MSC Meraviglia being denied access in Jamaica

[blueslily]

I hope that anyone cruising now and in the future who choose to sail do so with the understanding that ports can be cancelled or changed at any time for various reasons. It may or may not be in the cruise line's control. You might or might not get compensated. Hopefully this is understood at time of booking because it has been true for a long time. I dont mean to come off as cold. I just hope this information is shared with people before they pay money for a cruise so they are not shocked and feel powerless or cheated when something changes during their cruise.

 

Of course I have empathy for feeling disappointed, but anger is an emotion that seems incongruent if one understands cruising. I love cruising, but it should be clear that ports can be cancelled and the reasons may not be good enough to us, make sense to us, or explained to us in the detail we desire. Just being practical about this, especially with fears about the coronavirus spreading and some people thinking that thee extent of it really isn't being shared openly. 

 

I hope passengers choose to plan a fun day onboard for themselves. Once the shock and initial emotional responses pass from the cancellations, I hope they enjoy what Meraviglia has to offer. Its a really nice ship. And, please dont take your emotion out on the staff. They have no say in the countries' decision to deny the ship. This impacts them as well. 

 

 

 

 

[PrincessPatti]

8 hours ago, SunNFunCruzer said:

 

Totally agree with this.  But China was hazmatting their government employees and disinfecting everything in sight for weeks before they disclosed how bad things were.  US and other Governments did the same... look at some of the evacuation plane photos from Wuhan and the Diamond Princess.  Cruisers had a mask, workers had hazmat suits with respirators.  The "experts" knew a lot they were not sharing.

 

And, Cruisers are not as good for local economies as you might think they are.  Speak with locals in European ports in Italy and Croatia and they'll tell you that they would trade ALL the cruisers for more tourists that stay overnight for multiple days.

Cruisers are really hard on infrastructure and in many ports they spend substantially less per person than overnight tourists.  Some island businesses do rely very heavily on cruisers, but sustainable businesses shouldn't.  IMO, if some of these islands get slammed with Virus cases, the damage (physical, emotional and financial) would be worse than being struck by a Cat 5.

 

 

 

Thank you for this.  I live here on Grand Cayman, and if Coronavirus were to hit here, the Island could be completely devastated.  We (and Jamaica) are not equipped to deal with anything like this.  Yes, it is unfortunate that they have missed these ports, but I (and everyone I have spoken with) appreciate the government for taking these precautions.  
 

We do have one excellent hospital here on Island, but I can assure you they would not be able to handle an outbreak of Coronavirus here.  As stated, it would be as if a Cat 5 hurricane struck the Island.

[Bostonjetset]

8 hours ago, SunNFunCruzer said:

 

Totally agree with this.  But China was hazmatting their government employees and disinfecting everything in sight for weeks before they disclosed how bad things were.  US and other Governments did the same... look at some of the evacuation plane photos from Wuhan and the Diamond Princess.  Cruisers had a mask, workers had hazmat suits with respirators.  The "experts" knew a lot they were not sharing.

 

And, Cruisers are not as good for local economies as you might think they are.  Speak with locals in European ports in Italy and Croatia and they'll tell you that they would trade ALL the cruisers for more tourists that stay overnight for multiple days.

Cruisers are really hard on infrastructure and in many ports they spend substantially less per person than overnight tourists.  Some island businesses do rely very heavily on cruisers, but sustainable businesses shouldn't.  IMO, if some of these islands get slammed with Virus cases, the damage (physical, emotional and financial) would be worse than being struck by a Cat 5.

 

 

 

No quite an apples to apples comparison.  Jamaica is a third world country that relies much more heavily on tourism from cruise ships than Italy.   Also, from my admittedly limited knowledge about Italian politics, I was under the impression that much of the complaints with cruise ship over-tourism there has to do with environmental damage to cities that are many hundreds if not thousands of years old and were not built for such large numbers of visitors [i.e. Venice].

[royal girl]

Oh no.   What will happen to this ship when it returns to Miami?  Isn't that where it left from?  Will that whole ship be quarantined?  I'm really reconsidering my August cruise!  I have until May 1 to cancel - with a 15% penalty, but I'd rather lose money than be quarantined on a ship for who knows how long.   This is getting scary.

[Mattnvick]

13 minutes ago, royal girl said:

Oh no.   What will happen to this ship when it returns to Miami?  Isn't that where it left from?  Will that whole ship be quarantined?  I'm really reconsidering my August cruise!  I have until May 1 to cancel - with a 15% penalty, but I'd rather lose money than be quarantined on a ship for who knows how long.   This is getting scary.

 

I sincerely doubt they will quarantine a ship for a crew member who had influenza A!!!  Heck if that happened then basically every corner of the globe would be shut down. There is so much mis reporting and its causing unnecessary panic. Panic is driving this more than anything else. Relax you will be fine.  

[CruisingMom77]

14 minutes ago, royal girl said:

Oh no.   What will happen to this ship when it returns to Miami?  Isn't that where it left from?  Will that whole ship be quarantined?  I'm really reconsidering my August cruise!  I have until May 1 to cancel - with a 15% penalty, but I'd rather lose money than be quarantined on a ship for who knows how long.   This is getting scary.

Well, I hope they will disembark without any issues. After all no one on that ship has the new coronavirus. It is getting scary, not only the virus itself, but the hysteria that surrounds it. Our sailing is not until the end of April on the Seaside, but I am definitely at the point when I am considering all options. Hubby is more optimistic. He thinks the hype and worst of the outbreak will be over by then. He says no way we would cancel it  while there is still hope. Fingers crossed. I wish I had his optimism. 

[CruisingMom77]

3 minutes ago, Mattnvick said:

 

I sincerely doubt they will quarantine a ship for a crew member who had influenza A!!!  Heck if that happened then basically every corner of the globe would be shut down. There is so much mis reporting and its causing unnecessary panic. Panic is driving this more than anything else. Relax you will be fine.  

Also, if they published the numbers for the influenza outbreak on a daily basis the way they do it with the coronavirus, people wouldn't dare to leave their house. It's not about downplaying the risks of the new virus, but there is an added hysteria and misreporting that does not help the situation at all. 

[flahagan]

14 minutes ago, royal girl said:

Oh no.   What will happen to this ship when it returns to Miami?  Isn't that where it left from?  Will that whole ship be quarantined?  I'm really reconsidering my August cruise!  I have until May 1 to cancel - with a 15% penalty, but I'd rather lose money than be quarantined on a ship for who knows how long.   This is getting scary.

This is also my question as I'm supposed to board it this Sunday!  I sure hope they don't cancel it at the last minute -  these "overabundance of caution" let's just cover our as#!s reactions are scarier to me than the virus.  Now it it were Ebola it would definitely be understandable.  Just my thoughts, obviously.

[Rob-Bob]

I am on the Meraviglia 3/22 sailing.  I am monitoring the situation closely.  I am more concerned with being quarantined than actually getting sick.  It would be very bad to be quarantined for 14 days somewhere and then return home for another 14 day quarantined period.  That would cause many problems for me and my family that are avoidable.

 

What to do, What to do...……….

[Beardface]

22 minutes ago, royal girl said:

Oh no.   What will happen to this ship when it returns to Miami?  Isn't that where it left from?  Will that whole ship be quarantined?  I'm really reconsidering my August cruise!  I have until May 1 to cancel - with a 15% penalty, but I'd rather lose money than be quarantined on a ship for who knows how long.   This is getting scary.

 

I'm on the Seaside next week, and I'm getting a little worried.  About coronavirus?  Hah, no.  No, I'm worried that Ocho Rios, Georgetown, and Cozumel are going to deny us just because that other MSC ship had a guy sick, so better to be safe than sorry!  And then someone gets the sniffles midway through the week, and media goes full panic mode and forces us into a 14 day quarantine for literally no reason at all other than to give into the media driven hysteria over this thing.

 

This disease isn't good, but damn, if people paid this much attention to influenza, society would shut down.

[allyfrizzle]

Update: We've been offered $200 refundable credit per state room and the captain just announced a 30% refund of the cost of this cruise and 20% discount on a future cruise. Very thick Italian accent but I'm pretty sure that's what he said. Will update as I know more. 

 

I couldn't understand if he said we're cleared to stop at Cozumel or not. Ugh. 

[CruisingMom77]

1 minute ago, allyfrizzle said:

Update: We've been offered $200 refundable credit per state room and the captain just announced a 30% refund of the cost of this cruise and 20% discount on a future cruise. Very thick Italian accent but I'm pretty sure that's what he said. Will update as I know more. 

 

I couldn't understand if he said we're cleared to stop at Cozumel or not. Ugh. 

Fingers crossed for you that you make it Cozumel and then to Ocean Cay. 

[allyfrizzle]

1 minute ago, CruisingMom77 said:

Fingers crossed for you that you make it Cozumel and then to Ocean Cay. 

 

I just spoke to a server, she said we're cleared to go to Cozumel tomorrow!!! Ugh I need land. 

[flahagan]

15 minutes ago, allyfrizzle said:

 

I just spoke to a server, she said we're cleared to go to Cozumel tomorrow!!! Ugh I need land. 

Well thank goodness.  This has to be a nightmare for MSC and all of the cruielines.  Because of reactions like those two ports, people will feel much less likely to report any sort of symptoms.

[jkgourmet]

31 minutes ago, Beardface said:

This disease isn't good, but damn, if people paid this much attention to influenza, society would shut down.

 

BRAVO!  

 

As I read all these threads,  I keep wondering:   How many of y'all bothered to get an annual flu shot?

 

And dont even get me started on the number of passengers on last weeks Mera cruise that just walked on by the Purell dispensers and washing stations, said no thank you the lady with the spray disinfectant, etc etc  

Edited February 26, 2020 by jkgourmet

[Beardface]

1 minute ago, jkgourmet said:

 

BRAVO!  

 

As I read all these threads,  I keep wondering:   How many of y'all bothered to get an annual flu shot?

 

And dont even get me started on the number of passengers on last weeks Mera cruise that just walked on by the Purell dispensers and washing stations, said no thank you the lady with the spray disinfectant, etc etc  

 

Or the people who are all up in arms about how super serious this disease is and how you can't blame governments for being overly cautious, but you damn well know a good chunk of them don't spend the requisite 20 seconds of vigorously scrubbing their hands with soap and water before entering the buffet and handling all the serving utensils to fill their plates or, even worse, after using the bathroom.

[Rob-Bob]

1 hour ago, allyfrizzle said:

Update: We've been offered $200 refundable credit per state room and the captain just announced a 30% refund of the cost of this cruise and 20% discount on a future cruise. Very thick Italian accent but I'm pretty sure that's what he said. Will update as I know more. 

 

I couldn't understand if he said we're cleared to stop at Cozumel or not. Ugh. 

Wow, I would take that for missing Jamaica.  We don't get off the ship there anyhow.

[phil the brit]

18 hours ago, ebonybee said:

Okay, now I’m wondering if the cruise line informed the passenger before the boarded that there was a crew person in quarantine.

 

Now, I’m wondering about the other ships.

 

A VERY, VERY good question. One that if I had joined for the cruise I would DEFINATELY want to know.

MSC, were you not honest with your passengers?

[BermudaBound2014]

2 hours ago, allyfrizzle said:

Update: We've been offered $200 refundable credit per state room and the captain just announced a 30% refund of the cost of this cruise and 20% discount on a future cruise. Very thick Italian accent but I'm pretty sure that's what he said. Will update as I know more. 

 

I couldn't understand if he said we're cleared to stop at Cozumel or not. Ugh. 

 

My very strong advise is to get this offer in writing BEFORE you leave the ship. I can't stress this enough. There have been an exuberant amount of threads where people have not been able to use the compensation they were promised from missing Ocean Cay. Offers got 'lost' or 'changed'.  Walk off the ship with something, even if you audio tape something from reception or a captains announcement.

 

 

[sidari]

5 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

My very strong advise is to get this offer in writing BEFORE you leave the ship. I can't stress this enough. There have been an exuberant amount of threads where people have not been able to use the compensation they were promised from missing Ocean Cay. Offers got 'lost' or 'changed'.  Walk off the ship with something, even if you audio tape something from reception or a captains announcement.

 

 

BB ... People on the NYC to Miami cruise did have it in writing signed I believe by the Captain, even now some have not been given what was promised.

[gritsnc]

13 hours ago, Mrs Soap said:

This really is something.....hard to believe they can do this??

What are they saying on board? Do you get some sort of reimbursement for missed ports?

We missed ports years ago due to weather and they gave everyone $50 onboard credit and refunded excursion fees that were booked directly through the cruise line. 

[Farts]

22 hours ago, mef_57 said:

There is a small machine that can give results of flu A & B in 5 minutes - but whether a clinic would have it is another thing.  (I had to look it up, but as I work in Microbiology area of a hospital, I can at least recognize what it is talking about).  EDIT  What I haven't taken time to figure out is whether there are similarities between A and COVID 19 that would make the test result still questionable.  If on a molecular level there are similarities, then the result could be questioned.

 

 

Cruise ships would 100% have them rapid flu tests. 

[Farts]

12 hours ago, SunNFunCruzer said:

 

Totally agree with this.  But China was hazmatting their government employees and disinfecting everything in sight for weeks before they disclosed how bad things were.  US and other Governments did the same... look at some of the evacuation plane photos from Wuhan and the Diamond Princess.  Cruisers had a mask, workers had hazmat suits with respirators.  The "experts" knew a lot they were not sharing.

 

And, Cruisers are not as good for local economies as you might think they are.  Speak with locals in European ports in Italy and Croatia and they'll tell you that they would trade ALL the cruisers for more tourists that stay overnight for multiple days.

Cruisers are really hard on infrastructure and in many ports they spend substantially less per person than overnight tourists.  Some island businesses do rely very heavily on cruisers, but sustainable businesses shouldn't.  IMO, if some of these islands get slammed with Virus cases, the damage (physical, emotional and financial) would be worse than being struck by a Cat 5.

 

 

 

I'm sure they are missing cruisers' money now after the quarantine. 

[capitalbarry]

Statement On MSC Meraviglia's West Caribbean Cruise This Week

2/26/2020

 

MSC Cruises is extremely disappointed that Jamaican authorities yesterday delayed a decision for many hours to give our ship the necessary clearance to disembark guests, despite us having provided detailed medical records to the local health and national authorities ahead of its arrival as per normal protocol.
 
Similarly, the decision taken overnight by the Grand Cayman authorities to refuse disembarkation at Georgetown was made without even reviewing the ship’s medical records, which show one single case of common seasonal flu (type A influenza) affecting one crew member with a travel history clearly showing no passages through territories either affected by COVID-19 (Coronavirus) or subject to any international health restrictions. In both instances, the ship was effectively turned away simply based on fears.
 
MSC Meraviglia is currently at sea on her way to Cozumel, Mexico, her next scheduled port of call. Ship’s command and Company’s management are in contact with local health authorities to ensure that their decision will be based on a factual review of the ship’s medical records, as well as consideration for the pre-embarkation screening and on board medical and deep sanitation protocols that are in place across MSC Cruises’ entire fleet.
 
All MSC Meraviglia’s guests and crew have been screened individually upon embarkation, both in terms of their travel history as well as their health. MSC Cruises denies embarkation to anyone – crew and guest alike – who has travelled to, from or through mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau, as well as to people who during the past 14 days have travelled to, from or through any of the municipalities that are subject to quarantine in central northern Italy. In addition to this, all MSC Cruises ships also conduct individual pre-boarding screening by thermal cameras to identify guests or crew members with signs or symptoms of illness such as fever (≥38 C°/100.4 F°) or feverishness, chills, cough or difficulty breathing. This will also result in denied embarkation.
 
The crewmember who was diagnosed with common seasonal flu is in a stable condition, receiving anti-viral treatment and medication, and is now free of fever and nearly recovered. Out of precaution he was isolated from other crew members and guests from the moment that he showed symptoms and will remain so until he is fully recovered. No other cases of type A influenza have been reported on board MSC Meraviglia.
 
Moreover, no cases of COVID-19 virus (Coronavirus) have been reported on board MSC Meraviglia or any other ship in MSC Cruises’ fleet.
 
MSC Cruises apologizes for any inconvenience caused and the disappointment to its guests in connection with the missed calls in Ocho Rios and Georgetown this week.

 

 

 

 
MSC Cruises’ statement : 25/2/2020, 10 pm CET
 
As is standard practice when a vessel approaches each port of call during a cruise, the ship’s command has to report any illness on board to the relevant local health authorities. Upon arrival this morning MSC Meraviglia reported one single case of common seasonal flu (type A influenza) affecting a crew member from the Philippines.
 
The crew member had embarked at the beginning of the cruise in Miami, after passing the mandatory health screening that all our guests and crew members receive before joining the cruise, a precautionary measure that we have implemented fleetwide.
 
The local port health authority in Ocho Rios today requested further guidance from the National Ministry of Health in Jamaica’s capital of Kingston. After waiting in port for nearly four hours for formal clearance, ship’s command decided to leave Ocho Rios for the next port of call as the long wait had compromised the passengers’ proposed time at the destination.
 
All MSC Meraviglia’s guests and crew have been screened individually upon embarkation, both in terms of their travel history as well as their health. MSC Cruises denies embarkation to anyone – crew and guest alike – who has travelled to, from or through mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau, as well as to people who during the past 14 days have travelled to, from or through any of the municipalities that are subject to quarantine in central northern Italy. In addition to this, all MSC Cruises ships also conduct individual pre-boarding screening by thermal cameras to identify guests or crew members with signs or symptoms of illness such as fever (≥38 C°/100.4 F°) or feverishness, chills, cough or difficulty breathing. This will also result in denied embarkation.
 
The crew member had travelled to Miami from Manila, via direct connection in Istanbul. He developed symptoms of common flu and tested positive to type A influenza after he visited the ship’s 24/7 Medical Centre while already on board. He has no other symptoms.  

 

[freetalkfreelaugh]

Leaving this Saturday and never been so apprehensive 😫.