FCO advises against all cruise travel, today

[pete14]

2 hours ago, pete14 said:

I have to wonder what the government are hoping to achieve here. They are quoted as saying it is likely to last until October. P&O and presumably other cruise lines are not planning on running cruises until October, they are all cancelled. All this will do is cause problems with people having to pay cruise balances and cause potential issues with travel insurance if fco advice is still warning against cruise travel. It will not cause people to cancel pre October cruises because there aren’t any. All this seems to be doing is makIng ministers feel self important and being seen to be doing something to justify their position.

It also raises the possibility that P&O will announce that cruises will restart in mid October as they are hoping, having taken all precautions to ensure safety, only for the government to advise against them. Worse than that, as the government seem committed to October, we could end up with them announcing a change in the travel advisory just a couple of days before cruises start. In this situation, P&O are unlikely to refund and travel insurance will not cover for cancellation. I guess they will come to a compromise but the uncertainty for passengers will not be helpful. Had they left it at indefinite, this potential uncertainty could have been avoided.

[kenhem]

19 minutes ago, CABINET said:

I am sorry but obviously not surprised to hear that Parking4cruises has gone under.

 

We have used them many times and always been extremely impressed with the service.

Is this correct? Just saying because their website is still live and you are able to still book parking? Like you I will be disappointed if they did stop trading. 

[cruisenewbie1976]

10 minutes ago, kenhem said:

Is this correct? Just saying because their website is still live and you are able to still book parking? Like you I will be disappointed if they did stop trading. 

Its not parking4cruises that had allegedly gone into administration. It was CruisePark Southampton Ltd. 

[Bin man]

Just checking my spam folder noticed an email from p and o saying about latest fco update strange address came through as p&amp.ocruises .com dont know what the amp part has to do with it guess that's why it went into spam. Looked genuine well at least it was signed by Paul Ludlow😄😄😄

[Cathygh]

32 minutes ago, Bin man said:

Just checking my spam folder noticed an email from p and o saying about latest fco update strange address came through as p&amp.ocruises .com dont know what the amp part has to do with it guess that's why it went into spam. Looked genuine well at least it was signed by Paul Ludlow😄😄😄

amp is short for ampersand - the '&' symbol

Not had an email yet

Cathy

[Bin man]

Thanks for reply you learn things every day  .Might Come up  as a quiz question one day 

[Denarius]

5 hours ago, tring said:

 

 Looked at the wording on our policy which is similar - any chance a cruise could be considered an "event"?  Advice from someone who is well up on consumer law, seems it is unlikely, but would not be surprised if they try. Your view would be interesting as I know it is your area of knowledge.

I was an actuary not a lawyer, but .....

My annual policy excludes "your travel to a country or specific area or event to which the Travel Advice Unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the World Health Organisation has advised the public not to travel." A cruise is definately not a country or specific area, but is it an event within the legal meaning thereof? I agree that common sense dictates that it is not, within the general perception of the term; of a specific activity taking place at a specific location and time. But as I said, I am not a lawyer.....

[tring]

5 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I was an actuary not a lawyer, but .....

My annual policy excludes "your travel to a country or specific area or event to which the Travel Advice Unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the World Health Organisation has advised the public not to travel." A cruise is definately not a country or specific area, but is it an event within the legal meaning thereof? I agree that common sense dictates that it is not, within the general perception of the term; of a specific activity taking place at a specific location and time. But as I said, I am not a lawyer.....

 

Thanks, I got the impression you worked in insurance in the past.  Talking again to DH he thinks a cruise may be considered an event if it was a specific topic cruise, (e.g. a music cruise), but not entirely sure.  As you said elsewhere though cruises will not be leaving the UK whist the advice is in place.

[Ardennais]

11 hours ago, davecttr said:

This what worries me, I have a 7 night Norway cruise booked on Iona next May in a balcony cabin. I like Norway and the attraction of the cruise itinerary is the visits to Olden and Geiranger, even if you don't go ashore there is the long cruises through the fjords, The other calls are Stavanger and Haugosund, neither in what I would call a fjord. The worry is after I pay the final deposit P&O decide they are not visiting those long fjords after all and insist it is not a major change of itinerary so no I can't have a refund.
 

P&O changed 2 out of 4 ports on a Norway cruise we went on a few years ago and they did it just after we paid the final balance. So a 50% change. My TA tried her best to get some sort of compensation like OBC but to no avail. It wasn’t a major problem but I didn’t like their attitude at all.

 

[sidekick180]

On 7/9/2020 at 4:47 PM, ToxM said:

I heard mention of a parking company going under today as well ... parkcruises? 

It's Cruise park southampton. Unless there is another that has closed down. They emailed me the other day to say that they have to close because of theCovid 19 and the impact it has had on their business. I had parking booked with them for my cruise starting tomorrow, which obviously got cancelled. The cruise company issued me with a credit for parking with them in the future. They are now going to give me a refund, which hopefully I will get. Real shame that they had to close though.

[Denarius]

3 hours ago, tring said:

 

Thanks, I got the impression you worked in insurance in the past.  Talking again to DH he thinks a cruise may be considered an event if it was a specific topic cruise, (e.g. a music cruise), but not entirely sure.  As you said elsewhere though cruises will not be leaving the UK whist the advice is in place.

I did. I was an executive director of a life and general insurance company

Personally I would regard cruising as an activity rather than an event, which to me implies a special occasion. But at its most basic, I suppose that you could regard an event as anything which happens. The lawyers would have a field day! But in reality I cannot see UK cruise companies recommencing cruising whilst this advice is still in force; so the question is probably academic unless you intend to cruise with a company based in a less risk averse country!

Edited July 10, 2020 by Denarius

[CABINET]

21 hours ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Its not parking4cruises that had allegedly gone into administration. It was CruisePark Southampton Ltd. 

 

Very pleased to hear this about parking4cruises.  Sad for Cruisepark though.

[Aqueous]

 The incident on the Diamond Princess (Cruise Liner) that immunity was far more widespread than previously thought. Readers might recall that only 17% of the people on board tested Covid-positive, “despite an ideal environment for mass spread, implying 83% of the people were somehow protected from the new virus.”

Think about that for a minute. All of the passengers were 60 years old or older, but only 17% caught the virus. Why?

Immunity, that’s why. What else could it be? Cross immunity, natural immunity, or SARS-CoV-2 T-cell immunity. Whatever you want to call it.

[Harry Peterson]

35 minutes ago, Aqueous said:

 The incident on the Diamond Princess (Cruise Liner) that immunity was far more widespread than previously thought. Readers might recall that only 17% of the people on board tested Covid-positive, “despite an ideal environment for mass spread, implying 83% of the people were somehow protected from the new virus.”

Think about that for a minute. All of the passengers were 60 years old or older, but only 17% caught the virus. Why?

Immunity, that’s why. What else could it be? Cross immunity, natural immunity, or SARS-CoV-2 T-cell immunity. Whatever you want to call it.

I see you’ve lifted all that from elsewhere. It’s all over Twitter and Facebook, repeated time after time after time. Quite where it originated, who knows, but it seems to be linked with the Swedish ‘experiment’ and pressure groups pushing for no further lockdowns. There’s no evidence of any real consequence as yet on the natural or herd immunity theories, but that won’t stop those with an agenda.

 

 

[FamilyCruiserUK]

So how would cruising start again and would you go.

 

1, 50-60% OCCUPANCY.

2, No ports of call.

3, 7 days only cruising.

4, Covid test before boarding. (Not sure on turn around time for tests)

5, Longer boarding for above.

6, Longer time post cruise to next cruise to allow testing of staff and cleaning of ships

7, Enhanced hand washing and cleaning on board.

 

Just some very quick ideas of how to start cruising. After all you can sit on a plane full of unknown infected people..!!!!!!

[mercury7289]

10 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

So how would cruising start again and would you go.

 

1, 50-60% OCCUPANCY.

2, No ports of call.

3, 7 days only cruising.

4, Covid test before boarding. (Not sure on turn around time for tests)

5, Longer boarding for above.

6, Longer time post cruise to next cruise to allow testing of staff and cleaning of ships

7, Enhanced hand washing and cleaning on board.

 

Just some very quick ideas of how to start cruising. After all you can sit on a plane full of unknown infected people..!!!!!!

No!

[zap99]

18 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

So how would cruising start again and would you go.

 

1, 50-60% OCCUPANCY.

2, No ports of call.

3, 7 days only cruising.

4, Covid test before boarding. (Not sure on turn around time for tests)

5, Longer boarding for above.

6, Longer time post cruise to next cruise to allow testing of staff and cleaning of ships

7, Enhanced hand washing and cleaning on board.

 

Just some very quick ideas of how to start cruising. After all you can sit on a plane full of unknown infected people..!!!!!!

8. No Grumpy people allowed.

 

Sounds ok. Put us down for 2 in a balcony cabin please

 Prefer Norwegian fjords. Any thoughts on the entertainment?😁.

[Harry Peterson]

21 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

So how would cruising start again and would you go.

 

1, 50-60% OCCUPANCY.

2, No ports of call.

3, 7 days only cruising.

4, Covid test before boarding. (Not sure on turn around time for tests)

5, Longer boarding for above.

6, Longer time post cruise to next cruise to allow testing of staff and cleaning of ships

7, Enhanced hand washing and cleaning on board.

 

Just some very quick ideas of how to start cruising. After all you can sit on a plane full of unknown infected people..!!!!!!

Not a chance.  I’d sooner spend the week in the garden!

[Adawn47]

22 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

So how would cruising start again and would you go.

 

1, 50-60% OCCUPANCY.

2, No ports of call.

3, 7 days only cruising.

4, Covid test before boarding. (Not sure on turn around time for tests)

5, Longer boarding for above.

6, Longer time post cruise to next cruise to allow testing of staff and cleaning of ships

7, Enhanced hand washing and cleaning on board.

 

Just some very quick ideas of how to start cruising. After all you can sit on a plane full of unknown infected people..!!!!!!

I'd give it some serious thought. I suppose it depends on how fed up we were and how much we needed to just get away from the same four walls, if only to relax and be out at sea.

Avril 

[SarahHben]

30 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

So how would cruising start again and would you go.

 

1, 50-60% OCCUPANCY.

2, No ports of call.

3, 7 days only cruising.

4, Covid test before boarding. (Not sure on turn around time for tests)

5, Longer boarding for above.

6, Longer time post cruise to next cruise to allow testing of staff and cleaning of ships

7, Enhanced hand washing and cleaning on board.

 

Just some very quick ideas of how to start cruising. After all you can sit on a plane full of unknown infected people..!!!!!!

I would, not sure my husband could cope with no ports of call though. I could always go without him 😁

[zap99]

9 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Not a chance.  I’d sooner spend the week in the garden!

You obviously read rule 8.😂

[terrierjohn]

Not sure I would be happy with no ports of call, nor would I want to travel all the way to Southampton for just a one week holiday, and certainly not unless the ship was going somewhere hot and sunny.

So I am hoping P&O will be looking to restart their cruising with the existing itineraries.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by terrierjohn

[Britboys]

I love sea days but would not want 7 on the trot without looking forward to seeing somewhere different at the end. I.E. I could do 7 days across the Atlantic knowing I would be getting off in New York but not 7 days bobbing around the North Sea and getting back off in Southampton.

I could cope with the rest of it but as I've said before, the on-board experience is just as important. If there is social distancing on board and rules around only eating with your party, that sort of thing is also a 'no thanks' from me. I'd rather spend 3 or 4 days at a Warner Hotel, where you can choose to escape in the daytime.

[Britboys]

Just now, terrierjohn said:

Not sure I would be happy with no ports of call, nor would I want to travel all the way to Southampton for just a one week holiday.

So I am hoping P&O will be looking to restart their cruising with the existing itineraries.

 

As things stand at the moment that looks a forlorn hope - but only time will tell.

[Harry Peterson]

How are they planning to deal with the obvious issues around the narrow corridors? Question asked of a cruise spokesman yesterday on R4, but he dodged answering it.

Perhaps one way systems?