PRINCESS SHIPS & CORONA VIRUS

[dog]

Read on elite board someone got email that Princess is changing ports. She has to change her flight from China to Japan now

[Potstech]

4 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

The World Health Organization  has just declared this Virus a  world wide threat 

 The US state Department t has a level 3 alert on   this virus 

 

 The obvious question is what is Princess doing to protect us ,their passengers & their crews 

 From  exposure  to the virus ?  A Costa  ship is being held for quarantine with 6000 pax  in port of Rome because of a person with possible Corona virus  .This is Latest news 

The other obvious question is what are cruisers and other travelers doing to ptotect themselves from contacting this or any other virus?

[geoherb]

I had flu-like symptoms last month on my Panama Canal cruise on the Caribbean Princess. I went to the doctor. He described it as an acute upper respiratory infection and prescribed Tamiflu. I felt better the next day. I was still quarantined in my cabin. I don't know how strictly they enforce the quarantine because I abided by it, going out just to go to the medical center to have my twice daily temperature checks. I wore a face mask when I went there. After three normal temps, I was released from being quarantined. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

It's not just the cruise lines taking action. Some ports are being closed to cruise ships as they do not have good enough medical facilities to cope with an outbreak within their local community if infected by a cruise ship passenger. Two New Caledonian ports, Lifou and Mare, have just announced they are closed to cruise ships. These are both very small, isolated communities. Some cruises on other cruise lines have been affected by this but, so far, not any Princess cruises.

Edited January 31, 2020 by OzKiwiJJ

[mevs904]

We are currently on the Crown and were in St. Lucia yesterday.  An official at the port made it a point to tell us that their island was clear of the virus and that they had spoken to the captain of our ship who said that the ship was also clear.  We have noted that there are little to no Asian passengers on this voyage.

[Griller]

• We are due to board tomorrow and just received an email from Princess as follows - at last
• We feel happier now there should be no pax on board from mainland China. It helps considerably.

CORONAVIRUS TRAVEL ADVISORY

We are closely monitoring the Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation and wish to reassure you that the risk to our guests and crew is low and our medical experts are coordinating closely with global health authorities.

As a precautionary measure, any guest who has traveled from or through mainland China within 14 days of the beginning of this cruise will be denied boarding. This does not apply to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. If this applies to you or your client, please contact us at 1-800-774-6237 (North America) or your country s office to provide proof of such travel and we will process a full refund of all amounts paid to Princess Cruises for this voyage.

In addition, all guests will be subject to pre-boarding health reporting and screening at cruise check-in, in addition to other precautions being taken. The above is subject to change based on the interests of health and safety of our guests and crew and any other requirements imposed by local authorities.

[MissP22]

I have no doubt that eventually a case of the virus will hit on other cruise lines which will cause a people to shy away from cruising for a while until a solution is found.

I'll be waiting for some great deals to arise in the near future. 

[Cuedon]

It's not just people from China though being impacted by that advisory; it's also people being routed through China. I'm currently sitting in TPE after being routed through a technical stop in TAO wondering if I'll be boarding or stuck arranging a prompt flight home. And exactly how much of my expenses they're going to cover, if any, because, really, a notice something like 30 hours before boarding that involves international travel is pretty slim.

[Griller]

21 minutes ago, Cuedon said:

It's not just people from China though being impacted by that advisory; it's also people being routed through China. I'm currently sitting in TPE after being routed through a technical stop in TAO wondering if I'll be boarding or stuck arranging a prompt flight home. And exactly how much of my expenses they're going to cover, if any, because, really, a notice something like 30 hours before boarding that involves international travel is pretty slim.

Ok well the thing is - are you a possible health risk to others on the ship?

Could you have been infected but have yet to show symptoms?

Did you get off the plane in Mainland China?

 

Yes its short notice.

 

I see the notice from Princess says from or THROUGH mainland China

 

thats you really isn't it?

Edited January 31, 2020 by Griller

[dog]

39 minutes ago, Cuedon said:

It's not just people from China though being impacted by that advisory; it's also people being routed through China. I'm currently sitting in TPE after being routed through a technical stop in TAO wondering if I'll be boarding or stuck arranging a prompt flight home. And exactly how much of my expenses they're going to cover, if any, because, really, a notice something like 30 hours before boarding that involves international travel is pretty slim.

Thanks for posting. I hope you stay safe and all works out for you and others who were on route to cruise. 

[dog]

22 minutes ago, Griller said:

Ok well the thing is - are you a possible health risk to others on the ship?

Could you have been infected but have yet to show symptoms?

Did you get off the plane in Mainland China?

 

Yes its short notice.

 

I see the notice from Princess says from or THROUGH mainland China

 

thats you really isn't it?

Situations like this change constantly. I hope all goes well with your travels and you stay safe too. 
thanks for posting that email from Princess

[chamima]

12 hours ago, npcl said:

Not much they can do other than excluding passengers from boarding based on their previous travels.  Unfortunately people do tend to be less than honest with those kinds of questionaires.  The checks like they are doing at the airports is another possibility, but no certainty with those.

 

2 hours ago, Griller said:

• We are due to board tomorrow and just received an email from Princess as follows - at last
• We feel happier now there should be no pax on board from mainland China. It helps considerably.

CORONAVIRUS TRAVEL ADVISORY

We are closely monitoring the Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation and wish to reassure you that the risk to our guests and crew is low and our medical experts are coordinating closely with global health authorities.

As a precautionary measure, any guest who has traveled from or through mainland China within 14 days of the beginning of this cruise will be denied boarding. This does not apply to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. If this applies to you or your client, please contact us at 1-800-774-6237 (North America) or your country s office to provide proof of such travel and we will process a full refund of all amounts paid to Princess Cruises for this voyage.

In addition, all guests will be subject to pre-boarding health reporting and screening at cruise check-in, in addition to other precautions being taken. The above is subject to change based on the interests of health and safety of our guests and crew and any other requirements imposed by local authorities.

 

 

Everyone on most cruises needs a passport to board.

A check of your passport will tell where you've been.

 

[dog]

On elite board someone just posted their May 29/20 Princess cruise China is now cancelled. $200 offered / rebook within a year. Anyone else hearing of this?

[Cuedon]

46 minutes ago, Griller said:

Ok well the thing is - are you a possible health risk to others on the ship?

Could you have been infected but have yet to show symptoms?

Did you get off the plane in Mainland China?

 

Yes its short notice.

 

I see the notice from Princess says from or THROUGH mainland China

 

thats you really isn't it?

 

Probably, but not any moreso than most other people. Statistically speaking, the alcohol on board is probably a greater health risk.

And, again, probably, but that goes for a lot of people. There's a lot of people that pass through major points of transit... the hours spent at LAX probably involved a greater degree of exposure than sitting in the plane on tarmac for a few hours.

And, no.

 

Yes, I'm impacted by that, and I'm not making any effort to hide it. I'm still annoyed that I have to deal receiving this notice while I'm already in-transit though, especially considering that I delayed my travel arrangements and even called in to Princess several days ago to make sure that a route through China was unlikely to be an issue.

 

  

14 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

Everyone on most cruises needs a passport to board.

A check of your passport will tell where you've been.

 

 

Assuming you have a single passport. A few people I know legally hold multiple passports, and for at least two of their nations, part of the stipulation is that the US passport has to be used for ingress/egress from US territory, but other than that, which passport they choose to use is at their own discretion, just don't expect assistance from whichever nation wasn't used, and follow the rules of the one you did.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Cuedon
Second half of the post.

[PrincessLuver]

12 hours ago, RMMariner said:

Don't panic. The fact is that you are still far more likely to die in a car accident or die from the regular flu than from this coronavirus. (globally between 290,000 and 600,000 people die every year of the normal flu) The sky is not falling. We have these panics every 5 years or so. Remember SARS, H1N1, Zika and MERS. The coronavirus is not even particularly lethal compared to some of the previously mentioned diseases. It also does not spread as easily as the common flu. 

 

If I had previous health concerns, I would be leery of travelling to that part of the world right now, but as far as worrying about it very much any place else, there are far more dangerous and statistically probable things to worry about.

 

Wash your hands. Eat healthy food. Work out. Sleep properly. Work on your stress level, and look both ways when you cross the street. Get a flu shot and keep your vaccines updated. Just the increased blood pressure from worrying about this will probably impact your health far more than the coronavirus ever will.

 

The media loves a good panic. Read what the real experts are saying, not what social media is spouting off about. You can mock me later, and bring this post up to remind me how wrong I was, but if this so called pandemic is still a problem in two months, I will be very much surprised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agree with your take exactly.....last year 80,000 Americans died of the common flu or flu like symptoms.....they will develop a vaccine and right now it seems CDC is concerned because they do not know much about this particular Coronavirus....there are quite a few varieties....travel on!!!

Edited January 31, 2020 by PrincessLuver

[milolii]

12 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

We just passed final payment  . I need to call my TA 

Call your personal physician as well.  Good luck.  

[datone]

We are boarding the Sapphire Princess on Sunday (2nd Feb) and our stop in Sihanoukville, Cambodia has been cancelled with an extra day in Bangkok instead.

[K.T.B.]

While it's a very serious issue, a little perspective is needed.

 

The death rate of the corona virus is just under 3%.  Whereas the death rate for the flu is about 10% and for SARS is slightly lower at 9.6%.

 

Now one should not just throw caution to the wind and ignore the possibility of being infected, but it's far less of a danger than other viruses hundreds of thousands of people catch each year.

[Globehoppers]

12 hours ago, npcl said:

Note the "suspected" at this time.  The inability of the ships doctor to run a test without having to send results to a lab makes it a problem because it cannot eliminate the virus during the normal URI cases that seem to pop up on a lot of cruises. 

Its not the ship's doctor.  The  Italian government ordered the quarantine.

[Cuedon]

10 minutes ago, K.T.B. said:

While it's a very serious issue, a little perspective is needed.

 

The death rate of the corona virus is just under 3%.  Whereas the death rate for the flu is about 10% and for SARS is slightly lower at 9.6%.

 

Now one should not just throw caution to the wind and ignore the possibility of being infected, but it's far less of a danger than other viruses hundreds of thousands of people catch each year.

 

That... can't be right. I think I passed an article earlier saying there's about 16m people in the US who got the flu last year, with about 35k fatalities, for about a 0.2% fatality rate (if I didn't slip a decimal point... very low at least, for the purposes of comparison). The other major flu-like outbreak in recent years was MERS, clocking in at 30-35%.

 

Maybe it was a specific version of the flu that you're thinking of? Bird flu was up in high double-digits as I recall, but was relatively non-infectious.

 

Edit: Corrected numbers... it was a partial year the article covered.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Cuedon

[Globehoppers]

10 minutes ago, K.T.B. said:

While it's a very serious issue, a little perspective is needed.

 

The death rate of the corona virus is just under 3%.  Whereas the death rate for the flu is about 10% and for SARS is slightly lower at 9.6%.

 

Now one should not just throw caution to the wind and ignore the possibility of being infected, but it's far less of a danger than other viruses hundreds of thousands of people catch each year.

Yes, perspective.

 

Coronavirus is spreading significantly faster than SARS, its death rate for the same initial period if higher, and its infection rate in significantly higher.  This is not something to take lightly.  It is killing young healthy people in addition to those with low immune systems.  

 

Checked yesterday and surgical respiratory masks in the US are extremely scarce.  Plus, they are made in China...!

Edited January 31, 2020 by Globehoppers

[CineGraphic]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

I have no doubt that eventually a case of the virus will hit on other cruise lines which will cause a people to shy away from cruising for a while until a solution is found.

I'll be waiting for some great deals to arise in the near future. 

 

There's always someone looking to benefit from crisis/panic situations. Personally, I find it disgusting.

Enjoy your cheap cruise.

[CruiseVA]

3 hours ago, Griller said:

• We are due to board tomorrow and just received an email from Princess as follows - at last
• We feel happier now there should be no pax on board from mainland China. It helps considerably.

CORONAVIRUS TRAVEL ADVISORY

We are closely monitoring the Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation and wish to reassure you that the risk to our guests and crew is low and our medical experts are coordinating closely with global health authorities.

As a precautionary measure, any guest who has traveled from or through mainland China within 14 days of the beginning of this cruise will be denied boarding. This does not apply to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. If this applies to you or your client, please contact us at 1-800-774-6237 (North America) or your country s office to provide proof of such travel and we will process a full refund of all amounts paid to Princess Cruises for this voyage.

In addition, all guests will be subject to pre-boarding health reporting and screening at cruise check-in, in addition to other precautions being taken. The above is subject to change based on the interests of health and safety of our guests and crew and any other requirements imposed by local authorities.

We received the same notice for our sailing on the Regal out of Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.

[NFL Traveler]

Fearmongering?  I don't believe it is fearmongering after the many reports of Chinese Nationals taking fever-reducing meds before boarding flights to take vacations abroad.  Rumor has it that cruise lines in South FL are refunding cruise fares to Chinese passengers; as far as I know this is a rumor.  The reality is as this virus spreads in China, and it will, what will cruise lines do?  Will they ban passengers from China?  As another poster said, cruise ships are petrie dishes.  

 

The bottom line: my wife and I will continue to cruise, but we will alter our behavior by washing/sanitizing our hands, keeping our hands away from our faces, not shaking hands, bringing our own sanitizing wipes to wipe down our cabin, daily...

[CineGraphic]

13 minutes ago, NFL Traveler said:

My wife and I will continue to cruise, but we will alter our behavior by washing/sanitizing our hands, keeping our hands away from our faces, not shaking hands, bringing our own sanitizing wipes to wipe down our cabin, daily...

 

This is what we do for every cruise...a virus is a virus, whether it's Noro, Corona, etc...