Another restart failure

[KirkNC]

This time in Singapore on the Quantum of the Sea.

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24017-quantum-of-the-seas-back-in-singapore-guests-to-disembark.html

 

And they abort with one positive test.

 

 

[john2003]

Unless they can manage the situation without aborting it doesn't bode well. Vaccination has to be seriously in place for this to be possible.

[KirkNC]

Agreed, one positive out of close to 2,000 passengers and crew and they abort.  If that is going to be the MO going forward, we are in trouble.

[kangforpres]

Thanks for posting this Kirk I was about too, I think people wanting to cruise are going to have to wait for the vaccine to have significant circulation in the general population. Then you should have to prove you been vaccinated to cruise (this will become easier then getting a recent negative test result).

 

On board ships need to have rapid testing ability for anyone experiencing symptoms. If someone test positive isolate, quarantine and trace. And then I think cancel the rest of cruise once a positive case has been confirmed. (remember over 700 people ended up infected on the Ruby Princess)

 

This probably will not be able to happen until July, 2021. Sorry but I think that's just the reality of the situation.

[Seacruise]

There is great news in all this the Passenger has been tested twice and both tests are negative.
Goes to show what a false Positive test will do.

Singapore Cruise Society

[drowelf]

43 minutes ago, kangforpres said:

Thanks for posting this Kirk I was about too, I think people wanting to cruise are going to have to wait for the vaccine to have significant circulation in the general population. Then you should have to prove you been vaccinated to cruise (this will become easier then getting a recent negative test result).

 

This probably will not be able to happen until July, 2021. Sorry but I think that's just the reality of the situation.

Totally agree and that is our game plan. No cruising until after we get our 2 jabs and vaccination is required to cruise. All of our 2021 cruises have now been cancelled and our first up is February 2022 at this time. 

 

If vaccine is widely distributed enough, we are looking at a 2021 (Fall) DIY land tour in Europe. 

[Sir PMP]

1 hour ago, Seacruise said:

There is great news in all this the Passenger has been tested twice and both tests are negative.
Goes to show what a false Positive test will do.

Singapore Cruise Society

So there is no covid on board?

 

[Seacruise]

15 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

So there is no covid on board?

 

Correct NO Covid 19. False Positive.

[Sir PMP]

11 minutes ago, Seacruise said:

Correct NO Covid 19. False Positive.

Great so the cruise was a  a success, even though it was a short one..

[KirkNC]

21 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

Great so the cruise was a  a success, even though it was a short one..

If you consider success ending the cruise early and confining everyone to their cabin.  This to me highlights why cruising can’t work with this virus, one person test positive (doesn’t matter if it a false positive or not) and they have to return to port and everyone goes to their cabin.  1 out of 2,800.  And to make matters worse, the next scheduled cruise has also been cancelled out of “an abundance of caution”.

Edited December 9, 2020 by KirkNC

[foodsvcmgr]

As I have said repeatedly there is no point trying to cruise until governments permit a less draconian response.

One would hope a few months after vaccines are widely available and with vaccination a requirement to board that cruise lines would no longer be required to abort and instead just deal with the individual affected as in land based tourism.

Until that day comes just not worth the money for a stressful vacation trying to cruise waiting for the inevitable quarantine and return to port.

JMO.

[ontheweb]

32 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

If you consider success ending the cruise early and confining everyone to their cabin.  This to me highlights why cruising can’t work with this virus, one person test positive (doesn’t matter if it a false positive or not) and they have to return to port and everyone goes to their cabin.  1 out of 2,800.  And to make matters worse, the next scheduled cruise has also been cancelled out of “an abundance of caution”.

Right, a false positive ends the cruise. A false negative and there could be a widespread outbreak. This is not a good situation.

[Seacruise]

The next cruise is now cancelled.
Remember it is already Dec 10 in Singapore.

[rafinmd]

I think it will be quite a few months after vaccines become widely available before we can be 100% sure there will never be an isolated case of Covid onboard.  There has to be a less draconian response.  Not sure if cancelling the cruise was Royal's initiative or if it was required by the authorities.

 

A little bit of success is that Quantum was actually allowed to disembark passengers but still depressing.

 

Roy

[bouhunter]

4 hours ago, Seacruise said:

There is great news in all this the Passenger has been tested twice and both tests are negative.
Goes to show what a false Positive test will do.

Singapore Cruise Society

A false positive test resulted in the cruise ending and everyone shut in their cabins.  If that's "great news", cruising has a long road ahead.

Edited December 9, 2020 by bouhunter

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, rafinmd said:

There has to be a less draconian response.

 

Or, don't bother to try to restart cruising.  

 

Crewing, fueling and supplying a ship, and other related expenses to begin a cruise and then having to abort it does nothing positive for a cruise line's bank account.  

[HappyInVan]

Looks like the CDC was right. Can't have cruises longer than seven days. You don't want to start a quarantine in the middle of the Atlantic/Pacific/Indian ocean. Best to be within a couple of days of home port.

 

In the Caribbean and Pacific, the islands just don't have the capacity to handle a cruise ship emergency!!!!

 

 

[cbr663]

5 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Right, a false positive ends the cruise. A false negative and there could be a widespread outbreak. This is not a good situation.

 

Not a good situation at all.  

 

Compounding the situation is the early vaccines have been shown to reduce the severity of the symptoms of the virus.  The vaccines have not been evaluated as to whether they stop or reduce the transmission of the virus.  We simply don't know whether they will prevent transmission.

 

So the question is will the current vaccines actually allow the cruise line industry to restart anytime soon?

[Horizon chaser 1957]

8 hours ago, Seacruise said:

There is great news in all this the Passenger has been tested twice and both tests are negative.
Goes to show what a false Positive test will do.

Singapore Cruise Society

 

 

And there lies a huge hurdle. Even if no one on board has the virus, it only takes one false positive in the whole number of tests being done start to finish to cancel both the current cruise and the next one!

[ski ww]

I think that it was reckless & irresponsible of the cruise line to put their employee's in danger of catching covid. The passengers were there of their on free will, not so the crew. With the numbers going up every day in every country in the world, with the death toll getting ever higher and these morons going on a cruise is unbelievable. If people don't start listening & stay at home until we can get a grip on this it will only take longer to get it under control. 

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, ski ww said:

I think that it was reckless & irresponsible of the cruise line to put their employee's in danger of catching covid. The passengers were there of their on free will, not so the crew. With the numbers going up every day in every country in the world, with the death toll getting ever higher and these morons going on a cruise is unbelievable. If people don't start listening & stay at home until we can get a grip on this it will only take longer to get it under control. 

 

Not that I totally disagree with you, but these cruises are out of Singapore and are limited to citizens of Singapore -- a country where there is very little COVID as of now.

[DFD1]

Any way you slice it, there is no good news in this story. We have a long way to go and a lot to learn before cruising as we know it will happen again.

[rafinmd]

52 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Not that I totally disagree with you, but these cruises are out of Singapore and are limited to citizens of Singapore -- a country where there is very little COVID as of now.

Yes, and the ship had only a skeleton before the cruises started so the crew knew or should have known what they were getting into.

 

Roy

[iancal]

This is one of the reasons why we are in no rush to cruise.  These false starts simply serve to reinforce our focus on travel options over the next two years that do not include a cruising component.  

 

From our perspective the cruise lines did not do themselves any good at the start of covid nor are they helping their cause now by starting up prematurely.

 

We have zero confidence that the cruise lines will place our health and well being ahead of their business and financial objectives.  Warm and fuzzies are not enough for us.

Edited December 10, 2020 by iancal

[bouhunter]

7 hours ago, ski ww said:

I think that it was reckless & irresponsible of the cruise line to put their employee's in danger of catching covid. The passengers were there of their on free will, not so the crew. 

I had no idea the crew members were forced to accept the jobs and board the ships against their will.

Edited December 10, 2020 by bouhunter