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babs135

By babs135,
in Marella Cruises (formerly Thomson)

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Journey99999

Journey99999

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, vwgolf said:

 Yes, I'm really looking forward to spending two weeks sailing around the Caribbean looking at the places that I could have visited. And then not being allowed to disembark when we return to Jamaica. Just needs a hurricane to arrive to top it all off...

ROTFLMAO!! 

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Vitalsign

Vitalsign

Posted
Posted (edited)

Many thanks Pensioncruiser and Jim for your very kind birthday wishes

Just had a lovely meal at Miller & Carter with four friends, two of whom were joining us in Muscat for our cruise from Dubai on Discovery and as they are well under 70 they are very upset that we can't go and they can't cancel as they have no excuse. So they are just praying it gets cancelled now. I'm not going to cancel even though we can't go until much nearer Cruise departure (28 days) in case things change. Definitely glass half full me 🍺 Or even overflowing Really desperate for some sun and sea 🌞🌊

So sorry Pensioncruiser you've had to cancel. Tom & Maris are still in the Philippines and may not get called to Celebration until TUI know where they can sail to so you won't be missing them

 

Edited by Vitalsign
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MX-Drew

MX-Drew

Posted
Posted

FOC advice.

”There are now people infected by coronavirus (COVID-19) in Jamaica. The Jamaican authorities have introduced a number of precautionary measures, including entry restrictions. Only Jamaican citizens, spouses and children of Jamaican citizens and foreign residents of Jamaica travelling from the UK, directly or indirectly, will be allowed to enter.”


Looks like the reposting cruise is affected as that is most of the ports out as things stand at the moment.

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sweby

sweby

Posted
Posted

Does Tui still have a ship using Jamaica as  the home port, or has it left?

 

 As of last night this horrible illness was on several Caribbean islands, St Martin, St Barts, GUADALOUPE, Tobago, Dominican republic, Cuba, and Jamaica. Also heard on news the Braemar was stopping at the Bahamas to take on supplies, but no passengers allowed off, and they have 5 passengers with Covid 19.

Sweby

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bluewater2111

bluewater2111

Posted
Posted

Still Going ahead in the Caribbean according to the phone call to Marella cruises yesterday, though I find this hard to believe right now, I just wished they  would cancel them I can get my head round it.

Surely it's not even viable they'd be do many over 70s cancelling anyway...

It's still available to buy at about 1400 less than we paid for two weeks!!!

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kevinyork

kevinyork

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, bluewater2111 said:

Still Going ahead in the Caribbean according to the phone call to Marella cruises yesterday, though I find this hard to believe right now, I just wished they  would cancel them I can get my head round it.

Surely it's not even viable they'd be do many over 70s cancelling anyway...

It's still available to buy at about 1400 less than we paid for two weeks!!!

They are woefully slow to act and dreadful in updated their website info.  We are discussing it here days before they act or advise people.  The other cruise lines are making widespread cancellations for periods of time.  You don’t think Tui didn’t take out cancellation/pandemic insurance for their ships do you hence the hesitation?

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sweby

sweby

Posted
Posted

What Marella need is government support. is that German or British or both. Ships  have nowhere to go. For peace of mind, right or wrong, people don't want the cruise ships coming into their ports. Marella need to cancel all cruises for a month, to see what happens with the virus. It may, or may not go away. Time  will tell. Sweby

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shot2bits

shot2bits

Posted
Posted (edited)

This could bring a lot of the cruise companies to their knees. Imagine the overheads of keeping a fleet in ports, paying staff, maintenance etc, with no income and millions in refunds. I just wonder who will be the first to go?


Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited by shot2bits
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davecttr

davecttr

Posted
Posted

I was having a delve around the net yesterday and found this

 

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-03-09-individual-response-covid-19-important-government-action

 

from Oxford University and it helps explain what the government are doing. Recognise the graph, or bits of it. It looks just like that 'sombrero' graph from the cobra press conference, however the 'sombrero' did not have the blue line which basically means if you lift the social restrictions the disease comes back - eek

 

Looks like we may be in this for the long run.
 

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kruzseeka

kruzseeka

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, shot2bits said:

This could bring a lot of the cruise companies to their knees. Imagine the overheads of keeping a fleet in ports, paying staff, maintenance etc, with no income and millions in refunds. I just wonder who will be the first to go?


Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I'm sorry to say that I agree - and not just in the short term.  For some time Companies have been going in for huge expansion by building new ships - often twice the size of those they are replacing with the inherent need to attract new customers to fill them.

 

Most on here are regular cruisers and when all settles down (when though?) we will hopefully resume cruising. 

 

But there are other problems:-

I have felt that over-capacity has been on the cards for some time and that eventually they will have trouble filling these megaships. 

Add to that the pressures on ports - there is a limit to how many cruise ships can be accommodated (look at the problems in Venice, the pressure on the cable car in Santorini, the choked streets in Dubrovnik - and so many more).   

And then the issue of pollution raises its head.  There was a very disturbing item on our local news a few days ago about air pollution in a particular location in Southampton down wind (prevailing winds) of the cruise ships whose engines are running all the time they are in port.  The particulates in the air far exceeded the WHO guidelines!  Worrying for people living there. 

 

These forces I feel will put limits on the the expansion of cruise lines in the future.  And have they already got to that point with all the new ships in the pipeline?

 

This current situation can only make things so much worse for them commercially.  As you say having ships lying idle must be crippling for them financially and how long will that last? 

 

Then when they resume operations,  they have to fill far more cabins than a few years ago which means very many more customers are needed.  I think a lot of potential new customers they were hoping to attract will now have pause for thought about cruising as a holiday option.  It will almost certainly slow down the 'conversion' of holidaymakers to cruising. 

 

It's all very depressing and I'd be very sad to see any company fold, but I can't see how all the cruise lines can weather this storm.

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so,ton saint

so,ton saint

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, rodndonna said:

It looks like NCL and RCL have both just announced suspending cruises for the next month. Looks like Marella will soon have the whole ocean to itself ... but nowhere to dock!

 

Hi just arrived home from a stay and cruise in the Caribbean, but with Virgin and Carnival Fascination 14 th march  every one was well and no signs of any of the Island,s as yet being affected, the ship was stopped from Docking in St Lucia three weeks ago because one of the crew members did feel unwell, so went to Dominica in stead and is still missing St Lucia.

the Island,s were

San juan

St Thomas

St Martin

St Kitt,s

Dominica

and Barbados

The last word from Barbados yesterday was from the power,s to be, the island might go into a lock down just to stop it coming in so  will have to wait and see.

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Shipshape?

Shipshape?

Posted
Posted

Friends of ours are currently on the Dream and have just messaged us. They're saying that they had missed their last 2 ports of call (Casablanca & Gibraltar) and have now berthed in Malaga. They are not allowed off the ship and apparently were the last ship allowed into port before 6 others were refused entry and that Dream cruises have been cancelled for the next 2 weeks. Remains to be seen if passengers are allowed off tomorrow to fly home to Britain. 

We are/were supposed to be sailing on the dream on 12th April so still don't know if the Spanish Ports will be open by then

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rodndonna

rodndonna

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, vwgolf said:

Surely the number's up for the Discovery 2 cruises leaving from Jamaica then? No point sailing if people aren't allowed to fly into the country.

 

Yup - this has the be the nail in the coffin for that one (our cruise...) unless they sail with just us Canadians.... can't imagine that but Marella sure have been stubborn.

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MX-Drew

MX-Drew

Posted
Posted
35 minutes ago, Pensioncruiser said:

Not as yet received confirmation or any refund was hoping shot2bits would reply as I think he's got his and was travelling after us in July. 🤔

Probably depends how busy the office is. I had this with Celebrity, I cancelled 2 days before Celebrity cancelled the cruise but they had not processed my cancellation so I got the extra 50% future cruise credit that I should have missed out on.

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