rob902

6 minutes ago, Nic6318 said:

All you need to do is find a suitable ship with a healthy crew and presto, a new industry is born. 

 

 

The closest I found is a 3 Day cruise up the Saint John River. But I have to be the captain and crew !

56 minutes ago, mom says said:

I'd also like to point out that your personal observations in your single province (or even within the Atlantic provinces), gives you a skewed viewpoint when it comes to the rest of the country.  Visit Toronto or Montreal and see if your opinions remain unchanged. You are envisaging a fantasy. Time to step back into the real world.

Sadly you are probably right, I am spoiled living in Altantic Canada. Maybe an Atlantic only Cruise  - that might be a stretch. 🙂

OK, my simple question about possible "safe" cruise suggestions has gotten a few appropriate suggestions, muddied with the other side conversation, thanks for all the feedback.

I will attempt to re-clarify my intended question: 

When ever cruising becomes active again, I am trying to decide how best to embark on a "safe" cruise.  Assuming that this happens before a vaccine is widely available.  For us that starts with ensuring all the crew and passengers are "safe" to begin with.

BUT the 2nd ingredient is "safe" behavior for all on board.  This would be so if a random case occurs from what ever source, that it's ability to spread to others on board will be minimized.  This implies physical distancing and masks most of the time.

My Canadian's are "safer" passengers assumption - and less likely to pass it around, are based on my own observations in our own province of the behavior of the many here.  (Yes there are always going to be exceptions), but all I have to go by is the statistics we have by country/province/state.  Contrasted by my observations on various Live Feed Web Cam feed's of various beaches outside of Canada - mostly in Florida.

Canadians are doing something right, because it has less than 50% the death rate PER CAPITA (e.g per Million people), from Covid, compared with the USA.  Also our number of new covid cases trend has been DECREASING weekly, contrasted with the USA continuing to have an increasing rate of change.  My assumption for this dramatic difference, is that the attitude and behavior of Canadians is  more conducive to minimizing the spread of virus in a closed environment like a cruise ship.

So in the end,  when the time is right for cruising again, I want to go on a ship that has passengers (and crew) that have a covid appropriate attitude and behavior.  How should I do that?

Best regards,

3 minutes ago, jocap said:

You can always hope....

Hurtigruten has had its first cruise for Germans only, which sailed through the Norwegian fjords. It didn't stop at any ports, but there were canoe sailings etc for passengers. Very reduced numbers; masks worn on deck, no buffet.

Thanks for posting.  Yes that provides a glimmer of hope for us.  The excursions may be the challenging part, because its half the reason I like to cruise.

This DIY (Do it yourself) cruise came to mind.  I guess you can rent river boats on the Saint John River, in New Brunswick, sounds interesting.

https://www.lakewayhouseboats.com/

1 hour ago, Aquahound said:

 

If Canadians take COVID more seriously, wouldn't it be counterintuitive for a Canadian-only cruise? It seems a cruise would be the last thing a serious person would want to do.  

The province we live in has had ZERO new covid cases in the past few weeks. 

So although we know it can change quickly, from one bad apple, the fewer bad apples you touch the better.  🙂  So assuming all passengers and crew start covid free, then the only safeguard you have from random accidental infection is masks and space - it is really that simple. 

My planning is more in the one year timeframe.  Assuming we DON'T have a widely available vaccine, then my hope would be that another cruise might be possible again - hopefully outside of Canada, but that may be a pipe dream.

31 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

 I believe that the OP is looking for a cruise line that restricts its passengers to only Canadian nationals.

Yes, ideally a Canadian restriction for passengers, but that may be un-realistic, so the compromise may be driven more by which countries open up first.

35 minutes ago, electro said:

This is a Canada only cruise line. They are not sailing now but may be before the big US lines.

They are not cheap!

https://www.stlawrencerivercruise.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwmMX4BRAAEiwA-zM4JnqaAPbMZl5qM6Q0nsCYFhm8f3z8-uwvYIPnJwowO_1Ss9LEmskXSBoCkYUQAvD_BwE

Thanks for the reply.  Interesting option.  Few thousand dollar price is not really that bad.

Has anyone noticed any cruise's being offered that restrict the passengers to a specific country?  (not the destination country, but the country / citizenship of the passengers - e.g. Only Canadian passengers)

As we consider going on our next cruise during Covid times, I realize that I would feel much more comfortable going on a smaller cruise that has other passengers that are all from the same country that I live in (Canada).  This is because the majority of the Canadians that I interact with seem to understand the seriousness and implications of safe behavior in Covid times, mostly including masks and distancing.  People in other countries seem to be influenced by their leadership, and the general behavior of the other people there, and don't seem to take it as seriously.  

In some ways this might be considered as similar to specialty cruise offerings that are aimed at only gay passengers, or single passengers, etc.

Also, I am assuming that although the cruise provider, will be putting the appropriate Covid measures in place to ensure the starting passengers and crew are safe, but there is always the random infections that can sneak in from excursions and food, etc.  along the way.

1 hour ago, cherylandtk said:

I have heard of folks filing a partial claim, to recoup the rest of the trip costs, before waiting the year to recoup the flight costs.  WIll they let you do that?

 The closest is that if a book another flight with the same airline (Westjet) the insurance will cover the difference.  Problem is my next destination is not served by that airline.

Thanks for your thoughts.

1 hour ago, klfrodo said:

However, you would have experienced the same outcome with most other travel insurance companies.

Thanks for your thoughts.  Thankfully in my past 60 years of travel, I have NOT had to claim for travel insurance, so maybe my expectations are high here.  I assumed I should be able to re-book another trip asap to replace the original one.  It seems that if I had simply not showed up at the airport my ticket would have been "forfeited" (as opposed to cancelled), which means that Westjet would NOT have given me a credit.  However Global Excel seems to want "proof" that there is no credit available.  As near as I can tell its impossible to prove that.  I am happy to sign a letter agreeing not to use the credit, but they don't seem to like that idea.  So I am stuck waiting a year and hoping that they will approve it at that time...

==>  Would be interesting to hear if anyone else has cancelled an airline ticket for medical reasons and NOT had to wait to get a refund to buy another ticket?

Best regards, Rob

I thought I would share my bad experience encountered with the travel insurance included with the Aventura VISA card.  They use a company called Global Excel to handle the insurance.  My wife and I had a trip booked with Aventura that had to be cancelled a week before because of an accident.  We filled out the appropriate paperwork with Global Excel, including the doctors sign off etc.  A month later I received a letter in the mail indicating my claim was DECLINED.  After many emails back and forth, it turns out since the Airlines (Air Canada / WestJet in Canada) offer a one year flight credit for the ticket, they won't pay the insurance until that credit is gone - Thus you need to wait a year before you can receive the payment.  So if you want to try an book a new trip that uses a different airline, then you are OUT OF LUCK.  I tried to work with the travel agent and WestJet to cancel the credit, but Global Excel want to see very specific evidence of cancellation before they would pay out.  WestJet was not able to cancel the credit for reasons I don't understand.  Global Excel seems to want specific wording and WestJet doesn't use that wording in their standard form.  I'm stuck between two big corporations, financing this trip for an extra year.  BUYER BEWARE - Canada

(Cross posted from wrong section)