KWofPerth

International travel is banned here in Australia at the moment. Heck, we can't even travel interstate! Cruise ships, forget about it. Our one hope is the opening of a "travel bubble" with New Zealand in the near future, which has been mooted by both governments. Fingers crossed, we shall see.

Not for me. There's plenty of fantastic regular holidays I can take within my state, I'll be sticking to them for the near future.

I'm not so positive. Our success is due in large part to our geographical isolation and shutting down the borders. Following the debacles with Ruby Princess in Sydney and the Artania in Freo, I can't see the authorities being too keen to open up cruising in a hurry.

Not just any employee either. The Senior Vice President of Sales and Trade Support & Service. It makes you wonder how much RC uses this blog for research purposes. I suspect it would be a reasonable amount, right?

I can't say as I ever have, no. It certainly didn't stop me from jumping off of perfectly good bridges and out of aircraft when I've been to NZ.

Here in Western Australia, the government has just lifted the daily limit on alcohol purchases that was imposed a month or two back when there was a run on toilet paper and non-perishable food items (pasta, rice, tinned foods, etc.). We are no longer limited to just one carton of beer (24 cans) and 3 bottles of wine per day. Phew, I was getting desperate for a while there 😛

I wouldn't know, sorry Joe.

Well, this is not what Royal needs right now... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-27/new-zealand-white-island-volcano-disaster-four-corners/12150706

Well thank goodness for that. I can rest easy, while I work from home...

Are you....are you Carol Baskins???

The problem with Covid19 is that its infection rate is so high. So although it may have a lower mortality rate than other viruses, its infectiousness means that it gets transmitted to more people, resulting in higher numbers of deaths overall if left unchecked.

What happens if there are sick passengers onboard? The captain will seek assistance at the nearest port. Then the local government has an incident on its hands. This is exactly what happened with the Artainia here in Perth. It was ordered to leave multiple times, ignored those orders and sat idle at Fremantle port for three weeks. Passengers and crew were taken off as needed (because hey, we have a heart) and treated, taking up hospital beds and resources, before finally, mercifully, leaving over the weeknd. The whole thing was a mess. So to answer your question, I couldn't imagine any country or State authority who have strict border controls in place to allow a cruise ship to simply pull up and take a few photos. Too much potential for a disaster to occur.

I sadly agree.

Perhaps the economics of it. NZ's population is about 4 million, so not enough demand to sustain return cruises out of Auckland. @F1guynz @EmersonNZ ?

They can't.

This is the inconvenient truth, I'm afraid.

Does anyone else follow this channel? Super weird either way, but amusing...

Not at all. It's just a prudent course of action to take, in the very real event of things going bad for RCCL. We all hope that doesn't happen of course!

This is a very valid point. I'm not in the situation of having a cruise booked, but if I did I'd take the refund ahead of the 125% FCC in a heartbeat. And I certainly wouldn't be booking and paying solely for the purpose of obtaining a 125% FCC when the future remains so uncertain.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I don't see how cruising resumes before 2021, unfortunately. And even then, not until the latter end.

This does not make pleasant reading I'm afraid. There's a lot of animosity towards cruise lines out there, not totally unjustified. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-13/coronavirus-spells-the-end-of-the-line-for-cruise-ships/12141140

OK, essential workers, etc. I was more referring to non-essential travel. i.e. vacation travel and the like.

Aside from getting home because you are stuck overseas, I'm not sure why anyone would be getting on a passenger plane at this point in time.

I've never seen this channel, but it gives an excellent overview of the current situation.

Here in Australia, thankfully all non-essential domestic travel via aeroplane is effectively banned, and no international visitors are allowed in. My state of Western Australia won't even allowing anyone in by car from interstate, without an appropriate exemption. These measures are strict, and they have been working. As for cruise ships, forget about it. There have been multiple instances now of Covid-19 spreading like wildfire on cruise ships. I can't contemplate why anyone would want to get on one right now. As much as we all love cruising, now is the time to exercise some patience, weather the storm, and look forward to a day when the Covid cloud is lifted, whenever that may be.