BlackHullSailor

Patience, patience, patience.....

I was one of those that was cancelled yesterday (Equinox, March 28th).  Although the "suspension" is for 30 days, it's realistic to believe that it will be much longer.  Covid 19's spread worldwide is nowhere near complete.  Was talking with a friend last night who is another avid cruiser.  I would hate to be in Celebrity's operations room right now trying to figure out what to do.  The closest thing we could recall to the current situation was the airlines having to deal with the groundings post 9/11.  They had to "reset" the system to get planes and crews in the right place and that was relatively easy compared to what the major cruiselines will face.  In the 9/11 case, the "system" opened back up simultaneously relatively speaking.  Not what we are looking at here at all.  Each country going forward will decide when to open back up.  Additionally, the timing is relatively bad as many of the lines have their "assets" running in the Caribbean and close to the normal TA reposition time (April) and the movement of ships for the Alaska season on the West Coast of the USA.  Now what? Do you sail TA and thru the Panama Canal empty to get the ships placed in anticipation of a rapid reopening?  Lay off the crews and park the ships somewhere until the picture becomes clear.  From a corporate perspective, when you can operate again, do you go for the quickest money you can get in hand or reset your system based upon "normal" seasonal schedules?   For cruise fans, interesting times will be coming for sure.  Certainly unprecedented for sure.

Unfortunately, the app won't work on either my tablet or phone.  Requires Android 7.0 or higher and both of mine are Android 6 based technology.  Oh well.....

Used Wells Fargo. They offer a bunch of different Visa cards but I asked my bank manager specifically for a "chip & PIN" card and of the 6 or 7 available, one was the right one. I had travelled a lot in Europe on business and knew that things like subways and trains worked better with "chip & PIN".

During our 2015 Baltic Cruise, we used our Wells Fargo account to get approximately $400 in Euros, $200 in Danish (knew we had need to pay for taxi to hotel and back to the airport), and $100 in Russian, Norwegian and Swedish currency prior to leaving the US. Paid just the 1 transaction fee. Additionally, we got a new Visa chipped credit card. Our biggest expense was the private tour we took in St Petersburg and they preferred US $ so no problem. The gift shop the tour guide recommended also took US $ at an OK rate (not great but not a rip off). After buying a few gifts etc, I ended up converting about $75 back to US at the Frankfurt airport at the end of the trip.

The requirement for a "chipped" credit card was almost universal in Europe so if you don't have one, get one. I could have gotten additional cash if needed so was set up with "chip & PIN". Didn't need it in the end.

I was on the Regal 2-13 May and can say that I watched every one of the Port Lectures, but on demand TV in the stateroom. There were very helpful for all the ports, if you ignore the shopping parts and pitches for the ship sponsored tours. The most important parts to me were the orientation to where the ship tied up. Being the Regal is so large, we were in the "commercial" ports in Aarhus and Warnemunde. Already knew we would be anchored out in Nynasham. If you aren't doing a ships tour, they were helpful. :)

We also used TJ on our May 2-13 Regal Princess Cruise. We happened to be in port for the 9 May VE Day celebrations in SPB. TJ had adjusted our schedule to avoid center city attractions on the 9th as the city was a ZOO around the Hermitage. That being said, the 3 cruise ships in port had pretty much everybody in the Hermitage first thing on the 8th. We had selected to do a private tour (just wife, guide and driver). It really wasn't that much more expensive than the "deluxe" ship's tour (about $250 more total). If you can afford it, it's the only way to see St Petersburg. We were dropped off at the door of all the attractions and picked up the same way. It was raining off and on during the 8th. Having just us and our outstanding guide, Alexsander, was so much better. Most of the other groups were about 10 to 12 and everyone wore headsets. I loved being able to just turn around and ask Alexsander. TJ definitely met or exceeded all our expectations.

In regards, to getting on and off the ship, I was a little leary since Princess really pushed their tours and said you might not be able to get off without "proper documentation", hinting that private tours might not work. Of course TJ had forwarded the right "tour ticket". It took about 35 minutes to get through immigration the first day. The worst was actually going thru immigration to get back on the ship the first day. They only had 3 or 4 booths open and everybody's tour seemed to get back to the ship at the same time (around 6:30PM). 2nd day was a piece of cake, 10 minutes both ways.

Bottom line, Tatyana and Julia at TJ do an outstanding job.

We did the same itinerary May 2-13. Before the trip, I ordered foreign currency online from my bank, Wells Fargo. I got $200 in Danish Krone, $200 in Euro's and $200 in Russian Rubles and $100 in Swedish Kroner. The only leftovers we had were in Danish and Euro's. The Danish was for Taxi's and the Russian for goodies. Found most places took Euro's and USD.

For our upcoming Baltic Cruise, was able to get both a Chip & Pin Visa card and foreign currency from Wells Fargo. The website advertises 2 business days for most currencies. Ordered Russian rubles (14 business days) and in spite of that got everything in 3 calendar days. FEDEX

Very interesting insight into the changes going on right now in St Petersburg.

Just booked on the Regal in May. The cabin price went up since yesterday but got OBC and a free dinner so about a wash in total when you add the military and shareholder OBC's.

Of course everybody is concerned since Concordia but if you really want to think about "worst case", muster drill, no matter how seriously the cruiseline conducts it, is only the tip of the iceberg. Crewman (regardless of their regular job, waiter, bingo girl or whatever) are required to meet certain training standards that are defined by international conventions (SOLAS and STCW conventions). I always wonder given the "limited" English skills of a number of the crew, how functional they would be in a real emergency which apparently happened on Concordia. The real key is the "command" structure, how well the Captain and the senior officers respond to an on-board emergency. Obviously, if you read the news reports on the Concordia, there was a leadership failure that contributed to the Concordia (hard to lead the emergency effort if you aren't on board).

The other thing that I think about is that now that we have "mega ships" like the Oasis of the Seas, has anybody ever really tried to "evacuate" over 6,000 people from a ship. I know for airliners, the FAA requires the builders to conduct actual evacuation drills to make sure how quickly an aircraft cabin can be emptied. On Corcordia, the delayed decision to get the passengers off until the point where a number of lifeboats were unusable due to the list. Yes, since Titanic there has been a requirement for adequate lifeboats but that's based on the assumption that you can use all that you have. How about getting 6,000 off in how long?

Fortunately for most of us, we're cruising the Caribbean where the water is warm, so if you get in the water, hypothermia is not an issue. Foturnately, Concordia was in the Med, so while it is colder than the Caribbean, hypothermia is still not critical. You don't want to think about the North Atlantic or Alaska in summer.

For me, I'll contemplate these things at the bar on my next cruise but still you sometimes you think about it. The odds are small, or at least they used to be......