How many more times does RCCL suspends cruises before they say enough is enough for 2020 ?

[Bestbubba]

1 hour ago, Cafedumonde said:

Sheesh.  I’m surprised most of the people on this thread ever cruised.  Or ever left their homes at all for that matter.

Well we've been cruising since the early 80s, we've been fortunate to cruise all over our beautiful world, so I think you'll agree, we've left our home many many times. But we won't be cruising again until there's  a vaccine. To us it's simple common sense, but everyone must do what works for themselves. 

[jerseygirl3]

1 hour ago, Bestbubba said:

Well we've been cruising since the early 80s, we've been fortunate to cruise all over our beautiful world, so I think you'll agree, we've left our home many many times. But we won't be cruising again until there's  a vaccine. To us it's simple common sense, but everyone must do what works for themselves. 

Same here, except we didn't start cruising til the mid 90's.  We love cruising.  I'm very anxious for a vaccine, but I'm not sure I'd still feel comfortable cruising again.  We always get a flu vaccine, and my husband still contracted Influenza A on Grandeur this past February.  He was quarantined for the last 4 days of the cruise.  My concern is there were 82 people who contracted it during that sailing (and Lord knows how many more that never went to the Medical Center to be tested).  I wonder if, like the influenza vaccine, there is a Covid-19 vaccine, will it make the symptoms and duration of the illness less severe.  

[Bestbubba]

13 minutes ago, jerseygirl3 said:

Same here, except we didn't start cruising til the mid 90's.  We love cruising.  I'm very anxious for a vaccine, but I'm not sure I'd still feel comfortable cruising again.  We always get a flu vaccine, and my husband still contracted Influenza A on Grandeur this past February.  He was quarantined for the last 4 days of the cruise.  My concern is there were 82 people who contracted it during that sailing (and Lord knows how many more that never went to the Medical Center to be tested).  I wonder if, like the influenza vaccine, there is a Covid-19 vaccine, will it make the symptoms and duration of the illness less severe.  

I just read what you wrote to my husband. He agrees with you. He also said sometimes you have to know when to leave the room (or the cruise ship!). We've crossed everything off our bucket list except New Zealand, maybe it wasn't meant to be. We're grateful for what we've seen and done, the friends we've made, the laughter we've shared, he says we don't want to push our luck. 

To anyone celebrating Seder tonight, we certainly know the answer to "why is this night different?" this year! 

[dani negreanu]

5 minutes ago, Bestbubba said:

To anyone celebrating Seder tonight, we certainly know the answer to "why is this night different?" this year! 

 

"The ONE I know".....Zoom 😁

[dani negreanu]

15 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

even if they could test all on board, it’s only the result for that moment in time. It can change within the minute, hour or day. 

 

Sadly, THAT's the biggest problem with this nasty bug....

[Petroplex]

So to the original point of when cruising will be allowed to resume, I offer the projections available at https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america. While that link will take you to U.S. data, you can easily toggle it for any individual U.S. state or for most European countries. There are, of course, a number of limits to using this data:

 

• It doesn't even begin to address cruises from Australia, China, or anyplace else which isn't the U.S. or Europe.
• I cannot speak intelligently to how long the caseload needs to be down before it is safe to ease restrictions.
• Critically, the data does not speak to many of the places we would cruise to. For those of us in the U.S., that means we cannot reliably predict what is going on in the Caribbean and Mexico, and we cannot predict how those governments will react.

With those rather large caveats, it looks to me like many places will be experiencing significantly better public health by the start of the Summer. I hope that correlates with it being safe to cruise by then.

[TheMastodon]

11 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

It's been proven over and over and over and over again, and said repeatedly  by health professionals all over the world, that if you get the virus today, quarantine and get tested 14 days later and determined healthy, you can easily go out on day 15 and get re-infected. It has been repeated over and over and over and over again that the virus is likely airborne via droplets, the reason for the 6 foot distancing. ALL OF YOU know this.

 

]

 

 

That is not accurate - they have no idea if you can get reinfected.  I have no clue where you heard that but its just not backed up by science yet. 

 

 

But your post summed it up perfectly IMO - it would be extremely irresponsible to resume cruising until vaccine hits the market.  It's sad, but thats a tough pill to swallow for cruise fanatics and these dorks that do VLOGS.  I love cruising as much as anyone (2-3X a year, D+) but have taken my blinders off when it comes to Covid19 and cruising - just isn't responsible to fire up the ships again any time soon.  A pandemic is the absolute worst case scenario for the cruise industry, and unfortunately it is going to have lasting implications on the entire travel industry.

 

Still ABSOLUTELY blows my mind people were getting on ships in Feb/March - and I never really bought into the full out panic that set in with the general public.  It was irresponsible to get on a cruise and they should have shut them down much sooner.  And I agree with you 100% - if they start these things up again soon its a BAD LOOK.

 

 

 

 

[Bestbubba]

20 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

"The ONE I know".....Zoom 😁

😀😀😀😀

[Cafedumonde]

Well, I do think if people are nervous about cruising they should stay home until there is a vaccine, but I suspect that around July or August there will be enough people out there who have been exposed to the virus to start cruising again.  At some point, as more and more people gain immunity (and yes they do- there are now tests for it), we will start opening things up again.  This will start in May, depending on location.  It will benefit those at high risk too for us to expand herd immunity.  Don’t forget, that there are more therapies every day, and that the number of people dying in the US is very small.  I understand that people find this very scary, because it is a new virus and because the media presents it in a very scary way, but at the end of the day, it is just a cold virus, albeit a nasty one, and life goes on.  There were many ships cruising in February and March that had no incidence of coronavirus. In fact, that was the vast majority. 

[Highpeaklad]

I’ve got my fingers crossed for Singapore in November. 

[parrotfeathers]

3 hours ago, Cafedumonde said:

Sheesh.  I’m surprised most of the people on this thread ever cruised.  Or ever left their homes at all for that matter.

 

There is so much more I value in life than going on a cruise.  It's probably the most least important thing I have to live for.

[nbsjcruiser]

2 hours ago, lr657 said:

 

Well said Hoopster95. Resuming cruising too soon would be a major mistake. Until there is more learned on the management of this virus and a proven vaccine is developed, it would be very unwise to pack thousands of people on a ship and allow them to leave the ship in multiple ports. 

 

We are frequent cruisers and have already had one of our cruises cancelled. We are anticipating at least 2 more being cancelled this year. As disappointing as this is, I feel this is a necessary response to this highly contagious virus that is not yet under control. Reaching a plateau does not mean the virus is managed, it only means that the spread has been stabilized. Allowing leisure travel, will only increase the spread again.

 

I fear that the cruise lines will resume cruising too soon out of economic concerns, and people will sail as they just don't want to give up their vacations. There is just no way for a cruise ship to maintain social distancing and constantly clean surfaces after being touched by a passenger.  I agree that it won't be long before there is a ship of sick passengers with nowhere to dock. In addition, the virus will be spread in every port that was visited. As much as we can't wait to cruise again, we will not cruise until there is an immunization. Cruising is not worth risking your health, and most importantly not worth risking the health of others you could spread the virus to. 

One major hurdle that I haven't seen mentioned yet is travel insurance. You can bet your bottom dollar that insurance companies will NOT cover covid until there is a vaccine. It will just be too risky on their behalf. So any illnesses, evacuations, flight changes and so on are going to be fully covered by the passenger. At least with recent cancellations, those with insurance were covered. Not going to be the same in the future now that covid is a known issue.

[sunskywaves]

12 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

It's been proven over and over and over and over again, and said repeatedly  by health professionals all over the world, that if you get the virus today, quarantine and get tested 14 days later and determined healthy, you can easily go out on day 15 and get re-infected.

 

Well, I guess this is my introduction to Cruise Critic.

 

First post, hope to learn from all of the veterans here over the coming years, as cruising will return eventually.

 

People who are determined to have had C-19 and then recovered are, as Dr. Birx stated during a press conference last week, "99.9% likely" to have antibody based immunity to a second infection. This is why people who have recovered are being asked to donate blood so that their plasma can be donated to others who are having difficulty fending it off.

[sunskywaves]

Thanks - cruising will evolve, I'd like to see better accommodations for the crew, with fresh air ventilation for each cabin at a minimum.

 

[RoxieU]

3 hours ago, Bestbubba said:

Well we've been cruising since the early 80s, we've been fortunate to cruise all over our beautiful world, so I think you'll agree, we've left our home many many times. But we won't be cruising again until there's  a vaccine. To us it's simple common sense, but everyone must do what works for themselves. 

Same! My first cruise was in 1984 aboard NCL's Southward. Since then, I've been on dozens of cruises. I had one booked for my upcoming 50th birthday in November on Liberty of the Seas in a lovely Grand Suite.....and I just got off the phone to cancel it. 😞 I even had $600 OBC. I'm not afraid of getting sick; I'm afraid of being stuck on a ship for weeks and weeks if someone else gets sick and they panic and lock everything down. With 3 dogs and a bunch of fish at home, we can't afford to be gone longer than planned! It's too expensive having a live-in house/pet sitter ($100/day for her to stay over and walk the pups 2x during the daytime) and regardless of price, who's to say she could extend her time with us for weeks and weeks!!! It's too risky right now. BUT, once everything settles, I'll definitely rebook and get on a ship again.

[NancyIL]

46 minutes ago, nbsjcruiser said:

One major hurdle that I haven't seen mentioned yet is travel insurance. You can bet your bottom dollar that insurance companies will NOT cover covid until there is a vaccine. It will just be too risky on their behalf. So any illnesses, evacuations, flight changes and so on are going to be fully covered by the passenger. At least with recent cancellations, those with insurance were covered. Not going to be the same in the future now that covid is a known issue.

 

I have travel insurance for my upcoming cruises, but I didn't buy the Cancel For Any Reason kind. Unless you cancel your trip for a covered reason (illness, death in the family, etc.) - most travel insurance doesn't cover fear of travel. The best I can hope for is to move my insurance to a future trip - IF I get back all my prepaid and nonrefundable expenses from the cruise line and airline (anticipated) - either as a refund or a future credit. https://tripinsurancestore.com/blog/do-you-have-an-upcoming-trip/

 

As far as people holding out hope for a vaccine - you'd better hope it's a LOT more effective than the annual flu vaccine!

[Biker19]

33 minutes ago, sunskywaves said:

Thanks - cruising will evolve, I'd like to see better accommodations for the crew, with fresh air ventilation for each cabin at a minimum.

Welcome to CC.

 

Who says that they don't have that now?  @chengkp75 get the answer ready for this one.

[Hoopster95]

1 hour ago, TheMastodon said:

That is not accurate - they have no idea if you can get reinfected.  I have no clue where you heard that but its just not backed up by science yet. 

 

47 minutes ago, sunskywaves said:

People who are determined to have had C-19 and then recovered are, as Dr. Birx stated during a press conference last week, "99.9% likely" to have antibody based immunity to a second infection.

 

I sincerely apologize. I know this. I don't know where my brain was at with that first part of my post... I should have reread it as I know how important credibility is on these (and other) forums.

Thank you for looking past my error and offering your opinions.

[Hoopster95]

 

1 hour ago, Cafedumonde said:

but I suspect that around July or August there will be enough people out there who have been exposed to the virus to start cruising again....  At some point, as more and more people gain immunity (and yes they do- there are now tests for it), we will start opening things up again.  This will start in May, depending on location.... Don’t forget, that there are more therapies every day, and that the number of people dying in the US is very small.

 

You made a lot of great points. I feel May anywhere in the world is totally impossible... I'm thinking more like September, however my opinion is based solely on technology and the ability to discover some kind of vaccine, immunity test, something that makes sense for governments to be able to "open up" for travelers and for the traveler themselves to actually trust being abroad. Did you see the youtube video I posted on the other thread? They talk about a fast test that's now available.

 

1 hour ago, nbsjcruiser said:

One major hurdle that I haven't seen mentioned yet is travel insurance. You can bet your bottom dollar that insurance companies will NOT cover covid until there is a vaccine. It will just be too risky on their behalf. So any illnesses, evacuations, flight changes and so on are going to be fully covered by the passenger. At least with recent cancellations, those with insurance were covered. Not going to be the same in the future now that covid is a known issue.

 

I was going to write this (as well as a few other thoughts in my post) but it would've been way too long (already was too long).

I totally agree with you. I wonder what the out of pocket costs would be for a possible helo evac and long term care in a foreign hospital ?

 

I can see all the new threads in November now.... "We are suing RCL for allowing us on their cruise ship because our insurance doesn't cover us!!!!!!!"

[Hoopster95]

4 hours ago, lr657 said:

I fear that the cruise lines will resume cruising too soon out of economic concerns, and people will sail as they just don't want to give up their vacations. There is just no way for a cruise ship to maintain social distancing and constantly clean surfaces after being touched by a passenger.  I agree that it won't be long before there is a ship of sick passengers with nowhere to dock. In addition, the virus will be spread in every port that was visited. As much as we can't wait to cruise again, we will not cruise until there is an immunization. Cruising is not worth risking your health, and most importantly not worth risking the health of others you could spread the virus to. 

 

Thank you for eloquently summarizing in a short paragraph what I what I needed a page to do! 🙂

[jean87510]

1 hour ago, sunskywaves said:

 

Well, I guess this is my introduction to Cruise Critic.

 

First post, hope to learn from all of the veterans here over the coming years, as cruising will return eventually.

 

People who are determined to have had C-19 and then recovered are, as Dr. Birx stated during a press conference last week, "99.9% likely" to have antibody based immunity to a second infection. This is why people who have recovered are being asked to donate blood so that their plasma can be donated to others who are having difficulty fending it off.

Absolutely correct. Ty for posting

[steveru621]

There sure are a lot of experts on Cruise Critic.  I'm not an expert, but I don't have TDS.

 

One stat that everyone is overlooking.  Most university experts are predicting less than 1% of the US will be infected.  If that is even remotely true, that leaves 346.5 million US citizens that have no antibodies.  Australia and Canada are touting their great numbers, which means most of the country will have no protection until there is a vaccine.

 

By then the cruise and airline industry will be in bankruptcy.  They'll be back, just like when Delta filed in 2005, and GM in 2009.

 

I need a crystal ball.

[Billy Baltic]

I know some people feel strongly about what’s happened and is happening but the political discussion is a lot more tiring than dining room dress commentary, gratuity chats and pool hogs discussions we all miss. 

[firefly333]

I posted this above, that carnival intends to resume late may and june, so maybe rcl will resume too.

 

  https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5259/

[babydrum]

5 hours ago, steveru621 said:

There sure are a lot of experts on Cruise Critic.  I'm not an expert, but I don't have TDS.

 

One stat that everyone is overlooking.  Most university experts are predicting less than 1% of the US will be infected.  If that is even remotely true, that leaves 346.5 million US citizens that have no antibodies.  Australia and Canada are touting their great numbers, which means most of the country will have no protection until there is a vaccine.

 

By then the cruise and airline industry will be in bankruptcy.  They'll be back, just like when Delta filed in 2005, and GM in 2009.

 

I need a crystal ball.

That is an interesting point that I hadn't even considered.  I hope the numbers are a lot higher but the symptoms so mild that most people don't realize they had it.