Anyone else given up on the possibility of cruising

[ladyofthetramp]

The cancellation of my Italy/Greece trip this year broke my heart. The trip of a lifetime for me and my first trip overseas. In fact, I would be in Santorini right now. But this pandemic happened. And alot of people have died, in a very short period of time. It has been bad, really bad, for the elderly and those with some sort of co-morbidity. It makes me very sad. I lost my own father in April. Not to the virus. But I could not see him the month previous to his passing. No funeral. That too has broken my heart. We are booked for the similar trip next year. Not canceling now. I have until February to assess and PIF. If I am not comfortable I will cancel then. Most likely, I will go if they go. Life is too short. I want to continue to live my life the best way I can. Cautiously but purposefully moving forward. Will DCL sail next year? I think by the end of this year we will see cruising return. The economy of this whole world depends on travel slowly but surely returning. I think everyone has a comfort level and while things open, as they should, and we need to be kind and respectful to each other. Those who want should wait, and those ready to proceed should carry on.

 

[monkeydawn]

And believe it or not, there's a camp right in the middle which is: let's be on the "careful" side, meaning... Being polite and wear a mask when we can't remain 6ft from other people, wash our hands and work from home when it is possible... Until the number of cases go down. Social distancing is efficient and on top of COVID, the cases of influenza dropped drastically in Canada thanks to social distancing.

Coronavirus is not influenza. It simply doesn't react the same way.

THANK YOU! I feel like we've beyond proven that enough of the population is far too selfish to really lower the numbers of the dead. But there is a middle ground between a real quarantine and returning to normal and letting millions die. Unfortunately the mere suggestion of wearing a mask or staying distanced angers so many. To them there is no middle ground.

 

[mevelandry]

THANK YOU! I feel like we've beyond proven that enough of the population is far too selfish to really lower the numbers of the dead. But there is a middle ground between a real quarantine and returning to normal and letting millions die. Unfortunately the mere suggestion of wearing a mask or staying distanced angers so many. To them there is no middle ground.

Absolutely. Plus, wearing a mask and staying distanced is not "living in fear", it's just common sense in times of pandemic.

 

[NR10]

It is doubtful that they're starting back up soon. DCL is still trying to repatriate crew. Dream/Fantasy were cancelled through the 7/27 cruise. I expect August cruises to get cancelled at some point. Wonder has cancelled all Alaska sailings and is now on this side of the Panama canal...so likely all the cruises until the Galveston ones will be cancelled. Magic is cancelled until mid-October when she's cruising from NYC. Who knows how long the actual cancellations will actually go through.

I'm hoping your are not right. We canceled our European cruise as I was concerned of the 14 day quarantine rule. However, I'm currently booked for this August and truely believe Disney will do what it does best and make it a magical voyage. I have faith!

 

[mab2012]

Originally when that was done, that was at the beginning when we had a media driven narrative that there would be bodies stacked in hospital hallways. That never materialized and people are starting to learn that this is nothing more than a strong flu. Even today the the positive cases are skyrocketing but the rate of death is declining. Originally we kept the ships at bay due to a positive case because of the original fear and we were trying to keep it out, well the cats out of the bag. Hospitals here have the capacity to deal with it and really people are just dealing with it. It was announced today that many of the football players in my city’s NFL team have tested positive for COVID. They are fine and didn’t even know they had it. The best thing for us is heard immunity, catch it, deal with it and move on. Makes us hardier as a species.

locked in home (ostrich head in sand) is not a realistic way to deal with it.

We still have a media driven narrative that there will be bodies stacked in hallways. Ships were still having trouble disembarking passengers weeks after "the cat was out of the bag". Likely the only reason that's not still happening is because nobody is carrying passengers. Crew members are still not allowed to disembark in US ports and take commercial flights home. People are still afraid, and governments are still trying to "keep it out".

For what it's worth, I am strongly on the "let's get back to living" end of the spectrum. I never saw any sense in the lockdown. But just because I think that, and you (apparently) think that, doesn't mean that other people will do it. Some people are eager to move on, but I am still not seeing much sign that wider society is ready to go back to normal life and just accept that they or someone they love might get sick or even die.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

I mean, bodies were being stacked in the hallways, in mortuaries in Queens and other parts of NYC where they literally couldn't handle the numbers of the dead, to the point where there were freezer trucks full of corpses parked in my former neighborhood in NYC. That's not a media-driven fantasy, it was the reality at that point in time when the city was at its highest point of new cases and new deaths. And this is a city that has some of the best hospitals in the world, and had access to far more medical resources than many countries that would normally admit cruise ship tourists to their ports. Countries with current low case numbers would be prudent to continue to ban cruise ships full of Americans from arriving. It seems DCL is expecting that Canada, Bermuda and Mexico may continue to do so, as the only new cruise offers posted this week are for Bahamian sailings for Fall 2020 into Winter 2021. Personally speaking, I'm hopeful that there may be an available vaccine and we can cruise in Fall 2021, but I'm not optimistic that it will be the same experience that we enjoyed in May 2019.

 

[goingtoexpo!!]

We rebooked our November cruise to April. There is new information coming out all the time. I'm not giving up exactly. But I am prepared.

 

[Happy99]

I mean, bodies were being stacked in the hallways, in mortuaries in Queens and other parts of NYC where they literally couldn't handle the numbers of the dead, to the point where there were freezer trucks full of corpses parked in my former neighborhood in NYC. That's not a media-driven fantasy, it was the reality at that point in time when the city was at its highest point of new cases and new deaths. And this is a city that has some of the best hospitals in the world, and had access to far more medical resources than many countries that would normally admit cruise ship tourists to their ports. Countries with current low case numbers would be prudent to continue to ban cruise ships full of Americans from arriving. It seems DCL is expecting that Canada, Bermuda and Mexico may continue to do so, as the only new cruise offers posted this week are for Bahamian sailings for Fall 2020 into Winter 2021. Personally speaking, I'm hopeful that there may be an available vaccine and we can cruise in Fall 2021, but I'm not optimistic that it will be the same experience that we enjoyed in May 2019.

It was bad, keep in mind though that most hospitals have small morgues and can only handle a few at a time. They cannot handle say more than 30 people at a time and that is for a large hospital. Smaller hospitals have lower capacity in the morgue. The refrigerated trucks was due to that where there aren't many options in the morgue.

The large amount of people lost in NYC was immensely sad. Thousands of people touch the same thing all day long, day after day, before everything shut down. Elevator buttons, how many doors do they go through, bathrooms. Both at work and at home as most live in apartment buildings and not single separate homes. When on the subway if standing most people are holding onto something and packed in tightly during rush hour.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

It was bad, keep in mind though that most hospitals have small morgues and can only handle a few at a time. They cannot handle say more than 30 people at a time and that is for a large hospital. Smaller hospitals have lower capacity in the morgue. The refrigerated trucks was due to that where there aren't many options in the morgue.

The large amount of people lost in NYC was immensely sad. Thousands of people touch the same thing all day long, day after day, before everything shut down. Elevator buttons, how many doors do they go through, bathrooms. Both at work and at home as most live in apartment buildings and not single separate homes. When on the subway if standing most people are holding onto something and packed in tightly during rush hour.

Well, many popular cruise ship port locations are in communities where multiple generations of families are packed into one home rather than spread-out, single-family homes. So their governments may determine that the risk of opening to American tourists may not be worth taking. Ultimately, they will decide what they feel is safest for their communities and what they think their infrastructure can handle. We're all just speculating.

 

[BritneyBelle]

Your numbers for influenza in Quebec are not correct.

And believe it or not, there's a camp right in the middle which is: let's be on the "careful" side, meaning... Being polite and wear a mask when we can't remain 6ft from other people, wash our hands and work from home when it is possible... Until the number of cases go down. Social distancing is efficient and on top of COVID, the cases of influenza dropped drastically in Canada thanks to social distancing.

Coronavirus is not influenza. It simply doesn't react the same way.

You’re my favorite person on this thread so far

 

[STH Cruising]

We are scheduled for a DCL Cruise in November, 2020, and have several scheduled in 2021. We have to make a decision soon on the November cruise due to a forthcoming final payment date. Much of what happens this year is dependent on the CDC’s no-sail order. CDC and the cruise lines met last week and nothing seems to have been reported from this meeting. I am hopeful we will know more soon, and then we will make a decision. I won’t speculate until I hear more from DCL.

We would be willing to cruise with a face mask requirement in certain areas of the ship. I would feel even better if there were better treatment protocols for the virus, and that is slowly occuring. While I would like to see a vaccine available, I am not hopeful for cruises in fall of 2020 (if we have them). I also do not think a COVID-19 vaccine will be a panacea any more that the flu vaccine is (although I will definitely get one when available).

 

[T & R]

Much of what happens this year is dependent on the CDC’s no-sail order. CDC and the cruise lines met last week and nothing seems to have been reported from this meeting. I am hopeful we will know more soon, and then we will make a decision. I won’t speculate until I hear more from DCL.

I am also hopeful that since we have 6+ more weeks to go, that is plenty of time for them to have several more meetings and hammer something out. Why just have one or two meetings? Let's keep at it and get it right.

 

[jane01jp]

After hours announcement:

Norwegian’s stock dropped 13% after the closing bell after the company announced it is extending its suspension of global cruises to include trips between August 1 and September 30 for its three main cruise brands. The cruise line said the cancellations exclude Seattle-based Alaska trips in September. Select voyages, including Canada and New England itineraries, are also canceled through October 2020 due to travel and port restrictions. Shares of Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruises each fell more than 7% in after-hours trading as well

 

[bcwife76]

I'd love to know how NCL plans to sail to Alaska in September from Seattle considering Canada has said NO cruise ships in our waters til at least Halloween (that includes stopping to refuel as well apparently). Trust me, the CDN gov't ain't foolin around, they've extended our cross border travel ban on non-essential travel til July 21st at least (we can still fly to the US,which is an interesting loophole, but we have a 14 day quarantine when we return and no hope of getting proper medical insurance while we travel so why bother?)

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'd love to know how NCL plans to sail to Alaska in September from Seattle considering Canada has said NO cruise ships in our waters til at least Halloween

NCL announced today they are suspending cruises between Aug 1 and Sep 30. Plus other selected cruises into October on NCL, Oceania, and Regent cruise lines.

 

[TestingH2O]

What accusations were made? I was on the cruise, and know Disney did everything possible to keep the virus at bay, but we still ended up getting it - even with endless hand washing. The reality was that a very contagious virus was spreading everywhere.

Someone from the FB group took screenshots and reached out that cruise line attorney. I don't want to share the link here, but all he ever posts about are how terrible cruise lines are. I suspect he, and possibly the person who shared the screenshots, was trying to organize a group to sue DCL.

 

[TestingH2O]

NCL announced today they are suspending cruises between Aug 1 and Sep 30. Plus other selected cruises into October on NCL, Oceania, and Regent cruise lines.

But they explicitly said they were going to try to do the Seattle based Alaska sailings. They had been having conversations with some mayors who were sympathetic or something. I'll see if I can find the quote.

 

[TestingH2O]

NCL announced today they are suspending cruises between Aug 1 and Sep 30. Plus other selected cruises into October on NCL, Oceania, and Regent cruise lines.

“We are hopeful that through the support and openness of mayors of Alaska port towns...”

 

[PrincessShmoo]

But they explicitly said they were going to try to do the Seattle based Alaska sailings. They had been having conversations with some mayors who were sympathetic or something. I'll see if I can find the quote.

Well, I'm not sure how they can. In order to comply with the PVSA, the have to stop in a foreign port for the cruise to be legal. Now, there was a time when cruise ships would make "technical stops" in places like Ensenada (on Hawaii cruises) for a couple of hours to complete paperwork (but no debarking passengers), but about 4-5 years ago it was ruled that "stopping in a foreign port" means they have to allow passengers to get off the ship in port.

 

[TestingH2O]

Well, I'm not sure how they can. In order to comply with the PVSA, the have to stop in a foreign port for the cruise to be legal. Now, there was a time when cruise ships would make "technical stops" in places like Ensenada (on Hawaii cruises) for a couple of hours to complete paperwork (but no debarking passengers), but about 4-5 years ago it was ruled that "stopping in a foreign port" means they have to allow passengers to get off the ship in port.

Agree. That’s why it stuck out to me.