Requiring passengers to wear a medical device ie: mask that has not been prescribed by nor recommended for you in consultation with your physician with an explicit threat of negative consequence should IMHO really be reconsidered by the cruise industry. If they want to prevent one passenger from harassing another passenger onboard and the situation escalating into a physical assault then the travel industry has bigger problems than they are letting on--kinda like the State Department issuing a Level 4 do not travel to The Bahamas.  

Are the cruise lines implying  "bare face" is a type of criminal activity with bans for failure to comply? 

These published aspirational goals will no doubt be comforting to some potential passengers. I'm curious how they plan to deal with the legal liability of requiring US passengers, as a condition of passage / boarding at US ports, to contract away their right to informed consent. 

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/4592?q={"search"%3A["S+4592"]}&s=4&r=1

Per Congress.gov it appears the bill filed in the Senate is S. 4592, however there is no published bill text to read.

Princess exclusive port-of-call, Princess Cays, is in The Bahamas. https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/princess-cays-bahamas-excursions/ The Bahamian Government announced the requirement of a "health visa" to be completed prior to arrival, including an upload of a negative RT PCR COVID- 19 test. https://travel.gov.bs/international. 

On 9/4/2020 at 11:12 AM, c-boy said:

especially when it's hawt and humid. How are the folks in Florida doing with masks and humidity?

This Florida folk and her hubby are doing just fine during the Florida summer. We don't wear masks and on the one occasion when a restaurant in a neighboring town told us we had to wear one to enter, we left and found another place to eat that didn't. 

2020 vs 2019 TSA passenger count https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput . 

The report provides comprehensive data on the Luxury Cruise Tourism market and its trends to assist the reader in formulating decisions to accelerate the business. The report provides a complete overview of the economic scenario of the market, along with benefits and limitations.

https://www.icruiseguide.com/2020/08/24/luxury-cruise-tourism-market-size-2020/

Mask mandates, cleaning protocols, cutting service to small cities, lowering airplane ticket prices, sidelining airplanes, not taking delivery of new planes are all a smattering of steps the airlines have taken to improve profitability and those steps are clearly not working,, not with reports of up to 75,000 airline employees facing layoffs and address their pension issues.

The airlines must get smaller.

Its the last step they must take to restore profitability. The cruise industry would be wise to pay attention. 

On 8/20/2020 at 4:31 AM, hamrag said:

 

That is specifically what they did, obviously they thought it acceptable to use the MSC excursion as a means to get off the ship and then do their own thing. Plaudits to MSC for swift action.

 IMHO more detail is needed however this CC post is a good start. 

"The family of four left an organized shore excursion in Naples to explore on their own, directly contravening the line's new conditions of carriage that require passengers to stay with the group. Because they broke the "bubble" onboard, they were subsequently denied boarding, the line said."

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5540/.

So the family did take an organized excursion (per the rules) after all.

In what port & on what excursion did this occur?

Did someone not "stay with the group" b/c they had to go to the bathroom? 

This event reveals another issue. No more "free time for shopping on your own and lets meet up in the town square to take the bus back to the ship" kind of thing? 

1 hour ago, HappyInVan said:

"One of the things the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has emphasized is the simple solution of people wearing masks would make a huge difference," Fain said during a coffee chat for travel advisors with Vicki Freed, senior vice president of Sales, Trade Support and Service, on July 15. " It's remarkable how effective it (masks) can be. And it's very simple. I now have to add, 'Wear the Mask.'"

Except mandatory mask policies and banning passengers for refusing to wear them has not helped the airlines at all. And all the airplane cleaning isn't helping either. The business travelers are not flying and the domestic leisure traveler isnt flying either. CLIA would be wise to pay attention to why the flying public has a sour taste for the domestic airlines. 

Forget uncertainty around which ports the ship will visit, what about even uncertainty over EMBARKATION? Imagine two couples book a Caribbean voyage. All four show up for check-in at Port Everglades. The cruise is supposed to stop in the USVI, so according to this CC news item, as a condition of BOARDING the ship all four must show "proof" of a negative COVID-19 test. One person gets a positive; the remaining three test negative. 

Would the three people who tested negative drive to Port Everglades, embark and leave the fourth person behind? Who in the world would even BOOK a cruise under those circumstances? Oh sure, the person denied boarding might get their $ "refunded" in the form of a FCC but what about the other three? 

Then there's the "oh, we don't accept test results from THAT company....

IMHO this has not been well thought out...

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5530/

I hope MSC is successful however imagine two couples boarding the ship; one of the four tests + for COVID and is denied boarding. Gotta think the partner, spouse, relative of the person denied boarding would not sail without their partner.

The MSC COVID-19 Protection Plan is currently available only to guests from Schengen countries. This really looks like a scam designed to artificially inflate revenues from people who buy the MSC COVID-19 Protection Plan; and it looks like only the person denied boarding due to sickness can leverage the MSC COVID-19 Protection Plan benefits and not their partner who is ok.

If a passenger tests + under item #6 they could be put off the ship; what does their traveling companion do?

I would not book a cruise under these circumstances. Perhaps the residents of Schengen countries would but not me.

Comment posted two days ago  in response to CDC RFC:

"Restaurants, hotels, airplanes, stores, hotels, etc. We are not tested to go in or on any of these. Stop targeting the Cruise industry and let us be adults"

1 hour ago, spyro1952 said:

If you read what the CDC is actually looking at requiring for cruising to restart you will see what the cruise lines will need to do.  And it’s just not closing buffets, masks, and social distancing.  It will take more than 2 or 3 months for any cruise line to comply.

CDC-2020-0087-0001.pdf 252.11 kB · 9 downloads

Correct. Public comment period is 60 days. Takes us to September 22. Another 30-60 days for CDC to compile, analyze responses. Take us to October 22 - November 22, 2020. 

1 hour ago, franktown said:

Not a surprise.  They have no plan yet to be able to resume sailing.  They cannot afford to have a outbreak of Covid19 on a Princess ship.  Do not see cruises as we know them restarting until there is a vaccine that is widely available.

You are correct. Not a surprise if you've followed the RFI posted by the CDC on the Federal Register. Nothing to do with masks or vaccines; its all about the CDC  https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=CDC-2020-0087-0001

The CDC posted yet another RFI on the Federal Register yesterday. With public comment period of 60 days (through September 22, 2020) anyone watching the Federal Register could see this was coming. 

Another intrusive and time-consuming request for information was posted 7/21 by the CDC on the Federal Register: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=CDC-2020-0087-0001 Considering the comment period is open for 60 days, IMHO the 60 day public comment will end on September 21, 2020, the CDC will to review comments, and the CDC will just submit another round of RFI's as a stall tactic; meaning IMHO there's just no way my November 2020 Caribbean Princess voyage will set sail. 

The CDC's request reveals over 30 questions no doubt resulting in the cruise lines having to spend endless hours compiling, researching and submitting comments as if the CDC was conducting interrogatories or depositions, treating the cruise lines as defendants.

I called Princess today and transferred my November 2020 booking to a voyage in April 2021. 

On 7/10/2020 at 5:47 PM, paradiselivin1 said:

Hard to anticipate how they're going to successfully launch from Florida for a long time to come if we can't get our number of cases to diminish. FL is the #1 hotspot in the world; especially Miami/Dade...Hanging on by a thread hoping for the best for the 2021 WC leaving FLL in early January but thinking that's just a dream that's going up in smoke..

Port Everglades in Broward County and the Port Authority of Broward County are the entities to watch as it relates to Princess sailings, IMHO.

We're now seeing news investigations of the data published by State of Florida.  Local Orlando news investigated fudged(overinflated)  lab test results that falsely inflated positivity rates. 

On 6/10/2020 at 4:44 PM, jennmaybe said:

There is no way we would cruise with these restrictions in place. This to me, is not a vacation!

I think there are too many people to scared go, vacation anywhere and b/c THEY feel that way no one else should be able to either.

No way would I go to Aruba now with their requirement I show them test results; they seem to want to destroy their tourism economy in the name of lord knows what hysteria.

9 minutes ago, skynight said:

I believe that seaman obtain C-1 visas and not the numbers mentioned. Chang can probably provide more detailed information.

H1-B definition: fashion models, specialty occupations with business degree. Foreign workers such as engineers, teachers, computer programmers, medical doctors, and physical therapists may be employed under the H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 visa classification. https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/elg/h1b.htm.

H2-B definition: The job opportunity is a bona fide, full-time, temporary position of at least 35 hours per workweek.In order to find qualified and available U.S. workers to perform the labor in the job order, the employer must conduct all required recruitment activities according to the regulations. The employer must also continue to accept State Workforce Agency referrals and hire all qualified and eligible U.S. workers who apply for the job until 21 days before the job order starts.  

19 hours ago, npcl said:

Many seem to assume that once we get beyond COVID-19 either because of a vaccine, or to it eventually burning itself out (even if it takes a few years) that travel will go back to what it was.

 

Yet we are seeing more and more stories about major tourist destinations talking about changing the model for tourism.  The Pre-COVID tourism models developed over time, in many ways like the cooking lobster situation where just like putting a lobster in cold water and raising the temperature gradually it doesn;t notice the impact until it is too late.  For many tourist destinations the growth was also gradual and did not raise alarms until the locals were pretty much cooked as well.

 

With the outbreak many of these areas have seen the quality of life without tourists.  While many have been financially impacted and there is a desire to restart some tourism, there are also many that have now seen the negative impacts of uncontrolled tourism.  The following are just a few examples of the many articles on the subject.

 

The following is a quote from an article from the Caribbean Council.

There is also much to be considered in relation to the cruise lines, the need first to stimulate employment-generating long-stay land-based tourism, and the still missing regional response to the cruise company’s divisive approach to destinations.

 

From an article about Santorini

 

Vamvakousis says he is optimistic that busy days will once again return, but believes the enforced downturn will help prompt a reevaluation of the island's future.

"Santorini is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, but I am sure that lockdown was helpful," he says. "It stopped the machine that just created money and did not care about the environment. Now it is the right time to think what was wrong with Santorini. We have the right to protect, but we don't have the right to destroy."

 

Prague

For the last 5 years, Prague has battled with over-tourism; residents were pushed out in favour of more profitable Airbnb rentals and the Old Town started to lose its identity to growing commercialisation and drunk revellers. The city needed drastic change, and coronavirus has provided it with a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” in the words of its mayor, to transform its relationship with tourism. Longer stays and the city’s historical importance are to be promoted; in an effort to shift the culture away from drinking and towards that of the Czech nation. 

 

Venice

This has come into sharp focus in the months-long Covid-19 breathing space, when the sudden emptying of the city restored a lost tranquility, along with fish, swans and cormorants to canals no longer churned by excessive traffic. Most of all, it ignited the hope that this difficult moment for the world could eventually offer a turning point.

The need in Venice, and in so many other destinations, is for a new tourism, one that also benefits residents – not one organised around speculators, landlords, and traveller’s demands. We visitors must see tourism less as an unquestionable entitlement and more as a part of our responsibility to sustain life on Earth. This must ultimately include limiting tourist numbers

Oh, it's about "climate change" ? Lol. 

Well count me out of traveling to Aruba. Been there on a few cruises but no more. They want your DNA as a condition of arrival by air, to do WUT..  "study you" like a lab rat? No thanks. 

"Obligatory PCR testing of ALL arriving passengers (except for those who have previously submitted proof of a PCR test)  and a mandatory 24-hour quarantine at the traveler’s accommodation while awaiting test results." 

https://www.visitaruba.com/news/general/corona-virus-and-travel-to-aruba/#newtravelrequirements

22 hours ago, voljeep said:

don't tell me what to do !! Everyone is ENTITLED to live their own lives ... IT"S MY CRUISE  AFTER ALL !!! 

 

( tongue firmly in cheek ... or is it ? )

Just replace the word "mask" with the word "muzzle" and motives will become crystal clear. IMHO there are a lot of people who, if they cant have fun b/c theyre scared to death, believe no one else can have fun either.

The future of cruising out of Port Everglades looks promising as Broward Commission Approves Port Everglades Growth Plan. https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23121-broward-commission-approves-port-everglades-growth-plan.html

Seems folks who live within driving distance of Port Everglades and don't require an overnight hotel stay stand a better chance of being the first to enjoy a cruise vacation; depending of course on the islands, countries who are watching their tourism revenue dry up.