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On 2/11/2021 at 4:23 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

Once, returning to Los Angeles after a long cruise on the Volendam, I sent a pair of wash n' wear slacks that I intended to wear home on my flights to be laundered.  For some reason, after the slacks had been returned on the day before disembarking and I had already put my luggage in the hallway for the crew to pick-up that night, I decided I ought to try the slacks on.  😲 !  They had shrunk!  Very tight around the waste!  I quickly retrieved a bag from the hallway in order to get another pair of pants to wear, thankful that the crew that was at that time picking up luggage had not yet gotten to my cabin (they were just down the hall).  I would have been miserable if I had to have wear those shrunken pants.

 

That is the only mishap with ship laundry that I have experienced and I use them a lot.

Are you sure the laundry room was to blame and not the dining room?

1 hour ago, Hangman115 said:

In the US, there are fahe drivers licenses. Fake green cards. Fake birth certificates. Fake Social Security cards. etc.....

And many of these fake records can be found as valid ID's on government computers

Grease the right palms and you can get anything. And more and more, government computers, federal, state and local computers all are vulnerable. 

And yes, there can be those out there that can, for a price, file hundreds, thousands and even millions of fake shot records.

And who knows how many who are going to take a cruise and refuse to get the shot. Maybe not your average Joe who pays a couple hundred for a cruise sailing. But maybe someone who pays thousands and tens of thousands or more for their cabin or a group of cruisers.

 

People get fake DL, green cards, etc for one reason....they are unable to get a real one.  If your choose is either a fake green card or get sent to deported you have an incentive to go with the fake.  And you really don’t have much to lose.  Going to jail isn’t much worse than being deported and odds are you aren’t going to jail but ate being deported anyway.  Someone with a fake green card is desperate.

Vaccine are different situation.  Getting the vaccine will likely be easier to get than forging the card.  And people going on cruises have something to lose, they have money, jobs, houses, businesses, reputations.  The risk profile is different.  

I don’t think many people would lie about this even if it wasn’t against the law.

  Lying about it in the US is a felony.  After one person is filmed exiting a hospital after recovering from Covid in handcuffs and the evening news flashes, “man faces up to 5 years in jail for false Covid vaccine certificate “. there won’t be many copycats.  

52 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Neither am I concerned about such.  But, I have met fellow guests whose clothes were dumped onto the floor when either cycle was done and someone wanted the washer or dryer.  

That is the fault of the person who did not return in a timely manner to deal with their wash.  I have never known of someone interrupting a wash or dry cycle.  But once the cycle is done and 15 - 20 minutes has passed, it is perfectly reasonable to remove the items.   I know of people who have not returned for an entire day and were upset that someone removed their items.  Thinking you can tie up the machine for 12 or more hours is selfish.  I make a point of returning before the cycle completes.  

6 hours ago, gerryuk said:

Its very easy to visit a place and find it too crowded, but remember before you blame the crowds, just remember you are part of that crowd and are as much to blame for the place being overrun. 

Basically what I was getting at, you said it a lot more tactfully than me.

On 2/4/2021 at 4:21 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

 I did not have complimentary laundry at that time and hated to waste time sitting in a ship's laundry room doing small batches of clothes.  

I am not a fan of sitting in laundry rooms, but I am not worried someone is going to steal my clothes either.  Typically the front desk knows how long a  cycle takes.  I set my alarm for 5 -10 minutes shorter than that depending on how far from the laundry room I am hanging out and typically arrive back at the laundry room a minute or so before it is done.  There is nothing wrong with leaving clothes unattended, just don’t leave clothes tying up a washer or dryer for hours, forcing others to either remove you clothes or wait.  I always make sure I get back BEFORE the load is done.

Only exception was in two hotels where the wifi was strongest in the laundry room.  I stayed even after my clothes was done.

1 hour ago, navybankerteacher said:

 Agreed - having had many months available, it is obvious that many dropped the ball in - a) Logically scheduling eligibility tiers, b) Setting up procedures for scheduling appointments, and b) Putting the word out about eligibility and scheduling.  I was impressed by CT’s eligibility and appointment rules - but remain stunned by the lack of coherent information being put out.

Combination of issues.  

The vaccine rolled out much faster than most people anticipated.

Vaccine rollout wasn’t most governor’s top Covid priority, maybe not even the top 5, for most of the pandemic. Out of ventilators, out of ICU beds, shortage of medical personnel, shortage  of PPE, shortage of Remdesivir, morgues overflowing, and getting no help from the feds.  Pretty much nobody in that situation is going to be focused on developing a robust vaccination program, but rather most resources are going to be focused on triaging the immediate issues instead of a theoretical vax. 

Also given the national emergency it would have made sense to develop ONE system rather than require 50 teams to develop 50 systems.  

9 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I assume you are kidding.  I will ignore your flippant remarks and ask you what ports are going to accept a ship under your conditions?  Name one!

 

So here is the reality!  If even a single passenger would become sick with COVID (or something that was even possibly COVID) that ship would be denied entry to nearly any port on earth (if you disagree please name the exceptions).  Even if others can "claim" (as you put it) to be vaccinated this would not be acceptable to any country/port.  Not only would they have to prove they were vaccinated, but there would need to be a short quarantine followed by new tests to prove those folks were not asymptomatic spreaders of COVID.  And even that may not be sufficient to get them access to all the airlines.  At the very least, the cruise would have ended with that first case and the remainder of the passengers would have been plunged into that nasty world experienced by many cruise passengers last March/April.

 

Hank

Right now they aren’t accepting cruise ships period.  And if the criteria to enter a port is nobody on board can have Covid in any form for a ship to dock then the ports may NEVER open at all.  The vaccine doesn’t prevent you from getting Covid, it prevents you from dying from Covid.  Most cruise ships will have people with Covid on them.  Just like it is extremely rare for a ship to sail without a single person having the common cold.  

The vaccine isn’t going to get rid of Covid.  It is just going to change it from a deadly pandemic to something akin to a bad common cold.  

In a post-Covid-vax world for most people  someone having Covid will be seen as similar to getting the cold or stomach bug.  You don’t want to catch it, but catching isn’t the end of the world either. And the anti-vaxers will be Darwin Award winners.

18 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

You are ignoring the fact that cruise ports might not be as broadminded as you. They might not think it is a good idea to admit infected, or even possibly infected, wise guys who think rules do not apply to them.  It does not matter if the cruise line got lied to or simply did not give a damn about required precautions - some ports are going to play be their rules -- even if cruise lines, or their passengers, seem to think that rules do not apply to them.

 

And even if, as you seem to think, Covid might be simply "annoying" rather than lethal, some ports might still  prefer not to be annoyed.

The vaccine doesn’t stop the spread.  It stops you from dying.  If the ports are saying no to any ship with a covid positive person the vaccine isn’t going to matter much.  

^^^^ So your theory is that in a country like Peru, Thailand or India they are going to shun tourists dollars until 100% of the country is vaccinated caring more about health of the poorest citizens than the tourist revenue.   My theory is that once the wealthy and powerful are vaccinated they won’t care about masses.  

The premise of the travel won’t resume until 2023 is based on the idea that travel won’t resume until 80% of the planet has the vaccine and the disease is under control worldwide.

I disagree.  Once the vaccine is wildly available to the population of people wealthy enough to afford international travel, international travel will resume with as little regard for the impact of covid on poor people as our current level concern for people dying of malnutrition.  
 

Some countries might be off limits, but those will be countries that neither have many people traveling abroad nor are popular tourist attractions.  New York to Paris will open up if both USA and France is mostly under control even as the pandemic rages on in Haiti.   

14 hours ago, caribill said:

 

The USA government may not require a passport for this, but some Caribbean countries now require a passport for USA citizens in order to step on land there. So if your itinerary includes one of these countries, Princess may require you to present a valid passport in order embark on the cruise.

I doubt an LA to Hawaii cruise makes any stops at Caribbean islands.

Just now, navybankerteacher said:

Very broadminded --- but do you think you might "sweat it" if for some reason their not being vaccinated caused your cruise to be diverted - or refused entry to a port you wanted to visit.

Why should it be diverted?  The vaccine renders the disease from lethal to just annoying.  Anyone who has covid should be quarantined in their room until the end of the cruise.  Even people with the vaccine can catch the disease so it should have on impact on being refused entry to a port.  If someone dies because they didn’t get medical treatment due to their own fraud, that isn’t the cruise-lines fault.  They undoubtedly won’t get much sympathy and will become facebook Darwin Award memes. 

9 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Really?   What is wrong with wanting to experience some place  without being part of a mob which makes it next to impossible to experience what makes it worth experiencing?

 

 

 

 

A place will develop its own limiting stop point that caters to the maximum number of people willing to share that experience with that number of other.   As places get too crowded people will decide to elsewhere until it gets less crowded and more people want to return.  Thus catering to the maximum number of people.  If that is too crowded for you go somewhere else. 

I assume it will be something like the yellow fever form.  If cruise lines mandates it, most people will comply,  I wouldn’t sweat it if others counterfeit their card.  If you are vaccinated you really don’t have much to worry about.   If one or two non-vaccinated people catch it, it shouldn’t impact the cruise.  Being they are claiming to be vaccinated the ship doesn’t need to divert for them to be transported to a medical facility and if they die because they needed a ventilator after forging a vax card the line should escape liability.

Places are popular for a reason.  It is selfish, self-center and the height of privilege to think that “*I* deserve to visit this place without crowds and *YOU* are ruining *MY* experience “. 

That depends on what you mean by early. If you mean a day early none.  However, if you mean a few hours there was one cruise that was scheduled to start deembarcation at 8 am.  However, at 5 am we were already docked and I asked if we could leave then.  We packed up our gear and was off the ship by 5.15 and caught a 5.30 train allowing us extra time to sightsee.  

Depends on the schedule.  If I am flying out first thing Saturday morning, I probably will make my list and start packing the weekend before.  If I am leaving on a Sunday, I might not start until the day before.  

Time of year is also a factor, if I am taking a winter vacation down south I will pack most of my clothes months in advance while doing the fall clothing switch over.  (Otherwise I would need to dig the boxes from the back of the closet). In the summer much of the clothes can’t get packed until I do my last pretrip laundry.   It is quite possible that many of the months in advance packer are packing summer clothes in the fall for a winter vacation.  
 

In my town, high school volunteers are partnering with the senior center to register internet-challenged seniors for the vax.    

16 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

This is luring the thread onto a very slippery slope - once every activity involving a boat is deemed relevant, we should start including nursery rhymes such as The Owl and the Pussycat - and Rub-a-dub-dub, Three Men in a Tub.

It is not on a slippery slope.  It went over the edge on page one.  Gilligans Island was more of a “cruise “ than hunt for red october.  And I was referring to the movie remakes not the TV show.  

I don’t think anyone has mentioned the greatest one ever.....Gilligan’s Island.  It starts out as a cruise of sorts.

Also take whatever appointment you can get!!!   A friend of mine signed up her mom.  Her mom wants her to change the appointment because it conflicts with her hair appointment.  She is like “*****, mom.  move the damn hair appointment “. 

2 hours ago, mom says said:

A couple of months? ??? Sorry, but I think you're dreaming.

Not really.  Cruising starting with a testing requirement in May/June  Vax as a requirement Aug/Sept.

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

The two requirements may coexist for a while.

Proof of a vax *AND* a negative test.  Seems like overkill.  I could see *OR* for a couple months until vax is widely available, and once demand is met the test no longer an option.

On 1/24/2021 at 2:57 PM, cruisemom42 said:

I foresee COVID testing as the next cottage industry to spring up around airports and ports. I can easily imagine some of those storefronts in the various open-air strip malls around Port Everglades becoming testing clinics for pre-cruisers....

 

I predict it will be a very short lived cottage industry with almost every cruise, county, airline etc. requiring proof of vax.