if this technology were to become standard in everyday life (too Big-Brother-ish for me), but on vacation in the current circumstances I was OK with this.