Pearl Heading Back to Miami as Sailing Cancelled due to Crew Cases

[vacationut]

14 minutes ago, Wizpharm2 said:

Might want to double check that they are not automatically cancelling your return flights…

They reiterated what the email said, new flights would be booked within 24 hours. 

[dobiemom]

1 hour ago, CarolinaMamma said:

I’m just trying to gather as much info as I can before my Jann16th cruise. I’d hate to cancel and be stuck with $10k in FCC and then a day later have NCL cancel the cruise and give everyone a full refund plus 100% FCC. Observing how far in advance NCL cancels cruises (there will be others) will help me make the best decision. 

 

1 hour ago, aubreyc1988 said:

if you are comfortably personally with sailing, I'd not cancel and just wait to see how things pan out. 

I’m on the Breakaway Jan 16. 🤞 I will wait until NCL cancels the cruise. I’d rather cruise or get a refund. Don’t need/want FCC. 

[Turtles06]

26 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I believe it was Barbados. The QE@ was supposed to head back to NY, but NY refused entry so they flew passengers home from Barbados. Some passengers from the UK elected to stay onboard as the QE2 is directly headed back to Southampton.

It was Barbados but it was the QM2.  They had to remain in Barbados to bring new crew on board and to disembark crew with covid to the Queen Victoria (operating as a support ship for Carnival Corp). This gave them insufficient time to return to NY and keep to their scheduled Jan10 return to Southampton.   Some pax were flown to NY/NJ. Some to the UK, and some remained on board to sail to the UK

[kathy49]

1 hour ago, aubreyc1988 said:

Let's all try to dial back the hysteria. Hopefully Omicron will peak and start to decline soon...So sad for these cruises to be cancelled, crossing my fingers my 1/22 sailing will be ok...

Omicron is supposed to peak about third week of Jan. I think at this point they should just put a self imposed pause on operations and let this wave pass....you can't give customers what they paid for with so many staff down...so many ports closed and so many problems. 

[BermudaBound2014]

8 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

Omicron is supposed to peak about third week of Jan. I think at this point they should just put a self imposed pause on operations and let this wave pass....you can't give customers what they paid for with so many staff down...so many ports closed and so many problems. 

 

FAuci said it would peak at the end of January.

 

Columbia University said it will peak in 5 days :).

 

https://news.yahoo.com/scientists-predict-omicron-peak-u-150556534.html

[karatemom2]

1 minute ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

FAuci said it would peak at the end of January.

 

Columbia University said it will peak in 5 days :).

 

https://news.yahoo.com/scientists-predict-omicron-peak-u-150556534.html

 

I work in healthcare and although I would love to see it peak in 5 days, that is not what we are hearing from our experts. Keep in mind that people who have contracted it over the holidays are now heading back to work, to college and to school where it will continue to spread exponentially for at least another couple of weeks. Realistic peak time we are hearing is end of January beginning of February - but it won't be over at that point, just peaked which means hitting its max impact. It will then take several more weeks for the numbers to slowly come down. This is the pattern we have seen with these surges over and over. While this one may move through slightly more quickly - it will likely be with us at least through the end of February or beginning of March before we can actually envision a time when we can start to say we have moved out of this latest wave.

[TNcruising02]

2 hours ago, CarolinaMamma said:

I’m just trying to gather as much info as I can before my Jann16th cruise. I’d hate to cancel and be stuck with $10k in FCC and then a day later have NCL cancel the cruise and give everyone a full refund plus 100% FCC. Observing how far in advance NCL cancels cruises (there will be others) will help me make the best decision. 

At this rate, I will find out on Jan 14th that my Jan 15th cruise is cancelled.  I will be fine with it because then I will actually get a refund and I will stay in the Orlando area and enjoy a vacation.

Edited January 4, 2022 by TNcruising02

[dobiemom]

2 hours ago, Lou33 said:

The real question, are they going to test all passengers before they disembark?  I doubt it.  Do they really want the world to know how many asymptomatic passengers are positive?  Do they really want to pay for quarantine and travel expenses for what could be hundreds of passengers?  Not.  

CDC (or maybe NOLA?) made the Breakaway test all debarking passengers one cruise last month. 

[aubreyc1988]

36 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

Omicron is supposed to peak about third week of Jan. I think at this point they should just put a self imposed pause on operations and let this wave pass....you can't give customers what they paid for with so many staff down...so many ports closed and so many problems. 

is Disney/Universal/etc doing a self imposed pause as well? 

[BermudaBound2014]

47 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

I think at this point they should just put a self imposed pause on operations and let this wave pass....

 

Be careful what you ask for.

[Lou33]

55 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

I think at this point they should just put a self imposed pause on operations and let this wave pass

I think the cruise lines will do everything possible to keep sailing.  But I don't think it will be possible for much longer.  At final payment, many people are cancelling, they are have a lot of expenses to quarantine passengers, and they are starting to cancel their own cruises.  Soon we may reach a point where it just won't be worth it for them to sail.  

 

 

 

 

[kathy49]

2 minutes ago, Lou33 said:

I think the cruise lines will do everything possible to keep sailing.  But I don't think it will be possible for much longer.  At final payment, many people are cancelling, they are have a lot of expenses to quarantine passengers, and they are starting to cancel their own cruises.  Soon we may reach a point where it just won't be worth it for them to sail.  

 

 

 

 

yes they will soon reach a point where the sailing is not profitable ....better a pause than to let the situation get any worse....every ship out there has cases now .

[disneykins]

Worse case scenario, what if the head chef gets it? His close contacts are all the other chefs? Its only day 2 of a 14 day cruise. Can you imagine the mood of the masked passengers when you stop feeding them, lol. Or the bartenders?

 

I know  its not nice to joke about others misfortune but we are all booking cruises knowing what might happen. It sucks when it happens (it did to us when we were already in Florida in March 2020 when our cruise was cancelled) but we should be prepared for whatever happens. I'm sure NCL is doing what is best for them and us.

Tony

[CarolinaMamma]

1 hour ago, disneykins said:

Worse case scenario, what if the head chef gets it? His close contacts are all the other chefs? Its only day 2 of a 14 day cruise. Can you imagine the mood of the masked passengers when you stop feeding them, lol. Or the bartenders?

 

I know  its not nice to joke about others misfortune but we are all booking cruises knowing what might happen. It sucks when it happens (it did to us when we were already in Florida in March 2020 when our cruise was cancelled) but we should be prepared for whatever happens. I'm sure NCL is doing what is best for them and us.

Tony

God forbid all the bartenders get Covid! 

[rabidstoat]

3 hours ago, Susandt said:

My guess is no but it would be interesting 

 

I always wondered what happen if the US government required a COVID test before returning to the US, like it does with air flights. Obviously you can't leave a person on the cruise ship if they're positive but you could require them to go quarantine at a local hotel -- at their own expense.

[GeezerCouple]

3 hours ago, SliderNc said:

Since I don't know what happened, I can only give examples.  There are basically four divisions on a cruise ship: Deck Department, Engineering Department, Hotel Department and Medical Department.  All report to the captain.  In the event that the Captain falls ill for whatever reason, the Staff Captain is usually next in command and would take over.  If the Chief Engineer falls ill, there is usually the Second engineer who would take over his duties and report to the captain.  This goes all the way down the command chain for each department.   If multiple departments were to have COVID infect them and take out a certain number of officers, it is more than likely going to lead to the ship either staying in the port it is in, or turning around to the last port it was in until it can be remedied as a certain number of crew in each department is needed to safely operate the ship.  My guess is with the Pearl and the Getaway, they've either had massive outbreaks in the crew that is effecting and/or testing limits of the crew numbers to safely operate the ship, or they had a massive passenger outbreak, or both.  I want to say I read somewhere that the QM2 (Cunard) had to stay in Bermuda recently due a lack of able bodied deck officers to safely operate the ship.

 

Last I heard about the QM2, they flew their NY passengers to NY, and the ship is heading directly back to the UK.  Not sure about other passengers... onboard or flying ...?

 

CruiseMapper seems to show the ship on a straight line from Southern Caribbean (she was in Barbados) to the UK.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9241061

 

It doesn't look like she'll be near Bermuda.

 

What a mess this all is.

I'm just glad that we do NOT have any reservations soon.  To be flying out, having no idea if the ship will sail, but suspecting it won't... but you can't "not fly" in case the ship does sail...!?

 

We fly domestic with cash because it's not usually all that much.  But any long haul is with awards, so at least IF it were us, we'd only be out the modest change fees.  That's not at all the case for those who some time ago purchased non-refundable air tickets.

 

GC

[rabidstoat]

5 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

I'm just glad that we do NOT have any reservations soon.  To be flying out, having no idea if the ship will sail, but suspecting it won't... but you can't "not fly" in case the ship does sail...!?

 

 

You can book for late May 2022. That's when I'm sailing, and I dodged COVID waves in 2020 and 2021 so far so I have a good track record with this.

 

(I just know this is going to be a post I regret during my cruise when things go sideways and I'm stuck in an interior with no food because the entire crew is sick with COVID!)

[Turtles06]

8 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

Last I heard about the QM2, they flew their NY passengers to NY, and the ship is heading directly back to the UK.  Not sure about other passengers... onboard or flying ...?

 

Please see my comment above, number 83, for the facts on the QM2. 

[GeezerCouple]

11 minutes ago, rabidstoat said:

 

You can book for late May 2022. That's when I'm sailing, and I dodged COVID waves in 2020 and 2021 so far so I have a good track record with this.

 

(I just know this is going to be a post I regret during my cruise when things go sideways and I'm stuck in an interior with no food because the entire crew is sick with COVID!)

Actually, we booked about 2-3 months ago, to take the family on a cruise in August, 2023.

We'll see...!

It would be so nice to feel comfortable going.

GC

[GeezerCouple]

10 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Please see my comment above, number 83, for the facts on the QM2. 

 

Thanks for the update!

GC

[TNcruising02]

45 minutes ago, rabidstoat said:

 

I always wondered what happen if the US government required a COVID test before returning to the US, like it does with air flights. Obviously you can't leave a person on the cruise ship if they're positive but you could require them to go quarantine at a local hotel -- at their own expense.

It would make more sense to require a negative covid test to fly.  Then anyone who was traveling by plane would need to be negative, not just people returning from cruises.

[mpk218]

Great .  Anyone notice this .

[mpk218]

Just now, mpk218 said:

Great .  Anyone notice this .

Thats the Encore as of Now heading back North ...

[vacationut]

13 minutes ago, mpk218 said:

Thats the Encore as of Now heading back North ...

Interesting. When I was on the line with a NCL rep earlier she asked if I was on Encore. I figured it was just a mix up. Guess not. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, CarolinaMamma said:

God forbid all the bartenders get Covid! 

Nah...  Anybody can pour me a beer or pour scotch/bourbon/rye over ice cubes.  Of course, my morning bloody mary's might suffer....  Well, I've lived with screwdrivers before and could do it again in a serious crisis.