Ray

This is great news.. now can we please get something in Europe?

6 hours ago, CruisinForABruisin said:

With 3 of the 4 major cruiselines giving away their drink packages with bookings, you may be surprised at who is going to be sailing nowadays.

Can you give me the names of these companies please

Oh wait doc says alcohol is off limits  

6 minutes ago, twangster said:

Who is complaining that FB is deleting her posts.  

Yeah i saw that.....honestly what an absolute clown and disgrace to the medical profession and those risking their lifes on a daily basis to try and stop the spread

Found it hilarious that the original tweet was from a DOCTOR.........

My wife crossing the Atlantic to meet ship 

43 minutes ago, em.down.the.rabbit.hole said:

  I would certainly keep my bookings in June and July, as just want a break from the house, cooking, cleaning, etc...

My wife is the same....desperate for a break away from the house.

She has actually suggested cancelling our planned cruise from PR next March due to all of the uncertainty in relation to us actually getting on the ship!

Will we be able to fly?

if we can will we have to fly direct or could we go via NYC?

Even if we can fly will the cruise only be open to Puerto Ricans?

And even if it's open to all what will the capacity be? A reduced capacity means we could be bumped off cruise!

And if it is reduced and we don't get on ship when would they let you know as there is so much planning involved.

All of this going through my Wifes head so she just wants a break now  

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24607-aidaperla-relaunches-cruise-service-in-the-canaries.html

Report on Aida cruiselines yesterday. This is one of Aida's homeports so they will know the market is there.

2 hours ago, em.down.the.rabbit.hole said:

@Ray didn't you mention in one of your recent posts that Barcelona may be open...?

I may have mentioned Barcelona as a port that cruiselines could sail from but not that it may open soon. 

1 hour ago, twangster said:

I'd cruise to Islay.  Scotch kills viruses right?  I hear more Peat means higher efficacy.  

Not sure as i don't touch the stuff  

I will stick with a nice red wine or 2 lol 

55 minutes ago, AlmondFarmer said:

 It also helps with singing, dancing and golf. (initially)

No its the Haggis that does that!

However under the scottish wildlife act 1982 Sect 4 (5) you cannot catch them during the months of june to august as thats their breeding season. 

Edinburgh would be the only GB port worth stopping at. The rest i would give a miss 

Have they mentioned the % of passenger capacity that will allowed to cruise? 

39 minutes ago, JeffB said:

 I thought Europe would lead the way back to cruising. Nope. Screwed that one up! 

Got as far as here and after that everything was a blur! Simply because i kept on thinking about the MSC ship thats been cruising the med with passengers since last year! Costa and Aida ships as well with no issues  ( well apart from the passengers that got kicked off cruise for not following procedures) 

Yet WE in Europe screwed it up!

Maybe you could enlighten me with how you come to that conclusion 

TYIA 

Ps how many NA cruises right now? Oh thats right none and if you want to cruise you will have to travel to Europe or Caribbean 

33 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Canada isn't even letting vaccinated Americans into Canada.

They Should have done this years ago  

Joking BTW  

18 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I would imagine fares will be sky high for these cruises

I would look at flying into another caribbean island to reduce the cost.

9 hours ago, Joe01 said:

but it really rubs me the wrong way that the younger generations who have sacrificed so much in the past year are having to stay put whilst the older generations who they basically put life on hold for can go cruising in the Caribbean.

Are you being serious? Or just selfish? 

I mean the 1000+ covid positive students from Durham University who had parties or all of those youngters who were photographed in Soho, Manchester or any otjer city in the UK then when interviewed said they "didnt care as it doesnt harm young people " yip all those youngsters sacrificed so much!!!

At least the younger generation have years in front of them, the older generation have lost a year of their life they cannot get back! 

Everyone has been in the same boat, people of all ages have made sacrifices,  people of all ages have broken the rules! 

But you cannot play the age card....its about protecting the vulnerable 

16 hours ago, Brogan said:

Fantastic news! I would love to know whether these cruises are just for Americans or whether I could book one from the UK. Either way this is definitely the positive news we’ve all been waiting for!

Yes you can however make sure your flights if not direct dont pass through any country you need to quarantine even if just in transit 

16 hours ago, SPS said:

This isn't gonna help at all! People will definitely break social distancing guidelines to pop the bubbles! 

BRILLIANT.....Made my day

5 hours ago, LizzyBee23 said:

I, for the most part, agree with tiered distribution strategies orchestrated by the government... However, it should be rigorously . measured by the ability of the system to deliver on one metric and one metric alone: the number of shots delivered to a state successfully going into arms. Perhaps you make a small allowance for the fact that it is in some ways harder to reach the elderly and at risk people sitting in their homes who may struggle with making online appointments, but not much of one. If a state doesn't get 75 or 80% of the doses delivered to them in an arm within 7 days of delivery, well, they've failed and should be required to open up vaccinations to more people until they can get things moving properly or let someone else take it over. I have faith in the government's ability to execute a plan if they can demonstrate that if is efficient... Otherwise, get out of the way.

The stories about arduous hurdles being put in place in some states when there are leftover doses in bottles makes my blood boil. You can intuit why those rules are in place: some state public health officials felt any system which carved out exceptions would be abused. And you know what? They're probably right to some degree, but at the end of the day that just doesn't matter. If one or two pharmacists out of ten open an extra vial of vaccine at the end of the day to get their friends and neighbors vaccinated, well, so what... 10 people who needed to be vaccinated got vaccinated, if a little out of order. If even half of the other doses that would have been disposed get used up it's worth it in my book... 4-5 more people vaccinated and a bit of gravy on top.

Corruption is bad, don't get me wrong, but most people will do the right thing and we can sort out the rest later.

But do you think there Will be a change in strategy in how you bring them back? As per topic of post? 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/5964/

First cruises are to nowhere later on in summer ports of call will be introduced 

No vaccine required however negative test is required before boarding 

19 hours ago, twangster said:

A new full transit has appeared.

Radiance April 10, 2022, westbound.

Thats 1 cruise i would love to be on! 

Only issue i would have is getting my missus on a smaller ship 

12 hours ago, jticarruthers said:

 so we are going to bubble wrap the elderly and let everyone else go back to normal.

not sure how this helps ???

1 hour ago, JeffB said:

Look, I've said this elsewhere and probably in this thread as well. Those of us who have been loyal to RCG for decades and  who aren't getting any younger, our time in this world where we are still vital and active is ticking away. Meanwhile, we wait for the resumption of cruising from US ports. My take is that we're getting a raw deal on two fronts: (1) The CDC's unobtainable goal of requiring cruise lines to get the risk of COVID aboard their ships to near zero through a litany of complex and costly tasks. (2) RCG's lack of leadership in getting them eased and keeping their loyalists informed.

Admittedly, I don't know what is going on behind the scenes but this dance is ridiculous. It is becoming more and more obvious to me, anyway, that as time goes on this dance is being orchestrated at the corporate level. It is a marketing strategy to keep revenue flowing in through advanced bookings, sustained by falsely feeding our insatiable optimism that cruising is going to restart "very soon."  It amounts to stall tactics and should be called out. I'm calling it out.

I don't know about the rest of you but out of 7 planned cruises in the past year, all of them have been moved forward which means RCG has a lot of my money without any reassurances that I'm actually going to cruise in the next year.

Yes, I had options. Did many cruisers holding cancelled bookings ask for refunds?  Based on booking figures and optimistic outlooks for profits we get from corporate, Nope. Moreover, those predictions supported by investment analysts talking those profits up - propping stock prices up and keeping them tanking - makes it appear that folks pushing their chips forward to the next round of cancellations is a good bet. I'm seriously beginning to wonder about that.   

On the brightside you can now book a cruise from LA that may also need to be shifted it probably wont need to be but who knows 

Only cruise i can find from LA

29 minutes ago, Mike.s said:

Ray, that seems to be the case for most of the lines who have announced they will sail from the UK, it's similar to the cruises in Singapore, cruise to nowhere, without the warm Singapore weather

Guess its better than visiting Greenock lol 

Im looking at flying to Lisbon for a few days there then jump on an MSC ship for a 2 night cruise to Barcelona, then spend a few nights there.