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Cruising has restarted


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13 minutes ago, cruising deacon said:

The cruise lines are just trying to find out how many people are so addicted to cruising that they are willing to put up with ANYTHING just to cruising again.  The NEW WAVE of cruising is NOT a vacation that I would spend my money on, NOR risk with my health.

having a choice is a beautiful thing ... 'cruising' has NEVER been for everyone, and now maybe even less so in the current and future conditions ... our feelings have changed for sure, as we will only book obstructed balconys or greater in the future, and we were very content booking insides before, as we are 'on ship' people instead of 'in cabin' people

 

got a nice caribe deck premium balcony for a 4/2021 cruise if it goes, we'll be on it ...

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47 minutes ago, cruising deacon said:

The cruise lines are just trying to find out how many people are so addicted to cruising that they are willing to put up with ANYTHING just to cruising again.  The NEW WAVE of cruising is NOT a vacation that I would spend my money on, NOR risk with my health.

I totally agree.  We have 2 cruises next year,  a February cruise on the Enchanted Princess that,  if not cancelled by Princess, will be cancelled by us.  Too risky.  We also have a Med cruise on the Discovery Princess in November.  I saw this morning that the placement of the bow of the Discovery is roughly 4 months behind schedule.  I doubt that one will go forward.

 

Like many, we have booked a cruise for February 2022, what I call a "spec cruise". Those cruises are pretty well booked right now as people are hedging their bets on 2021 Caribbean cruises that my be cancelled.  If we're still  dealing with COVID-19, in 2022,  we'll  probably cancel that one too.  Not worth our health.

 

From a financial point, I can't help but wonder how long the cruise lines can operate without actual cruises taking place.Very dicey.  

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If this is any indication of a cruise experience during a Pandemic, I'd much rather do a different sort of vacation then be cooped up on a cruise ship. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/08/01/hurtigruten-cruise-line-33-crew-infected-covid-19-norway/5562151002/

When they have a vaccine available that been tested and actually works we'll consider another cruise but right now we're not even looking no matter what deal they offer.

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We are ready for a cruise now with all the palaver that will go with it. Despite being in our 60’s and importantly with no underlying health issues, the rewards outweigh the risk of catching the virus. 

Life is about choices and I would happily cruise now and acknowledge others have their valid reasons for not.

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All cruise lines need to suspended operations.  A Paul Gauguin cruise now has a COVID outbreak.  These small cruise ship operators are setting the entire industry back by 6 months or more by their stupid decision to start cruising now. 
 

 

Edited by Syracuse44
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They're killing themselves including my beloved Princess Cruises. 

These cornball cruise lines that sail early and encounter a breakout need to sit off the coast of Antarctica for 18 months in quarantine and then hopefully they'll get it. 

In the event it happens again on the same ship take it out off the coast of Japan and turn it into an artificial reef, under 25,000 ft of water. 

 

Edited by TTEllis
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The Europeans seem to think they are immune to COVID-19 issues but it is not to be.  Lets consider the last few days.  TUI cruises had to cancel their July 31 Mein Schiff 1 cruise because 3 crew members tested positive for COVID.  However, TUI apparently tried to initially keep this quiet by simply reporting they had some crew problems.  Hurtigruten tried a cruise with mostly Norwegians and their usual Norwegian crew and it has turned into a real mess with over 30 crew testing positive and passenger tests still pending.  Several hundred passengers of their two cruises have been told to self-quarantine and the have cancelled the next cruise.  Aida is also trying to restart but has also had issues with some of their crew testing positive.  And just today we hear that Ponent, who has tried to restart operations, has at least one positive test on the Paul Gaughin.  

 

All this adds up to another disaster for the cruise industry.  Trying to restart operations in places with only a few COVID cases has not worked well.  How on earth can anyone even think about restarting cruises out of Florida?  I suspect that the CDC will not approve any kind of restart in the near future.  There is also another issue with Florida cruises in that they would need to get thousands of crew members to Florida and that is very difficult given the current travel restrictions.

 

Hank

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5 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

The Europeans seem to think they are immune to COVID-19 issues but it is not to be.  Lets consider the last few days.  TUI cruises had to cancel their July 31 Mein Schiff 1 cruise because 3 crew members tested positive for COVID.  However, TUI apparently tried to initially keep this quiet by simply reporting they had some crew problems.  Hurtigruten tried a cruise with mostly Norwegians and their usual Norwegian crew and it has turned into a real mess with over 30 crew testing positive and passenger tests still pending.  Several hundred passengers of their two cruises have been told to self-quarantine and the have cancelled the next cruise.  Aida is also trying to restart but has also had issues with some of their crew testing positive.  And just today we hear that Ponent, who has tried to restart operations, has at least one positive test on the Paul Gaughin.  

 

All this adds up to another disaster for the cruise industry.  Trying to restart operations in places with only a few COVID cases has not worked well.  How on earth can anyone even think about restarting cruises out of Florida?  I suspect that the CDC will not approve any kind of restart in the near future.  There is also another issue with Florida cruises in that they would need to get thousands of crew members to Florida and that is very difficult given the current travel restrictions.

 

Hank

how long does it take a cruise ship to sail from Manila to Florida ? ... of course, add the days to process the crew for return

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2 minutes ago, voljeep said:

how long does it take a cruise ship to sail from Manila to Florida ? ... of course, add the days to process the crew for return

I would guess nearly 4 weeks unless they wanted to cruise at high speed (and use an awful lot of fuel).   But you must assume that nobody on that vessel would get COVID during it passage...in which case it may truly become a ship without a port....anywhere!  But you need to consider that there is currently an outstanding "no cruise" order from the CDC that will likely be extended into October (if not longer) to allow for adequate time for the CDC to process and comment on the solicited public comments that are not required to be filed until late September.  When the CDC decided to seek public comments on a set of published questions they set up a scenario that almost guaranteed they would not allow cruising to restart at the end of September.

 

Speaking of the CDC questions, they do present lots of difficulties for all the cruise lines.  If one reads through that stuff it is obvious that the CDC is looking for the answer to my old question which is what does any ship do if they get a single case of COVID?  The CDC will obviously insist on specific procedures, pre-existing arrangements with land based hospitals. and ports willing to accept the vessel.  They are also seeking advice on how a cruise ship can ensure that there are no COVID-19 cases at embarkation!  In almost sounds like they are asking some questions that cannot be possibly answered given the current state of things.

 

Hank

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22 minutes ago, voljeep said:

how long does it take a cruise ship to sail from Manila to Florida ? ... of course, add the days to process the crew for return

I agree with hlitner/ , about 28 days incl. getting crew ready.

Manila to Miami Distance

DISTANCE BETWEEN

Miami, US25.7743 -80.1937

Manila, PH14.6042 120.9822

Miles:9297.86

The average cruise ship cruising speed is about 20 knots per hour

About 20 days of travel.

 

Theo

 
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16 hours ago, caribill said:

 

And the big question is how did the crew members get the virus since they had been isolated before the first cruise began and had been tested appropriately before the first sailing.

 

The criteria they had before setting sail:

 

Non-Norwegian crew members are required to quarantine before boarding and non-European crew must undergo two negative COVID-19 tests prior to leaving their home country. 

The cruise line did not say whether passengers were tested prior to boarding. 

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Restarting cruises is much like restarting classes in a school.

 

At this time in almost all of the USA, there will be one or more active cases in a school when it starts in person classrooms. Children catch the virus the same as adults do. So even if there is a local positivity rate of 5%, that means 5 out of every 100 children and teachers might test positive.

 

There is no way to keep active elementary school children six feet apart throughout a school day just as there is no way at present to keep cruise passengers that far apart during a cruise unless the cruise passengers never leave their cabins.

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5 hours ago, TTEllis said:

Nobody's going anywhere or doing anything I don't care what country your from. Whether or not you can or cannot nobody's going anywhere. Hope that helps Todd

 

Agree.....those are the facts for now.....they are now predicting 300,000 dead of Covid-19 in US by the end of the year.....cruising  from the US is out for at least until middle of the next year and possibly all of 2021 or we get to watch another Princess Diamond or Grand disaster unfold on TV.....Princess worked to hard to create the "Love Boat" brand concept to have it turn into the

"Covid -19  Boat" brand cruise line...

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1 hour ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

Agree.....those are the facts for now.....they are now predicting 300,000 dead of Covid-19 in US by the end of the year.....cruising  from the US is out for at least until middle of the next year and possibly all of 2021 or we get to watch another Princess Diamond or Grand disaster unfold on TV.....Princess worked to hard to create the "Love Boat" brand concept to have it turn into the

"Covid -19  Boat" brand cruise line...

Agree......from start to finish.

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The other cruise-lines need to follow this sensible decision.

 

CRYSTAL Cruises has pulled the pin on its entire 2020 ocean cruise season, saying the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 health crisis “hinders the ability for all cruise lines to operate”.

 

Stay safe. 😷🤞

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5 hours ago, Hlitner said:

The Europeans seem to think they are immune to COVID-19 issues but it is not to be.  Lets consider the last few days.  TUI cruises had to cancel their July 31 Mein Schiff 1 cruise because 3 crew members tested positive for COVID.  However, TUI apparently tried to initially keep this quiet by simply reporting they had some crew problems.  Hurtigruten tried a cruise with mostly Norwegians and their usual Norwegian crew and it has turned into a real mess with over 30 crew testing positive and passenger tests still pending.  Several hundred passengers of their two cruises have been told to self-quarantine and the have cancelled the next cruise.  Aida is also trying to restart but has also had issues with some of their crew testing positive.  And just today we hear that Ponent, who has tried to restart operations, has at least one positive test on the Paul Gaughin.  

 

All this adds up to another disaster for the cruise industry.  Trying to restart operations in places with only a few COVID cases has not worked well.  How on earth can anyone even think about restarting cruises out of Florida?  I suspect that the CDC will not approve any kind of restart in the near future.  There is also another issue with Florida cruises in that they would need to get thousands of crew members to Florida and that is very difficult given the current travel restrictions.

 

Hank

The Europeans?🤭

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7 minutes ago, TTEllis said:

The Europeans?🤭

LOL a bit tongue in cheek although even I wonder.  It is in Europe that they are rushing to resume cruising (TUI, Aida, Hurtigruten) and they seem to think if they restrict the passenger demographics and ports all will work.  So far they have not done well.  Not only does this cause them some grief but it will not be lost on the CDC who has to make some tough decisions on the future of cruising out of the USA ports.  If I were a decision maker at the CDC, based on what we know now there is no way I would green light the resumption of cruising.

 

Hank

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11 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

LOL a bit tongue in cheek although even I wonder.  It is in Europe that they are rushing to resume cruising (TUI, Aida, Hurtigruten) and they seem to think if they restrict the passenger demographics and ports all will work.  So far they have not done well.  Not only does this cause them some grief but it will not be lost on the CDC who has to make some tough decisions on the future of cruising out of the USA ports.  If I were a decision maker at the CDC, based on what we know now there is no way I would green light the resumption of cruising.

 

Hank

Hank 

Love your posts they are spot on, hilarious and very entertaining. Love them. Thanks Todd

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4 hours ago, caribill said:

Restarting cruises is much like restarting classes in a school.

 

At this time in almost all of the USA, there will be one or more active cases in a school when it starts in person classrooms. Children catch the virus the same as adults do. So even if there is a local positivity rate of 5%, that means 5 out of every 100 children and teachers might test positive.

 

There is no way to keep active elementary school children six feet apart throughout a school day just as there is no way at present to keep cruise passengers that far apart during a cruise unless the cruise passengers never leave their cabins.

Keep in mind that the positivity rate is not for the total set of the population, it is a subset that has reason to think, for one reason or another (symptoms, proximity to someone infected, etc). So the rate among school age children in the general population (including both those with a reason to test and those without such a reason would be lower then the testing positivity rate)

 

For example where I live the rate of positive results out of those tested is about 6%  However we have a population of 220,000 in the county and have a total count of 352.  Yesterday we had 17 positive out of 312 tests (a record high). So I doubt the set of all school age children will be infected at a 6% rate.

Edited by npcl
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31 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

LOL a bit tongue in cheek although even I wonder.  It is in Europe that they are rushing to resume cruising (TUI, Aida, Hurtigruten) and they seem to think if they restrict the passenger demographics and ports all will work.  So far they have not done well.  Not only does this cause them some grief but it will not be lost on the CDC who has to make some tough decisions on the future of cruising out of the USA ports.  If I were a decision maker at the CDC, based on what we know now there is no way I would green light the resumption of cruising.

 

Hank

Unfortunately cruising is the nightmare of anyone wanting to fight a pandemic.  You take a group of people from a wide geographic area, many of them having to fly to get to the port, put them in close proximity (mostly indoors) for a number of days, then put them back on air craft to travel back to their home areas.  Potentially transmitting or receiving the virus along the way.

 

 

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1 hour ago, npcl said:

Keep in mind that the positivity rate is not for the total set of the population, it is a subset that has reason to think, for one reason or another (symptoms, proximity to someone infected, etc). So the rate among school age children in the general population (including both those with a reason to test and those without such a reason would be lower then the testing positivity rate)

 

For example where I live the rate of positive results out of those tested is about 6%  However we have a population of 220,000 in the county and have a total count of 352.  Yesterday we had 17 positive out of 312 tests (a record high). So I doubt the set of all school age children will be infected at a 6% rate.

 

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/texas-coronavirus-update-austin-schools-young-population/269-7005c068-7377-4c8f-a65a-0d256acbfea4

 

https://www.livescience.com/summer-camp-covid-19-outbreak.html

 

https://www.ocala-news.com/2020/08/02/ten-percent-of-children-tested-in-local-area-suffering-from-covid-19-virus/

 

and the staff

https://www.thedailybeast.com/indiana-schools-just-reopened-ones-already-closing-after-covid-19-case

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