TAD2005

1 minute ago, Mary229 said:

That is the news release not the actual edict.  I would like to read the original edict

That's exactly what was posted in post #21 by YXU AC*SE, the formal document from Transport Canada.

34 minutes ago, kevingastreich said:

This is getting good! Please elaborate, we've got nothing else to do for awhile.

Truth....guess this covid thing did nothing good for any of us but I think I would like to take my account back so the fake TAD 2005 needs to back off and go do whatever with his new girley friends.

Note  to the OP.......what if the person who "couldn't go on the cruise" was dumped by you and her money was paying part of your credit card bills for years?????  The credit cards that you use for all  cruises.   Will the real TAD2005 stand up.........that would be me.......the woman scorned.💀  I just want people to know the truth.......hmmmmm.....truth....look it up on google you fake TAD2005!!

There could still be delays in the finishing of the R-Dam 7.   Many components of the ship are supplied from vendors all over Europe and Asia..   They are just assembled in the Fincantieri shipyards.   The finishing out of the ship all depends on hundreds of suppliers doing their job and on schedule.   

Never underestimate the anger of a women scorned !!

10 hours ago, Boatdrill said:

Has final payment been made ? You can change names if you're outside final payment. The tricky part is the deposit belonging to the cancelling friend.  

 

No, final payment isn't until next June, 2021.   And I paid the deposit for both passengers.  So, I will ask my TA to work on this for me.

I have a booked cruise for September 2021 on a HAL cruise with a travelling partner, not related to me.  They have indicated that they will not be able to go.  I have someone else that wants to go, but  I don't want to cancel and rebook, and lose all the perks.  Can my TA work with HAL to swap out the old name with a new one ?  I am the primary contact on the booking.  Has anyone done this and did you have any problems ?

2 hours ago, chipmaster said:

 

Imagine what the POTUS would say if we saw the HK leader or China leader use his military/police to clear a path thru demonstrators for a photo op.   Oh what would we say and do now it is in our own country.   

I figured that this thread would eventually devolve into politics.  Congrats Chipmaster, you did it !!  

NO politics on CC.   It's nice to come to at least one website that isn't slanted and biased one way or the other.  Let's keep it that way.

Carnival and other lines have built ships specifically for the Chinese market,  even designing restaurants for Far East style menus.   Will these lines pull those ships back ?

I was told today that our doubled deposit from an October 2020 Rotterdam cruise that was just cancelled, would be applied to our final payment for a Sept 2021 cruise, even though we booked the 2021 cruise before the virus screwed everything up.

I booked a Sept 2021 cruise on the Ryndam just 2 months ago.

I also had a Oct 3, 2020 Rotterdam cruise deposited, but final payment has not been paid yet, scheduled for July 4, 2020.   I just received the cancellation notice for the Oct 3, 2020 cruise and the bonus FCC.

The wording on the bonus FCC says the value of my original deposit on the Oct 2020 cancelled cruise will be doubled and it can be used for a NEW BOOKING as part of the cruise fare.   Because I have already booked and deposited the Sept 2021 Ryndam cruise,  will I get my cancelled cruise deposit be doubled and applied to my cruise fare ?  Or, does the new booking have to occur after receipt of the cancellation notice ?

I don't think dragging the delivery date out by months or years is possible.  These ship yards have schedules, and they can't allow a partially finished hull to sit in a very expensive drydock until the customer feels that he can afford to take delivery.   Once the keel is laid, that mass of steel cannot be moved to some holding area until the cruise market is right for delivery.  The funds for the delivery are already allocated.   It's a done deal.   The ship yard has hundreds of millions of Euros invested and they want their final payment.  The cruise line cannot pay for an unfinished ship, so they will be completed as soon as possible.

32 minutes ago, Sunchaser46 said:

In the midst of all this turmoil I have a very important question: what beers are included in the signature beverage package? And just as importantly what beers are different in the elite package?

Every beer, canned, bottled or draft are included in the regular SBP and the $11 max price.  Checkout Rogerjett photography dot com for a complete list.   If you are a beer drinker, like me, you will have your choice of anything they offer.

Today's news is that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has invested 8.2% of CCL's total worth.  That is a huge chunk of change.   CCL owned almost 10% by the Saudis !!

HAL refers to the base fare when they are applying what you paid to a future cruise.   If you have paid your full fare and the cruise is cancelled,  your taxes and port fees are refunded to your credit card and the base fare is credited to a future cruise.   They cannot predict what future cruise you may pick, so they cannot apply the taxes and port fees to an unknown cruise, so you get that part back.  The base fare is applied to a future cruise, with any percentage bonuses offered.

Vaccinations are only useful for the current strain of a particular virus.   Viruses mutate constantly.   The vaccine you got this year is useless or will have little effect for next year's mutation.   This strain of coronavirus, COVID-19,  originated in Wuhan, China in late November 2019.   The medical community is saying that any vaccine that will be tested, approved and widely available will not show up until spring or summer 2021.   It takes 18 months, even with an accelerated  fast track program to get a viable vaccine ready for market.   In the meantime, COVID-19 will mutate and become COVID-21 and the vaccine for the 19 strain will not be as effective.   

From the CDC in 2009 concerning the H1N1 pandemic.  "There was concern in early-2009 that, should a second, deadlier wave of this new H1N1 strain appear during the northern autumn/winter of 2009, producing pandemic vaccines ahead of time could turn out to be a serious waste of resources as the vaccine might not be effective against a mutation, and there would also be a shortage of seasonal vaccines"

So asking people to show a certificate for a COVID-19 vaccine which won't be available until early 2021 if we're very lucky,  for a cruise in late 2020 will not be possible.   And for cruises in 2021, showing a COVID-19 certificate may be useless if the virus mutates.   

When this strain of coronavirus dies out, and it will, there will be other mutations.  And for decades we had the influenza virus every year, with its many variations, SARS, MERS, H1N1. Then there's the less troublesome Noro Virus, and a even few episodes of Ebola, Measles, and Marburg viruses every few years.   This is nothing new, viruses have been around for millennia.  If we are going to restructure the entire cruise industry after this virus dies out, limiting who can go based on age and pre-existing conditions, then we may as well stick a fork in it now, because it's done.   If we start limiting access to cruises based on age, there will be massive discrimination law suits which no cruise line will want to touch.  We cannot have a bank of doctors in the boarding terminal giving every person over 60 whatever years a physical before boarding.   No land based doctor will feel comfortable signing that you are OK to cruise, because so many things can happen on a cruise that may fall back on the doctor.  There's a liability issue certifying a person's present health now, for a cruise weeks or months in the future.   I'm sure that our Cruise Docs "fine print" will have some interesting new conditions added, but the rest of cruising will be as it was.   The whole issue is liability, and who is on the hook if everything goes to kaka while onboard.

7 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

No, he said that is POSSIBLE.   He DID NOT say he EXPECTS 200,000 dead.

You are correct.  The accuracy of the news you get depends, in a large part, on the news outlet you are listening to.   In today's politically charged news environment,  it is very tempting for the writer to slant a headline in one direction or the other, because we still have an election coming up in 7 months, and if a headline can sway a few voters, then the writer has done a good thing, in their mind.  It is impossible to get straight, unbiased, accurate news these days, especially about the coronavirus because people still have their own agendas.   

Social distancing does stop the spread.  If fewer people have the virus, then fewer new people will be infected.  This is the absolute best way to shorten the life of this pandemic.   New York refused to pay attention and their head of the department of health advised people in early February to go to work, ride the subways, go to bars and restaurants and attend the Lunar New Year celebrations.   New Orleans did the same for Mardi Gras.   People listened to these public officials and look what happened.   That faulty advice was given strictly on economic concerns and not public health.  Keep your distance, sanitize, and this will be beaten.   

The order for this new build was done years ago, and huge sums of money have been deposited.  Do you expect HAL to tell the shipyard to just pack it in and forget it, and keep the deposit ?   Maybe sell the unfinished hull to some other company?   No, they must press forward, finish the ship as close to schedule as possible.   There's no way they can walk away from such a huge investment now.  

In all of my years of booking air with Flight Ease, I have never had a fare increase, even though the fare went up by many hundreds of $$$.   I always pay my Flight Ease air at the same time as the cruise, usually 75 to 90 days out.   If you pay the air earlier, then you cannot cancel without penalty, even though you booked a refundable fare. (the cheaper one).   If you purchase HAL's insurance, then your whole fare and the associated air ticket is refundable.

Moral of the story, NEVER pay your Flight Ease air fare until your cruise fare is due.  Once you pay your Flight Ease air fare, HAL sends that to the airlines.   And you can almost never  get money back from an airline, especially now.

2 hours ago, crusinbanjo said:

 Hydrocloraquine combined with a Zpack antibiotic is very promising at this moment, despite what the Media is telling us.  It might not be the magic bullet, but early uses on desperate patients has shown promise.  Here is one article as an example:   https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=229156  There are many more.

The original double-blind study was done in France by a very respected organization.  They had a control group, a 2nd group that took just Hydrocloraquine, and a 3rd group that took Hydrocloraquine and Z-Pack.   The control group that took nothing maintained their level of virus infection for 14 days.  The 2nd group was reduced to 55 to 60% by day 7.  The third group had ZERO virus infection by day 7.

Hydrocloraquine was given to all soldiers who went to Vietnam due to Malaria.  It has been around for over 50 years and is cheap and readily available.  Same for Z-Pack.   France is moving forward with massive treatments using this combination.   

Yes to everything.  And the SBP includes the Quench package which provides Unlimited sodas (in cans), bottles of water (500 ml) and specialty coffees, including in the MDR.  Any specialty coffee that has a shot of liquor in it counts as one of your daily 15.  If it's just a specialty coffee or hot chocolate, with no alcohol, then you can have all you want, no limits.

A "bailout" is taxpayer money given to a company or industry that has totally screwed up operating their business,  didn't plan properly for the future, but were considered "too big to fail" so they get the bailout.   Their poor business practices caused them to fail, but their failure would hurt the economy  more than the cost of their bailout, so we all hold our nose and bail them out.  This virus is nobody's fault (well maybe if China was a little more open about it, it may not be so widespread),  so funds going to impacted businesses who are in danger of failing through no fault of their own,  would not be considered a bailout.   We spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year on grants to universities to study pet projects of congressional donors.   Why not spend those billions on keeping our economy moving during this temporary shutdown ?

I would bet that if things don't settle down as quickly as hoped, that 30 day cancellation window will be extended.