rabidstoat

3 hours ago, kilkoyne said:

 

I won't be wearing a mask either no matter how many unvaccinated passengers are onboard. 

How are you not wearing a mask on MSC cruises?

For the Europe cruises it says: "Face masks required when in public areas, except when seated in restaurants, bars, lounges, and when sitting on the sun deck."

For the Bahamas cruises (vaccinated or not) it says: "You will be required to wear a mask throughout the cruise while indoors and in public areas. Mask use is not required outdoors. Where social distancing is not possible outdoors, mask use is recommended for all guests."

Sounds like they require everyone to wear a mask at certain points.

5 minutes ago, TNcruising02 said:

Why would a ship get quarantined if a person tests positive?  Already, the cruise lines said that if someone tests positive before boarding the ship, they contracted with a hotel. It would be easy to have that person go straight to the hotel upon arrival.  I just don't get the fear of a positive covid case in these times with vaccines and treatments.  People test positive all of the time and airlines, hotels, and restaurants don't have to shut down.

I agree quarantining a ship because a person was tested positive would be ridiculous. I was just pointing out that treating the ship like other forms of transportation with the exact same rules doesn't work, because of reasons like that. 

4 minutes ago, balcony bound said:

 

Ships will not be quarantined.  That's been addressed previously.  Passenger would need to quarantine (local accommodation) before flying if that was how they arrived at the port.

 

CDC isn't going to making the rules going forward, only suggestions.  Cruise line will now be free to craft their own guidelines for passengers.

Well, except in Florida, where the cruise lines aren't free to require proof of vaccination.

I just wish the government -- federal and state -- would stay out of it and let the companies make their own policies. So no CDC requirements at all, just suggestions, and no restrictions on requiring vaccination status. If companies don't want to require proof of vaccination and let people wear masks or not on the honor system, fine with me. If other companies want vaccination-only cruises, fine with me too.

We aren't in a health crisis currently in the US so I wish the government would just stay out of it.

4 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Currently for months now ALL returning passengers entering the USA and arriving on International flights are required to present a negative PCR test not older than three days. The onus is on the passenger with the airlines as the gatekeeper for this CDC rule and will deny boarding at the embarkation airport. If you read the CDC requirement there are no exceptions and even includes diplomats.

 

Strange how the airlines haven't complained about that. I suppose the CDC could move to that tactic seeing as the airlines have been doing it without complaint.

Flights also require masks, vaccinated or not, and that rule would suck if applied to cruise ships since they are "a form of transportation."

The CDC could require covid tests before return, but what do you do if a passenger fails? Does the ship get quarantined for 14 days so the passenger can be quarantined? For flying it's easy, they don't get on the plane, but in this case the person is already on the ship.

So what happens when they get to port? Can they transfer to an on-shore quarantine hotel?

Having a 0% covid rate seems pretty tough across all the cruises out there. Having a few vaccinated people get asymptomatically sick doesn't seem like any huge breakdown in the system.

17 minutes ago, complawyer said:

I WILL NEVER GIVE UP MY PEPSI, but i support your right to drink coca cola no matter how misguided

 Hey, us diet cola drinkers could just all go back to Tab! 

21 minutes ago, complawyer said:

so do you go without if the diet coke is unavailable? 

Usually, yeah. I'll often just stick with water. Or iced tea (if it's unsweet, which you have to specify in the South).

When you order Diet Coke and the server asks if Diet Pepsi is okay the proper response is: "No, my god, what is wrong with you???" 😉

I've gone solo in the Haven, but you do have to pay double. Oddly enough, there was another person in the Haven traveling solo when I was there. I don't think that's the norm, though.

At the time I was splurging and won an upgrade bid on a Haven spa room. 

I stayed in the Haven once, where you get all the perks, and declined the beverage package because I don't drink alcohol. But I did drink a LOT of diet soda at the time so I bought the soda package. At that time, paying for the soda package plus 20% tips was cheaper than the 20% tips on my "free" beverage package.

The CDC order does say that areas can be designated for vaccinated people only, and then the restrictions wouldn't have to apply in those areas. 

That seems like it wouuld go over really, really poorly. Especially if it wasn't broadcast well in advance. Imagine going on a cruise where you were told vaccinations weren't required and then suddenly learning that only 10% of the ship was accessible by you. 

I think for the first few months of sailing, people will just have to accept that there will be a lot of unknowns and policies may change at the last minute. Even if RCI said right now "vaccinated people on a cruise not following the 95% vaccinated threshold will have to wear masks indoor" or "vaccinated people on a cruise not following the 95% vaccinated will NOT have to wear masks indoor", that could just change next week or next month.

2 hours ago, sidari said:

MSC have been given the go ahead for trial cruises which means they will carry people who have not had the jab as well as those who have, same as in the UK and Europe.

I'm wondering if the 'rules' on board will be the same for both vaccinated and unvaccinated. Will everyone have to wear masks indoors and social distance? And if so, will there be 'vaccinated only' places where vaccinated folks can go without masks indoors? 

I'm also wondering how things will work out if there are capacity limits and social distancing and the capacity of the ship is kept the same. Will they have 4pm dinner seatings to accommodate the social distancing? Will people have to book elevators in advance if they want to use one? Are they definitely only allowing for MSC shore excursions and no private port explorations? 

Nope, not out of Port Canaveral, they are building a canal special for me so neener neener! 

Er, yes, out of Cape Canaveral, most cruise lines (including MSC) just call it Orlando for shorthand.

I have a cruise booked out of Orlando on October 17, with final payment due July 17. Before I decide if I'm going or not I had hoped to see how other MSC cruises out of the US (and Florida in particular) are doing. 

Does anyone know which are the first US cruises for MSC? When they're departing and out of which ports? 

From what I can tell MSC is not going to require vaccinations. Though I think Carnival and Royal just flip-flopped on their vaccination stances (Carnival now requiring them and Royal not) so I imagine in the US cruising start-up things will be in flux and prone to changes. Which includes changes to whatever I observe in the earlier MSC cruises, I figure, but some data is better than no data.

This reminds me of a joke I heard at a comedy show, where the comedian said they were sneaking into the gym every morning and adjusting the weights on the scale so that it weighed a pound heavier each successive day of the cruise. Hahaha!

I went to Cambodia in 2000, traveling as a solo female traveler. My memories are:

1. Boating into Cambodia from Vietnam along the Mekong, it was a great river trip though super non-OSHA-compliant. There were no safety precautions of any sort on the boat, and we'd sit on the roof while it was moving.

2. The most fetid squat toilet in all of Asia at the end of the boat ride. Even us women opted to just find some scrub area and squat.

3. Bribing the border guard to get 'expedited' into the country (e.g., to not have to wait 8 hours at the border crossing while they waited to see if they could shake some money out of you).

4. Trucks loaded with a zillion people clinging to it. Did I mention there was not a lot of OSHA compliance?

5. Selling gasoline from the roadside out of Pepsi 2-liter bottles. Surely that wasn't safe...

6. My fat American ass broke a very cheap plastic toilet seat in a sit-down toilet in some tourist site in Phnom Penh.

7. Any exhibit on Khmer Rouge history was very depressing,

8. Angkor Wat was amazing, though already way over-populated and touristy, it must be crazy now. Well, now when not in a global pandemic.

9. I ended up 'trapped' in my hotel one day, though, because of pretty rowdy political protests in Siem Reap.

10. I took a tuktuk for an hour-plus long trip to the countryside in Cambodia. This taught me how dusty travel in tuktuks is and boy did I wish I had a mask!

11. But on the way back we crashed a wedding. That was my most surreal experience, we were stopping at a roadside shop and got dragged into the festivities. I had no idea what was going on but everyone was happy and friendly to the out-of-place American.

12. There was a place that did an hour-long foot massage for under a dollar, in Siem Reap. I went there for an hour every day.

I have off week after next. I'm debating between vacationing in my living room, or maybe in the guest bedroom as a change of scenery. Perhaps the garage now that it's cleaned out.

1 hour ago, waywyrd said:

Well crap. I'm booked on the Sunshine out of Charleston for Sept. 28th after having earlier cruises cancelled twice...at this point I don't know whether my husband should even bother locking in the time off from work. 😕

Charleston is a nice city, if you already have airfare booked you could just vacation there in the city and surrounding areas. At least it'd be a vacation.

17 hours ago, Joebucks said:

They own over 100 ships. My guess is the oldest and/or lowest demand are on the chopping block.

 

I can't imagine anyone wants ships at this time. Especially older and less exciting ones.

Here's the latest breakdown I've found per brand:

• Carnival Cruise Line - 27
• Princess - 18
• Holland America - 14
• Costa - 14
• AIDA - 14
• P&O UK - 6
• Seabourn - 5
• P&O Australia - 3
• Cunard - 3

Okay, another thought! What are the penalties for violating the PVSA and not doing a foreign port stop?

I know if an individual passenger gets off early or on late in a way that they're only hitting US ports, the cruise line is fined something like $700 or $800. They then pass the fine on to the passenger?

Is that the only penalty? Could the cruise lines theoretically add a $700 or $800 'PVSA Violation Fee' to the ticket cost and just defy the act, without consequences other than the monetary one?

42 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

How does this explain the Alaska sailings.  NCL still has to stop at a Canadian port in order to do an Alaska sailing, and that clearly isn't going to happen.  Alaska is now requiring a negative COVID test and/or a quarantine, and even if those requirements were dropped by September 1, the cruise line would need a waiver of the PSVA...and the likelihood of that happening is zero.  This just seems like a good way to hold on to cruisers' money.

What constitutes a port stop? Do people have to actually get off the ship? Can they just tie up to the dock, idle the ship for an hour, and then leave? Because maybe they could convince Canada to let them tie up to the dock if nobody got off.

Edit to add: Or if docking work, could they not even get close to a dock and stay at tender distance? Even if the tenders were never used?

8 hours ago, Paul Bogle said:

Every couple booking an ocean view and above gets an inside cabin thrown in for free.

 

(a nominal service charge of 50% of a one person inside fare will be added to your bill for your convenience.)

The way I've seen some people pack, they could use the extra inside cabin for storing shoes and clothing.

4 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

The three ports are Miami, Port Canaveral and Galveston and Carnival has a few ships at each scheduled for sailing in August 2020.  That should be after the CDC "No Sail".

D'oh. Yeah, I somehow got confused on months, it's August and not July. I blame it on the shelter-in-place, I've lost all track of time.

August 2020 should be good to go. I mean, hopefully the CDC won't be extending with amusement parks and stuff opening up!

Carnival has about 8 or 9 ships that they intend to sail in July 2020 from three different ports, I think. States are starting to open up. Down in Florida, Universal Studio is opening on June 5th and Disney probably next month as well. Whereas before I've been skeptical about announced dates for sailing, this time I am more inclined to believe they really are intending to sail and not just booking cruises for the money to keep afloat.

But what weight does the CDC 'No Sail' order have? It supposedly expires July 24th, so these cruises are planned before it ends. Does the CDC have the authority to shut down cruises if the state government says the port can operate? I could see US Customs having that amount of authority, but can the CDC really shut things down?

Or is Carnival banking on it being lifted as states open up more and more? 

Or maybe I missed it and it was already lifted or there are exceptions that Carnival is leveraging?

Here is a link to the CDC's page on cruises, which summarizes the No Sail order and links to the full documents: https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/index.html