The Beginning of The End?

[KennyFla]

From Cruise Industry News

"The first large cruise ship is back in service as TUI's Mein Schiff 2 left on its first "Blue Cruise" from Hamburg with 1,200 guests aboard

The TUI Cruises ship will not visit any ports but will sail near Norway for scenic cruising for three nights before returning to Germany."

 

 

I see this as a positive sign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cellfree]

Read that too. Hope they all have a wonderful time. 

[shipgeeks]

There is quite an interesting post by a cruiser who is aboard, Germancruiser, on the Celebrity forum.

[Nunagoras]

Yes, those are positive signs... But I'm awaiting at least those so promised fast tests to the Covid-19 to be plenty available in the market to see things largely improving. Then we will perhaps to see more companies doing this exact movement. Small 2 to 4 night cruises to nowhere just to fill the cruise gap... But, by the way this 2020 is by the most part done for the cruising industry... Unfortunately...

 

Better days will come...

[George C]

Yes happy to see at least one cruise ship sailing 

[Hlitner]

I do not see much positive about that TUI cruise.  It is simply a German cruise only for Germans that goes to no ports.  If that is the future of cruising it has no future.   

 

Hank

[cruiser man 60]

https://crew-center.com/greece-ready-open-six-ports-cruise-ships
 

greece ready for cruise ships stops

[shipgeeks]

12 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I do not see much positive about that TUI cruise.  It is simply a German cruise only for Germans that goes to no ports.  If that is the future of cruising it has no future.   

 

Hank

I disagree!  We would love to do a no-port cruise, even a week or more. Perhaps scenic cruising at the Pitons and other lovely vistas, if a view of land is needed to entice more passengers.

Germancruiser seems to be enjoying the experience.

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, shipgeeks said:

I disagree!  We would love to do a no-port cruise, even a week or more. Perhaps scenic cruising at the Pitons and other lovely vistas, if a view of land is needed to entice more passengers.

Germancruiser seems to be enjoying the experience.

I disagree, too! ANY ship cruising ANYWHERE at this time is a good sign, as far as I'm concerned. We've had a good 4 months of almost no cruising anywhere. The fact that TUI is revving things up is a great sign, and I expect it to be followed by many more.

 

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, shipgeeks said:

I disagree!  We would love to do a no-port cruise, even a week or more. Perhaps scenic cruising at the Pitons and other lovely vistas, if a view of land is needed to entice more passengers.

Germancruiser seems to be enjoying the experience.

DW and I are also fine with cruises to nowhere and have happily taken long cruises (measured in months) with dozens of sea days.  However, what do you think will happen the fist time a single passenger/crew member gets COVID-19?  That is a topic included in several questions posed by the CDC in its current invitation for public comments.  Consider that there are no ports that have put out the welcome mat for a ship that has a COVID-19 case.  That is part of the reason why there are still dozens of cruise ships sitting out at sea (often at anchor) with 1 or more sick crew members.  They have nowhere to go, can't get the crew members off those ships (and many have been stuck on ships for months) and the home countries will not even accept all of their own citizens.  What they are doing with TUI is simply keeping it all "in house" with the cooperation of the German government.  But that ship is not being welcomed anywhere outside of Germany.  

 

If you have not seen or are not aware of the CDC's request for public input you might want to look at their link here:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/07/21/2020-15812/request-for-information-related-to-cruise-ship-planning-and-infrastructure-resumption-of-passenger?fbclid=IwAR1vmT7pwlxocBK41i4TCxvoLwp_SpXvfImrqnEJ4cBs0yERuvgpDWY8dfA

 

While I am not a big fan of the CDC I do think they have actually done a decent job focusing on the real issues with their set of questions.

 

Hank

 

 

 

[KennyFla]

18 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

DW and I are also fine with cruises to nowhere and have happily taken long cruises (measured in months) with dozens of sea days.  However, what do you think will happen the fist time a single passenger/crew member gets COVID-19?  That is a topic included in several questions posed by the CDC in its current invitation for public comments.  

 

 

 

I posted on another thread, maybe a change to the travel insurance.  Make it mandatory and include a process to send sick customers home.  

[DCGuy64]

Greece announced that cruise ships will be able to sail starting this Saturday, 1 August.

https://www.traveloffpath.com/greece-reopening-for-cruise-ships-august-1/

Incidentally, this is also a good site for keeping up to date on which countries are re-opening to tourism.

[sidari]

Somewhat difficult when there are travel bans in place still for many Countries and few if any cruise ships are in those areas.

[Hlitner]

15 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

 

I posted on another thread, maybe a change to the travel insurance.  Make it mandatory and include a process to send sick customers home.  

But there is a problem.  All the travel insurance plans now have exclusions related to pandemics.  Many policies specifically exclude benefits paid for trips to anyplace that has a US Dept of State Level 4 warning.  At the current time there is a Level 4 Warning for ANY international travel.  I recently posed a question to Steve Dasseos (Tripinsurancestore.com) when he took questions here on CC about whether he was aware of any travel insurance that still covered COVID-19.  His answer was "no."

 

There is no indication when the State Department will modify its worldwide Level 4 Warning (which means they recommend no travel to anyplace outside the USA).  I suspect we will see pandemic exclusions in all future trip policies.

 

As to "sending sick passengers home" how would you accomplish this task given that many countries will not accept sick folks from cruise ships.  That is one reason why we still have thousands of crew stuck on ships around the world who are essentially prisoners (with no pay) on their vessels.

 

Hank

[KennyFla]

8 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

 

 

As to "sending sick passengers home" how would you accomplish this task given that many countries will not accept sick folks from cruise ships.  That is one reason why we still have thousands of crew stuck on ships around the world who are essentially prisoners (with no pay) on their vessel

 

If you are from the US you can go home, you will have to quarantine.  Most other countries, that cruise passengers would be from, I think are the same.

 

Do we really have thousands of crew being held on cruise ships against their will?

Edited July 29, 2020 by KennyFla

[Hlitner]

41 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

 

If you are from the US you can go home, you will have to quarantine.  Most other countries, that cruise passengers would be from, I think are the same.

 

Do we really have thousands of crew being held on cruise ships against their will?

Oh my, you seem to lacking some information.  Actually, up until mid-may there were over 100,000 crew stuck on ships and the story was widely covered.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article242565281.html

 

https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2020/06/15/42000-cruise-ship-workers-still-trapped-at-sea/

 

Up until a week ago there were still more then 24 cruise ships anchored in Manila Bay trying to get crew disembarked in the Philippines.   There are still dozens of ships anchored off of the US and the Bahamas trying to get crew disembarked.  Even US citizen crew members were stuck on ships (much of this has now been resolved) and this was also widely reported.  We actually were following a social media blog posted by a US citizen/entertainer stuck on a Princess ship who was refused the right to disembark in San Pedro (she was turned back onto the ship by US authorities) and forced to sail on to an anchorage off of Mexico.  There were many other such cases.  Once deals were made to get some of these US citizen/crew members into the USA, the CDC specifically prohibited them from using any commercial airline or public transportation.  At one point Princess actually chartered a business jet to get some of these folks closer to their home towns.   This is all old news.  As of today there are "only" 10-15,000 crew still stuck on ships (with no pay) in various parts of the world.   I am not making this up and the bad situation has even been cited by the US CDC.  One MSC crew member recently posted their outrage that MSC was talking about resuming operations while he (and many others) were still trapped on MSC ships.

 

You do not have to rely on what I say as fact.  Spend a little time doing some online research and you will quickly find your own answers (and they will not be pretty).

 

Hank

[KennyFla]

28 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Oh my, you seem to lacking some information.  Actually, up until mid-may there were over 100,000 crew stuck on ships and the story was widely covered.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article242565281.html

 

https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2020/06/15/42000-cruise-ship-workers-still-trapped-at-sea/

 

Up until a week ago there were still more then 24 cruise ships anchored in Manila Bay trying to get crew disembarked in the Philippines.   There are still dozens of ships anchored off of the US and the Bahamas trying to get crew disembarked.  Even US citizen crew members were stuck on ships (much of this has now been resolved) and this was also widely reported.  We actually were following a social media blog posted by a US citizen/entertainer stuck on a Princess ship who was refused the right to disembark in San Pedro (she was turned back onto the ship by US authorities) and forced to sail on to an anchorage off of Mexico.  There were many other such cases.  Once deals were made to get some of these US citizen/crew members into the USA, the CDC specifically prohibited them from using any commercial airline or public transportation.  At one point Princess actually chartered a business jet to get some of these folks closer to their home towns.   This is all old news.  As of today there are "only" 10-15,000 crew still stuck on ships (with no pay) in various parts of the world.   I am not making this up and the bad situation has even been cited by the US CDC.  One MSC crew member recently posted their outrage that MSC was talking about resuming operations while he (and many others) were still trapped on MSC ships.

 

You do not have to rely on what I say as fact.  Spend a little time doing some online research and you will quickly find your own answers (and they will not be pretty).

 

Hank

 

Spare me the condescending attitude.  The articles you post are from May and June.  Here is from the CDC website updated today:

 

"Updated July 23, 2020

Since the No Sail Order was extended on April 15, and extended a second time on July 16, CDC has worked with cruise lines to help thousands of crew members return home safely.

Safe disembarkation of crew has included a requirement for cruise lines to submit a signed attestation and use non-commercial transportation for their crew members. The list on this page provides the latest information on cruise lines that have submitted the signed attestations that received CDC approval to safely disembark crew using noncommercial transportation. This list is updated daily Monday through Friday.

 

Ships that have complete and accurate No Sail Order response plans to protect crew members against COVID-19 can now disembark crew members for non-commercial travel without a signed attestation. Cruise company officials must sign an acknowledgement of the completeness and accuracy of their response plans.

Ships that want to disembark crew members using commercial travel will need to meet certain additional eligibility requirements. For more information, visit the Interim Guidance."

 

 

There is then a very extensive list by Ship of the crew members that have disembarked and the countries they went to.

[KennyFla]

Found these new proposed procedures on Norwegian's site.

 

https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/why-cruise-norwegian/book-with-confidence#safety

 

Seems OK to me.

[BermudaBound2014]

17 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

Found these new proposed procedures on Norwegian's site.

 

https://www.ncl.com/fr/en/why-cruise-norwegian/book-with-confidence#safety

 

Seems OK to me.

 

I agree. I would sail under these procedures. Unfortunately, the CDC rejected this plan from NCL. What the CDC is asking of cruise ships appears much more extensive (and cumbersome). You probably know this, but NCL and RCL have teamed up to come up with a Covid Response Plan that meets CDC guidelines, but unfortunately they have indicated it will take months to respond. I suspect this is why, just today, NCL extended it's own no sail order through October, 2020. Some suggest that the CDC is making cruising from the USA  literally impossible until Covid is no longer a concern. It's heartbreaking for those of us that love cruising.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/pdf/No-Sail-Order-Cruise-Ships-Second-Extension_07_16_2020-p.pdf

[KennyFla]

4 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I agree. I would sail under these procedures. Unfortunately, the CDC rejected this plan from NCL. What the CDC is asking of cruise ships appears much more extensive (and cumbersome). You probably know this, but NCL and RCL have teamed up to come up with a Covid Response Plan that meets CDC guidelines, but unfortunately they have indicated it will take months to respond. I suspect this is why, just today, NCL extended it's own no sail order through October, 2020. Some suggest that the CDC is making cruising from the USA  literally impossible until Covid is no longer a concern. It's heartbreaking for those of us that love cruising.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/pdf/No-Sail-Order-Cruise-Ships-Second-Extension_07_16_2020-p.pdf

 

Yep, written by bureaucrats.  I hope that if Europe and Asia get going that will put pressure on the CDC.

I have thought for a while that Nov 1st would be the date.  I hope so.

 

[BermudaBound2014]

2 minutes ago, KennyFla said:

 

Yep, written by bureaucrats.  I hope that if Europe and Asia get going that will put pressure on the CDC.

I have thought for a while that Nov 1st would be the date.  I hope so.

 

 

I do respect those of you with such optimistic dates in mind and appreciate you respecting those of us who are less optimistic. We aren't here to rain on your parade, we just have a different viewpoint as to when cruising will resume from the USA. Absolutely Germany and China are excellent steps in the right direction, but the CDC  demands are extremely problematic and I'm afraid cruising is going to be a scapegoat. 

 

I will say this, I have never hoped I'm wrong more than I hope I'm wrong now so if November 1st ends up being the date cruising resumes from the USA I will be more than thrilled :)

[Preziosa]

The Tui Cruises from Hamburg and Kiel is for all people from countrys alowing to Go to Germany. I am from Denmark and I am on the Cruise from Kiel the 3. Th of August.

4 nights with a two House tecknical stop in Oslo, Norway. I look forward to 4 nights on a Cruise ship. It is fantastic, Thank you to TUI Cruises for making This possible.

[KennyFla]

The good news just keeps coming:

 

"Dominica is anticipating opening its borders to foreign visitors as of Aug. 7, according to Colin Piper, CEO of Discover Dominica.

Having closed its borders on March 25, Dominica started to welcome the return of nationals and residents on July 15. The island nation has reported 18 incidents of Covid-19 infections and that all recovered as the country was able to contain and mitigate the virus. Having declared a state of emergency through the end of June, Dominica enforced various restrictions, including a curfew, limited hours businesses were allowed to be open, social distancing, etc."

 

 

[BermudaBound2014]

6 hours ago, KennyFla said:

The good news just keeps coming:

 

"Dominica is anticipating opening its borders to foreign visitors as of Aug. 7, according to Colin Piper, CEO of Discover Dominica.

Having closed its borders on March 25, Dominica started to welcome the return of nationals and residents on July 15. The island nation has reported 18 incidents of Covid-19 infections and that all recovered as the country was able to contain and mitigate the virus. Having declared a state of emergency through the end of June, Dominica enforced various restrictions, including a curfew, limited hours businesses were allowed to be open, social distancing, etc."

 

 

 

I don't believe they have opened to any cruise ships as they are still working out the details of opening up the ferry; but I absolutely agree that opening to air travel is good news!!!  If cruise ships don't get going by 2Q21, we need lots of land vacation options!!!! 

 

 I did find this part interesting. Every person arriving must pay $40 PCR test and risk possible quarantine at a cost of $200 a day? I wonder if policies like this will end up standard? I'd probably risk it, as I'm getting super excited to start traveling again. 

 

"Visitors must submit a health questionnaire and negative PCR test results recorded within 72 hours prior to their travel. Upon arrival at the airport, they will undergo a further health assessment including a temperature check and a rapid test screening. Visitors who test positive will be sent to mandatory quarantine at a government approved facility at the travelers’ expense until released by authorized health professional.

There is no charge for the rapid test, while the PCR test carries a $40 cost. The quarantine is estimated at $200 per day."

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23297-dominica-prepares-to-open-for-foreign-visitors.html

 

 

[cruiser man 60]

http://crew-center.com/230-mauritian-crew-arrive-italy-restart-msc-cruise-ships?fbclid=IwAR0x1SOx21Rtivo69KJzTiw9l5-6gp_-fE2guk6kfg8tW4mw3n3fhS5RGuo

 

looks like MSC getting ready to start also !