SEASwim

I read a news story yesterday stating that airlines were starting to reduce capacity on flights between the U.S. and Europe in the wake of the E.U.'s recommendation to reimpose travel restrictions on American travelers. I checked my flight reservations after reading that and--sure enough--my original flight has been canceled. I'm guessing there's now a chance that my outbound itinerary will need to be revised to have three legs rather than the previous two (just a single connection at Heathrow). Here's my question: has anyone been successful getting Oceania to alter their flight schedule without the custom air option? What I'm thinking is that I would prefer an overnight stay in London (with the hotel at my own expense) over needing to take three flight legs, and I'm wondering if Oceania would accommodate that request.

The New York Times has another story that pretty adamantly states the new restrictions should NOT affect vaccinated Americans: https://www.nytimes.com/article/eu-us-travel-restrictions.html

from the article:

How does this affect vaccinated travelers?

If you are fully vaccinated with an E.U.-approved vaccine, which include those manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, the requirements you face entering a E.U. country should not change.

2 hours ago, CruiseLibra said:

The NYT is reporting that this reccommended ban will be for unvaccinated only:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/world/eu-us-tourists-restrictions.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210830&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=57229123&segment_id=67619&user_id=1a35d75f66628a24fb82152518b6fb48

The Bloomberg article posted above also mentions it will most likely affect the unvaccinated. Let's hope that's the case!

3 hours ago, pinotlover said:

It will be interesting. On our cruise last month, everything hand gone paperless. No printed menus, schedules, etc per required protocols. Everything was on these computer generated codes. You up load the app, point your camera at the design, and the menu appears. They left one in your cabin with all the next day’s activities.

Yep, QR codes. Lots of restaurants have been doing this during the pandemic. Works great assuming you can read it on your phone!

54 minutes ago, Flharleygirl said:

Yes, I am aware of that. But we are not going to Nice. Our disembarkation port is now Marseille. Quite a bit further away. 

Oops, sorry. My mind filled in Nice since that was mentioned earlier as a replacement port for Monaco.

1 hour ago, Flharleygirl said:

For our October 28th cruise out of Venice, O has officially changed it to Trieste. THAT I can handle but they also scrapped Monte Carlo our disembarkation port. Not happy but can’t do anything but cancel I guess. Worried about what else they might change at this point…

You realize Nice and Monaco are only separated by a few miles, right?

1 minute ago, LHT28 said:

Seriously

I cannot see Oceania  using  a port  2hrs ride from Venice   if that happens they will probably just drop Venice

The port at  Marghera  is  not that far from Venice proper  About 20 min

 

JMO

 

Most of the news stories I've read suggest that it's extremely unlikely Marghera would be ready for cruise ship use in 2021.

6 hours ago, gentlemancruiser said:

Not allowed in Ontario.   I am hoping that NCL changes this when the realize there are many people with mixed vaccinations 

Could you enter the U.S. and get a second Pfizer shot? I know you will then have both Canadian and American vaccines records, but it seems like that would satisfy Oceania's requirement.

^ And don't forget the ever popular "firkin." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firkin_(unit)

18 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Gross tonnage refers to volume.  In it's old form, Gross Registered Tonnage, each "ton" was 100 cubic feet.  This was derived from an old English measurement of a large shipping barrel, or "tun".  

Thanks for the explanation. I was definitely confused why they'd use tonnage for a measure of volume! 

3 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

 

Neither is correct.  Tonnage refers to cubic footage, volume, not square footage.  And, displacement is the same as the amount the ship weighs, as it is the volume of water displaced by the weight of the ship.

How do you convert a measure of volume into a unit of weight?

2 hours ago, shepherd really said:

It's really cool that you have a Yeti and travel with it. I had no idea they drink coffee.

Only on northern cruises. They get a little overheated in the tropics.

5 minutes ago, nikless said:

There is length max of 180 meters (590 ft).  Marina comes in at 782 ft...unless we are comparing apples to oranges again....

Correct. The ships fail the test on multiple criteria, but I'm pretty sure it's an "or" thing, i.e. you don't need to fail all criteria, just one.

4 minutes ago, Woodrowst said:

I know it gets confusing, but “tons” on a cruise ship (or any other ship for that matter) is a measure of space rather than weight.  So tonnage refers to the amount of square footage on a ship, not how heavy it is.

Yes, the article should probably have said "displace more than" rather than "heavier than."

2 hours ago, Jayne E said:

 Was given same information from TA. However reply posts #27 & #50 seem to know more about the situation. 

It's a bit shocking that actual representatives of the company would be so misinformed. Per the New York Times: "The ban applies to ships that are either heavier than 25,000 tons, longer than 180 meters (about 590 feet), taller than 35 meters (about 115 feet), or that employ more than a set amount of fuel in maneuvering."

All Oceania vessels exceed 25,000 tons.

2 hours ago, curmudgeon98 said:

Marghera certainly can handle the ships; after all they build large cruise ships there. 

...

The main challenge is for the large block of cruises that currently start/end in Venice.  You need check-in and customs facilities with power, network, shelter, restrooms, baggage collection/return to handle large numbers of people, as well as the means to get those people to/from their travel connections.  The most obvious answer is to use the current Venice port buildings, and then shuttle the passengers by bus or tender and carry the luggage around by truck.  For the limited number of ships this fall,  that would probably work.  

Right, I'm not saying the port can't handle the ships, just that the logistics aren't in place to load and unload everything required for a cruise. 

1 hour ago, basor said:

Luckily there are several very viable options that are close to the Venice airport so for all of us with tickets to fly into Venice, can still transfer to the new port easily.....the most mentioned port is Trieste which is only a few hours East of the Venice airport.   It is an already established deep water port and a beautiful city - Trieste - Wikipedia

Yes, an alternate port seems like the most likely option. I'm sure Marghera won't be ready. Everyone should remember it's not just passengers and luggage that needs to be loaded onto the ship and that port is setup to handle a very different kind of vessel right now.

Does it seem a little strange to anyone else that it's been a week since the Venice announcement and Oceania hasn't even issued a cursory statement about it (at least as far as I've seen)?

P.S. This is my first post here. Excited to cruise this fall and hoping Oceania can find a solution!