When Will We Feel Safe to Cruise Again

[mcrcruiser]

6 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

As far a the OP's question, I wish I had an answer but no one on these boards has a clue when we will cruise again. Of course it can't be until it's safe and who is going to determine that it's safe. We can't have what we had in the spring when a lot of ships had many passengers with covid with some deaths not to mention passengers being confined in their cabins  and the ships not being able to find a port that would let them dock. My wife and I have decided we will cruise probably at least 3-6 months after the lines are given the OK. We are in our mid 70s and in very good health but are not taking chances, we have not eaten or had take out food since March 14th so that tells where we're coming from and why we are playing it safe as when to cruise again, certainly don't want to be a guinea pig and be the first to hop on a ship. That behing said, we miss cruising so much it's driving us crazy but we are going to play it safe.

 

 

My wife & I are both 81 & we can relate to missing cruising .That being said we will not cruise unless it is safe & that most  here in the USA are vaccinated   .We would even cancel our booked Jan 15 ,2022 cruise on Majestic Princess if we felt there was ant chance of not feeling safe . I personally followed the horrific day by day deadly Diamond Princess  tied up in a Tokyo port ,on these boards .

[Steelers36]

52 minutes ago, Lucky TGO said:

Boy that’s a tough question. I don’t have any idea sorry. For my wife and I the answer may be never. At this time it’s just to risky and not worth taking a chance. 
Tony

 

I'd go anytime now if ships were running.  Well, I would want to wait out the hurricane season.  COVID won't stop me.  The #1 thing that will stop me is if Princess follows the idea of only allowing passengers off if going on a ship's excursion.  That doesn't fl with me at all.  We have B2B Caribbean cruises coming up, beginning Jan 29 and if cannot walk off and head to a beach, or whatever on my own, then not going to sail.

 

And now I have an excuse to thank the NFL for being back.  IDK whether you are cheering for Pats and Bucs now, but at least one of them won.  Steelers are out of the gate with a W.  We don't play this year - either of "your" teams.  We get the Bills.  

 

Meanwhile, what I am really waiting for is the border to open.  I am not afraid of Americans.  I worked there.  I know lots of Americans.  They are great people.  It is sad that many Canadians think you are crazy with COVID and will infect Canada if we open the border.  Cannot think about a winter cruise in Caribbean if the border is closed.  Cannot go to FL like a "snowbird" if the border is closed.  What is really maddening is that our government won't define the conditions they are looking for in order to re-open the border.

 

 

[Ombud]

On 9/15/2020 at 8:57 AM, resistk said:

I'd like to know how to get back my money tied up in FCCs I cannot use.

Request a refund. It's not hard. Your FCC is either the amount you paid (reimbursable) or bonus FCC (forfeited when you get $$s back for the other).

[Ombud]

11 hours ago, resistk said:

How many feel comfortable sharing an elevator?  The Royal and Regal have no central stairs.

Central stairways on the Royal Princess

Stairs in the Piazza

Map showing stairs after elevator banks. (I never use elevators) 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Ombud

[mcrcruiser]

Carnival corp is  moving ships out of their fleet . They are burning a lot of cash reserves  . The question that begs is how long can this last before   BK  ?

[caribill]

36 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Carnival corp is  moving ships out of their fleet . They are burning a lot of cash reserves  . The question that begs is how long can this last before   BK  ?

 

They have enough $$$ to last until the end of 2021 with zero revenue.

[sfaaa]

With more money coming in every time a ship is sold.

[2 cruises a year]

3 hours ago, Lucky TGO said:

Boy that’s a tough question. I don’t have any idea sorry. For my wife and I the answer may be never. At this time it’s just to risky and not worth taking a chance. 
Tony

 

Lucky you, we don't all have the luxury of owning our own rowboat. 😉

[Grego]

5 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I'd go anytime now if ships were running.  Well, I would want to wait out the hurricane season.  COVID won't stop me.  The #1 thing that will stop me is if Princess follows the idea of only allowing passengers off if going on a ship's excursion.  That doesn't fl with me at all.  We have B2B Caribbean cruises coming up, beginning Jan 29 and if cannot walk off and head to a beach, or whatever on my own, then not going to sail.

 

The mandatory having to only taking a ship's tour to get off the ship is going to be a real concern for the Caribbean islands that need the shopping experience of the passengers to survive.  I don't see how a ship's tour can marshal a tour group while conducting a shopping experience as part of a ship's tour.  That restriction might have to be relaxed. 

 

I can't imagine arriving at Charlotte Amalie and not going into town to see our "friends" at Kay's. 

Just sayin'

 

 

5 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

 

 

 

[mcrcruiser]

7 hours ago, caribill said:

 

They have enough $$$ to last until the end of 2021 with zero revenue.

 Perhaps   they  could go through 2021  ;however ,there  is no way of telling  how soon  cruising will resume here in the USA  . We currently hear that people are dubious about taking the vaccine when it is available . We would hope that will not be the case in the end & that this virus will in fact be defeated  .Then there are the ports  in foreign countries ;which will take longer to vaccinate those people   . Thus ,imo still  a tough uphill battle for our cruise industry ;which is sad not just for us who love to cruise but for all the jobs that the industry supports 

[mcrcruiser]

2 hours ago, Grego said:

The mandatory having to only taking a ship's tour to get off the ship is going to be a real concern for the Caribbean islands that need the shopping experience of the passengers to survive.  I don't see how a ship's tour can marshal a tour group while conducting a shopping experience as part of a ship's tour.  That restriction might have to be relaxed. 

 

I can't imagine arriving at Charlotte Amalie and not going into town to see our "friends" at Kay's. 

Just sayin'

 

 

 

Just having ship tours would never sit well with the cruise pax  . We will only do private tours for many reasons one of which far less people plus other benefits 

[caribill]

4 hours ago, Grego said:

The mandatory having to only taking a ship's tour to get off the ship is going to be a real concern for the Caribbean islands that need the shopping experience of the passengers to survive.  I don't see how a ship's tour can marshal a tour group while conducting a shopping experience as part of a ship's tour.

 

 

One reason we take private tours is to avoid the mandatory shopping time on ship tours that take the group to favorite vendors of the tour company. With the relatively high cost of ship tours, it is wasted money to use time on these tours for what is essentially souvenir shopping.

 

If ship tours no longer can provide that "shopping experience," it makes them more attractive to those of us who prefer seeing sights to seeing merchandise.

[Abercrombie2019]

People keep talking like Princess has outlined what cruising will be like when it returns, but the cruise line has not proposed anything yet.  So far, we only have examples of what other cruise lines are doing in other areas of the world.  It is further complicated by the CDC and the fact that foreign ports must choose to allow cruise ships to dock and have passengers come ashore.  This is not likely going to happen when the US has 40,000 new cases a day.  CBC is reporting that the Canada/US border closure will likely be extended to October 21st (they seem to be extending it on a monthly basis). 

If the medical systems on some of the Caribbean islands are overwhelmed, that would have a more adverse effect on those countries than the temporary loss of tourism dollars.

If getting to cruise again means that people are required to wear a mask, practice a bit of social distancing and take ships tours to protect the health and well being of passengers, crew and locals -  it seems like a small price to pay.

  

[HappyInVan]

10 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

What is really maddening is that our government won't define the conditions they are looking for in order to re-open the border.

 

 

 

Best of luck to our American friends...

 

 

[Grego]

49 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

People keep talking like Princess has outlined what cruising will be like when it returns, but the cruise line has not proposed anything yet.  So far, we only have examples of what other cruise lines are doing in other areas of the world.  It is further complicated by the CDC and the fact that foreign ports must choose to allow cruise ships to dock and have passengers come ashore.  This is not likely going to happen when the US has 40,000 new cases a day.  CBC is reporting that the Canada/US border closure will likely be extended to October 21st (they seem to be extending it on a monthly basis). 

If the medical systems on some of the Caribbean islands are overwhelmed, that would have a more adverse effect on those countries than the temporary loss of tourism dollars.

If getting to cruise again means that people are required to wear a mask, practice a bit of social distancing and take ships tours to protect the health and well being of passengers, crew and locals -  it seems like a small price to pay.

  

Don't know what source you are looking at that cites "40,000" new cases per day.  The highest daily rate was 15,000 early July and that number has gone downhill to about 3,000 now and those numbers are all suspect.

It should be up to the Caribbean ports to decide what the protocol should be and I'm sure they will use the proper judgement for all those concerned.

[voljeep]

59 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

People keep talking like Princess has outlined what cruising will be like when it returns, but the cruise line has not proposed anything yet

so you have inside knowledge of the negotiations going on ??

 

we hear what Princess releases ... when 'they' want to release it

[Grego]

6 minutes ago, voljeep said:

so you have inside knowledge of the negotiations going on ??

 

we hear what Princess releases ... when 'they' want to release it

Couple of situations going on presently.  First of all, Princess has multiple operational  "playbooks" pertaining to the Covid19 situation based upon different scenarios surrounding the results of discussions with CDC, shipboard filtering techniques available, techniques used by other cruise lines currently that have resulted in no new cases, availability of vaccines, quicker testing methods, etc. 

There is no reason to get "ahead of their skis" until they have all the information available to make a good discussion with CDC, etc. If they had positive proof that they could make a "release" that would stand up they would do it to start filling out the bookings.

 

[Abercrombie2019]

15 minutes ago, Grego said:

Don't know what source you are looking at that cites "40,000" new cases per day.  The highest daily rate was 15,000 early July and that number has gone downhill to about 3,000 now and those numbers are all suspect.

It should be up to the Caribbean ports to decide what the protocol should be and I'm sure they will use the proper judgement for all those concerned.

 

Well for one thing, I just did a google search of "New case counts for USA yesterday" and the number was over 39,000.

new case counts for usa yesterday - Google Search.pdf

 

 

14 minutes ago, voljeep said:

so you have inside knowledge of the negotiations going on ??

 

we hear what Princess releases ... when 'they' want to release it

 

Don't know why you are so confrontational - I don't claim to have any knowledge of negotiations - and from what I can tell - neither does anyone else who has posted here today.  Everyone comes here and expresses their opinions about what they want and what they would accept, and a few like to tell other people that they shouldn't post opinions (only facts) and then share their not so humble opinions.

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

 

Well for one thing, I just did a google search of "New case counts for USA yesterday" and the number was over 39,000.

new case counts for usa yesterday - Google Search.pdf 91.62 kB · 0 downloads

 

 

 

Don't know why you are so confrontational - I don't claim to have any knowledge of negotiations - and from what I can tell - neither does anyone else who has posted here today.  Everyone comes here and expresses their opinions about what they want and what they would accept, and a few like to tell other people that they shouldn't post opinions (only facts) and then share their not so humble opinions.

sorry, not meant to be 'confrontational', but do any of us posting here have any inside connections to what Princess and other cruise lines are doing in the background other than the releases they want us to receive

 

stay safe

stay hydrated

peace out

[billco]

40 minutes ago, Grego said:

Don't know what source you are looking at that cites "40,000" new cases per day.  The highest daily rate was 15,000 early July and that number has gone downhill to about 3,000 now and those numbers are all suspect.

It should be up to the Caribbean ports to decide what the protocol should be and I'm sure they will use the proper judgement for all those concerned.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

according to this source, yesterday there were 40,154 new cases and 1151 corona virus deaths.

Or this source

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_totalcases

Edited September 17, 2020 by billco

[Abercrombie2019]

1 hour ago, Grego said:

Don't know what source you are looking at that cites "40,000" new cases per day.  The highest daily rate was 15,000 early July and that number has gone downhill to about 3,000 now and those numbers are all suspect.

It should be up to the Caribbean ports to decide what the protocol should be and I'm sure they will use the proper judgement for all those concerned.

I just realized that you are only quoting the numbers for Florida.  My post was about the numbers for all of the US.  Yes, the number of reported cases for Florida was over 3000 yesterday.  That isn't a number to be excited about.  (All of Canada was 944 yesterday - and Ontario Premier is talking about taking new measures in Toronto to keep those numbers from rising.)

[npcl]

3 hours ago, Grego said:

Don't know what source you are looking at that cites "40,000" new cases per day.  The highest daily rate was 15,000 early July and that number has gone downhill to about 3,000 now and those numbers are all suspect.

It should be up to the Caribbean ports to decide what the protocol should be and I'm sure they will use the proper judgement for all those concerned.

where are you getting your numbers from? Most sources such as John Hopkins has the US around 40000 per day down from 60k+ a few weeks ago.

[Kwaj girl]

On 9/12/2020 at 1:43 PM, mcrcruiser said:

 We hear that a covid 19  vaccine  could be out by the end of October 2020 .  If it is considered safe by doctors ,it may still take awhile to reach most people  .to start first responders get the first doses ,then  the elderly nursing home patients ,followed by the elderly in high risk levels .  Next available to all people . 

 

  What is your thinking when it comes to  taking a safe vaccine & the protocol   for added safety before boarding the ship .Also ,what about going on tours in foreign ports ?  What will you need to feel safe & cruise once again ?  

 

  All replies are very welcome .We all need to understand our choices (We are booked  Jan15 ,2022 Mexican Riviera cruise on Majestic Princess )

 

Why do you feel "unsafe" now? 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Kwaj girl

[pms4104]

14 hours ago, caribill said:

 

They have enough $$$ to last until the end of 2021 with zero revenue.

That's why they are going to sell another $1 billion in stock to raise cash?

[resistk]

15 hours ago, sfaaa said:

With more money coming in every time a ship is sold.

 

You think they are getting cash or IOUs?  I think the latter, it is an accounting trick.  Who is paying cash for 15 year old ships?