Coronavirus

[vwgolf]

This is interesting. Isn't Valetta the home port of many a cruise ship, including some of the Marella fleet? It surely can't be long until Marella follow many other cruise lines and allow people to cancel with the offer of a credit against future cruises.

 

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/coronavirus-doctors-threaten-industrial-action-if-cruise-ship-docks-in.776117

[Vitalsign]

Insidecabin.   "I think they don't include them in the far east search as it points out early booking will empty your wallet"  - was this meant as humour? Not sure but I found it funny

If you book now it's certainly a good deal Didn't look at next winters Far East cruises

 

The cruises I quoted were available by choosing Far East and 8/14 days on the normal select a cruise page not the deals page for March 2020

[Vitalsign]

Vwgolf. Marella do not use Valletta as a home port but it is a port stop on some of their itineraries although as you say other cruise lines do use it as a home port. 

I menioned Valletta as a replacement home port for Naples in an earlier post but this looks unlikely now after reading your link.

we cruise from Aqaba to Palma with only 2 stops  - Messina and Valletta end of April so this now looks unlikely maybe Crete and Minorca instead?

Being positive just booked Dream today for Western Med end of June which has one call in Italy which will probably change and other ports in France Spain and Corsica- what a deal Under £1000 for deluxe outside and select your seats - although the offer of money off has disappeared from the website for this cruise I had a £100 discount voucher given to us on the plane at Christmas which I was able to use

I sympathise with any cruiser who has underlying health problems and is worried about Coronovirus The other thing is if you cancel your cruise where do you book to go then when you're desperately in need of a holiday?

Luckily although me and hubby are both 70 we are well so we're taking the chance

[rkingphoto]

Some of Marella's ships are registered in Valleta, I think this is what is meant by "home port".

[bluewater2111]

Due to go on the holiday of a lifetime on 23 March round Barbados for 2 weeks, just afraid they will lockdown and we'll be stuck i the cabin and bound to get it!

[Pensioncruiser]

9 minutes ago, bluewater2111 said:

Due to go on the holiday of a lifetime on 23 March round Barbados for 2 weeks, just afraid they will lockdown and we'll be stuck i the cabin and bound to get it!

Completely understand your feelings, the Caribbean is a fantastic area to cruise and it must be very unsettling for you. Nothing anyone can say will help so just hope everything works out for you. Just try to enjoy and not worry about what ifs. 🤞🤞🤞

[Alijaysau]

I completely understand, but in my honest opinion, I think the Caribbean is one of the safest places to go at the moment. 
It’s the Med & Far East that’s the issue at the moment. 

I’m due to go to the Greek islands on May 29 and they have closed schools and universities this week.   Zante one of the islands on our itinerary is also affected. 
Go and enjoy your trip of a lifetime. 

 

[Vitalsign]

I didn't  think home port meant  the port of registry. I thought Home Port meant where they pick passengers up during the winter/summer season I.e. Montego Bay, Barbados, Malaga, Palma, Naples, Corfu, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Langkawi and Laem Chabang

All Marella ships are registered in Valletta except one which is Hamilton I believe

[Pensioncruiser]

According to the latest info from cc we can no longer comment if we are not on the same cruise as the poster😳 why. If they are asking surely its not wrong to help. This post will probably be removed. 

[MX-Drew]

15 minutes ago, Pensioncruiser said:

According to the latest info from cc we can no longer comment if we are not on the same cruise as the poster😳 why. If they are asking surely its not wrong to help. This post will probably be removed. 

I thought it said not to post in a roll call if you were not on that sailing.

This should be ok (in my opinion) as it is a general discussion and not a roll call.

[rkingphoto]

That was my understanding too, Roll Calls only.

[Pensioncruiser]

Yes you are correct😟

[TheTraveller23]

Tui are keeping a tight lip regarding our cruise in May which docks at Livorno and Naples (the first having confirmed cases of the coronavirus and the latter having been recently "fumigated" against it)

 

Livorno and Naples both currently have 0 excursions available on our TUI excursion planner.

 

If nothing changes on the excursions front, it will be due to advice TUI have received from the locations, so if they fail to relay that information to us as the passengers (prior to boarding) we will not be impressed.

 

At this point in time I fully expect to board the ship with no further communication from TUI regarding the trip, which will result in the crew politely telling passengers that they will be unable to disembark at Livorno due to coronavirus and that Naples is also off-limits (or may be partially accessible, but extensive travel beyond the city limits is not recommended)

 

Or something to that extent, although a lot can change in the next month or so, TUI are running a business so are looking to judge the situation nearer the time.

Hopefully no one has a cruise in the next week or two to these destinations, as they don't seem interested in providing refunds or changes to holidays unless the FCO recommends against it, which is poor considering TUI have no excursions available for 2 of the 5 city ports.

Edited March 7, 2020 by TheTraveller23

[bluewater2111]

12 hours ago, Alijaysau said:

I completely understand, but in my honest opinion, I think the Caribbean is one of the safest places to go at the moment. 
It’s the Med & Far East that’s the issue at the moment. 

I’m due to go to the Greek islands on May 29 and they have closed schools and universities this week.   Zante one of the islands on our itinerary is also affected. 
Go and enjoy your trip of a lifetime. 

 

 

It's difficult as it's kind of tainting my excitement I just hope tui are on the ball with all of this, obviously they don't people cancelling but I am betting a lot of people who can afford to lose the money won't go.

 

I have tried calling Barclays travel insurance which we pay each month just to see what we are covered for and I was waiting 30 minutes so gave up, imagine paying £1 a minute in the Caribbean which is what giffgaff charge!!

 

 

[insidecabin]

 

On 3/6/2020 at 4:10 PM, Vitalsign said:

Insidecabin.   "I think they don't include them in the far east search as it points out early booking will empty your wallet"  - was this meant as humour? Not sure but I found it funny

If you book now it's certainly a good deal Didn't look at next winters Far East cruises

 

The cruises I quoted were available by choosing Far East and 8/14 days on the normal select a cruise page not the deals page for March 2020

 

I see if you use the search you get them if you use the main page Asia deals link they don't show the rest of this season 2019/2020, they start Dec 2020 £1,869pp Dec 2019 came down to 

 

the wording was to try to inject a bit of humour to a quite serious point about the high prices and how Marella discount the closer the cruise gets, both the last 2 far east seasons they start over £2kpp then drop with codes and discounts under £1,500 was possible with plenty of options and closer to sale date they go under £1,200, if really flexible and hung on under £1k happened a couple of times in the week before sailing

Edited March 8, 2020 by insidecabin

[Vitalsign]

After today's news from Italy very doubtful TUI will sail Discovery 2 from Naples this summer It's only a few weeks away from the May start Surely they should be advising of changes now

[helengp]

Yes I too am getting increasingly worried about our Naples cruise in May. I really don't want them to cancel it, but as we booked it specifically as it visited Venice, which is now under quarantine, I am wondering what they are going to do.....and if Easyjet cancel our flights to Naples, we will struggle to get to Naples anyway.

Interesting times....but isolating everyone and shutting up shop seems a bit ridiculous really. This is a virus...it won't suddenly disappear and will be here for good. Vaccine very many months away, so do we continue with these measures for months and months and months? 

[sweby]

We are now wondering about our land based holiday booked for June to Crete. Just in the last couple of weeks the numbers across Europe have been rising,and the number of countries affected. Doctors,  Scientist coming on the news discussing what happens if thousand die in the UK and how we would cope. I have  gone from thinking it was something that affected few outside  China,so travel was OK,to thinking it is now global, it is highly contagious and there is a real possibility that  should I come into contact with someone who has it, even a mild case of it, then given my age and underlying health problems I might be considered a higher risk than some. 

Also worried that some of these European countries will be slow to close down potential holiday resorts and lose big money. Even in this country we don't want schools to close, because of the knock on effect on the economy. 

I  think this might be the  summer to stay at home and enjoy the back garden. We need to make our decision by mid week , I think at the very least we will postpone.

Sweby

[Pensioncruiser]

26 minutes ago, sweby said:

I  think this might be the  summer to stay at home and enjoy the back garden. We need to make our decision by mid week , I think at the very least we will postpone.

Our feelings exactly we have to pay our final balance next week but have been informed by our TA that we can delay for two weeks max, which does tie in with the cancellation policy and the situation may change allowing us to claim on our insurance, they have however offered to transfer the booking to a future date for £50pp, this is normally classed a cancellation, just wished we could be like others and not worry about the consequences but at our age it is a concern and you always have next year, hopefully. 😞

Edited March 8, 2020 by Pensioncruiser

[kruzseeka]

17 hours ago, helengp said:

Yes I too am getting increasingly worried about our Naples cruise in May. I really don't want them to cancel it, but as we booked it specifically as it visited Venice, which is now under quarantine, I am wondering what they are going to do.....and if Easyjet cancel our flights to Naples, we will struggle to get to Naples anyway.

Interesting times....but isolating everyone and shutting up shop seems a bit ridiculous really. This is a virus...it won't suddenly disappear and will be here for good. Vaccine very many months away, so do we continue with these measures for months and months and months? 

 

The problem with Covid-19 is that it a new mutation to which the population worldwide has no immunity.  That is why the numbers of infections are so high and will get worse as it takes hold in each country it appears. The numbers grow exponentially - slowish to start with as numbers are small but rising quickly as more are infected and each one potentially spreading the infection to many others before they realise they have it. Numbers then rise very quickly.   Measures to contain this will help but opportunities for contamination and transmission are high.  This isn't scare mongering but the facts of how contagious diseases spread.

Thankfully we are told most people will not be too ill but certainly older people are more at risk. Being on a cruise ship contains the infection from the world outside, but not from others on the ship.  Consequently new advice is that cruising is not advisable at present.

However, things will get better - as more people acquire immunity, the spread will slow down as there are fewer hosts for the virus.  Hopefully too a vaccine will be available before too long - well perhaps not in the next few months but eventually.  Then it will be like many other viruses, present in the community but not causing an epidemic. 

Then the situation will be very different and we should be able to return to 'normality' in terms of our holidays but I think you are quite right to say it will be months before things settle down again.

But in the meantime, like many others we are cancelling our forthcoming cruise and hoping to keep well and look forward to being able to resume cruising when this situation is under control.

I hope you manage to get to Venice if not this time, sometime in the future.  It's a magical city.

[bluewater2111]

All good advice ....

 

However we can't cancel now, we have to go and sadly it's tainted and I can't get excited because of the Coronavirus.

 

I can't get through to my insurers in the UK so I doubt my phone would even work in the Caribbean, let alone wifi.

 

My worry is being stuck in a cabin without any idea what's going off, I am almost afraid to touch anything reading that that virus can live for 9 days on some surfaces.

 

That said, we will go and hopefully have an amazing time without being ill hoping I can stop being paranoid and relax a bit, that's the idea anyway, I've looked forward to this for months, going to work in the cold  dark mornings, de-icing the car, coming home in the dark and this has kept me going.

[davecttr]

This is the advice from the US State Department posted yesterday

 

"U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship.  CDC notes increased risk of infection of COVID-19 in a cruise ship environment. In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, many countries have implemented strict screening procedures that have denied port entry rights to ships and prevented passengers from disembarking.  In some cases, local authorities have permitted disembarkation but subjected passengers to local quarantine procedures.  While the U.S. government has evacuated some cruise ship passengers in recent weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for U.S. citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities.  

This is a fluid situation.  CDC notes that older adults and travelers with underlying health issues should avoid situations that put them at increased risk for more severe disease.  This entails avoiding crowded places, avoiding non-essential travel such as long plane trips, and especially avoiding embarking on cruise ships.  Passengers with plans to travel by cruise ship should contact their cruise line companies directly for further information and continue to monitor the Travel.state.gov website and see the latest information from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/index.html"

 

We could see cruises essentially suspended for some time as other countries bring in serious response measures

[kruzseeka]

35 minutes ago, bluewater2111 said:

All good advice ....

 

However we can't cancel now, we have to go and sadly it's tainted and I can't get excited because of the Coronavirus.

 

I can't get through to my insurers in the UK so I doubt my phone would even work in the Caribbean, let alone wifi.

 

My worry is being stuck in a cabin without any idea what's going off, I am almost afraid to touch anything reading that that virus can live for 9 days on some surfaces.

 

That said, we will go and hopefully have an amazing time without being ill hoping I can stop being paranoid and relax a bit, that's the idea anyway, I've looked forward to this for months, going to work in the cold  dark mornings, de-icing the car, coming home in the dark and this has kept me going.

 

I do understand and sympathise with the situation you find yourself in.  You're between a rock and a hard place!

So far the Caribbean doesn't seem to have been mentioned much so hopefully you'll be ok and your cruise will be problem free.  Good luck. 

[MX-Drew]

I'm not sure of you get this. The idea behind "isolating everyone and shutting up shop" is not to stop the spread of the virus but to DELAY the spread thus giving more time for the scientists to develop a vaccine.

Also with the delay will come warmer weather in the UK and Europe which should also help stop the spread of the virus.

[helengp]

MXDRew.....I do get why we need to slow the spread...obviously! But my point is, that as this virus won't fizzle out, will be with us for good, and a vaccine is a long way off, how long could we sustain the isolation/shutting up shop scenario? The economic cost is going to be huge.....many many people will see their jobs disappear, businesses will fail, and so on, so my point is maybe we need to not be so draconian in our response and try to balance better economic need with that of health. I just don't see shutting everything down for months as a viable option.