Seabourn and the current issues surrounding the Corona Virus

[kowhairob]

New Zealand has announced that we now have a case of Coronavirus from a 60yo man who flew in from Iran . The Supermarkets were hit by panic shoppers  . We are due to be on the Sojourn April 29th Auckland to Suva so we will see if the authorities in New Caledonia and Fiji will allow the vessel to dock.  Interesting times . 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Glad my wine cellar is stocked with over 600 bottles, will just stay home and “rate” them...  Will check back in here in a couple of years.  Assuming the internet is still up and running.

[Mark56]

At 1 bottle a day that’s less than a 2 year supply. Better stock up.

[MPCakes]

I'm glad the editor of the paper is reacting in such a rational, just the facts way.  Imagine the panic an inflammatory headline could cause.🙃

Edited February 28, 2020 by MPCakes
Grammatical Error

[SLSD]

Here's some good news concerning airline change fees:  https://thepointsguy.com/news/coronavirus-europe-travel-waivers/?utm_term=Editorial&utm_medium=social&utm_content=7EFADF06-5A37-11EA-AB42-A90DFDA12A29&utm_campaign=facebook&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3tK525AqogLmBodZE5e6oiesg-CTH__Y6EQfC1a4O3HXvsTW3s42ijWQ8

 

[rols]

6 hours ago, Paulchili said:

Wouldn't that be the case for every single port for the rest of the cruise?

Not to mention passengers getting off for sightseeing in ports and then re-boarding the ship "infected" (while still asymptomatic).

Yes it would - however they can control the ports the ship docks at (and whether anyone gets off) more easily than they can control all the countries any new passengers may have passed through in the previous two weeks before boarding. Yes if they stop at a port which later becomes 'banned', the whole ship is now in quarantine, however that's easier to mitigate than having passengers who've joined the ship and have come from all over the world, any one of them could cause the ship to become undockable. 

They could have come up with a huge list of places you can't have visited in the last two weeks and denied boarding to all those people, however what should be on that list, who knows, Italy was unaffected a week ago. So they've just said fine we have a group on board who've all been to the same places in the past fortnight, let's not add to that group and make it more complicated and then carefully consider which ports we stop at. (Although I think Bali is a bad choice myself). 

[MightyQuinn]

23 minutes ago, rols said:

..... So they've just said fine we have a group on board who've all been to the same places in the past fortnight, let's not add to that group and make it more complicated and then carefully consider which ports we stop at. (Although I think Bali is a bad choice myself).

 

The plot thickens!  To make it more confusing, Crystal has now changed its position to allow new guests to embark in Sydney, provided they continue on through either Mumbai or Rome.  There will be no disembarkation in Perth and no port stop in Bali.

[Astride]

2 hours ago, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

Glad my wine cellar is stocked with over 600 bottles, will just stay home and “rate” them...  Will check back in here in a couple of years.  Assuming the internet is still up and running.

Pardon the pun but that's the spirit, Ragnar!

[rols]

35 minutes ago, MightyQuinn said:

The plot thickens!  To make it more confusing, Crystal has now changed its position to allow new guests to embark in Sydney, provided they continue on through either Mumbai or Rome.  There will be no disembarkation in Perth and no port stop in Bali.

The original decision was harsh but understandable, except the bit about disembarkation which I still don't get and the port stop in Bali. This latest iteration appears to be a muddled compromise which serves to just frustrate customers, especially those who turned around 1/2 way to Sydney or cancelled their flights, but does little or nothing to mitigate the risk of the ship running into issues later in the voyage. 

[saminina]

Received Seabourn Coronavirus survey.   Might we be the only people limiting cruising to the USA coasts this year?

[teamflames]

We are due to sail on the Encore Apr 17 and received one of the itinerary change letters, strangely there is no date given by when we need to decide whether to cancel or not? I called the Sydney office and they don’t have any information other than what is in the letter, all my questions involved the representative simply reading the letter, when she sought clarification she told me simply as soon as possible.

This seems strange that one could wait until the day of sailing?

[rols]

3 hours ago, saminina said:

Received Seabourn Coronavirus survey.   Might we be the only people limiting cruising to the USA coasts this year?

What is the 'Seabourn Coronavirus survey'? 

 

I don't think it matters where anyone plans to cruise this year, it seems more than likely at this point that the virus will be everywhere,  no country will be immune and so instead of cruise lines hoping to avoid it, they are going to have to deal with having it on board and controlling it. 

[Flamin_June]

4 hours ago, rols said:

I don't think it matters where anyone plans to cruise this year, it seems more than likely at this point that the virus will be everywhere,  no country will be immune and so instead of cruise lines hoping to avoid it, they are going to have to deal with having it on board and controlling it.

 Like it is now, more or less, with 'flu. In my more pessimistic moments I expect that the world will reach a point where contact tracing and containment is no longer sustainable, and we will all have to live with C-19, along with the other C viruses out there, hopefully with a widely available vaccine.

[Haworth]

Both on and off topic

 

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-global-risk-raised-to-highest-level-as-more-countries-affected-11946034?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter

[cruisepsycho]

CDC has now raised travel advisory to Italy to level 3, same as China, avoid all non essential travel to Italy.  This is a game changer for the upcoming med cruises. I am booked on Ovation in May with two ports of call in Italy.  How will Seabourn respond?  Will we be given option to cancel,  or rebook for future cruise. France May be next.

[Sunviking]

There is an interesting editorial in the latest New England Journal of Medicine re: Covid-19.  https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387

 

In the third paragraph the authors (director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, deputy director of the same organization, and the director of the Centers for Disease Control respectively) posit that  the consequences of Covid-19 may be more like those of a severe influenza season than MERS or SARS. I don't think the three doctors are trying to minimize the impact this virus has had but it does put a little perspective on it.  The typical influenza season in the northern hemisphere is in the fall and winter and usually ends by May.  The virus  circulates year-round but activity peaks in that period.  I think that makes it very premature to speculate about what adjustments airlines and cruise lines may have to make in the late spring and summer.  I hope this virus will run its course sooner rather than later and with as few additional casualties as possible.

[Flamin_June]

Perhaps it is time to revive this old campaign

 

 

[cruisepsycho]

Sunviking, while  I’m sure we all hope this pandemic runs it’s course soon with as minimal consequences as possible, it would be prudent for the cruise lines to plan early for contingencies should it not.

[rols]

8 hours ago, cruisepsycho said:

CDC has now raised travel advisory to Italy to level 3, same as China, avoid all non essential travel to Italy.  This is a game changer for the upcoming med cruises. I am booked on Ovation in May with two ports of call in Italy.  How will Seabourn respond?  Will we be given option to cancel,  or rebook for future cruise. France May be next.

According to this site https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/ China is level 4 and Italy level 3. I don't know whether cruise lines start acting at level 3 or level 4. At this point in the cycle, when countries are trying to contain the infection, as we've seen in Asia ships are less affected by what the State Department says than ports proactively banning cruise liners from docking. 

I don't know if anyone is going to 'be next', at this point just about everybody is 'next'. 

[AtTheJob]

2 hours ago, rols said:

According to this site https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/ China is level 4 and Italy level 3. I don't know whether cruise lines start acting at level 3 or level 4. At this point in the cycle, when countries are trying to contain the infection, as we've seen in Asia ships are less affected by what the State Department says than ports proactively banning cruise liners from docking. 

I don't know if anyone is going to 'be next', at this point just about everybody is 'next'. 

It's worth noting - that both countries have level 4 advisories as of today for certain parts (Daegu in South Korea and Lobardy & Veneto in Italy) - This obviously affects Venice, but they don't even want cruise ships on a good day! There are further details within each advisory page.

[tv24]

On 2/28/2020 at 1:38 PM, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

Glad my wine cellar is stocked with over 600 bottles, will just stay home and “rate” them...  Will check back in here in a couple of years.  Assuming the internet is still up and running.

Excellent Plan.

[tv24]

19 hours ago, Flamin_June said:

 Like it is now, more or less, with 'flu. In my more pessimistic moments I expect that the world will reach a point where contact tracing and containment is no longer sustainable, and we will all have to live with C-19, along with the other C viruses out there, hopefully with a widely available vaccine.

June, I agree.  This is what I believe is the future.

[Seacap]

Sojourn denied entry to Male Maldives.We are now headed to Sri Lanka overnighting in Colombo 3/6 to 3/7 instead.This has been a cruise of surprises however Guests and Crew handling it with grace and poise.When you sail with experienced people changes and extreme news is taken in stride.We are all hoping Australia will be welcoming.We have never sailed in any port that is suspect for Coronavirus, the Maldives is just not letting ship land regardless of origin of guests or crew.Everyone on board is healthy and not been anywhere near affected localities.

 

[rols]

 

23 hours ago, Flamin_June said:

 Like it is now, more or less, with 'flu. In my more pessimistic moments I expect that the world will reach a point where contact tracing and containment is no longer sustainable, and we will all have to live with C-19, along with the other C viruses out there, hopefully with a widely available vaccine.

That's where the WHO has been indicating this is likely going to go, they haven't called it a pandemic yet but once they do that really means it's everywhere and containment is no-longer a viable option. I'm sure countries will continue to try for a while but eventually if it does reach pandemic status footing will shift from trying to prevent spread towards treatment and triage. At that point I'd also expect the various travel restrictions to be lifted because they cease to serve purpose. Cruise lines will also then have to adapt and work on prevention, detection and rapid containment because the virus will come aboard just as seasonal 'flu and noro do. Drug therapy for the most serious patients is improving all the time and you can hope that the mortality rate will continue to drop. 

There will not be an available vaccine this year. It's unlikely there will be one by next winter 'flu season but there will probably be one the season after that. However if C-19 follows the path H1N1 did, the virus itself will mutate to become weaker and population immunity will slow its spread. The first year however seems likely, if containment fails, to have the number of deaths 5-10 years of influenza produce however influenza will then cause fewer deaths than normal for a few years.

[AlaskaGrown]

We are supposed to still fly through Singapore (with a two day stopover) and arrive in Colombo the 13th to get on the Ovation Colombo to Athens. We were checking the ever evolving travel restrictions for the ports on our cruise. We found this website https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/international-travel-document-news/1580226297.htm which might apply only to air travel but maybe to cruisers too.  It says for Oman "Passengers arriving from China (People's Rep.), Iran, Japan, Korea (Rep.) or Singapore will be subject to quarantine for a minimum of 14 days."  We are assuming this means within 14 days of arrival as the other countries are saying. Not sure what to do now...