Canada Ban on Cruise Ships until July 1st

[Italy52]

4 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

No, sorry, I don’t. Perhaps Cheryl does and will respond. 

Thanks.

 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

I think since the ENTIRE situation, not just for cruising, but for all of our towns and communities worldwide, is so fluid right now that we all need to take a deep breath and wait to see what happens.  So much has changed in just  the last 24hrs that the cruise lines have had little time to respond or make alternate plans, and they may not want to announce anything related to ANY itinerary changes for a few weeks to see what, if anything they can actually operate or not anywhere .......  

 

Be patient, the cruise lines need time to sort this out :)

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, npcl said:

I suspect if Canada had not blocked the ships, Alaska probably would have. Very limited medical care in the small Alaska ports.

As has been discussed, the ships are not actually blocked if they were to come up with a workaround.  There may be more info to come if the cruises are truly to be prevented from getting to Alaska.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Steelers36

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, lx200gps said:

Although it probably won't mean much, there is a bit of hope. The original statement from the Transport Minister, Marc Garneau, in announcing the ban, stated:

 

“We will be reexamining the situation after the 30th of June, or in anticipation, if things have improved, and at that moment we'll make a decision about whether we can allow the cruise ship season to resume.”

 

Not well worded, but I interpret it to mean the July 1 date COULD possibly be advanced?

The risk is that by the time they make a decision to re-open ports, the cruise lines will have moved on with new plans and be unable/unwilling to turnaround and start up Alaska voyages.

[BigGuy25]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

Yet in today's press conference about the virus, it was stated that they fully support the cruise industry.

 

I think that may be true ... just not encouraging Cruises now.

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

[Prolificc]

For the one-way Alaska cruises that start/end in Vancouver I don't see how they could find a "work-around". Changing that port has serious travel implications for those who made plans to embark/disembark there. 

[cherylandtk]

6 hours ago, Italy52 said:

Thank you I appreciate the response.  Somehow it doesn't seem fair that if we are transferring our original funds (that were never used on a cruise) to a new cruise, that amount would not be covered 100%.  Your post references Princess Vacation Protection, we do not use that.  Rather, we use Travel Guard.  Do you happen to know if the same restrictions would apply to our insurance with Travel Guard?

Unfortunately, all travel insurance policies I know of have this restriction. You can only insure the amount of money you paid; not FCC, credit card points, Frequent Flyer miles, etc. 

 

All of these are considered Award Travel.  You can read more about the ins and outs and odd rules of Travel Insurance here: https://tripinsurancestore.com/frequent-flyer-and-free-travel-award-coverage/

(That’s where I learned about it, and CC has used Steve for advice and explanations many times)

 

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by cherylandtk

[WmFCoyote]

Was just looking at the Princess web site for Alaska Cruises. Now all cruises thru the end of June are showing "Pricing Not Available" thru the end of July 2020

[Italy52]

Just now, cherylandtk said:

Unfortunately, all travel insurance policies I know of have this restriction. You can only insure the amount of money you paid; not FCC, credit card points, Frequent Flyer miles, etc. 

 

 

Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my post. I understand now.

[Italy52]

4 minutes ago, WmFCoyote said:

Was just looking at the Princess web site for Alaska Cruises. Now all cruises thru the end of June are showing "Pricing Not Available" thru the end of July 2020

Our May 20, 2020 Alaska cruise (14 days) still shows pricing --- I just looked it up.

[Kauai Kid]

On 3/13/2020 at 10:34 AM, beg3yrs said:

One thing the US Govt could do is create temporary waivers of the PVSA to allow Alaska cruises to work from LA, SF and Seattle.

I believe that would happen too.

[cherylandtk]

12 minutes ago, Italy52 said:

Our May 20, 2020 Alaska cruise (14 days) still shows pricing --- I just looked it up.

I thought so too, but if you click past the number of passengers, you cannot select a room type.

[npcl]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

The risk is that by the time they make a decision to re-open ports, the cruise lines will have moved on with new plans and be unable/unwilling to turnaround and start up Alaska voyages.

At this time if there are any changes, the odds are more that the bans will be extended not shortened.

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, cherylandtk said:

I thought so too, but if you click past the number of passengers, you cannot select a room type.

couldn't get into our cruise personalizer just now … no biggie - happens a lot during "weekend maintenance" 

 

and this weekend there may be a lot of 'maintenance' going on ...

[WmFCoyote]

The PVSA is a law. It would take an act of congress to overturn the provisions and allow the foreign flagged ships to circumvent the law.(and we know how easy it is to get congress to do anything)

[cruisequeen4ever]

Hmmm, Interesting. As of this morning, AK cruises still seemed to be open for booking, yet now someone is seeing “pricing not available”, which is what we’d expect at this point. No word from Princess about it. I live in AK, and not one word has been said here about wanting cruise ships to stay away during this time. I saw one economic impact article if ships didn’t come. People here have expressed concern about cruise ships bringing the virus here in abundance but nothing in the media. I wonder if cruise lines are trying to negotiate a work-around to make the AK season happen anyway. We shall see! 

[Pierlesscruisers]

Repetitive post.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Pierlesscruisers
repetitive post

[cherylandtk]

1 hour ago, WmFCoyote said:

Was just looking at the Princess web site for Alaska Cruises. Now all cruises thru the end of June are showing "Pricing Not Available" thru the end of July 2020

I’m able to see pricing again, now.  Perhaps it’s just the usual weekend IT gremlins and not something else.

[lderochi]

2 hours ago, WmFCoyote said:

The PVSA is a law. It would take an act of congress to overturn the provisions and allow the foreign flagged ships to circumvent the law.(and we know how easy it is to get congress to do anything)

 It is a law, but the law itself has provisions for granting waivers. So it would not take an act of congress. It has been waived before. But I don't think this situation fits within the typical justifications for waiver -- it's supposed to be for national defense, I believe.

Edited March 14, 2020 by lderochi

[polmcs]

I sometimes see the “pricing nit available” error when looking at cruises every now and then. Even my HI circle Thanksgiving Cruise showed the same message. Switching browsers fixed the issue, so looks like a data caching issue with my default browser.

[cruisequeen4ever]

I must amend my earlier post to now update that there is one local Anchorage article about this. It does not say the Alaska season through 7/1 is canceled, though. It just states what was said by the Canadian government and that it could have a significant impact on Alaska. 

[npcl]

1 hour ago, lderochi said:

 It is a law, but the law itself has provisions for granting waivers. So it would not take an act of congress. It has been waived before. But I don't think this situation fits within the typical justifications for waiver -- it's supposed to be for national defense, I believe.

The Declaration of Emergency that was made yesterday would make it possible for a waiver to be granted, if so chosen.

[npcl]

32 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

I must amend my earlier post to now update that there is one local Anchorage article about this. It does not say the Alaska season through 7/1 is canceled, though. It just states what was said by the Canadian government and that it could have a significant impact on Alaska. 

I have relatives that live in two of the port towns.  While they would be economically impacted they would prefer that the ships not come until the outbreak ends due to very limited local medical facilities.

 

Alaska seems to have taken very little direct action so far.  Probably because of a lack of cases.  As I understand it they just got their first one, a cargo pilot.  But no local spread as of yet.

[frugaltravel]

4 hours ago, WmFCoyote said:

The PVSA is a law. It would take an act of congress to overturn the provisions and allow the foreign flagged ships to circumvent the law.(and we know how easy it is to get congress to do anything)

Well, they just voted near unanimously to approve a funding bill related to the outbreak.  So miracles do happen 🙂

[nooptere]

I'm kind of wondering those who think when the magic unicorns and pixie fairies will amend the PVSA laws, which ports these ships going to leave from?' It certainly ain't gonna be Vancouver or Seattle based on current infection trends or common sense. In the mean time you might ponder:

 

The 5 stages of grief and loss are: 1. Denial and isolation; 2. Anger; 3. Bargaining; 4. Depression; 5. Acceptance.