NoFlyGuy

Maybe it's just me having a senior moment but I don't recollect ambulances at every port. In fact for a 35 night cruise with a largely aged passenger profile there seemed to be very little obvious problems.

Can't remember ambulances at Bonaire, Curacao, Puerto Limon, Colon, Cartagena et al.

Not saying there wasn't any serious problems for some passengers over the 35 nights - sadly that is quite normal and I hope that any affected are now fully recovered.

Do I think that N001 had Covid-19 onboard, then no. Just as I don't believe our Oceana cruise that returned on the 8th March had any cases.

Just my view of course. 

32 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

But you are relying on every passenger being able to be vaccinated immediately that the vaccine is available, which I think is extremely unlikely. I suspect that there will be a phased roll out over many many months, starting, for example, with those who are currently shielded, then those who are eligible for a flu vaccine etc etc. Well into 2021 before everyone would be vaccinated, I would think, even with a vaccine available from October. We don’t intend to book another cruise until we are vaccinated and social distancing is over, as it will make for a very unnatural and, IMO, unpleasant holiday experience. Less crowds would be nice, but not all the restrictions. I also can’t see how they can run cruises at a profit unless the ships are at least 75% full and, even at that level of occupancy, I think they would struggle to make money, especially as on board spend is likely to be lower with restrictions in place in bars etc. 

Just on the aviailiialbilitlly of the vaccine AstraZenneca quoted two billion by October. That's a pretty decent percentage of the global population in such a short space of time.

Of course it's got to work!

36 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

The virus will never be fully under control until a vaccine is available and there will not be one by October and there is no way I would risk going on a cruise so soon and certainly it wouldnt be a holiday for me with the extra restrictions on the ship. Not a holiday for me.

Jury's out. There may be a vaccine available by October.

AstraZeneca are already producing millions of doses of the 'Oxford vaccine' long before clinical trials have been completed.

Would they risk that cost if they thought that the vaccine would fail?

I posted way back that I thought that a viable vaccine would be available by the autumn given the money thrown at it by countries across the world. It may be Oxford or some other lab somewhere else in the world or a combination of many.

I'll eat humble pie if I am wrong and must admit I would be loathe to go on a cruise without a vaccine even if cruise companies were sailing with onerous restrictions onboard.

6 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

This is just me musing but I wonder if any winter cruisers remember “bugs” on their cruises before lockdown?

 

It’s taken me a while to connect things, but to be fair I’ve had a lot on my mind, personal as well as Covid.  However, listening to a news item today saying that the virus might have been in the population in Wuhan as early as October, and that many people may have had it but been asymptomatic, got me thinking, and remembering 

 

We were on N001, 35 nights ex Southampton, departing on 3 January.   Whilst planning the trip I recall saying to my OH that I hoped the ship wouldn’t be full of winter bugs and particularly coughing.  I also recall, early in the cruise, remarking how healthy the ship felt and maybe no-one had brought their germs aboard with them.  Then it started.  Our cabin steward went sick (I’ve never known that before), our gym instructor, a fit feisty Aussie, was laid low for nearly a week with cough, sore throat and temperature and on her return told us that the crew medical bay was ‘chocka’.  Ambulances met us at every port of call as we returned, to evacuate people (we were told) with severe respiratory problems.

 

A personal anecdote is that my London based daughter & family all had a ‘nasty bug’ in February, with assorted symptoms but with the children having extreme high temperatures.

 

This might all be rubbish or it might tie in well with an expert suggestion I linked to a day or two ago, that 70 or 80% of us might have had it - some with symptoms, some not.  If only there was a reliable test we might be able to get something sensible planned for all our futures.  
 

Aren’t you glad you’re not a senior cruise line executive?  

We were on N001 as well. Didn't notice anything untoward. I coughed a lot but that's usual - i'm a smoker and add to that the usual cabin cough that many of us get..

We were also on the Oceana Canaries cruise that got back on the 8th March - probably the last P&O cruise that had no real disruption. Nothing onboard to speak off that I know.

Yes there was a reported covid case in the south of Tenerife and excursions were cancelled to that area and we were advised not to travel to the area. 

They haven't issued an RNS to the markets today so I don't know why the big jump. 

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Indeed.  Every logical reason for it earlier, but none whatever now, and not even supported by the scientists.

 

What the hell are these idiots playing at?

I wonder how many people this will affect. I thought the FCO advice was still to curtail any non essential travel overseas, so how many Brits are going to have to quarantine on their return?

As for foreigners coming here, well they have hardly been coming in droves. When you look at the travel statistics they are all down by well over 95%. Also why would they want to come here, we are still mainly closed?

I'm sure it's just a precaution and it will be reviewed three weekly.

Finally Handcock stated this morning that there are around 100 members of SAGE. I don't have any figures but am fairly sure that not 100% disagree with this policy or any policy that the government have enacted over the past few months. 

Pretty quiet here at Silverstone. For weeks it was eerie, no sounds coming from the track and having lived here for 33 years that was novel.

As we go for our walks we can both hear and occasionaly see a few cars going round the track in the last few days - not F1 cars though.

Tonight we are playing music, all sorts really, but our favourite is still our Serious Sounds CD from Ventura 4 years ago. They were the house band and played all sorts, but I think reggae was in their blood and that's still my favourite.

Off for another attempt at dancing with the wife having already had a fair bit of wine.

This probably wont work out well. Dodgy back and hip and a bottle and a half of wine already.

I could be a NSH statistic for all the wrong reasons!

Stay safe everyone.

On ‎6‎/‎4‎/‎2020 at 8:54 PM, staygulf said:

Are you suggesting that millions have died from Covid-19? If so where do you get your information from? Do you know something that the rest of us don’t?

No, but I have a little bit of common sense!

Maybe I should have left the 's' off of my millions.

Official figures quote 395,336.

Even our ONS estimate that our numbers are greater than the 40k plus official. Multiply that just around Europe which has been badly hit and the numbers start to escalate.

Then do you really believe the figures that are coming out from countries like China (where it started), Russia. Just look at Russia they quote 449.834 cases but just 5528 deaths. Is the Russian health system that good? Or is it just to make Putin look good?.

Africa, not many deaths recorded. Do you really believe their figures given many of their countries have very poor health facilities and can't cope with far more manageable diseases compared with the west.

Latin and South America reported cases mounting but again health services in most cases lacking.

So yes, I do believe the real  death toll is over a million by now.

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Jean - I am entirely with you on this. In a way, I’m not complaining, as I lost a fortune on my investments when the markets crashed a few months ago and assumed that it would take many years to recover, yet I have recovered over half my losses already in a matter of weeks. However, we are still very much at the bottom of the curve with this mess, with pretty much everything still locked down, the economy crashed, massive recession if not depression, benefits being paid out that, due to the scale of them, will impact on the next generation and unemployment heading towards levels that we haven’t seen for many decades. In spite of all of this the markets are valuing businesses (in total) at levels that roughly equate to where they were around 2 years ago when things were all pretty stable. I discussed this with my Financial Advisor earlier this week and we both feel that the markets are overheated and likely to re-correct once key data starts to emerge from July that shows the scale of the problems we now face. We are looking at de-risking, having taken much of the recent upside, and then reviewing again once some reality kicks in. 

You may well be right. Markets tend to overreact on both the downside and upside.

Generally they tend to look ahead  at how they think things will be like maybe 6 months to a year ahead.

If you look at individual share prices they are still extremely volatile with movements up to 10% a day, similar to during the financial crisis.

I've made a few small adjustments to our holdings but am basically just sitting tight.

In the short term the loss of dividend income is more of a problem to us than the capital value of our holdings. It's the dividend income that pays for about half of our holidays.

Just to be advised it looks like Carnival will drop out of the FTSE 100 at the next rejig which 'usually' has a detrimental affect on the share price as some funds have to sell their holdings. 

35 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Airlines take your money when you book a flight in our case 6-12 months in advance.

Cruise companies take your deposit when you book and balance 3 months before your cruise and if booked through a TA they want final payment 4 month's before your cruise so it is not unreasonable to expect them to refund you in a prompt manner.

14 days by law should mean 14 days.

Many of us have waited 60+ days for P&O Refunds and airlines are quoting 90 days.

It is not our responsibility to let them have interest free money for longer than 14 days once they have cancelled a cruise or flight.

14 days should be 14 days pre Covid If you want the entire hospitality sector to go out of business then go ahead and insist on your rights. Millions worldwide have died and will continual do so both here and elsewhere, I will get my refund eventually and have posted before I don't need it to get ends meet like some others.

Bottom line is the world is different place to what is was just 3 months ago.

Get used to the new reality, it's not nice but it is.

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Interesting that one of the two questions from members of the public at today’s Downing Street briefing was “Many travel companies are acting unlawfully by not providing refunds to customers following the cancellation of holidays within reasonable timescales. What is the government doing to ensure that people can get their money back”. Grant Shapps (Transport Secretary) said that it is the responsibility of travel companies to refund, not just offer vouchers or incentives, but nothing specific on the timescales, so companies like P&O will doubtless continue to take the mickey and completely disregard the law which states that the refund should be within 14 days. 

Whilst I wouldn't want to exonerate P&O and other travel companies completely, we live around the world in unpresented times.

Will Shapps or any government department take any action against the holiday sector, I doubt it and hope not.

I want there to be a travel sector left at the end of this. As the rule of law went  'that was then, this is now' - A whole new world.

2 hours ago, zap99 said:

End of August is 3 months away. Could be all over by then.😷

I do like your posts! Otherwise it's all gloom and despondency.

Who knows, time will tell?  

We've 5 cruises booked with P&O between December 2020 and Jan 2022, hence not wanting FCC for our cancelled cruises this year.

I haven't looked at current availability or prices for these cruises, maybe I will tomorrow.

If cruise lines do operate with limited capacity going into 2021 will it be 'first in last out' if they are following social distancing rules?.

I've no idea, just want something to look forward to!

Yes. The extra 25% is on what you have actually paid. If you had only paid £50 each deposit on a £5000 booking whilst onboard and not needed to pay the balance the balance yet, P&O  won't be offering you a £6250 FCC!

Our next cruise is the Aurora Christmas/New Year cruise. Balance due on 31st August ( via TA so earlier than if we if we had booked direct). So we have 3 months grace before deciding what to do. Feel sorry for those that have their balance payments due any time soon .

4 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

5 members now including chair of NERVTAG, the respiratory group within SAGE, all eminent experts in their field. Starting to see SAGE members distancing themselves from the Government 

Been listening to the daily briefing. Seems there are around 50 members, so 10% say they have concerns. Maybe others will follow, I don't know.

Of course the government is wary as well and it's a difficult balancing act and the measures are quite small.

Boris and co only have control of what happens in England. Most Covid-19 matters are devolved to local administrations in the other parts of the UK.

We will see how much the rules diverge over the weeks ahead.

Scotland have already loosened their lockdown rules ahead of England.

16 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Its what the ONS estimate is the current number of new cases of the virus per day, rather than those that are just reported via testing. 

And their reasoning for this four fold increase is what? Do enlighten us.

10 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Why has everyone suddenly switched to the ONS estimated figures? Is it because it makes a better story? If you're looking at other countries they're letting in, you've got to compare our current tested positive figures to theirs. Every country will have a proportion of people who have covid but don't get tested, and therefore they're never reported. You can't suddenly start saying we've got 8000 per day but Spain, Italy, Germany etc only have a few hundred. 

Very true. You have to compare like with like.

Perhaps those of you that knock the government or their advisors would like to furnish us with statistics of what other countries are reporting compared to the UK. Just like a P&O refund I am expecting a long wait.

34 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

With infection rate at 8000 a day according to ONS study it will need to fall a heck of a lot to allow the Greeks to permit Brits to go there. As yet no word from them on accepting cruise ships. 
 

There was expectation from him in No 10  that the alert level would drop to 3 by end of this week, that’s not the case as it remains at 4. The view from some Sage members is that lockdown has been lifted too early. Whether the Greek & Cypriot Governments lift their ban at end of June remains to be seen. 

Was it 'some' or 'a'?

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

I don’t think there’s much room for doubt. The UK death figures, however you work the statistics, are amongst the very worst in the world.

 

Worst in Europe, and second in the world only to Trump’s USA according to today’s FT:

 

https://www.ft.com/content/6b4c784e-c259-4ca4-9a82-648ffde71bf0

 

Not a record we can be proud of, despite the valiant efforts of NHS staff and other essential workers.

Not the worst in Europe if you go by deaths per head of population.

Further to an earlier post I made, blaming quite rightly myself for most of the delays in our refund, I did contact one of the two people whose email addresses have been published on this site last Tuesday (19th).

I received the following last night:

'Thank you for sending the documentation to me and I apologise for the delay in responding to you.
I can confirm that I have requested a full refund for you. This will go back to the card used to pay for the on board account. Unfortunately however the refund is based on the date that we received the medical evidence so this will not be processed for some time. I apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.
Assuring you of our best intentions.'

Whilst I am in no way exonerating the way P&O and many other holiday companies have handled the Covid-19 situation occasionally, some of us (probably not many who post frequently on this site) but those who just view these threads need to be more proactive.

I wasn't so will just have to sit it out and will get my refund at some point.

Luckily, as posted before, we can afford to wait, whereas I am sure there are both posters and viewers on this site who need their refunds more urgently than us.

 

I'm at day 65 but have to admit that, in all honesty, much of it was probably my own fault.

I cancelled our May 15th and June 28th cruises on 17th March by phone.

I also filled in the online form a few days later hoping to get a full refund due to underlying medical conditions.

Like some others I couldn't get anything from my surgery and stupidly assumed they would just process a 50% refund and 50% FCC when nothing was forthcoming from me.

On Tuesday I contacted one of the people whose email addresses have been readily posted on this thread.

She 'implied' that my case had been put on hold and asked if I had any documentation I could lodge.

Sent her our travel insurance medical declaration by email. I await results.

May still only get a 50/50.

Hope the rest of you who are still waiting for no obvious reason from P&O get refunded soon.

For me it's just a  question of thinking, 'Chris you are an idiot, get a grip!'

Stay well all.

3 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

You are absolutely right the biggest problem will be the covidiots who will do as they please and possibly infect those of us who are being as sensible as we can about trying to get out and about because the potential for mental health issues is real if we stay isolated until there is a vaccine.

Agree entirely. Whilst all deaths are sad the count is reducing quite quickly. The problem now is the number of positive cases each day, between 2.5k and 3.5k.

If people, country wide,  really were following the rules, where are they getting infected?

Maybe different card providers have different procedures. Just for the record my card is a John Lewis Partnership card.

6 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Hi Pete,

That's only if you put money in to your current account (i.e. loan it from them).  Moving an actual credit from your credit card to your current account should be free of charge.  This is because credit (unlike pre pay) cards are not supposed to be run with a positive balance.

We had to cancel back to back cruises Dec 18/Jan 19 on medical grounds. The refunds took our credit card into a positive balance.

There was no problem, just phoned card services and asked for the whole credit from P&O to be returned to our bank account.

No problem and certainly no fee.

Did the same when the 50% came back from our travel insurance - same result.