yorky

9 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

What cruise for February 2022 was cancelled?

Asia

Ah the joys of a cancelled cruise with Celebrity. We booked with them direct for a 14 night cruise to initially sail in February 2021, we lifted and shifted that to Feb 2022 and when it was obvious it was going to be cancelled asked to have it lifted and shifted again only to be told we could not do that until Celebrity cancelled. Well they then cancelled it and today I gave them a call after my email was not replied to. It seems now it’s being cancelled by them they still can’t lift and shift and I receive 125% of the deposit paid in FCC and that’s it.

I’ve not even bothered phoning them after our cruise was cancelled and simply sent an email, they usually get back in around a week.

I honestly think it’s a personal decision regardless, what one individual feels is an acceptable risk another won’t. We all know now that even after the two jabs you can still catch Covid and indeed a small number have still been hospitalised. In my opinion that risk increases when on a cruise ship  compared to staying at home.

I’ve asked about the possibility of a lift and shift from our Feb 13th Asia cruise to the following year, still waiting on a reply. It’s a mess in Vietnam just now as a starter and as such we’re now very doubtful. As we have the flight booked ( although flexible) we may look at still going but doing a land based Hong Kong/Singapore mix, maybe something in between if there is anything beach wise on offer. That alone of course is dependant on the situation in Hong Kong and Singapore.

18 hours ago, paulh84 said:

Why is this such a point of contention? Show up when they ask to make things a little easier on everyone. 

I think we all know that’s not going to happen. We don’t really live in a world these days where “ making it easier on everyone else” is the norm.

We were booked in an inside before the pandemic and have lifted and shifted into another inside, not a problem for us.

I’m in the “to each their own” camp, It’s their money and they can do what they like with it. We find art a wonderful way to remember our cruises although we’ve never purchased on a cruise ship. We never purchase anything as an investment, simply things we like and enjoy and that works for us.

Maybe they could stamp something on peoples foreheads like “unclean”. Being serious I’m certainly not comfortable with different areas, to me it’s not something we should be considering in a modern society, I would actually find it embarrassing in truth. I would rather just cruise on a ship that’s 100% vaccinated rather than on a ship that’s going to bring out the absolute worst in some individuals, and it most certainly will. We love cruising because we get to meet new people and there is often a great at sea atmosphere.

10 hours ago, Lagranger36 said:

It is patently false that there is not enough information on transmissibility.  There is ample evidence both empirical (studies of individuals shedding viruses and on outcomes (validated studies on spread of COVID in communities - the same way they confirmed vaccine efficacy). Try the CDC website.  Spreading this kind of information only prolongs the anxiety and discourages people to get vaccinated.

Well yes and no, there is plenty of studies showing it’s “unlikely” but not certain. The CDC made a decision but only time will tell whether it’s the correct one. As  always I believe the correct thing is get the vaccine and stay cautious, when the numbers drop to a low enough level and we have closer to full vaccinations then we can look at dropping social distancing and mask wearing, for me that’s the sensible course of action. When you’ve seen Covid close up ( my wife was the only member of her family not hospitalised or killed by it) you tend to take it very seriously.

50 minutes ago, Lagranger36 said:

Hundreds of thousands of people get hospitalized with the flu each year yet we’re not masking up for that. The R0 and lethality of COVID while fully vaccinated is lower than that of most strains of the flu.  We can’t eradicate the flu and we probably won’t eradicate COVID.

 

 At some point we need to accept a level of risk and move on from this. 

I’m simply stating the position on mask wearing in the UK as it stands, it’s seen as one of the best ways, along with social distancing to help avoid cross contamination. We have to wear our masks at work at all times when driving and are still restricted to two individuals in a car with one sitting in the back seat. We are of course doing well on vaccinations but until everyone that wants to be vaccinated is I don’t see the rules on mask wearing changing. Even though I’ve had both jabs I’m happy to carry on wearing a mask if it helps stop me from passing it on to others, there is still not enough evidence to show you can’t still be a carrier of the virus yet show no symptoms yourself. I believe will will need to live with it, but we need to get everyone vaccinated before we drop our guard in my view.

26 minutes ago, Lagranger36 said:

Lol.  An attitude that masks are pointless if you’re vaccinated?  That’s the public health consensus - is an attitude of following public health guidelines offensive to you? Or are masks just some sort of religion over across the pond? 

No, it’s required by law in many places unless you have an exemption. I can be sacked for refusing to wear one at work. My understanding is even two shots does not give 100% protection. We still have individuals admitted to hospitals who have been vaccinated. 

We were moved from a cabin with noisy pipe work to a cabin right at the lifts on our last cruise, we thought it was great. The tiny beep sound could be heard if you listened very hard when the doors opened, we would not have a problem being next to a lift again.

6 hours ago, Fredric22 said:

I am not sure why you choose to take this argument anywhere other than the simple fact that this virus has an infection fatality rate between 0.3% and 0.7%. That means that around 99.5% of those who contract this virus survive due to the body's ability to fight this virus off with its own immune system. Now, with that said, a virus with a 0.5% mortality rate is still VERY serious!  If all 7.5B people on Earth contracted COVID-19, 37M people would die from it. That would be the equivalent of every person in the state of CA dying. That is certainly no laughing matter. BUT, that doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of humans have the ability to deal with COVID and survive. Siting these figures isn't positive or negative... it is just what it is.  Lastly, the original poster said "largely immune" which may have some truth.  Our bodies have dealt with Coronaviruses since we were born.  Our immune systems have seen similar viruses before.  We therefore are able to fight an immune response to a virus like COVID-19, albeit not as well as other viruses since this one is largely new to us. 

What about the large percentage of individuals who survive but have long Covid ? It’s not as simple as survive or not, ability to deal with it or not. It’s complete nonsense to suggest the vast majority of people in the world are ‘largely immune” You either have the ability to catch it or you don’t. Your bodies ability to fight it does not make you immune.

On 5/28/2021 at 6:53 PM, PTC DAWG said:

I would not see the need on a fully vaccinated ship....no where around where I live is requiring masks...

Wow I’m actually amazed by that, has everyone been vaccinated ?

32 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Of course I would go.

 

If I am vaccinated, there are two logical lines of thought:

 

A)  If the vaccine works, then it doesn't matter if the other people are vaccinated, as my shot is protecting me.

 

B) If the vaccine doesn't work, relying on others to be vaccinated with something ineffective isn't accomplishing anything.

That’s only logical if the vaccine is 100% effective “A”

Or not effective at all “B”

The fact it’s somewhere around 85/95% effective means you could still catch it “A”, but still find the vast majority are safe therefore reducing the chance of catching it in a country where most people have been vaccinated. The vaccine works because of its high percentage effectiveness thus dropping the R number below 1, it’s not a simple 100% or nothing.

3 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

The death count the last I saw in the UK totalled 4. I'm not sure of the underlying health of them or if they had had any vaccinations. It something we need to be aware of, but to say people are dying from it now is scaremongering in my view. 

 

Phil 

I find that response slightly baffling. Four people have died from the Indian variant, not sure how me stating “ people are dying from the Indian variant” is then scaremongering, they did actually died regardless of any underlying health condition after contracting Covid.

I should add that we have people dying from the Indian variant now, because we allowed international travel to continue. That’s just the reality of the situation.

I think the question should maybe be, would you want to be in Israel. I would imaging even if allowed the restrictions would be huge. 

I don’t blame them, people’s lives come first. International vacations, in whatever form they are are a luxury, there is nothing to stop anyone taking their vacations in their own country. I miss my cruises but absolutely understand the logic and although we’re booked in Feb for Asia we won’t take it if it’s not a sensible choice. One family member dead and two with long Covid, that’s our reality, we can live with taking cottage holidays on the UK for as long as it takes.

We would be more than happy to see a National “Covid” Database, a bit of paper in any form was never going to work. We would only be looking to sail on ships that demand proof of vaccination that’s credible, not showing something that can be run off in seconds and purchased online for peanuts. A phone app that could easily be scanned would be a decent option.

8 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

 

I'm not sure why anyone expected anything less.  The current cruises in Asia and Europe are following these restrictions.  The new cruises for the UK are going to follow them, with vaccinated passengers.  Odds are US cruise companies doing vaccinated cruises out of Greece, the Caribbean and Bermuda will have something similar as well.  No cruise company is going to start out with no restrictions or protocols whether vaccinated or not.  There is too much at stake.

 

I think the tipping point for many will be at what level the restrictions are when things settle down, everyone will have a level that’s acceptable, or not. We’ve got till November to pay the balance. We’re already booked with flights into Hong Kong and back from Singapore and adding flight to Bangkok and Hanoi with hotel stays would not be the worst holiday in the world if the options are more appealing.

Very difficult to say if it’s over the top or not given the Covid situation around the world seems to change pretty rapidly one way or the other. We’re both vaccinated well in advance of any travel before our cruise next Feb and will base our decision on the restrictions at the time along with the issue of safety. If we were travelling in the next few months with these levels of restrictions in place we would stay in the UK, for us it’s going to impact our enjoyment far too much to spend thousands of pounds on. The limits on the numbers around the outside areas alone will create major problems ( chair hogs will go next level crazy) and we’re not interested in other limitations to eating which is a big part of our cruise. Cruise only shore excursions we can live with. Wearing a mask more or less the whole time when outside of our interior cabin is not something we would enjoy and as for wearing a band to monitor social distances, that’s not going to happen. We’d be happy with 100% vaccinated only onboard and would be more than happy to do LFT tests ( I do that at work anyway). It’s going to end up a personal decision and I wish those well who are happy to accept the CDC list, it’s not for us.

1 minute ago, ch175 said:

Why do you refer to people as “anti-vaxxers?” Typically insults are the last resort when there isn’t a logical argument to counter facts.

 

I have two high school aged kids. I view the risk of some unknown issue for them down the road related to this vaccine as much worse than anything they would suffer from COVID. Right now, I would prefer they not be vaccinated.

 

There are tough choices to be made by all right now. The blanket term “anti-vaxxer” doesn’t really help.

 

 

 

 

The term “Anti-vaxxers has been used for a very long time, in truth it’s pretty accurate. You could use other terms I guess but it’s really just a recognised term these days, I’ve seen it used by politicians regularly over here. 

6 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

I think I would respect anti-vaxxers more than people who would forge a vaccine document to cruise.  At least anti-vaxxers have an opinion and stand up for it.  That is at least honest.

I guess though those who need a forged document are mostly going to be anti Vaxxers.