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Aussies Welcome To Sail With Royal Caribbean Once Singapore’s Bubble Is Open, Says Boss


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It surprises me that Royal haven't worked with the Australian authorities to launch local cruises for Australians as they have done in Singapore. The country has a very low incidence of Covid and you'd imagine there would be enough interest from Austrailian cruisers to make it worthwhile.

Are Royal missing a trick, as they seem to be in the UK?

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23 minutes ago, Mike.s said:

It surprises me that Royal haven't worked with the Australian authorities to launch local cruises for Australians as they have done in Singapore. The country has a very low incidence of Covid and you'd imagine there would be enough interest from Austrailian cruisers to make it worthwhile.

Are Royal missing a trick, as they seem to be in the UK?

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/australia-extends-international-cruise-ship-ban-until-june-17

Not RC but cruiselines in General have held discussions for the last 6 months about restarting domestic cruises. 

 

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2 hours ago, Mike.s said:

It surprises me that Royal haven't worked with the Australian authorities to launch local cruises for Australians as they have done in Singapore. The country has a very low incidence of Covid and you'd imagine there would be enough interest from Austrailian cruisers to make it worthwhile.

Are Royal missing a trick, as they seem to be in the UK?

I think some cruise lines have tried. Given the low incidence it’s deemed too risky to bring in international ships and crew. Will they change their mind now cruise lines can offer a ship with fully vaccinated crew?.. Who knows? Hopefully. The ban is set to expire June 17.
 

The RC season starts here in October so they still have some time up their sleeves to work something out. Therefore, even if the ban does expire it may not be a priority to get a ship here before the regular season. That would also depend on Alaska being a bust seems as we share the same ships.

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The take of Australian Health Protection Principal Committee is, what I would assume, is going to be the take of the CDC as it faces pressure to provide relief to the cruise industry in  operating ships from US ports. As much as we don't like how these agencies are defining "safe" and "risks to the public health" these positions are rational based on scientific information currently available.

The Australian Public Health agency, I assume, is going to check with or staff within the Australian executive branch (the PM's office) in issuing this extension - an advise and consent sort of thing.  I would also assume the CDC will staff it's recommendations on a continuation of the CSO in collaboration with HHS's extension of the US PHE.

I point this out because it seems that globally public health agencies are seeing the public health risks of cruising in similar ways.    

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16 minutes ago, JeffB said:

it seems that globally public health agencies are seeing the public health risks of cruising in similar ways. 

Many public health agencies made mistakes at the beginning of the pandemic and they are using the cruise industry as scapegoats.  So in that sense they are taking a common approach.  

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7 minutes ago, twangster said:

Many public health agencies made mistakes at the beginning of the pandemic and they are using the cruise industry as scapegoats.  So in that sense they are taking a common approach.  

Wrong headed and I agree with you. But I reiterate, on the basis of the available science their positions are defensible from a purely public health perspective.

Now comes the hard part: You have to assume public health agencies should know their roles and that is an advisory one to the executive. The executive should take inputs from multiple sources when weighing the consequences of various emergency measures. I think what we're seeing in most western governments is a default to weighting the risks of COVID disease burden over the economic and social costs absent the impact of vaccinations. Vaccinations would tend to weight the scale in favor of the benefit to local economies of a return to cruise ship operations. That brings us to the importance of vaccination rates. The higher those are by region and specific port location the less risky cruise ship operations become and  the more sense it makes to restart cruise ship operations.    

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16 minutes ago, Ray said:

Australia & NZ are 2 countries that got it right!!

Close the doors ...No one in...No one out....sorted!!!!

No messing about!! just common sense that allowing people in and out of an island increases the risk to others 

 

And therefore we should be rewarded with cruising! ? 

Those damn airplanes keep bringing the infected home, that’s way more of a risk as it’s jumped hotel quarantine through the hotel workers many times. 

 

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12 minutes ago, mattymay said:

And therefore we should be rewarded with cruising! ? 

Those damn airplanes keep bringing the infected home, that’s way more of a risk as it’s jumped hotel quarantine through the hotel workers many times. 

 

Theres no reason why a cruiseline couldnt homeport at Sydney, spend 2 weeks with crew onboard in quarantine then allow Australian Residents on for cruises around Oz. 

No foreigners or Non Residents 

I mean you guys have had fans in stadiums watching sports for ages now ( a lot more than would be on a cruiseship ) so your getting it right

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32 minutes ago, Ray said:

Theres no reason why a cruiseline couldnt homeport at Sydney, spend 2 weeks with crew onboard in quarantine then allow Australian Residents on for cruises around Oz. 

No foreigners or Non Residents 

I mean you guys have had fans in stadiums watching sports for ages now ( a lot more than would be on a cruiseship ) so your getting it right

Agreed.  The smart play would be for public health agencies to partner with cruise lines and implement health protocols.  Then they could stand back and use cruise ships as shining examples how their health protocols work very well.  

On the other hand when public health agencies refuse to allow cruise ships to operate using their health protocols and in some cases requiring vaccines that undermines their own health protocols and vaccines.  They are basically saying health protocols and/or vaccines don't really work.  

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7 minutes ago, twangster said:

Agreed.  The smart play would be for public health agencies to partner with cruise lines and implement health protocols.  Then they could stand back and use cruise ships as shining examples how their health protocols work very well.  

On the other hand when public health agencies refuse to allow cruise ships to operate using their health protocols and in some cases requiring vaccines that undermines their own health protocols and vaccines.  They are basically saying health protocols and/or vaccines don't really work.  

To me, as a narrowly described PH policy matter for governments to grapple with, this is so freaking obvious it defies understanding. The way public health policy is derived in the US government exposes existent structural deficiencies. IOW, there's no clean mechanism whereby the executive can weigh risks and benefits, and in the process consider multiple factors, in making and implementing policy decisions. As cruise fans and wrt the CSO, we're stuck with that reality.

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7 hours ago, Ray said:

Theres no reason why a cruiseline couldnt homeport at Sydney, spend 2 weeks with crew onboard in quarantine then allow Australian Residents on for cruises around Oz. 

No foreigners or Non Residents 

I mean you guys have had fans in stadiums watching sports for ages now ( a lot more than would be on a cruiseship ) so your getting it right

Absolutely. And I’ve heard talk that they will be the requirement regardless. Although we’re behind in our roll out, all Australians were set to be vaccinated by October. We have next to zero incidences of community transmission, so I don’t see why at that point we shouldn’t be able to go on holidays around our own country via ship. I mean I can right now go to a resort anywhere in the country for 2 weeks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And with countries such as NZ being in the same position at Aus and a travel bubble with them expected to open within the next month, I don’t see why that couldn’t be included too. And any other country that fits the same profile. 
 

I do think it will be prudent to assume that cruises from Australia will not include international travelers for the next season however, New Zealanders excluded. Realistically much of the world isn’t and won’t be in the same position as us in 6 months time and while I want to get crushing, I’m still on the side of keeping travel relatively domestic until such time as the risk is very low. 

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19 minutes ago, Vanessa77 said:

 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Forget CSO, Vaccines, Covid or anything else thats doom and gloom and repeated 20 times a day!

Can we start a thread to see who can beat this ? This is brilliant and made me laugh  ??

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The political fallout from restarting cruising now would be monumental. The Ruby Princess debacle is still fresh in everyone's minds. ScoMo (Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister) is having a disastrous time of things at the moment with other issues and as the archetypal political pragmatist, there's no way he'd sign off on re-opening cruising anytime soon.

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1 hour ago, KWofPerth said:

The Ruby Princess debacle is still fresh in everyone's minds.

I hate that this is still any kind of concern.  
 

What happened last year was when we knew nothing about the virus.

 

Moreover, it’s like saying we should ban airlines because of what happened after 9/11.  Instead, changes were made to airport and airplane security.  

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The cruise lines have done everything they can do to clear the air on infection control measures in all phases of cruise ship operations and articulate how an infected passenger or crew member would be handled in the unlikely event an infection occurs on a cruise ship that is operating routinely and has fully vaccinated crew and guests. We know this stuff cold. The general public doesn't. 

The visuals of the Ruby Princess and stranded cruise ships and passengers being portrayed by the MSM on TV and on social media as a major health crisis was disastrous. Those visuals are burned into the public's memories. That cruising is wrongly associated with elitists doesn't help.

While we write about it here and praise politicians who advocate for a return to cruise operations out of US ports, the general public doesn't give a horse's patoot about whether cruise operations resume or not. While it's true our political representatives do respond to issues citizens they represent raise and we're seeing that, I'm not at all optimistic that it's going to move the needle toward a restart. For us, it's a huge problem. For most of those governed by western style governments, it's just not.      

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It is sad how the media are playing this. Saw a re-hash  all about the Ruby Princess, 28 people died, which is tragic, but the same media don't re-visit the Victorian state preventable outbreak that killed 828; crickets. I get so mad at the hypocrisy and I know in this forum I am speaking to the converted but why isn't CLIA on the front foot with funding from the big three here in Australia  and do a massive ad campaign and educate the masses.   

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3 hours ago, Matt said:

I hate that this is still any kind of concern.  
 

What happened last year was when we knew nothing about the virus.

 

Moreover, it’s like saying we should ban airlines because of what happened after 9/11.  Instead, changes were made to airport and airplane security.  

Us cruise nerds all know this, but the general public...not so much. That is the problem and is why politicians (certainly here in Australia, anyway) are in no hurry to restart.

We'll get there eventually.

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7 hours ago, Matt said:

I hate that this is still any kind of concern.  
 

What happened last year was when we knew nothing about the virus.

 

Moreover, it’s like saying we should ban airlines because of what happened after 9/11.  Instead, changes were made to airport and airplane security.  

It got a bit of media coverage recently... "The Ruby Princess one year on"...

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The one most likely to start first - P&O Australia, just extended pause until end of July.

They were the ones who extended their pause until June 18, well before the government announced the June 17 ban. I'm guessing they already know it will be extended further.

Given the ban is usually done in 3 month increments, the question is have they been given an August 1st restart date?

 New York Lol GIF by Lifetime

 

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