June and July cruises cancelled...

[BermudaBound2014]

I know this isn't NCL, but I think NCL guests will be interested to note that 8 fully vaccinated crew members have tested positive on RCL Odyssey of the seas that was scheduled to run a test cruise from Fort Lauderdale in a few week.  Vaccinate crew would have been considered fully vaccinated in 2 days. I can't find any information whether an antigen or PCR test (or both) was administered. All of July sailings have been cancelled. The hits just keep coming :(.

 

It was supposed to set sail from Fort Lauderdale on July 3 on six and eight-night voyages in the Caribbean. Now, that’s been postponed until July 31, which amounts to four canceled trips. The new departure date will be the first sailing with paying passengers since cruises were on hold during the pandemic.

Royal Caribbean cruise inaugural sailing from Florida postponed after crew members test positive for COVID-19 (fox13news.com)

 

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by BermudaBound2014

[Middleager]

That's a setback, not just for RCL, but for all cruiselines wanting to see successful cruises.

 

OTOH the cruiseline stocks are up (CCL, NCLH, and RCL are all up a bit)

[BermudaBound2014]

6 minutes ago, Middleager said:

That's a setback, not just for RCL, but for all cruiselines wanting to see successful cruises.

 

OTOH the cruiseline stocks are up (CCL, NCLH, and RCL are all up a bit)

 

Yesterday RCL secured another high interest rate 650 million dollar note. That could explain today, but it looks like they are only up 1-2% after a 10% loss in the last 7 days. I follow cruise stock out of interest because it truly defies any logic I can apply.

 

[littlelulu01]

4 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I know this isn't NCL, but I think NCL guests will be interested to note that 8 fully vaccinated crew members have tested positive on RCL Odyssey of the seas that was scheduled to run a test cruise from Fort Lauderdale in a few week.  Vaccinate crew would have been considered fully vaccinated in 2 days. I can't find any information whether an antigen or PCR test (or both) was administered. All of July sailings have been cancelled. The hits just keep coming :(.

 

It was supposed to set sail from Fort Lauderdale on July 3 on six and eight-night voyages in the Caribbean. Now, that’s been postponed until July 31, which amounts to four canceled trips. The new departure date will be the first sailing with paying passengers since cruises were on hold during the pandemic.

Royal Caribbean cruise inaugural sailing from Florida postponed after crew members test positive for COVID-19 (fox13news.com)

 

 

The information I read from NPR  was that the crew only received vaccine on June 4th.  They were NOT considered fully vaccinated.  6 asymptotic and two mild symptoms.  

[Seany527]

I personally don’t see this as a huge set back.
 

You are considered fully vaccinated after 14 days. The guidelines are 14 days and not 12 days for a reason.  If you were fully vaccinated at the 12 day mark, that is what “they” would have published. 
 

What I do find interesting is that these crew members all went through a quarantine. It’s doubtful they contracted the virus when they went ashore to be vaccinated, right?

[CroozFanatic]

Two steps forward...

 

Surprised with 4 weeks of cancellations...is that the new standard?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by CroozFanatic

[BermudaBound2014]

I think RCL incident on Odyssey is relevant to all cruise lines because they are all governed by the CDC return to sailing guideline to restart in the USA (doesn't matter if it's Florida or Alaska). I've  been digging a bit this morning on the CDC site. It's hard to keep up with the changes to the Conditions to Sail Order, but this is what I've found:

 

1) Odyssey has automatically moved from green to red status. Generally speaking, that means the ship is back in lockdown for 14 days. News has reported that all crew are quarantined. I suspect that is due to close contact. If you are interested in color coded status you can find it here: color coding system for cruise ship status. Side note, as of today, the norwegian sun and Pride of America are the only two NCL ships that have obtained green status. The status page is updated daily for all cruise lines and can be found: Current color coded status of cruise ships (scroll down to the chart)

 

2) It appears to me that the Crew stipulations put in place by the CDC still apply to all crew during passenger voyages. If interested in specific crew stipulations, see links above. It doesn't make much sense to me, because the way I read it, if crew tests positive the ship goes back into red which would greatly disrupt passenger voyages. I must be missing something.

 

14 hours ago, CroozFanatic said:

Surprised with 4 weeks of cancellations...is that the new standard?

 

I still can't pin-point why RCL chose to cancel sailings on Odyssey all the way through the end of July. According to the CDC, they need to be in lockdown for 14 days after the last positive test. My best guess at this time is that RCL anticipates the possibility of more positive tests (which would reset the clock).  

 

At this point, Celebrity is still scheduled to be the first to sail from the USA on June 26th. 

[rachiem]

I think there will be a lot more of these positive tests.

The vaccination also prevents serious illness, so yes, people are going to test positive but as long as everyone is vaccinated on the ship, the chances of hospitalisation has dramatically been reduced.

Chances are, if they hadn't been regularly tested they wouldn't have known they even had it??

Maybe tour excursion bubbles are the way to go for a while to ensure the countries with the PoC's are also well protected?

[BermudaBound2014]

18 minutes ago, rachiem said:

I think there will be a lot more of these positive tests.

The vaccination also prevents serious illness, so yes, people are going to test positive but as long as everyone is vaccinated on the ship, the chances of hospitalisation has dramatically been reduced.

Chances are, if they hadn't been regularly tested they wouldn't have known they even had it??

Maybe tour excursion bubbles are the way to go for a while to ensure the countries with the PoC's are also well protected?

I agree- one of the cruise lines came out right out and said that it is very unlikely they can keep covid off the ship (can’t remember if it was celebrity or RCl). The key is how are the ships going to respond when covid is found onboard. And, imo, it will be found onboard regardless of vaccination status. It’s certainly less likely with 100% vaccinated, but celebrity only had 8 unvaccinated children onboard and 2 vaccinated guests still tested positive. It is unlikely the virus came from the kids, especially since their parents did not test positive. 

 

Bird is on adventure of seas right now and said RCl is adding more precautions due to Odyssey. Adventure is 100% vaccinated sailing from Bahamas. I honestly don’t think 100% vaccinated is going to make a bit of difference in terms of positive covid cases (but it will be nice to have fewer restrictions onboard if ncl can pull this off). If they are testing, they will find cases and not all ships can immediately run PCR tests which are much more accurate than the false positives produced by antigen. The 2 guests on Celebrity who came down with covid were both vaccinated. The beauty is, celebrity didn’t over react. 
 

I read that odyssey is up to 13 crew testing positive now, but I can’t confirm that from a more reputable source. The only thing that makes sense to me is that Odyssey expects more positive cases. The cdc only requires them to stay Red for 2 weeks but they have shut down sailing for 5 weeks.

 

You maybe right, Excursion bubbles could do the trick for the time being. What Id like to know is where the cases onboard are originating?? If we can figure that out we are making significant progress.