New protocols for river boat operator

[Travelcat2]

2 hours ago, flossie009 said:

There should be no need for medical tourism as, if trials are successful (a big if), the Oxford vaccine will be made available worldwide through AstraZeneca.

Development & production has now been further supported by a US Government Agency to the tune of $1bn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52751661

 

Interesting article.  It is yet to be known if the U.S. is willing to accept a vaccine that is developed in another country without doing their own tests.  It would be a great thing if they did.  However, “medical tourism” is likely to happen.  We haven’t visited England in a while and were looking for a reason to visit my DH’s home country..  If it were available in late November, for instance, it would be a quick flight from where we disembark from our Regent cruise to stay in England for a few days.

 

All of this this has a lot of “ifs”.  If the vaccine is ready to share with with others ....... when a citizen of England that lives outside of the country can get it .......... if a spouse of a citizen can get the vaccine and, for us, if our November cruise even sails.  We all need something to look forward to so, if it works out, it would be great for us.

 

Karen - some of us believe that the U.K. is doing better than anyone else in terms of development of a vaccine. They are quite far ahead of the U.S.  It is possible that you are correct but Oxford was in human trials before the U.S. even began animal testing.  

 

cerise638 -  Have to comment (and laugh) about your last comment.  It is so true!  Who knew how important our hairdressers would become🙃

[cerise638]

9 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Interesting article.  It is yet to be known if the U.S. is willing to accept a vaccine that is developed in another country without doing their own tests.  It would be a great thing if they did.  However, “medical tourism” is likely to happen.  We haven’t visited England in a while and were looking for a reason to visit my DH’s home country..  If it were available in late November, for instance, it would be a quick flight from where we disembark from our Regent cruise to stay in England for a few days.

 

All of this this has a lot of “ifs”.  If the vaccine is ready to share with with others ....... when a citizen of England that lives outside of the country can get it .......... if a spouse of a citizen can get the vaccine and, for us, if our November cruise even sails.  We all need something to look forward to so, if it works out, it would be great for us.

 

Karen - some of us believe that the U.K. is doing better than anyone else in terms of development of a vaccine. They are quite far ahead of the U.S.  It is possible that you are correct but Oxford was in human trials before the U.S. even began animal testing.  

 

cerise638 -  Have to comment (and laugh) about your last comment.  It is so true!  Who knew how important our hairdressers would become🙃

 

[greykitty]

Since the US just paid a billion dollars for 400 million doses of the "Oxford vaccin e", guess we're down with it, as Flossie mentioned.  And, from what I've read, we're also down with investing in and developing several vaccines, to see which one(s) pan out.  Oxford looks hot right now - but a lot of vaccines look great early and don't clear all the jumps.  A lot of US developers are also in the hunt.  And, it's not a competition, other than how to help the most people in the safest fashion.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/astrazeneca-gets-dollar1-billion-from-us-to-make-oxford-vaccine/ar-BB14oNC8?li=BBnbfcN

[cerise638]

A bit off topic but I am having to be very ingenious with my zoom and teams video calls to hide my hair issues from my colleagues

[SusieQft]

10 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

Karen - some of us believe that the U.K. is doing better than anyone else in terms of development of a vaccine. They are quite far ahead of the U.S.  It is possible that you are correct but Oxford was in human trials before the U.S. even began animal testing.  

Jackie, with all due respect, neither of us can say if this is true.  Maybe they are better at PR, or maybe you are just more closely tuned in to the UK news.  There are more than one US vaccine development projects on the fast track, and it also sounds like there is a high degree of cooperation between the US and the Oxford study.  Time will tell.

 

I do like it much better as you just framed it, as desiring a trip to England for other personal/family reasons, and IF the vaccine is available there first, it would make a nice two-fer.  There is no need to repeat over and over that the UK is doing everything so much better than we are, especially when we don't really know yet how things will work out.

 

Our hair salons opened almost 2 weeks ago, and I managed to get my hair cut two days ago.  It feels MUCH better!  But the lady who cuts my hair is having allergy problems with the disinfectants that they are using abundantly, so she is going to retire next week.  I can go back next time, but will need to break in a new stylist.  And I am very happy that I decided long ago that natural silver grey is much easier than trying to do anything about it.  😉

 

Cerise, I can understand your desire to find a way to go on your November cruise.  I felt the same about my October round trip out of LA until about a week ago, when we pretty much decided to cancel it.  I am still a little tempted to change my mind and make the final payment, letting Regent decide whether we sail or cash in on the FCC bonus.  It would be so easy, since we can drive to the port!  But I have to admit I am more at peace about it since the scales tipped toward probably cancel, instead of probably make the final payment.  YMMV.

 

I'm sorry I stuck a pin in your testing balloon, but I just wanted to keep it real.  Hopefully there will be a workable testing method for screening a very large number of people very quickly, but so far it sounds to me like we will have the vaccine long before that happens.

 

Karen

[John G]

1 hour ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

. . . some of us believe that the U.K. is doing better than anyone else in terms of development of a vaccine. They are quite far ahead of the U.S.  It is possible that you are correct but Oxford was in human trials before the U.S. even began animal testing.  

 

 

Many of the vaccines being developed have international teams working on them. Including the Oxford effort. In fact, the animal testing for this was done in the US. Alas, with mixed results as  detailed in this newspaper article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/doubts-oxford-vaccine-fails-stop-coronavirus-animal-trials/ 

 

BTW, there are human trials going on in the US, including this one in Seattle: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-investigational-vaccine-covid-19-begins

 

[Travelcat2]

16 minutes ago, SusieQft said:

Jackie, with all due respect, neither of us can say if this is true.  Maybe they are better at PR, or maybe you are just more closely tuned in to the UK news.  There are more than one US vaccine development projects on the fast track, and it also sounds like there is a high degree of cooperation between the US and the Oxford study.  Time will tell.

 

 

 

You are right - no one yet knows which of the 70+ vaccines currently in development will ultimately be successful.  I am generally not interested in reading what they are doing in the England.  However, this came to my attention about 6 weeks ago and I have delved as deeply as I can into the vaccine that Oxford is developing.  I believe that it is something that has been used in humans previously which is likely why it is doing so well.  They were very honest about their testing.  If at any point, it was felt that it was not working as expected, the study would be shut down immediately.  They are fast-tracking the Oxford vaccine as well.

 

I also do not think that, in general, England does things better than in the U.S. and certainly has not done better handling coronavirus than we have (that isn't saying much).  However, the distribution of necessary items during this pandemic has been a disaster (in my opinion and I do not know the situation in England).  

 

All of us simply want a vaccine to stop the virus and deaths so that we can get back to our lives (and cruising).  Whether we wait for a vaccine in the U.S. or go to England, India, Israel or anywhere else in the world where it is available and safe, it is a good thing. 

[SWFLAOK]

On 5/20/2020 at 7:07 PM, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

I think it's appropriate to post that info here, although it could have been rolled into the Future of Cruising thread, since all these issues could be discussed within the context of what ocean cruising will look like.

 

And CC does have a river cruise board--just not boards for individual cruise lines, since the volume is just not there.

Yes, CC does have a river cruise board, and that's where this should have been posted. Just because there's not volume there isn't a reason to post it on a board for a cruise line that is totally unrelated, and therefore totally inappropriate.

 

[Travelcat2]

2 hours ago, cerise638 said:

A bit off topic but I am having to be very ingenious with my zoom and teams video calls to hide my hair issues from my colleagues

 

Love seeing anything other than negative posts right now.  Do you wear a hat or ???  I have a mask that should arrive soon in the mail and will change my avatar to a photo of me in the mask.  That won't solve the hair issues but I have ways as well!

[Dolebludger]

Let's all be kind to one another. Whether we like it or not, travel in this time before a Covid 19 vaccine is developed and available  is not going to be the best we ever had! The cruises will probably be more restrictive than we would like. The air travel will probably be involve less distancing than some would like. And who knows what the shore excursions will be like. Some will decide to go and chance it all. Some will decide to just stay home. And who is right? We just don't know at this time. I think everybody knows the situation, and can decide for themselves.

 

It is good that the original poster has informed us of the protocol of at least a river cruise line. I think many of us are waiting to see what protocols Regent will issues, before we even think about booking, while others are willing to take a chance in this matter, along with whether air transportation will be safe and even available for that cruise. But nonetheless, anybody with the resources to even think about a Regent cruise surely has the intellectual ability to make the decision on their own. What we have decided to do matters not.

[Dolebludger]

I guess that the "new rules" of river cruises are relevant here, because we have no clue what the rules for ocean cruises might be. And I don't wan't to even make a guess as to what they will be, pre Covid 19 vaccine. So, anybody booking a future ocean cruise (whether with FCC or cash) is just taking a "crap shoot" as to what the rules will be. Will they be too strict for some, or too lax for others? And will travel to the ports be acceptable? We just don't know. I would certainly call on Regent to tell us, but I am sure that they don't know either.  The ocean cruise line management is just as confused as we all are. 

 

This is a horrible problem that goes way beyond ocean cruises. On land, many facilities have been requiring face masks. A notable exception has been grocery stores, which should have been the first to require customers to wear them. The City had to step in and pass a law requiring them, effective today. And I can't get a straight story on what face masks do. The best I have been able to tell is that any cloth covering over the mouth and nose protects OTHERS from the virus, but only N-95 masks protect the wearer -- but I don't even know that for sure.

 

I hope that anybody booking a future cruise will be allowed to cancel and receive a full refund if "the rules" as finally adopted are too strict or too lax in the guest's opinion, and/or if the rules for travel to the cruise are unsuitable to the guest. 

[Damaris1900]

To me, the interesting thing about the Scylla policies is that Scylla is the company used by Tauck for their river cruises, and that Tauck clients are the same demographic as Regent clients: age, income, expectations of luxury and service, etc.  I'm sure that Regent and other luxury cruise lines are looking at something very similar to allow them to resume cruising, so it's worth taking good hard look at the Scylla policies and deciding if that's something that would be a showstopper in terms of our individual willingness to cruise again. Whether Regent and others would actually go to something like this, of course we don't know, but it's an interesting thought.

 

At this point, I probably wouldn't, but since I have no expectation that a vaccine is going to be available for wide distribution in the next couple of years, or that people in my age demographic would get to be first in line for it, I might feel very differently in a year or so.  By then all those restrictions might look reassuring rather than too restrictive, and I might be desperate to resume some kind of travel. Hard to say at this point.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

Everyone has a different point of view about most subjects, including new cruising regulations. Those of us, still stuck at home, read everything because we do not have much to do otherwise. 
I thought the river cruise article was interesting. It is better than reading about whether you think no one should cruise until a vaccine is available.....or you think you will sail under any circumstances....or you predicted the demise of Regent before they raised the necessary cash... 
I really don’t mind everyone’s opinion. I just resent when you wish to impose your opinion on me. Some of the harsh statements to those who oppose your views are really not necessary. 
I read because I hope to learn new information that is reliable. I am interested in opinions that are informed. I love to read about everyone’s experiences on Regent ships. 
We are all adults... most with common sense to decide what is best for them, mentally and physically. 
Let’s keep writing... but with respect for each other.

sheila

[bissel]

Very well said, Sheila.

[Fredric22]

I do not believe that Regent or any other US based cruise line will adopt these strict protocols.  If there are no advances in treatment by early Fall (personally, I believe there will be), then our best shot for a more "normal" cruise experience will be an accurate, rapid test that will be given before boarding. I have no doubts the cruise lines are working with some top medical technology companies to deliver this product as soon as possible.  Once this is in place, you should theoretically be able to relax some of the more strict social distancing measures (mask wearing, for example) on board.  Who would want to pay to go on a ship where you had to wear a mask, couldn't go to a spa or the casino, couldn't use a restroom, etc.