Greece says that they will welcome vaccinated Americans this summer!

[jayhawk66]

Link: https://viewfromthewing.com/greece-says-vaccinated-americans-welcome-this-summer-europe-could-follow/

 

Perhaps the first glimmer of hope for cruising in Europe this summer!

 

[drsel]

Only Americans or all vaccinated people?

[CruiserBruce]

3 minutes ago, drsel said:

Only Americans or all vaccinated people?

Read the article...it explains their position.

[vicd1969]

Thanks for the article. This gives some hope for my Norway cruise in early August. My Med cruise in June got cancelled yesterday, no big surprise. 

[kochleffel]

With a Greek isles cruise just cancelled, I've been considering booking a replacement (on a different cruise line) for the fall. Now it just needs Italy, Montenegro, and Croatia to do the same.

 

[KirkNC]

We shall see, as the article points out, Greece said the same thing about the 2020 summer.

[taxmantoo]

The article states "Covid cases have declined significantly in Europe"  Has anyone looked at Italy lately ❓  Their cases are going up again at an alarming pace.  Greece is also getting more cases every day than the day before.  As I've said before, grab a good chair, get a good book, none of us will be cruising anytime soon.

Edited March 10, 2021 by taxmantoo

[iancal]

15 minutes ago, taxmantoo said:

The article states "Covid cases have declined significantly in Europe"  Has anyone looked at Italy lately ❓  Their cases are going up again at an alarming pace.  Greece is also getting more cases every day than the day before.  As I've said before, grab a good chair, get a good book, none of us will be cruising anytime soon.

Agree.  We have been following the weekly stats in Greece with an eye to a land trip in the fall.   The recent covid stats are NOT good, going the wrong way.  Same for a few other countries, including Italy, that we are watching.

 

Countries, cruise lines, politicians are free to make whatever comments are in their best interest.   But after all is said and done....the covid numbers will be the deciding factor.

 

Realism will trump optimism and cheery press releases every day, all day long.

Edited March 10, 2021 by iancal

[Lady Arwen]

1 hour ago, taxmantoo said:

The article states "Covid cases have declined significantly in Europe"  Has anyone looked at Italy lately ❓  Their cases are going up again at an alarming pace.  Greece is also getting more cases every day than the day before.  As I've said before, grab a good chair, get a good book, none of us will be cruising anytime soon.

We either cancelled ourselves or the cruiseline cancelled all of our cruises for 2021 and we’re not going to book anything again for anytime in 2021.  We have just one booked for May 2022, and we’ll just see how that works out.  So tired of cancellations and disappointments.  Good news is we’ve pretty much researched every hotel in Europe that ships embark from.  Oh, well. 

[kazu]

2 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

We either cancelled ourselves or the cruiseline cancelled all of our cruises for 2021 and we’re not going to book anything again for anytime in 2021.  We have just one booked for May 2022, and we’ll just see how that works out.  So tired of cancellations and disappointments.  Good news is we’ve pretty much researched every hotel in Europe that ships embark from.  Oh, well. 

 

LOL (lots of love, not laughing out loud).  I hear you on research in hotels in Europe.  

We have May 2022 booked too.  Pretty sure I know where we will stay.  And hoping this cruise should be a go.  

 

Cancellations or realizing you have to cancel do get tiresome.  I feel for my poor TA who has done the work and is not being paid.

 

[ontheweb]

57 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

 

Cancellations or realizing you have to cancel do get tiresome.  I feel for my poor TA who has done the work and is not being paid.

 

I hope most TAs as small businesses qualify for some help under the massive bill just passed by Congress and about to be signed by President Biden. I'm sure they need all the help they can get in order to stay in business.

[CruiserBruce]

9 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I hope most TAs as small businesses qualify for some help under the massive bill just passed by Congress and about to be signed by President Biden. I'm sure they need all the help they can get in order to stay in business.

Biden hasn't signed it yet. Not until Friday...at the soonest. 

[iancal]

Greece depends on tourism.   They know that this is the time when people start thinking about vacations.  

Their goal is probably not dissimilar to what the cruise lines have been doing.  Get people to commit (emotionally or otherwise) so they do not consider alternative plans either by location or with the funds.  

[ontheweb]

14 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Biden hasn't signed it yet. Not until Friday...at the soonest. 

I did write in the post you quoted, "about to be signed by Biden".

[Hlitner]

We have been waiting to see a crack in the European resistance to travel/tourism.  Not surprised that it is starting with Greece and this creates a huge problem (or opportunity) for other European countries.  Assuming that Greece does truly open up to vaccinated folks we have to keep in mind that Greece is a Schengen country.  Once in Greece a tourist can normally move between other Schengen countries without border checks.  It will be up to the EU (and specifically Schengen countries) to dissuade Greece from opening...or other countries will likely join the fray and also open up to vaccinated folks.

 

Whether this will have any impact on cruising remains to be seen.  But it certainly would open up the ability to move between the many Greek Islands.

 

Hank

[Sir PMP]

20 hours ago, drsel said:

Only Americans or all vaccinated people?

Yes, only Americans not Canadians...☺️

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

I can deal with a Greece cruise ..

[vicd1969]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We have been waiting to see a crack in the European resistance to travel/tourism.  Not surprised that it is starting with Greece and this creates a huge problem (or opportunity) for other European countries.  Assuming that Greece does truly open up to vaccinated folks we have to keep in mind that Greece is a Schengen country.  Once in Greece a tourist can normally move between other Schengen countries without border checks.  It will be up to the EU (and specifically Schengen countries) to dissuade Greece from opening...or other countries will likely join the fray and also open up to vaccinated folks.

 

Whether this will have any impact on cruising remains to be seen.  But it certainly would open up the ability to move between the many Greek Islands.

 

Hank

IF Greece is able to open up, it's likely Turkey and Croatia will as well. So Eastern Med cruises from Piraeus will be doable.

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, vicd1969 said:

IF Greece is able to open up, it's likely Turkey and Croatia will as well. So Eastern Med cruises from Piraeus will be doable.

We love to cruise and happily will spend 100+ days on ships every year.  But now I think we are going to see land travel as a better option until the cruise lines can work out COVID related issues.   We do have two cruises booked for later this year (Nov and Dec) but would not consider a cruise this summer.  If we were to see Greece and Croatia open, assuming that the route through Albania is also open...we might consider an extended driving trip in that part of Europe.  Since COVID has left us disappointed a few times in the past year we will just watch developments and keep our flexibility.   As much as we love to get aboard a ship this might be a summer where land travel is the best (and only) decent option.

 

Hank

[iancal]

GREECE had a 7 day average of 506cases per day on Jan 21.   Yesterday, the 7 day average was 2116 cases and climbing.   320 percent increase

 

ITALY had 13,135 cases on Jan 21, now at a moving daily average of 21,013 cases per day and climbing.   A 60 percent increase

 

TURKEY..6289 cases day on Jan 22 , now at 10,087cases per day and climbing.    A 60 percent increase.

 

CROATIA  doing better.  Jan 21...604 cases per day.   Yesterday 506 cases per day but trending upward.  17 percent decrease.

 

CYPRUS  had an average of 216 cases on Jan 21, yesterday it was an average of 349 cases per day.   A 60 percent increase.

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by iancal

[iancal]

We have stopped reading the press releases, the nonsense, and the absolute mush that is put out there for us to believe by cruise lines, travel writers, Government tourist offices, etc.

 

The one thing that they never seem to do is to refer to the actual numbers or even the trends.  In absolute form, ie the actual numbers.

 

We stopped believing the mush.  We stopped reading them.   In many instances it seems to us that it is filler.  Designed to get their name out there or to fill up a few columns so advert can be sold.

 

 We have several alternative travel plans on the horizon.  Greece is one of them.   We look at the covid stats each week for those areas of interest to us to determine the facts, what is really going on and then arrive our own conclusions. 

 

It is why we do not have anything booked-air, criuse, hotel.   Nor do we intend book anything until we know that we will be going.  Cannot imagine having a handful of FCC's and playing the cruise line game of whack a mole  time and time again because someone says cruises will be be opening up on such and such an itinerary on such and such a date.  

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by iancal

[Hlitner]

Lets be clear that the Minister's comments are regarding the opening of tourism.  There was no mention of cruises.  Assuming that Greece does allow folks, with proof of vaccination, to fly into Greece does not mean there will be cruises open to those folks.  But for those of us who routinely do independent land travel it would mean that the Greece ferry system (that moves among many of the Greek Isles) would be available.   Consider that spending a week (or more) on an island like Santorini with few to no cruise ships would be like heaven :).  As much as we love to cruise we also love to be on land that is not overrun with cruisers (I know this is a contradiction....but that is reality).

 

Hank

[drsel]

Don't worry I expect that the EU will be open to  vaccinated and covid negative foreigners by September 2021.

 

History is repeating itself and like the deadly Spanish flu of 1918, Covid also will also be brought under control, slowly but surely.

Although it may not be eradicated completely

Edited March 12, 2021 by drsel

[add1110]

Please don't be just a headline reader...whether or not Greece actually opens to any tourists is more than likely still up in the air, but this is what the first paragraph of the linked story actually says.  The second paragraph is the exact words used by Harry Theocharis, the Tourism Minister.  

 

Greece’s tourism minister says the country will welcome travelers from most of the world who have been vaccinated against Covid-19, present a negative test, OR antibodies from prior infection.

 

Greece is ready with a complete protocol for summer 2021,” he said. “Tourists will be welcome if before travel they are either vaccinated, or have antibodies, or test negative. All tourists will be subject to random testing.

 

*emphasis added

Edited March 12, 2021 by add1110

[prescottbob]

 

I posted this site some time back. One needs to scroll around and play with the site a bit. Restrictions are updated daily according to Kayak.
 

Current Greece information:
 

https://www.kayak.com/travel-restrictions#greece

 

Be well.

Bob