Guests and Crew Who Visited China or Hong Kong Within 15 Days Will Be Denied Boarding

[F1guynz]

I have received an email from Royal Caribbean stating that guests and crew regardless of Nationality who have traveled through Hong Kong or China will be denied boarding for our upcoming cruise out of Australia.

I assume this policy will be rolled out world wide in due course if it hasn't been already.

[SpeedNoodles]

It's fleet/world wide.  It seems that a lot of us got the email/text today.

[TotalF]

I mean, I get it. Safety first as a cruise ship is its own little world/eco system. 

Good on them for taking appropriate steps to minimize the threat of an outbreak onboard

[CruiseGus]

13 hours ago, TotalF said:

I mean, I get it. Safety first as a cruise ship is its own little world/eco system. 

Good on them for taking appropriate steps to minimize the threat of an outbreak onboard

I agree, but how are they going to enforce this?  voluntary disclosure?  that never works, guess if your using a passport the could look for exit Visa stamps (very time consuming)

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, CruiseGus said:

I agree, but how are they going to enforce this?  voluntary disclosure?  that never works, guess if your using a passport the could look for exit Visa stamps (very time consuming)

I wondered the same thing. Maybe when they scan your passport they can screen for applicable ports of entry.  I have no idea.

[Jzx1103]

22 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

It's fleet/world wide.  It seems that a lot of us got the email/text today.

Yes it's fleet/worldwide. They actually announced this on the Royal Caribbean blog on Friday. 

[twangster]

No Chinese crew are being brought back at the moment.  It's a dilemma for current Chinese crew reaching the end of their contracts.  Most have work visas that don't give them entry to foreign countries for extended stays.  If they go home they won't have their contract renewed but they can't extended their current contracts forever due to maritime conventions that limit how long someone can work at sea.  

Hopefully this will blow over soon and we all can get back to normal. 

[Traveler]

8 minutes ago, twangster said:

No Chinese crew are being brought back at the moment.  It's a dilemma for current Chinese crew reaching the end of their contracts.  Most have work visas that don't give them entry to foreign countries for extended stays.  If they go home they won't have their contract renewed but they can't extended their current contracts forever due to maritime conventions that limit how long someone can work at sea.  

Hopefully this will blow over soon and we all can get back to normal. 

The best chance to handle them is to discuss with the countries which issues the working Visa , they can extend it for a while, that what was done were I leave , the country extended all the working visas of the Chinese  workers who are staying here.  

[twangster]

2 hours ago, Traveler said:

The best chance to handle them is to discuss with the countries which issues the working Visa , they can extend it for a while, that what was done were I leave , the country extended all the working visas of the Chinese  workers who are staying here.  

Visas for mariners are somewhat unique and unlike visas used for other entry.  The "ship visa" they have isn't the same as what a business or holiday traveler would use.   

When the crane fell on Oasis for example, many crew couldn't go to the US but were housed in the Bahamas given their visas.  The exception were some entertainment staff who already had visas that allowed them to stay in Miami at the Royal entertainment facilities.  There are thousands of mariners on tanker and cargo ships with visas that most crew on cruise ships also use.  None of them can just decide to visit country XYZ for a few months unless their status already allows it.

Applying for a tourist visa is a whole different process and often can't be done from a ship - you can't visit an embassy or consulate at sea for example. 

Fo a crew member to book a two month stay at a resort somewhere often isn't in their budget.

[Traveler]

13 minutes ago, twangster said:

Visas for mariners are somewhat unique and unlike visas used for other entry.  The "ship visa" they have isn't the same as what a business or holiday traveler would use.   

When the crane fell on Oasis for example, many crew couldn't go to the US but were housed in the Bahamas given their visas.  The exception were some entertainment staff who already had visas that allowed them to stay in Miami at the Royal entertainment facilities.  There are thousands of mariners on tanker and cargo ships with visas that most crew on cruise ships also use.  None of them can just decide to visit country XYZ for a few months unless their status already allows it.

Applying for a tourist visa is a whole different process and often can't be done from a ship - you can't visit an embassy or consulate at sea for example. 

Fo a crew member to book a two month stay at a resort somewhere often isn't in their budget.

Got it , what about Coco Cay ?  can they stay there for a while ?

[Zacharius]

3 hours ago, Traveler said:

Got it , what about Coco Cay ?  can they stay there for a while ?

Assuming the Bahamian government would allow them to stay, I can't imagine Coco Cay has that much extra housing just sitting around. No idea how many PRC citizens are working on their ships, but I imagine it's a somewhat decent number.