Andrisk123

Picked up 100 stocks @ 16,3 today. 

If CCL goes bankrupt - oh, well, it´s only money. If CCL doesn´t go bankrupt it probably will recover sooner or later. 

In case of bankruptcy I would me much more upset over the money lost that we have already paid towards our August cruise.

2 minutes ago, HappyInVan said:

 

I stand corrected. Are the UK passports stamped?

Not really sure, last time I was in the UK was something like 12 years ago. In theory, passports should be stamped when entering/leaving the UK (and entering/leaving the Schengen Area), however nowadays I think many countries store this information digitally instead.

At least as far as I recall, our passports (we are citizens of a Schengen country) were not stamped when entering/leaving Schengen (through Portugal) last November - they were however stamped upon arrival and departure from Cape Verde. 

UK has never been in the Schengen Area. What the Schengen Agreement in essence does is make cross-border travel between countries basically more or less the same as travelling from one US state to another - you can just go without any additional controls (there are of course fundamental differences and countries can temporary re-instate border controls etc). When driving through mainland Europe in many places the only thing that changes upon entering a new country is that there are road signs welcoming you to the new country. So basically, when you are accepted into the Schengen Area, you can freely travel wherever you want without any restrictions or controls.

The US banning flights from Schengen but not from the UK does not seem reasonable to me, mainly due to the fact that UK are taking a very lenient approach (together with Sweden, for example) on combatting the virus - for example, UK is the only major country where football is still played in front of sold-out stadiums while I think all other European countries have banned spectators from attending. So I am not sure it will accomplish anything and from a purely political perspective it is a move that could easily backfire since it is likely to have little or no impact on the spread in the US.

We drove yesterday up to the edge of the exclusion zone. We were expecting to see roadblocks or controls in place and we didn’t see anything at all. Cars were going in both directions. It seemed as though the control of this restricted zone is quite loose, and that is a bit difficult to understand. Is this simply too big an area to control and close off in the heart of Europe in this way or are the restrictions gradually coming into place?

Source: BBC News

Seems counterintuitive to announce a quarantine and not enforce it in any way and will probably lead to a larger spread of disease than not having a quarantine, since I assume that people who otherwise would have stayed put now are scrambling to get out.

If you have a data plan that doesn´t charge too much for cell phone data usage in the EU, you can download an app called Bolt which is basically a Baltic version of Uber. Taxis in the Riga Port are notorious hustlers and will gladly charge you something like 15-20 EUR or more for a 5 minute ride to the center, a taxi through Bolt will cost something like 3 EUR for the same distance and they use Google Maps so you are able to input the name of the place you want to go to instead of the street address.

If you stop on a weekday I would however walk back to port instead (or take the tram) since the roads to/from the port can be quite congested in the late afternoons, especially if there is a traffic accident somewhere. The last time we went on a cruiseferry to Stockholm we got out of the taxi and walked the last kilometer or so, since time was tight and traffic at a standstill due to an accident. Weekends are a different story and I don´t think I have ever experienced any congestion in Riga on a weekend, so if it is a Saturday or a Sunday the taxi ride to port will take 5 minutes.

If I was in your shoes I would probably start with the KGB museum, since that is the part of your excursion that you might get stuck in & want to spend a bit more time in. From there, I'd take a Bolt to the Holocaust Museum. When finished, see how much time you have left and decide what to do. 

The Holocaust Museum is quite close to the Central Market, so you could walk there and also eat lunch there (there is a quite nice food court for example) and then just make your way back to the port through Old Town. 

Booked on a Mediterranean cruise in August, not planning to cancel and not really worried either, although we live in the European Union (= no real insurance risks/problems since medical care is free of charge no matter where in the EU we are, and I also have additional cover both through work and through credit cards) and are in a low-risk category (mid-to-late 30´s, no medical conditions, kids healthy as well) which I guess makes things easier. 

The only major change I will make is that I will probably bring my laptop on all my vacations in the future so I can work if I get stuck in a quarantine somewhere, which is something that I try to avoid otherwise in order to be able to relax better. 

For what it's worth, when France together with some other EU countries repatriated their citizens from Wuhan, most countries chose to quarantine their citizens upon return. Sweden did not - they brought them home and kindly asked them to self-quarantine and check their health and contact health services if feeling ill.

While I personally think this is not the right way to go, as far as I know there have been no new cases in Sweden. Could of course be that none of them were infected and thus did not spread anything further on (and I believe it was only something like 10-15 people in total), but could also be that the virus isn't as horrible as first thought, and that it does not spread as easily in "normal" environments.

And it could also be that quite a lot of people have recovered from the virus not even knowing they had it - I don't know anyone with good health who would visit the doctor for a common cold (which is good, since that would be a waste of medical resources) instead of just sitting home and waiting for it to pass, so could be that there are a large amount of cases that aren't reported since if there are no real complications, there really isn't a reason to go to the doctor. 

2 minutes ago, ed01106 said:

Bad news for containment. Good news for survival rates.

Exactly. Assuming that for every person that is confirmed positive there is at least one asymptomatic person who actually has the virus, or who only gets very mild symptoms, the actual death rate would be closer to 1%. If the rate of infected persons with mild (or no) symptoms is even higher, this might point towards a real death rate more in line with the common flu. 

The death rate outside of China also points to this, with only 5/989 cases being fatal so far.

34 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

That may be your view but experts would disagree, and are predicting infection rates of around 50%.  Of no concern to most people, unless you’re old or have existing health issues. 1-2% is a very small percentage, but it’s a large number out of 30 million.

What experts? This sounds like pure scare mongering, or by taking some worst-case scenario and presenting is a most likely model. 

For now, the number of new cases has somewhat slowed, and outside of China the death rate as of now is miniscule (5 out of 1346 infected). 

There are really no signs pointing to the outbreak affecting 50% of the world´s population, or even close to those numbers.

4 minutes ago, euro cruiser said:

There are beaches nearby, Santa Marinella (one train station south of the port) is probably the nicest.

 

There is also a waterpark, Aquafelix, a short cab ride from the port (about 7 km/4.5 miles).  Their web site is here:  https://www.aquafelix.it/

 

I would still consider going into Rome, if only for a few hours.  It's quite easy and inexpensive to get there on your own using the train, given the heat and crowds of the summer perhaps you could focus on one thing that might capture the attention of your kids (the Colosseum?), then head back to the port area for the waterpark or the beach.

Thanks a lot for your reply - both the beach and the waterpark look great! 

Regarding Rome we are undecided and probably will decide on the day we get there. Since I´ve been to Rome I´ll let my wife decide, however right now we are both leaning towards rest & relax. 

We will stop at Civitavecchia during a Mediterranean cruise in August, with two active kids aged 4 and 8. Going to Rome on a cruise line tour is out of the question (our kids would get bored and tired and since we live in Europe, spending around 800 USD for a day trip to Rome is kind of stupid since we could basically book flights+hotel for a weekend for roughly the same price) and we are doubtful about going into Rome on our own due to the hassle and the crowds (however it is a long stop in port, we arrive at 7 AM and depart at 10 PM, so it would of course be doable).

From the information I can gather online, Civitavecchia basically has nothing to offer us, more than maybe an hour or two for a stroll in town and some ice cream on land in case we stay on the ship. But are there maybe any activities closer by (for example, reachable by taxi?) that would be suitable for us? Are there maybe some beaches somewhere close that we can reach? 

Just now, K32682 said:

You do not have to beg permission like an errant school boy.  Inform the cruise line you want to depart at Riga and they will make it happen.  Passengers and staff get on and off cruise ships all the time.  You will however have to pay for the entire cruise even though you won't be on all of it. 

 

I did this on a cruise a couple of years ago where I was returning to my home country.  It wasn't a problem. 

Thank you. I assumed that this would not pose a problem. Great to hear.

Sorry, I went a bit off-topic. Of course it would be noticeable if I took my luggage with me (and I have no plan of doing that), however if something would happen and we would get stuck in Dubrovnik, I have a really hard time imagining hustling to Venice just to get to the ship instead of just trying to arrange DHL or something to bring my luggage home and move along. I mean, it would make much more sense to either continue to Vienna directly from Croatia or to book a flight home from Croatia, instead of getting to Venice on short notice. 

Anyway, thank you for your replies. I will contact the cruise lines beforehand and check on their policies if I plan a Baltic Sea cruise,  since it would be kind of stupid to stop in the city where you live... and then sail off to Germany just to take a flight home again (and I´d rather spend that flight money on something fun). 

Ok thanks, will check with the cruise lines first then if I go for this itinerary. 

However in theory, what happens if you miss your ship on the penultimate port? I mean if in Europe (and you live in Europe) it often would be easier to just go home. For example, on our summer Mediterranean Cruise we stop in Dubrovnik, Croatia, before going to Venice where the cruise ends and from there we plan on taking the train to Vienna. However, if I would miss the ship in Dubrovnik, I would certainly not plan go to Venice just to meet up the ship. (Just to make it clear I would hate it if we messed up and failed to make it back.)

I would not re-board but just get off and go home. If I for example go on a cruise that starts and finishes in, let´s say, Southampton or Hamburg, I would leave the ship for good when it reaches Riga, which is the city where I live. Would there be any problems with this? 
 

Shouldn´t be any customs/immigrations issues, since when you´re inside the Schengen area it is basically like travelling within one country. 

Hello! What would happen if I wanted to end my cruises at the penultimate port of call instead of at the last one? Would this pose any problems whatsoever and if I wish to do this, should I notify the cruise line beforehand, or just not show up at boarding? 

(I am looking at Baltic Sea itineraries and since I live on a city on the Baltic Sea coast it would make much more sense to get off and skip the last sea day, instead of spending another night on board and then flying back home.)