Ray

On 7/1/2020 at 7:12 PM, princevaliantus said:

Bit embarrassing if after a few to many someone gets the bottoms and the mask mixed up

3 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Somebody just posted this link over on CC.

https://www.healthygateways.eu/Portals/0/plcdocs/EU_HEALTHY_GATEWAYS_COVID-19_RESTARTING_CRUISES.pdf?ver=2020-07-01-115942-557

It's a bit long-winded but then anything and everything that comes from the EU is.

Page 1 .right at bottom...these are the views of the author not the eu....basically it means nothing, saved me reading 48 pages of long winded rubbish that means nothing 

Should have been on FOTS today for my wifes 50th birthday 

Since we couldn't go on the cruise decided to take part of the cruise to us

My wifes favourite wine from our previous cruise, Not the easiest of wines to find during a pandemic  

Only thing i would like to see is passengers

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Looks like the EU ban of Americans is moving forward.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/26/europe/eu-coronavirus-travel-ban-us-intl/index.html

An EU diplomat told CNN that it was very "unlikely" travelers from the US would be allowed in, adding that even though the list had not been finalized "the US's chances are close to zero." The diplomat also said, "with their infection rates ... not even they can believe in that possibility."

Personally I don't see this as retaliation, it's simple science, the same reason why the US banned the EU in March.  The US didn't banned the EU for political reasons so this action has to be viewed in the same light.  

It looks as though The UK is allowing people from Spain, France and Greece to enter soon without any quarantine restrictions. 

Other countries will have to wait until their R rate, death Rate etc drop to an acceptable level. 

Now this is all well and good but lets say Pedro from Barcelona has been in Germany (where cases have risen again dramatically) the week before travelling to the UK. 

As travel between eu countries does not require a visa or passport stamp there is no record of anyones movement in previous weeks so we have no idea where the people arriving from countries listed as OK have been 

This is going to be a common theme in the next few months in relation to everything not just cruiselines. 

Not every business is going to survive! 

As peoples places of work start to either lay off staff, reduce wages or close completely the domino effect is people spending less as their disposable income is reduced,  things such as going to bars, restaurants or even on vacation wont be a priority or a luxury, the reduced business will result in even more bars, restaurants, hotels and even cruiselines closing their doors for good.

The only upside to this is that if people dont have as much money to waste they may stop buying the Miami Herald  

Just now, Dad2Cue said:

I'm not offended.  My father always said we were Scotch-Irish.  I've been researching that on ancestry.com.  What's your opinion on that?

I have same mix but also i was told im 1/8 english. 

So i donated 2 pints of blood just to make sure the 1/8th was gone  

Ok so thats Americans and  English picked on who's next lol

11 minutes ago, Dad2Cue said:

 

 

I think it was that nobody knew where the Schengen zone was

Being honest i had never heard of it before, in fact i actually got out an old world map and searched and i still couldnt find it... as a final resort i asked my wife if she knew where it was ! Her reply was simple and straight to the point

Its probably next the the Gspot so waste of time you looking as you cant even find that

Aplogies if offended but a little light humour brightens these dark times 

19 minutes ago, Dad2Cue said:

I also want to remind the people of the UK that they were the last Europeans to be banned.

Yeah its a shame i cant hop on one of the 10 daily flights from London to New York because of the International Travel Ban

And also we were ONLY  last to be banned because US citizens on vacaction needed a place to get home from! Italy is closed make your way to UK taking all luggage and any virus with you   so its not as if the US was doing us a favour, in fact you put us more at risk by the uk having to accommodate people from varuous virus hit countries making their way home to the US, you were looking after your own which is only right but that is the only reason Donald let us still fly. And as soon as US citizens were home he shut the door leaving UK citizens stuck in US.

Some countries such as Italy had already imposed no flights before the US, others we about to follow so it didnt really matter as it was happening anyway 

With regards being outraged NOPE!! TBH in Europe its different we dont see the world revolving around the US, it was mentioned on the news and that was really it.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11945174/travel-france-italy-spain-holiday-air-bridges/

Report on how the UK are looking at reducing the quarantine measures for counties/ areas visited or from where visitors have arrived from and when its looking to relax these measures.

USA is seen as high risk and reports indicates it will be Nov/ Dec 

Just an idea but given all this infighting between various states in the US would it not be a good idea to follow the old Soviet Union and break up into smaller independent countries? 

Imagine 50 separate countries where previously there was only the one! 

Donald could build big walls dividing each country so there was no movement between them without going through check points and passport control. 

It would certainly make the world serious live up to its name more  

And i thought Brexit was a nightmare 

7 minutes ago, bytheslice said:

No need to clarify, it was obvious what your meaning was!

One would think that France which actually had a SST aircraft fly commercially and is part of Airbus the worlds largest airplane manufacturer, would have direct flight to the USA. One would think other EU countries would also have direct flights but as you "accurately" pointed out, ONLY the UK has direct flights!

Other countries do!

I was meant to be on a KLM flight tomorrow direct from Amsterdam to New York, obviously this was cancelled so its rescheduled for next march however this time im paris direct to New York. 

Europe is actually quite a developed continent, in fact the ships that took your ancestors to the USA were built here  

8 hours ago, bytheslice said:

Agree, I would not want to be "stuck" in an EU country or in places with huts. I like the good life and am pampered, like many others
 

Must admit there are a few eu countries i wouldn't like to be stuck in but there are some it would be great  

What could be better than sitting outside a small cafe in Paris overlooking the seine wasting the day away?

Or A Cafe at the piazza del duomo in Milan people watching or sitting on the banks of lake como with a bottle of wine?

As for countries with huts, they only have huts because they dont have good enough roads for the trailers like other countries...

My understanding from discussions on other threads is that websites such as these list ships valuation whether they are for sale or not. 

48 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

However, I also saw on Spain's tourism board something similar. 

Just read the eu link on this site for travel between eu countries, 

Freedom of movement between eu countries is a law so if borders are opened countries cannot really stop people entering, however they could still implement measures such as quarantine to put people off travelling.

With regards low risk countries, the original post link lists china and vietnam as a countries on both lists, china i understand being on both lists, still a danger but also probably the biggest spenders while on vacation in Europe so countries will want them because they spend and will help the financial situation more than visitors from other countries would.

however vietnam? they are a country that appeared to get it right! 

Complete lockdown of country at an early stage ( no flights ) masks worn etc etc .recorded cases under 400 deaths 0 ( ok figures could be falsified but by how much?) 

Also since UK is no longer a member of the eu thats probably why its not news here  

37 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

The UK may not be mentioning the US in name as a banned place but I think other countries are.

UK has not banned anyone from entering the country, what they have done as mentioned is implement the 14 day quarantine rule.

Obviously is hard to get here with very little flights however it was reported a few weeks ago that Heathrow Airport was still landing 170 flights per day, 10 of which were from New York ( im presuming it was 1 per major airline BA, Vigin, United, Delta etc ) 

Most EU countries still have bans in place even for other EU countries.

UK has also just implemented a 14 day quarantine rule for anyone entering the country ( rather late doing this )

Pretty sure US travel ban is still in place

This story first appeared on Forbes website about 5 days ago yet there has been nothing on tv news/ in newspapers or on UK websites about it. 

Some European countries are desperate for tourists, countries such as Bulgaria, Cyprus and scicily are actually offering to pay for peoples flight and hotels. 

Also Spain has relaxed its 14 day quarantine rule for anyone entering the country

Done these ports as 1st cruise in 2018 with a wife that hates water, no issues with sea sickness what so ever. 

As for teenager just tell her she may bump into Rihanna in Barbados,  she will soon forget about everything else.

The house Rihanna grew up in is a short distance from port and the street has been renamed Rihanna Dr. 

One thing that has crossed my mind is WHO wants to take responsibility and sign it off as " ok to cruise" 

1st case of covid on a cruiseship will having all the lawyers rubbing their hands 

If i was in charge of a cruiseline i would be looking at Plan B

If CDC are planning to keep us out of US ports then where can we sail from?

Jamaica? Dominican Republic? St Maartan? 

Wouldnt get the whole fleet moving but some is better than none. 

6 hours ago, Mike.s said:

Ray, I assume by booking via the US we lose out on ABTA/ATOL protection but get the benefit of being able to reprice?

Never thought of that! Being scottish i just looked at the price lol 

Im pretty sure ABTA/ATOL is not for US Market however MEI cannot be faulted for the work they did, every sale in US i received an email informing me whether i could save money or not. 

18 hours ago, Mike.s said:

Wasn't aware that MEI could help us here in the UK, may be giving them a try when I finally see my FCC arrive

Mike after booking my cruise ( which should have been in 11 days time ) with MEI i compared every sale in US / UK to see what was best and posted on a thread i created here.

For my booking ( Balcony Cabin ) every sale from time of booking ( as soon as it was available) it was less expensive to book in US, HOWEVER if i had booked an interior or Oceanview stateroom, then once and only once would it have been better to book on UK site, this was when drinks package was included in price FOC. The cost for cabin on both sites was about the same however as UK site had thrown in Drinks Package the savings amounted to about £700 for a couple. 

18 hours ago, Ian T said:

I wasn't aware at first either so enquired on here and was delighted to discover that they can. One thing to bear in mind however is you need to be able to pay for everything in US$ so make sure your card issuer provides this option (most do I believe, but best of course to be sure).

The Revolut card is great for this, top up in GBP, exchange at a better rate than most banks to whatever currency you require then pay for what you need ie flights, hotels, cruise etc