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Azamara Cruisers - How are things where YOU are


Grandma Cruising
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Across Cruise Critic forums, members have been sharing their experiences during these unprecedented times - telling us how life is for them in their locality, so we thought it might be a good idea to set up such a topic within the various cruise line ‘communities’.

Please post here to let us all know how things are for you.

 

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In the UK those of us over 70 and/or with underlying health issues have been advised to self-isolate. As we’re in both groups, we’re doing so. Instead of going to the gym 3 times a week we now go out for a walk in the countryside. We won’t see our family tomorrow (Mother’s Day in the UK) or over Easter, when we usually all get together with egg hunts for the grand-children.

 

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Bill and I came off the Journey in Sydney on Feb. 23rd, and a friend flew in from Canada to join us the next day for a five-week independent tour of Australia. On March 29, they were to fly home and I was to return to New Zealand for two more weeks.

We kept moving along our itinerary, always ahead of things going wonky (Sydney, Adelaide, McClaren Vale, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Ayers Rock/Uluru, Alice Springs and Darwin.) As of late last week, Air Canada had announced that it would be suspending most int’l flights on March 31st. As the March 29th departure from Brisbane showed no changes, we were not overly worried - although we should have...

Yesterday, they decided to stop the flights from Brisbane on March 28th. Instead of ‘reprotecting’ the passengers through still available itineraries, they advised us (by text msg) that they were keeping the full value of the two tickets ($4,000) as “future credit”. The remaining flights each day all of this week were still showing available late yesterday and being sold at $5,000-$7,000 each, as was the available Air Canada routing through Sydney on the 29th. To add insult to injury: to apply the $4,000 “credit”, it had to be done through the impossible-to-reach call center! The kicker: they would only issue credit, not reimburse what would have been paid today, if those new flights were also cancelled. They stood to easily keep $20,000 of ours in “future credit”, had we been foolish enough to purchase these new tickets from Brisbane, or the ones from Sydney.
Price-gouging AND highway robbery at the same time!!

As for my flights through Auckland, I had to pay an additional $500 for my Premium Economy ticket to move it forward to April 1st as a straight-through transit, when NZ imposed restrictions on my ability to stay last week. Then yesterday, I also found out that my transit was also forbidden and my $2,500 ticket is now useless. Air New Zealand is also going to keep the full value of my Premium Economy ticket as a “future credit”.

Our first morning in Darwin began with the realization that we were probably screwed by now. So, my entire day was spent looking for alternate flights for 3 people.
I could only route tickets to Vancouver, not to our final city. Eventually I found a truly horrid routing (over 60hrs!) to get us from Darwin to Vancouver, leaving Wednesday and arriving Friday. We don’t even know if upon our arrival in Vancouver, we will be allowed to continue to Ottawa.

We’d already decided that instead of going to our respective homes, we would self-quarantine together - whenever we do make it home.

As for our Australia trip, it’s been interesting. Sydney was the only place that we had been worried of exposure. We had just left Adelaide when the city went a bit mad during the start of The Great Toilet Paper Scramble (I’ve kept a spare roll in my luggage since.) Because of having a rental car, social distancing had not been difficult to maintain. Our B&B hosts on the Great Ocean Road told us that with the numbers of tourists down, there had not been a fatality on that drive for weeks. For most of what we’ve been doing, there are no crowds anywhere, and maybe a few more people around, if any. In one animal sanctuary, we were mobbed by kangaroos as we were the only ones there. The domestic flights to Ayers Rock, then Alice Springs to Darwin, were mostly empty with the passengers spread out. There were no tour buses, and very few people at Uluru. We had a car in Ayers Rock, and have one in Darwin too.
We’ve been eating in mostly, and although grocery shelves can be spottily empty, we’ve always managed well up to now. People are more conscious of their actions - waiting for the next elevator, instead of getting on with strangers, getting take-out, etc..

One thing that I’ve noticed, and really appreciate, is that in the few line-ups that we’ve been in, people are more spread out, with eye contact made to acknowledge each person’s place in the “queue” - I wish that it was that civil all of the time!

Until Wednesday’s flight to Melbourne (to start our long journey home - we hope), we have decided to relax and enjoy what we were hoping to do. In a major way, we feel actually much safer here in the Northern Territory, than we will at home and on the journey home. 

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I’ve just been looking at news items and seen that lots of people seem to be totally ignoring government advice that everyone should be practising social distancing. There are stories of crowds turning up at seaside towns and at local beauty spots and of pubs and cafes being open despite the government telling them to close.

 It seems to me that people are just not taking this seriously enough. Maybe we’ll end up having to have the sort of lock down they have in Italy & France.  

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We live in Westchester County, NY, the epicenter of the outbreak in the USA.   As of a couple of days ago, we are under a "Stay at Home" order.  Most everything is shut down around here,  but since we have not been out and about, we know that more from the news than first hand observation.   Our local condo community is pulling together to help neighbors who need assistance.   We hope and pray that the emergency supplies promised by our federal government will make it to where it is needed in NY ASAP so that our healthcare workers can stay safe while they put themselves on the front lines of this crisis.

 

My DH has his 70th birthday today (mine was last August) so we "celebrated" by going for a 3 mile walk around our condo development and we will cook a nice Italian dinner, polished off with a big slice of chocolate layer cake that was in the freezer.

 

We are pretty well supplied with food and necessities and expect we can stay out of the stores for at least 7 weeks, so that's what we plan to do as our part in mitigation.   We are also fortunate that a year ago someone moving out of our community had an almost new treadmill and elliptical for sale, so we bought them.   We also have free weights, mats, a spinning bike and a martial arts punching dummy (good for taking out the frustrations on 😁) so it's a nicely equipped home gym.  Now we also have a very clean house and will start to go through the closets 🙁 and the piled up magazines, and sort through those travel photos I never got to, etc., etc.

 

The sun is shining here today and we are grateful for all that we have in life.   But we think about the large and wonderful immigrant community in our town and wonder how they will fare in this crisis.    We think about people around the world, in the countries our June cruises have on their schedule - France, Spain and Italy - and we wonder what life will be like for them.  And we think of the many places we have been fortunate to visit over the years.  As economies struggle around the globe, we wonder what life will be like at the end of the tunnel.   We hope this will all sort itself out in good order, sooner than later.    But in the big picture, we hope we come through this with good health and a reasonable lifestyle going forward.   While it is hard to think about now, if we are fortunate, travel will be a part of that future

 

May you all stay safe and healthy.  This is our wish for everyone.  

-  Marilyn and Pete

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We’re on the Pursuit (a healthy ship) somewhere off the west coast of South America, north of Lima. Our 21 day cruise was supposed to end today in Lima. We missed most of our ports, and our destination is now Miami. Our debark date is tentatively scheduled for March 30, but that is dependent on when we can transit the Panama Canal. We are being entertained, well fed, and well hydrated 🤣. Life onboard everyday is like life onboard on a normal sea day. Captain Carl has told all of us that no one will be stranded! No one will leave the ship without having flight arrangement to get home. Kudos to Azamara.

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We’ve had some bad news. Our son-in-law hasn’t been feeling well for a few days - temperature, fatigue, back ache. He has asthma and over the last few days has been feeling breathless, despite using his inhaler every couple of hours. He contacted the emergency number and spoke to a doctor who said he should go to Accident & Emergency at the local hospital for a coronavirus test. (In the UK at present we’re only testing those who are ill enough to be in hospital). He was admitted after an X-ray and blood tests and has been given oxygen. They did the test for Coronavirus, but won’t know the results for 24 hours or so. I just heard they’re sending him home & of course he’s quarantined until he has the result, along with my daughter & 2 grandsons. He’s also on antibiotics ‘cos the X-ray showed some infection on his chest which they said could either be what’s caused his illness, or could be as a result of the virus, if he has it.

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I’m so sorry, HGC. Hoping for your SIL’s speedy recovery. Here in Vermont, in northern New England, all schools, restaurants, bars, gyms, salons, theaters, and gatherings of over 10 people have been suspended. Number of cases is increasing daily and those that can are encouraged to work remotely or self isolate if elderly or have an underlying medical condition. I work for my State’s Health Department, so it is “all hands on deck”, but my DH has been holed up at home and at work we have been practicing social distancing and online meetings online, etc. What a world.

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24 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

He’s home now, but feeling exhausted and just waiting for his test result.


How extremely stressful this must be

for your family. Hoping that his condition improves.

 

Thanks for drawing attention to the very personal nature of the conditions we face.

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In New Zealand we are about to go into a total lockdown with only essential businesses staying open. Schools have just closed, and all cafes, bars, public places etc. We are told this will be for at least a month. We suspect our borders will not be opened until there is a vaccine. The sun is shining, we have plenty of food and can only be grateful that at the moment we are all healthy!

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1 hour ago, QueenP said:

In New Zealand we are about to go into a total lockdown with only essential businesses staying open. Schools have just closed, and all cafes, bars, public places etc. We are told this will be for at least a month. We suspect our borders will not be opened until there is a vaccine. The sun is shining, we have plenty of food and can only be grateful that at the moment we are all healthy!

Your restrictions are identical to our lockdown that was announced this evening.  The mother in me aches how will I protect a more vulnerable child, the grandma in me knows she is going to miss out seeing the first month of a little one walking and really starting to talk, but the pragmatist kicks in knowing it  has to be, its the only way to curb this virus and we have to hope when it is over we can seek to live life to the full again

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We’re practicing quasi self-isolation and social distancing as much as possible, while still in Darwin - “self-isolation”  is easier said than done while you are not in your home and do not have access to the same network/resources that can help. We still have to go out to buy food, and went out yesterday to buy books and a puzzle (while the stores are still open.) Today, we have to venture out to a Vodaphone outlet, because we aren’t able to extend our mobile plan past March 31st. We rented a car, in order to still go out driving and to minimize contacts when we have to get food and supplies. I cannot get a prescription med renewal in Darwin, and hope that I may be better able to do this in Sydney.

Strict measures have been put in place in the city and state to protect the Northern Territory population. Although there are now only 5 non-community cases of Covid-19 at present in all of the Territory, it simply means that the epidemic will hit later and harder. In several ways similar to Canada, the indigenous population here is so very, very vulnerable: remote, poor, overcrowded, with grossly inadequate resources in the communities. It’s inevitable that some people in Darwin will be returning to their home communities, when staying in the city becomes too difficult for them.
We started to try to get home well over two weeks ago, btw. We have now bought another set (5th) of outrageously-priced tickets for a flight from Sydney next week (that will probably be cancelled as well.) Now we have to work out how/when to get to Sydney.

The coincidence of our new flights to Canada being scheduled for April 1st is not lost on us...

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7 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

He’s home now, but feeling exhausted and just waiting for his test result.


So sorry to read about your SIL’s illness - it’s so worrisome.

I hope that he turns the bend and gets on the road to recovery soon.

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2 hours ago, snowglobe said:

We started to try to get home well over two weeks ago, btw. We have now bought another set (5th) of outrageously-priced tickets for a flight from Sydney next week (that will probably be cancelled as well.) Now we have to work out how/when to get to Sydney.

Please keep us posted on your progress, snowglobe. Are you working with a TA or doing all this yourself? Are you using ChoiceAir?

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My SIL has his test results and they’re positive - he does have COVID-19.  He got a phone call as he’d been discharged from hospital. They told him that yesterday/today should be his worst days then he should start to get better. In fact he felt a bit better this afternoon and managed to get up and have a shower. My daughter and two grandsons feel fine, so if they have it they have no symptoms. No way of knowing as at present tests are only being given to those in hospital and NHS staff. However they were all told to stay in quarantine until Sunday/Monday - 14 days after his first symptoms - obviously unless any of three of them show symptoms before then, then quarantine would start all over again.

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A little report from my community. So, we had all our fitness centers closed today. Also people are moving towards ordering stuff from the internet, but there is another problem. There arent that many delivery boys these days. Also everyone is practicing contact less delivery. Weird stuff, but at least we can order stuff from home. I am kinda afraid that this may also end some day 

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