3 in 10 cruisers won’t cruise again

[Adawn47]

Both my husband and I would go on a  sea only cruise. We love the feeling of being at sea and the ports of call for us are an added extra. 

Avril 

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Both my husband and I would go on a  sea only cruise. We love the feeling of being at sea and the ports of call for us are an added extra. 

Avril 

Would you go on one before a vaccine though? You are far more likely to contract the virus on a cruise ship than ashore, so a sea cruise puts you at even greater risk than a conventional cruise!

[Adawn47]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

Would you go on one before a vaccine though? You are far more likely to contract the virus on a cruise ship than ashore, so a sea cruise puts you at even greater risk than a conventional cruise!

Hmm, you've got me thinking about that. I'm not sure how this pandemic is going to go but, if the cruise industry were to tentatively begin sea only cruises on the recommendation from government health advisers and we could get full health insurance that won't break the bank then yes we probably would. I don't know if that answer has just come from a sensible woman or one, who at the moment, would risk anything for a change of scenery😆

Avril 

[Denarius]

2 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

 

As for cruising, I doubt we will see it on the same scale as before as some countries will see it as an opportunity to reduce the size of ships and numbers of people coming ashore, think Venice, Dubrovnik, Norway, all who sought to restrict access before this happened. 

You may prove to be correct. Whilst cruise ship visits have undoubtedly brought benefits to ports, you can have too much of a good thing - as Venice and Dubrovnik in particular have found to their cost. It was one thing when you would have three or four ships each carrying 700 or so passengers, another when each of those ships carried 3500. I suspect that many ports will put a limit on the number of passengers in port on any one day to the number the port can reasonably absorb without creating people jams in the streets. And some may restrict the size of each ship in doing so in order to increase the diversity of visitors; four ships each carrying 1000 rather than one carrying 4000. Plus the fact that smaller ships tend to be more upmarket with passengers who have more money to spend.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Denarius

[zap99]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Well I could not find any reports that it was Covid19 that has mutated, lots about Coronavirus mutating and all of them press reports, nothing from a medical source, and we know there are lots of Corona viruses........................just saying.

If you have a look at the Lancet and New scientist you will find the same learned papers. Several of them are from China, but they have some experience. Agreed none of them were written by Trump and nothing on taking disinfectant intravenously nor any mention of shining a UV lamp into your throat😁😁

[zap99]

2 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Hmm, you've got me thinking about that. I'm not sure how this pandemic is going to go but, if the cruise industry were to tentatively begin sea only cruises on the recommendation from government health advisers and we could get full health insurance that won't break the bank then yes we probably would. I don't know if that answer has just come from a sensible woman or one, who at the moment, would risk anything for a change of scenery😆

Avril 

Although I wouldn't risk anything, a calculated risk is different. If ok'd by the experts a non landing cruise around the fjords has a certain appeal.

[kalos]

                                                                                 You could be riddled with it !

                                            

[jeanlyon]

I definitely wouldn't go on a sea only cruise.  I would be bored after 2 days.  Have done transatlantics and Caribbean and couldn't wait to get off after 7 days.  Can't see me cruising until there is a vaccine.

[majortom10]

Done regular roundtrip TAs where we have sailed for 14 nights with just one day in New York and really love the experience. It all depends on the ship and what entertainment is offered we have never been bored on QM2 but would easily be bored if doing many sea days on a P&O ship just because of their poor daytime activities.

[grapau27]

3 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

I definitely wouldn't go on a sea only cruise.  I would be bored after 2 days.  Have done transatlantics and Caribbean and couldn't wait to get off after 7 days.  Can't see me cruising until there is a vaccine.

I prefer port intensive cruises but Pauline wanted to try a TA and unfortunately our Azura TA was cancelled 1 week before we were due to travel.

[Presto2]

3 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

I definitely wouldn't go on a sea only cruise.  I would be bored after 2 days.  Have done transatlantics and Caribbean and couldn't wait to get off after 7 days.  Can't see me cruising until there is a vaccine.

 

The more we think about it, I think we are the same. I don't think I will feel even happy going on a land holiday where we have to fly either. There are times like this when we wish we had a static caravan somewhere where we knew we were the only ones who had been in it and it was clean. We have just cancelled (well had a voucher for the cost) for a May half term break we had paid for with Hoseasons. We now have 2 vouchers for Hoseasons Lodge holidays so we will probably rebook for the end of 2021 when we are hoping there will be more normality.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

If you have a look at the Lancet and New scientist you will find the same learned papers. Several of them are from China, but they have some experience. Agreed none of them were written by Trump and nothing on taking disinfectant intravenously nor any mention of shining a UV lamp into your throat😁😁

I cannot find anything about Covid19 mutating in lancet or NS, do you have a link.

[Francisdrake]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

Done regular roundtrip TAs where we have sailed for 14 nights with just one day in New York and really love the experience. It all depends on the ship and what entertainment is offered we have never been bored on QM2 but would easily be bored if doing many sea days on a P&O ship just because of their poor daytime activities.

 

What is it the QM2 did different entertainment wise to P&O ?     Longest I've done sea days wise was 4 days transit between Los Angeles & Hawaii with Carnival.   The sea days flew by because there was constantly something going off, was dashing from one venue to the next just to keep up with it.      P&O has never been as good when I've been on as they've had a few things going on through the day but not consistently like Carnival did.

[majortom10]

Because QM2 is a liner that handles rough seas better than cruise ships and does majority of any cruise year doing Transatlantic crossings so therefore a lot of sea days their daytime activities are better and more speakers and not just quizzes and talks which are just sales pitches for their highly priced products. Never bored on QM2 not like on a P&O cruise if there is too many sea days.

Edited April 26, 2020 by majortom10

[zap99]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I cannot find anything about Covid19 mutating in lancet or NS, do you have a link.

Hi.

If you do a search"covid19 mutating" you will find lots of hits. If you read too many on this sunny Sunday afternoon, you may need to do another search " best way to top yourself". Don't search for Trump "profound thoughts of". That would be pointless.😁

 

 

[IDB37]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

Perhaps you would care to tell us from the depths of Calgary, exactly how many people have been treated in the Nightingale hospital in London ? Can you also tell us how many people have been screened at the drive in testing centres? 

 

Strangely enough, it is possible to listen to UK news, LBC & even the jaundiced BBC, from Calgary. Not sure if you're aware of that from the cosy fields of Lincolnshire. And as a UK Citizen and expat., I do so daily. 

 

There have been no more than a handful of people treated at the Nightingale in London, but being built in nine days to ensure sufficient capacity, was a fantastic achievement, which no doubt you choose to overlook as it doesn't fit your agenda. 

[IDB37]

9 hours ago, Tommart said:

I'm not sure how much you know about the situation in the UK, but it's become very clear over the last few days, following a detailed report in the Times (Coronavirus: 38 days when Britain sleepwalked into disaster), that the government acted far too late - it's one of the reasons our NHS workers are facing shortages of protective equipment, and it's one of the reasons our death rate is now heading for Italy's.  There were no queues outside hospitals, but people still died, and the 20,000 deaths now reported don't include thousands of deaths in care homes and elsewhere.  These are just the hospital deaths.

 

More than 100 NHS workers have died as a consequence of the delays in providing equipment (still going on).  Nothing was done in February when we should have been taking action based on Wuhan and Italy, and Boris Johnson skipped five Cobra meetings on the virus because he didn't see it as important. At that time he was concentrating on his interesting private life.

 

This from a senor advisor to Downing Street: 

 

“There’s no way you’re at war if your PM isn’t there. And what you learn about Boris was he didn’t chair any meetings. He liked his country breaks. He didn’t work weekends. It was like working for an old-fashioned chief executive in a local authority 20 years ago. There was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning. It was exactly like people feared he would be.”

 

The government did too little, far too late, and the economic and health consequences are disastrous.

 

 

As another posted has pointed out, the Sunday Times hatchet job was widely derided for inaccuracy. Unsurprising coming from the same publication that paid a fortune for and published the 'Hitler Diaries' , which turned out to be fake.

 

Based on the article and poll below, It would seem most people do not share your assessment of the UK Government. As you'll see from the very last sentence however, whatever reservations they may have re politicians are dwarfed by their extreme contempt for TV journalists and newspapers:

 

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-britons-still-support-lockdown-despite-being-sadder-and-more-anxious-poll-11977655

 

 

 

[zap99]

12 minutes ago, IDB37 said:

 

Strangely enough, it is possible to listen to UK news, LBC & even the jaundiced BBC, from Calgary. Not sure if you're aware of that from the cosy fields of Lincolnshire. And as a UK Citizen and expat., I do so daily. 

 

There have been no more than a handful of people treated at the Nightingale in London, but being built in nine days to ensure sufficient capacity, was a fantastic achievement, which no doubt you choose to overlook as it doesn't fit your agenda.

I am sad to say that I tried to listen to LBC on our trip through the Rockies 2 years ago. My DW said ' you sad old git" look at the bears and mountains. Although I listen to LBC in the car in the UK, bears and mountains are better. We should be flying into Vancouver this June and out of Calgary 3 weeks later. You won't us in. Perhaps next year.

[IDB37]

Lol, that's a pretty fair assessment !

 

We overlook the Rocky mountains, which is one of the joyful consolations of being largely 'confined to barracks'.

 

Unfortunately, Calgary and Alberta are suffering in the extreme right now from the consequences of the oil crash, coupled with the impact of Covid. The 2020 Stampede has just been cancelled for the first time for 100 years or so and Banff is pretty well a ghost town (albeit hopefully has the cushion of some hugely successful years over recent times to fall back on).

 

Vancouver has fared better, but will greatly be impacted by the loss of the cruise market unfortunately.

 

Hopefully circumstances will allow you to visit this wonderful area again before too long. 

[Harry Peterson]

13 minutes ago, IDB37 said:

 

As another posted has pointed out, the Sunday Times hatchet job was widely derided for inaccuracy. Unsurprising coming from the same publication that paid a fortune for and published the 'Hitler Diaries' , which turned out to be fake.

 

Based on the article and poll below, It would seem most people do not share your assessment of the UK Government. As you'll see from the very last sentence however, whatever reservations they may have re politicians are dwarfed by their extreme contempt for TV journalists and newspapers:

 

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-britons-still-support-lockdown-despite-being-sadder-and-more-anxious-poll-11977655

 

 

 

I see no evidence that the Sunday Times report is being widely derided  - except by those whose political agenda it doesn't suit.

 

And as more and more comes out about what's been going on (or rather not going on because the PM wasn't bothering to turn up to critical meetings) support for the government is falling.

 

And just what IS Dominic Cummings doing at SAGE meetings?

[Harry Peterson]

35 minutes ago, IDB37 said:

There have been no more than a handful of people treated at the Nightingale in London, but being built in nine days to ensure sufficient capacity, was a fantastic achievement, which no doubt you choose to overlook as it doesn't fit your agenda. 

To be accurate,  it wasn't built in 9 days. The building was already there, and it was a straightforward internal conversion job, akin to shopfitting. 

 

It was sensible to do it, to counter the dire shortage of NHS beds built up, but the problem has been staffing it, because of the dire shortage of staff built up.  Patients have been sent away for lack of staff, and had it not been for this and similar shortages elsewhere our appalling death rate, already heading for 30,000 in just the first wave, would be lower.

[IDB37]

1 minute ago, Harry Peterson said:

I see no evidence that the Sunday Times report is being widely derided  - except by those whose political agenda it doesn't suit.

 

And as more and more comes out about what's been going on (or rather not going on because the PM wasn't bothering to turn up to critical meetings) support for the government is falling.

 

And just what IS Dominic Cummings doing at SAGE meetings?

Well, as he's the PM's senior Adviser, I assume he's there to learn & to report on what goes on back to Boris when he returns to the Office tomorrow Harry.

 

Even Nick Clegg's former adviser James Sorene say's it's a non-issue & that he used to attend SAGE meetings during the swine flu epidemic.

 

 

 

 

[IDB37]

5 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

To be accurate,  it wasn't built in 9 days. The building was already there, and it was a straightforward internal conversion job, akin to shopfitting. 

 

It was sensible to do it, to counter the dire shortage of NHS beds built up, but the problem has been staffing it, because of the dire shortage of staff built up.  Patients have been sent away for lack of staff, and had it not been for this and similar shortages elsewhere our appalling death rate, already heading for 30,000 in just the first wave, would be lower.

 

Yes, of course there have been problems, and hard lessons are and will continue to be learned.

 

I just take the view that the constant Government bashing achieves very little. Those who have political agenda's based on proir lost battles will of course continue to do so, but I incline to the view, that most of those in power are doing their utmost to manage their way through this crises in the best way possible.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by IDB37
Error.

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, IDB37 said:

 

Yes, of course there have been problems, and hard lessons are and will continue to be learned.

 

I just take the view that the constant Government bashing achieves very little. Those who have political agenda's based on proir lost battles will of course continue to do so, but I incline to the view, that most of those in power are doing their utmost to manage their way through this crises in the best way possible.

 

 

 

 

The fact remains that the NHS  has been underfunded for at least twenty years, which is why the UK has one of the lowest number of ICU beds, per capita  in Europe, one of the highest cancer mortality rates etc. If we had invested in the past, we wouldn't need white elephants like the Nightingale hospitals, and hundreds of people wouldn't be dying because their surgery, cancer treatment etc has been cancelled. 

[wowzz]

19 minutes ago, IDB37 said:

most of those in power are doing their utmost to manage their way through this crises in the best way possible

The problem is that most of those in power have never worked in a proper job. Would you employ Matt Hancock in any commercial enterprise?