Diamond Princess passenger "tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus"

[Coral]

18 minutes ago, gvre said:

Coral appreciated the notice.

 

I started this thread asking for advice on what to do for our Diamond Princess cruise as there had been a passengers on the cruise from Hong Kong who tested positive for coronavirus

We decided to cancelled our B2B on February 5^th, for the April 2^nd cruise for 18 days. By that time there was 20 cases on the Diamond Princess. At that point the cancellation fee was 20% of the cruise. If we waited till the 6^th it would be 50% of the cruise fare.

We talked to Princess about waving the 20% or extend the cancellation date.  They would not. We had invested hours into planning the cruise and got charged to cancel our business class flights.

We did book the same 18 day back to back on the Diamond for next year 20121 same date April 2^nd thru the 20^th.

We have done 28 cruises on Princess it would be nice to at least get back our 20% of the total cruise fare.

I would have done the same thing you did. I did double insurance my next cruise. It is wrong that we have to do this but I did take Princess's policy out for cancel for any reason and also Allianz for normal stuff. This whole thread you started reinforced why I did this.

 

Sorry it took Princess so long to come to the right conclusion but glad they are. Please report back when you are contacted by Princess with what they will cover.

[Coral]

1 minute ago, ed01106 said:

Before I declare it generous.  I want to hear the details.  If those who canceled early get the same compensation as those who waited I will praise them.  If cruisers are offered a partial FCC not so much.

They are in a PR nightmare right now. I hope they do the right thing.

[gvre]

10 minutes ago, Coral said:

I would have done the same thing you did. I did double insurance my next cruise. It is wrong that we have to do this but I did take Princess's policy out for cancel for any reason and also Allianz for normal stuff. This whole thread you started reinforced why I did this.

 

Sorry it took Princess so long to come to the right conclusion but glad they are. Please report back when you are contacted by Princess with what they will cover.

We had no trip insurance only medical. So we had to pay all cancellation fees out of pocket including air.

 

[Coral]

2 minutes ago, gvre said:

We had no trip insurance only medical. So we had to pay all cancellation fees out of pocket including air.

 

Correct - just making a suggestion for your next Diamond cruise. It is overkill and we shouldn't have to.

 

One can be creative and book Princess for cancel for any reason and then book 3rd party insurance for air and it will cover medical between during the time.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Coral

[gvre]

2 minutes ago, Coral said:

Correct - just making a suggestion for your next Diamond cruise. It is overkill and we shouldn't have to.

Guess we have been lucky having done 33 cruises. We will consider it with our 4 upcoming cruises

[ed01106]

37 minutes ago, Coral said:

Correct - just making a suggestion for your next Diamond cruise. It is overkill and we shouldn't have to.

 

One can be creative and book Princess for cancel for any reason and then book 3rd party insurance for air and it will cover medical between during the time.

Rather than increase my insurance expense.  My thought is wait for the virus situation to end before booking new cruises.  When I do book my next cruise take into strong consideration the various lines handling of the situation in respect to refunds, etc.  If they did right by their passengers or not.

[julia]

39 minutes ago, gvre said:

We had no trip insurance only medical. So we had to pay all cancellation fees out of pocket including air.

 

Trip insurance or not, these are extraordinary circumstances, and you should NOT be penalized for canceling an "ultimately cancelled" cruise. Plead your case with Princess... and please keep us posted?  Good luck...

[dog]

5 minutes ago, julia said:

Trip insurance or not, these are extraordinary circumstances, and you should NOT be penalized for canceling an "ultimately cancelled" cruise. Plead your case with Princess... and please keep us posted?  Good luck...

Agree to contact Princess and see if they can offer you something. However, when one changes their mind before cruise line cancels there is a penalty. Cancel for any reason insurance is available through Princess. 

[julia]

Yes, fully aware of the standard cancellation policies, but it's not like GRVE just had a "change of heart".  They canceled for one reason only... fear of a deadly virus. Princess should refund all affected pax equally (in this situation), and not penalize those who had the foresight to cancel.

[Coral]

43 minutes ago, ed01106 said:

Rather than increase my insurance expense.  My thought is wait for the virus situation to end before booking new cruises.  When I do book my next cruise take into strong consideration the various lines handling of the situation in respect to refunds, etc.  If they did right by their passengers or not.

Some of us had final payments before "we wait for the virus situation to end and evaluate". This coincides with a celebration date which putting off, wouldn't make sense.

[snowblower]

Just an FYI for those who have family/friends on the Diamond Princess that are being flown to Travis AFB in California.  The flight is Kalitta Air #585, Flying from Haneda (HND) to Travis AFB (SUU) scheduled to depart 1:10 AM Tokyo time.  Landing is scheduled for 4:53 PM PST at Travis.  Flight time is 8h 43m.  They are flying on a Boeing 747-400.  As of this post it appears the flight hasn’t departed Japan (10:00 AM PST/03:00 AM Tokyo Time) which means they are already 2-hours late departing.  I hope they have a safe flight.  Hope this information helps.

Edited February 16, 2020 by snowblower

[ed01106]

Nobody here probably knows the answer but how do they prevent the passengers from not suffering severe dehydration during the evacuation?  

 

Wearing a mask for an hour as you stroll on the deck is not a big deal.  Wearing a mask continuously for a nine hour flight will lead to other issues if you do it without consuming any food or water.  (particularly water) And lowering the mask to eat defeats the purpose of the mask.

 

Anyone know what was done on earlier evacuation flights.  

 

[Maverick61]

10 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

And to clarify, I’m not saying passengers should have been released to go about regular business. I’m saying governments should have stepped in on day 1 and got their people out and into a real quarantine. THAT is why the past 11 days have been for nothing!

 

Really???  Day 1 ???

 

Do you not understand that the authorities are dealing with a new virus and still trying to more fully understand it and how best to counteract it?

 

Do you not understand based on the data known at the time about the virus, the Japanese made the best decision at the time and the quarantine has been effective in what it was designed to do ?

 

Do you not understand the logistics involved in moving people off the ship to their own home countries in a safe manner without putting other people involved at risk?

 

Do you not understand you need to arrange busses, plane,  drivers, pilots, doctors and other medical personnel, suitable housing, etc, etc ?

 

All of this takes a lot of time and planning

[rich_cathybrock]

43 minutes ago, snowblower said:

Just an FYI for those who have family/friends on the Diamond Princess that are being flown to Travis AFB in California.  The flight is Kalitta Air #585, Flying from Haneda (HND) to Travis AFB (SUU) scheduled to depart 1:10 AM Tokyo time.  Landing is scheduled for 4:53 PM PST at Travis.  Flight time is 8h 43m.  They are flying on a Boeing 747-400.  As of this post it appears the flight hasn’t departed Japan (10:00 AM PST/03:00 AM Tokyo Time) which means they are already 2-hours late departing.  I hope they have a safe flight.  Hope this information helps.

Just checking on this.  I cannot locate the flight on any of the normal flight tracking apps. Any idea when or if this has taken off and any notion of where it can be tracked?

 

I am praying for everyone onboard, and soooooo grateful to the US Gov't for finally pulling the trigger to repatriate these folks.  From what I am gathering empirically, it seems Hong Kong and Canada has or shortly will do the same, and Australia has boots on the ground there now, too, and my have identified an isolation facility to presumably do the same. Begs the question where the heck is the UK gov't in this mix?  I watched David Abel's latest video and it's staggering.  Unfair to call the guy "melodramatic" as I have seen on some posts.  I doubt I would be as together as he seems to be staying 13+ days in quarantine in his cabin.

 

Also, so hard to see families torn apart where one member can return while another languishes in hospital in Japan for who-knows-how long.  Just surreal.

[Host CJSKIDS]

There is a great forum on these boards for insurance questions...

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

 

Better yet, Laura placed an announcement the other day that we are fortunate enough to have a topic currently open with Insure my Trip.  It's a perfect place right now to ask questions and get travel insurance answers!

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2479-qa-with-insuremytrip/

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

37 minutes ago, rich_cathybrock said:

Just checking on this.  I cannot locate the flight on any of the normal flight tracking apps. Any idea when or if this has taken off and any notion of where it can be tracked?

 

 

On Flight Aware, select flight CKS 585

Edited February 16, 2020 by Quartzsite Cruiser

[rich_cathybrock]

12 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

On Flight Aware, select flight CKS 585

Thank you @Quartzsite Cruiser! It is listed as "scheduled" and should have taken off 3 hrs. ago.  I hope there isn't a problem.  Just want to see these folks in the wind and on their way home!

 

[dog]

1 minute ago, rich_cathybrock said:

Thank you @Quartzsite Cruiser! It is listed as "scheduled" and should have taken off 3 hrs. ago.  I hope there isn't a problem.  Just want to see these folks in the wind and on their way home!

 

Saw on news they were about to board flight at 4 am Yokohama time. They showed buses and 2 planes. 

[itsallaboutmememe]

1 hour ago, Maverick61 said:

 

Really???  Day 1 ???

 

Do you not understand that the authorities are dealing with a new virus and still trying to more fully understand it and how best to counteract it?

 

Do you not understand based on the data known at the time about the virus, the Japanese made the best decision at the time and the quarantine has been effective in what it was designed to do ?

 

Do you not understand the logistics involved in moving people off the ship to their own home countries in a safe manner without putting other people involved at risk?

 

Do you not understand you need to arrange busses, plane,  drivers, pilots, doctors and other medical personnel, suitable housing, etc, etc ?

 

All of this takes a lot of time and planning

All first world countries will have emergency procedures in place to evacuate its citizens on foreign soil in an emergency.   They may not be able to do it straight away and an unknown virus certainly throws a spammer in the works.

Edited February 16, 2020 by itsallaboutmememe

[mtfasls]

On airportia.com it shows both flights In the air, flight K4585 going to California and K4581 going to Texas

[ed01106]

2 minutes ago, itsallaboutmememe said:

All first world countries will have emergency procedures in place to evacuate its citizens on foreign soil in an emergency.   They may not be able to do it straight away and an unknown virus certainly throws a spammer in the works.

I think with many of those countries they were already maxed out.

 

Sounds like USA, Canada, Uk and Australia are all going to use the space freed up by the first batch getting released.  Until those folks got cleared there was no place for them.  Mixing the two groups would have been dumb.

[timbom]

Believe you are mistaken.  There still is a group in San Antonio and as they just had a case late last week there is some doubt when they will be released next week.  Lackland has lots of extra units though so doubt if they will ever mix.

 

Hud and the Red Cross have been working on these arrangements for some time.  Neighbors close to base are upset about these people being thrust on them without their permission.  Lets hope there will be no more cases. 

[em-sk]

53 minutes ago, ed01106 said:

I think with many of those countries they were already maxed out.

 

Sounds like USA, Canada, Uk and Australia are all going to use the space freed up by the first batch getting released.  Until those folks got cleared there was no place for them.  Mixing the two groups would have been dumb.

 

In the case of Canada, Trenton is the main military logistics air base near Toronto.  The people evacuated out of China were housed at two lodges (Air Force controlled hotels) on the base that would normally have been used for military personal and families in transit through Trenton.   

 

News reports are that the people evacuated from this ship will be housed at Nav Canada run hotel.  Nav Canada operates air traffic control in Canada and it sounds like this is a facility normally used for staff who are undergoing air traffic training.  

 

Both cases it looks to be government or quasi-government controlled facilities. 

Edited February 16, 2020 by em-sk

[Pushka]

3 hours ago, snowblower said:

Just an FYI for those who have family/friends on the Diamond Princess that are being flown to Travis AFB in California.  The flight is Kalitta Air #585, Flying from Haneda (HND) to Travis AFB (SUU) scheduled to depart 1:10 AM Tokyo time.  Landing is scheduled for 4:53 PM PST at Travis.  Flight time is 8h 43m.  They are flying on a Boeing 747-400.  As of this post it appears the flight hasn’t departed Japan (10:00 AM PST/03:00 AM Tokyo Time) which means they are already 2-hours late departing.  I hope they have a safe flight.  Hope this information helps.

Flight aware saying it’s on time which seems a little strange. I wonder if it’s been embargoed from the usual trackers. 

[junglejane]

Flight to Texas (CKS581) just took off.  Flight to California looks to be a few minutes behind.   Trackable on Flightradar24.