CDC ruling out today in trades

[LHT28]

41 minutes ago, ORV said:

By the same token I've seen many, many people mention in posts that they rarely get off at the Caribbean ports, they're just there for the ship experience, or the warmth of that area in the winter. 

 

sometimes  we are in that category

just need some sun & enjoy the ship

Willing to pay the price for Oceania  😉

No right or wrong  just personal choices

 

Funny thing the ships are usually pretty close to full

[KS&JW]

32 minutes ago, ORV said:

. By the same token I've seen many, many people mention in posts that they rarely get off at the Caribbean ports, they're just there for the ship experience, or the warmth of that area in the winter. 

 

Most of those attitudes you tend to see more on the Mass Market forums, Oceania cruisers for the most part are in a different niche. I usually try to go somewhere I haven't seen before, and take a historical type tour. 

 

 

 

While we too prefer to cruise to interesting locals that are difficult to do by land, we have taken a couple Caribbean cruises on Oceania.  Many, many people on those trips said they don't get off the ship or if they do it is only on one particular island fo the bunch. Oceania has more than one ship doing these itineraries, so there are obviously a lot of people who probably want to get out of the winter cold and will be happy to do it on a ship.   

[pinotlover]

I spoken with quite a few Oceania cruisers that in the past have gotten on the Riveria in mid January and not left until March. Claimed it was no more expensive than staying in most up scale all inclusive resorts. They rarely got off the ship.

 

Also, back before Oceania “ discovered” the various Grand Voyages, cruisers could rack up a lot of B2Bers significantly increasing cruise count over short periods. 

[Redtravel]

 

I am looking forward to sailing again only when there is a safe vaccine that is mandatory for anyone sailing.  Having sailed in March on an ill fated cruise, I don"t want to relive that again.

[KirkNC]

3 hours ago, pinotlover said:

I spoken with quite a few Oceania cruisers that in the past have gotten on the Riveria in mid January and not left until March. Claimed it was no more expensive than staying in most up scale all inclusive resorts. They rarely got off the ship.

 

Also, back before Oceania “ discovered” the various Grand Voyages, cruisers could rack up a lot of B2Bers significantly increasing cruise count over short periods. 

I don’t believe you will be allowed to do B2B cruises for a while.  They were not allowed on the European restarts.

Edited November 1, 2020 by KirkNC

[susiesan]

5 hours ago, drkitkat123 said:

There will be businesses established to do testing for passengers at the ports (I know of  a few people thinking about this). Also ships will buy their own pcr machines and set up their own labs. Again I know of a  200 people ships doing this...

Are the passengers going to be expected to pay extra for this? If so, that would turn a lot of people off. It's one thing to get tested in your home country before boarding a plane where your insurance probably covers it, but in a foreign country insurance wouldn't apply. I am one of those people who would not cruise if I had to pay for the test out of pocket. I would just stop cruising and go back to all land vacations and be perfectly happy.

[chloemonkey]

17 hours ago, Jayne E said:

Completely agree!  Furthermore, Belize private island has been our least favorite of any Caribbean port. No umbrellas and hard uncomfortable chairs. 

Next time rent the Deluxe cabanas....they are very comfortable and include padded lounges, hammocks, private butler service....private bathroom and shower.....and you can even just sit inside the cabana enjoying the air conditioning...on the couch!  We LOVE the private islands IF we manage to snag reservations for the Private Cabanas.....

[njhorseman]

29 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Are the passengers going to be expected to pay extra for this? If so, that would turn a lot of people off. It's one thing to get tested in your home country before boarding a plane where your insurance probably covers it, but in a foreign country insurance wouldn't apply. I am one of those people who would not cruise if I had to pay for the test out of pocket. I would just stop cruising and go back to all land vacations and be perfectly happy.

You're going to pay one way or the other. If the cruise line is paying the testing laboratory that additional expense will be reflected in higher fares for passengers.

[drkitkat123]

31 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Are the passengers going to be expected to pay extra for this? If so, that would turn a lot of people off. It's one thing to get tested in your home country before boarding a plane where your insurance probably covers it, but in a foreign country insurance wouldn't apply. I am one of those people who would not cruise if I had to pay for the test out of pocket. I would just stop cruising and go back to all land vacations and be perfectly happy.

I do not understand the question.  Who else is going to pay for this? Either you will pay directly or it will be hidden in your cruise fare but you will pay either way!

[d9704011]

2 minutes ago, drkitkat123 said:

I do not understand the question.  Who else is going to pay for this? Either you will pay directly or it will be hidden in your cruise fare but you will pay either way!

Probably just roll it into the fees and taxes.

[susiesan]

2 minutes ago, drkitkat123 said:

I do not understand the question.  Who else is going to pay for this? Either you will pay directly or it will be hidden in your cruise fare but you will pay either way!

Here in the US most of our insurance plans cover covid testing with no copay.Medicare does. Also, our local health departments have free covid testing days set up. If you want to get tested another time because you are curious, you just have to say you have been exposed to someone positive and you can get a free test. 

[drkitkat123]

that may be Ok if you travel directly without delay but if you spend a few days before the cruise, I suspect you will need a new test

[pinotlover]

Not even an issue. By next summer, when most sailing will resume, the nanoparticle tests will be out. Quick results and projected to cost $2-$3 each! Cheapest thing one will ever do aboard Oceania! 😂

[Hawaiidan]

1 hour ago, drkitkat123 said:

that may be Ok if you travel directly without delay but if you spend a few days before the cruise, I suspect you will need a new test

I think your right.... I have had 3 virus checks in 60 days....   each one required prior to a medical procedure!... 

So ,I suspect after 14 days, ( incubation period) ,that you need a new test.   Makes sense.  

Local health/ medicare giving "free" testing  is not free....its being paid for by your taxes !      As the inn keeper in Le Mis said "  Nothing gets you nothing.....everything has got a little price"

[drkitkat123]

the issue with all these tests even if they are 99% accurate (sensitive and specific). if you testing a fairly low prevalence population (eg <1:100 have the disease), the vast majority of the positive results will actually be false positives which will lead to enormous wild goose chases for people wanting to board the ships and more people who are really negatives will be denied boarding than those who really have the disease. Imagine the court cases....

[Hawaiidan]

6 hours ago, pinotlover said:

I spoken with quite a few Oceania cruisers that in the past have gotten on the Riveria in mid January and not left until March. Claimed it was no more expensive than staying in most up scale all inclusive resorts. They rarely got off the ship.

 

 

Heck....thats not new..... I  I did that for 6 years......  Winter or summer... made no difference...... and it was all inclusive too except we had to chip in to the mess fund...

[nikless]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

Not even an issue. By next summer, when most sailing will resume, the nanoparticle tests will be out. Quick results and projected to cost $2-$3 each! Cheapest thing one will ever do aboard Oceania! 😂

"nano particle test" as in that conspiracy theory that Gates wants to use the vaccine to inject the population with tracking mechanisms?

 

[floridatravelersforlife]

I think the jury is still out on what develops.  With  New York mandating covid tests, if you return from non northeast states and two week quarantines upon returning back to the state, who knows what pax from the northeast will decide to do.  If that totalitarian   approach spreads to other states, there won't be any takers to go cruising.  Living in Florida, I have more options.  Never the less, we have taken up other interests to make up for the lack of cruising.  We refuse to just sit at home for the rest of our retirement.

[Tranquility Base]

I think the cost of the 2 mandatory laboratory tests is WAY down on the list of things the cruise lines need to worry about in order to  gain the certificate to comply with this CSO.

As mentioned, likely just built in to the fare so people can't complain.

 

Far more interesting will be the procedures and costs involved in setting up the contracts with onshore medical facilities to accept any infected patients, the non-commercial transport to be used, the extra onboard medical personal and facilities needed, inspection costs, and a whole  lot more.

 

These costs will need to be borne in order to achieve this first small step in resuming.

But the costs are not going to be insignificant.

 

 

[msears101]

1 hour ago, floridatravelersforlife said:

I think the jury is still out on what develops.  With  New York mandating covid tests, if you return from non northeast states and two week quarantines upon returning back to the state, who knows what pax from the northeast will decide to do.  If that totalitarian   approach spreads to other states, there won't be any takers to go cruising.  Living in Florida, I have more options.  Never the less, we have taken up other interests to make up for the lack of cruising.  We refuse to just sit at home for the rest of our retirement.

I hate to wade into this.  There are few important things. One nitpicky thing, it is bordering states, not all of the northeast. 1 - These rules are for 41 states currently and a list of countries. 2 - this is and "order" not a law.   3 - Like a good number  of Gov Cuomo's orders, they have been knocked down by both state and federal courts.  Anyone with a hint law knowledge, will know that this last order squarely fits into "arbitrary and capricious" in that he will only enforce it at airports and not the roadways.  There are other problems with it, but this is the most obvious. 

[ToxM]

I am on a Cunard restart cruise in March. They have set up a number of close to home cruise to nowheres for their first few outings. We cruise from Southampton to Scotland - round Mull and then back. 5 days, 4 nights, no ports.

 

It will be a good shakedown for the crew, a gentle restart for the company and will get the Joneses out of the passengers, Cunard have announced “greatly reduced passenger numbers”. There is of course great discussion and gnashing of teeth on the Cunard forum and on the Book of Face regarding how it’s not the same, how it’s not right, why they would never go on a cruise and not get off anywhere...

 

It’s fine to not want to cruise, don’t do it til you feel safe enough. I am just lucky I suppose that the thought of lots of sea days makes me very very happy. 

 

As for testing, more than sure over here in the UK the gov and the cruise lines will want similar tests done before embarkation and disembarkation, I see whole new businesses taking advantage of this “Park n Test” etc etc. As the majority of UK cruises go from Southampton, and a very large number of passengers drive to the port and drop off their car I can see this will be a great business model. 

 

Most Brits are conscientious about wasting the resources of the NHS so paying for a test for travel purposes would not be a big problem.   

[Tranquility Base]

A small bit of good news.

 

Viking Cruises has completed the installation of the world's first seagoing full-scale PCR laboratory at sea aboard the Viking Star.

It has the capacity to offer every person onboard daily Covid-19 PCR testing utilizing a non-invasive saliva test.

 

Well done Viking.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Tranquility Base

[susiesan]

2 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

 

It has the capacity to offer every person onboard daily Covid-19 PCR testing utilizing a non-invasive saliva test.

 

 

Ugh, that sounds awful and unmanageable. 

[cayman09]

They're not saying that they are going to test everyone daily, only that they will have the "Capacity" to do it if they have to.

[Vertygo]

40 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Ugh, that sounds awful and unmanageable. 

 

A lot better than having a q-tip shoved up your nose!!  I'd much rather spit into a tube.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Vertygo
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