Will U.S. Passengers Comply with the Covid Requirements On Board?

[Smokeyham]

Cruising has restarted in parts of Europe, with restrictions in place such as mask-wearing in public spaces, only going ashore with a ship-sponsored on excursions, social-distancing, etc.  Lines in Europe are enforcing the restrictions with some passengers having been put ashore for violations.   

 

The plans proposed for restarting cruises out of U.S. ports have similar restrictions in place.  

I know that many people have already decided that they will not choose to cruise with the restrictions, but my question is....  Do you think passengers who do choose to cruise out of U.S. ports will comply with the restrictions?   

 

I would love to go on a cruise again, and would fully comply, but I would not be interested in going if there is poor compliance by other passengers.

 

 

Edited October 21, 2020 by Smokeyham

[1025cruise]

If they want to cruise, they will comply. Simple as that.

[CruiserBruce]

6 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

If they want to cruise, they will comply. Simple as that.

I agree.

 

@Smokeyham....just like around town, you have to deal with, or work to avoid people who don't feel the need to comply. I would think on a cruise line, the Captain may have more leverage to assure cooperation. But all you can do is be responsible for yourself, and do your best to comply.

[Smokeyham]

24 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

I agree.

 

@Smokeyham....just like around town, you have to deal with, or work to avoid people who don't feel the need to comply. I would think on a cruise line, the Captain may have more leverage to assure cooperation. But all you can do is be responsible for yourself, and do your best to comply.

I  would hope that the cruise lines would be firm on enforcement.   I guess we will have to see what the reports are from the first cruises that go out from U.S. ports once cruising is allowed to resume.

[Lady Chew]

I think that there will be many American cruisers who will push back on any restrictions, at least at the start.  I just hope the cruise lines will be forceful about enforcement.  

[Sue Do-Over]

I think passengers will fall into two distinct groups quickly -- compliant, and not.

The non-compliant will protest that they PAID FOR THEIR CRUISE, and nobody can FORCE them to put on a mask, or otherwise inconvenience themselves.

They're the same group who save seats, cut lines, take all the bacon, park their scooters blocking fire exits, hold up the tour, leave half-eaten ice cream cones on random ledges, and smoke cigars in the casino. 

 

I was booked on a December cruise out of Athens that has been cancelled, but was resigning myself to biting my tongue for the whole trip rather than get into a terse conversation about PLEASE pulling up your mask.

 

Guess you can see my list of peeves, huh?

[jtwind]

I believe there will be trouble.  In my personal experience, and in VERY GENERAL terms, the cautious, always masked up and social distanced folks are still not interested in flying or eating their meals indoors at restaurants.  The same folks who are currently eating indoors at restaurants are the ones that I'm always having to back away from because they are too close for comfort.  But I would be so pissed if the crew wasn't doing their job and it became the responsibility of passengers to enforce this stuff.

 

For reference, Hawaii reopened on the 15th, and the police have had to give out thousands of warnings and citations to maskless people.  Kinda predictable when you think about the types of people who would consider flying and vacationing during these times.  One explanation given is that, for many of the tourists, the test required for travel was the first time they tested.  Some took the negative test as an "all clear" and that precautions were no longer needed.

[neverbeenhere]

I suggest keeping one’s GoPro on at all times on the cruises. One should get plenty of confrontation content ready to go viral. 

[Smokeyham]

All good points that have been raised. 

 

The sad thing is that we go on a cruise hoping for an environment where we don't have to confront people in order to  get compliance with what, to many of us, are common sense requirements during a pandemic.

 

My fear is that, despite the requirements being widely published both on board and prior to boarding, a segment will refuse to comply.  A likely result, is a Covid breakout and the bad publicity will follow.   Cruising would once again shut down. 

 

Of course, I also fear that I will be one of the ones that catch Covid as a result of others' failure to follow the guidelines.

 

 

[Carole2313]

I would hope passengers were required to sign a form stating masks and social distancing are mandatory.  Violators are to be put off the ship at the next port of call.  That should do it.

[sanger727]

6 hours ago, jtwind said:

I believe there will be trouble.  In my personal experience, and in VERY GENERAL terms, the cautious, always masked up and social distanced folks are still not interested in flying or eating their meals indoors at restaurants.  The same folks who are currently eating indoors at restaurants are the ones that I'm always having to back away from because they are too close for comfort.  But I would be so pissed if the crew wasn't doing their job and it became the responsibility of passengers to enforce this stuff.

 

For reference, Hawaii reopened on the 15th, and the police have had to give out thousands of warnings and citations to maskless people.  Kinda predictable when you think about the types of people who would consider flying and vacationing during these times.  One explanation given is that, for many of the tourists, the test required for travel was the first time they tested.  Some took the negative test as an "all clear" and that precautions were no longer needed.

completely agree. And I think that they average cruise ship employee is going to be as motivated to enforce these rules as they are chair hogging and seat saving rules. MSC got headlines for kicking a family off that left a shore excursion. But that was almost certainly a situation where it got reported to a ships officer and security got involved. I read a trip report from someone on a MSC cruise that said that mask wearing was spotty and poorly enforced. Which makes sense because that would be enforced by the crew who are primarily concerned with tips and keeping the guests happy. 
 

we have seen time and time again (especially in the US) that for every rule there are the people who thinks that it doesn’t apply to them. And do everything they can to skirt them. Like someone on an airplane who takes two hours to drink a cup of soda and eat a mini bag of peanuts.  Simply taking a sip or a bite when a flight attendant comes by to prove they are ‘actively eating’ and therefore can’t wear their mask. Covid fatigue seems to have set in and everywhere I go I see more and more maskless people.

[babs135]

10 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

we have seen time and time again (especially in the US) that for every rule there are the people who thinks that it doesn’t apply to them. And do everything they can to skirt them. Like someone on an airplane who takes two hours to drink a cup of soda and eat a mini bag of peanuts.  Simply taking a sip or a bite when a flight attendant comes by to prove they are ‘actively eating’ and therefore can’t wear their mask. Covid fatigue seems to have set in and everywhere I go I see more and more maskless people.

And here's an example of an idiot, except it was Pringles, not peanuts.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/travel/travel-news/man-avoids-wearing-face-mask-22622495

[K32682]

Americans seem to be the most resistant but the U.S. is not the only nation where dummies are refusing to comply with COVID protocols out of some demented interpretation of personal "rights."

 

My philosophy regarding these people is to avoid them so until which time the current fuss is behind us have no interest in a cruise. Too great a risk the cruise line won't act when some dough head doesn't comply. 

[paul929207]

After the first passenger is put ashore.

[bigrednole]

8 hours ago, Carole2313 said:

I would hope passengers were required to sign a form stating masks and social distancing are mandatory.  Violators are to be put off the ship at the next port of call.  That should do it.

Dumping passengers off in a foreign country is not going to go over well with those ports. The ships have a brig and they will have cabins to isolate and lock down people not following the rules. The check-in process will have a list of requirements that will have to be signed off. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. 

[evandbob]

I certainly would not be interested in being on a cruise ship for a week or two if there were non compliant passengers aboard.  Another reason why I am in no rush to resume cruising.

 

Why pay good money to get confined in an uncomfortable and/or dangerous environment?

[sanger727]

18 minutes ago, paul929207 said:

After the first passenger is put ashore.

 

For what exactly? Caught wearing a mask that slipped down over the persons nose and they didn't adjust it up quite fast enough? Caught pulling the mask down to take a sip of water and didn't pull it back up quite fast enough? Caught walking around the ship with the mask pulled down while they sip a cocktail? I don't think many if any people will be bold enough to wear NO mask. I do think that improper mask wearing will be prevalent. And that is such a grey area it's incredibly difficult to enforce with something as drastic as evicting the passenger mid cruise. Plus, not sure that will be an option. If the next port is one that would require a current covid test and/or quarantining upon arrival at an airport- they may not take kindly to a cruise line trying to dump a non-compliant passenger on them.

[Philob]

9 hours ago, Carole2313 said:

I would hope passengers were required to sign a form stating masks and social distancing are mandatory.  Violators are to be put off the ship at the next port of call.  That should do it.

Some US airlines already require a signed statement and check off when booking acknowledging the mask requirement.

 

Yet when the the plane is taxing to the runway someone feels it's now okay to take off the mask, "they can't kick me out now."

 

Usually the plane returns to the gate to have the pax taken off. 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

14 hours ago, Smokeyham said:

I know that many people have already decided that they will not choose to cruise with the restrictions, but my question is....  Do you think passengers who do choose to cruise out of U.S. ports will comply with the restrictions?   

 

I would love to go on a cruise again, and would fully comply, but I would not be interested in going if there is poor compliance by other passengers.

 

I think compliance for the initial cruises out of U.S. ports will be very good for one big reason.  Capacity is going to be very limited, and most of the people who will be cruising then will be cruising veterans and cruising addicts - like the people reading this threat.  They'll know the rules, they'll know why they exist, and they'll know that they need to do what needs to be done in order to keep cruises going.

 

Some cruise lines figure to have bigger problems than others; you can probably figure out how they would rank, so I won't discuss it further.

[MBP&O2/O]

I am sure there will be something in the t&c’s that require passengers - whilst on board- to obey all instructions etc. from the crew. This would cover a multitude of things.

[cruizergal70]

15 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

If they want to cruise, they will comply. Simple as that.

You would think so. I fear scenes of folks screaming about their rights and refusing to wear masks or wandering away from their excursions. 

[cruisemom42]

No, I do not think all passengers will comply. Most will.  But there will be those who think they can wear their mask at "half mast", or those who don't feel it necessary to put their mask back on to get up and go to the restroom after they've removed it to sunbathe. Or those who feel the need to crowd in line when disembarking. And on and on. 

 

I think there is a big disconnect in understanding of human behavior if people think that just because the cruise lines make them acknowledge the rules, everyone will obey/follow them.

 

I am sort of in fyree39's camp. People have come to misunderstand the term "freedom" as "the ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want, and damn all to anyone else who may be impacted."

 

[cbr663]

Compliance is a challenging concept for many people.  Every time I go out I will see someone with a mask that is not being worn properly.  Masks don't really concern me as much as social distancing does.  Social distancing seems to be the one concept that many people simply fail at.  Just trying to picture cruisers trying to socially distance at these cruise instances:

 

- embarkation and disembarking for any reason,

- any and all dining venues when everyone apparently MUST eat at the same time,

- walking down those narrow hallways.  Don't even think of making them one way as we all know how well that works in the grocery stores,

- pools and deck chairs - unless the chairs are bolted down cruisers will move them,

- elevators cause we all know that cruise ships don't have stairs, anywhere,

- any inside area where people can sit and rest.  I imagine cruise lines may very well remove chairs and couches to encourage social distancing.  I can see the familiar towel over the deck chair all over the ship now.

Edited October 22, 2020 by cbr663

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, evandbob said:

I certainly would not be interested in being on a cruise ship for a week or two if there were non compliant passengers aboard.  Another reason why I am in no rush to resume cruising.

 

Why pay good money to get confined in an uncomfortable and/or dangerous environment?

If you look at what’s happening in the US right now - with some people everywhere disregarding precautions, have you ANY reason to believe that there will not be at least a hundred or so out of every thousand passengers on a cruise ship who will feel that no one should force them how to behave - “...WHEN I’M ON MY VACATION..”?    

 

A 90% compliance rate does not seem achievable almost anywhere - why would things be different on a cruise ship?

[jtwind]

I just got back from 2 grocery stores with clearly posted mask policies.  Both were relatively empty.  Still, it didn't take long to see someone without a mask.  They were everywhere.  Lots of others were wearing chin diapers.  What makes people think that a cruise would be any different?