SteveinSC

It's an election day miracle !

UPDATE: My awesome TA, Kelley, with MEI is looking into it. She suspects they did an internal audit and found the taxes and port fees werent calculated correctly, and corrected it. We shall see! 

UPDATE: My awesome TA, Kelley, with MEI is looking into it. She suspects they did an internal audit and found the taxes and port fees werent calculated correctly, and corrected it. We shall see! 

UPDATE: My awesome TA, Kelley, with MEI is looking into it. She suspects they did an internal audit and found the taxes and port fees werent calculated correctly, and corrected it. We shall see! 

UPDATE: My awesome TA, Kelley, with MEI is looking into it. She suspects they did an internal audit and found the taxes and port fees werent calculated correctly, and corrected it. We shall see! 

YEP!!!  Life is too short. Can't live in fear. Just follow the protocols and you will be fine.

Ask and ye shall receive...
 
 

The CDC is jealous...  

We made it home !  Uneventful flight.  The Captain of that plane was the biggest airplane pilot I have ever seen in my life !  He had to duck to get out the flight deck door.  I was stunned.  Can't help but wonder how he manages to get all those legs folded up to get into that tiny cockpit !! ...and he wasn't just tall.  He was a linebacker-sized bruiser.  Good pilot though...smoothest landing I've experienced in a while !
Very little has changed regarding travel protocols since we made our trip down to FL in Sept....but there has been one notable change.  When we flew to FL in Sept. AA was serving NO food or beverage on the flight, even in First Class.  They gave us each a plastic bag with a small bottle of water and some crackers (or something....can't remember).  On this trip, however, both coming and going, they did serve drinks and a meager meal in First Class.  It wasn't much but it was something.  Drinks were pretty much the usual....coffee, water, sodas, juice, alcohol (if you wanted it) so that is pretty much back to normal.  As far as I am aware, nothing was served in Coach, but I cannot guarantee that.  Everyone still got the baggie, but FC got the extra food and drinks.
Nothing had changed at the hotel as far as service.  The Residence Inn in Port St. Lucie (same place we stayed in Sept.) still did not service the room unless you requested well in advance and you had to be out of the room when they came.  You could pick up fresh towels, toilet paper and other necessities at the front desk.  There was no meal service at all; normally they offer a breakfast buffet (meager, but something, at least).  No food now.  They had baggies with a stale muffin, an orange and a bottle of water.  Thanks but no thanks.  Personally, I am beginning to think COVID is just an excuse for cutting out the services while charging the same rate as pre-COVID.  I think they're taking advantage, personally.
I will say that I never saw anyone without a mask.  This is consistent from our first trip.  People are taking the mask requirements seriously.  Once you go into a restaurant and sit down, then the masks can come off, but not when you are up, moving around.  Those who say that people (I can only speak for FL and VA) aren't taking the mask requirements seriously are wrong.  From what I am seeing, they absolutely are.  The same goes for disinfecting, although I will say that I don't think that is as prevalent as it once was.  Social distancing is still problematic in some situations. Obviously, no way to social distance on an airplane, but people are generally considerate about not crowding unnecessarily.  When standing in line for anything, people are standing back.  It's nice.  I've never been one who enjoyed having my private space invaded anyway, so this standing off a bit is great news to me.
Overall, I was quite impressed with peoples' attempts to comply and to be considerate to others.  It is my assessment that people are NOT slacking off with the requirements to mask, maintain social distancing and sanitize.  It's just my opinion.

Oh good grief.  I posted in my own blog in the wrong place !  This <above> goes in the trip blog.  Guess I'm more tired than I thought....

I look at this as an opportunity to make an additional 25% on my money.  Make final payment and then, once they cancel the cruise, get your extra 25% FCC.  I think of this as a "buying opportunity".
?

Well, I'm fine with FCC. Im not hung up on getting my money back. So I'll make final payment. Understand others wanting money back...it's all personal preference. 

Well, I'm fine with FCC. Im not hung up on getting my money back. So I'll make final payment. Understand others wanting money back...it's all personal preference. 

Well, I'm fine with FCC. Im not hung up on getting my money back. So I'll make final payment. Understand others wanting money back...it's all personal preference. 

Well, I'm fine with FCC. Im not hung up on getting my money back. So I'll make final payment. Understand others wanting money back...it's all personal preference. 

Well, I'm fine with FCC. Im not hung up on getting my money back. So I'll make final payment. Understand others wanting money back...it's all personal preference. 

Actually, making final payment on or before the payment deadline is the ONLY way to get your money back as a cash refund.  If you cancel before final payment or before the cruise line officially cancels the cruise, you will only be eligible for a Future Cruise Credit.

Wow.....guess I shouldve put a trigger warning on there? 

Just thought it was fascinating and people might be interested to know that its being looked at and talked about....as it relates to flying to cruises. 

Wow.....guess I shouldve put a trigger warning on there? 

Just thought it was fascinating and people might be interested to know that its being looked at and talked about....as it relates to flying to cruises. 

I like objective data not claims of a "fact" related to the COVID pandemic without data to back it up.  For example, the WHO claims lots of things to include the virus spreads via aerosols. Subsequently and within days, they backed away from that claim and say "we only know it's airborne." The reason behind the fall-back by the WHO was a lack of data to back up their claim. Claims of fact are one thing. Without data they are empty claims.
Matt posted the announcement by RCG results of a study conducted by the University of Nebraska's Medical Center onboard the Oasis of the Seas confirming that cross-contamination of air between adjacent public spaces is extremely low, and undetectable in most test cases. The study marked particles < 1 micron in size (considered to be aerosols) and then injected them into a space aboard ship. Next it followed these particles with equipment designed to detect if they passed through the ship. They didn't. IOW, even if the virus gets introduced in this congregate setting, it's not going to spread in aerosol form (the only way they can do that) via the ship's air handling systems. This was one of the claims, one of the facts, advanced by CDC that isn't supported by objective data.
Just want to be perfectly clear about the value of data backed assertions compared to well, it could be or it might be sort of facts. Here's another example. The CDC alleges it's risky to fly and the longer the flight the higher the risk of becoming infected with COVID from an otherwise asymptomatic COVID positive passenger.  Don't get on airplanes or cruise ships if you are otherwise at higher risk for becoming infected. Given this very public claim, given that it is frequently augmented by the media, you'd be afraid to jump on an airplane to get to a cruise port, right?
Don't be.  
Results from the Boeing 777-200 and 767-300 airframes showed a minimum reduction of 99.7% of 1 µm simulated virus aerosol from the index source to passengers seated directly next to the source. An average 99.99% reduction was measured for the 40+ breathing zones tested in each section of both airframes. Rapid dilution, mixing and purging of aerosol from the index source was observed due to both airframes’ high air exchange rates, downward ventilation design, and HEPA-filtered recirculation. Contamination of surfaces from aerosol sources was minimal, and DNA-tagged 3 µm tracers agreed well with real-time fluorescent results. Transmission model calculations using the measured aerosol breathing zone penetration data indicates an extremely unlikely aerosol exposure risk for a 12 hour flight when using a 4,000 virion/hour shedding rate and 1,000 virion infectious dose.
https://www.ustranscom.mil/cmd/docs/TRANSCOM Report Final.pdf
We should not be fearful of flying on commercial aircraft to get from point A to point B even when the flight is even 12 hours long. The data does not support CDC's recommendations not to fly for leisure. It appears this is another example of unsupported advice coming from the CDC, crushing a sector of the travel and leisure industry, in it's role of prevention. There should be no surprise that people don't trust them anymore with it's trustworthiness ratings among Americans plummeting.

Interesting...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/10/15/coronavirus-study-finds-jetliners-safer-than-operating-rooms/3665469001/

Interesting...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/10/15/coronavirus-study-finds-jetliners-safer-than-operating-rooms/3665469001/

cruisellama's post makes sense. One has to understand how the NSO went down. CDC, as part of the Pandemic Task Force, recommended, the executive concurred and the DHS published and is responsible for enforcing the NSO.  The Task Force headed by Pence continues to take inputs from agencies and stake holders, decides on policy and has the appropriate agency execute.
In this context it's another politically motivated wild goose chase for Congress to "investigate inappropriate WH influence on the CDC." The WH in the form of VP Pence IS and very appropriately making pandemic policy.

Used an awkward word.   By "misapplied", I'm referring to the CDC being given sole authority for leading oversight of cruise industry by HHS. Authority is misapplied by HHS or other executive branch departments.  Would think DoT or DoC would have been a lead oversight agency, with HHS as a stakeholder.   CDC is not the right match for sole oversight of the cruise industry.  

That verbiage is likely coming from someone at the CDC.  The CDC has publicly stated that ships should not sail until the virus is completely over.  I've interpreted that to mean the CDC doesn't want ships sailing until well into 2022 or 2023 when the last remnant of the virus has disappeared which is what I believe the CDC's end game really is.  The CDC would be perfectly fine if all cruise ships vanished from the earth.  This is their opportunity to create that outcome.