Coronavirus and DCL Megathread - Suspension of Departures for the fleet until early November. Booking only available from early December.

[DMMarla07860]

None of these apply to me, but banning people with underlying health conditions would eliminate a big portion of the population. It wouldn’t be enforceable anyway. I don’t think people can be forced to disclose their medical information.

I’m guessing people over the age of 70 make up a large portion of cruiselines clientele.
I have family members that cruise a lot and they’are in their 80’s.

I know I wouldn't be able to cruise because I have a underlying health condition. Luckily I don't have it as bad as some people and you wouldn't be able to tell unless I told you. was disagnosed at age 30, 32 now

 

[CM Dad]

Good, good... just don't EVER ask me to step on a scale in the terminal!

Not at the terminal, but we were required to step on a scale before going on a helicopter tour to a glacier on an Alaskan cruise so that they could distribute the load properly

 

[DisneyWishes14]

DCL can ask you any questions they want, but you also don't have to answer the questions honestly. Unless they get your medical records from your physician they are never going to know if the answers you give them are accurate.

Most morbidly obese people have some kind of underlying condition. Are they going to fat shame people and deny them boarding too? It's all pretty ridiculous in my opinion. Have guests sign a waiver and let them make their own decisions regarding the risk they want to take.

When you sign the embarkation health questionnaire, you basically are signing a waiver. If someone lies and then something happens on the cruise related to the condition they lied about, that person will be completely liable. I think people need to think about the risks of lying on those forms from endangering others' health to the extreme costs they may face if they get sick on the ship and lied on their form. But you bring up a good point, it's pretty easy to lie about an underlying condition. It's extraordinarily difficult to lie about one's age when embarking on a cruise. Quite honestly, this is why I don't think anyone is sailing anytime soon. There is absolutely zero way to ensure COVID doesn't show up on a ship and the last thing anyone wants to see is another Diamond Princess or Zaandam situation.

 

[T & R]

The scenario the cruise ships want to avoid is where they become floating hospitals/morgues,

Those days are over. At the beginning of all this when we saw people stuck on ships, they weren't letting ships dock or unload sick passengers because they were trying to keep the virus out of the U.S.. Now that there are literally millions of cases in the U.S., that strategy would be kind of useless. If passengers were to get sick today, they would dock and treat them since we've proven we have the capacity to do so and the doomsday scenario of patients stacked in the hospital halls hasn't happened. NYC alone has handled/treated hundreds of thousands of cases so a cruise ship that only has a few dozen or a few hundred cases is a drop in the bucket. The virus isn't going away, we all are going to be exposed at some point in our lives. Many of us have been exposed already and don't even know it (those sniffles you had back in February). I'd rather be exposed on a cruise than at the grocery store but it's going to happen and people just need to accept it. More people will perish by locking everyone away and putting the whole country into desperate poverty than just letting the virus run it's course. Just because someone dies who has Coronavirus doesn't mean they died from Coronavirus. The stats are very misleading and in the end we'll find that the small fraction that did die had some kind of underlying condition or auto immune issues that they may have even been unaware of. We need to get on with our lives and cruise, if people disagree , they can stay at home and not book a cruise.

Coronavirus is estimated to have been around for thousands of years and was identified in humans in the 1960's. It's not going away. So if we are waiting for Coronavirus to go away before we start the cruise industry back up, then we have all already taken our last cruise and they may as well go ahead and scrap the ships because the virus isn't magically going to go away in July when the no sail order ends.

 

[Kp128]

When you sign the embarkation health questionnaire, you basically are signing a waiver. If someone lies and then something happens on the cruise related to the condition they lied about, that person will be completely liable. I think people need to think about the risks of lying on those forms from endangering others' health to the extreme costs they may face if they get sick on the ship and lied on their form. But you bring up a good point, it's pretty easy to lie about an underlying condition. It's extraordinarily difficult to lie about one's age when embarking on a cruise. Quite honestly, this is why I don't think anyone is sailing anytime soon. There is absolutely zero way to ensure COVID doesn't show up on a ship and the last thing anyone wants to see is another Diamond Princess or Zaandam situation.

Older people aren't more prone to getting or spreading the virus just more apt to die from it. The only people they are endangering is themselves. Do people really think the cruiseline is responsible if they get sick on a cruise? I'm the type person that believes in personal accountability. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around that.

 

[MomOTwins]

Older people aren't more prone to getting or spreading the virus just more apt to die from it. The only people they are endangering is themselves. Do people really think the cruiseline is responsible if they get sick on a cruise? I'm the type person that believes in personal accountability. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around that.

But cruise lines do make efforts to get people who need hospitalization to the nearest hospital. E.g., if someone has a heart attack or a stroke or a broken bone onboard, they'll re-route the cruise to get them to port. Cruise ship medical facilities don't have the kind of set up where they can put someone on a ventilator in a medically induced coma. The cruise line is not just going to let someone die when they could get them to a hospital, but nor do they really want to be in a position where they are taking on a type of passenger that is at high risk of needing a hospital since it is so potentially disruptive to the cruise itinerary to have to re-route--hence why they don't let pregnant women past x number of week son.

All that said, I don't think they'll apply an age restriction because they'll lose too many passengers. Too many grandmas and grandpas paying for big family trips.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Coronavirus is estimated to have been around for thousands of years and was identified in humans in the 1960's.

Saying that "coronavirus" has existed for many years is like saying "cats" have existed for thousands of years.

Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in birds and mammals. It's not a single entity. COVID-19 is a single form of coronavirus within the group, much as my fat kitten is a single form of cat within felidae, but she's not a tiger no matter how much she dreams of it while sleeping on my desk chair. However, unlike my cat, COVID-19 can mutate and become milder, or worse, as it transmits.

SARS, MERS and even some colds are coronaviruses.

The cruise industry has faced poop cruises, terrorism and other issues, but becoming a floating hospital or morgue is a biggy, and it will take novel solutions. The US is currently on record as not being willing to bail out a ship, and Canada is at a point where they've said citizens who cruise are at their own risk and may not get repatriation help if things go bad. These are major issues.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Carnival has cancelled all remaining Alaska cruises for 2020.

It's going to be fascinating watching the ongoing fallout when the DVC member cruise is forced to cancel, I think. The shutdown has created a big mess on that side just for the resorts, banking, borrowing and points extensions. DVC member cruise participants tend to be the most fiercely loyal DVC members, and often have a ton of points. They pay in full when booking the member cruise. Points converted to pay for a cruise have traditionally been not possible to convert back to book a normal resort, and new bookings require a $95 fee.

I'd guess DCL drag out some of the late summer cancels while DVC/DCL try to figure out how to handle the MC.

 

[T & R]

but becoming a floating hospital or morgue is a biggy, and it will take novel solutions. The US is currently on record as not being willing to bail out a ship,

That was back when we were trying to prevent the virus from coming in and spreading here. That has now already happened. They're not going to go back to refusing ships because the virus has already arrived and spread here. We've already disproven all the doomsday scenarios that had everyone scared to accept ships during the beginning of this outbreak. Since the virus isn't going to go away, isolation is no longer a reasonable option.

COVID-19 is a single form of coronavirus

Correct and there will be more Coronavirus mutations down the road. Covid-19 could be the mild one compared to the next version of Coronavirus. Exposure and heard immunity is a good thing not a bad thing. Those who get Covid-19 and never noticed or only had mild symptoms prolly already had a form of Coronavirus sometime during their life. Locking away in our homes is not a reasonable solution.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

That was back when we were trying to prevent the virus from coming in and spreading here. That has now already happened. They're not going to go back to refusing ships because the virus has already arrived and spread here.

The USCG guidance on this issue is still live. It's not "go back to." It's still in refusal mode. CDC guidance isn't even allowing disembarking of crew members save under very controlled circumstance.

To actually allow embarkation would be a change right now.

 

[Lola Granola]

Saying that "coronavirus" has existed for many years is like saying "cats" have existed for thousands of years.

Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in birds and mammals. It's not a single entity. COVID-19 is a single form of coronavirus within the group, much as my fat kitten is a single form of cat within felidae, but she's not a tiger no matter how much she dreams of it while sleeping on my desk chair. However, unlike my cat, COVID-19 can mutate and become milder, or worse, as it transmits.

SARS, MERS and even some colds are coronaviruses.

The cruise industry has faced poop cruises, terrorism and other issues, but becoming a floating hospital or morgue is a biggy, and it will take novel solutions. The US is currently on record as not being willing to bail out a ship, and Canada is at a point where they've said citizens who cruise are at their own risk and may not get repatriation help if things go bad. These are major issues.

This post would be more effective with a photo of the cat in question. You know, just for research purposes.

 

[T & R]

This post would be more effective with a photo of the cat in question. You know, just for research purposes.

Agreed. All tigers are cats and some cats are tigers.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

This cat is a floofer.

 

[Ccll4]

Carnival announced they'll restart their cruises on August 1st

If history repeats itself, Carnival very likely is going to get this very wrong.

 

[monkeydawn]

Good, good... just don't EVER ask me to step on a scale in the terminal!

Now that's interesting! Weight ya when ya get on, weigh ya when ya get off...

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Older people aren't more prone to getting or spreading the virus just more apt to die from it. The only people they are endangering is themselves. Do people really think the cruiseline is responsible if they get sick on a cruise? I'm the type person that believes in personal accountability. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around that.

Yes, if you get sick on a cruise, the medical staff must treat you. Cruise ships do not have the capacity to treat acute cases of corona virus. The US, in particular, has told the cruise lines they will no longer assist in virus-related emergency situations. Are you suggesting a person over 70 should bring their own ventilator on a cruise so they can be "personally accountable"? The CDC and the cruise lines may no longer want to see people dying on cruise ships. There are, currently, numerous lawsuits that have been filed against cruise lines due to the spread of the virus on the ships and how it was, ultimately, handled. I have no clue how the courts will rule on these lawsuits. Do I, personally, think cruise lines are responsible if someone gets sick on a cruise? No. My DS has gotten sick on a cruise - never once blamed the cruise line. Do I think cruise lines should, knowingly, put their companies in a position where they increase the risk of spreading the virus on their ships or putting high-risk individuals at even more risk? No. And apparently the CDC agrees. I would highly recommend reading the current CDC No Sail Order to understand what the CDC is demanding from the cruise lines in terms of increasing medical capacity on their cruise ships. It is a tall order, but, if the cruise lines can abide by it, all travelers, no matter what age, will be better served should a health emergency arise in the future.

I, personally, do not have an opinion one way or another if people should be banned or not. I am not an authority on infectious diseases nor cruise ship operations.

Just editing to add: Carnival is being criminally investigated in Australia and the subject of a congressional investigation here in the US due to their, apparent, lack of transparency regarding known instances of the virus onboard their ships. If the accusations prove to be true and they embarked passengers while knowing the virus was present onboard and disembarked sick passengers at certain ports (including PR) without fully disclosing their illnesses, then, yes, the cruise line is responsible for all subsequent passengers getting sick onboard. Many lawsuits pertain to these instances as well - it will be interesting to see how they play out in court.

 

[Husker Mike]

For what it's worth, Disney execs were asked about the cruise business during their second quarter earnings call this afternoon.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1257783194142769153

It's going to be a while, folks. A long while.

 

[Garyjames220]

For what it's worth, Disney execs were asked about the cruise business during their second quarter earnings call this afternoon.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1257783194142769153

It's going to be a while, folks. A long while.

how long u reckon

 

[Chrissy-Mickey]

how long u reckon

That's the 1 million dollar question!

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Carnival has cancelled all remaining Alaska cruises for 2020.

It's going to be fascinating watching the ongoing fallout when the DVC member cruise is forced to cancel, I think. The shutdown has created a big mess on that side just for the resorts, banking, borrowing and points extensions. DVC member cruise participants tend to be the most fiercely loyal DVC members, and often have a ton of points. They pay in full when booking the member cruise. Points converted to pay for a cruise have traditionally been not possible to convert back to book a normal resort, and new bookings require a $95 fee.

I'd guess DCL drag out some of the late summer cancels while DVC/DCL try to figure out how to handle the MC.

I wonder if they would change the itinerary?