Fascination headed to Miami denied in San Juan

[crbnlvr]

Fascination is headed to Miami having been denied in San Juan.

 

Celebrity Summit was denied entry to San Juan yesterday and appears to be headed to Ft. Lauderdale/ Port Everglades.  I read the summit cleared the Coast Guard and the CDC but was denied anyway.

 

RC Freedom of the Seas is also on its way to Miami after being denied in San Juan today as well.

 

NCL Epic will inevitably be denied, if they haven’t already been.

 

I wonder what’s going to happen when they all get back to Florida 🤔.

 

ETA - we have sailed Fascination from San Juan 3 times (today would have been the 4th).  I would say the majority of the ship’s passengers are Residents of Puerto Rico.  Now they all have to fly home 🤷‍♀️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by crbnlvr

[Stick93]

That is wild news! 

[1kaper]

We were booked on Fascination for April 12th.  Sailings have been cancelled until the 10th.  I assumed it was going to be extended but have been waiting to see what was going to happen.  

[TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail]

Unbelievable that they would do this at the ships home port without medical necessity.  I guess Carnival needs to think long & hard about putting a replacement in after Fascination moves to Mobile.

[salty dingo]

I think PR medical infrastructure simply is too small to handle possible seriously ill people off the ships. Much better for pax if Florida takes that responsibility.

[Stick93]

51 minutes ago, TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail said:

Unbelievable that they would do this at the ships home port without medical necessity.  I guess Carnival needs to think long & hard about putting a replacement in after Fascination moves to Mobile.

They refused all ships.

 

 This is actually the smallest ship that they turned around - look at the posts.

 

 Freedom of the seas , Celebrity Summit and prob Norwegian epic all denied. Not sure they all want to stop calling that a home port just yet.

[TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail]

50 minutes ago, Stick93 said:

They refused all ships.

 

 This is actually the smallest ship that they turned around - look at the posts.

 

 Freedom of the seas , Celebrity Summit and prob Norwegian epic all denied. Not sure they all want to stop calling that a home port just yet.

I did read the posts.  My point was that Carnival IS moving Fascination to Mobile permanently.  Carnival has not yet announced IF they are 

putting another home port ship in Puerto Rico after that move. 
 

I realized but did not pointlessly mention RCCL, NCL or Celebrity POSSIBLY ever relocating an existing ship from Puerto Rico.  Hope this clears up the confusion I never had.

[Stick93]

14 minutes ago, TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail said:

I did read the posts.  My point was that Carnival IS moving Fascination to Mobile permanently.  Carnival has not yet announced IF they are 

putting another home port ship in Puerto Rico after that move. 
 

I realized but did not pointlessly mention RCCL, NCL or Celebrity POSSIBLY ever relocating an existing ship from Puerto Rico.  Hope this clears up the confusion I never had.

I understand what you are asking but how does this situation change their decision making on this issue?? You used todays news and refusal to dock in order tomake a decision after the ship is relocated. 

[Joebucks]

2 hours ago, TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail said:

Unbelievable that they would do this at the ships home port without medical necessity.  I guess Carnival needs to think long & hard about putting a replacement in after Fascination moves to Mobile.

 

You believe that they need to rethink offering a very unique product, because the island was scared to allowing docking during a pandemic? If San Juan cruises are a good business for them, this isn't even a drop in the bucket. At best, maybe they look at how to address these issues differently in the future.

[Stick93]

22 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

You believe that they need to rethink offering a very unique product, because the island was scared to allowing docking during a pandemic? If San Juan cruises are a good business for them, this isn't even a drop in the bucket. At best, maybe they look at how to address these issues differently in the future.

I thought I read it wrong the way he answered my question - I think this was their point! 

 

Would like to hear the answer as to why now ask the question with this issue at hand??

 

[TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail]

Yes it was my point that Carnival may need to re-think having San Juan as a home port.  Obviously they have not and should not announced discontinuing it as an itinerary stop. I’ve been on Fascination last year & enjoyed it.  I guess my original post was a bit harsh but unless something the general public doesn’t know about is clarified later (such as a dock worker servicing both Pan Am and OSJ ports just being diagnosed with Caronavirus)....the decision does not appear to be rational.  

[ZoeyVictoria]

3 hours ago, 1kaper said:

We were booked on Fascination for April 12th.  Sailings have been cancelled until the 10th.  I assumed it was going to be extended but have been waiting to see what was going to happen.  

Are you keeping the booking and hoping for an extended cancellation?  My SO is 71, so the over-70 letter would be an issue and we are not really comfortable flying right now.  But cancelling now eliminates the possibility of either full refund or FCC with OBC.  Are you holding out?

[1kaper]

2 minutes ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

Are you keeping the booking and hoping for an extended cancellation?  My SO is 71, so the over-70 letter would be an issue and we are not really comfortable flying right now.  But cancelling now eliminates the possibility of either full refund or FCC with OBC.  Are you holding out?

yes I am. 
I can get my money back from my credit card insurance for the cruise but I’d rather a FCC with OBC. 

[ZoeyVictoria]

1 minute ago, 1kaper said:

yes I am. 
I can get my money back from my credit card insurance for the cruise but I’d rather a FCC with OBC. 

We agree.

[TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail]

My wife showed me a letter someone posted on Facebook  that was presented to pax this morning.  They arrive in Miami noon Tuesday (originally scheduled back in San Juan 8am today).  Asked mainland pax to contact airlines & PR pax to work directly with Carnival.  PITA end to a cruise for all of them.

[mpdog42]

PR is still in the United States of America and should not be able to decide on their own whether to allow a ship containing American citizens to land....I love the PR but they have always have had a love and hate thing with the mainland.....They want to be US citizens and have all the benefits but yet don't want to pay for those benefits (Taxes) and lets don't even get into the billions of dollars  lost by theft by the "leaders"...I stay quit putting ships and stop going there until they decide to fall in line!!

Edited March 15, 2020 by mpdog42
correct

[Tapi]

3 hours ago, TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail said:

but unless something the general public doesn’t know about is clarified later (such as a dock worker servicing both Pan Am and OSJ ports just being diagnosed with Caronavirus)....the decision does not appear to be rational. 

Last week, Costa Luminosa was allowed to dock with a suspected case of coronavirus (after it was denied docking in Jamaica). Furthermore, all passengers and crew members aboard the Luminosa were allowed to disembark and roam the streets of Old San Juan. That snafu caused a HUGE uproar among the local community. Petitions to stop all further cruises from calling in San Juan until the pandemic is over started circulating. In addition, an Oceania cruise ship had to divert for a sick passenger who was dropped off on the west coast of the island at a local hospital. The passengers was tested for corona and received a positive diagnosis. This made the uproar concerning cruise ships much worse. After last year’s highly publicized (and successful) demands and protests to oust the former governor, the current governor decided to take the current uproar very seriously and became very proactive. 

 

Effective immediately, an island curfew is in place. Nobody is allowed on the streets of Puerto Rico from 9pm until 5am. Non-essential business will be closed until March 30th. All schools are closed. Only supermarkets, pharmacies, gas stations and other first necessities business will be allowed to open during the day. Restaurants will only be open for take out and delivery. Hotels will have limited service (pools, spas, casinos closed). And yes, San Juan Bay is closed to all cruise ships. 
 

The local government is being very proactive and strict about stopping the spread of the coronavirus in Puerto Rico, specially after seeing the results of more relaxed rules in places like Italy and Spain.  

[TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail]

@Tapi

 

Thanks for the reply & don’t take my opinion as any slam on the people of PR.  Absolutely loved it there & the people deserve better leadership than in the past.  Since there was no established protocol on how to address testing thousands of disembarking pax quickly....they did what they felt was right to appease public concern.  Hopefully this will not impact cruise lines decisions to stay but both sides will need to work on contingency preparedness.  
 

Obviously the letter sent by the 4 cruise lines regarding port improvement will have to eventually be negotiated too.  I won’t redirect the topic any further but appreciate your reply above.

[mpdog42]

I will say the New Governor sighed a Pro Second amendment law in December that will allow more freedom to the people there, lets continue to hope things get better there and the people start having more say in what goes on in the island...thought I do think several of the measures that Tapi explained above might be bearing on being unconstitutional.

 

[boricua2007]

In order to understand (at least a little, even if you don't agree with their decision) why PR Government has denied desembarkation (not docking) of these 4 cruise ships, you will have to know what has happened here since March 8, when the Costa Luminosa visited/docked for the first time in SJ, without advising they had a passenger critically ill with neumonia, prior to entry at port.

 

That day, after all passengers and crew members were allow to disembark, around 10am they call for an ambulance cause they had a female passenger in critical condition.  When she arrived to the hospital, the Drs contacted the ship in order to know about her condition and treatment while onboard. It was then, that they told them she has been treated for neumonia for 2 or 3 days (don't remember exactly), but that she was responding well to treatment and it was most likely a bacterial neumonia.  Needless to say, all hell went  loose, cause she was an Italian with neumonia on times of Covid19!  Immediately they started protocol, etc, quarantine her and her husband, took samples, send them to CDC Atlanta and we waited and brace for impact.  And yes, they were our first 2 positive Covid19.  

 

Now, fast forward to this WE. As os Friday, all cruise stops  were going to be denied, but home base cruises were going to be allowed to disembark and leave ships docked here. By Friday midnight news arrived that a Canadian passenger that traveled on Celebrity Summit has Covid19.  Now, what do we do? Can they guaranty 100% nobody has the virus without knowing it? Do we let them disembark, (Saturday) cross our fingers and pray? Well, they decided to allowed them to dock, refuel, etc., BUT they couldn't disembark untill next week (14 days since the Canadian passanger embarked).  Celebrity decided it was in their best interest, not to do that and sail to Florida. Which is totally understandable.

 

 Now you have 3 more cruises scheduled to arrive Sunday, and you recieved news that Saturday a man, who was a passenger of Costa Luminosa (remember that name?) died of Covid19 at Grand Cayman and your people is asking and presurring you (the government)  what are you going to do? Are you going to trust the ships medical examiner to tell you the truth? Remember the Costa Luminosa? Your people wants to know how are you going to protect them, what's your plan (if any!). Sadly, this is a constant changing situation and we are not really prepare to handle this pandemia. So the best the government could think in order to appease their people was to offer temperature checks to every passenger. Easier said than done, right?  Well, the best they could offer those 3 ships was, dock and wait till Tuesday when our National guard can have all ready and set to take temperatures (and whatever else they do in a triage). Well, the 3 ships/companies decided it was better to sail away to Florida. Which, again, is totally comprehensible. Allegedly, Carnival asked to allow disembarkation of PR residents, but it was denied. Maybe if the government would have know, they would be implementing a lock down starting today at 9pm, they would have allowed them to disembark. Who knows. To many maybes, to much unknown. 

 

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to tell you a little bit of what's happening here, so you can maybe have a bit of empathy with us loud Puertoricans ;). So far we have 5 positive, out of 17 suspected. We hate was happening, we hate that cruise ships can't visit us, I hate I can't visit my mom at the Home she lives, etc., etc. We are resilient, but we're exhausted! There's a meme saying "2020 have been trying to kill us since it started" (first the earthquakes, now Covid19).

 

Anyway, this shall will also pass....Be safe and happy 2021 cruising 🙂

[Joe817]

boricua2007, 

Many thanks for your post. It is very informative, and 'sets the record straight' for the reasons of the denials. Hopefully, people will not be so quick to judge now. The actions of your government were completely justified, IMHO. Thank you.