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Will cruising be put on pause again?


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With all that is happening, could cruising be put on pause again?  It's not just the COVID numbers.  This recent surge is impacting the ships' ability to provide satisfactory service to their guests - cancelled port stops, shows, and on-board activities. I'm not trying to be a fear monger here.  I've been on six cruises post-COVID and all has gone well.  But to quote Han Solo, "I have a bad feeling about this!"

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Personally I feel that it's very unlikely. The people cruising right now had bad timing. Things hit so fast that they didn't have time to evaluate their options.  I am cruising in 3 weeks and if we have no shows or stops it won't bother me or deter me at all from going. My point is that I know this beforehand and I can cancel if I choose. The current cruisers were not in that position and disappointment is inevitable for many of them.

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9 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

With all that is happening, could cruising be put on pause again?  It's not just the COVID numbers.  This recent surge is impacting the ships' ability to provide satisfactory service to their guests - cancelled port stops, shows, and on-board activities. I'm not trying to be a fear monger here.  I've been on six cruises post-COVID and all has gone well.  But to quote Han Solo, "I have a bad feeling about this!"

It’s not far fetched. I unfortunately agree with you. I’m supposed to be sailing again on 1/10 and it seems less and less likely as the days progress. 

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Are we not back to the fact that with cruising you take on the risk of things happening, how is this any different. Nothing is perfect, some cruises feel perfect but some are not. Are we just in a phase now that is if the cruise is not perfect they should cancel or stop cruising until everything is perfect. Good luck with hat especially during hurricane season in the Caribbean.

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7 minutes ago, C.D said:

We are scheduled on January 29, have had two canceled last year, if we are healthy and the ships are sailing and planes flying, we plan on being there, just got our booster shot, good luck to all of us cruisers.

Agreed! I’m just concerned about every port of call being cancelled and just going on an extended ride.

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If the industry does shut down it will be cruise lines making that call. 

The Florida lawsuit resulted in the ruling that the CDC does not have the direct legal authority to shutdown the industry.  That resulted in the cruise lines voluntarily playing nice with the CDC.  

The CDC has done today what it has also done with air travel throughout the pandemic.  Today they issued "recommendations" against travel.  The CDC knows it has no authority to issue a shutdown.

The wild card are the ports of call.  

With no ports to visit the cruise lines will have little recourse.  

The Bahamas potentially closing private destinations within the Bahamas is a pretty significant factor.

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One thing i cannot understand is why there is the need for all of these new measures when the same scientists who came across as the grim reaper for the past 18 months are saying this new variant is not as dangerous as Delta! Its just easier to catch and is like the common cold for those who are vaccinated! 

Yet in the UK we have brand new measures introduced when most of the country is vaccinated when lesser measures were rolled out before vaccine.. 

Oh wait!! I think i get it 😉

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21 minutes ago, Cruise Pirate said:

Are we not back to the fact that with cruising you take on the risk of things happening, how is this any different. Nothing is perfect, some cruises feel perfect but some are not. Are we just in a phase now that is if the cruise is not perfect they should cancel or stop cruising until everything is perfect. Good luck with hat especially during hurricane season in the Caribbean.

That is if the risk assessment is left to the guests.  Some will choose to sail, some will not.

My original post is more from the vantage point of the cruise lines.  Will the cruise lines get to a point where they say, "This is too much trouble for us!"?

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We have a cruise scheduled 01/09 and barring cancellation by the cruise industry we are going cruising. As of a few minutes ago the Bahamas cleared Freedom OTS to disembark on CoCo Cay so that conspiracy is now defunct. We will test as always, be careful in our events onboard and enjoy yet another cruise as we have since August. Flexibility and care is the name of the game now, onboard ship and at home. Even with additional protocols the cruises have been enjoyable and we cannot wait for the next ones.

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4 minutes ago, CrznTxn said:

Even with additional protocols the cruises have been enjoyable and we cannot wait for the next ones.

I attest to this!  Just like pre-COVID I had a wonderful time - meeting nice people, enjoying the trivia games, dancing straight through the 70s party medley, and of course, enjoying fine dining every night.

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10 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

That is if the risk assessment is left to the guests.  Some will choose to sail, some will not.

My original post is more from the vantage point of the cruise lines.  Will the cruise lines get to a point where they say, "This is too much trouble for us!"?

My gut is that they will not shut down voluntarily unless it is, or becomes, a significant health concern. Lower revenue is better than no revenue. Additionally, some of the smaller cruise lines may not be able to survive another prolonged pause.

 

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Cruising won't pause. As stated, some revenue is better than none. 

Also let's be honest, we can't get back to "normal" until we start living life. What good does shutting things down do? We need to continue to adapt protocols so we can live life. I cruise in 11 days and nothing, but a positive test, will stop me.

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I guess I'm unclear who would order cruises to stop. I'm pretty sure the CDC can't. If anyone tried there would probably be more lawsuits and any argument they made would apply to airlines and other venues that I think will never stop operating. Maybe he's a Senator with poor  popularity and he is trying to grandstand or divert attention from his poor popularity.  Time will tell.

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3 hours ago, PG Cruiser said:

With all that is happening, could cruising be put on pause again?  It's not just the COVID numbers.  This recent surge is impacting the ships' ability to provide satisfactory service to their guests - cancelled port stops, shows, and on-board activities. I'm not trying to be a fear monger here.  I've been on six cruises post-COVID and all has gone well.  But to quote Han Solo, "I have a bad feeling about this!"

I don't think the CDC is looking at shutting down the cruise industry again.  Even if Fauci and Walensky wanted to shut down the cruise industry I think the White House would stop them from doing it from behind the scenes because 2022 is an election year. The Biden Administration is doing everything they can to convince school districts across the country to remain open. They are even going as far as saying children are safer in school than they are at home which is funny because I remember the Trump Administration saying the same thing but that a discussion for another day.  

What I think the CDC is trying to do is convince either the public or the cruise lines themselves to either cancel their cruise (public) or voluntarily shut down (cruise lines).  Reading all of the stories over the past 2 weeks or so it does appear as though customers onboard experience is suffering with ports refusing to allow ships to dock and even onboard with shows and venues having to be closed do to crew members testing positive. I still believe the CDC's singling out of cruise lines out of all other industries that make up the travel industry is 100% wrong because cruise lines have the highest and most stringent level of safety protocols in place and again in the grand scheme of things positive cases on cruise ships are much lower than they are on land and most of the people who test positive on a cruise are either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms  not requiring hospitalization. 

For people who have cruises book in January at this point in time you know what you're getting yourself into.  You know there is the possibility your ship may be turned away from one or more ports of call.  You know the onboard experience my be diminished slightly if the ship has to cancel shows and close venues do to positive cases amongst the crew. Anyone who decides to go on a cruise in January has a tough decision to make do you go on the cruise and take the chance of not having the experience you are looking for or do you cancel your cruise and rebook at a later date.  Personally if I had a cruise scheduled in January I think I would cancel and rebook a cruise at a later date. Not because I'm afraid of COVID or put much faith in the daily case count, I would cancel because the risk of disruption to my vacation is too high for me to ignore. For me cruising is about the experience and if the cruise ship can't provide the experience that I'm expecting (through no fault of their own) then I would just reschedule my cruise.

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2 hours ago, CruiseFan21 said:

Everybody who’s sailing on 01/08/22 on Symphony OTS let’s unite in the Club of Positive/Optimistic  Cruisers Only, and let’s enjoy our deserved vacation !!!👈😎

I am supposed to be on this sailing, I have extra hurdles to get over as a Canadian but I plan on boarding the ship next weekend!

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43 minutes ago, JasonOasis said:

I would cancel and rebook a cruise at a later date. Not because I'm afraid of COVID or put much faith in the daily case count, I would cancel because the risk of disruption to my vacation is too high for me to ignore. For me cruising is about the experience and if the cruise ship can't provide the experience that I'm expecting (through no fault of their own) then I would just reschedule my cruise.

In Vancouver it has been below freezing and snowing for over a week now (Vancouver is generally much milder temperature wise than the rest of Canada for those that don’t know) so I will be heading for my cruise next week. I would be fine even if I just sit on my balcony all week soaking up the sun!

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The cruise industry needs to get tough on these destination ports. If a Port turns down a cruise ship, with a lower infection rate than the host Port, - ban ALL cruise ships from that Port for X number of months. I believe that the Ports are well within their rights to ban anyone from setting foot on their land, but they need to be cognizant of possible adverse effects. I'm OK with sailing to no Ports as long as the casino, bars and balconies are open. 

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8 minutes ago, Swar said:

The cruise industry needs to get tough on these destination ports. If a Port turns down a cruise ship, with a lower infection rate than the host Port, - ban ALL cruise ships from that Port for X number of months. I believe that the Ports are well within their rights to ban anyone from setting foot on their land, but they need to be cognizant of possible adverse effects. I'm OK with sailing to no Ports as long as the casino, bars and balconies are open. 

Some of these countries have 20-30% vaccination rates. Many don't have very much of a health care system during good times.  

It's a symbiotic relationship.  Cruise ships need ports as much as ports need cruise ships.  

Yes, the pandemic sucks. 

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Hopefully we avoid another shutdown as that won't do anyone good and it will just leave people more frustrated and angry that we can't seem to get a handle on this thing and we'll be spinning in circles forever as new variants come out every year. Personally, I am going on Navigator of the Seas in 18 days. Am I cancelling? No. Am I aware that my cruise experience may be impacted? Yes. Am I still going to enjoy myself regardless if no ports or shows are there? Yes. As much as I love to visit ports and watch shows, the main draw for me about a cruise is the ship itself and the ocean views. I can walk around the ship and watch the ocean for days without knowing anything else is going on. Just get me out to sea and I am a happy camper. I will continue to mask up and protect myself and those around me. I wore my mask in vaccinated areas during my 4 cruises in 2 months and returned home healthy each time. 

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13 hours ago, PG Cruiser said:

This recent surge is impacting the ships' ability to provide satisfactory service to their guests - cancelled port stops, shows, and on-board activities.

As long as RC can provide food and drink (mainly alcohol), that's all the satisfactory service we need.🤣

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15 minutes ago, mworkman said:

The next question is, since the CDC now considered those that haven’t had booster shots to be in the same category as Unvaccinated…yep you heard that right…does RC consider that currently?

Where is the source of this information?  Was there a recent update?

This is what I'm seeing on the CDC website regarding what they consider to be fully vaccinated. Nothing is said about booster shots.

1717840241_ScreenShot2021-12-31at7_27_24AM.png.518e6c75de33b30c504e492b8acab548.png

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14 hours ago, KevinJ said:

We plan to be on our 1/9 Anthem sailing. If ports get skipped it'll probably save me money, keeps the wife out of the shops 🙂 Plus the NH weather stinks.

As long as we all test negative, I plan on going.  I'm one who would happily stay on the ship for 11 days.  Do hope they stop at ports though -- DH & DD have a rum tour scheduled they don't want to miss, and if people get off the ship, that just means an even emptier ship for me!

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