Grand Cayman closing 60 days to cruise ships

[screenname2004]

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Not for the cruise lines either as it would be a violation of the PVSA

True but can they not ask for waivers?

[Ourusualbeach]

2 minutes ago, screenname2004 said:

True but can they not ask for waivers?

They could but that’s out of their hands, they are still relying on someone else. 

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Absolutely.  Look at China, they are now reporting next to nothing for new cases and I bet it’s still over a month or more (optimistic) before cruises resume there. 

I'm always a bit suspect of what China reports out to the rest of the world.

[Mark_UK]

The problem with China's low numbers (assuming they are accurate) are that once life resumes there the virus will be back. It's now in 190+ countries with 10k cases a day - containment isn't an option until a vaccine is developed. People have been in quarantine so there is no 'herd immunity' out there. 

 

I think we may end up having to accept this thing if we want life to resume to some level of normality. 

[LMaxwell]

Does anyone know what ship disembarked a heart attack patient on 2/29 to Grand Cayman ?  That person was test 3/9 and became confirmed positive on 3/12 .  Patient 1 in Grand Cayman came off a cruise ship 

[PrincessPatti]

1 hour ago, LMaxwell said:

Does anyone know what ship disembarked a heart attack patient on 2/29 to Grand Cayman ?  That person was test 3/9 and became confirmed positive on 3/12 .  Patient 1 in Grand Cayman came off a cruise ship 

It was the Caribbean Princess.  Sadly, he passed away this morning.  His wife is still quarantined here on Island.

[mugtech]

3 hours ago, rtazz17 said:

Your not guaranteed a port. They can stay out to sea

Was it not in the last couple years that cruises to nowhere were eliminated from US ports?

[Baowen]

I just checked the Port of Seattle website and they are only posting the cancellation of the first cruises not until July 1st, but I  do see that as a possibility with Canada closing ports and the Jones Act requirements.

[tinatark]

5 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

Does anyone know what ship disembarked a heart attack patient on 2/29 to Grand Cayman ?  That person was test 3/9 and became confirmed positive on 3/12 .  Patient 1 in Grand Cayman came off a cruise ship 

 

4 hours ago, PrincessPatti said:

It was the Caribbean Princess.  Sadly, he passed away this morning.  His wife is still quarantined here on Island.

The 68-year-old man, who was taken to the East End facility off the cruise ship Costa Luminosa on 29 Feb. for urgent cardic care, was being treated in isolation at the tertiary care facility’s Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU).

[PrincessPatti]

2 hours ago, tinatark said:

 

The 68-year-old man, who was taken to the East End facility off the cruise ship Costa Luminosa on 29 Feb. for urgent cardic care, was being treated in isolation at the tertiary care facility’s Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU).

Apologies if I got the ship incorrect.   I was going by what was in our newspaper. 

[LMaxwell]

10 hours ago, PrincessPatti said:

Apologies if I got the ship incorrect.   I was going by what was in our newspaper. 

Yes it has been hard to find the source; someone else had also said Caribbean Princess, you are the not the first.  But on that date I think it was back from one of its shortened "norovirus" cruises.  

[Biker19]

https://www.cruisehive.com/grand-cayman-bans-cruise-ships-until-2021/41128

 

 

The acting Port Authority Director Joseph Woods has confirmed that the current ban on cruise ships will be extended to December 31, 2020. This follows the previous extension through October 1, 2020.

 

Yesterday, Woods issued a notice to its cruise industry partners which said “I wish to inform you that after careful consideration, the Cayman Islands Government has taken the decision that in the current global environment with respect to the coronavirus pandemic, it cannot allow the resumption of cruise tourism in the Cayman Islands for the immediate future. The Cayman Islands will therefore be closed for cruise tourism until the 31st December 2020.”

 

 

Even though there was a recent decision to ban cruise ships through October 1 the government has constantly been monitoring developments and the spread of COVID-19. The United States has especially seen a huge increase in cases which has ultimately pushed the Caribbean nation to extend the ban once again.

[mac_tlc]

I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t let a ship in that came from the U.S.

 

mac_tlc

[Biker19]

The Premier of the Cayman Islands, Alden McLaughlin, has stated that he does not foresee the return of cruise ships to the islands in 2021.

 

“The cruise ship business is not really within our contemplation at this stage,” he said during the Q&A session at the press briefing on Jan. 7.

 

McLaughlin referred to cruise ships as “crucibles” for the coronavirus and said he does not think cruising will resume on a “significant level” before 2022.

 

“I think we would have to be satisfied that the world was in a very different place in terms of safety-related to the coronavirus before we would even consider having the cruise ships come here. They’ve demonstrated that they are really crucibles for the virus because of the way people have to live in such confined spaces and in such close contact with each other,” McLaughlin said.

 

Previously, Cayman authorities extended its cruise ban through Dec. 31, 2020.

 

No Cruise Tourism to Cayman Islands Before 2022 – Government - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News

[BSocial]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

The Premier of the Cayman Islands, Alden McLaughlin, has stated that he does not foresee the return of cruise ships to the islands in 2021.

 

“The cruise ship business is not really within our contemplation at this stage,” he said during the Q&A session at the press briefing on Jan. 7.

 

 

Thanks for the link,.   This is discouraging.   
 

[smokeybandit]

Cayman is probably one of the few Caribbean countries that can afford to do this

[MADflyer]

5 hours ago, Biker19 said:

The Premier of the Cayman Islands, Alden McLaughlin, has stated that he does not foresee the return of cruise ships to the islands in 2021.

 

 

On an interesting side note, RCI just booked Grandeur of the Seas at Gran Cayman for a single call on May 4th, 2023. It would seem to be a transition sailing where they are moving the ship from possible New Orleans to another US port. 

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, MADflyer said:

 It would seem to be a transition sailing where they are moving the ship from possible New Orleans to another US port

or to a new owner.

[TheMastodon]

On 3/14/2020 at 5:28 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

Absolutely.  Look at China, they are now reporting next to nothing for new cases and I bet it’s still over a month or more (optimistic) before cruises resume there. 

If China says it - must be true!!

[Ourusualbeach]

5 minutes ago, TheMastodon said:

If China says it - must be true!!

Quoting a post that is from last March????🤣

[TheMastodon]

37 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Quoting a post that is from last March????🤣

Yes! 

[PrincessPatti]

The first case of reported COVID came from the cruise ship passenger.  I am sure that COVID was here well before then, but they associate COVID with cruise ships.  Thank goodness that we have not had community transmission in quite some time.  All our recent cases are from people returning to the Island.

 

Fingers crossed they open the airport to tourism in March as the Premier stated.

[Biker19]

The Cayman Islands is thinking about cutting the amount of cruise tourism allowed to visit the popular cruise port at Grand Cayman. The island has already discussed the banning of cruise ships entirely from the islands for 2021.

 

The British overseas territory has also announced it will not be proceeding with building a cruise port in the island group’s capital Georgetown. The announcement will likely not be welcomed by the cruise lines. In 2019, four cruise lines, MSC, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Disney, all committed to financing a cruise dock in Georgetown.

 

Living Without Cruise Tourism

 

The building of a cruise dock had initially been met with enthusiasm by the local government. Premier Alden McLaughlin commented that the cruise lines’ money would be welcome as no public funding would be spent. A little under two years later, that sentiment has been changed entirely.

 

The cruise port plan has been petitioned by a group of locals, which has led to the need for a referendum; the government has taken measures in its own hands and canceled the cruise port from being built.

 

The current pandemic has shown the islands have managed to survive, thrive in some cases, without millions of cruise passengers passing through the islands each year. Instead, the island will be looking to put a cap on the number of visitors that can come to the islands by cruise ship. Cruise travel would not be entirely banned, according to Premier McLaughlin in the Cayman Compas:

“We cap the numbers so that our current system can accommodate them in a better way, and the experience for those who do visit can be better.”

Residents and business owners have expressed that they did not want “to go back to a large number of visitors” that Cayman had played host to in recent years. In 2019, more than 1.83 million cruise ship passengers visited Grand Cayman.

Diversifying Tourism

The Cayman Islands are a British overseas territory made up of three islands: Cayman Brac, Grand Cayman, and Little Cayman. The islands saw around 1.83 million cruise passengers in 2019, with January being the busiest month with 271.000 visitors. The Cayman Islands are one of the top earners in the Caribbean for cruise earnings.

 

For the 2017/2018 cruise season, the cruise line generated passenger spending in the islands amounted to $224.5 million. The cruise lines themselves spent $34.9 million in the Cayman Islands during the 2017/2018 cruise year for port fees, taxes, navigation, provisions, and supplies.

 

Although the islands want to cut down on cruise tourism, they will now focus on diversifying the tourism that visits the islands, focusing on medical tourism.

 

Cruise Tourism Not Likely In 2022

Despite the government’s plans, it seems unlikely that cruises will be returning to the Cayman Islands this year. The premier stated last year it would likely be banning cruise travel to its shores:

“Cruise is not on our radar at all at this stage. We would have to be satisfied that the world was in a very different place in terms of safety-related to COVID-19 before we would even consider having the cruise ships come here. Honestly, I don’t see cruise tourism resuming on any significant level before next year.”

It seems that the words of the premier have not reached the cruise lines just yet as cruises to the Cayman Islands are still available this year with Royal Caribbean, MSC Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line.

 

Key West has already taken similar steps as the Cayman Islands is proposing. Although there is no denying the cruise lines perform a precious economic service to the Caribbean islands, this does come at a cost.

 

 

Small islands do sometimes struggle with the effects cruise tourism has on the islands themselves. If the Cayman Islands continue on this path, it will be interesting to see what other Caribbean destinations will be doing.

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/cayman-islands-thinks-about-cutting-cruise-tourism/47358

[Jimbo]

Face it, no one wants cruise passengers being dropped off in their country. I think we all have to look for other options for our vacations and spending our money on other things. Cruising is doomed !

[Ocean Boy]

Cayman seems to be going in the direction of adopting the stance that Bermuda used to have years ago regarding cruise ships.