seapals2
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Posts posted by seapals2
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Have moved my last post to a new topic. This ship is still waiting for news on how it can get passengers back home safely.
It has been denied in port to disembark it’s passengers who should have flown home from Barbados on Thursday.
There were 5 confirmed cases onboard after testing in Curaçao several days ago. Those crew members and one passenger to my knowledge are still onboard. No new numbers of have been issued but have to assume that is now much higher. No reports of anyone seriously ill or needing hospitalisation.
Passengers are not quarantined but the buffet is closed for food service. Everyone using the restaurants now offering open service. Supposedly to allow more space but in reality friends saying they are packed like sardines. Concerns are mounting as the ship is now being refused to allow passengers to disembark in the Bahamas. Discussions are in process to try and change this decision. Our biggest fear is then having to sail back home. This could take several more days and allow a lot more people to be at risk of spreading the virus.
My post from a previous topic.
The problems will lie in how many passengers get seriously ill. With limited medical facilities and probably no ventilators. Given there has been no isolation of the majority of guests we can only assume that many would already test positive. Those numbers increasing daily. Figures at present suggest 15% of people who contract the virus become critical and mostly elderly. Think the ship is carrying around 600 passengers so assuming 70% get infected that could be a considerable number critical.
The ship could arrive back at Southampton with many needing hospitalisation. Hospitals would struggle to cope with a sudden surge of cases. The best outcome has to be a quick repatriation and hopefully the UK gov is in discussion now.
Passengers onboard being given no information with regard to new cases. Just the buffet now not serving food but that just means everybody has to eat in the dining rooms. Open sitting which probably is intended to make sure passengers sit at different tables each meal time and get different wait staff. This is a nightmare situation. A lot of very worried passengers, family and friends hoping to hear some good news very soon. -
6 hours ago, Lottie A said:
About time Fred. Now I hope Azamara will do the same.
Not sure how those poor passengers on Braemar are going to get home though when seemingly every port in the Caribbean is closed to them. Oh wait....they are on a big ship that can sail them home. http://media.fredolsencruises.com/news/fred-olsen-cruise-lines-voluntarily-pauses-departures-until-23rd-may-2020-397075?fbclid=IwAR1xJIPSUpGippbSCGT3yk0UjKUcspNlvkwQKKoO758ATjefKCroj1uat9I
The problems will lie in how many passengers get seriously ill. With limited medical facilities and probably no ventilators. Given there has been no isolation of the majority of guests we can only assume that many would already test positive. Those numbers increasing daily. Figures at present suggest 15% of people who contract the virus become critical and mostly elderly. Think the ship is carrying around 600 passengers so assuming 70% get infected that could be a considerable number critical.
The ship could arrive back at Southampton with many needing hospitalisation. Hospitals would struggle to cope with a sudden surge of cases. The best outcome has to be a quick repatriation and hopefully the UK gov is in discussion now.
Passengers onboard being given no information with regard to new cases. Just the buffet now not serving food but that just means everybody has to eat in the dining rooms. Open sitting which probably is intended to make sure passengers sit at different tables each meal time and get different wait staff. This is a nightmare situation. A lot of very worried passengers, family and friends hoping to hear some good news very soon.
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The problem is the crew ... 5 of the 6 tests were crew and positive. They are not testing enough crew and passengers probably because they don’t have the facilities and possibly because they don’t want to face the results. The more positive results the greater the problem. I feel this is how the cruise lines are now dealing with the situation as it arises .. get passengers off as quickly as possible.
However I agree in as much as the passengers need to be off the ship and away from the crew. Into land based quarantine situation either abroad or back at home. Passengers are not being asked to confine themselves to cabins. Friends onboard feel is a bit pointless at this stage. They say at the minute they have been told they are heading to the Bahamas who have offered support. Unsure what form that support will take. That distance will probably take a couple of days. In that time you can only think there will be far more passengers effected. Just no way of knowing in the early days who has already been infected. Personally I wouldn’t be going to shows or dinner and would self isolate in my cabin. This virus escalates on a day by day process of exposure and spread.-
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Braemar today is in Curacao but no passengers allowed off. We have friends onboard who have not been confined to cabins while 6 tests have been flown to Holland for Covid19 screening. Awaiting the results.
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Oh dear .. just seen this thread. Now I know why we won’t be cruising in the near future!
To be on a ship in such close proximity to thousands of others is really not the best way to avoid coming into contact with the virus. We have always looked forward to our cruises .. well over 50... but right now can’t imagine contemplating getting on a floating prison. All the bottles of hand sanitizers won’t prevent you breathing in airborne spread of the virus. Wish you all safe travels but guess the majority of those booked would prefer not to go if given the option. -
India crew finally get the news they had hoped for.
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in the last report it stated a new master for the ship was in a hotel waiting to take over the ship with a volunteer crew. Anyone heard reports from the Captain recently, assume he is still on the ship along with senior officers.
He will be ready for a long shore leave after this is all over. -
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It cant really be considered in the same way as city waste .. have you never seen a blocked toilet being sorted ... or a ‘wet’ patch resulting from pipe work. No .. it’s entirely different when onboard a ship. Initially we were told the ship had to go out to sea to desalinate water and deal with waste. This is a floating mini city not connected to land sewerage systems. There must be miles of pipe work which will need thorough cleaning and testing. -
Likely they can not get staff to continue the services necessary to maintain the crew in isolation. Even if food is prepared land side someone would need to deliver it to hundreds of crew now in their balcony cabins. Waste would need to be taken away.We have not seen the ship move from it’s dock for over a week. So what’s happening to the essential work that initially was reported to be needed with the ship at sea.
All toilet waste must be considered infected. How is that being dealt with.
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As expected confirmed cases are now mostly crew bringing the total to 691
Those crew who have tested negative to be allowed home. Surely this can’t be true .. some crew may just not have started to show symptoms. Up until they went into isolation they would have had contact with infected crew. The quarantine period should have started at day 1 for them at that point.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200223_35/
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this article touches on SARS but includes all illnesses typically reported at sea with advice for travellers. Really have to consider how to take extra precautions when travelling in such confined spaces with large numbers of people.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105164036784562700seems ships altered their itineraries when it was feared an outbreak might occur on a ship ... which would have been seen as disastrous for the cruise industry. Ships have since just got bigger and bigger and to all intents become floating mini cities.
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For me it’s more about the numbers involved. Suddenly you are in a group of thousands and not an individual. We have always cruised aware that we are putting ourselves at risk of contacting illness but this virus is new and life threatening demanding testing and quarantine.
Makes me wonder what happened back in the day of SARS .. how did the cruise industry cope with that outbreak.
off to do some research.
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11 hours ago, chipmaster said:
So if you were on the cruise and the minute "Princess " found out would you have been livid if they locked you down right away versus let you party away for the last night going to shows, eating and smoozing in the elevators with COVID-19 spreaders?
Of course if they implemented the quarantine earlier, likely there would have been what maybe 1/2 the number of cases because the whole cruise was a spreading situation.
I think most cruisers would have been up in arms complaining, so Princess did the logical thing, in absence of data, do the minimum and only act when the government demanded and we know how efficient and decisive governments are in making decisions, only China and dictatorships can make decisions quickly.
Honestly .. I would have wanted to know the minute they discovered the passenger who had been onboard was tested positive. I would have wanted quarantine to prevent the spread of the virus ... but.. on finding out that crew were among those tested positive I would have been extremely worried and wanted to get off the ship and quarantine on land .. preferably in my home country. Of course the numbers effected prevented this. The logistics of doing all the tests and waiting for the results prevented the ‘ideal’. So .. and this was my point .. I don’t want to be on a ship while the risk of this virus exists. I don’t want to be one of thousands and not in control of my own health and treatment.
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On 2/21/2020 at 1:42 PM, fragilek said:
where is she from
US .. LA .. I think. Bet she doesn’t have to wait for a negative test before getting on the first plane out of Japan. -
... and so the next phase begins .. this passenger left the ship and travelled by train. !!
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I know there is a lot of criticism about the way Japan has handled the situation and in some cases very likely justified. However this afternoon I sat and for a few minutes imagined a ship docking in Southampton (I live in the UK) in the same situation with the majority of the passengers Brits with small percentages from other countries. Would we have done things differently .. would our hospitals have been able to cope any better .. have we got the facilities to land base quarantine for thousands of passengers. I don’t have the answers but do know our hospitals are already stretched with long waiting lists in some areas. How would we feel if we were waiting for major life saving surgery to be put on hold while we quarantine foreign tourists.
Princess has set the bar very high and handled it all as best they could under the stressful extenuating circumstances .. let’s all hope lessons have been learned and new procedures put into place should this ever happen again. Having already done over 50 cruises with them I am now undecided if I really want to put myself in a similar situation. I’m sure we will at some point in the future all be exposed to this or a similar virus .. I would just not like it to be on board a ship stuck in a foreign country under their control
We have been fortunate and never been ill during a cruise .. once on a Cunard ship we had Norovirus outbreak and were sandwiched between two cabins where passengers got ill. Thankfully that didn’t entail quarantine for passengers who had no symptoms.
There has just been too many mistakes ... too many people now exposed to the virus.
Eventually the data and facts will be published .. no doubt scientists are all pouring over the details of this ‘experiment’ right now. Wishing all those infected and all their families who are going through worrying times the best outcome.-
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1 hour ago, seapals2 said:
The couple on honeymoon who got split were reunited and on the flight so not included in the 4 positive cases. David and Sally Abel count for two of the four ... but that still leaves a lot not accounted for. There was a long ‘logistical’ delay.
Found this quote from an itv news article.
It is understood some British nationals who are part of the Diamond Princess crew opted to remain.
Some British nationals who were passengers did not register for the flight. It is understood some have returned to their homes overseas, while a number boarded an evacuation flight to Hong Kong where they live.
The four Britons on board the Diamond Princess who have tested positive for coronavirus were not on the flight.
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The couple on honeymoon who got split were reunited and on the flight so not included in the 4 positive cases. David and Sally Abel count for two of the four ... but that still leaves a lot not accounted for. There was a long ‘logistical’ delay.
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So why only 32 Brits onboard the flight back. Where have the rest gone? Originally It was stated some 70 Brits on the ship. I know a couple from US refused to board their flight back and are now wondering freely in Japan. Surely Brits have more sense than this.
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BRAEMAR .. PASSENGERS STUCK IN THE CARIBBEAN
in Fred. Olsen Cruise Line
Posted
Still not saying how many cases they now have on the ship. The positive tests were done last Wednesday and the crew and passenger remained onboard. Very worrying for family friends.
After the openness with which Princess dealt with the virus outbreak on the diamond Princess this is all very secretive and behind closed doors.
The fact that an extra doctor and nurse have gone onboard must indicate they have ill passengers and yet there have been no reports.
All the Princess 700 cases arose from one passenger who had already left the ship. That was with quarantine measures put in place. All the medical information now indicates that those measures actually saved hundreds from also being infected. However the best course of action would have been to take all passengers off and that in itself would have reduced cases to less than a hundred. Just very difficult to do in that situation.
With no quarantine onboard and possibly faced with a long sea journey it’s possible many of the passengers and crew will return home in a critical condition.