Sailings now cancelled through April 30

[Ocean Boy]

37 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

That ended up being a false, or at least misleading, report.  Pfizer said in response that they have all the reserved 2nd doses.

Hopefully, the reserved second doses will be used for just that.... second doses. I don't think it is right for people who agreed to be vaccinated, with the expectation that it would be carried out in a certain time frame, to then find the game plan changed half way through. That is not what they agreed to and, especially since, it could affect their overall benefit. 

 

Once again, none of this helps to bring the skeptics on board.

[island lady]

Just now, Ocean Boy said:

Hopefully, the reserved second doses will be used for just that.... second doses. I don't think is is right for people who agreed to be vaccinated, with the expectation that it would be carried out in a certain time frame, to then find the game plan changed half way through. That is not what they agreed to and, especially since, it could affect their overall benefit. 

 

Once again, none of this helps to bring the skeptics on board.

 

My county health department gave me a confirmed appointment for the second dose.  Man will I be pissed if I show up and they are out of vaccine.  😣

[A&L_Ont]

3 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Hopefully, the reserved second doses will be used for just that.... second doses. I don't think is is right for people who agreed to be vaccinated, with the expectation that it would be carried out in a certain time frame, to then find the game plan changed half way through. That is not what they agreed to and, especially since, it could affect their overall benefit. 

 

Once again, none of this helps to bring the skeptics on board.

Agreed with all of this. 

[firefly333]

46 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

That ended up being a false, or at least misleading, report.  Pfizer said in response that they have all the reserved 2nd doses.

Sorry but I dont believe it is false. Another tv doctor saying similar, how we shouldn't worry they are working 24/7 both companies to manufacture the doses. Nothing the doctors are saying jives with oh pfeizer has it but is just is holding it back. 

 

There are already front line workers time to get 2nd shot. What you state doesnt make sense as they are already doing some 2nd shots, that they have it, just not shipping it until later.

 

They just asked that 2nd doctor same thing should I worry and about getting 2nd dose and she never once mentioned oh it's being withheld, she was like even one dose gives up to 90% protection, dont worry if your 2nd dose is late. 

 

Besides I got moderna, and they arent making 2nd appointments yet.

[LorraineP]

2 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Sorry but I dont believe it is false. Another tv doctor saying similar, how we shouldn't worry they are working 24/7 both companies to manufacture the doses. Nothing the doctors are saying jives with oh pfeizer has it but is just is holding it back. 

 

There are already front line workers time to get 2nd shot. What you state doesnt make sense as they are already doing some 2nd shots, that they have it, just not shipping it until later.

 

They just asked that 2nd doctor same thing should I worry and about getting 2nd dose and she never once mentioned oh it's being withheld, she was like even one dose gives up to 90% protection, dont worry if your 2nd dose is late. 

 

Besides I got moderna, and they arent making 2nd appointments yet.

Key word - up to 90%. Like misleading sales up to 75% off. Or Royal’s cruise planner sales up to 45% off. 

[firefly333]

They had to close the vaccine site early the last 2 days, up to a 6 hour wait in your car to park. Our newspaper seems to imply minorities are more confused. I was confused. No confirmation when you sign up, or make the appointment and no one there knew how to make 2nd appointment then this judge called minority leaders to just show up even without appointments, so people with appointments were turned away. Color seems to matter. 

 

I did finally get a hold of someone regarding 2nd shot and was told I would get a link, watch for it. I have no appointment for 2nd shot.

[island lady]

16 hours ago, firefly333 said:

 

They just asked that 2nd doctor same thing should I worry and about getting 2nd dose and she never once mentioned oh it's being withheld, she was like even one dose gives up to 90% protection, dont worry if your 2nd dose is late. 

Besides I got moderna, and they arent making 2nd appointments yet.

 

I have Moderna second appointment made for me at same time I got first shot.  

Edited January 17, 2021 by island lady

[smokeybandit]

16 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Sorry but I dont believe it is false. Another tv doctor saying similar, how we shouldn't worry they are working 24/7 both companies to manufacture the doses. Nothing the doctors are saying jives with oh pfeizer has it but is just is holding it back. 

So you trust TV doctors over the manufacturer itself, one that has made sure to distance itself from American politics?

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

So you trust TV doctors over the manufacturer itself, one that has made sure to distance itself from American politics?

Your tell me pfeizer is saving shots, are you a doctor? Ok and I said back I got moderna.

 

How would they know how many 2nd shots are done and how many to go? Let's see where things are in a month.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

I have Moderna second appointment made for me at same time I got first shot.  

I know I saw that and have posted the folks where I was didnt even know how to get a 2nd appointment. One guy said well I guess just come back, next one said well do whatever you did to get here today, none had any idea. I did get hold of someone who said watch for a link we will send you a link to come in next time.

 

I would feel a lot better if they made our 2nd appointments when we got our first. It's not helping things hearing they closed early last 2 days and cars had a wait of up to 6 hours due to people just showing up cutting the line. Or we only have enough moderna for 3 or 4 days this next week. 

[island lady]

3 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I know I saw that and have posted the folks where I was didnt even know how to get a 2nd appointment. One guy said well I guess just come back, next one said well do whatever you did to get here today, none had any idea. I did get hold of someone who said watch for a link we will send you a link to come in next time.

 

I would feel a lot better if they made our 2nd appointments when we got our first. It's not helping things hearing they closed early last 2 days and cars had a wait of up to 6 hours due to people just showing up cutting the line. Or we only have enough moderna for 3 or 4 days this next week. 

 

I was very impressed and gratefully surprised to see how well our county health dept. ran things.  Appointments were a big plus, drive through a plus, and automatic appointment for second shot a big relief.  

[orville99]

18 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

That ended up being a false, or at least misleading, report.  Pfizer said in response that they have all the reserved 2nd doses.

One important thing to factor into the Pfizer vaccine distribution is that they are handling all of their distribution on their own, and not using any of the Warp Speed logistics. Due to the nature of their vaccine (ultra-cold storage) they felt they would be better equipped to use their existing distribution partners (FedEx and UPS), and the fact that they held back their second dose shipments to the states makes complete sense - the states are barely able to acquire enough ultra-cold freezers to handle the existing vaccine flows.

[firefly333]

17 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I was very impressed and gratefully surprised to see how well our county health dept. ran things.  Appointments were a big plus, drive through a plus, and automatic appointment for second shot a big relief.  

Ours put it on purpose in a high crime black area, as they call it a underserved area so the people could bus or walk there. Then too many white people signed up so they said for blacks to just show up. Ours is getting worse. They need to stick to appointments. I was thinking if I were black I'd be offended to hear I wasnt as good at making a appointment as a white person. BLM shouldn't even be a factor. I will say I was glad to see a heavy police presence and a cop car at every intersection blocking it and lots of uniforms. I was nervous driving there. What I saw was reassuring. 

 

But we do need to enforce appointments only. We had to say our race, they can pick and choose more blacks and browns to send links to easily, if that's their choice. We cant keep doing free for alls because black and brown lives matter.

Edited January 17, 2021 by firefly333

[Ocean Boy]

26 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I know I saw that and have posted the folks where I was didnt even know how to get a 2nd appointment. One guy said well I guess just come back, next one said well do whatever you did to get here today, none had any idea. I did get hold of someone who said watch for a link we will send you a link to come in next time.

 

I would feel a lot better if they made our 2nd appointments when we got our first. It's not helping things hearing they closed early last 2 days and cars had a wait of up to 6 hours due to people just showing up cutting the line. Or we only have enough moderna for 3 or 4 days this next week. 

It seems to me that at this point in time they should be doing everything they can to stick to the prescribed dosing regimen. That includes scheduling the appointment for the second shot at the time of administering the first one. If in the long run it turns out that the timing used in the trials is critical, we are using a lot of resources to end up with a suboptimal result. Do the "powers that be" take this seriously or not?

 

When we do vaccinations in the office that require a series we always schedule the next in the series at the time of the administration. That greatly improves the chances of the timing of the vaccines happening as it is supposed to and decreases missed doses.

[3monkeys4me]

On 1/13/2021 at 8:12 AM, smokeybandit said:

My school district has been in person all year. Kids 10 and under don't have to wear masks. We've had zero in-school transmission of covid and less than 2 dozen kids/teachers/staff across the whole district who missed school due to covid or potential covid exposure.

 

And we have been back to school since October. One of our students (a 3rd grader) died 2 days before Christmas and we have another currently in the ICU. We are in a small community, many of the students live in crowded conditions and we have a lot of cousins that go to school at our school so even with wearing masks it is had to trace where the contracted COVID. It doesn't make it any easier to look at an empty desk. 

 

We have under 400 students and about 70 total full and part time staff. We have had 30 cases of COVID since we went back in person. We lost one staff member over the summer, 3 parents since last spring and now a student. I am glad your area is doing better but it is a mess here. 

[Ocean Boy]

2 minutes ago, 3monkeys4me said:

And we have been back to school since October. One of our students (a 3rd grader) died 2 days before Christmas and we have another currently in the ICU. We are in a small community, many of the students live in crowded conditions and we have a lot of cousins that go to school at our school so even with wearing masks it is had to trace where the contracted COVID. It doesn't make it any easier to look at an empty desk. 

 

We have under 400 students and about 70 total full and part time staff. We have had 30 cases of COVID since we went back in person. We lost one staff member over the summer, 3 parents since last spring and now a student. I am glad your area is doing better but it is a mess here. 

Thanks for posting. Some people just don't get it.

[3monkeys4me]

9 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

It seems to me that at this point in time they should be doing everything they can to stick to the prescribed dosing regimen. That includes scheduling the appointment for the second shot at the time of administering the first one. If in the long run it turns out that the timing used in the trials is critical, we are using a lot of resources to end up with a suboptimal result. Do the "powers that be" take this seriously or not?

 

When we do vaccinations in the office that require a series we always schedule the next in the series at the time of the administration. That greatly improves the chances of the timing of the vaccines happening as it is supposed to and decreases missed doses.

 

They aren't scheduling the second doses with the first here and it is very hard to get a appointment. I had to drive 90 mins for the first one. I was able to get a appointment for the second but we have been told that those appointments will likely be cancelled since they don't think they will have the vaccine doses. I am crossing my fingers. 

[nelblu]

36 minutes ago, orville99 said:

One important thing to factor into the Pfizer vaccine distribution is that they are handling all of their distribution on their own, and not using any of the Warp Speed logistics. Due to the nature of their vaccine (ultra-cold storage) they felt they would be better equipped to use their existing distribution partners (FedEx and UPS), and the fact that they held back their second dose shipments to the states makes complete sense - the states are barely able to acquire enough ultra-cold freezers to handle the existing vaccine flows.

You are probably correct.  In the entire state of NJ there are only 5 medical facilities with sub-zero freezers and none in my county of Monmouth.   Our co'unty is basically dispensing Moderna.  I'm waiting a bit as I want to see some results from the current vaccines.  Hopefully, the J&J and the Astra Zeneca will add to the market and be easier to administer.

 

Read an article where the Chinese version is able to handle the mutated version. 

[LuCruise]

9 minutes ago, 3monkeys4me said:

And we have been back to school since October. One of our students (a 3rd grader) died 2 days before Christmas and we have another currently in the ICU. We are in a small community, many of the students live in crowded conditions and we have a lot of cousins that go to school at our school so even with wearing masks it is had to trace where the contracted COVID. It doesn't make it any easier to look at an empty desk. 

 

We have under 400 students and about 70 total full and part time staff. We have had 30 cases of COVID since we went back in person. We lost one staff member over the summer, 3 parents since last spring and now a student. I am glad your area is doing better but it is a mess here. 

That is so heartbreaking.  

Here in Southern Ontario, kids were back at in September.  Both my kids had about 6 cases at their school from Sept - Dec (different schools).  Since xmas break they are back online, which with the current numbers, I am sortuv glad about (even though the education and social aspect isn't the same). Hoping kids get approved soon for the vaccine.

[firefly333]

The arguing and politics here gets worse by the day, my next door  neighbor app a open letter to parkland hospital which has the pfeizer is cherry picking appointments. Not making my neighbors happy.  Newspaper says only 97 in the neighborhood got shots at fair park. 

 

My prediction the cherry picking gets worse and more politics. I get the online newspaper for dallas. Every day more politics. I hope its not a 6 hour wait to park by 2nd shot, but I'll do whatever I have to. But they really do need appointments only. Not crazy long wait times.

[firefly333]

A glimmer of hope, nationwide hospitalizations and positives dropped

[Biker19]

Cruise operators aren’t likely to resume sailings from U.S. ports until the second half of 2021 under the best of circumstances, and possibly not until early 2022, one industry analyst says.

 

“The sentiment for 2021 has now changed to ‘It’s possible 2021 will not be a return to (revenue) sailings in North America, or at least not before’ ” the fourth quarter, Truist Securities analyst Patrick Scholes wrote in a note Friday.

 

He added that while cruise bookings are exceeding cancellations, “we now see July as the best case for restart,” though the fourth quarter is more likely.

 

Separately on Friday, Carnival (ticker: CCL) on Friday said that it had extended its suspension of U.S. cruises through April 30. On Tuesday, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) said that it had extended the suspension of its voyages through that date as well. Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) has also shut down most of its operations through April 30, save for a few cruises out of Singapore.

 

The summer season is a crucial time of the year for the cruise operators, with the third quarter being when they generate a big chunk of their revenues and profits.

“Consensus expectations are for a return to revenue sailings in 2Q21 with [an] acceleration into 3Q21, which we do not see as realistic,” Scholes wrote, adding that the stocks have “so far shrugged off unabated delays in restarting.”

Shares of Carnival, for example, have returned about 33% over the past three months, versus 41% for Norwegian and 13% for Royal Caribbean.

 

The timetable for a reopening of U.S. ports has shifted. As of last summer and fall, Scholes noted, large travel agencies were looking for a return to cruising in the second quarter of 2021.

 

A consequence of pushing back the U.S. restart date to late in 2021, Scholes says, would be “the likely need to raise additional capital to stay afloat, further depressing earnings.”

 

During their fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call last week, Carnival executives said that the company has enough liquidity to get through 2021 even with no revenue—but that they did have the capacity to raise more capital if it were needed. The company has raised around $19 billion of capital, much of it debt, since its operations were mostly shut down by the pandemic last March.

 

The resumption of cruising has been complicated by a host of factors, among them a slower-than-expected U.S. rollout of Covid vaccines, a surge in cases, and a demanding conditional order from the Centers for Disease and Prevention to restart sailings.

 

The agency authorized a phased-in return to sailing with various requirements in place before certifying the vessels, including test cruises for which passengers would not be charged.

 

“As we noted previously, there is concern amongst travel executives who believe that the recent CDC phased return to cruise is really a de facto no-sail order,” the note continues. “The concern is that the CDC’s hurdles are so high that it will make it extremely difficult for the cruise lines to sail with paid customers.”

 

Scholes, however, does see some encouraging signs for the industry, including an uptick in bookings for European cruises by European travelers, notably for those over 50. Pricing “is holding for now,” he notes, and there is plenty of pent-up demand for cruising.

 

He expects “leisure demand to be the strongest out of the box as people have been cooped up at home the past year and have been saving their disposable incomes.”

 

U.S. Cruises Not Likely to Resume Until Fourth Quarter, or Early 2022, Analyst Says - MarketWatch

[Ashland]

It's looking very doubtful my October 14, 2021 9 night Canada/NE will sail from Cape Liberty.

[island lady]

13 minutes ago, Ashland said:

It's looking very doubtful my October 14, 2021 9 night Canada/NE will sail from Cape Liberty.

 

As far as I know, Canada is still prohibiting cruise ship visits...so I agree with you.  Not looking good, nor does it look good for any Alaska cruises this year (Quantum already cancelled...rest will most likely follow).  

[ATG]

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

It's looking very doubtful my October 14, 2021 9 night Canada/NE will sail from Cape Liberty.

We’re on the one before, September 30.  It’s a replacement for the May 2020 cruise that was cancelled.  I still have some hope, especially if we can get all of us vaccinated by then.  DH and I are over 65, so hopefully we can get it by then.  DS2 is a manager at a pharmaceutical company.  He has been at work every day.  Drugs can’t get made by telework.  DS 1 is a federal employee.  Hopefully we can all get the jab soon.