RC Ltd bans all passengers with Chinese, HK or Macau passports

[dkjretired]

RC Ltd has banned all passengers with Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passports.   Being that this is from RC Ltd it applies to all their brands like Celebrity and Azamara. 

 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/11-americans-aboard-cruise-ship-japan-infected-coronavirus/story?id=68819290

[Markham123]

The ban has a major oversight,  I know many people in Hong Kong with Canadian passports who should be banned but aren't.  I'm also sure that there are many who hold Chinese or Hong Kong passports  and haven't visited there in years and will now be impacted by the ban.  Hopefully the  RC Ltd screening process will check the country of birth on passports and if from banned location ask additional questions to weed out people who shouldn't be allowed to board.

 

[Northern Aurora]

Washington Post is reporting that NCL is doing the same.

[mom says]

24 minutes ago, Markham123 said:

The ban has a major oversight,  I know many people in Hong Kong with Canadian passports who should be banned but aren't.

 

Well they would be banned, if they came from Hong Kong within 15 days of boarding the ship.

[Markham123]

Only if everyone is  truthful and unfortunately that isn't always the case.

[MightyMike]

8 minutes ago, Markham123 said:

Only if everyone is  truthful and unfortunately that isn't always the case.

 

One of the issues is that they make it expensive to be truthful.

 

 

[Markham123]

12 minutes ago, MightyMike said:

 

One of the issues is that they make it expensive to be truthful.

 

 

I feel so sorry for Hollysmokes, and her situation is exactly why some people will not be truthful.  A full refund maybe pricey but it could actually end up saving them money if it prevents one infected person from boarding.

[MMDown Under]

22 minutes ago, MightyMike said:

 

One of the issues is that they make it expensive to be truthful.

 

 

Passengers should be entitled to a full refund if RCL says they can't cruise 

[jelayne]

2 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

Passengers should be entitled to a full refund if RCL says they can't cruise 

 From what I have read those denied boarding on Celebrity  because they were in Hong Kong,  Hold a passport from China, etc are being given a full refund . 
If the ship has a revised itinerary and you chose not to sail then you can cancel and get a future cruise credit good for 1 year.  There are no winners in this mess. The cruise lines didn’t create this and to expect them to refund everyone’s fares, air changes, hotels, pre-post cruise plans is unrealistic.  
Yes we are booked on a B2B2B in Asia so we could be impacted, Hope a revised itinerary will salvage our trip, if not it wasn’t to be and no Cruise is at fault

[fragilek]

When the Sars outbreak to place our closets friends were coming up to visit us in Scotland from England. He is from Hong Kong - 40 yrs ago (went through school in Oban with my DH).  Their intention after visiting us was to drive over to east coast of Scotland to also visit his parents.  His parents, who had not been back to Hong Kong in decades stopped the visit.  They said living within the Chinese community had exposed them to risk as many undocumented people lived with this community.  They did not want their grandchildren near the risk. I assume avoidance of a situation like this that has set the bar at an abundance of caution.

[cbfb]

17 hours ago, dkjretired said:

RC Ltd has banned all passengers with Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passports.   Being that this is from RC Ltd it applies to all their brands like Celebrity and Azamara. 

 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/11-americans-aboard-cruise-ship-japan-infected-coronavirus/story?id=68819290

The email we received on Wednesday regarding our March 9th cruise stated those banned were ones who had traveled to the area within 15 days and ones who have an Asian passport would have additional screening. But this obviously states otherwise. 

[MamaFej]

From the article:

-- Royal Caribbean International announced that any of its passengers holding a Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passport will not be allowed to board its cruise ships "regardless of when they were there last." 

 

So, a Chinese national, living and working in the UK for the last 6 years who wants to board a cruise in South Hampton to the British Isles would be denied boarding. This does not seem like an abundance of caution. It seems like xenophobia. I've been defending the cruise lines for doing the best they could under unforeseen circumstances, but I cannot defend this. Perhaps someone with more knowledge and understanding could kindly explain to me if I am wrong.

[vpearlkc]

18 minutes ago, MamaFej said:

From the article:

-- Royal Caribbean International announced that any of its passengers holding a Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passport will not be allowed to board its cruise ships "regardless of when they were there last." 

 

So, a Chinese national, living and working in the UK for the last 6 years who wants to board a cruise in South Hampton to the British Isles would be denied boarding. This does not seem like an abundance of caution. It seems like xenophobia. I've been defending the cruise lines for doing the best they could under unforeseen circumstances, but I cannot defend this. Perhaps someone with more knowledge and understanding could kindly explain to me if I am wrong.

 

I think you got it right. 

[Muffinz]

as others have said it depends on the person(s) being truthful.... banning people with Chinese, Hong Kong & Macau passports is one thing - but what if that person has lived in say Australia for 2 years and has had zero contact with anyone from the coronavirus affected countries in that 2 years - will they be banned from cruising just because they hold a passport from one of the 3 affected countries??

What if they are able to prove they have not been to or not been in contact with anyone from the affected countries - will they still be banned??

 

and what if a traveller from the UK or Canada has been to one of the 3 affected countries in the last 14 days.... are Celebrity requring ALL cruise passengers to declare what countries they have been to prior to boarding? - or is the onus on the passengers to tell Celebrity?

 

I'm pretty sure there will be people who have spent thousands of $$ and 1-2 years planning their cruise - who won't  be honest and say they've been to one of the 3 affected countries if they know that it might mean they are not be allowed to board....

 

I'm also concerned that a princess cruise has removed the ports of Pago Pago (American Samoa) and Apia (Samoa) from one of their upcoming cruises from Hawaii to Sydney..... we're on a Solstice Cruise in April that goes to these 2 ports and there has been no word from Celebrity if these ports are going to be removed from our itinerary and replaced with other ports or anything....

 

I hope this Coronavirus dies down a bit.... because I'm really looking forward to going to Apia (Samoa) and will be gutted if Celebrity decide at the last minute that we can no longer go there

Edited February 8, 2020 by Muffinz

[MamaFej]

On 2/8/2020 at 8:48 AM, vpearlkc said:

 

I think you got it right. 

Thanks??

 

I was sincerely hoping I was wrong, but it appears that at least one cruise company really is following through on this racist/xenophobic plan. I realize this is a terrible situation, but it's not an excuse for baseless discrimination.

 

It's okay to be both cautious and logical. Logic seems to have lost here.

 

 

[Pickels]

On ‎2‎/‎7‎/‎2020 at 9:10 PM, MMDown Under said:

Passengers should be entitled to a full refund if RCL says they can't cruise 

that's why you should always have Trip Insurance!

[angelhelly]

24 minutes ago, Pickels said:

that's why you should always have Trip Insurance!

I do not know if all travel insurance would cover " refused boarding due to nationality" reason....

[Denny01]

Note: As I typed this, I started to think beyond my initial response and realized there is so much more to this than “yup, restrict those with a high(er) chance of carrying this virus”, but I decided to show how I started and how I changed as I thought more:

 

I understand how the ban on anyone with those passports can be seen as discriminatory - it is, just as those with symptoms require further screening and so on, but one of the problems is, and I know this sounds crazy, but people do lie. Yup. “No, I’ve not been back for years and I’ve not been in contact with anyone who has”. And those those that say ‘what if they can prove they haven’t been in contact with anyone from the impacted areas’ think that can be shown or proved? It can’t.

 

........But as I type that statement, how can any of us ‘prove’ we haven’t been in contact with someone who just returned from the targeted regions? It’s tough and that is why this could well turn into a pandemic, beyond the current existing epidemic status. 

 

And I started thinking about how many of us in the U.S. accepted the “stop and frisk” programs that focused on members of our black communities and turned out not to be effective.

 

Is this a legit approach of excluding those from the impacted regions? Or is it grasping at straws to appear something is being done? All of this is beyond my knowledge. 

 

By the way, the difference is (looked this up!): Epidemic is a disease extensive mainly in a region; pandemic is a disease extensive throughout the world. At least that’s what I’ve read. More than a few medical sites (not Twitter / Facebook / YouTube / etc) Indicate they think this will become worldwide, and pandemic.

 

den

Edited February 10, 2020 by Denny01

[sanger727]

I agree in that this is horribly discriminating with no real purpose. No cruise line can anticipate who you have had contact with  recently. If you haven't been to the affected region then you shouldn't be treated differently than any other cruise ship passenger. There's a poster on Norwegian dealing with the same thing. She has lived in Canada for years and can show she hasn't left recently via work logs but apparently they aren't making any exceptions. 

[jcross2]

Got this email this afternoon. Looks like they have lifted this restriction now:

 

Dear Guest,

It’s important to us to be as communicative as possible during this very fluid novel coronavirus situation. Over the last few weeks, governments around the world have been restricting travel for Chinese, Hong Kong, and Macau passport holders – often times with little advance notice. As a result of these restrictions, last week we decided to add a similar policy to our travel regulation, to avoid disruption to impacted guests’ vacations.

Now that governmental restrictions have been clarified, we have made a change to our travel regulation. We’re happy to share that effective immediately, passport holders from China, Hong Kong, and Macau will be able to sail with us.

If you had to cancel your upcoming reservation due to this travel regulation and you’d like to reinstate your reservation, please contact your Travel Advisor, contact us at 1-800-256-6649, or visit www.RoyalCaribbean.com/contactus for your local Royal Caribbean International office phone number. Please know, we can help reinstate your reservation and your rate will be protected. We are terribly sorry for the impact to your vacation and the inconvenience.

[upwarduk]

On 2/8/2020 at 10:11 PM, Muffinz said:

I'm pretty sure there will be people who have spent thousands of $$ and 1-2 years planning their cruise - who won't  be honest and say they've been to one of the 3 affected countries if they know that it might mean they are not be allowed to board....

Why don’t they stamp passports any more?

I’m struggling to think when mine was last stamped, it was probably when we entered Russia ( St Petersburg) on a Baltic Cruise in 2015.

Or can a Passport be checked for countries visited, as it is scanned?

[aquidneck1]

 

4 hours ago, upwarduk said:

Why don’t they stamp passports any more?

I’m struggling to think when mine was last stamped, it was probably when we entered Russia ( St Petersburg) on a Baltic Cruise in 2015.

Or can a Passport be checked for countries visited, as it is scanned?

Its an interesting question.  We flew back from Vietnam to Boston after the airlines were required to screen US Citizens so that anyone who had been in China would have to go to certain airports for quarantine.   We had flown through Hong Kong 3 weeks prior but changed our return to fly through Seoul.  No one questioned us as to where we had been for the last 3 weeks either in Seoul or in Boston.  We were surprised.  We assumed that someone had an electronic record of our travels.  Hope so.