Princess Chatter

Day 5 - May 15

   Air Conditioning outage continues in our zone consisting of E704 - E736 (17 cabins)..  Unknown is the A/C status of the closed off Covid zone cabins E502 to E702 (29 cabins).  Average temperature in my cabin is 78 to 82 deg. 24/7.  There are undisclosed A/C outages in other ship areas including at least one suite. Speculation is that the A/C outage is ongoing, perhaps for the rest of this cruise.  I was informed by a crewman that the Covid restricted area has nothing to do with the A/C outage and “we are still working on it.” If I was from Missouri I would say “Show me.” Since it has been reported in a Princess Chatter reply by RichC that there were A/C outages on the Island Princess first cruise this should be of no real surprise to the crew.  With this in mind the loss of electricity across the entire ship on embarkation day probably wasn’t the cause.  It appears to me based on my speculation that many passengers on this cruise including us are going to have to get used to having no A/C in the tropics for the rest of this long cruise.

   In other news a single lady near our cabin is now in her third inside cabin due to cabin problems.
   A number of passengers on this cruise either have no safe or a non working safe.
   Demon phone woke us up at the break of day with yet another fire alarm.  No call from the bridge this time. Possibly related to the heat in the cabin.  The solution once again is to unplug the demon phone.
   Multiple reinstalls of the Medallion app didn’t help.  Only the Internet techs know how to fix.
   More passengers are talking about seeing and hearing podium arguments at dinner.
   The answer to the bait and switch question is I bought two T-shirts of my size.  The fast talking vendor put one shirt of my size in the bag and slipped another shirt of a smaller size in the bag.
   We have the best cabin steward ever.  Every request gets done quickly despite his struggles with English.
   Talked with the Captain’s Circle rep.  She quickly answered all of my questions like “Are the drinks watered down?” No. “Do the ship officers not want to mingle at the Captains Circle party?” Yes, due to potential Covid exposure.
   The best pizza on the sea has returned with the old dough recipe according to me.
   Non Coke card holders can actually buy a gun (fountain) coke now without any waiter telling you that it’s not allowed without a Coke card.  The Cokes are full of flavor.  I wonder if they have non U.S. cane sugar.
   Cabin pillows are just perfect.  Soft and very comfortable on roasting hot nights while sailing on this rust bucket, I mean “this old gal.”
   
   Day 6 May 16 Monday.  The adventure continues

   Last night was a cabin dinner sans napkins or silverware that Room Service forgot.
   Never received the TA promised “Cruise Night Coupon Books.”  I toss them anyway.
   I took a shower and demon telephone started ringing Fire Alarm
   Dear wife took a shower and demon telephone started ringing Fire Alarm followed by ship officer knocking on the door.
   Learned that some on the occupied cabins have refrigerators that didn’t work.
   Learned from direct experience that VPN doesn’t work with the Medallion app but VPN does work with the Medallion off the ship Internet.

   Now two Island Princess breaking news reports.  The A/C outage affects several deck zones.  Hearsay says that the repair part will arrive in Cartagena, Columbia on Monday May 23rd.  Two days at sea and then disembarkation on Thursday, May 26th.   The other news is that even though the Customer Service Desk said that all air conditioned balcony and minis were taken this was not true.  I know that because without disclosing my strategy to get a cabin transfer I actually pulled it off.  DW and I moved tonight to an air conditioned unclaimed balcony on the Aloha deck with some surprise perks which I am holding very close to the vest.  New cabin has no safe or a working refrigerator but no matter.  I have requested that our old safe and refrig. come with us.  The pool deck noise above us is welcome as long as air conditioner doesn’t die on this 19 year old “gal”.

Day 7 - Tuesday May 17

Mid-day Editorial - the cruise of the have and have not passengers.

This is being typed on an iPad with using a small keyboard. Easy formatting for readability isn’t in the cards.  As I reflect on what has happened on this cruise certain things stand out.  The air conditioning outage happened or got a whole lot worse on Friday the 13th.  Neither Captain Paul Slight or anybody else made a ship wide announcement about this major issue nor said what they could do about it.  Many non working safes and non working refrigerators at the beginning of this cruise suggested that Princess had two years to fix these problems and apparently did nothing of importance to fix the issues.  The most glaring example of neglect I’ve seen is the very back of the Emerald deck where passengers can stand to view the wake.  That deck floor shows a lot of rust and neglect.  This points to the real Princess problem.  The problem is the two year lack of Princess cash-in-fist (CIF). Not having enough CIF is what Princess was up against.  Now everybody seemingly wants to cruise again and Princess wasn’t fully prepared and cut corners. 

The entire staff on this cruise have really stepped up to make things right even though they don’t always have the ability to do so.  Every staff member I’ve met is busting their ass off to make the customers happy.  The kitchen crew and waiters overall have been working so hard and are doing an excellent job. Same for the cabin stewards, especially those working in all of the non air conditioned areas.   

Having been a have-not up until last night and now being a privileged have today really sends home the message. Be very grateful if favor comes your way.

Notes from this afternoon:

   Talked with an audience volunteer.  He said they didn’t practice.
   No more pillow chocolate.
   Grill cooks on very hot deck forced to wear masks.
   Outdoor door greeter on hot deck for Horizon Court forced apparently to wear a coat and tie.
   Those that don’t wash their hands at wash basin entering Horizon Court get called out.
   Wartsila engine/generator contractor wearing industrial work clothes seen in hallway.
   Incinerator contractor wearing shorts, t-shirt and carrying a beer met in hallway this evening.
   Internet this morning (with VPN on) ping 2,228, point 38 down, 1 point 31 up.
   Cream of Wheat is no longer offered in Horizon Court.
   The only location for brewed (pour over) coffee is on deck 5.
   Almost everyone dressed up for Captains Circle party.  Winners were geezers with just over 1,000 days at sea.