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Bahamas Could Welcome Cruise Ships Back July 1st


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Like other tourism-dependent locations, the islands of The Bahamas have taken a major economic hit in recent months. But Bahamian prime minister Hubert Minnis says that things could slowly be changing.

While addressing his constituency on Sunday, the politician said, “Our resorts, our airports and our seaports are finalizing the health and safety protocols that will be necessary for us to provide for a re-opening.”

He then acknowledged that the plan was to try and re-open the country on or before July 1.

 

https://cruiseradio.net/bahamas-could-welcome-cruise-ships-back-july-1st/

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1 hour ago, monctonguy said:

https://www.bahamasparadisecruise.com/press-room/bahamas-paradise-cruise-line-to-resume-sailings-july-25th-with-new-health-safety-measures/

 

 

Very interesting...gives some insight as to what other cruise lines will do once they open....these guys are starting up on July 25th

Interesting.  They left out some very important information.  Does this mean that Florida is now "open" for accepting fly-in cruisers (no quarantine period) ?  Does this mean that the Bahamas are fully open to accept cruise ships ?  

Thanks for posting this article...it is at least a hint of what might be coming.  Good to see that they aren't requiring pax to wear masks onboard.  

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Yeah...I liked the article for a more detailed idea of what to expect when cruising does start up again.  I am sure each cruise line will have slightly different variations of this...but gives us a real actual idea and not a guess of what at least one cruise line is doing when they start up in 2 mths.

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1 minute ago, monctonguy said:

Yeah...I liked the article for a more detailed idea of what to expect when cruising does start up again.  I am sure each cruise line will have slightly different variations of this...but gives us a real actual idea and not a guess of what at least one cruise line is doing when they start up in 2 mths.

I agree. It's a good rubric for what might be part of any cruise line's playbook, including RC.

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33 minutes ago, Jill said:

I can live with these guidelines. Similar to what American Queen put out. No mandatory masks for passengers is a plus! 

I agree!  The masks are a deal-breaker for me.  We are taking a warm weather cruise.  Masks will honestly be a danger in heat.  Plus, keeping it on my young son would be challenging at best.....He hates, hates, hates anything near his ears.....

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The only item I really see of issue in the American Queen protocol is the 24 hotel period for all guests prior to boarding. For RCCL and other cruise lines they would need a dedicated hotel for all guests prior to embarkation so they can perform their health screening (can you say rapid Covid testing for 3,000 to 5,000 folks). Not sure how this would play out in the various ports. Personally I do not know of a hotel large enough in Galveston area proper for instance that could handle that crowd for a 24 hour period. Interesting concept though. Force the guests to come a day early to process them, quarantine them and then bus them directly to the ship.

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5 hours ago, CrznTxn said:

The only item I really see of issue in the American Queen protocol is the 24 hotel period for all guests prior to boarding. For RCCL and other cruise lines they would need a dedicated hotel for all guests prior to embarkation so they can perform their health screening (can you say rapid Covid testing for 3,000 to 5,000 folks). Not sure how this would play out in the various ports. Personally I do not know of a hotel large enough in Galveston area proper for instance that could handle that crowd for a 24 hour period. Interesting concept though. Force the guests to come a day early to process them, quarantine them and then bus them directly to the ship.

This is standard for American Queen. All passengers fly in the day before. Hotel is included in your Cruise fare. 

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7 hours ago, CrznTxn said:

For RCCL and other cruise lines they would need a dedicated hotel for all guests prior to embarkation so they can perform their health screening (can you say rapid Covid testing for 3,000 to 5,000 folks). Not sure how this would play out in the various ports.

From what I gathered, cruiseline will be forced to sail a some percentage of capacity. Let's just say half capacity for the sake of argument. That alone, should help alleviate hotel capacity, in a given city. Not sure they can legally force a overnight stay & imagine they(cruiselines) will follow some of the airlines screening protocols to boarding.

A bigger concern i have, behind a potential force 14-day quarantine upon return...is the sailing capacity of the ship, one is to cruise. There has been numerous of claims that bookings have been up from Sept through early 2022. If a cruise is booked...i dunno, let's say Oasis otS, near 80% capacity & the mandate is to sail at half capacity...how will the line determine who sails on that particular date. Reservation are made. I imagine there will be just as much difficulty and trying to move selected passengers to other dates, given many dates booked are just as likely to be over the mandated capacity...if booking has truly been up significantly, for the time period previously mentioned.

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2 hours ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

A bigger concern i have, behind a potential force 14-day quarantine upon return...is the sailing capacity of the ship, one is to cruise. There has been numerous of claims that bookings have been up from Sept through early 2022. If a cruise is booked...i dunno, let's say Oasis otS, near 80% capacity & the mandate is to sail at half capacity...how will the line determine who sails on that particular date. Reservation are made. I imagine there will be just as much difficulty and trying to move selected passengers to other dates, given many dates booked are just as likely to be over the mandated capacity...if booking has truly been up significantly, for the time period previously mentioned.

Just from looking at my own 2021 sailing for Iceland & Greenland, I certainly see no indication of the ship sailing at reduced capacity -- all rooms on all decks in all categories are currently available. Granted, that's Aug 2021 and not any time in 2020, so maybe the expectation is that by summer of next year things will be back to normal. But if there's going to be some new requirement to get sailing clearance from the CDC that says "max 50% / 60%" capacity, it would be nice if the web site (a) said that on the home page or at least a specific sailing's info page; and (b) showed that on the cabin selector screen the doing a mock (or real) booking.

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10 hours ago, Jill said:

I think Lift and Shift and Cruise with Confidence are a way to decrease capacity for the remainder of 2021. Curious if those vacated cabins are off the market now. 

I doubt they have been removed from sale, RC would rather receive our $ and have to hand it back later, rather than not receive it at all.

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