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Ukraine - Russian situation


Ernesto

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Has this port of call been officially cancelled? Last email i received stated that they were monitoring the situation and a back up plan was in place if St Petersburg was removed from the schedule ( which it will be ) 

1 hour ago, Ernesto said:

I do not agree with Royal Caribbean in canceling the part of call the St Petersburg, that is a problem between governments (political) why we have to pay for a situation that we did not cause...

As well as the safefy of crew and pasengers there is also the fact If any government imposes sanctions on Russia to make it harder for them, is it morally correct that tourists on a cruiseship can go onshore spending money which may help in war? 

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2 hours ago, Ray said:

If any government imposes sanctions on Russia to make it harder for them, is it morally correct that tourists on a cruiseship can go onshore spending money which may help in war? 

Tough call in that regard but generally I would agree.  I was a "tourist" during the Cold War.  Officially, my dollars needed to be exchanged at government banks and goods needed to be purchased at government stores just for foreigners.   However, my dollars were well received by the citizens of Russia.  The people were very nice to me considering I was the enemy.  St Petersburg was called Leningrad back then but it was still a beautiful city with good people.

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40 minutes ago, PG Cruiser said:

Royal also did this for Odyssey's inaugural from Haifa, Israel.  They moved it to Lauderdale because of the unrest in Israel at the time.

That was also complicated because Israel wouldn't give them any vaccines while the US would... if they came to the US. 

The unrest was the reasoning they used to avoid the media hailstorm that was launched when it was first reported in Israel media that "...cruise ships might get vaccines while poor people around the world can't get vaccinated".

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Unless things settle down quickly,  RCI won't risk a stop anywhere near Russia. 

Please  know that I feel your pain. I had a repositioning cruise on Celebrity scheduled for next spring.  It stopped in Kamchatka. I doubt that stop will happen. 

I've already rebooked for a different repositioning cruise on RCI Australia to Hawaii. 

There's just no point in waiting until the options are limited when things look this unlikely. 

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble 😔 

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The world is overwhelmingly signaling that Putin's invasion of Ukraine isn't "necessary" as he has characterized it. Performances by Russian artists are being cancelled. Cultural and sporting events around the world are banning Russian participation. Organizers of these events are doing what they think is right, sending a message to Vladimir Putin that what you have done in undertaking an Invasion of Ukraine is not only unnecessary and wrong but we are going to hold you personally accountable and shame and punish you in any way we can for doing it.

I support RCL in their decision and I don't care if it is based on safety concerns, fears of social media backlash, or that insurance companies won't insure their ships if they sail in the Black Sea. I don't care if it is a politically motivated gesture in support of Ukraine. I want the Russian people who are going to get hurt economically by Putin's actions, the ones who don't by any measure hate us or wish us ill will to get so fed up with what Putin has wrought that they fearlessly rise up and get rid of him. The rest of the free and democratic nations of the world will cheer them on - one long overdue step in the right direction for freedom, human rights and mankind. 

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I just sent this email to RCI:

               "First of all, my wife and I are greatly anticipating our next cruise. We have had our last 4 (or more - lost track) cruises cancelled due to dry docking (Allure), COVID (Symphony and Odyssey)  , and redeployments (Jewel). I now am concerned with our June 5th, Voyager of the Seas,  cruise that has a port call in St. Petersburg, Russia. I did receive Aurora Yera-Rodriguez's  letter, dated February 24th, that stated "our intention is to sail to St. Petersburg; however, we have secured alternate ports, should we feel that changing our itinerary is the best path forward." The reason My wife and I decided on this cruise was the port call in St. Petersburg as it has been a bucket list city for me to visit since I was a teenager in the 80's. With that said, I strongly encourage Royal Caribbean International (RCI) to suspend all business related activities with Russia and boycott Russia until Ukraine is free from the Russian invasion. If Ukraine should fall, RCI should continue its boycott if a puppet government ( beholden to Moscow) is implemented in Ukraine. I am still looking forward to my sailing on Voyager to support the economies and people of Demark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia."

 

I would recommend others to do something similar if they feel the same.

 

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Just found this under travel advisories on the RC website:

 

Itineraries visiting St. Petersburg, Russia

Last updated March 1st, 2022

The safety of our guests and crew is always our top priority. We are continuously monitoring events taking place around the world, including the situation in Ukraine. With the recent events, we have made the decision to cancel our visits to St. Petersburg, Russia on all Summer 2022 itineraries. We have planned alternative ports and will communicate itinerary changes to our guests and travel partners.

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Receieved email regarding my scheduled cruise, St Petersburg removed and an Over night stop in Stockholm now included. Not the best result would rather have had another port such as Gdansk or Rostock but it is what it is! A night in Stockholm what can i do????? 🤣

waterloo GIF by ABBA

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This was a no brainer for RCL for many reasons.

First and foremost was safety of crew and passengers. Included in this is the mental health of crew from Ukraine (And yes the mental health of Russian staff is also a consideration. I think the state of the Ukraine staff who are seeing their country invaded may be of slightly more at risk than maybe the Russian staff, though, again many of them may have lost loved ones in the invasion themselves. War creates victims on all sides). While I don’t know if there is any physical danger to the ship or passengers the heightened tension and political uncertainty would be of concern.

Secondly demand. While I am sure many will still want to travel to Russia I'm pretty sure the demand for the short to medium term won't be what it was. Many people will actively choose not to sail on itineraries that include Russia while I suspect those cancelling or choosing not to sale because an itinerary doesn’t include Russia will be a far lesser number.

Thirdly legislation. I imagine many countries in Europe (and elsewhere) will impose sanctions/port entry bans on ships/aircraft that include Russia in their itinerary.

Then there are likely to be things behind the scenes we don’t see. Possible economic/supply disruption in Russia caused by sanctions may be of concern to RCL for example.

Then the question of what is the right thing to do… that gets into a political discussion so I’ll leave that out…

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3 hours ago, EmersonNZ said:

 

Thirdly legislation. I imagine many countries in Europe (and elsewhere) will impose sanctions/port entry bans on ships/aircraft that include Russia in their itinerary.

 

 

Sanctions including no flights etc have been in place by some counties since day 1, others countries have since followed and imposed them. 

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2 hours ago, teddy said:

Without getting into specifics of the invasion, I feel like not making a stop in a warring nation is a good call on Royal’s part. 

You know its bad when Switzerland who have so many splinters in their ass from sitting on the fence for decades joins in with sanctions lol 

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On 2/27/2022 at 7:43 AM, Ernesto said:

I do not agree with Royal Caribbean in canceling the part of call the St Petersburg, that is a problem between governments (political) why we have to pay for a situation that we did not cause...

I understand you do not agree but I am upset with companies that continue to do business with anything owned or dealing with Russia.  I am very upset that the United States government is continuing to purchase oil from Russia.  We each have our opinions and mine and your are different but that is OK.

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We're quite onboard [sic] with Royal canceling St. Petersburg for our June cruise on the Voyager, albeit very disappointed that we will not get to see the Hermitage etc.

Instead, we were informed just today that We'll be going to Warnemunde instead [near Rostock, Germany and also labeled Berlin, though Berlin is something like 150 miles inland from the port].  I served with the Air Force for 2 years in Berlin, and loved that city; and it would be 'great' to be able to see it again and see how much it might have changed over the years.  I think my wife would really enjoy a tour there too.  It would more than offset our loss of visiting the Hermitage I think.  

Of course, the 150 mile journey seems prohibitive, though it appears we d dock from like 8am to 9pm which probably would be enough time but would be a LONG day and probably expensive.  Anyway, thought I would make a query here to see if anyone has made such a one day journey from Warnemunde to Berlin?  Is it feasible? Warnemunde was east Germany last time in Berlin, so would make for a very interesting stop indeed [even if we can't get to Berlin].  We hope Royal might have an excursion there; so far they are showing no excursions yet.  

So, anyone have experience along this? Stopping in Warnemunde and taking a day trip to Berlin?  We imagine it would be expensive.   My search didn't turn up a whole lot [just some dated comments].  This seemed like the best place to post this...about excursions, and discussion of cruise ramifications of Putin's invasion.

And just a fyi for this thread, we lost Helsinki too for the Voyager cruise, but also picked up a second day in Riga, Latvia and also added Aarhus, Denmark.  It'll still be a great cruise, and for now, as far as safety, we're more worried about Covid....no, not the virus, but what hoops we'll have to jump through for testing etc.   24 hour covid test for planes re-entering USA seems even MORE prohibited than a 150 mile two way train ride in one day.  Just sayin'.  Of course June still a ways off so who knows. 

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