COVID Testing on Iona

[Ardennais]

27 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I understand what you are saying, but what is the solution?

Cruising per se is safer than going to a hotel, pub or restaurant.  If the cruise lines could negotiate a protocol that meant people did not have to be disembarked in foreign ports,  I think the majority of forum members would be happy to start cruising again. 

I honestly don’t know! Cruising might indeed be safer ….. as long as you don’t test positive on the cruise! If you do, I think you’re then safer at home because even if you’re not disembarked, I think my husband’s coughing would have been heard along the corridor! 
 

I do hope they negotiate a protocol, and that they communicate those arrangements, one way or another, because communication has been dire thus far. Then I think that more people would certainly consider taking a cruise once again. And whatever some might think, the cruiselines want their past passengers to return. I can’t be the only one to have received several emails today from many cruiselines. 

[yorkshirephil]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I understand what you are saying, but what is the solution?

Cruising per se is safer than going to a hotel, pub or restaurant.  If the cruise lines could negotiate a protocol that meant people did not have to be disembarked in foreign ports,  I think the majority of forum members would be happy to start cruising again. 

I certainly would, we only cancelled our Ventura cruise on 3rd because of that, and the risk has been reduced significantly since on that cruise by only taking passengers who have been boosted. Maybe that is the answer short term, it may not suit some younger people and families but if cruising were to be paused they couldn't go anyway. I still think we just need to get over the next few weeks to see a rosier future.

[cruising.mark.uk]

54 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

I do hope they negotiate a protocol, and that they communicate those arrangements, one way or another, because communication has been dire thus far. Then I think that more people would certainly consider taking a cruise once again. And whatever some might think, the cruiselines want their past passengers to return. I can’t be the only one to have received several emails today from many cruiselines. 

 

From what many on here have written over the last few weeks, it does seem that agreements for on-board quarantining would go a long way to ameliorate the primary concerns of many and potentially shift the risk calculus which is making them currently unwilling to commit to returning to cruising in the short-ish term.  But, I suspect it won't be as simple as that for many reasons.  Three which spring immediately to mind are:

(1) Given the role of national / port authorities in laying down requirements / mandates, separate protocols would probably be required for each different country to be visited on an individual cruise and, potentially, for each individual port (e.g. different agreements might be needed for mainland Spain and each of the Canaries).

(2) Notwithstanding protocols, cruise lines might still deem it prudent to offload rather than quarantine prior to long periods at sea.  So, on long P&O / Cunard transatlantics, they might offload at, e.g. Maderia and somewhere in the US / Caribbean to lower the risk of an infected passenger taking a serious turn for the worse during the 6 or 7 days of a transatlantic crossing.

(3) The size of an outbreak might also be relevant.  How many quarantined passengers can the ship realistically cope with?  And, is quarantining passengers on the ship going to have a significantly detrimental impact on the cruise for the majority of the passengers who are not infected?  For example, my understanding is that RCI, MSC and other ships are being turned away from many Caribbean islands (including cruise line private islands) at the moment if the infection rate exceeds 1% of passengers.  So, holding 10 pax in quarantine on the ship might prevent 990 uninfected pax having any ports of call.

I think, however, it is certainly worth further work to explore what protocols might look like and how they might be agreed.

[majortom10]

52 cases of Covid in crew on Aida Nova which have all been removed from ship and isolated in hotels in Lisbon. The ship is waiting in Lisbon for the arrival of important crew members even though the port authority had given the ship the authority to leave. Meant cancelling its next port of call to Funchal and the missing of NYE fireworks. Proves that Covid is possible on any cruise ship and whether passengers or crew.

[Gettingwarmer]

There has been no information regarding testing on the second half of the present Iona cruise. As they will be arriving home soon maybe someone can give us some news. 

[Dermotsgirl]

26 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

There has been no information regarding testing on the second half of the present Iona cruise. As they will be arriving home soon maybe someone can give us some news. 

On a social media site, someone is reporting that she and her husband were offloaded in Cadiz on 29th. He is positive, she is negative.

 

she says there are 11 passengers and 5 crew from Iona in her isolation hotel. 

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

On a social media site, someone is reporting that she and her husband were offloaded in Cadiz on 29th. He is positive, she is negative.

 

she says there are 11 passengers and 5 crew from Iona in her isolation hotel. 

Does this lady indicate whether these people were offloaded at the same time as her or are some from earlier?  There seems to be a trail of Iona passengers and crew scattered across the Spanish and Canaries ports!

 

I am due to travel on 1 April to the Canaries with a large number of my family and am most definitely not happy with this Spanish situation, particularly hearing of Swanseasailor's description of Tenerife quarantine facility and Molecrochip's explanation of how we got to this.

 

Once the bank holidays are out of the away I intend to go back to my contacts at Carnival head office and have a serious chat about all these things which are coming to light about European cruises, particularly Spain. 

 

Clearly the cruise lines, all of them not just P&O, are gagging these passengers and tying them up in non disclosure agreements as if they raise their head to say anything after one post they disappear and are unable to answer any questions we may like answerd.  Understandably when money will be at stake, and probably a lot in some cases, the passengers are over a barrel.

 

Also on the Cunard board I see some of Britannia's crew have transferred to QM2 which would indicate the new arrivals I saw were not in fact additional people for the expected 2,200 Britannia passengers but some of those moving from QV and also arriving by air yesterday.  Considering that Britannia has to date had no crew sickness this will be an interesting experiment.  I was also surprised to read that QM2 passengers apparently moved to Britannia to await their "late" flights, again rather odd as according to Bridgetown airport staff their last flight each day leaves at around 9.00pm latest.  

 

 

[cruising.mark.uk]

Oh, what fun!  A global conspiracy theory about an evil cabal of capitalist cruise lines silencing dissenting passengers and exercising control over social media, the internet and, no doubt, the entire international news media.

 

And all without a shred of evidence.  My favourite!

 

I waited before adding to this thread because, of course, if its true that there is such a conspiracy, any related posts would have disappeared very quickly and the cabal would have sent round the Men in Black to wipe the memory of all involved.....

 

....But that hasn't happened.  So, it must be safe to record that I have it on good authority that Elvis has posted on social media about his experiences.  He and JFK were debarked over Christmas in the Canaries.  Their hotel is OK, although the jacuzzi on the balcony did break down for a little while and they were a bit miffed that the butler who delivered their Christmas dinner was Spanish and didn't speak much English.  They have avoided being abducted by little green men, having kept their tin foil hats on throughout.  And, apparently, the cruise line cabal has reassured them that they will have them safely home shortly, using the B52 that Carnival recovered from the dark side of the moon and have stored in Area 51 for the last 30 years for just such an eventuality.

 

So, keep calm and carry on...

 

Seriously, and taking into account that people who had their holidays rudely interrupted by debarkation might rightly have been a bit unhappy with events in the chaos of the immediate aftermath, are there many reports of ongoing problems for Cunard / P&O passengers?  Everything I've read on here from those caught up in these incidents suggests that, notwithstanding some probably unavoidable teething problems, they have been looking after their passengers very well.  Certainly, the handling of the QM2 incident seems to me as an onlooker to have been a model of what good looks like.  So, I think we should give credit where credit is due after what has doubtless been a very difficult few weeks, whilst recognising that the experience will have been sub-optimal for some passengers and that the cruise lines should learn relevant lessons to apply in future cases.

[lujaha]

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Does this lady indicate whether these people were offloaded at the same time as her or are some from earlier?  There seems to be a trail of Iona passengers and crew scattered across the Spanish and Canaries ports!

 

I am due to travel on 1 April to the Canaries with a large number of my family and am most definitely not happy with this Spanish situation, particularly hearing of Swanseasailor's description of Tenerife quarantine facility and Molecrochip's explanation of how we got to this.

 

Once the bank holidays are out of the away I intend to go back to my contacts at Carnival head office and have a serious chat about all these things which are coming to light about European cruises, particularly Spain. 

 

Clearly the cruise lines, all of them not just P&O, are gagging these passengers and tying them up in non disclosure agreements as if they raise their head to say anything after one post they disappear and are unable to answer any questions we may like answerd.  Understandably when money will be at stake, and probably a lot in some cases, the passengers are over a barrel.

 

Also on the Cunard board I see some of Britannia's crew have transferred to QM2 which would indicate the new arrivals I saw were not in fact additional people for the expected 2,200 Britannia passengers but some of those moving from QV and also arriving by air yesterday.  Considering that Britannia has to date had no crew sickness this will be an interesting experiment.  I was also surprised to read that QM2 passengers apparently moved to Britannia to await their "late" flights, again rather odd as according to Bridgetown airport staff their last flight each day leaves at around 9.00pm latest.  

 

 

Glad to hear you are 'on the case' megabear.  It sounds as if you were lucky on Britannia to have a relatively stress free cruise.  For all the work you are doing on these boards you deserved it.  I have decided to cancel (transfer to a later date) my cruise at the end of January on Iona.  Just waiting, and hoping, that something will be resolved with this Spanish situation.  If it were a case of just isolating on board until return to Southampton, then I would still go.  We survived our cruise on Ventura back in Oct/Nov with no problems, but this omicron situation is another matter.  My daughter's school where she is a special needs teacher are secretive about covid too.  They are reluctant to tell parents why a teacher is off.  They wouldn't tell the little boy's parents  why my daughter was off for 5 weeks.  His mum was worried she had left the school, and the boy wasn't capable of understanding what was going on.  Good luck with your search for the truth and thanks once again for the time you are taking to do this.

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

 

I waited before adding to this thread because, of course, if its true that there is such a conspiracy, any related posts would have disappeared very quickly and the cabal would have sent round the Men in Black to wipe the memory of all involved.....

P&O do not have control over this board but do over their own boards on other sites and gagging orders would prevent them posting here. 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Gettingwarmer

[Dermotsgirl]

8 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Does this lady indicate whether these people were offloaded at the same time as her or are some from earlier?  There seems to be a trail of Iona passengers and crew scattered across the Spanish and Canaries ports!

 

I am due to travel on 1 April to the Canaries with a large number of my family and am most definitely not happy with this Spanish situation, particularly hearing of Swanseasailor's description of Tenerife quarantine facility and Molecrochip's explanation of how we got to this.

 

Once the bank holidays are out of the away I intend to go back to my contacts at Carnival head office and have a serious chat about all these things which are coming to light about European cruises, particularly Spain. 

 

Clearly the cruise lines, all of them not just P&O, are gagging these passengers and tying them up in non disclosure agreements as if they raise their head to say anything after one post they disappear and are unable to answer any questions we may like answerd.  Understandably when money will be at stake, and probably a lot in some cases, the passengers are over a barrel.

 

Also on the Cunard board I see some of Britannia's crew have transferred to QM2 which would indicate the new arrivals I saw were not in fact additional people for the expected 2,200 Britannia passengers but some of those moving from QV and also arriving by air yesterday.  Considering that Britannia has to date had no crew sickness this will be an interesting experiment.  I was also surprised to read that QM2 passengers apparently moved to Britannia to await their "late" flights, again rather odd as according to Bridgetown airport staff their last flight each day leaves at around 9.00pm latest.  

 

 

I got the impression that the passengers at least were from her cruise, but she didn’t say definitely 

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Oh, what fun!  A global conspiracy theory about an evil cabal of capitalist cruise lines silencing dissenting passengers and exercising control over social media, the internet and, no doubt, the entire international news media.

 

And all without a shred of evidence.  My favourite!

 

I waited before adding to this thread because, of course, if its true that there is such a conspiracy, any related posts would have disappeared very quickly and the cabal would have sent round the Men in Black to wipe the memory of all involved.....

 

....But that hasn't happened.  So, it must be safe to record that I have it on good authority that Elvis has posted on social media about his experiences.  He and JFK were debarked over Christmas in the Canaries.  Their hotel is OK, although the jacuzzi on the balcony did break down for a little while and they were a bit miffed that the butler who delivered their Christmas dinner was Spanish and didn't speak much English.  They have avoided being abducted by little green men, having kept their tin foil hats on throughout.  And, apparently, the cruise line cabal has reassured them that they will have them safely home shortly, using the B52 that Carnival recovered from the dark side of the moon and have stored in Area 51 for the last 30 years for just such an eventuality.

 

So, keep calm and carry on...

 

Seriously, and taking into account that people who had their holidays rudely interrupted by debarkation might rightly have been a bit unhappy with events in the chaos of the immediate aftermath, are there many reports of ongoing problems for Cunard / P&O passengers?  Everything I've read on here from those caught up in these incidents suggests that, notwithstanding some probably unavoidable teething problems, they have been looking after their passengers very well.  Certainly, the handling of the QM2 incident seems to me as an onlooker to have been a model of what good looks like.  So, I think we should give credit where credit is due after what has doubtless been a very difficult few weeks, whilst recognising that the experience will have been sub-optimal for some passengers and that the cruise lines should learn relevant lessons to apply in future cases.

Thank you so much for your comments.  As a relative

[Megabear2]

2 hours ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Oh, what fun!  A global conspiracy theory about an evil cabal of capitalist cruise lines silencing dissenting passengers and exercising control over social media, the internet and, no doubt, the entire international news media.

 

And all without a shred of evidence.  My favourite!

 

I waited before adding to this thread because, of course, if its true that there is such a conspiracy, any related posts would have disappeared very quickly and the cabal would have sent round the Men in Black to wipe the memory of all involved.....

 

....But that hasn't happened.  So, it must be safe to record that I have it on good authority that Elvis has posted on social media about his experiences.  He and JFK were debarked over Christmas in the Canaries.  Their hotel is OK, although the jacuzzi on the balcony did break down for a little while and they were a bit miffed that the butler who delivered their Christmas dinner was Spanish and didn't speak much English.  They have avoided being abducted by little green men, having kept their tin foil hats on throughout.  And, apparently, the cruise line cabal has reassured them that they will have them safely home shortly, using the B52 that Carnival recovered from the dark side of the moon and have stored in Area 51 for the last 30 years for just such an eventuality.

 

So, keep calm and carry on...

 

Seriously, and taking into account that people who had their holidays rudely interrupted by debarkation might rightly have been a bit unhappy with events in the chaos of the immediate aftermath, are there many reports of ongoing problems for Cunard / P&O passengers?  Everything I've read on here from those caught up in these incidents suggests that, notwithstanding some probably unavoidable teething problems, they have been looking after their passengers very well.  Certainly, the handling of the QM2 incident seems to me as an onlooker to have been a model of what good looks like.  So, I think we should give credit where credit is due after what has doubtless been a very difficult few weeks, whilst recognising that the experience will have been sub-optimal for some passengers and that the cruise lines should learn relevant lessons to apply in future cases.

Thank you so much for your comments which are presumably directed at me.  As a relatively late arrival to these discussions, you may be unaware that the compulsory offloading ashore in Spain, the Canaries and Lisbon has been ongoing since the restart of cruising.  There is absolutely no comparison between the QM2 situation and these cases.  The Spanish government insists that contacts of positive testers are removed into quarantine ashore even if testing negative. It appears they will not allow quarantine on board the ship. This includes totally unrelated people who have had the misfortune to sit near a Covid positive person on a tour bus, in a bar, dining room or elsewhere when track and trace is in place - and having just come back from 14 day cruise I can assure you that people are being tracked and traced very thoroughly although they may not be always aware of it.

 

Carnival's CEO office have throughout this been aware that UK travel insurance will not cover such events and they also state when asked that "wherever possible passengers will quarantine on board ship". I have had long and detailed communication with the CEO's office on this issue for some months and carried out considerable research into it.

 

We are now into month four of international cruising and it is very clear Spanish authorities are not changing their position.  The situation with the Iona Christmas cruise has magnified this policy's effects and those booked on to future cruises visiting these areas should in all fairness be told that there is a very high chance if they are contacts of a Covid positive passenger they will find themselves offloaded into a Spanish hotel to quarantine with all the associated difficulties. It would only seem right the cruise companies acknowledge this.

 

Regarding your conspiracy theories remark, my  comments about non disclosure agreements are based on people who have visited these boards to tell of their experiences upon their return to the UK but then rapidly disappeared. These passengers travelled on various cruise lines including, but not limited to, Fred Olsen, Marella, P&O and MSC.  Maybe it is a step on to assume they have to watch what they say and where, but they all reported the same thing happening and there is a constant mention of the same handful of ports with a definite underlying theme. Unfortunately there is more than a shred of evidence and after initial contact they all cease to post.  There is also evidence that the cruise lines shut down comments from quarantined passengers on their own social media outlets (which I do not read or contribute to).

 

You of course have every right to ridicule my suggestion that the cruise companies are suppressing passengers from discussing their experiences but might I politely suggest you seek out the posts elsewhere on the P&O boards on CC before labelling them as disgruntled dissenters.

[Medeba]

12 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

We are now into month four of international cruising and it is very clear Spanish authorities are not changing their position.  The situation with the Iona Christmas cruise has magnified this policy's effects and those booked on to future cruises visiting these areas should in all fairness be told that there is a very high chance if they are contacts of a Covid positive passenger they will find themselves offloaded into a Spanish hotel to quarantine with all the associated difficulties. It would only seem right the cruise companies acknowledge this.

I completely agree with your assertion Megabear2 that cruise companies should inform prospective passengers of the Spanish stance.  Had I known about the Spanish authorities policy on offloading passengers with a positive Covid test I would have thought twice about booking my Christmas cruise; I assumed that if you tested positive that quarantine would be onboard.  When I did find out I should have asked what my options were for my booking (hindsight is a wonderful thing).  As Christmas got closer we worried about the fast transmission of Omicron and the heightened risk of testing positive and being quarantined ashore.  In the end, we decided the day before the cruise not to travel (I must admit we were hoping that Spain might ban travellers from the UK as France and Germany had).  Needless to say we lost our money.  And, just to rub salt into the wounds, I had a email yesterday to ask if we enjoyed our cruise! 

[Dermotsgirl]

56 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Thank you so much for your comments which are presumably directed at me.  As a relatively late arrival to these discussions, you may be unaware that the compulsory offloading ashore in Spain, the Canaries and Lisbon has been ongoing since the restart of cruising.  There is absolutely no comparison between the QM2 situation and these cases.  The Spanish government insists that contacts of positive testers are removed into quarantine ashore even if testing negative. It appears they will not allow quarantine on board the ship. This includes totally unrelated people who have had the misfortune to sit near a Covid positive person on a tour bus, in a bar, dining room or elsewhere when track and trace is in place - and having just come back from 14 day cruise I can assure you that people are being tracked and traced very thoroughly although they may not be always aware of it.

 

Carnival's CEO office have throughout this been aware that UK travel insurance will not cover such events and they also state when asked that "wherever possible passengers will quarantine on board ship". I have had long and detailed communication with the CEO's office on this issue for some months and carried out considerable research into it.

 

We are now into month four of international cruising and it is very clear Spanish authorities are not changing their position.  The situation with the Iona Christmas cruise has magnified this policy's effects and those booked on to future cruises visiting these areas should in all fairness be told that there is a very high chance if they are contacts of a Covid positive passenger they will find themselves offloaded into a Spanish hotel to quarantine with all the associated difficulties. It would only seem right the cruise companies acknowledge this.

 

Regarding your conspiracy theories remark, my  comments about non disclosure agreements are based on people who have visited these boards to tell of their experiences upon their return to the UK but then rapidly disappeared. These passengers travelled on various cruise lines including, but not limited to, Fred Olsen, Marella, P&O and MSC.  Maybe it is a step on to assume they have to watch what they say and where, but they all reported the same thing happening and there is a constant mention of the same handful of ports with a definite underlying theme. Unfortunately there is more than a shred of evidence and after initial contact they all cease to post.  There is also evidence that the cruise lines shut down comments from quarantined passengers on their own social media outlets (which I do not read or contribute to).

 

You of course have every right to ridicule my suggestion that the cruise companies are suppressing passengers from discussing their experiences but might I politely suggest you seek out the posts elsewhere on the P&O boards on CC before labelling them as disgruntled dissenters.

On Christmas Eve, Mark complimented you on your balanced and sensible reporting, so I would have thought he regards you as a reliable witness.  
 

 

[Megabear2]

4 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

On Christmas Eve, Mark complimented you on your balanced and sensible reporting, so I would have thought he regards you as a reliable witness.  
 

 

I hope so!  Do you have news from your friends on QM2?  Are they doing okay?  I was worried about the one with the inner ear problem as it is the same problem my sister in law has and the pain can be excruciating let alone if she needs to fly.

[Interestedcruisefan]

8 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

On Christmas Eve, Mark complimented you on your balanced and sensible reporting, so I would have thought he regards you as a reliable witness.  
 

 

Regardless it's great answer on behalf of anybody else who he does consider to be a conspiracy theorist

 

It's interesting that it's been suggested on the Queen Mary forum that Cunard are allowing a US based passenger who has tested  positive in Barbados to cruise back to Southampton in a balcony quarantine cabin and then fly home from the UK once negative

 

Clearly the Caribbean Islands aren't insisting people offload 

 

However,  I'm slightly surprised Cunard would want to risk positive passengers staying under their medical responsibility for so long 

 

But it shows a vastly different approach

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Interestedcruisefan

[Cathygh]

I think it's worthwhile remembering that the offloading of passengers with covid was part of the EU's advice for restarting cruises so in theory any EU country could insist that such passengers are quarantined on land. Spain has been following this advice. I have heard that someone was taken off a cruise in Greece but was quarantined in a a nice hotel with good food. And I think therin lies the main problem. If people got better food in Spain it would make the quarantine a bit more palatable (sorry for the pun) perhaps? 

[Dermotsgirl]

13 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I hope so!  Do you have news from your friends on QM2?  Are they doing okay?  I was worried about the one with the inner ear problem as it is the same problem my sister in law has and the pain can be excruciating let alone if she needs to fly.

My friends seem to be ok, thank you. They originally boarded at Southampton and will be going back to Southampton with the ship

Just hoping that there’s no issues on the return journey, as it is a long crossing 

[Megabear2]

Because of the very limited decent medical facilities in the islands we were told people would only be removed as a last resort, ie they were becoming very unwell.  Chatting to people in St Maarten it seems the problems the American ships were having in being banned from ports was exactly for this reason - the positive testers had to remain onboard ship and therefore on the larger capacity ships could not meet the less than 1% requirements.

 

I'm not sure if it's happened but there was talk that St Maarten would go back to insisting on a test to go ashore.

 

I don't think Cunard had a choice with what to do with their positive passengers to be honest.  I understand some have been moved to Queen Victoria to quarantine and assumedly these will have to fly home from Barbados.

 

I do however question the wisdom of moving passengers on to Britannia even if only for a half day.  I would hope they were tested very thoroughly before moving across. As the ship has been a "clean ship" since her arrival in the Caribbean it does seem a risk to have done this and also to move her crew around.  Fingers crossed for both ships, although I see QM2 passengers are still unfortunately testing positive as at the overnight posts on the Cunard boards.

 

 

[Dermotsgirl]

14 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Regardless it's great answer on behalf of anybody else who he does consider to be a conspiracy theorist

 

It's interesting that it's been suggested on the Queen Mary forum that Cunard are allowing a US based passenger who has tested  positive in Barbados to cruise back to Southampton in a balcony quarantine cabin and then fly home from the UK once negative

 

Clearly the Caribbean Islands aren't insisting people offload 

 

However,  I'm slightly surprised Cunard would want to risk positive passengers staying under their medical responsibility for so long 

 

But it shows a vastly different approach

 

I saw that report on the Cunard board and must admit I raised my eyebrows. It’s a long way to Southampton, and it’s surprising that they’d keep a person who is already testing positive on the ship when there are so many unknowns - will that person get very Ill  in the middle of the Atlantic and how many more people will test positive as the crossing progresses. Covid clearly hasn’t been eliminated from the ship, and reports I’ve seen suggest that people are carrying on as normal (within the Covid rules framework), so the highly infectious Omicron will still be spreading. 

[Megabear2]

11 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

I think it's worthwhile remembering that the offloading of passengers with covid was part of the EU's advice for restarting cruises so in theory any EU country could insist that such passengers are quarantined on land. Spain has been following this advice. I have heard that someone was taken off a cruise in Greece but was quarantined in a a nice hotel with good food. And I think therin lies the main problem. If people got better food in Spain it would make the quarantine a bit more palatable (sorry for the pun) perhaps? 

Indeed that is the case, certainly have been people in Cyprus and Rhodes, but again even though their experiences were better they have been shut down from commenting.

 

If the cruise lines were upfront regarding the European port situation and not telling people "they would quarantine onboard" there could be no complaint. They could after all direct people to Clause 23 and explain.

 

Cruise passengers are all adults and take responsibility for their own actions in booking/going on a cruise during a pandemic.  In fairness the cruise lines should give a warning that no matter how remote the possibility exists you will be removed.  Non retirees have work commitments to consider and surely should expect full clarity before making the decision of whether it is a suitable time to cruise?

[cruising.mark.uk]

30 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I hope so!  Do you have news from your friends on QM2?  Are they doing okay?  I was worried about the one with the inner ear problem as it is the same problem my sister in law has and the pain can be excruciating let alone if she needs to fly.

I did.  Because your reporting from Britannia was balanced, factual, sensible and informative.  And, I'd followed the debate about insurance etc on here for months, so was well aware of the situation in Spain and all of your hard work to address related issues with CCL, which was very well done.  Hence, I was somewhat surprised by the suggestion that there is a wide-ranging conspiracy of cruise lines (across CCL and privately owned Norwegian and Swiss companies) to suppress passengers who wish to report on here having been debarked in Spain, with the only evidence offered being that some individuals had reported once on their experiences and then stopped.  I acknowledged in my earlier post that some were doubtless justifiably unhappy when their holiday didn't go entirely to plan.  That may have led to heartfelt posts which they didn't follow up on because - in the cold light of day - their issues were addressed and / or they realised that things weren't quite as bad as they thought.  In my view, that is more likely than that their posts were 'suppressed' by cruise lines.  Perhaps we will find out more when the passengers from Iona get back to the UK?

 

If the ship sails, and if we don't get Covid in advance, my wife and I will be on Iona to the Canaries in mid-February.  We are going fully cognisant of the risks and aware of the T&Cs which allow P&O and / or port authorities to debark passengers for medical or other reasons.  We will update on here on our experiences, good or bad.  And, I have no intent of allowing a cruise line to suppress my posts!

[cruising.mark.uk]

21 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

If the cruise lines were upfront regarding the European port situation and not telling people "they would quarantine onboard" there could be no complaint. They could after all direct people to Clause 23 and explain.

 

Cruise passengers are all adults and take responsibility for their own actions in booking/going on a cruise during a pandemic.  In fairness the cruise lines should give a warning that no matter how remote the possibility exists you will be removed.  

By the way, I don't know how recently this has been changed, but P&Os FAQs as of this morning say this:

Any instances of positive tests on board will be managed by our on board medical teams in conjunction with local port authority / Port Health requirements and protocols and there may be situations where guests are required to disembark the ship before their scheduled port of disembarkation.  In these instances, we shall always work with the local authorities and the guests’ insurance company to secure the most appropriate accommodation to continue the period of isolation.  Our dedicated CARE team will also provide ongoing support to any guests in these circumstances.  

 

Is that not pretty much what you are asking for?

 

 

[smoggymonster]

hi all , have just completed my health declaration truthfully for Iona sailing tomorrow and instantly told not to travel. I only answered yes to one of the questions which wasn't related directly to my health which barred me from cruising until the 6th January. 😪  We had been on Iona in November and loved it so I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy her for the next 12 days.