For me, there is a big difference between “when will cruising restart” and “when will I start cruising.”  Once cruising resumes I will probably wait at least a year or two before I book a cruise. I want to see what cruising will be like (the “new normal”) and what happens when someone on the ship inevitably comes down with Covid. If cruising changes too much, I may just start doing land vacations. The big caveat in all of this for me will be whether or not an effective vaccine is developed. That could be a game changer in my future cruising decisions. 

One of my favorite songs so beautifully done that it made me cry. Bravo!

Deb, I’m so sorry to hear this. Please make sure that as part of your mom’s bloodwork that a d-dimer test be done. If the test comes back elevated (positive), she could have a blood clot in her lungs. All that travel on the plane makes people susceptible for them because you’re sitting for such long periods of time. And it will definitely make you feel short of breath in your lungs. My 90 year old mother has them in her lungs now, and thank goodness the nurse practitioner had them run this test. She is now on a blood thinner. Anyway, I just wanted to mention it in case the Covid test comes back negative and they start looking for other things.

Praying that they will be out of the hospital and back with you soon!  

Atlanta is a huge hub for Delta, and you may be able to find a flight to there if they aren’t flying to Florida. It’s about a 7 hour drive for you. 

Praying that you get them home soon!

If they can swing it money-wise, try to get them a seat in first class, especially if the plane has the seats that flatten into a bed. For a long haul flight like this, they will be so much more comfortable. 

Sorry that they (and you!) are having to deal with this. Hope they have safe travels!

Holland America Line Announces a Voluntary and Temporary Pause of its Global Ship Operations for 30 Days 

Sorry, for some reason I can’t get the link to work now. I’ll try to copy and paste from another post from this forum. 

Unfortunately, it looks like your adventure (and our vicarious enjoyment of it) will be ending on March 24th in Fremantle. I’m sorry for you and all the other passengers. 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/blog/topics/news/holland-america-line-announces-a-voluntary-and-temporary-pause-of-its-global-ship-operations-for-30-days/

21 tested positive with 19 of those being crew members. Just announced by Pence. 

59 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I suspect that you might have misunderstood the doctors. From the CDC website (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm😞

 

What are the benefits of flu vaccination?

There are many reasons to get a flu vaccine each year. Below is a summary of the benefits of flu vaccination, and selected scientific studies that support these benefits.

• Flu vaccination can keep you from getting sick with flu. [CDC's bolding, not mine.]
  • Flu vaccine prevents millions of illnesses and flu-related doctor’s visits each year. For example, during 2016-2017, flu vaccination prevented an estimated 5.3 million influenza illnesses, 2.6 million influenza-associated medical visits, and 85,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations...

No misunderstanding. I was told this by two different infectious disease doctors as well as a GP. 

Both my mother and I had the flu shot in October and both of us got the flu about a month ago - tested out as strain A. Several infectious disease doctors told both of us that this year’s flu shot was only about 45% effective. My mom only had a little fever but a terrible cough and overall aches. I also had the terrible cough (still have traces of it) but had fever of 101-102 for 4 days. 

The doctors told us that having the shot does not keep you from getting the flu but it can help lessen the effects of it. Personally, I would hate to think of how much worse it could have been, because what we had knocked us out of commission for weeks. My mom had some other health issues going on so she is still recovering over a month later. 

I certainly hope it’s just a cold making the rounds on the ship because the flu was miserable. 

Does the soda have to be in a can?  I would prefer to bring it in a six pack of those 16 oz plastic screw top bottles, but I don’t want to break any rules. 

My advice is to take a winter jacket and gloves. Several years ago I went the week before Memorial Day, and I ended up having to buy a winter jacket when it started snowing. The only animals we saw were bald eagles. No whales and no bears. We were told it was too early in the season to see them. While I could have dealt with the weather, I was pretty bummed about the lack of animal sightings which is one thing I was looking forward to. Having said that, I also realize that wildlife sightings wouldn’t have been guaranteed even if I cruised later in the season!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Are there any better options out of Miami? If so, perhaps your airline would let you switch to flying out of there since their change isn't giving you good options out of FLL.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Hope they quickly find out what is going on and that your son will be on the road to recovery soon. If this had to happen, thank goodness it started before you got on the plane or on the ship.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I found it on his blog between day 39 and 40.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Loving your reports! Are you from the Richmond area? I used to live there (now live in Waynesboro), and I still miss Ukrops even though I know it's no longer in existence. Their mac and cheese was the best and I loved those little rolls - white house or Parker house - something like that. Hope you continue to have a wonderful trip! I'll be on my first WC next year, and I can't wait! I thought I would be pretty good at trivia, but when I see the questions I realize I'm not so good after all.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you so much for your descriptive and entertaining reports! I am taking the 2019 WC and am reading your current and past blogs avidly and taking quite a few notes.

Question about the meclizine - do you know if the ship still provides it for free? I've seen some reports that HAL is now charging for it. I am very prone to sea sickness and I'm trying to figure out what types and amounts of sea sick medicine I should bring with me. I normally wear the patch, but I definitely don't want to do that for 113 days! I've bought some sea bands and also plan to get some ginger pills. I may also get several patches to use when I know that the sea is going to be exceptionally rough.

Thanks again for the time and effort you put into your blog as well as your beautiful pictures!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Loving your review! Thank you so much for taking the time to update us on your journey. Have they said yet when the itinerary for the 2019 WC will be announced? I'm hoping to be retired by then, and I would be very interested in hearing the ports of call as I would love to go on a world cruise.

Is this your original TA who responded to you or the one who talked to you from the parent TA!

918, you have been a lot more patient with this nonsense than I would have been! I tried this approach before with great results: tell RCI that as you are beginning to suspect fraud that you will contact their internal audit department to report this situation as a suspected fraud if this is not resolved to your satisfaction by close of business on Monday. Yes, I know we all think this is your MIA travel agent, but it could be a rotten RCI employee.). I had to do this one time with United regarding double charging me for airline tickets and giving me the royal runaround when I tried to get it resolved. You would be surprised how quickly such situations are resolved when you threaten to sic the auditors on them. I am an internal auditor, and I can tell you that management and the operations people hate it when internal audit starts nosing around asking questions, especially when the "f" word is mentioned.

Hopefully it won't come to that and they'll get back to you tomorrow with good news.

I am on the seven day December 24th Eurodam cruise and just received an upsell offer two hours ago. Their are 3 of us in a VA, and the offer was $449 per person for a Signature Suite or $1,099 a person for a Neptune Suite. I turned it down because we just don't spend enough time in the cabin to want to pay that much for an upgrade.

I enjoyed following along with your cruise. A Panama Canal cruise is on my bucket list. You mentioned in a few places that you would be updating your website with new menus. What is the name of your website?

There are oils like Thieves, or Purify. Super immune and frankincense. All help to render bad things in the air gone and give some protection. I have them going in the house when the house is closed up in the winter. We always seem to get some sort of respiratory illness when we sail, even tho we try not to touch things, don't touch our face and wash our hands at every turn. Hard to keep away from the germs when people cough and sneeze in the elevators, etc. I just thought that maybe doing this would keep the illness away for once. I may just bring our essential oil nasal diffusers and carry them with us. I am kind of an essential oil nut, as you can see. Even do oils to lower my blood pressure!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Which oil do you use to help lower your blood pressure? I use mine mostly for respiratory issues and sometimes relaxation.

Does everyone in your party have to have the same home address? I'm traveling with my mother and my brother, and we all have different addresses. I am the only one that has a smart phone.