Iona cruise

[hollyjess]

Hi everybody. My husband is 80 and type 2 diabetic and I am 75 with hypertension. We are booked to go on Iona to the Canaries in november but now have read that Spain is not allowing any UK while into their ports. We do not have to pay the balance until august. Any advice and opinions from fellow cruisers would be very much appreciated.

[cruisenewbie1976]

27 minutes ago, hollyjess said:

Hi everybody. My husband is 80 and type 2 diabetic and I am 75 with hypertension. We are booked to go on Iona to the Canaries in november but now have read that Spain is not allowing any UK while into their ports. We do not have to pay the balance until august. Any advice and opinions from fellow cruisers would be very much appreciated.

Would you be happy to go if the cruise went ahead? If not then I'd be looking to move the cruise or cancel before you pay the balance. 

Spain saying no to cruises doesn't really mean a lot as its currently an indefinite ban and is being reviewed again in September. 

Many people thought the indefinite ban on non essential travel out of the UK meant that it would be in place throughout the summer but it now appears that it'll be lifted next week. 

[Bin man]

We are booked on iona next September just had the tours sent to us from our T.A . That is their own tours not p and o . Wouldn't dream of booking any though .

[Harry Peterson]

Bearing in mind your husband’s age and medical condition, there’s quite a serious risk of course should he contract Covid-19.  Are you fully insured for all pre-existing conditions? 

[royallondon]

You may wish to consider pushing the date back, letting the uncertainty unfold and hopefully be nearer to a vaccine becoming available.

 

Wishing you all the best in whatever decision you come to.

 

Regards

[wowzz]

My advice would be to have a serious conversation with your insurance company,  and find out exactly  what you are covered for. 

Whilst everyone here wants to help, we do not have the full information. 

Unless you are 100% sure that you are covered, and you have the cover in writing, I wouldn't travel. 

Also, as it stands at present, the government advises against cruising for the over 70s,  so your insurance would be invalid.

[No pager thank you]

The only thing that I would add, from looking at the other posts and reviewing information on another thread including Oceana potentially leaving the fleet, is to hold off making any decisions just yet.

 

From another thread, P&O appear keen (not commenting on how sensible this is!) to phase a restart, starting with Azura and Britannia in the Caribbean, in time for the Winter season.  The view is that not all remaining P&O ships will enter service together.

 

Therefore it is possible, even if cruising can restart in mid October, that Iona may not start sailing at the outset.  This could mean, particularly if your cruise is at the start of November, that it may not go ahead.  If it doesn't go ahead of course, you will be entitled to your deposit back in cash, which would be a good idea to take and gives you greater flexibility than having to transfer your deposit on to an overpriced alternative.

 

It is possible, by whenever in August that you are due to pay your balance, that P&O will have confirmed if it intends to proceed with your cruise. 

 

Therefore, waiting until you have to make a decision is a good move, but I would concur with what has been said above about being clear on your insurance position and also thinking carefully around how comfortable you may feel in an adapted cruise ship environment. 

 

Hope this helps you.

[yorkshirephil]

We are only just starting to get back to something resembling normal, when the second wave comes we don't know how bad it could be, when the winter months come there could be a resurgence of Covid 19 whether mutated or not. There won't be a vaccine that is safe and effective by then, if ever. You are both already in high risk groups. Will your insurance cover you for Covid? Some of the measures the cruise lines are proposing could stop you getting on the ship if you had a raised temperature. Will the new cruise experience meet your needs. It is a big gamble, but only you can make the decision, I am sure a lot of the informative views already given will help you decide. Good luck whatever you decide.

[Chrisdriving]

The world is seeing record amounts of new cases and post lockdown countries are seeing rises in cases, lets be realistic in saying that we have not even began to deal with the Virus at present.

[cruisenewbie1976]

32 minutes ago, Chrisdriving said:

The world is seeing record amounts of new cases and post lockdown countries are seeing rises in cases, lets be realistic in saying that we have not even began to deal with the Virus at present.

The huge rise is number of cases is mainly coming from the Americas where you could argue that very little was done to try and control the virus. Europe seems fairly stable and the outbreaks that have occurred seem to have been dealt with successfully. Sweden seems to be the exception but they went for a different approach. 

[mercury7289]

30 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

The huge rise is number of cases is mainly coming from the Americas where you could argue that very little was done to try and control the virus. Europe seems fairly stable and the outbreaks that have occurred seem to have been dealt with successfully. Sweden seems to be the exception but they went for a different approach. 

Yap Yap-- New cases today 4th July.

 

North America   54488 

Asia                     53474

South America   47349

Africa                   15201

Europe                 11912

Oceana                107

 

Yap Yap GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, mercury7289 said:

Yap Yap-- New cases today 4th July.

 

North America   54488 

Asia                     53474

South America   47349

Africa                   15201

Europe                 11912

Oceana                107

 

Yap Yap GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

And no one actually believes the figures for South America or Africa.  How many unfortunate deceased persons in the favelas of Rio, or the refugee camps in Somalia are ever tested for CV19? 

[No pager thank you]

10 minutes ago, mercury7289 said:

Yap Yap-- New cases today 4th July

Oceana                107

 

 

Very much hope Oceana doesn't have 107 cases, with only 170 on board that would be very, very bad indeed!😉

 

More seriously, I must admit I have been amazed how positively New Zealand, Australia and the neighbouring island states have fared.  This is genuinely a continuing worldwide catastrophe, but they have been fortunately spared to a great extent, despite their large cities, ageing populations and deprivation issues.

 

I'll stop deviating from the point now, I think that the opening poster has a good selection of views now to consider in relation to their question.

[mercury7289]

3 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Very much hope Oceana doesn't have 107 cases, with only 170 on board that would be very, very bad indeed!😉

 

More seriously, I must admit I have been amazed how positively New Zealand, Australia and the neighbouring island states have fared.  This is genuinely a continuing worldwide catastrophe, but they have been fortunately spared to a great extent, despite their large cities, ageing populations and deprivation issues.

 

I'll stop deviating from the point now, I think that the opening poster has a good selection of views now to consider in relation to their question.

There but for an I!!  

Australia have implemented full lock down procedures in Melbourne, around a group of tower blocks.

So they are not clear of this awful pandemic.

But I do take your point

 

[wowzz]

19 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Very much hope Oceana doesn't have 107 cases, with only 170 on board that would be very, very bad indeed!😉

 

More seriously, I must admit I have been amazed how positively New Zealand, Australia and the neighbouring island states have fared.  This is genuinely a continuing worldwide catastrophe, but they have been fortunately spared to a great extent, despite their large cities, ageing populations and deprivation issues.

 

I'll stop deviating from the point now, I think that the opening poster has a good selection of views now to consider in relation to their question.

Interesting to read on the BBC news tonight, that whilst New Zealand has had considerable success with its lockdown, the tourist industry, which is a major factor in the economy, is in free fall. So much so that many "experts" are now saying that the lockdown needs to be reversed, as the economic consequences will cause more deaths than CV19.

[No pager thank you]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

Interesting to read on the BBC news tonight, that whilst New Zealand has had considerable success with its lockdown, the tourist industry, which is a major factor in the economy, is in free fall. So much so that many "experts" are now saying that the lockdown needs to be reversed, as the economic consequences will cause more deaths than CV19.

Yes, I have read those similar reports too.  Also, relating to cruising, the recent remarks from Simon Calder about his doubts if cruising would return, somewhat pessimistic. Most pessimistic so far, I believe that the Seychelles has banned ships until at least 2022.  More positively, I have also read from Carnival that there is potentially a preference against fly cruising (in favour of home departures) in the first instance, pushing back on  other comments earlier this week.

 

Ultimately and addressing your point, there is a trade off between primary and secondary mortality factors linked the devastating broader effects of the virus.  The "narrow path" as described by the Chief Medical Officer this week.

 

The economic effects, matched with the overall leverage and clout of the cruise ship industry worldwide, is what makes me think that a way to restart cruising will be found, prior to the fundamental issue around what to do with other passengers on board a ship where an outbreak of Covid-19 occurs is successfully addressed. This will likely be prior to the deployment of a vaccine and other therapeutics.

 

Annie, on the other thread, was correct I believe about the situation in port; I would have thought that there would be some sort of fudge in other cases to avoid the Diamond Princess scenario repeating.  What I don't know from reading the CLIA report is what the fudge will be.  There are 50 or so pages though around how to avoid the fudge!

 

Overall, this is why I am not yet convinced that Iona is not going to sail this Winter, including November, despite the voices otherwise.  Am I definite, of course not, feels about 30:70 against to me, just also feel that the possibility cannot be excluded. 

 

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

Interesting to read on the BBC news tonight, that whilst New Zealand has had considerable success with its lockdown, the tourist industry, which is a major factor in the economy, is in free fall. So much so that many "experts" are now saying that the lockdown needs to be reversed, as the economic consequences will cause more deaths than CV19.

It is very possible that the economic fallout could seriously affect NZ for years to come, buy how do you determine which deaths were entirely due the economy?

[No pager thank you]

14 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

It is very possible that the economic fallout could seriously affect NZ for years to come, buy how do you determine which deaths were entirely due the economy?

All that can be done is to look prospectively at "all cause excess mortality" from a normal five year running average, for the next few years.

 

If NZ does better on this metric, by head of population, than "insert country of choice" you can suggest that it has either managed the pandemic impacts better (medical plus economic) or has been more fortunate.