JLMoran

My wife had been experiencing potential Covid symptoms for 2 days before she and I both tested. Started off with just some sniffles / hay fever like symptoms such as you described, and on the second day she had a very brief bout of chills. But on the third day she started feeling completely exhausted and developed a bad chronic cough; that was the final warning sign. On that same day, I suddenly developed a bad sore throat that got progressively worse as the day went on; I had been dealing with a slight sore throat off and on for a couple of days prior, but it always went away after drinking water / rehydrating. Now, here's the thing -- we had brought BinaxNOW tests with us so we could self-test and avoid calling the med bay in case it wasn't actually anything. And we took those after dinner, when her symptoms really started getting pronounced. We saw that positive line come up on her test in less than 30 seconds. And it wasn't faint, it was a thick bright crimson line. There was no question she was positive and we had to call medical, who would do their own test to confirm. My BinaxNOW test (which I took along with her, just in case) came back negative. But as my wife's cabin-mate, I was required to be tested per ship protocol once it was clear that she needed to be tested. And per their test (which is a more-sensitive florescence antigen test), I was already positive. Even if I had tested negative, their protocol would have required me to stay on the ship that day and isolate in our aft-facing cabin until I cleared a second test 24 hours later. How do I know this? Because my younger daughter developed bronchitis toward the end of the cruise, with a fever and horrible cough and congestion; and while she tested negative that night, she had to follow that protocol and stay on board for the day in Genoa. Our older daughter, who also tested negative and had no symptoms, was free to leave the cabin and go on the excursion to Portofino with my wife since our younger one was also negative.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. We were in no way allowed to leave the cabins until we tested negative. My complaint was that the way they timed taking the tests and letting us know the results left almost zero time to make to the excursions we had scheduled on the separate days that Cathy and I finally did test negative -- 7th day for Cathy, on our Genoa stop with an excursion to Portfofino; 8th day for me, which was the final port day on our second week with a stop in Livorno and an excursion to Florence. We were stuck on the ship for our port days in Barcelona, Gibraltar, and Marseilles. That last was the one I was most bitter about; the weather that day was perfect, not the brutal low-90s we had the rest of the trip. And the city looked absolutely beautiful from what we could see off of our balcony.

They liked it a lot better, but I think it had more to do with the fact they found a group to hang out with every night on the first or second night of the cruise. There was an 18-to-20-somethings meetup in the Princess Patter, and they spent every day of the trip hanging out with them. On top of that, they loved the itinerary and were thankful to have been able to go on this trip, since neither of them will likely be able to do anything similar for many years. It's really funny, because they thought they'd be spending the whole trip surrounded by "the olds" and be bored. And instead, they were out around the ship every night, doing karaoke on the nights it was offered, using the swimming pools, checking out the Vista Lounge where they had a sort of dance club thing going most nights, and more. They really had a blast, and I'd say Princess left a far better impression on them than Royal did. Even allowing for the night of food poisoning from the sushi place.

I'm afraid the bad luck was worse than you know. When we got home, we found one of our two cats dead at the top of our second-floor stairway. As best I can guess, she died just a couple days before we got home. We have no idea why or what caused it, and it clearly wasn't "peaceful". She was always a shy cat and hid from strangers, so absolutely no one who had been coming to the house to check on them had any idea it had happened. I spent an hour of my day back home burying her in our back yard, and the next 3 days getting over intense grief as well as jet lag.

One more place I can recommend as a great place for a pre-/post-cruise stay is the River Palace Hotel, in Rome. It's located at Via Flaminia 33, just a block away from the Piazza Del Popolo and about 3/4 of a mile from the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. We stayed here 1 night, and it was great. Very comfortable beds, good air conditioning on both floors of our unit (bed and desk upstairs, bathroom and closet downstairs), they have solid wi-fi, and the bar is great. I got a generous pour of that evening's Chianti, along with an assortment of little snacking items (peanuts, flavored mini rice cakes, etc) 7.5 Euro. Enjoyed that while wife and girls had a short nap before dinner. And the decor is amazing! All for a (to me) reasonable price for such a centrally located hotel in Rome, with very easy access to lots of restaurants, major sites, and more.

So, I'm back from a 2-week Mediterranean cruise on Princess that was going to be a trip of a lifetime with my whole family. Unfortunately, 5 days into our sailing my wife and I both tested positive for Covid-19 and ended up in isolation for a week. I still wanted to give my perspective on Royal vs. Princess, but it's going to be equal parts about my experience as a Covid-positive individual in isolation, along with a general comparison of the two cruise lines and my experience with their ships and regular services. I'll start with the general impressions I have of each: The Ship: We sailed on Regal Princess, which I would say is roughly equivalent in size and capacity to Anthem of the Seas. Regal Princess was very nice, with a gorgeous central Piazza going from deck 5 to deck 7 that reminded me of pictures of the Centrum or Atrium on ships like Brilliance of the Seas. Instead of an indoor Solarium for adults-only swimming and lounging, it has an outdoor Retreat Pool area that is similarly adults-only. While it has the usual collection of shops, it seemed to me that there were fewer of them than on Anthem, which I appreciated. The layout of the ship has one incredibly annoying flaw, however: If you are in an aft cabin, there is no way get to any part of the Deck 5 or Deck 6 mid-ship areas from the aft elevators unless you either go to Deck 7 and walk mid-ship, then go down the stairs; or go directly to the mid-ship elevators and take them to Deck 5 or 6. This tripped us up for a couple days every time we had to go to dinner or wanted to visit the Piazza area. Mainly because of this, I'm rating Anthem and Regal Princess the same in my book. Itinerary: Princess wins this one hands-down. They have far more options for Mediterranean sailings than anything I could find with Royal or sister line Celebrity. They were the only line I found with a rotating set of 7-day itineraries covering different segments of Eastern and Western Med, allowing for a custom mix-and-match for desired trip length and port set, and this is the main reason I chose to sail with them for this trip. I have no idea why Royal (or at least Celebrity) doesn't do the same thing; any attempt at a 2-week Med trip requires a side-to-side sailing with a few days between each leg, originating from widely separated ports. The Cabin: Sailed in an aft-facing balcony when not in isolation, and was in a mid-ship balcony during our isolation period. The mid-ship balconies are just big enough for two chairs and a small table in between, and the chairs need to be up against the sliding door or facing sideways if you want to stretch your legs at all; definitely smaller than Royal's mid-ship balconies that I've sailed in. The aft-facing balcony was about 3 times as large, yet it still had just the standard chairs and table instead of two loungers or two chairs with footrests. This made no sense to me, and we never got a chance to try and get footrests for our run of sea days mid-cruise due to our Covid infection timing. The cabins themselves were basically identical, although I'd say the aft-facing one was slightly more spacious with a less-navigable layout than the mid-ship one. Decor was fine, as long as you like lots of beige. The bed in the mid-ship was hard as a rock, and I had to ask for a mattress topper; the aft-facing cabin's bed was much more comfortable. All that said, I personally liked our cabins on Royal better; decor was nicer, balconies mid-ship are deeper. On-Board Entertainment: My experience here was limited to what was presented in the Piazza and aft-most bar area on the Lido deck. A nice selection of classical, jazz, acoustic guitar, and piano music. None of it super-loud, all the performers talented and capable. I have to give Princess the edge here; Royal always blasts whatever music is playing in one of the bars or other venues, to the point where you can't have a conversation if you're sitting with anyone. On Princess, I could talk with people had I wanted to, or focused on the music if that was my preference. None of us saw any of the main theater shows during the entire two weeks; Cathy and I were sick during most of the time the main shows were on, and the girls were far more interested in doing karaoke and hanging with the group of 18-22 year-olds they found. Crew: This was the area most clearly impacted by Covid, and I can't give a fair comparison right now. Many of the crew were clearly still green; bartenders didn't know what the drinks of the day were (despite placards for them right on the bar) or how to make them, MDR wait staff varied tremendously in quality of service/professionalism, room service had a chronic problem getting our orders right during our isolation period, etc. Overall Experience: For being a premium mass-market line, Princess didn't feel particularly premium to me at all. The wine selections on board weren't as good as on Royal (although I did find a few new wines I am determined to get here at home) Cocktails were consistently super-weak; none of us expected to get loaded off a single cocktail, but all of us agreed that we couldn't even taste the spirit used in anything we ordered. Most of the time, we might as well have ordered a virgin drink. The MDR and specialty dining food quality and menu variety were the same, in my opinion Will note here that several passengers we spoke with on board said that Princess' MDR food was significantly worse than on earlier cruises they'd taken with the line On top of that, my daughters both got food poisoning after eating at the on-board sushi place, which they said was worse than any local sushi place they've eaten or worked at, and was more on par with local supermarket sushi (i.e., the same as what you used to get on Freedom of the Seas) The quality of the crew wasn't any noticeably better or was even slightly worse at times (though I'm trying to give a pass on that because of how new so much of the crew likely still is) Worst of all, Princess pulled a complete bait-and-switch on my whole family. When we booked the cruise in December 2020, we used the Princess Plus option that added their Premiere Beverage Package along with 1-device internet and pre-paid gratuities. In March of this year, Princess replaced the beverage package with a "Plus Package" and never told anyone; if you wanted the Premiere package, you had to now pay several hundred dollars more for their Princess Premiere (which included other extras I had no interest in) or pay the overage for any beverages on the Premiere list. I was beyond pissed off that they didn't grandfather passengers who booked under the original terms. I don't care that it only translated to about $50 in additional charges for me, that is crappy customer service and a pure money grab. OK, now onto the Covid handling experience... Obviously I can't directly compare to Royal, since this is my first cruise since Covid and my first time dealing with isolation protocols. But I have the written experiences of @Matt, @monorailmedic and others to draw on. And Princess just didn't measure up in a few key areas. Communications: Matt and others mentioned how they had regular communications from both medical and guest services, with each often checking to confirm the other had asked about something or informed them of something. The only calls we received daily were from medical, to check on our symptoms (and later to relay results of our daily re-tests). I never heard from Guest Services in any capacity, besides once about mid-way through to see if we needed anything in terms of cabin items like fresh towels and if we were doing OK with the in-room dining. I had to call Guest Services myself to get answers to every one of my questions How was the per-diem refund of our cruise during isolation being handled? (FCC issued to our accounts; I would have preferred a cash refund tbh) Would we be able to join excursions scheduled the same morning if we tested negative? (yes, thank goodness) Would using the laundry service be charged to our account during isolation? (no, it was free; the included forms gave no such indication) Could we continue to order wine, cocktails, specialty coffees, etc? (yes, thank goodness; by day 5 when symptoms were mostly gone and cabin fever had set in, we were seriously ready to get our drink on) Re-testing: Every morning's re-test was an exercise in stress and worry. Not because we were concerned about testing negative; that would be what it would be each morning. But we had excursions every single morning after our initial 5-day isolation window, with meet-up times around 7:45 to 8:15 AM. And no one came to test us earlier than 7 AM, with no call back to us with the result for a minimum of 30 minutes. The first day, we didn't even get that call until almost 8:30. This was after informing the med team about excursions each morning and that we needed to be tested and get our results ASAP to avoid missing it, due to the early meet times. Cathy and I tested negative on different days, and on both of them we got our results about 10 minutes before we had to be at the excursion meet-up location. This resulted in having to hurriedly get our separate stuff back to our original cabin (which was held for when we cleared isolation), and then run down to the meet-up. Each time, Cathy and I only barely made it. Dining: As noted earlier, there were frequent errors with the deliveries, requiring us to call them back and request the items that had been ordered but weren't delivered. There were other times where we had ordered just one of something and ended up with two, which was certainly a better situation but let to a bit of food waste. And to be fair, we did get a visit from a head steward about 2/3 of the way through our isolation to apologize for the errors, and after this the deliveries did get better. He even gave us a plate of chocolate truffles as consolation, although that was the day we both lost our sense of smell and taste. Not their fault, but we were sad they couldn't be properly enjoyed. All this said, there were some positives: Like with Royal, Princess makes the MDR dinner menu available for guests in isolation. On sea days, the lunch menu was also available. This greatly relieved the monotony of the room service menu for these meals, but there was no such option (even on sea days) for breakfast. We had one lucky morning where Cathy begged and pleaded for pancakes, and they scrounged some up for her I also have to give a point to the room service phone staff; they were always pleasant, always patient, and even took time for a minute of chit-chat to help break up the monotony of isolation time I don't really know what my final view of Princess is vs Royal. Getting slammed with Covid and losing half of our vacation really put a damper on the whole experience. But, right now I feel like Royal is still the better line for most times that we'll be cruising. Since we have a decent bucket of FCC available now that will let us get a basically-free cruise (minus deposit), we're looking at options in early 2023; depending on how that goes, I'll likely have come to a more solid conclusion.

Thanks for sharing this cruise with us, @Lovetocruise2002 and @GregD! Hope you both have uneventful flights home with no mishaps at LHR! Gotta say, following this blog has left me wanting to do a Norway cruise some time in the not too distant future. Gonna add that to the list along with Iceland/Greenland. Question about WWRY: Is Joyce Kuo still the lead guitarist? Still remember getting to see her play acoustic guitar in Schooner Lounge back in 2019 and chatting with her afterward. Really great person.

For anyone staying in Athens before or after a cruise, I’d like to add to the thousands of positive Trip Adviser reviews and highly recommend Hera Hotel as a fantastic place to stay. The Hotel is a small, boutique style place without the boutique hotel pricing. We stayed for two nights, in two rooms (wife and I in one, our daughters in the other). Both rooms were nice and very clean, staff was great, and the price was phenomenal: €115 per night at time of booking, plus €31 in taxes and €12 in local taxes/fees. For that, we got two large and comfortable beds in each room (ours were pushed together to make a king bed, though there was about a 4-inch gap between the mattresses). Our room had a balcony large enough for two to sit on and enjoy coffee, with a view of the local downtown and a tub shower with a VERY high step-in. The girls’ room has a much smaller balcony, more decorative than functional, and a walk-in glass shower stall. The rooms are definitely varied. But the biggest draw of this hotel is its location. It is a 2-minute straight walk to the Acropolis and its museum. It’s also on a road load with restaurants and shops, with many more in equally easy walking distance. All of them good, all of them reasonable even for being in the most touristy and busiest part of the city. Only negative comment I have is that the night life around here gets loud and on a Friday night goes until 2:30 AM or slightly later. Not any fault of this place, though. That’s just Athens in general. Definitely look at staying here if you need to spend a couple days in Athens, and especially if any of that time will be spent exploring the Acropolis.

If you are close to the train stations, I might suggest booking the Civitavecchia Express train that runs from Civitavecchia to the Ostiense station in Rome. 10 Euro per person one-way, no extra charge for large luggage. Even if that's the "wrong" station for your hotel, I found that it and the other main station are only about 15 minutes apart. Can easily get a cab from Ostiense to your hotel. Supposedly they offer a shuttle from the port to the Civitavecchia station, but I couldn't find that when I bought my tickets. Will be grabbing a cab or booking a car service via Welcome Pickups instead. Edit: Apparently Welcome Pickups, which I have all my other transfers booked through, doesn't offer service in Civitavecchia.

In the past, I would pay a portion each month to basically budget it all out, leaving a few hundred for final payment in case of last-minute price drops. These days, I'm not confident yet that a sailing couldn't end up canceled due to another emergency scenario. I would say to just put any money you might use on monthly payments into a savings account, and then either pay it all off a couple of days before final payment; or at most split it across two credit card billing cycles in the month leading up to final payment.

@Lovetocruise2002 / @GregD - Based on the pictures from the walking tour, looks like it was at least somewhat warm? I'm seeing a fair number of people in short sleeves, and a few in shorts.

Leroy, in a perfect Monty S Burns impression: "Eeeexcellent! More test subjects for finding the threshold of food coma."

I'm wondering the passengers behind her were being scolded for by the ship staff.

It is the best specialty drink on the ship. Even better than the Melon Mango Rita in Boleros.

This was an awesome comparison. Just about as "apples to apples" as you could get. Thank you for posting this, @steverk! Are there are other folks here in the forum who have sailed similarly comparable ships, and could give similar reports on the differences and your experiences on each? I think there are really only two other comparisons like this that could be made: Voyager class on Royal vs Solstice class on Celebrity I'm pretty sure the Solstice class is most comparable to Voyager class in size and capacity, but if Freedom class on Royal is the better comparison... Quantum class on Royal vs Edge class on Celebrity The few reports I've read about Edge, Apex, and Beyond all clearly show that their designs took strong influences from Royal's Q class; but are they simply "Quantum plus" in amenities and activities, or are they a more significant step up? So far, Q class on Royal has been our favorite; I feel like if I wanted to get my wife to try X, starting with an Edge class ship might be the best route (even if their itineraries are a lot more limited)

Child-sized full plate armor? They started them young, back then! What kind of fish was that? I don't think I've ever seen a filet that massive in an order of fish and chips. Did either of you go for the traditional malt vinegar?

I was advised for my upcoming cruise (Greece, Montenegro, Italy, Spain, Gibraltar, France) that a booster is required if the last shot was more than 9 months prior to sail date. Not specific to any country, just general requirement. (presumably an EU-level thing)

I can't pick just one. But top five, I'd say: Galapagos (with a post-cruise stop at Machu Picchu) Iceland & Greenland Almost crossed this one off in 2020, but Covid... Norwegian fjords Australia/NZ Mediterranean & Greek Isles I'm taking one soon, but I know I'll need to do that a few times at least before I feel like I'll have really done/seen enough to be satisfied

@Lovetocruise2002, so glad to hear your flight was on time and all luggage present and accounted for! May that be the end of the "stress times" and your boarding of Anthem be without incident.

We're flying out three days early for our next one (10 more days!!). And honestly, it was dumb luck; I just knew I wanted to get over jet lag before boarding the ship, as well as one full day (plus whatever time we had the day we arrived) to explore Athens. At least if we're delayed by several hours, I just lose some Athens exploration time (and might have to find another hotel).

If your carry-on weight limit is same as my upcoming flight, that won't be a problem. AA is allowing 51 pounds for a carry-on! (which is the same as they allow for a checked bag)

Just discovered this live blog. @Lovetocruise2002, I had no idea it was here already! Best wishes that your flight is on-time, your luggage arrives with you, and that the only thing you catch in London is a massive case of wonderful experiences before cruise day.

I wear a suit, my wife and daughters wear nice dresses. My younger daughter actually made a point of buying a new dress right after prom season ended (great discounts to be had) so she'd have something more elegant to wear on our upcoming Med cruise (which has 4 formal nights). I bought a 10-picture package for our sailing and plan to get at least 1 pic of all of us in our formal wear.

I'm not sure why this live blog said they were required to test 1 day in advance. For my Princess cruise out of Athens that starts in just 2 weeks (woo-hoo!) I have two options: A PCR test taken 3 days before embarkation A rapid antigen test taken 2 days before embarkation (must be administered by a doctor; self-administered tests with a proctor, like BinaxNOW, are not accepted) Either kind of test can be taken outside the country, and you don't have to have a physical printout; the documentation I was given specifically for Athens embarkations notes that we can show an electronic copy of the test result that was emailed to us or downloaded as a PDF, as long as it includes an address indicating a doctor's office or pharmacy, the date the sample was taken, and a negative result written using just about any wording that doesn't include "invalid" in it. Does the Greek government have different arrangements with different cruise lines? Seems unlikely to me, but I've heard of stranger things.

If anyone tries to sell me a pickpocket, I'll ask for a demonstration of their skills first, against a target of my choice. There are some choice marks here at home I could set them up against, for a reasonable split of the take.