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Australia and New Zealand borders


Salem

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Hello,

Sorry if this has been discussed, I have been searching through the forum to find some answers but didn't stumble along anything and I'm in need of some help!

I currently have a sailing booked on Ovation on the 7th Feb 2021 from Sydney to New Zealand (We will be flying from London) which we have already used our FCC on from a previously cancelled sailing. It is looking likely that Australia's borders are going to be closed until likely the end of 2021 so we didn't hold much hope for this going ahead for us but have been waiting it out to see what happens. As our payment is due next month I thought I'd enquire about changing the booking to 2022, there is a sailing in March still on ovation with all the same stops but 2 extra nights and it just so happens to be almost two grand less than what the 2021 sailing will be! Originally I was told by my travel agent that it's fine to move it and was in the process of doing so but then realised that due to us already using the FCC on this sailing we wouldn't be able to move it again unless this cruise is cancelled? I'm a little confused about the process. I'm worried that if I make the payment I'm going to have less option in terms of moving this date and the 2022 price increasing. Princess have just announced they have cancelled all Australia and New Zealand sailings through to May 31st 2021, are Royal likely to follow suit?

Thanks in advance! 

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Rules may be different for the UK since different consumer protection laws are in place.  

Here in America historically an FCC can be removed from a booking and then saved for later use or applied elsewhere.  Unsure if that is an option your agent could explore.  The pandemic has created some new rules so this may not work like it used to.

The prospect of cruise ships sailing from Australia to New Zealand any time soon is unlikely in my opinion so ultimately I would guess your cruise will cancel but that is a personal opinion.  

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Not surprised Princess have been cancelled.. Princess is a dirty word on this side of the world. Ruby, Diamond, etc... they are fast tracking the transfer of some of the Princess ships to the local P & O brand for early next year.

But yes there wont be any cruises visiting NZ or South Pacific until late 2021/ 2022. Yours will 100% be cancelled. I'm not sure why it's not already seems they have recently rescheduled the ones for next season. I guess to hold onto people's money for as long as possible.

 

 

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As everyone has said the chances of their being cruises in NZ or Aust this coming season are... 5%. NZ is COVID free with no restrictions, need for masks etc etc and Australia is pretty close (and achieved it in most states). It would be foolhardy for both countries to allow tourists (and crew, and they would need to go through the same process as others as there is not trust in the cruise industry after the Ruby Princess saga) through the boarders without them going through the mandatory 14 days quarantine in NZ or Australia first before sailing (Which all New Zealanders and Australians have to do returning home). 


You 'might' see some sailing open up from Australia for New Zealanders and Australians only but I see this as a long short given the logistics of getting the crew cleared etc.

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1 hour ago, EmersonNZ said:

As everyone has said the chances of their being cruises in NZ or Aust this coming season are... 5%. NZ is COVID free with no restrictions, need for masks etc etc and Australia is pretty close (and achieved it in most states). It would be foolhardy for both countries to allow tourists (and crew, and they would need to go through the same process as others as there is not trust in the cruise industry after the Ruby Princess saga) through the boarders without them going through the mandatory 14 days quarantine in NZ or Australia first before sailing (Which all New Zealanders and Australians have to do returning home). 


You 'might' see some sailing open up from Australia for New Zealanders and Australians only but I see this as a long short given the logistics of getting the crew cleared etc.

Getting crew cleared initially is the easy bit. Put them in land based quarantine for 14 days before boarding a ship, and then it is generally a week or so to sail to Australia, so you have 21 days or longer.

 

The issue is what happens if there are any cases brought on board by passengers. You would then need to quarantine all passengers AND the crew for 14 days. I don't know where that would be able to happen... if cruises are allowed from Australia, that would also mean our state borders are open, and everyone that has been crying out to go interstate to visit family/do business/have a holiday etc would have filled up all the hotels. I'm pretty sure the government wouldn't permit everyone to just stay on the ship for 14 days either.

 

The only possibility I see is that the testing when boarding the ship is both fast enough and accurate enough to ensure Covid never gets on the ship in the first place. The added benefit of this would be that if we are sure there's no covid on board, there's no need for masks/social distancing/reduced capacity etc.

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The crew would have to quarantine in NZ or Australia. There will be no way either country will risk presuming another countries quarantine procedures is up to scratch (A few weeks ago 75 Russian sailors were supposed to have quarantined for 14 days before flying to NZ. Luckily they still had to go through the standard NZ quarantine and on their day 3 testing 20 tested positive. Luckily due to our quarantine policy it didn't enter the country).

I actually think the passenger bit is easy. If NZ (which it is)and Australia (which nearly is) are COVID free... and the crew have gone through NZ/Aust quarantine and are COVID free, and no one outside the 'bubble' is allowed on the ship then the ship could happily sail between NZ and Aust not worrying about COVID. 

the hard part? Gaining the trust back of the public after the Ruby Princess ordeal.... 

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9 hours ago, EmersonNZ said:

A few weeks ago 15 Russian sailors were supposed to have quarantined for 14 days before flying to NZ. Luckily they still had to go through the standard NZ quarantine and on their day 3 testing 20 tested positive.

Either I'm missing something (which, let's be honest, would not be terribly shocking), there's a typo here, or this 133% infection rate is going to seriously mess with someone's data...

tenor.gif

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10 minutes ago, USCG Teacher said:

Either I'm missing something (which, let's be honest, would not be terribly shocking), there's a typo here, or this 133% infection rate is going to seriously mess with someone's data...

 

Okay, took me a hot minute.  20 from the flight.  In my defense, I did list missing something as the 1st option...?

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On 10/30/2020 at 8:50 PM, EmersonNZ said:

The crew would have to quarantine in NZ or Australia. There will be no way either country will risk presuming another countries quarantine procedures is up to scratch

I agree that our governments would not trust the testing and quarantine procedures in another country.

The flipside of this is that neither would any of the major cruise lines....

Let's pick a random country where many of the ships currently sit, and that also provides a high percentage of crew... the Philippines.

Crew quarantine on land for 14 days. They then board the ship after testing negative, and sail to Australia. Let's say they take their time, or simply anchor close to Australia until the crew have been aboard for another 14 days. They are then subjected to testing by Australian and or New Zealand authorities.

If everything is clear, they can then take passengers, as after 28 days of quarantine, we could be confident the ship is clean. If just one crew member tests positive, that entire ship will have to go back to step one and start all over again.

Personally, I think the cruise lines will be even more stringent in their testing regime than our governments in this scenario. The last thing they need is to be paying crew for a month (or two weeks as they probably wouldn't pay them for the land based quarantine), and then have to start over from the beginning. If they are going to all that trouble, they need it to work first time. This takes the originating country's testing out of the equation, as the cruise line would conduct extremely thorough testing to ensure their efforts don't go to waste.

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