On Queen Mary now? Covid cases?

[ace2542]

6 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

That's disappointing, I wonder when Cunard will decide to give up with sailings to US ports for the moment.

 

And where would they sail?.  Russia is out so a Baltic sailing is less appealing. Without the  TAs and the lesser appeals of the Baltics I don't see much opportunity for the QM2?

[Host Hattie]

Norway, Mediterranean, Canaries, Round Britain all places I've been to on QM2 and would happily sail again, or the Caribbean direct from Southampton.

[BouncingWheel]

1 hour ago, ace2542 said:

Seems like they need to take the ship out of service and let it go through the crew and come back with herd immune crew. It is clearly jumping back and forth. They also maybe need not allow b2b sailings for a while but that would be costly?

I really don't think it is just the crew. They are wearing good quality masks almost all the time (maybe not when amongst themselves). I think it is mainly amongst the passengers coming on board. They may be negative when they test to board but doesn't mean that they are Covid free. After a few days onboard these infected folks would be test positive (if they got tested) but would be transmitting the virus and we all know it spreads fast. That is why the longer cruises seem to pick it up more and the shorter ones have the "I tested positive after my cruise" stories. On our 12 night cruise it was significantly increasing from about Day 7. We will never know who patient 0 was, or in fact how many patient 0s there were on that cruise - could have been crew or passengers.

With testing at home now instead of at port it just means that it is more likely to be transmitting earlier (1 day earlier) though I agree QM2 will probably be more infectious with so many B2B passengers onboard compared to others.

Covid is not going away and will probably continue to ebb and flow in waves and we are in a high wave again at present. I am in the camp of we have to live with it now but I would like better cruise policies for how we live with it as the stories of forced disembarkation and isolation for negative close contacts have put me off QM2 or long cruises for the time being.

[ace2542]

1 hour ago, Host Hattie said:

Norway, Mediterranean, Canaries, Round Britain all places I've been to on QM2 and would happily sail again, or the Caribbean direct from Southampton.

Fjords  from OSLO would be very good trip - a trip which no one does to my knowledge -. That would be a very good. QM2 has the speed to cover the distance round norway.

 

And wouldn't Caribbean come under CDC and touch American ports like San Juan?. There are people I know who are banned forever from America not gonna get into why they are banned but they are. And so far as I know they can't cruise Caribbean because of the ban because the sailing touch on U.S Virgin Island, San Juan or both and being part of USA they can't get in.

Edited April 23, 2022 by ace2542

[rakkor]

2 hours ago, ace2542 said:

And from a waiter?

 

No, from the diners sitting next to us, he was subdued one evening and when Jane asked after him, his wife said he had a cold, the next day I tested positive. This is all supposition as Cunard don't give out any info, but Jane did call their stateroom several times to see how they were and received no answer.

[BouncingWheel]

23 minutes ago, rakkor said:

 

No, from the diners sitting next to us, he was subdued one evening and when Jane asked after him, his wife said he had a cold, the next day I tested positive. This is all supposition as Cunard don't give out any info, but Jane did call their stateroom several times to see how they were and received no answer.

I never asked @rakkor but in the Grills do you get the same table allocated for the whole cruise. I have read they do that in club dining but in normal Britannia we were moved around all the time (and spent a good minute at the start of every meal playing find the table with the waiter which I know would annoy some people but I quite enjoyed it).

 

I only ask because if you are always next to the same people and tend to eat at the same time then you have become a consistent close contact by accident which seems to be more of a risk.

[Dermotsgirl]

5 hours ago, cook68 said:

I really am not bothered about catching covid 'again' It was not pleasant at all but here I am. Thankfully.  What is starting to really worry me is paying the full amount for a cruise and getting half the deal and quite possibly it being ruined because the guy at the next table now has covid. Cunard are starting to get a big problem again with QM2. I hope by July and after a dry dock the Victoria stays in a green zone 

QV won't be in a zone this year, as she is doing European cruises out of Southampton, and the EU and UK do not have a system like the CDC's colour coding.

 

Personally, I wonder if QM2 seems 'worse' for Covid compared to other ships sailing from Southampton, as the information from CDC is available.

 

QM2 is probably no better or worse than any of the other ships that sail from Southampton, but no information is available - the cruiselines endeavour to keep the information secret, and there is no independent monitoring information in the public domain. It makes in very difficult to assess risk, without data.  

[Host Hattie]

1 hour ago, ace2542 said:

And wouldn't Caribbean come under CDC and touch American ports like San Juan?. There are people I know who are banned forever from America not gonna get into why they are banned but they are. And so far as I know they can't cruise Caribbean because of the ban because the sailing touch on U.S Virgin Island, San Juan or both and being part of USA they can't get in.

There are plenty of ports of call in the Caribbean which aren't American.

[Fifer]

1 hour ago, ace2542 said:

And wouldn't Caribbean come under CDC and touch American ports like San Juan?.

It doesn't have to.  We did the January Caribbean trip on QM2 and we never went near a US port.  Smart scheduling could offer a very attractive trip.  I'd go again in a heartbeat.

[mcloaked]

5 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

Norway, Mediterranean, Canaries, Round Britain all places I've been to on QM2 and would happily sail again, or the Caribbean direct from Southampton.

 

The Caribbean from Southampton back to Southampton, via the Azores and possibly Madeira or Spain/Portugal as ports of call is very appealing - especially out of hurricane season when we would all like some warm weather - most of that itinerary would be in nice weather in the UK winter.

[rakkor]

4 hours ago, BouncingWheel said:

I never asked @rakkor but in the Grills do you get the same table allocated for the whole cruise. I have read they do that in club dining but in normal Britannia we were moved around all the time (and spent a good minute at the start of every meal playing find the table with the waiter which I know would annoy some people but I quite enjoyed it).

 

I only ask because if you are always next to the same people and tend to eat at the same time then you have become a consistent close contact by accident which seems to be more of a risk.

 

Same table, same neighbours, same wait staff. We had a window table so only had one table close, some of the other tables for two are in the middle of three, so have more neighbours.

 

This photo from our November cruise, we were sat where the couple are on our last cruise

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by rakkor

[Tonopah]

Friends of ours took a cruise on a very luxurious line to Rome…and came home with viral pneumonia. So who knows? Fewer passengers, higher staff-to-passenger ratio, traveling in a country with a mask mandate, and they still managed to end up in just the right Petri dish to catch a different virus. I’m afraid the microscopic world is out to get us.

[ace2542]

1 hour ago, mcloaked said:

 

The Caribbean from Southampton back to Southampton, via the Azores and possibly Madeira or Spain/Portugal as ports of call is very appealing - especially out of hurricane season when we would all like some warm weather - most of that itinerary would be in nice weather in the UK winter.

But that is not the traditional QM2 though it is? And it is the only true ocean liner. The whole point of the ship is the TA crossings from Soton-NYC. And no one has ever tried to take that them on the route out of respect I think.

[mcloaked]

15 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

But that is not the traditional QM2 though it is? And it is the only true ocean liner. The whole point of the ship is the TA crossings from Soton-NYC. And no one has ever tried to take that them on the route out of respect I think.

 

I have been on Soton-NYC both ways in the winter on QM2 - and having 3 days of force 11 gales both ways was certainly an experience - but given the choice the route via the Azores to the Caribbean I would enjoy a great deal more.  I would not choose a TA in wild weather if there was a better weather route to have a more pleasant ride on a voyage! Maybe others prefer to take the challenge of rough seas for whatever reason they like.

[mcloaked]

Or if QM2 is destined to do other routes I would be perfectly happy to do Southampton-Azores-Caribbean-Southampton on QE or QV instead, with a few nice ports along the way.

[D&N]

Our only interest is in the traditional North Atlantic route.

We'd be happy to sail into New York Harbour, take a few photos of Lady Liberty and Manhattan, turn round and come back to Southampton.

[BouncingWheel]

14 hours ago, D&N said:

Our only interest is in the traditional North Atlantic route.

We'd be happy to sail into New York Harbour, take a few photos of Lady Liberty and Manhattan, turn round and come back to Southampton.

Yes but even if no-one disembarked the CDC would deem you are in US waters so close contacts would be isolated (semi isolated) and infected passengers potentially disembarked.

It is because of these current US specific rules that that @Host Hattie and others suggested non-US alternatives for the time being until CDC relax their rules.

[D&N]

3 hours ago, BouncingWheel said:

Yes but even if no-one disembarked the CDC would deem you are in US waters so close contacts would be isolated (semi isolated) and infected passengers potentially disembarked.

It is because of these current US specific rules that that @Host Hattie and others suggested non-US alternatives for the time being until CDC relax their rules.

Maybe need an extra long zoom lens and just turn at boundary of their territorial waters! 🤣

[3rdGenCunarder]

On 4/22/2022 at 7:00 PM, cook68 said:

Am I being naive. I assumed close contact would be a member of your party. Could it also be someone you have sat next to for a while. We have spent many a pub quiz joining someones team or someone joining ours or sharing a table  while dining. Does this count? It will make for very unfriendly encounters if you're likely to get penalised by the locked in dining of shame just because you were being friendly. I now have visions of 'may I sit here' and me saying YES I do mind. I love meeting new people it's all part of the trip. 

 

I just received an email about my World Club benefits for my upcoming cruise. Still no cocktail parties. I don't care about the free drink. But it's part of being social, and it makes the evening special. I have always liked that the answer to "may I join you" is almost always "yes, please do." Now, I will feel uncomfortable asking if I may share a table at tea. As a solo traveler, I'm concerned about feeling alone in a crowd, as the saying goes. 

[lissie]

On 4/23/2022 at 11:36 PM, ace2542 said:

Seems like they need to take the ship out of service and let it go through the crew and come back with herd immune crew. It is clearly jumping back and forth. They also maybe need not allow b2b sailings for a while but that would be costly?

There is no such thing as heard immunity with variants. 

[cook68]

8 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I just received an email about my World Club benefits for my upcoming cruise. Still no cocktail parties. I don't care about the free drink. But it's part of being social, and it makes the evening special. I have always liked that the answer to "may I join you" is almost always "yes, please do." Now, I will feel uncomfortable asking if I may share a table at tea. As a solo traveler, I'm concerned about feeling alone in a crowd, as the saying goes. 

This is really sad to read. I have never said no to anyone ever asking to share a seat or table and I would also feel uncomfortable doing just that. But under the US guidance CDC everyone is at risk of being shut up in their rooms at meal times due to close contact, which would also be even harder for a single traveller. Cunard are going to have to re think what they are doing with the QM2 this season, it can not continue with this current setting. If on the Victoria around Europe close contact has a different meaning, then sailing is definitely going to be more relaxed and less worrisome. 

[lissie]

10 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I just received an email about my World Club benefits for my upcoming cruise. Still no cocktail parties. I don't care about the free drink. But it's part of being social, and it makes the evening special. I have always liked that the answer to "may I join you" is almost always "yes, please do." Now, I will feel uncomfortable asking if I may share a table at tea. As a solo traveler, I'm concerned about feeling alone in a crowd, as the saying goes. 

How long is your cruise? We are on 36 days ex SF with lots of pew pax joining of trip as far as Florida.  If we were sailing next week - ie with current levels of infection we'd be staying at 6ft distance from strangers for the first part of the trip until we were about 5 days past LA . Then I'd feel comfortable socalizing. After Florida - I'm not sure -depends on what percentage of  new passengers - but if they are still testing pre Bermuda I'd  again be cautious of socializing with the newbies 

Edited April 25, 2022 by lissie

[3rdGenCunarder]

15 minutes ago, lissie said:

How long is your cruise? We are on 36 days ex SF with lots of pew pax joining of trip as far as Florida.  If we were sailing next week - ie with current levels of infection we'd be staying at 6ft distance from strangers for the first part of the trip until we were about 5 days past LA . Then I'd feel comfortable socalizing. After Florida - I'm not sure -depends on what percentage of  new passengers - but if they are still testing pre Bermuda I'd  again be cautious of socializing with the newbies 

 

10 days, QE to Alaska. Given that there's a cruise before with almost the same ports, it's unlikely that there will be many passengers from the previous cruise. But, of course, crew will be the same. Nobody joining the cruise halfway through. But with lots of ports there are many ways for Covid to sneak onto the ship.

[david,Mississauga]

On 4/23/2022 at 7:44 AM, Host Hattie said:

That's disappointing, I wonder when Cunard will decide to give up with sailings to US ports for the moment.

 

 

Atlantic crossings could use Halifax or Quebec City. Until circa 1967 Cunard ran crossings to and from Montreal. 

[lissie]

On 4/24/2022 at 2:53 AM, Host Hattie said:

There are plenty of ports of call in the Caribbean which aren't American.

Unlikely as they are about to run an Alaskan season