White House meeting with cruise executives

[babydaryl24]

I completely hope they bail out the Cruise Industry and halt all Asia and Italian trips......... Fingers Crossed.. and we get a refund.

[Summerstravel]

Maybe the government can offer some sort of subsidy or extra tax incentives to the airlines and cruise industry, lol

 

 

 

[Buford T Justiice]

40 minutes ago, Summerstravel said:

Maybe the government can offer some sort of subsidy or extra tax incentives to the airlines and cruise industry, lol

 

 

 

 

Two financial incentives I can think of:

 

Allow cruise lines to depreciate ships quicker, and

Open Cuba to cruisers again... these cruises were cash cows

[Lancaster99]

3 hours ago, Summerstravel said:

Maybe the government can offer some sort of subsidy or extra tax incentives to the airlines and cruise industry, lol

 

 

 

I would think it is more likely that they change the itinerary if it involves countries that have high Coronavirus rates.  I doubt they are going to have ships just sitting at a port empty.

[mugtech]

2 hours ago, Buford T Justiice said:

 

Two financial incentives I can think of:

 

Allow cruise lines to depreciate ships quicker, 

What is the current life of a ship for depreciation purposes?  What shorter life would make a difference?

[PhoenixCruiser]

With the parties involved it is probably about the safety of people and having contingency plans, "what if".  

Highly unlikely

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[don't-use-real-name]

4 hours ago, Buford T Justiice said:

 

Two financial incentives I can think of:

 

Allow cruise lines to depreciate ships quicker, and

Open Cuba to cruisers again... these cruises were cash cows

 

In addition to those - - -

Since the US doesn't have any US Flagged ships exception the POA in Hawaii -

Rescind the PVSA restriction and O-P-E-N the possibilities of different ports and destinations ! 

[SpainAlien]

Is it a possibility that they could rescind or suspend the Jones act to allow ships to just cruise around the US?

[babydaryl24]

World O Meter is attributing new cases directly to Venice this morning........ NCL can no longer ignore this.

[Summerstravel]

8 hours ago, mugtech said:

What is the current life of a ship for depreciation purposes?  What shorter life would make a difference?

 

Have no idea what the life of the ship for depreciation is.  lol

I guess shorter life would mean being able to depreciate the ship at a  faster rate;  with more savings on an annual bases vs spread out over time. 

[sayanne]

The primary purpose of the meeting between administration officials and travel vendors - airlines and cruise lines - was/is that the administration wants travel vendors to report passenger information/iteineraries to them. I would not be surprised if Amtrak got pulled into this at some point.

 

I would love to think that this was primarily to have a deliberative and productive conversation about how to handle travel risks, like if a trip landed somewhere that suddenly turned out to be a hot spot. But this administration is not showing anything resembling that kind of thoughtful response. It would be very surprising if that kind of thing was a result.

 

This administration has, however,  shown a continuing interest in reaching into state and privately held records on US citizens to get information for their purposes. This latest meeting is consistent with past behaviors.

[chengkp75]

35 minutes ago, Summerstravel said:

 

Have no idea what the life of the ship for depreciation is.  lol

I guess shorter life would mean being able to depreciate the ship at a  faster rate;  with more savings on an annual bases vs spread out over time. 

Typical depreciation time for a ship is 20 years, but since they don't pay taxes, it becomes a moot point, as far as the US is concerned.

[sayanne]

Just so that people can take a look and make their own decision - here is a web site on the interim rule that CDC issued for airlines about 10 days ago. https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/communicable-diseases-foreign-quarantine.html

 

Airlines are pushing back on this, primarily due to additional workload from what I can tell. 

 

No comparable emergency rule issues for cruise ships, yet, but they want that too.

 

I did reveal my opinion about competence above. But I am not ready to say whether this kind of reporting is a good or a bad idea itself. In the right hands this may be excellent information to have.

Edited March 4, 2020 by sayanne

[MrMike45]

My thoughts is that this meeting is to protect the American travelers, while also figuring a way to lose the least amount of money.  I believe that the parties will come up with a universal temporary cancellation/postponement policy.  Something along the lines of allowing passengers to cancel and re-book, even if past final payment, for a X % amount penalty, standard across all companies (both on sea and in the air) 

Edited March 4, 2020 by MrMike45

[sayanne]

5 minutes ago, MrMike45 said:

My thoughts is that this meeting is to protect the American travelers, while also figuring a way to lose the least amount of money.  I believe that the parties will come up with a universal temporary cancellation/postponement policy.  Something along the lines of allowing passengers to cancel and re-book, even if past final payment, for a X % amount penalty, standard across all companies (both on sea and in the air) 

 

You are far more optimistic than me about how much this meeting will have to do with protecting travelers' financial interests.  Unless you have seen reporting I have not, there is nothing indicating that any consumer advocates will be in the room.

 

But it'd be nice if I were wrong.

[MrMike45]

1 minute ago, sayanne said:

 

You are far more optimistic than me about how much this meeting will have to do with protecting travelers' financial interests.  Unless you have seen reporting I have not, there is nothing indicating that any consumer advocates will be in the room.

 

But it'd be nice if I were wrong.

 

I am being optimistic here.  But given the media frenzy and mass paranoia of this virus, I feel like we might be surprised.  

 

Granted if the X % is say 25%, people might not be happy with it and lose a ton of money for changing their trips.  But I feel the end outcome will be there is an "out" now for anyone who does not feel safe traveling.  

[ColeThornton]

Rumor has it some of the cruise executives have placed towels on the chairs in the Oval Office already to save a spot.

 

Chair hogs.

[sayanne]

12 minutes ago, MrMike45 said:

 

I am being optimistic here.  But given the media frenzy and mass paranoia of this virus, I feel like we might be surprised.  

 

Granted if the X % is say 25%, people might not be happy with it and lose a ton of money for changing their trips.  But I feel the end outcome will be there is an "out" now for anyone who does not feel safe traveling.  

 

IMO the biggest risk the admin faces right now is people coming back and being given more carte blanche than turned out to be wise. We are still seeing people, even after calling the CDC like the woman in Florida, going merrily on their way to mingle due to lack of clear policies about how to contain travelers on their return. Or the mess in San Antonio that left the mayor no choice but to declare a state of emergency to stop the CDC from sending evacuees to a mall, which may have been medically OK but definitely was not a winner for his constituents.

 

I don't see anyone having time to finesse coordinated refund policies until they come up with notification and containment procedures that stop the bleed on stories like this.

 

As a traveler I would prefer they settle this too, so I know what to expect if I return from an area that has gotten hot. Right now I have no idea what to plan for.

[Level six]

4 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

Rumor has it some of the cruise executives have placed towels on the chairs in the Oval Office already to save a spot.

 

Chair hogs.

 

OMG, this has been the only thing that has made me laugh out loud on CC in months.  Good job.  

[graphicguy]

I can guarantee whatever is being discussed at the White House will have nothing good for those of us who like to cruise.

[mking8288]

IMHO, the WH meeting this weekend is more about keeping cruise ships safely out of harm's way in US waters and port facilities, and maybe using them as surge facilities if/when cruiselines are instructed, on command, to sideline their idle ships ... unlike aircrafts that are parked overseas as flight schedules are cut drastically.  Floating ships had been used in large scale "disasters" to house first responders and others, as FEMA and DHF/CDC can and do have plans to set up decon facilities to handle it as a CBRN incident.

 

For cruise ship passengers look for US government aid and relief for last minute changes in plans, I won't bother holding my breath at all - CFAR and if you are in a high-risk age/health cohort or categories, do what you feel is a must - not worth the monetary losses or be prepared to taking calculated risks.  I'm with the "clusters" that said, don't expect anything great to come up for "us" - I've rather be proven wrong & otherwise, pleasantly surprised, just not going to bet on it.

 

BTW, since I'm part of NYC's Medical Reserve, just had an unscheduled "Emergency Notifications Drill" yesterday (normally planned ahead on a quarterly basis) to test member responses, so it's another indication of how the Dept of Health in NY is looking at the clinical trends.  Our last mobilization was for Sandy in 2012 - this might be next - to report in.  AND, you read about it here first - just received, 30 minutes ago, from NYHMH Alert - 2020 Health Alert #3 for Health Alert Network (HAN) Subscribers - that 2 NYC Residents is now confirmed, diagnosed with COVID-19 ... this will (breaking news) be added to the 6 cases reported on CNN & other news network this morning for NY State.   NYC DOH labs is now authorized to conduct the rRT-PCR testing approved for quicker
"in-house" results without sending it to CDC facilities.  

 

Exercise common sense, frequent hand wash, it's not necessary to run around with surgical masks nor N95 masks (one has to be fit-tested) & use them as part of PPE and dispose them properly when worn in designated area (we trained for it).  

 

Back on the WH efforts, unless it is an inter-agency large scale coordinated efforts to respond to the threats posed, more of a PR show-n-tell for the media, just IMHO.