WonderMan3

I put in for my refund a week or so back, whenever they extended the next round of cruise suspensions. It said up to 60 days to receive the refund. I will wait 60 days and if nothing has been refunded then I will dispute the charge with my credit card.

Check MSC's terms and conditions for shore excursions or even better see if there was a cancellation policy on any confirmation you may have received. If either of those state that you can cancel up to two days prior and get full refund then just dispute the charge with the credit card company. If you don't have back up then it might be harder to fight but I'd still try.

What's worse is that some people DID know that there was illness; medical staff definitely knew and it's very likely both the Captain and Celebrity Corporate knew. Despite that, everyone else was kept in the dark. That makes the tragedy worse. Here's hoping that everyone recovers.

You would be surprised though at the number of people who would find even your suggestions to be a "burden". Someone is always going to be unhappy with rules.

There are always the sensible people. The people who carry sanitizer, the people who cough or sneeze into their arm, the people who wash their hands before entering the buffet, the people who do not board cruise ships when sick... Health precautions are implemented because there are a great many people who do not follow one or all of those sensible actions.

I would view it as a dock that is used for revenue but has been built with facilities to handle a crisis situation.

It feels like there is the potential for serious lawsuits here, especially if anyone passes away. Of course someone would have to prove they got the virus onboard and that may be impossible to pinpoint.

Yes, great analogy.

We will eventually have minutes tests for this virus. Not sure there will be cruising though as long as this is virus is active and if a new virus comes along there won't be minutes tests for it right away. My suggestions are more to stop the spread of the typical viruses (noro, colds, flu) as opposed to something unexpected like CoVid. But if you have procedures like this already in place it could definitely help limiting spread for any new unexpected virus.

It really wouldn't slow anything down. The thermal scan machines are used at some airports and you just walk past/through like a metal detector. Most people would pass with no issue. Those who don't would be pulled out of line and dealt with separately. Yes, it would slow things down for you if you were detected to have a fever or cold symptoms, but that's exactly what the process would be designed to catch. And I never suggested throwing anyone off the ship mid-cruise. I said to confine people to their cabins until they recovered, just as they do already for ill passengers. I would be all for reducing passenger numbers, but of course if they do that, prices will have to go up.

It certainly wouldn't catch everyone at boarding which is why I suggested the thermal scans at embarkation at ports during the cruise as well. Some cruise lines were doing temperature checks at ports in the closing weeks before the suspensions.

Actually it is fair. The cruise lines have been dealing with a viral issue for years now, norovirus. We have even seen a few outbreaks of flu/respiratory ailments. And yet we only ever seem to see changes (like the self-service in the buffet) as a temporary reaction, not an ongoing way of operating.

Yes, my first Celebrity cruise on Equinox had a major noro outbreak. The changes to dining like the self-service in the buffet was an adjustment of course but it was really a minor inconvenience. The staff honestly seemed more stressed out over it than the guests.

Oh, even with my suggestions it is certainly not going to stop everything. But it could definitely help. Changes related to dining and specifically the buffet could definitely minimize the spread of norovirus. We know this since a number of these actions are what the cruise lines already do when there is a noro outbreak.

Well, as long as it doesn't morph into another strain for which then a vaccine is not a guarantee to protect you kind of like with the flu vaccines. God forbid that happens though because then I don't see how life as we have known it could even continue to function since you would always have to be self-isolating to avoid it.