RWolver672

It was reported yesterday that every three days, the death rate in the US doubles. No one knows for sure when this will end and we can get back to normal.

And for some reason, it never covers the strain that comes out after you get the shot. I had both pneumonia and a flu shot. Got both flu and pneumonia right after a cruise. Spent eight days in the hospital. They told me that the vaccines are hit and miss every year.

How about the ever popular "My kids or spouse are in another cabin. Can I get a key for their cabin?"

Here in Michigan there are so many yearly events that are being cancelled. Yesterday they announced that the Detroit Auto Show has been cancelled for this year and won't be held again until June of 2021. They are going to turn the Cobo Hall (or whatever it's called now) into a hospital.

I'm purely speculating but I think at some point, the cruise lines are going to have to stop giving incentives to re-book. Especially if they have to cancel too many more cruises. It won't be cost effective for them.

The bad thing about vaccines is that like the flu vaccine, it only covers one strain. If they do come up with one for this strain, will another one pop up later that isn't covered by the vaccine? The interesting thing about that article is that the headline says results within five minutes. In reading the article, it says 13-15 depending on if it's negative or positive. That means that it takes that long for it to come up with a +/- result. If the cruise line started using them, you would have to wait for 13-15 minutes between tests because the machine only does one sample at a time.

We live in a small Village in Michigan. Most of the restaurants have closed. I had a doctor's appointment, it was cancelled. Wife's driver's license needed renewal at the end of this month. SOS was only open by appointment. Governor announced to stay at home and within minutes, wife's appointment was cancelled. Being the Lent season, so many organizations that normally had Fish Fridays have cancelled and are now stuck with a bunch of supplies. They are going to try to bring them back after this is over. The one thing that I noticed is that there are a lot more people in the Village taking walks now. Dollar General is holding half of their paper supplies and only offering them to seniors from 8-9 am. Our one bank is drive thru only. Our one bar that serves food is call in order, credit/debit only and they bring it out to your car. Luckily our freezer was full and we buy a lot of things in bulk at Sam's Club so we are good to go.

This is just my opinion. The cruise industry is more than the cruise ships. It's people flying in to a cruise. It's people driving into a cruise using gas and staying at a hotel on the way to a cruise. It's shop owners at the ports that cater to cruisers. It's Uber drivers that take people from their hotels to the port or picking them up at the airport. It's hotels that cater to cruisers coming in a few days early and staying after the cruise. It's the TAs that book the cruises. It's the longshoremen that handle the luggage. It's the restaurants that feed the people while staying at the hotels. It's even the clothing industry where people buy new clothes to go on a cruise. As you can see, there are many, many people affected by the cruise industry. Not just the cruise lines.

When I got mine, I e-mail Carnival and told them I wanted a PVP who had been with the company for at least ten years and had cruised on several of their ships. The following day I received an e-mail from him with his phone number. He ask me to call him so I did. He told me he had been with the company for over ten years and loves sailing on Carnival's ships. He has been great. He answers my e-mails within hours. The one thing he does adhere to though is that he won't book a cruise through e-mails. He wants to talk with you in person so he can make sure that he is booking what you want and he can tell you all cabins that are available, which cabins connect to which cabins, which balconies connnect, etc. He also can tell you which types of bookings you qualify for.

I got the same offer that Woodey got. I thought it was kind of funny seeing how no one really knows for sure when the ships are going to start sailing again.

The Spirit class is a class of cruise ships built at the Helsinki New Shipyard (now Arctech Helsinki Shipyard) in Helsinki, Finland. The ships are operated by Carnival Cruise Lines and Costa Cruises (a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corporation). The six ships were built to the original Panamax form factor, allowing them to pass through the Panama Canal.

It's doubtful because they are the only ones that can transit the Panama Canal.

You can order a drink either way, regular or zero proof. If you want say a Miami Vice, you just say you want a Miami Vice. If you want a zero one you order a Virgin Miami Vice and they won't put alcohol in it.

Don't forget that the first eight cruises were already cancelled and those people re-booked at a later date. Eight cruises with 6500 passengers = 52,000 people looking for another cruise. Now add to that the virus and you have people that are booked in the near future that are now cancelling their cruises and booking into the future.

Remember too that 8 of the original sailings were cancelled. Those people booked future cruise on her after the first of the year. Eight cruises with roughly 6000 passengers doesn't take long to fill up all of the cruises for those months. Now add the virus to that and the ships are full.