Traveler

I even tested it. I checked my temp at work then I had to be outside for few hours and did some physical activity came back and check the temp again (on the same device) there was a change but a minor one , not something that could trigger any alarm.

Unless the cruise company will do the tests a day before and send it to be tested from the halipad ...

I was on a cruise two years ago that had a Noro virsus Outbreak , the Quest did happened but while practicing social distancing , it was quite boring ...

Here are some update on countries that are going to be open for tourist including some in the Caribbean : Mexico - Cancun , Riviera Maya and Tulum - going to be open for tourist at Jun 10 Cyprus - 15 June for "green countries" the interesting thing is that they will pay your health cost encase you will catch C19 during your vacation. Iceland - 15 June but every tourist will need to do a C19 test while in the airport and to wait for the results. Aruba - until 15 June. US virgin Islands - Suppose to be opened today. Saint Lucia - 4 June. Antigua and Barbuda - 4 June Italy - June . Spain - Until Mid July.

I am living in a place that is currently at the end of the first wave (and hopefully the last wave) so now we started open facilities and services steps by steps with some restrictions , that might give some clue how things can work on a ship : Work place : From March to end of April I was going to the office were we maintained 1-2 % of the people to make sure everyone can work from home , on the last few weeks we increased the numbers from 15% to 30% and now 70% (people will work 3 days from office and 2 days from home). The process - Every day each employee is filing online health declaration form , in the parking garage I am wearing a face mask and use alchogel , elevators to the reception were my temperature is being taken using an ipad and a heat sensitive camera , if there is a queue of people there are stickers on the floor to show were you need to stand . Once I am done with the temperature check I am swapping my card so they can verify that I sign the declaration , after that I am getting a colored bracelet (each day different color) so I do not need to to go through this process again.. This is something that can be done also on the ship , the security can take your temperature at the morning and give you a daily bracelet . Alchogel again and to the office were I am taking off my mask . At the the kitchen we suppose to wash our hands and use disposable gloves before touching any food or prepare a drink. in the meeting Rooms we suppose to have empty chair between each other. Lunch went from buffet style to take away in disposable trays were you can add also some prepacked salads. Shops : Temperature is being taken before you can get in , alchogel station and gloves are available. shops are limited to a precedent that driven from number of available cashiers , masks are require to be wear all the time. Restaurants and bars : If the bar/restaurants can contain more than 100 people they are allow to have up to 75% of their max capacity , tables should have a 4 feet distance between each other, Mask is required to be wear until you are seated , from this point you can take them off . Only when you seat your table is being maid . Theaters: Only online tickets are allowed , everyone that bought the tickets together can seat together , between groups there should be an empty seat, that can work with RCL theaters also , maybe they will need to add another show or two Masks in public area : People require to wear masks in public areas unless they are in a middle of sports activity or if the temperature outside is above 90 , a 60 $ fine can be given for people who caught not wearing one, currently its not highly forced but most of the people still wear a mask. Beach /pools : People allow to go to the beach and a six feet distance is expected between groups , masks are required but not heavily forced. Pools are open but the population is limited, water parks are still kept closed. Schools /kindergarten: Schools are 100% opened as long as no new C19 cases are found which in that case the school can be closed for two weeks. older kids require to wear a mask while seating at the class , windows are kept open (while air condition is working). Flights : Limit flights continued during all this period , from next month more and more companies starting again to operate , the main issue is that anyone that land here is required to get into quarantine for two weeks . There is a discussion to lift the quarantine requirement as long you are flying to/from a "green country" which has lower level of the C19 cases such as Austria , Iceland , Seychelles, Greece , South Korea and some more . Cruise might stats for places like Greece Islands ... So far we are OK , but the status of the C19 is monitored very closely , if too many cases are located in a neighborhood it might be quarantined for few days , if a case is found in a work place , the work place will be shut for two weeks. For me wearing the mask outside is tolerable but I am very happy every time i can take it off.

No traffic to go to work (well at least it was like that before they opened again most of the things here) Dinner on time with the family Local temporary farmer markets in the neighborhood were real farmers came everyday with different ultra fresh products that they could not sell to the restaurants

1. Maybe. 2. Yes 3. Yes

Oh , forgot another deal breaker - insurance company to resume issuing travel travel insurance which will cover the C-19

Today is the last day I could choose what to do regarding the cruise. I decided to L&S it so I called RC club royal , the rep told me that the lift and shift is only for cruise until July 31 , I told her I think she got it wrong but she said it is verified and I could or pay or cancel. I did what always works with RC and said thank you need to think about it. After a minute called again to get a rep who told me no issue to L&S , so I have change it to Sep 2021. I still have my FCC that I can use later for the the July cruise and if we will be very very lucky and the 23-Aug will go (hope so) without any flight restriction/quarantine I can always book it again ...

As far as I know you can take any 7 to 9 days cruise as long it's not on the big holidays.

14 days quarantine will be the deal breaker for me and currently we still have it. Regarding the mask , I do wear it today in public as it required here by low, but when I am at my office I can take it down (and I am very happy to do so) . by the way the mask main task is to avoid spreading the C19 if you have one , not to protect you from getting it (for this the masks are not good enough) . In other words if you cough , its better you cough to the mask and no to the air.

To complicate things I called RCL and they said no issue to shift and lift this cruise (as it was with discount not free) . So now I have 36 hours to decide . The issue we are going to take July 2021 cruise (group cruise yaaa) so August-Sep might be too early but I guess we can handle . The bigger issue is if the cruise will go this year I will feel very bad for moving it as it mean we will need to wait for Dec to cruise again (just booked Symphony for Dec 2020).

The firs thing the insurance company will ask you when you will issue your claim is to send a copy of the original receipt What they want to see is if you have insurance as part of the "ticket" or any other way to get your money back , FCC might trigger issues during this point.

Good news , got my tax/gratuities back to the CC and bank account , The cruise was canceled at mid March and it was for 8-April , so I guess I Got it 6 weeks after the original cruise date.

Yes , I need to change it as it was not just 8 , there were much more people they tested the vaccine , they just split it to groups and each group got different portion. Anyway they start now phase 2 with several hundreds and then phase 3 On Jul. I hope it will work . I have read about Sorrento , its very interesting , they are working on antibodies as I understood and for sure it might serve as a cure. There are hundreds of companies which are in different phase of develop/test both vaccines and medicines to the treat the C19 , one of them for sure will be successful.

I do have the link but unfortunately its not in English ...

Some more good news , The results of a research to check the risk to be infected from surfaces with C-19 was done in two different hospitals . They have collected samples from surfaces which are located inside the C-19 units in the hospital , they took the samples and tried to grow the virus (using host cells) . The results were very clear , the virus trace from the surfaces can not infect (they could not grow it while direct samples could easily grow) . The research is being done now also in an hotel that was converted to quarantine location for people that found positive to the C-19 but were only lightly impacted by it.

Today Moderna announced they finish a successful first test with their vaccine (8 people got it and show good results with ). The time line is to start massive phase 3 testing on July and have it approve by the end of the year. The interesting thing was raised during an interview with Moderna lead doctor , he said they are already started in massive production , which means it will be available to market at leas tin the US once it will be approved. Lets hope.

Thanks , lets keep our fingers cross , well still have one week to decide . and the best , I will feel OK not to blog ? ,

They just increased the UDP from 175 to 200 $ and the water park/Beach club are doubled I do hope its a good sign as they will need to reduce the number of tickets / seats due to the new social distancing , maybe there is some hope. Please do not finish all the stakes at CK day 1 , we will be the one that waiting near the CK door hope that someone will open it and that we will have a table ?

Apparently EWR worked during the peak of the outbreak including United flights . I must say the crew are very brave. but I must agree with you , EWR in regular days is not the nicer airport to go through , endless security lines (even with TSA pre) , but I think there are worse airport even in the US . Well I hope everything will be OK with all the cruises/airport as soon as possible.

Its OK its only one of the things ? I should add work related issues , the heat wave, the cat that think it should get food at 4 am and jumping on us just to make sure we are awake . By the way since NJ and NY got the most infected people there is a good chance they will be also the first place that will show better results , but time will tell , as you said there is allot of risk there

Here is the issue and also why I do not sleep that well lately : We have a cruise at 23-August from NJ on Oasis of the seas . I believe there is something like 30% of chance that the cruise will go but since I need to fly international flight to get to the port it might be more complicate (for sure if there will still be 14 days quarantine for anyone who comes to the US and 14 days quarantine when I will come back home). I have booked the cruise around February and it was under cruise with confidence (I had some confidence that August is far enough , I guess I was very wrong) so it can be canceled 48 hours before. The flights was also booked with United so I can change them if needed (they have some arrangement of changing the flights without a cost), There is also a good chance the flight will not be canceled as until today they still flying almost daily between my location and EWR. We both have an FCC from our canceled 8-April cruise , but as you know as long as I did not use the FCC I can still ask for refund until the end of this year. Final payment of the cruise is coming in the next few days , if I will pay it will be with the FCC but that mean I will not be able to take refund and if something happens to RCL its bye bye money , I must tell you the fact I did not got back yet my tax/port fees for the cancels cruise is not adding to my confident. I would use the Lift and shift but the cruise was booked with some Casino discounts (not that big but still) which pee Matt article are not entitle for L&S offer. Oh , if I just had a cruise crystal ball ? What would you do ?

The WJ for us is a way to eat fast when we do not want to spend two hours for dinner or 1 hour for lunch. I do not like the breakfast in the WJ I think they are missing allot of items which I would like to see in breakfast but that's me . Also we like the fact we can take a sample from something and if we like it we will go and get some more of it. So if they will have a way for a fast eating with ability to choose from a verity without the risk of people touching the food (and yes I saw many times people using their hands , people return food after they touch it and many other bad habits) I will be OK with it. Maybe as people offered , food court style , Maybe like the Solarium bistro serve the food in separate individual dishes , or maybe pre order trays (you will order your food via the application and a tray with the food you asked for will be ready for you when you enter the WJ . Fast option is a much I think.

More and more companies are announcing on new ways to deal with the C19. Here is another company that starts soon test using antibodies cocktail , They are talking about using it not just as a treatment but also as a prevention. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/08/sorrento-therapeutics-mount-sinai-develop-covid-19-antibody-shield.html