evandbob

Digital subscriptions might take up the slack when printed magazines become obsolete.

Some of my early solo Caribbean cruises were like scouting expeditions. I've read so many negative postings about "sketchy" ports or rude locals, that I decided a quick port visit would give me a first hand feel for that island. As a result, we've gone back and did land vacations on Roatan, San Pedro Island in Belize, Jamaica's Montego Bay, Playa del Carmen, LaRomana in the Dominican Republic, and St Kitts. We did land vacays in Barbados, Grenada, St Lucia, Sint Maarten, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Punta Cana DR, and Aruba without a prior cruise stop. Have yet to visit Trinidad and Tobago and Anguilla. Some day..........

Tongue in cheek, but maybe a non slip shoe sole might be helpful for those "inclined" to drink a bit much and get "tipsy"?

I certainly would not be interested in being on a cruise ship for a week or two if there were non compliant passengers aboard. Another reason why I am in no rush to resume cruising. Why pay good money to get confined in an uncomfortable and/or dangerous environment?

I would postulate that the idea of profit as a corporate driving force is quaint and somewhat old fashioned. Today's corporations are driven by stock pricing, mergers, IPOs and buying and selling companies, and CEOs look to benchmarks in these areas to secure their bonuses and satisfy their stockholders. Profit isn't a real priority anymore.

If it makes you fell better fine, do just that. But what about a solution or a way forward? Blaming doesn't do a darn thing for a better future. That's like standing around arguing if it was the Captain or the lookout who didn't see the iceberg the ship hit and no one is lowering the lifeboats and getting passengers ready for evacuation.

COVID cancelled a land/river cruise in Egypt, a stay in London followed by a Norwegian fjords cruise, and a land tour of Iceland. These will remain on our hope to do list, perhaps forever. We put these in the same year along with a few other standard type Caribbean tours and trips back to NY to see the twins and G-Kids because good health was favoring us this year. I like to make travel decisions based mostly on facts, influenced secondly by feelings. With no facts of what a post COVID world will look like, I won't even make a guess if trips like the above will be doable for us when it is "safe" - we may well be quite older than, and less able to travel as we were accustomed to......more will be revealed.

Indeed! And one issue that can contribute to peace of mind is good health. I'll take health over wealth any time. Which explains why I'm in no rush to resume cruising or travel.

It remains to be seen if Carnival can sail without the 60 day inspection period specified by the judge handling Carnival's environmental crimes. Right now, I believe the order is not in effect, just threatened if Carnival continues to stonewall and evade or deny its violations. Another thread on this has way more current and accurate data, feel free to read it.

I don't think COVID's effect on our economy is just a wrench in the machinery that will go away soon or can be breezily dismissed as a temporary disruption. I agree that we have had a growing economy since 2010, but COVID changed all that. That's why I suggested using today's figures rather than the pre COVID ones. Already 6 million jobs have been permanently lost, and COVID is rapidly accelerating how we work and those changes have a good chance of becoming permanent. There's a new robot out that can flip burgers and handle other short order dishes; office space is becoming an anachronism, our daily work commutes no longer necessary so the auto industry will be affected, etc. etc. COVID will bring about a new, better economy {hopefully}, but only after we learn how to prevent or mitigate its effects. Another year of COVID and most mass cruise lines will no longer be in business as we used to know them. Bankrupt, reorganized, whatever.

Perhaps true if you quote just your one year old source. 5 others that are newer show higher rates: it all depends on who is doing the calculation, what method they use, what level of poverty (annual salary) is agreed to, the time of the survey, etc. Sometimes we just have to accept a range as not many of these estimates are in agreement. COVID has increased the % of folks living in poverty, 20 million were estimated to have lost their jobs, 10 million have so far gotten them back. 6 Million jobs have disappeared for good. We have long lines at all of our food banks here in "wealthy" SW Florida, way longer than the line queued up for political events. A quick google search shows 12 -15% national poverty ranges. While we can quibble about the # of poor, up, down or whatever, no one I think can argue that the ultra rich have increased their vast wealth and widened the gap between them and even the semi rich, let alone your average worker. With COVID rates rising again, expect more disappointing news and another delay in sailing resumption.

If cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue their present upward trend, cruising may be doomed for a large part of 2021. Europe and the USA are experiencing the start of the forecasted second wave now. We haven't had #s this high since after the 4th of July. I realize we all have COVID fatigue, and want a return to normalcy, but until there are gains in the treatment and prevention of this virus, that ain't going to happen.

It may turn out to be the last few days before cruising resumes, whenever that may be. There may be cancellations if folks who booked don't want to be the first to try out the new COVID procedures. The cruise lines will want tosail at their minimum boarding #. Pre COVID, I found the first week of December to be lowest fare point.

I think it was TPG who reported a flyer who had taken a COVID test and had the digital report on his phone was denied boarding until he got that test result printed, so just a heads up here to have a paper copy available.

The lines for free food in Fort Myers are longer than the line of people waiting to see the president here today.