Mike.s

I can live with the wearing of masks inside the ship, but as others have said, sitting in 90 degree heat on an open deck, not so sure.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24316-fred-olsen-extends-pause-in-operations-until-end-of-june-2021.html Fred Olsen (European cruise line) has extended it's pause until the end of June, how long until others do the same

Guess we'll have to do more active drinking going forward?

A few years ago on Independence we used the computers that were situated in the Library so our son could get his exam results, can't remember how we paid but we didn't get an internet package.

Keen to know who it was, I've booked a cruise through one of the big UK cruise travel agents and they took a very large deposit, get the feeling they did the same. It's an NCL cruise in July so is likely to get cancelled, I won't be using them again. The company had (pre-covid) a weekly show on one of the shopping channels, was it them (or their parent company) by chance?

Sadly not all of them need alcohol, it just comes naturally to some of them

It's not as though they have anywhere else to send them ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55850352 The BBC report that the Novavax vaccine was 60% effective against the South African variant, not brilliant but better than the seasonal flu jabs we get each year. "The Novavax jab, which is given in two doses, was shown to be 89.3% effective at preventing Covid-19 in participants in its Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK, and around 86% effective at protecting against the new UK variant. The Phase 3 trials - the final stage before a vaccine is looked at by a regulator - enrolled more than 15,000 people aged between 18-84, of whom 27% were older than 65, US firm Novavax said. In the South African part of the trial, where most of the cases were the South African variant of the virus, the vaccine was 60% effective among those without HIV."

Sadly I think even July is being optimistic

They are averaging 28 new cases a day at the moment, bit different to the majority of countries.

http://crew-center.com/all-ncl-non-essential-crew-be-repatriated-home-april-2021 If they're getting the crew home by April can't see them starting cruises for another 3 months after then, so late summer at best

That's positive, can't say the same for the ending of L&S, disappointed as we're due to cruise in May, and can't see it happening.

So 3 days floating round the English channel it is, looking forward to enjoying rough seas and even rougher weather

Here in the UK looks like we are about to introduce a mandatory 2 week quarantine on arrival in the UK, effectively killing off any sort of overseas holiday. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-travel-industry-expects-mandatory-hotel-quarantine-to-be-introduced-imminently-12198896 Think the chance of cruising in 2021 is looking less likely by the minute

Saga, a British cruise line serving the over 50 market has today mandated all passengers having a Covid-19 vaccination prior to sailing, guess they won't be the only one. https://www.cruisehive.com/cruise-line-requires-all-guests-to-be-vaccinated/46159

That concerns me. We have some OBC on our May cruise that was part of the booking offer, I was expecting it would be carried over when we have to L&S, is this not the case?

Has anyone heard any progress updates or even latest rumours on this class of ship, have they actually started work on it yet?

There was a report in the UK press today stating all UK adults could be vaccinated by mid July, let's hope this is the case.

We're due out of Southampton in May, we've already accepted that it's highly unlikely to happen, gutted doesn't even come close

They won't cancel thru May yet, we've not made our final payment yet

We're hoping that too, as we're supposed to be sailing in May 21, can't see that happening. Being greedy we're hoping they might extend the double points at the same time, or is that too much to hope for?

Agree with the more cruises to Aruba Bonaire Curaçao, and perhaps longer cruises from New Orleans would be on my wish list.

I'm sure the crew will be happy with tips in any currency, assuming they're notes they're easily changed to USD.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55280671 Oxford-AstraZeneca approval given in the UK, roll-out starts next Monday, targeting 2 million a week (which I think is somewhat optimistic)

Hopefully they'll extend both the move by date from the End of Jan and the Cruise by date from the end of Apr. Can't see our May cruise going ahead. Does the fact we've used our FCC impact us as we'd be moving the cruise to May 2022?