Washington Post Article - The Pandemic at Sea

[bluesea321]

A good summary of events in March and April in the Caribbean.  I found the negotiations between Jamaica and the industry very interesting; was not aware that any of the affected countries had done so...  also the comments from Grand Cayman about the impact on their limited medical facilities.  It may be a long time before Caribbean countries allow cruise ships again.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/cruise-ships-coronavirus/?itid=hp_hp-banner-main_cruisefallout-1020am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

[Btimmer]

It's behind a paywall. I'm unable to read it.

 

[ontheweb]

Not only a paywall, they want $49. Usually you can get a short term or even a few free articles before being asked to pay.

[rjbean4]

Yeah it would be nice if someone who has access to this article could somehow copy and paste it into this thread.

 

I have a feeling that our cruising could be over because of all of this. We don't have plans to cruise till December for the Holidays and has been our tradition to do so for 32 years and counting.Have told my mom that we may have done our last cruise and she has a tendency to agree. We are only under deposit at this time. Mom is 89 with underlying health problems. We are originally from Minnesota and have said that if we were to want to go see family we might have to drive. We are used to always flying cause my dad flew for NWA for 31 years. Due to the merge we are Delta people now. But now, who knows as its going to take a long time for the airlines to recover too just like everything else.

[shank63]

Let’s hope that the cruise industry learns from this experience and makes the appointment changes, assuming Covid 19 is brought under control and that the cruise industry survives.

[bluesea321]

29 minutes ago, rjbean4 said:

Yeah it would be nice if someone who has access to this article could somehow copy and paste it into this thread.

 

I have a feeling that our cruising could be over because of all of this. We don't have plans to cruise till December for the Holidays and has been our tradition to do so for 32 years and counting.Have told my mom that we may have done our last cruise and she has a tendency to agree. We are only under deposit at this time. Mom is 89 with underlying health problems. We are originally from Minnesota and have said that if we were to want to go see family we might have to drive. We are used to always flying cause my dad flew for NWA for 31 years. Due to the merge we are Delta people now. But now, who knows as its going to take a long time for the airlines to recover too just like everything else.

 

I cannot copy and paste it because it would be a violation of copyrights law and also a no no according to the Cruise Critics terms of use.  It is a very good summary article.  Signing up for a free account usually gives you a limited number of free articles per month.  

[ski ww]

It opened for me no problem. I tried to copy & paste, no luck.

[dobiemom]

1 hour ago, Btimmer said:

It's behind a paywall. I'm unable to read it.

 

Clear your cookies/history. Works for me every time. 

[rjbean4]

1 hour ago, dobiemom said:

Clear your cookies/history. Works for me every time. 

Yes I have done this also to be able to read a article. Guess I was just hoping to get to it without doing it so will just come back to this after I clear cookies/history. See what is says about Caribbean ports. I mentioned copy and paste as there is a lot of it here anyways. Especially all the videos that are being done by the crew on the ships. I have shared some of them and just copied and pasted the link. Oh well. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by rjbean4

[Btimmer]

3 hours ago, dobiemom said:

Clear your cookies/history. Works for me every time. 

I switched to a different browser (Chrome) and was able to read the article.  I found it to be fairly written.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am also on Chrome -- no problems opening it and reading it.

 

Very interesting article.

[KirkNC]

You can also Google “Washington Post cruise ship” and the article is one of the first hits.

[Mosaic]

From the Article:

Arnold Donald, the chief executive of Carnival, said in an interview on “Axios on HBO” in mid-March that ships provided a “less risky environment” than being on shore and compared ships to Central Park, saying there is “a lot of natural social distancing.”

He insisted that cruise ships are not to blame for spreading the coronavirus.

 

Wow

[maasqueen]

Reading the article posted by the original poster really made me stop and think about the cruise we were recently on, and about the safety of having done so.  Before starting our cruise on March 8, we consulted our physicians, the CDC web site and the cruise line) for information on whether or not it was still safe to cruise.  We are both healthy 60+ year-olds with no exiting health issues.  The virus had been significantly downplayed in our country at that time. 

 

We were subject to temperature and health survey screenings prior to embarking our ship, which the cruise line had advised would take place.  We were surprised to be able to access our stateroom prior to noon.  In retrospect, I would guess that may have been due to reduced numbers of passengers on the cruise.

 

I'll probably be criticized by stating this, but I feel we were let down by the cruise industry for being allowed to board a ship when it was well known by the industry at that time that the virus was gaining steam and there had been infections on multiple ships.  As the week went along, we learned from watching the news just how much the virus outbreaks had exploded both in the world and in the US and that ships were being refused permission to dock at various ports.  Our ship was very, very clean and crew were constantly reminding passengers to wash hands and use hand sanitizer.  The buffet was not self-serve, and by mid-week, the buffet was enclosed with plastic, as to prevent passenger contact with food.  These practices suggested to us that it was known the health situation was becoming more and more serious.  Yet, we sailed on to complete our week long cruise.

 

We were fortunate to be able to disembark at the completion of our cruise in Fort Lauderdale on March 15.  It wasn't without some drama, however, as disembarkation was halted twice during the process as there were questions as to the cause of a deceased passenger's death.   Once we were off the ship (after the first halt, but prior to the second halt) we boarded our nearly full flight to Chicago from FLL.  The airport was much more crowded than we've ever seen following previous cruises.  The airport did not provide any screening or increased cleaning methods that we could see.  There were masses of passengers awaiting flights. 

 

Once we reached our home in the early hours of March 16, we left luggage in the garage until we disinfected everything we had taken on the cruise the following day.  We self-quarantined - even though no one advised us to do so.  On day 13 of our 14 day self quarantine, we received an email from Holland America that one of the passengers who had sailed on our ship had, in fact, tested positive for COVID-19.  I'm guessing that passenger most likely was exposed to the virus on the flight home, but we will never know.

 

After reading the article noted by the OPP,  it reinforced our feelings that we should not have sailed, and were very fortunate to have returned home safely. Yes, Holland shared information that passengers from certain areas of the world would not be allowed to sail.  Yes, we were told we could cancel the cruise.  But, assurance was made that this was being done "out of an abundance of caution" and there was not concern about the virus affecting the cruise.  And by the grace of God, it didn't. Yes, we assume some responsibility for having sailed.  We could have canceled.  But we relied on knowledge of experts.  Cruise lines, as well as other facets of the travel industry, were in uncharted territory and struggling to make tough decisions. However, if the health and safety of passengers and crew had truly been at the forefront of their decisions, ships would not have been sailing at that point in time.  Just my opinion.

 

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by maasqueen

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, KirkNC said:

You can also Google “Washington Post cruise ship” and the article is one of the first hits.

Thanks, I was able to read it using that without being asked for $49.

 

Although, it attempts to be just the facts, I do notice an attitude there. They gloss over things like the CDC allowed them to go on commercial flights after disembarking, not noting that it was not only the cruise lines that had a lot to learn about this pandemic. Could things have been handled much better? Of course the cruise lines could have done better, but so could the various governments.

[cruisemom42]

I cleared my cookies/browsing history and even changed browsers but it still will not let me access the article. 

 

Quoting small sections of a published article is not not an abuse of copyright. Would be nice to get some idea of what this article says...!!

 

(I already support both my local paper and an online subscription to another paper, so I am not interested in subscribing to a third...)

 

[DaveSJ711]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

Thanks, I was able to read it using that without being asked for $49.

 

Although, it attempts to be just the facts, I do notice an attitude there. They gloss over things like the CDC allowed them to go on commercial flights after disembarking, not noting that it was not only the cruise lines that had a lot to learn about this pandemic. Could things have been handled much better? Of course the cruise lines could have done better, but so could the various governments.

 

"Attitude"?  Does Dr. Fauci have an "attitude"?  The Post quotes him:  "People on a large ship, all together, at the same time, all the time -- you couldn't ask for a better incubator for infection."  That sounds like a conclusion grounded in reality.

Edited April 26, 2020 by DaveSJ711

[tommui987]

5 hours ago, KirkNC said:

You can also Google “Washington Post cruise ship” and the article is one of the first hits.

 

Poster is correct - if you are really interested in reading the article, just google it. Fair warning - it is long.

[slidergirl]

22 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Not only a paywall, they want $49. Usually you can get a short term or even a few free articles before being asked to pay.

You can do their $1 for 1 month trial.  It's up there in the upper right corner.   I've had a WaPo digital subscription ever since I was involved in a minor scandal involving a sports coach... Sorry, but I won't cut & paste what you are supposed to pay for...

[slidergirl]

I have been to the hospital in Georgetown, Grand Cayman to get treatment for my ex *he stepped on a small spotted ray buried in the sand*.  It's small size would make sense for Grand Cayman to not take anyone.  

 

As for the Dr. Fauci bashing among cruisers - he is proven true with the epidemic on the USS Theodore 
Roosevelt.  Not a cruise ship but it has about 840 positives among a crew of 5,000.....  

[npcl]

In my mind the most part that most explains the CDC's action was the portion that at one point in March 17% of all known cases in the US were tied to cruise ships.

 

The dynamics between the cruise lines and some of the Caribbean islands was also very interesting.

 

Will be interesting to see if and how the cruise lines pressure the islands to open up if they get the ok to cruise again.

[DaveSJ711]

35 minutes ago, slidergirl said:

I have been to the hospital in Georgetown, Grand Cayman to get treatment for my ex *he stepped on a small spotted ray buried in the sand*.  It's small size would make sense for Grand Cayman to not take anyone.  

 

As for the Dr. Fauci bashing among cruisers - he is proven true with the epidemic on the USS Theodore 
Roosevelt.  Not a cruise ship but it has about 840 positives among a crew of 5,000.....  

 

Don't forget the Ruby Princess in Australia -- 600 COVID cases and 15 deaths are linked to the ship.

[ontheweb]

48 minutes ago, slidergirl said:

I have been to the hospital in Georgetown, Grand Cayman to get treatment for my ex *he stepped on a small spotted ray buried in the sand*.  It's small size would make sense for Grand Cayman to not take anyone.  

 

As for the Dr. Fauci bashing among cruisers - he is proven true with the epidemic on the USS Theodore 
Roosevelt.  Not a cruise ship but it has about 840 positives among a crew of 5,000.....  

I would guess he is not allowed to bash the US Navy and to advocate no sailors on ships.

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, USN59-79 said:

I was able to read the entire article with my Chrome browser.  It is an interesting, well researched article.  You have already been told that you can Google the article in its entirety.  Why are you asking someone summarize it for you?

 

As I said earlier, I have tried all the suggestions given. I cleared my cookies, used a different browser (Chrome is the one I always use, btw) and have searched via Google. Each time I reach the article, I am blocked from reading it. Sorry to have bothered you.   

 

When someone posts a link that's not accessible to all, just seems as if a summary could be offered, but I'm sure I'll eventually be able to read it -- once the quarantine is over and I can access my work computer. If that ever happens...

 

[MMDown Under]

On 4/26/2020 at 8:48 AM, ski ww said:

It opened for me no problem. I tried to copy & paste, no luck.

It opened for me and I read article.  I joined their free newsletter.