Cancel or Go? For sailings between now and July 30, 2020?

[villauk]

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

none of the ports in the US are experiencing an actual 'outbreak'. 

 

 

Is the Washington State ‘outbreak’ not near a port for ships to Alaska?

[Cruise Raider]

20 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

 

Is the Washington State ‘outbreak’ not near a port for ships to Alaska?

 

Outbreak???  What constitutes an 'outbreak' in your mind?  I'm aware of only a few cases there.  

 

[Pushka]

7 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

Outbreak???  What constitutes an 'outbreak' in your mind?  I'm aware of only a few cases there.  

 

I understand they are testing others. And it was just one person with this virus way back in December. Just 3 months ago. 

[Cruise Raider]

Just now, Pushka said:

I understand they are testing others. And it was just one person with this virus way back in December. Just 3 months ago. 

 

In the US, they are keeping it under control and there is currently no outbreak here at this point in time.  The overall risk of contracting the flu is much higher.  

[farawayatsea]

At times such as this the best place to is home and close to your family etc.  Hopefully it will pass over within the next few months and we can all get back to normal.  In the meantime we should all look out and not take unnecessary risks such as proceeding with cruises  

Edited February 29, 2020 by farawayatsea

[villauk]

37 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

Outbreak???  What constitutes an 'outbreak' in your mind?  I'm aware of only a few cases there.  

 

 

 

According to the link, the Washington State Gov. has declared a state of emergency and they are testing over another 50 cases at a nursing home where other cases have arisen.

https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-29-20-intl-hnk/index.html

[Pushka]

59 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

In the US, they are keeping it under control and there is currently no outbreak here at this point in time.  The overall risk of contracting the flu is much higher.  

Sure but the flu won't put you into lockdown. 

[phoenix_dream]

The paranoia and hysteria around this topic is mindboggling. Folks, you are more likely to die in a car accident going to the grocery store than you are from this virus anytime soon.  Take a deep breath and carry on with your life. If this does become a big pandemic sometime in the future, worry about it when it happens and take normal "stay healthy " precautions in the meantime, as you would to prevent colds or flu.

Edited March 1, 2020 by phoenix_dream

[Hllb]

6 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

The paranoia and hysteria around this topic is mindboggling. Folks, you are more likely to die in a car accident going to the grocery store than you are from this virus anytime soon.  Take a deep breath and carry on with your life. If this does become a big pandemic sometime in the future, worry about it when it happens and take normal "stay healthy " precautions in the meantime, as you would to prevent colds or flu.

I’m not afraid of the virus, but it’s causing issues with industry and travel. It is a big deal. I’m not freaking out but I do worry about the implications for my own personal travel, and may worry about shortages due to production issues in China.

[Cruise Raider]

11 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

The paranoia and hysteria around this topic is mindboggling. Folks, you are more likely to die in a car accident going to the grocery store than you are from this virus anytime soon.  Take a deep breath and carry on with your life. If this does become a big pandemic sometime in the future, worry about it when it happens and take normal "stay healthy " precautions in the meantime, as you would to prevent colds or flu.

 

This ^^^ 

 

[katrina915]

Maybe I am in the minority,  but I just made final payment for Norway cruise on Friday.  If the hysteria still exists in may, I guess I will do road trip in Ireland where my flight goes.

 

But I was scheduled to go on pan am 103 a few days after it was bombed down and I went on trip anyway. And I traveled behind the iron curtain.  Life is too short to worry about everything. 

[Mystictraveler]

We cancelled a cruise out of Bali which was originally destined for Hong Kong on RSSC earlier in February. As we were trying to make our go or no-go decision, the internal question which helped us decide was "If someone offered us this same trip with all our expenses paid, would we take it?" As it turned out, the cruise was cancelled at about the half-way point so we were glad we made the decision we did. 

 

However, this is a personal decision with no right or wrong answer. It was very sad to observe so many comments on the message boards during the challenging times where folks were critical of others' decisions.

[Hllb]

12 minutes ago, Mystictraveler said:

We cancelled a cruise out of Bali which was originally destined for Hong Kong on RSSC earlier in February. As we were trying to make our go or no-go decision, the internal question which helped us decide was "If someone offered us this same trip with all our expenses paid, would we take it?" As it turned out, the cruise was cancelled at about the half-way point so we were glad we made the decision we did. 

 

However, this is a personal decision with no right or wrong answer. It was very sad to observe so many comments on the message boards during the challenging times where folks were critical of others' decisions.

it is such a hard decision, for sure. 

[Pushka]

54 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

The paranoia and hysteria around this topic is mindboggling. Folks, you are more likely to die in a car accident going to the grocery store than you are from this virus anytime soon.  Take a deep breath and carry on with your life. If this does become a big pandemic sometime in the future, worry about it when it happens and take normal "stay healthy " precautions in the meantime, as you would to prevent colds or flu.

Most people here aren't paranoid about getting the virus (although just now an Australian who was onboard Princess Diamond has just died) but rather the likely possibility of multiple missed ports, major last minute changes to all ports, being quarantined for 14 days on a ship and being quarantined from entering your own country! That is where the angst here is. 

[CruiseTimeAgain2]

Wife and I are going and we have a New Zealand cruise in April and Sydney to Hawaii in April/May.

We can’t wait

[Lazz]

16 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Most people here aren't paranoid about getting the virus (although just now an Australian who was onboard Princess Diamond has just died) but rather the likely possibility of multiple missed ports, major last minute changes to all ports, being quarantined for 14 days on a ship and being quarantined from entering your own country! That is where the angst here is. 

I agree.  As far as the near panic that has surrounded this illness, I would like to put it into perspective:  So far, 16,000 people have died and 280,000 people have been hospitalized in the US during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to preliminary estimates from the CDC.Feb 21, 2020.The current season does not appear to be as severe as 2017-2018, when the flu reached epidemic proportions and as many as 95,000 people died, according to CDC estimates. . CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010. We do not seem to get too upset about these facts.

[graysonman]

Still not sure what to do at this time. We have a cruise booked (western med) in July. Not paid for yet (deposit only) but we have flights to and from Europe booked without cancellation insurance (who knew, we never buy it!). Hope if we cancel we can get some reimbursement or future credit (the airlines and third party operators - Expedia for example, should do this voluntarily as this outbreak appears to be unprecedented). I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. Have another month until final payment is due. Hopefully this all blows over by then or we are told what we should we should do. Hate being in this position, you feel helpless!

[finchy1950]

We are booked to go to Alaska in June on Celebrity Millennium and intend to go, our main concern is not so much with the cruise but flying from Sydney and landing in LAX with a day stop-over the 4 days in Vancouver

Edited March 1, 2020 by finchy1950

[Pushka]

15 minutes ago, graysonman said:

Still not sure what to do at this time. We have a cruise booked (western med) in July. Not paid for yet (deposit only) but we have flights to and from Europe booked without cancellation insurance (who knew, we never buy it!). Hope if we cancel we can get some reimbursement or future credit (the airlines and third party operators - Expedia for example, should do this voluntarily as this outbreak appears to be unprecedented). I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. Have another month until final payment is due. Hopefully this all blows over by then or we are told what we should we should do. Hate being in this position, you feel helpless!

Ive just been checking into the cost of cancelling our flights and was pleasantly surprised. Yes we will lose some of the money but not as much as I'd feared. Insurance for us won't kick in unless there is a Do Not Travel alert issued. I see no point in cancelling our cruise just yet - we will lose the deposit if we do ($AUD 800) and final payment not due until mid May and I think Celebrity might act before then. I do have a couple of non refundable hotel bookings though but insurance will cover that (in Rome) if Australia escalates their notice re Italy. 

[graysonman]

By insurance, do you mean credit card insurance? I know many credit cards have it. Let’s  hope that it can be accessed for this type of situation. I would be happy to receive future credit for anything. We love to travel and would definitely use it!

[Von & John]

We fly to Santiago 03/11 and board Celebrity Eclipse on 03/15...

If Celebrity is going, we'll be going...

We do have a long layover in LAX on our way to Santiago.

Happy Cruising or Not All - as others have said, this is truly a personal decision with many individual implications...

[Scottygirl1]

We have cancelled a May cruise and also will cancel an August cruise.  The main reason is not fear of Corona virus but that we are not covered by travel insurance for this event (pandemic/epidemic including corona virus).  We had planned a 6 week European holiday involving many thousands of dollars and to not be covered for change of travel plans etc is simply not worth the risk.  Thankfully we only lose one deposit, everything else is refundable.

Edited March 1, 2020 by Scottygirl1

[luckyinpa]

i think is little chance of being denied disembarking in RI, SC or bermuda so i'm good to go! cant imagine bermuda shutting anyone out. 

[Fouremco]

Barring the Canadian government advising travellers to avoid non-essential travel or to avoid all travel to the Hawaii, which would result in my travel insurance not covering the trip, we will be cruising from Vancouver to Hawaii in mid-April. 

[Cruising89143]

2 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

The paranoia and hysteria around this topic is mindboggling. Folks, you are more likely to die in a car accident going to the grocery store than you are from this virus anytime soon.  Take a deep breath and carry on with your life. If this does become a big pandemic sometime in the future, worry about it when it happens and take normal "stay healthy " precautions in the meantime, as you would to prevent colds or flu.

 

I agree with you but we were booked on a cruise out of Barcelona in seven weeks with three stops in Italy. For us, traveling from So Cal to Barcelona with a chance that one person on a ship with almost 8000 passengers and crew could be diagnosed with the virus and the entire ship be quarantined far from home or missing ports due to ships being turned away wasn’t with spending in excess of ten grand and flying that far just wasn’t worth the risk. We canceled and rebooked closer to home on the Reflection. We’re not so much worried about catching the virus as we were the other issues. We are planning to be in FLL for our cruise unless X cancels.