Jump to content

How does a cruise line mitigate risk on excursions?


cruisellama

Recommended Posts

Saw the MSC is requiring passenger to only use cruise line sponsored excursions.  But how to you still mitigate risk to prevent contamination?   Seems a daunting task to control all personal contacts and touch points unless you put people in hazmat suites.  May private islands are the best way to control.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I think the primary benefit of them forcing passengers to use one of their excursions in contact tracing. Because they can control who you've been in contact with both on the ship and on the tours, if anyone test positive for COVID or experiences symptoms, they can determine where to focus intervention first. MSC also claims that their providers are tested and screened regularly and that all vehicles are sanitized and have been set up to allow proper social distancing.

When my wife heard of this, she said "Hell, no!" She says it's too much like a prison sentence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/26/2020 at 5:54 PM, DocLC said:

I think the primary benefit of them forcing passengers to use one of their excursions in contact tracing. Because they can control who you've been in contact with both on the ship and on the tours, if anyone test positive for COVID or experiences symptoms, they can determine where to focus intervention first. MSC also claims that their providers are tested and screened regularly and that all vehicles are sanitized and have been set up to allow proper social distancing.

When my wife heard of this, she said "Hell, no!" She says it's too much like a prison sentence.

My wife would agree with yours, I fear.  We may be doing lots of state parks instead of cruises for some time....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, cruisellama said:

As far as Caribbean, I really don't mind staying on the ship while in  port and just relaxing.   If it becomes too complicated to take an excursion, I'd just stay on-board.  But it will be an interesting experiment to watch.

Same. Our September 2021 cruise on Oasis is: Port Canaveral, CocoCay, Nassau. The sailing is all about seeing Oasis again and CocoCay and not much more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sk8erguy1978 said:

Same. Our September 2021 cruise on Oasis is: Port Canaveral, CocoCay, Nassau. The sailing is all about seeing Oasis again and CocoCay and not much more.

Oasis class are floating resorts - haven't been board yet staying on those ships.   I hope to someday try the Q class - would expect the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's a matter of controlling as many unknowns as possible.  

A ship excursion sailing on a catamaran for example.  The whole catamaran can be chartered to only carry ship passengers and they can define requirements for the cat crew to be tested and the cat to be sanitized.  Royal defines the type and level of cleaning required. 

If guests are allowed to book their own sailing excursion there is no way to know who they will come in contact with or if the excursion boat was really sanitized or not which can introduce the opportunity for the virus to spread and then the virus is potentially brought back on board.

Some excursions fit this model better than others.  Royal can review their excursions and only offer excursion that limit opportunity for spread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, cruisellama said:

Oasis class are floating resorts - haven't been board yet staying on those ships.   I hope to someday try the Q class - would expect the same.

Loved Anthem, another ship I could stay aboard without a problem. Last September we did a 5 day to Bermuda and Hurricane Jerry cut the 2 days in Bermuda to 1. While I love Bermuda, we've been before and will go back again, I really enjoyed the extra sea day.

That's my one 'argument' I have with a friend about hurricane season. The ship is a large part of my destination, sure sometimes I really wanted to see a port, but just an excuse to sail again. Honestly, we had 1 cruise with a modified itinerary and yet to miss a ship flying in the winter (NY) to FL for a January cruise. When it comes to the Caribbean and similar, I'm fine with wherever the captain takes me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, sk8erguy1978 said:

Loved Anthem, another ship I could stay aboard without a problem. Last September we did a 5 day to Bermuda and Hurricane Jerry cut the 2 days in Bermuda to 1.

I've done this itinerary twice now. My only complaint each time was that because the sailing was so short, the number of entertainment offerings in spaces like Two70 was relatively limited. Just looking at Two70, they had Spectra, one of the virtual concerts (basically sit in the space and watch a movie of a band playing), I think a live group performing there on embarkation day... and that was kind of it. Maybe The Quest was hosted there, but I can never get my wife to go and see that. Music Hall was similarly limited, with just one band performing there every night (both time it was The Royal Swedes; while I'm a fan of classic 80s / 90s rock, I wasn't a big fan of that particular band).

I've read multiple reviews of the longer 9-night sailing where they're clearly able to make much better use of the spaces for variety. You'll have mid-day jazz band performances in Two70, the Music Hall will get a second band (usually a cover band), and there's generally more live entertainment available since it's a nearly double-length sailing. I know there's plenty to do on board that isn't live -- trivia, enjoying the Solarium, iFly, etc. -- but I really enjoy the live music shows and the more of those I can get, the better my sailing is on sea days.

I will say one of the best experiences I had for live performance was getting to watch Joyce Kuo, the lead guitarist for We Will Rock You, perform acoustic guitar in the Schooner Bar on night 1 of my most recent Bermuda sailing. She is really talented, and very gracious in giving me several minutes to chat about her history in music, how she got the job for WWRY, and more between the end of her set and having to run to her next performance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/26/2020 at 5:54 PM, DocLC said:

I think the primary benefit of them forcing passengers to use one of their excursions in contact tracing. Because they can control who you've been in contact with both on the ship and on the tours, if anyone test positive for COVID or experiences symptoms, they can determine where to focus intervention first. MSC also claims that their providers are tested and screened regularly and that all vehicles are sanitized and have been set up to allow proper social distancing.

When my wife heard of this, she said "Hell, no!" She says it's too much like a prison sentence.

Don't forget about Royal's Private Journeys. We will be using it for an excursion that is not on the planner for our Quantum sailing in Alaska.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/29/2020 at 12:42 PM, JLMoran said:

I've done this itinerary twice now. My only complaint each time was that because the sailing was so short, the number of entertainment offerings in spaces like Two70 was relatively limited. Just looking at Two70, they had Spectra, one of the virtual concerts (basically sit in the space and watch a movie of a band playing), I think a live group performing there on embarkation day... and that was kind of it. Maybe The Quest was hosted there, but I can never get my wife to go and see that. Music Hall was similarly limited, with just one band performing there every night (both time it was The Royal Swedes; while I'm a fan of classic 80s / 90s rock, I wasn't a big fan of that particular band).

I've read multiple reviews of the longer 9-night sailing where they're clearly able to make much better use of the spaces for variety. You'll have mid-day jazz band performances in Two70, the Music Hall will get a second band (usually a cover band), and there's generally more live entertainment available since it's a nearly double-length sailing. I know there's plenty to do on board that isn't live -- trivia, enjoying the Solarium, iFly, etc. -- but I really enjoy the live music shows and the more of those I can get, the better my sailing is on sea days.

I will say one of the best experiences I had for live performance was getting to watch Joyce Kuo, the lead guitarist for We Will Rock You, perform acoustic guitar in the Schooner Bar on night 1 of my most recent Bermuda sailing. She is really talented, and very gracious in giving me several minutes to chat about her history in music, how she got the job for WWRY, and more between the end of her set and having to run to her next performance.

The Royal Swedes, my wife and her friends loved them LOL. They were more the lively people, dancing and stuff, so think it was more about music to dance and drink to. 

We didn't spend much time at 270, out of three Anthem to Bermuda trips we FINALLY went once (besides the quest we did that each time and yes obviously in 270) during the day. It was boring just some kind of light music playing, and a regular movie playing with closed captioning. We checked out the cafe and had a nice little lunch / snack which we enjoyed.

We've done the 5 day Bermuda sailing 7 times. We love Bermuda, even got married there, but I've had enough. Even as not the only vacation in a year, I've had enough. Just too short in general. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

May have the answer - Just read the Costa health procedures and port disembarkation is only permitted under a Costa run excursion.  Appears no visiting the port shopping area (perhaps they created an approved escorted tour for this)

 

https://www.costacruises.com/cruising-soon-again/safety-above-all.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...