Fredette

On 10/31/2022 at 5:08 PM, MMDown Under said:

Depending how long you are in Papeete, the best excursion is by local ferry to beautiful Moorea Island.  You can book a day at a resort or book a taxi to take you on a tour of the island or hire a car.  There are lots of activities from which to choose - belvedere lookout, a public beach to swim, drive around the island stopping where you wish.

Aren't we going to Moorea on the ship the next day?  Has the itinerary changed?

On 10/27/2022 at 3:47 PM, kaykayozzie said:

Has anyone given thought to Papeete excursions yet? We were there a few years ago but went straight from the terminal to the airport for a long hot boring wait. At least we won't have to worry about luggage. It's 40 years since I was in Noumea or Suva. They will have changed a bit. Kay

We visited Papeete just before the world came to end (a 2019 cruise 😆) and did the Catamaran trip - the Cat picked us up shipside then took us to the reef (which is very shallow) where we could snorkel.  I loved it and want to do it again.  I'm hoping Carnival do it (we were with RC last time).

Just got notified that Carnival is not cruising until September at the earliest - so there goes my August cruise....

How is it that I can travel overseas and go on a cruise, then come back home and not have to isolate (apparently I only have to do a RATS test and isolate until the results come in - about 15 minutes!), but can't go on a cruise from a home port?

The cruise companies must really be hurting, and I can't see the logic here.

Am I missing something?

2 hours ago, Doggielover68 said:

I think some states in the US attempted to restrict border crossings, but it was more on the honor system than any actual proof for those traveling by car. Plus in many of our states with busy tri-state areas, people cross borders daily for work, shopping, etc so it would be very hard to enforce. 

It was very difficult here, particularly for border communities, so there were special "border bubble" rules brought in for them - something like border community dwellers could cross over into the adjoining town to conduct their business, but they couldn't go any further.

There's no denying it was difficult, but it worked, so now people are free to move around again, with some precautions of course.  

15 hours ago, jfunk138 said:

I think it's very premature to declare Australia (and NZ for that matter) as having had the most successful strategy.  At some point they both need to reopen their borders and relax restrictions.  It sounds like in order to be "successful" that full reopening will not occur until some large percentage of their population is vaccinated which realistically could stretch into 2023.  Can they stay locked down and walled off from the world that long?  I think even surviving their meteorological winter in 2021 will be tough as the northern hemisphere returns to normal and they remain walled off.

The northeastern states in the US were busy declaring victory this summer as well (a certain governor even wrote a book about his great victory).  Look at them now!  All are worse (both now and overall) than the likes of Florida and Georgia that they spent the summer criticizing.  

Our success was in dealing with a spike in infections - I did say there would need to be a long term resolution like a vaccine.  We currently have zero locally acquired cases throughout the country, which IS a success in anyone's book.

Now that both countries have effectively dealt with our "locally acquired" problem (ie:  no more community transmission, we just need to ensure our quarantine is handled correctly going forward) we are opening up borders between the two countries.  Pacific nations have indicated they will welcome us shortly - so cruising the Pacific will be back on the cards.

It's a start.

All indications from our PM are that the borders won't be open until the vaccine is proven to be effective, and even then, I would say it will depend on the situation in the country of origin.  

EVEN THEN - the PM might say people are ok to come into the COUNTRY - but that only gets you into federal space.  Each state premier or territory governor can still declare the local border closed unless you quarantine.  It's not as simple as some people around the world think - although we have a federal government, each state and territory retained powers under our Constitution when we federated, and each government can and will impose additional rules to protect their population.  Our PM will have to deal with a collection of leaders (of various political persuasions) to completely open up the country.

2 minutes ago, Doggielover68 said:

I have a feeling that the reason for restricting indoor/outdoor dining is to limit people from gathering. What's to stop a group of 5, 10 + people from different households gathering to eat at an outside dining establishment and then sharing a table where social distancing is impossible? Also it's so hard to stop the spread when procedures are so different from state to state. If one state has open dining and a neighboring state does not, people will cross state lines to go to the open places. Take out is fine for now. I think many restaurants have adapted to be able to provide great takeout/curbside options so they can still survive but discourage groups from gathering. 

Correct.  Take away (what we call take out here) was adopted by many restaurants that didn't do it before.  All of the delivery businesses had a boom.  People just had to eat at home.

AND, where I live, households weren't allowed to visit each other, to restrict the spread of the virus.

Part of the reason for our second wave was the spread from household to household.  So unless you were caring for someone, you couldn't visit friends/family, nor could they visit you.  

It all comes back to stopping the spread by preventing too much contact.  Unfortunately, isolation is necessary when dealing with the outbreak of a new disease.  Our ancestors understood this, it's basic.

Church services were stopped (places of religious worship were only allowed to have the religious leader and one or two people on site to operate the equipment so that services could be broadcast).  People had to worship at home - using zoom or the like to tune in.  Baptisms and weddings were stopped, funerals could only go ahead with minimal people physically present, I "attended" a funeral online and it was surreal.

Mistakes were made, lessons were learned, but what became apparent is that the solution is not easy, it involves being uncomfortable and doing what we don't want to do, but have to do.

In Australia, we had different rules between states, depending on what the situation was in each state, and movement between states was not possible unless you had an exemption.  Even within states, movement could be restricted (I live in Melbourne and we weren't allowed to travel to the regions because we couldn't risk spreading it to areas that didn't have it).

I don't know how the political system works in America, so I don't know whether it is possible to restrict interstate movement, or even if anyone has the will to do it.  If there was a particularly bad outbreak in one state, could neighbouring states close their borders?

21 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I'm sure Australia did great. My point is I have no control here and our southern border with mexico is open. If 73% is being spread here by family and private meetings, and 1% dining, I think it is a shame to close outdoor dining and not address the other. 

 

As I expected you ignored the problems here I pointed out and gloated about how well where you are doing there, which is a island and it worked so much better. 

 

I feel bad for restaurants going out of business here, calif closed outdoor dining which isnt a big risk. Deal with the big risks. Every 1 of the 50 states here has different policies, not 1 like your island. I knew you wouldnt get it. You didnt. I have a issue with closing outdoor dining especially where every safeguard possible is being done.

I'm not sure that "gloating" is the word, but if you like to think that, enjoy.

Needless to say, whatever we did, worked.

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

USA 73% is spread in the home or from private groups meeting.

 

Shutting down a restaurant that is contributing 1% to the spread isnt helping. Its making people meet here even more privately.

 

Unless you do something like stop family members and churches and private get togethers the virus isnt stopped.

 

I have no idea what australia did and tbh dont care, as they wouldn't shut down things that matter to the politicians here who make the decisions. Our daily dart train downtown, well cant stop that, flying around, nothing to really stop a sick person from flying home, that's how it came here in the beginning.

 

The things they are choosing to shut down to me are grandstanding and breast beating, see what I did, and then they turn 300 prisoners loose, many of whom are sick, and we have daily people coming across the mexican border here. El Paso been in trouble forever, we arent a island, our southern border is wide open. Sorry but to me nothing to do with science. 

 

Now add in we dont do contract tracing, I think too much trouble? Idk but that might help. I dont see any science saying it is dangerous to eat outside in calif. But it's ok in florida. Disney world is safe, but not Walt Disney world. Please explain the science to me why these decisions are science based. ..but I probably wouldnt believe you.

Many of the things you have cited as needing to be closed were closed (get togethers in homes, church meetings etc...) and you are right that there is no science in letting an amusement park be open.  They were all closed here until recently.  

The science is that you have to stop people from mixing in order to stop the disease from spreading.  It's pretty simple.  Yes, family members will pass it among themselves, but they won't spread it to households that don't have it already.  That gives the hospitals the chance to treat the people who do have it without getting overwhelmed.  Once the medical system can't cope, people who shouldn't have died will.  It's not just those who have covid, but can you imagine having a non covid medical emergency, and being unable to get treatment because there are no beds/no doctors/nurses available?  It's just tragedy upon tragedy, and could so easily be avoided.

I see that you don't think that anything Australia did had any value, but our management of our outbreaks is the envy of the world (including doctors in the USA) so it's clear we had the right approach.

Now all we have to do is keep on top of things until there is a worldwide "solution" - be it one or other of the vaccines being touted at the moment.  Once the disease is under control, then we can open our borders again.  At the moment, the only "new cases" we have are all because dual citizens who are getting sick overseas are now wanting to return "home" to Australia to get medical treatment.  So we let them back in, quarantine them and treat them, and keep them away from the rest of the community so they don't infect others.

In the meantime, we watch what is happening in the USA and Europe, and are saddened by the daily casualty numbers.  

It's so unneccessary, and so tragic that people are dying because the simple solutions are too difficult to implement.

On 12/6/2020 at 2:25 PM, Elaine5715 said:

The ADA does not permit one to assume or treat another based on an assumption of illness. 

There's a whole big world outside of the USA - even if the ADA applied to ships leaving American ports, it won't apply to ships leaving Non-American ports, will it?

Remember that ships visit ports too - and those ports (in other countries) have the ability to refuse docking if they suspect illness on a ship.

If the cruise line can't demonstrate that all precautions have been taken - docking will be refused.

On 10/2/2020 at 6:07 AM, drsel said:

 

When you think Cruises will resume from Sydney and Brisbane?

If the Australian government does not allow cruises, what will happen to all the bookings in April and March 2021?

Will they allow only local Australians to board the cruises or will they cancel the cruises, sinse international passengers from US UK cannot enter Australia?

Hi, I just found this post.

There is a cruise pause until March 17th.  Let's hope it doesn't get extended again.

As to when the government will allow tourists in - I think that will depend on where you are coming from.  If it's a known hotspot - forget it.

The vaccine only works if the majority of people take it, and only time will tell if that's the case.

On 10/24/2020 at 8:54 AM, DDG 41 said:

You do realise, they take bookings but nothing is certain until the contract is signed, there is no need to cancel cruises before they even make a decision.

A contract is entered into when you pay your money.  

When they sell a ship, they make it impossible to honour the contract.  Decisions to sell ships aren't made on a whim, there is no excuse for taking bookings when they are in negotiations.

And I wonder how many bookings they took while they were in these negotiations, planning that the ship would never sail again for P&O.

On 10/15/2020 at 1:17 PM, By The Bay said:

I have a booking on the Pacific Adventure for this time next year. Tell me you haven't made a booking. 🤞😉

Ha ha, I haven't (yet)!

As my booking on the Dawn was cancelled due to Covid - I rebooked for a later cruise with the anticipated FCC.  

Then P&O sold the Dawn.

I booked on the Aria.

Then P&O sold the Aria.

I'm getting a bit concerned about any future bookings to use the money P&O owes me - lately if I book, it seems to be the death knell for a ship!

Aria has been sold now.

Good job P&O - as if people aren't struggling enough with cancellations, trying to get refunds for cancelled holidays etc...  now you have sold not one but two ships - and still no sign of an FCC for a cruise booked and paid for months ago!

On 6/13/2020 at 2:04 PM, Kiwi Kruzer said:

It’s been reported here that Air NZ is giving hassles as well .They will only give credits , except if your flight went to , or through the USA, where they have been forced to refund by the law  that applies there.

Another problem folk are finding is that if they accept the credit and use that credit to rebook same flight but at a later date ,the fare has almost tripled .

Thanks for that info - I received a part refund for a trip to the USA, but now that I know there were "different rules" for the USA, I will call them and follow that up.

4 hours ago, jsb1954 said:

We cancelled our cruise out of Denmark almost three months ago... Princess cancelled soon thereafter.. I have called weekly for the past month and I am told the same garbage... "to be patient and that refunds are being processed"  We even put on extra staff to accommodate the request for refunds.  I have e mailed Jan Swartz the CEO to no avail..... It appears that people who complain on Facebook receive their refunds.  Can I sue them in Small Claims Court? 

I institute a complaint in NSW fair trading - I finally got "some response" from Princess.  I have received some money back, but it appears they have shortpaid me - I paid in one lump sum for the cruise only, no add ons, but by my calculations, even with the change in exchange rates, I have been defrauded of over $400 AUD.  Princess are refusing compensation for their lack of action but I am still pursuing the matter, however it is some consolation that I have received the bulk of my money back.

I'm looking forward to this cruise - it's hubby's birthday on sailing day.  

Fingers crossed this cruise goes ahead, I've had one cancelled & another we were on the point of booking obviously isn't going ahead either...

8 minutes ago, npcl said:

Booking under US TA means booking under US rules.  There are no U.S. regulations that define when a travel company must process a refund. In the US you can dispute your credit card and get your money back that way.  Do not know if you have that option in Australia.

Interestingly enough, the US TA provided us with a link to the booking terms, which take us back to the Australian Princess site, so the cruise was actually booked under Australian rules as they have not provided us with any other terms and conditions.  Usual business practice provides for REASONABLE time frames.  As my refund was requested independantly of any "pause arrangements" then it should have been processed in a reasonable time frame.  No court would consider three months (and counting) reasonable, when all they had to do was to refund cash, no calculations required.

45 minutes ago, voljeep said:

huh, why did you book it that way ???

I booked it because they had a good rate, but the service in this situation has been below par.

I understand that a lot of agents weren't working (although why they couldn't work from home to service their clients I don't understand) but there was apparently no-one there for a couple of weeks - it looked as if the company had folded for a while.

On 6/4/2020 at 11:42 PM, SunLakesBob said:

Is Princess refunding based on cancelation date or cruise date?

Cruise date.  Which is unfair when I cancelled when I was still in the 100% window, independent of any "pauses" but I got lumped in with "pause 2" and have to wait until Princess "get around to it".

I paid in full in January for a July cruise (will never go with ***** again as they have been useless in this process - actually worse than useless, because I booked with an American travel agent, my Australian account doesn't show the cruise, nor will Princess Australia deal with me) and so Princess are breaching their contract by insisting I wait until - when?

Here's a new "wrinkle".

I paid in USD for my holiday, and was charged in AUD on my credit card.

As the Aussie dollar has been improving of late, now even if I get my money back, I will actually LOSE money because of the conversion.

If Princess had paid me within the 60 days they "promised" I wouldn't have lost any money.

So even if I "win" by finally getting my money back, I still lose.  Not to mention that I could have earned a few bucks on that cash, considering Princess has had it since JANUARY.

On 5/29/2020 at 11:44 PM, suzyed said:

Top of the house.

I did that too - no response.

Rule 101 of company law in most countries - you have to be able to pay your bills when they are due.

I was entitled to a full refund as I cancelled my cruise more than 75 days prior to departure, so making me wait until some unspecified time sounds to me like Princess CAN'T repay my money.

Any thoughts out there?

Does anyone have an idea how we can take action in Bermuda? (Where Princess is registered).

See, all the talk of "manually doing calculations" doesn't make sense to me.

I've only asked for a refund of my money.  No FCCs, no add ons, it's just one payment.  No calculation needed, just tick and flick.

Why does that take so long?