Coronavirus

[CruisinCrow]

1 minute ago, jkgourmet said:

 

They can complain all they want.  A pandemic has higher priority.  (And anyway, I've NEVER understood why people don't have passports.)

 

I can't believe it's not already a requirement for everyone, with or without a pandemic.  It's required by airlines, why not cruise lines?  They've let people get by with birth certificates for too long.

[Beardface]

4 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

 

They can complain all they want.  A pandemic has higher priority.  (And anyway, I've NEVER understood why people don't have passports.  But that's another discussion for another day.)

You should never, ever, ever step foot outside of a country without a passport, even if you are traveling between countries that currently don't require it.

 

You never know when that law will change.  It could change at a moment's notice, and your passport is really the only way of making sure you can get back home.  Leaving your territory without it is only asking for trouble.

[BermudaBound2014]

Looks like the quarantined ship outside of Rome was a false alarm. I just read the passengers tested negative for corona virus. 

[onetimearoundtheworld]

1 hour ago, CruisinCrow said:

 

Yeah, I'm sure people lie on those all the time.  I guess they could check your passport to see recent travels.

 

In many countries you can have more than one valid passport for visa or entry stamp reasons. And it doesn't even matter when you have a virus that spreads from person to person and has a two week incubation period. 

[BermudaBound2014]

BBC just upped the https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51318246

[nikkiw60]

We are on the Bellissima sailing Hong Kong to Japan in April, not worried about the cruise at the moment but concerned about being on an air China flight with a stop of 4 hours in Beijing!

[sidari]

MSC current statement says anyone who has been to China in the last 30 days will be denied boarding.

[sidari]

#MSCCruises takes your health very serious!

MSC Cruises is immediately taking further precautionary measures for the health and well-being of its guests and crew on all of its global fleet according to a statement citing the coronavirus outbreak in China.

MSC stressed that there were no cases of coronavirus onboard any of MSC Cruises’ ships but that the company is still taking additional measures; including:

Guests from all nationalities are required to fill out a pre-embarkation questionnaire to ensure no-one boards their ship who has travelled from mainland China or visited mainland China in the past 30 days.

* Anyone who has travelled from mainland China or visited mainland China in the past 30 days will be denied access to the ship;

* Mandatory non-touch thermal scans conducted for all guests and crew prior to embarkation for every cruise operated by the company anywhere in the world, and persons with signs or symptoms of illness such as fever (≥38 C°/100.4 F°) or feverishness, chills, cough or difficulty breathing will be denied embarkation;

* Elevated deep-sanitation on every ship in the line’s entire fleet;

* Guests who may have fever symptoms will be isolated in their cabin and the same measure applies for their close contacts, including guests staying in the same cabin and family members, as well as any crew member who may have served these guests.

These measures follow previous actions that were taken last week. Guests and crew who travelled last week from mainland China were already screened for symptoms upon embarkation, and were requested to report any symptoms of illness to the onboard medical centre.

[SirWolf]

4 hours ago, Beardface said:

And to further complicate things, we are now seeing reports of people in Germany, Thailand, Japan, and Vietnam with confirmed cases of infection who had never been to China.

The person in Germany has been in contact with a person from China visiting a automobile parts factory in Germany where he works. The person from China had dinner with family from Wuhan prior to her flight to Germany. 90 workers of the factory are now under house arrest and being monitored by health officials. The workers have to measure their temperature and report. Nobody of the 90 workers has been diagnosed with Corona Virus as per today.

(source: German newspapers, not from first hand source).

[nikkiw60]

We are not going till April.

[Beardface]

1 hour ago, nikkiw60 said:

We are on the Bellissima sailing Hong Kong to Japan in April, not worried about the cruise at the moment but concerned about being on an air China flight with a stop of 4 hours in Beijing!

Might want to keep an eye on air travel.  Delta and United (I also want to say British Airways as well as possibly American) have canceled at least a portion of their flights to and from China through March.  If this all keeps up, it would not be shocking to see airports shut down travel to and from China as well during this same time.

[Craig1967]

I just called MSC. We sail in 2 weeks on the 15th from Miami. I requested that I delay my cruise until more in known and the virus is under control. I never asked for a refund just a credit of what my trip cost me to be used at a later date. It seems a very reasonable request given all the unknowns with this virus. MSC would not entertain my request not one iota, but they say health and safety are our number one concern. Do anyone else agree that this is a reasonable request or am I asking to much? 

[CruisinCrow]

1 minute ago, Craig1967 said:

I just called MSC. We sail in 2 weeks on the 15th from Miami. I requested that I delay my cruise until more in known and the virus is under control. I never asked for a refund just a credit of what my trip cost me to be used at a later date. It seems a very reasonable request given all the unknowns with this virus. MSC would not entertain my request not one iota, but they say health and safety are our number one concern. Do anyone else agree that this is a reasonable request or am I asking to much? 

 

We sail on the 18th out of Miami, and as of now, I don't see any reason to delay our cruise.  Things may look much different (better or worse) in two weeks and I'll reevaluate then.

[ellie1145]

• This virus could be caught anywhere so even if you don’t go on the cruise you may pick it up somewhere else, although at the moment it is not In every part of the world.

The cruise ships will be doing everything they can to prevent infection, and that’s not an easy task. At least cruise ships are considerably cleaner and more conscious of infection than most hotels or resorts.

 

But yes, I do think you are asking too much at the moment. I’m sure that if it is a real health issue the cruise ships will be the first to cancel cruises. After all, they don’t want people dying onboard. I’m afraid it’s a wait and see situation.

If things get worse  and it spreads across the USA, the Caribbean and on all cruise ships then of course cruises will have to be cancelled, but until then I’m afraid life must go on.  Of course it’s worrying, but we have to rely on governments, and companies, to do the right thing. Whether they will or not I really can’t say.

[sfaaa]

4 hours ago, jkgourmet said:

 

Simple:  if this is a health emergency, it's simple.  require it.

 

It is now a health emergency worldwide according to WHO. I am not willing to play Russian roulette with my health and had postphoned a planned April cruise out of an abundance of caution.

[BermudaBound2014]

I’m sharing this just because i think it is very interesting- not trying to spread panic. We all need to keep this in perspective of influenzaB stats- but this map is real time. As each case is confirmed the numbers increase- it went from 6.5k to 8.3k in my last refresh. its cool technology at the very least- https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

 

ps- I have a cruise in April. I’m not yet concerned. 

[CruisingFox27]

We were scheduled on the Splendida repositioning sailing from Shanghai on February 14th, we've received confirmation from MSC today we will now embark on 13th February in Singapore. Our stops in Japan and Hong Kong have been replaced with 3 in Malaysia and Vietnam. Expecting that well have a good number of passengers missing. 

With the virus escalating we feared it would be cancelled but now rapidly researching the new POC.

[mistertoaster]

We are sailing on the Divina tomorrow from Miami. It appears MSC is one of the more proactive lines addressing the virus with their updated policy. I suspect this cruise will be the safest cruise from a health standpoint that we have taken. With thermal screening, a ban on those with recent trips from China, etc., the risk seems relatively small at this point. Everyone has to make their own decision, but I assume my drive to O’hare tomorrow will put me in more potential peril than the cruise.

[desibee]

3 hours ago, sfaaa said:

It is now a health emergency worldwide according to WHO. I am not willing to play Russian roulette with my health and had postphoned a planned April cruise out of an abundance of caution.

 

WHO also declared Ebola a global health emergency last July.  Were you as cautious then?

[jkgourmet]

5 hours ago, Craig1967 said:

I just called MSC. We sail in 2 weeks on the 15th from Miami. I requested that I delay my cruise until more in known and the virus is under control. I never asked for a refund just a credit of what my trip cost me to be used at a later date. It seems a very reasonable request given all the unknowns with this virus. MSC would not entertain my request not one iota, but they say health and safety are our number one concern. Do anyone else agree that this is a reasonable request or am I asking to much? 

 

Assuming your cruise is going to the Caribbean, definitely asking too much, IMHO. 

 

I'm not being blind to the risk - neither is WHO, the CDC, airlines, ships, etc.  But I AM an ex-accountant:  I look at numbers.

 

So:   As of THREE MINUTES AGO (11:00PM EST), there were 9800 reported cases in the world.  213 deaths.  That's a mortality rate of less than 3%.  

 

Depending on which statistics you examine, 2017, 2018 and 2019 deaths from influenza were 6% to 10% in the United States.  

Edited January 31, 2020 by jkgourmet

[jkgourmet]

4 hours ago, CruisingFox27 said:

We were scheduled on the Splendida repositioning sailing from Shanghai on February 14th, we've received confirmation from MSC today we will now embark on 13th February in Singapore. Our stops in Japan and Hong Kong have been replaced with 3 in Malaysia and Vietnam. Expecting that well have a good number of passengers missing. 

With the virus escalating we feared it would be cancelled but now rapidly researching the new POC.

 

Just out of curiosity - did the offer a refund or credit if you didn't want to go to those ports?

[Skoobdo]

Duplicate

 

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by Skoobdo

[Skoobdo]

Current tally...updated a few hours ago.

[petuniaflower]

5 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I’m sharing this just because i think it is very interesting- not trying to spread panic. We all need to keep this in perspective of influenzaB stats- but this map is real time. As each case is confirmed the numbers increase- it went from 6.5k to 8.3k in my last refresh. its cool technology at the very least- https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

 

ps- I have a cruise in April. I’m not yet concerned. 

Thanks for the link, very interesting!

[nikkiw60]

7 hours ago, Beardface said:

Might want to keep an eye on air travel.  Delta and United (I also want to say British Airways as well as possibly American) have canceled at least a portion of their flights to and from China through March.  If this all keeps up, it would not be shocking to see airports shut down travel to and from China as well during this same time.

We have booked a package with hotels, flights and cruise included. We are hoping to get better flights at least.