Italy now has Level 3 Travel Alert - 2/29

[cruise kitty]

5 hours ago, travelpeon said:

 

Adding the cafe was very full with a 15-20 person line to order.  I also went to the bank around lunch and some Girl Scouts were selling cookies outside.  Downtown marketplaces looked busy.  

 

I will note that there was a lack of hand sanitizer at Target, drugstores, and office stores last weekend.  There was some giant pumps of sanitizer at Costco on the Friday before the weekend and good stock of TP at that point.  It probably looks picked over right now but seeing as many people are still out and about, we're all just preparing in case we need to stay home for a while.

 

I posted in another thread that I visit Disneyland at a minimum of once a week (it's actually more ;) )  I've done that for 30+ years,  so far, I've seen no changes in crowds or behavior..     In addition, we live in a little city in the hills with a lot of restaurants, so we get a lot of people on the weekends coming for breweries & restaurants, last night was as packed as I've ever seen it...  so for us day to day life is exactly the same, except when someone sneezes or coughs you can bet I step away :)    It will be interesting to see what the next two weeks brings us here in CA.  

[travelpeon]

51 minutes ago, cruise kitty said:

 

I posted in another thread that I visit Disneyland at a minimum of once a week (it's actually more 😉 )  I've done that for 30+ years,  so far, I've seen no changes in crowds or behavior..     In addition, we live in a little city in the hills with a lot of restaurants, so we get a lot of people on the weekends coming for breweries & restaurants, last night was as packed as I've ever seen it...  so for us day to day life is exactly the same, except when someone sneezes or coughs you can bet I step away 🙂    It will be interesting to see what the next two weeks brings us here in CA.  

+1 more person on Sat, housemate of the Santa Clara County case confirmed Friday.  No symptoms (no cough or sneezing) and is self isolating.

https://abc7news.com/5976313/

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/south-bay/fourth-case-of-coronavirus-confirmed-in-santa-clara-county/2245057/

 

The potential cluster cases in at Life Care Center near Seattle is a bit of more concern for proximity to Vancouver with two presumed positive.  They seem to be tracing contacts for self quarantine.  Still, it is a few months away from the start of the Alaska cruise season.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/02/29/coronavirus-nations-first-cluster-of-illnesses-reported-in-seattle-area/

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/two-dozen-emergency-workers-quarantined-possible-coronavirus/JJD6ZERIZBG2FEF5HDZIULIIJM/

https://www.kirklandreporter.com/news/lwtech-students-may-have-been-exposed-to-coronavirus/

 

I think it will look a little more sparse in our area the coming week and weekend.

[Lolou127]

Just doing a quick check on X website and they have 4 ships going into/out of Italian ports starting April/May if the Italy situation doesn’t improve that’s an awful lot of reorganising for them to do!!

[drakes2]

7 hours ago, az_tchr said:

Absolutely. The TA wants the money to the cruiselines maybe 2 days (max) ahead. But 10 days?

Haven't booked with a TA in years but when I did final payment was due no more than a few days prior to cruiselines date. 

[deliver42]

I've used a TA a couple of times. Once with an on line agency, and now with a local. Both wanted final payment one week before in case something goes wrong. it gives enough time to fix it.

[graysonman]

16 hours ago, drakes2 said:

I made final payment yesterday for our Apex May 30th sailing from Italy.  If cruise is canceled they havent determined if it will be a refund or FCC.   At that point if I cant cancel my flight with Air Canada i will go through insurance. Don't think hotels in Rome and Barcelona will be an issue.

 

[graysonman]

Just curious what you mean by cancelling your flight through insurance if necessary. Do you mean through travel insurance or through your credit card? We may be in the same situation with Westjet if things don’t improve.

[drakes2]

1 hour ago, graysonman said:

Just curious what you mean by cancelling your flight through insurance if necessary. Do you mean through travel insurance or through your credit card? We may be in the same situation with Westjet if things don’t improve.

What I'm told by my insurance is that in order to get refunded for my flight the travel advisory for Italy would have to be a level 3, currently it's a 2.  That's on the Canadian website. As long as Celebrity doesn't cancel our sailing I'm planning to go. Cruise is from Rome May 30th. 

Are you flying West Jet; didn't think they went to the Mediterranean. 

[Fouremco]

27 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

 

Are you flying West Jet; didn't think they went to the Mediterranean. 

They fly into Barcelona and Rome now.

Edited March 1, 2020 by Fouremco

[Iamcruzin]

My wife just informed me that a patient who just returned from Italy is being tested for the Coronavirus. The news also stated that Bellevue hospital (DW's administrative office is there) is ready with 1200 beds ready to go.  

Edited March 1, 2020 by Iamcruzin

[Denny01]

Here is a website and an App that gives excellent info on Europe and especially Italy and the current corona status:

 

TheLocal is what the app is called, and the website is thelocal.com and for Italy-specific its thelocal.it See what you think.....hopefully this are OK sites to add to CC.

 

Den

[graysonman]

5 hours ago, drakes2 said:

What I'm told by my insurance is that in order to get refunded for my flight the travel advisory for Italy would have to be a level 3, currently it's a 2.  That's on the Canadian website. As long as Celebrity doesn't cancel our sailing I'm planning to go. Cruise is from Rome May 30th. 

Are you flying West Jet; didn't think they went to the Mediterranean. 

We are actually flying back to Calgary from Venice on Westjet (through Paris). We are flying over to Europe on Westjet through London (4 day stopover) before continuing to Barcelona (Easyjet) for 4 days and then we are supposed to start our cruise. Hope it still happens! Thanks for the info!

[drakes2]

13 hours ago, graysonman said:

We are actually flying back to Calgary from Venice on Westjet (through Paris). We are flying over to Europe on Westjet through London (4 day stopover) before continuing to Barcelona (Easyjet) for 4 days and then we are supposed to start our cruise. Hope it still happens! Thanks for the info!

I noticed that the travel advisory on the Government of Canada's website for travel to Milan has now been upgraded to level 3 as if yesterday. 

[BigAl94]

1 hour ago, drakes2 said:

I noticed that the travel advisory on the Government of Canada's website for travel to Milan has now been upgraded to level 3 as if yesterday. 

American Airlines and Delta have suspended all flights to Milan