New Regent Protocols as of 1 June 2020

[Travelcat2]

Just now, SusieQft said:

Have you cancelled your November booking?  If it sails, it should be "amongst the first."

 

Definitely have not canceled our November booking (or our January, March or October booking).  I do not believe that we will be amongst the first (but would not worry if we were).  The first cruise should occur at least a couple of months before our cruise.

 

The only thing that concerns me is that it seems that some people (and possibly the CDC) want to wait a few months to resume cruising.  IF (and I do not necessarily believe this), the virus returns - along with the flu in late Fall and Winter many cruises would need to be canceled (at least December through March)..  

 

At the moment, cruise that I am most confident of is in October 2021.  If our other cruises are canceled, we will likely do a trip to England and maybe Ireland.  We will definitely not stay home and become vegetables any longer than is necessary.

 

 

 

 

[greykitty]

1 minute ago, Travelcat2 said:

We will definitely not stay home and become vegetables any longer than is necessary.

Why is staying close to home becoming a vegetable?  That doesn't sound very kind.  

[Travelcat2]

6 minutes ago, greykitty said:

Why is staying close to home becoming a vegetable?  That doesn't sound very kind.  

 

I was talking about us - not anyone else  We have not gone anywhere except markets for 3 1/2 months.  We are following all protocols to stay safe but cannot do this indefinitely.  At times I feel like a vegetable.  Our county has yet to go into "our" phase 2 because of young people defying the protocols.  My DH is quite elderly (but thankfully is very healthy) but this is driving us bananas.  While we get along great and are taking turns cooking (mostly he cooks because he is better at it).  Since we retired 18+ years ago, we have not watched television during the day.  Since March, we watching television from 3:00 pm until 11:15 pm.  I was just expressing my frustration but definitely was not trying to label anyone other than ourselves as vegetables.

 

[SusieQft]

3 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Definitely have not canceled our November booking (or our January, March or October booking).  I do not believe that we will be amongst the first (but would not worry if we were).  The first cruise should occur at least a couple of months before our cruise.

We just made it official.  We asked our TA to make the final payment on our Oct. 12 Mariner LA round trip.  If it sails, we will be close to "among the first."  If not, maybe you will be after all.  

[cruiseluv]

4 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

At the moment, cruise that I am most confident of is in October 2021.  If our other cruises are canceled, we will likely do a trip to England and maybe Ireland.  We will definitely not stay home and become vegetables any longer than is necessary.

 

 

 

 

LOL!! I'm with you about not being vegetables longer than necessary! In my case , the shakedown will probably not be a cruise, but I will be doing something and not waiting for the CDC to give me permission. Godspeed!

[Travelcat2]

50 minutes ago, SusieQft said:

We just made it official.  We asked our TA to make the final payment on our Oct. 12 Mariner LA round trip.  If it sails, we will be close to "among the first."  If not, maybe you will be after all.  

 

That’s great to hear.  Really hope that the sailing happens.  In the meantime, stay safe!

 

Maria, there has to be something fun to do besides cruising - even though I would be happy to be on Explorer!  Normally a nice quiet place would sound good but after being at home for what seems like years, we just want to hear laughter, maybe dancing - taking long walks and definitely eating food that we have not prepared ourselves and isn’t take-out.

[crusin7]

8 hours ago, SusieQft said:

We just made it official.  We asked our TA to make the final payment on our Oct. 12 Mariner LA round trip.  If it sails, we will be close to "among the first."  If not, maybe you will be after all.  

We will be with you SusieQft!  Regent just applied our FCC from our canceled Alaska cruise to this sailing.  This will be a perfect cruise to test the waters.  We can easily drive to the Port avoiding air travel.  I can taste the Margaritas already. 

[jeb_bud]

9 hours ago, SusieQft said:

We just made it official.  We asked our TA to make the final payment on our Oct. 12 Mariner LA round trip.  If it sails, we will be close to "among the first."  If not, maybe you will be after all.  

We plan to be on that cruise as well. Our final payment isn’t due until July, and we will pay it unless something catastrophic happens. We did ask our TA to modify our reservation to get us the $1,000 OBC in the latest offer. Our fare went up $200, which makes the effective OBC $800, which is still way better than zero. 

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

Let’s do it and hope our ships sail!

We live in Florida and have been everywhere within a 4 hour drive from our home. Not much to do. We will not fly at this time. 
We feel it’s safer On a Regent ship than at a resort in the Keys. 
We are no longer confident that we will be doing our Canadian fishing trip this year. So what’s left to look  forward to? Our November Regent cruise. Can’t wait!!!,
sheila

[rallydave]

On 6/2/2020 at 11:15 PM, Steve Q said:

Below is an interesting article about the CDC grading system.

Several former ship doctors recommend that future cruises operate at 50% capacity and sail within 500 miles of land. Many Caribbean and Mexican Riviera would seem to qualify for winter cruises.

 

 https://apple.news/AXcPQCA6JTXei3J94yLXC9A

Much ado about nothing that will allow ships to sail with paying passengers. From reading the entire Linked article these new protocols announced only apply to the ships repatriating crew as that is. As ll the cdc has addressed do as Nd to expect the protocols when passengers are on board to be significantly more stringent. 
 

Also no negotiations have begun yet regarding the protocols to enable cruise ships to begin sailing with paying passengers. Thus no mention about approval by cdc. 

[Travelcat2]

Once again, we should look at articles as being interesting but not 100% accurate. It is obvious to me that the CDC has been working and negotiating with passenger cruise lines - not only in terms of repatriating crew members.. The protocols that Regent (and other cruise lines have listed) didn't come out of thin air.  The final protocols will likely be released when a resumption of sailing is released.  

 

I do wonder if, one or more cruise lines are not willing to abide certain restrictions if they will be unable to sail while cruise lines that meet or exceed the protocols will be given the green light.  This is one more thing that none of us know about yet.  

 

Personally, I find the links to all related articles gives us versions of what is going on in the world of passenger cruising.  As long as we not confuse reality from predictions, there is no harm in reading various articles.  I just read an article (dated after the linked article) that states that Carnival just repatriated 3,000 of their crew which is a good thing.

 

Note:  There is a lot going on that does not actually fit into the category of passenger cruises but are having real difficulty controlling the virus.  There are seafood ships (not going to mention the name) that sails out of Seattle.  At least two (possibly three) of their ships arrived in our city with a load of Covid-19 cases on board.  One member was disembarked and take to the hospital locally while the rest are returning to Seattle.  My point is that this isn't over - not by a long shot!

[Pcardad]

I agree. There are only 2 things that end this. Herd immunity or a vaccine.

 

In other news, I have heard that Regent may not have to sail at reduced capacity as the space/passenger ratio is already above a number being floated. This is not fact...just something I heard that might be worth thinking about.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Pcardad

[rallydave]

So, when the article appeared to fulfill an agenda, it was a great article however when it turns out that the agenda  is actually  not met by  the article the view of the article change 180 degrees   " Once again, we should look at articles as being interesting but not 100% accurate"

[Travelcat2]

8 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

I agree. There are only 2 things that end this. Herd immunity or a vaccine.

 

In other news, I have heard that Regent may not have to sail at reduced capacity as the space/passenger ratio is already above a number being floated. This is not fact...just something I heard that might be worth thinking about.

 

I personally would feel a bit safer if Regent ships were not at full capacity (especially on Navigator for obvious reasons).  Once they have a few sailings under the new protocol and feel comfortable with it, they should be able to sail full while keeping distancing.

 

I'm curious about the "herd immunity" issue.  Sweden tried that and, if I recall correctly, were not very successful.  

 

 

[Pcardad]

Herd immunity as a end result for the world - not as a means to combat the virus. Simply wait until we reach the critical number of people with antibodies (80% or so) and then an outbreak is not much different that anything else we have a group immunity to. Yes...more people die this way but that hasn't stopped the governments of the world from disucssing it as an option to tanking the economy for decades. I am not saying I support this, but there is a substantial segment of the population that does....including most young people.

 

I think Navigator is off the table for a while...I would expect Explorer and Splendor to be running modified trips for a while. Again...opinion.

[rcandkc]

To be able to achieve 6 feet between tables, etc...I would think a reduced passenger load is important.  Yes, on Regent too in my opinion.  

[mrlevin]

13 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

 

I think Navigator is off the table for a while...I would expect Explorer and Splendor to be running modified trips for a while. Again...opinion.

 

It has been reported on here before that Navigator has the most crew space of any of the ships.  If that is the case, Navigator might be an early option for Regent.

 

Marc

[Travelcat2]

17 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

Herd immunity as a end result for the world - not as a means to combat the virus. Simply wait until we reach the critical number of people with antibodies (80% or so) and then an outbreak is not much different that anything else we have a group immunity to. Yes...more people die this way but that hasn't stopped the governments of the world from disucssing it as an option to tanking the economy for decades. I am not saying I support this, but there is a substantial segment of the population that does....including most young people.

 

I think Navigator is off the table for a while...I would expect Explorer and Splendor to be running modified trips for a while. Again...opinion.

 

Thank you for the explanation.  Guess we'll see what happens with the young people that have been protesting next to each other for days (some wearing masks - others not).

 

Agree with you about Navigator.  As Marc indicated, the crew quarters are larger on that ship but in inclement weather, there is barely enough room for 490 guests to be.  La Veranda and P7 are usually packed (P7 gets the overflow from LV in the morning and at lunch ).  Having Explorer and/or Splendor sailing first makes the most sense to me.  

[Pcardad]

I think a lot depends on how long she is in drydock for and if she can be retrofitted with the appropriate ventilation system.

[FrequentFloater333]

16 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Thank you for the explanation.  Guess we'll see what happens with the young people that have been protesting next to each other for days (some wearing masks - others not).

 

Agree with you about Navigator.  As Marc indicated, the crew quarters are larger on that ship but in inclement weather, there is barely enough room for 490 guests to be.  La Veranda and P7 are usually packed (P7 gets the overflow from LV in the morning and at lunch ).  Having Explorer and/or Splendor sailing first makes the most sense to me.  

Another consideration might be whether recently reopened ports would tend to favor smaller ships with fewer passengers.  If so, this could bode well for Navigator.  As for the overcrowding issue, we still haven't heard whether Regent will reduce capacity, as recommended by CDC.    In addition, Navigator's initial resumption of operations is scheduled for the Caribbean, where inclement weather seems less likely (hurricane season not withstanding).  Gee, can you tell I'm hoping Navigator sails on October 30th?

[mrlevin]

1 hour ago, FrequentFloater333 said:

Another consideration might be whether recently reopened ports would tend to favor smaller ships with fewer passengers.  If so, this could bode well for Navigator.  As for the overcrowding issue, we still haven't heard whether Regent will reduce capacity, as recommended by CDC.   

 

First post in this thread included statement from Regent that they would reduce guest capacity:

 

Quote

• INCREASED SOCIAL DISTANCING THROUGH REDUCED CAPACITY

  To provide even more space for responsible social distancing, we have reduced shipboard guest capacity. Reduced seating in entertainment venues, smaller group sizes for shore excursions, culinary classes, and onboard activities, along with increased spacing in dining venues, provide for effective social distancing practices.

I think this statement is pretty unambiguous.

 

Marc

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by mrlevin

[jeb_bud]

19 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

I personally would feel a bit safer if Regent ships were not at full capacity (especially on Navigator for obvious reasons).  Once they have a few sailings under the new protocol and feel comfortable with it, they should be able to sail full while keeping distancing.

 

I'm curious about the "herd immunity" issue.  Sweden tried that and, if I recall correctly, were not very successful.  

 

 

The success or failure of Sweden’s approach can only be properly evaluated in retrospect. We’re still in the beginning of the middle so too early to draw conclusions. 

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, mrlevin said:

 

First post in this thread included statement from Regent that they would reduce guest capacity:

 

 

Yep...I read it. I also spoke to a member of the Sr. management team who indicated it might not be needed based on outside requirements that may not be the same as they were before. Like I said, no fact...just an idea floating around. Would you prefer I not share anything without documentation?

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

 

Yep...I read it. I also spoke to a member of the Sr. management team who indicated it might not be needed based on outside requirements that may not be the same as they were before. Like I said, no fact...just an idea floating around. Would you prefer I not share anything without documentation?

 

I know that you are not responding to. me but I have to respond.  Based on responses to your posts, we appreciate the information that you provide on this board (whether it be factual - which you let us know - or is based on a feeling).  Please keep doing what you are doing.  

 

 

[2012_Alaska_bound]

2 hours ago, mrlevin said:

 

First post in this thread included statement from Regent that they would reduce guest capacity:

 

 

Where is this statement found? Haven't been able to see it on the Regent site, and didn't see an email.

 

OOPS! Just went back and saw the link. Sorry! I was looking in the wrong place on the website.

Edited June 6, 2020 by 2012_Alaska_bound
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