F1guynz

Today we got our full refund for our March cruise. It took 59 days but I was fine with waiting as I knew they were busy. prior to the refund we received two emails, the first apologising for the delay, the second, received last week, advising they would be processing the refund that week and to check the account the following week. It looks like they pay them on Thursday’s as a friend on a different cruise also received his yesterday as well.

We have a B2B scheduled on Ovation for November. while our case count has been 0 the last couple of days it is still too soon to see how the cruise season might pan out. There is talk of a trans Tasman travel bubble but this would be limited to Australian and New Zealand citizens I think. i am not hopeful that our cruise will go ahead at this stage. I think it will be a couple of months at least before things will become clearer.about travel options and tourism in general.

Below is the principles of ACC New Zealand's accident compensation scheme provides accident insurance cover for accidental injuries to New Zealand citizens and residents and to temporary visitors to New Zealand. Most ACC claims involve physical injuries caused by accidents. However, sometimes nervous shock and other mental conditions are covered too (see “Nervous shock and other mental conditions: Sometimes covered”, under “When you're covered by ACC and when you're not”). Sometimes physical conditions may be covered even though they're caused gradually (for example, through long-term exposure at work to substances like asbestos: see “Conditions caused gradually: Covered only if work-related”, under “When you're covered by ACC and when you're not”). To make a claim, you don't have to show that some other person was at fault and caused your injury, and so ACC is sometimes described as “a no-fault scheme”. Whether you fell over at home, or twisted your knee playing sport, or were injured in a car accident when another driver failed to give way to you, you'll be covered by ACC. The ACC scheme has been running since the mid-1970s. When the scheme was introduced, it took away the right to sue in the courts for injuries covered by the scheme. However, if your injury isn't covered by ACC and was caused by someone else's actions, you can sue them in court for compensation (“damages”). For example, you might sue for negligence. Accident Compensation Act 2001, ss 317, 319 Note: In some cases, you may be able to sue in the courts for what are called “exemplary damages” even if your injury is covered by ACC. Exemplary damages are awarded by the courts for particularly blatant and reckless behaviour that causes an injury to someone. They're awarded to punish the wrongdoer (so they're sometimes called “punitive” damages), and they go over and above an amount that's necessary to compensate the person who was injured.

Our 28th March cruise was cancelled but we have not received any C&A points. We did opt for the full refund rather than a 125% FCC so that may have played a part in not getting any points.

We have two cruises booked Ovation scheduled for November but I am not hopeful that they will go ahead. NZ is currently in lockdown and we are getting close to eliminating the virus, we will find out today whether this lockdown has been extended and when we might expect to move into a lower level of isolating. Once the virus is eliminated or kept low the Government has warned that travel restrictions will remain in place, possibly until the end of this year. There maybe some limited travel between Australia and NZ but it is likely that there will be some isolation required. There is also a lot of anger towards the cruise industry due to the Ruby Princess which has indirectly caused a large number of cases in Australia and a few in NZ. I think people will be scared to let ships into their ports at least until there is a vaccine available. I personally don’t feel the cruise season will restart until the 2021/22 season in October next year. i think we will need to wait a couple more months before the situation gets a little clearer.

There are no restrictions that would prevent a cruise out of Auckland around NZ but generally if a cruise does depart Auckland it will either go to Australia or up to the a South Pacific. P&O, Princess and Celebrity occasionally depart Auckland and I have seen Royal once or twice but not recently. The main reasons I think it is not offered are cruises over 7 nights would be primarily limited to the North Island and the tip of the South Island due to time constraints Most Royal cruisers are Australian and with Auckland’s population being Just over 1 million it would not be economic to have regular cruises from here. P&O originally did have a ship home ported in Auckland but it moved to Australia so that suggests a better return on investment. it is cheap to fly around NZ so most kiwis would just fly or drive to see NZ. Also generally if we do travel we prefer to go overseas. a large part of our tourism is based on Australians coming here for their holidays. These are just my thoughts but I wouldn’t expect any Auckland departures in the near future.

Royal Caribbean has decided to use its own ships in Australia to repatriate Indonesian, Filipino, Chinese and Indian crew members to their countries. Three Royal Caribbean cruise ships based in Australia will embark to Asia very soon in order to return most of the crew back home. The company plans to embark 2584 crew from 5 Royal Caribbean ships which are currently at anchor in Australia, and use Spectrum of the Seas, Ovation of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas to set sail to Indonesia, Philippines and China. Royal Caribbean’s ships will be refueled and restocked with the healthy crew before departing to a long journey to Asia. P&O Australia and Princess cruises are also undertaking similar voyages. Link to the story: http://crew-center.com/royal-caribbean-use-three-australia-based-cruise-ships-repatriate-crew-members-home

Now that P&O Australia has been forced from their Sydney home port they are heading to the Philippines and Indonesia to bring their crew home. A nice gesture by them. http://crew-center.com/po-australia-fleet-sailing-philippines-and-indonesia?fbclid=IwAR1TZkVvJSDaaIZNhM_CCfYX24YJ9guTITub2zJNwHOQ8cI5nH5lqquqOkc

I personally don’t see NZ opening its borders this year without minimum isolation periods being enforced. We have already been advised that border controls will remain in place for some time. Air New Zealand is laying off 30% of workforce as an expectation that in 12 months time there will not be very much International travel from NZ and that it will mainly be a domestic airline. Countries around the world will be at different levels of containment and we can’t risk a new outbreak being imported again once we control it.

I assume the main reason you can’t transfer the fcc between brands is for accounting purposes. Even though RCI and Celebrity are owned by the same umbrella company I think they would each have their own accounting systems, P&L etc. You could end up with a situation where you originally purchased your cruise with Celebrity but have now switched to Royal. In that scenario you would have to start keeping track of the FCC and where it ended up being redeemed and then doing inter-company transfers of payments. Worst case you might have a whole lot of people switch to Royal but Celebrity having all the payments. Celebrity might then have a shortfall of cash. Unlikely I know but stranger things have happened. It is probably far simpler to keep the FCC to the issuing brand.

It seems odd to only single out the cruise industry when aeroplanes were flying people in with Covid-19 all the time, that is where most cases in NZ originated from. Should they be criminally liable for any deaths as a result of Covid-19 as well?

I am glad you got to enjoy your time down in this part of the world. We were only on a cruise 5 weeks ago, that seems like a lifetime ago. The virus was just something on the news in the background. Now we are locked down in our homes for the next 4 weeks trying to break the chain of infection. i am working from home but really look forward to the day when I can return to the office. We were also due to get married next month but have had to postpone the wedding until next year. Stay healthy twangster and everyone else in our online community.

They certainly make the cruise ships sound like the enemy 😳

I also thinking cruising in general before the end of this year. I am referring to Australia/NZ which has a 7 month cruise season (Oct-Apr) and I just don’t think they will cruise here again until next year. i hope I am wrong as we have 3 cruises booked but with 2 weeks isolation in each country (if it is still in place) it will make cruising impractical.

New Zealand is expecting to have border restriction for the next 12-18 months which will prevent ships from coming here. Australia and New Zealand usually have similar policies so I suspect this will limit the viability of cruising. the South Pacific will not allow cruises for the foreseeable future so I don’t think it would be no cruises at the end of this year. The season only goes through to April so I don’t think there will be shorted season. there is also a lot of animosity towards the cruise industry at the moment due to the Ruby Princess causing the indirect infection of over 600 people.