HarpHarp

I've got a quick question for our experts. We ar supposed to be in Kusadasi in about a month, but hubby is injured & walking with a cane or walker. 
Any ideas what the bet sights may be or what we should avoid?

Folks, Single use plastic, like straws & grocery bags are indeed a major problem. Aren"t your sign & sail cards made from plastic, & single use at that. The ducks are no differnt than the sand pails kids take to the beach, toys that are played with multiple times & are collected by staff & passengers alike. I hate to think how many single use plastic glasses are used on a ship in a week.

Some of the hidden ducks are keychains, card holders on a lanyard, magnets, earrings and I am cross stitching a fingertip towel with ducks & cruise info for my next cruise. 

On 7/28/2019 at 6:17 AM, FreestyleNovice said:

Let me get this thing right: So eh.. we ban plastic straws but we fill up cruise ships with hiding our unnecessary rubber ducks, for the fun of it?  

It is a thing, the idea being to keep or rehide. I made duck cardholders on our last cruise and used some of them to give tips. 
One of the largest duck stores around is in your city.
https://amsterdamduckstore.com/

Cruise Mom, 
Thanks so much for your advice.I wish I could sit down with you and pick your brain for this cuise, since the ports are less common, especially with the lack of travel in the last couple years.

Every time we head to Europe, we find your posts invaluable.

We used these folks
https://www.sicilylife.com/sicily-tours

The Godfather tour was outstanding

We'll be tere in Oct. Hopefully COVID will be in the rear view mirror by then. Any other suggestions for hotels?

I'm an old medical researcher and I'm all about the statistics. You're young, healthy and vaccinated 
You live in Orlando and one out of 4 new cases in the last week were in Florida. I'd be running from there, cruise or not. You're not nuts. Everyone on the ship will be vaccinated, not the case in your local grocery or pub. 
The only problem I would have is any pre-embarkation testing, traveling all the way & not being able to get on the ship. Both the rapid & PCR tests can show positive and the person my never get sick or transmit it to another person.

I shouldn't think this would be a problem. La Cucina is pretty quiet and the wine bar is very low key. 
These are far away from where the action is.

27 minutes ago, CI66774 said:

Sorry but this is a bigger issue of medical privacy. IMHO, you have no right to know whether I’m HIV-positive, whether I’ve had the flu shot, or whether I’ve had a COVID shot if I’m buying a good or receiving a service from you. You can take precautions. You may test me to see if I’m sick with it or make me wear a mask, etc., but you’re not entitled to exclude me from your PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION if I decline to be vaccinated.

This is not exactly true. I might not be entitled to know your HIV status. but your sex partners are by law in most states..  If you are in the medical field, you can be required to prove immunity to any number of diseases by your employer. Teachers and many other professionals are required to get TB tests and if you are traveling in an area with Yellow fever you have to be vaccinated.

Old pharmacology lab rat here. The tests have a rather large error % as far as I'm concerned. If they give people a testing option, what happens if you test positive before boarding?  I'd much rather have to show proof of vaccination than take the chance on being denied boarding at the dock.

Here's what's going to happen. The vaccines will have full FDA approval soon. At that point, the Feds can require immunization to enter the country, or testing & quarantine.  The cruise lines, all of them, will not let you board if you don't have the proper clearnce to return.  
You don't have to get the vaccine, but you probably aren't going to be leaving the U.S.

3 hours ago, complawyer said:

i'll probably be d**ned for all time by this response, and admittedly, we've never been to tortola, but have been to st thomas and st john's.

 

the probable reason for so short a stop is simply "there ain't a whole lot going on there" to justify a longer stay.

 

truthfully, if i were on that ship, i probably wouldnt even bother to get off. i'd rather stay aboard and drink mojitos

 

that being said, have a great time and bon voyage

Brewers Bay & Nicoles Is the best easy beach day ever. Callwood rum distillers, the folk art villiage near the port and of course Pussers.

Is the previous stop St. Thomas?  Former St. Thomas resident here, and I don't see any reason you couldn't take the trip to Tortola the evening before, if you have a passport and the extra funds. I'm sure you would have to notify them, but spending the evening on Tortola would be great.
The ship sails in circles all night. It's a 45 minute trip.

4 hours ago, graphicguy said:

I got my first Pfizer shot in northern Kentucky as that's where the sign up told me to go based on my zip code.  However, I live in Ohio.  So, they gave me the 2nd Pfizer shot in Ohio.  That is stipulated on my vaccine card.  And, it's part of my CDC record, too.  The number of the dose, and the location it was administered are all on my vaccine card.

 

I don't see where the location of the dose administered would be a problem, as I have a record of both doses, just in two different states.

Not a problem, except if NCL only checks the database in the state where you reside. A national database seems to be a non-starter and cards are being forged left & right.

On 5/13/2021 at 4:02 PM, njhorseman said:

Every state but one (IIRC New Hampshire is the exception)  has a centralized state vaccine data base, called an IIS...immunization information system . Your COVID vaccination record should be available in that database.

Here's the problem with that idea. Many people did not get the vaccine where they reside.  By brother lives just a few miles from the state border, & got his vaccine in the town right across the line. people object to electronic records. When this all started, I found my old smallpox yellow vaccine card from 1971 and thought how much things have changed.

2 hours ago, Laszlo said:

Do true conservatives "fight" against state requirement for small pox vaccinations? seems anyone/server/cashier/teacher etc who contacts the public needs to be vaccinated.
maybe a private club ok for no vax - they will then die

There hasn't been any requirement for small pox vaccine since 1972. In my pandemic cleaning, I tossed my certificate from 1971. There are large and increasing numbers of anti-vaxers, both for religious reasons and personal preference. We had a large outbreak of measles among the Ohio Amish  a few years ago. They usually don't vaccinate, but they set up vaccination clinics when that happened.
None of that matters when it comes to this, or any other vaccine when we are talking about NCL cruises. Some of the US river cruises could certainly sail, but if the DHS reqluires proof of vaccination to re-enter the country, NCL will not let anyone on their ship that can't return, just like they require the right documents like passport for embarking.

Folks, the Federal government has absolute control over international travel and can require proof of vaccinations to re-enter the country.  heck, during a pandemic cleaning spree, I tossed my yellow smallpox vaccine card from my first trip abroad in 1971.

The cruise line sure isn't going to let you board if you aren't going to be allowed back in. What proof is required is up to CBP and Homeland security. 

1 hour ago, PTC DAWG said:

What in the world is in the water in Michigan?  

Lead, unfutunately, at least in Flint.
Seriously, you had a lot of anger & non-compliance in the beginning, cases went up, rules became more restrictive in one endless loop. 
The latest variant infects a large portion of children & young adults, and hospitals in some areas of Michigan are overwhelmed. Michigan, like Ohio doesn't have great weather for outside activities and indoor venues spread the infection. Little guys can get Misc-C after they've had Covid. A nurse in the next town from us whose entire family had Covid got a call from her 6 month old's daycare because he was turning blue.Not a call anyone wants to get.

2 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Can you explain that again for me, I'm still not following (sorry).

 

I do understand that false positives increase in areas with less covid. Or decrease in areas highly infected.

 

What I don't understand is why, with such a high number of false positives, the tests are even being administered? 

 

Hard false positives are 2% making testing , if you have reason to test, worthwhile. The rapid test and PCR tests have different sensitivity and differing % of false positives and negatives and as an old lab hand, testing errors. Screening testing of all types is suggested only if the cost/ benefit ratio works out. If a person is having symptoms ir has been in contact with an infected person, then it makes sense.
 

6 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

So, this just happened to a friend in Michigan. Her daughter was being tested due to dance class.

 

-Last Wednesday: Rapid antigen test negative.

-Sunday molecular PCR test positive. Entire house put in quarantine. No symptoms.

-Today: Rapid Antigen test negative and it was determined that her daughter (and I quote) ..... recovered from covid 19 and/0r is an asymptomatic carrier and is not considered infectious and may return to work, school, athletics....."

 

These results make no sense to any of us so I started looking around on the FDA site and found this letter sent to health care providers regarding the number of false positive cases:

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/letters-health-care-providers/potential-false-positive-results-antigen-tests-rapid-detection-sars-cov-2-letter-clinical-laboratory

 

It makes sense that the number of false positives would go up in areas that have high covid sickness, but if I am reading this correctly, the number of false positive alarmingly high. Can anyone who understands this more clearly than I do please shed some light??? These tests can't possibly be that inaccurate, can they?

 

 

That actually makes sense.  The number of false positives stays the same, so that the predictive value decreases with the occurence in the population. Think of this. If you gave pregnancy tests to 100 70 year old women, and you got 1 positive test, the PPV would be zero. None of them are pregnant. 
Even FL, with a 10% infection rate would still show an unacceptable % of false positives especially if everyone who shows up is feeling well.  Also false negatives are sure to cause problems. With something like this virus. diagnosis is based on many things

You hit on one of the main reasons we postponed our cruises until next year. I'm a retired paramacology lab rat & I've seen too many tests in error or that required repetition. I'd hate to be denied boarding only to find the test was in error.

2 hours ago, OZ. said:

Not sure if this will work, but I sure hope so. The CDC really needs to start changing it’s stance.

As long as there are increasing rates of infections, the CDC will not change its stance. With half of the states showing large increases in infections, despite vaccinations at record highs, there are too many negatives right now. 
No cruise line can afford to be the owner of the next plaque ship. There are thousands of workers at the docks, provisioning the ship, working shoreside embarkation, that are potential disease vectors, not to mention the passengers who stay at hotels and so on. 
If we want to cruise, get the vaccine and do what we know stops the spread.  What is this going to do to cruise insurance rates and cruise line liability insurance?

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

Three points.

First,  you have only provided weak hearsay evidence of your allegation that 20 students caused vacationing in Florida caused this outbreak.  

Two, do  you have any evidence that masking, etc., saved millions?

Three, what evidence is there that one person infects four others? 

Here is an explanation of R/O or infection rate. Its is variable, mostly between 2 and 6, hence my number of 4 which most epidemiologists have been using. Measles by comparison is about 25
ht/tps:/www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/covid-19-what-is-the-r-number/
 One of many articles on masks, and of course it's common sense, the fewer people who gather, the less likely to have an infected person.
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818
 

Sping break cases
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/us/coronavirus-brady-sluder-spring-break.html

https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/ohio-teens-test-positive-for-covid19-afterr-trip-to-myrtle1f55aab6-91a5-4d83-bd4b-95e8c810fca1-beach/95-
That said , I'm sone. I'm retired now & don't get paid for this any more🙄

26 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

Where's your evidence that 20 visitors to Florida caused the outbreak in Ohio?

BTW, if this is impossible to control, why are we engaged in masking, social distancing, etc.?

It was covered enough last  March. There was also a case of a large group that visited Myrtle Beach that came back to Ohio infected a couple of weeks later.

Did you miss my qualifier "Almost". Every time we start making progress, people start to slack off, we have a plateau and another surge. If many of us hadn't done masking & social distancing, we could have been looking at 2-3 million deaths here. What I really don't understand is why FL where the economy is so driven by travel & tourism, didn't jump on this immediately. Each infected person, on average infects 4 others.  As you said, one infected visitor from NY MI, or Brazil can cause epidemic conditions in any area. At least it's not as contagious as measles.

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

So, the blame lies with students from Ohio instead of Florida?

I would like to see the evidence that these 20 students started this outbreak.  

 

Nope, plenty of blame to go around.  Viruses only know one thing-infect or cease to exist. They don't know borders, political party or age. We needed to clamp down hard February 2020 and didn't. 
We slow walked the testing, had travel restrictions with holes you could drive a cargo ship from China through, and have governors enact toothless quarantines for out of state visitors.When you have 25% of the population infected it's almost impossible to control.

Vaccines may save us if enough people get it.