Comment on Restarting Cruising

[rkacruiser]

3 hours ago, GeorgesGal said:

My favorite restaurant for a properly cooked medium rare rib eye happens to be my kitchen for cooking it to my doneness, and sitting on my porch while dining!  Good company too.  Will start the process at seven tonight!

 

Did my invitation for dinner get lost in the mail?  😄

 

Best wishes for a delicious dinner!  

[Hlitner]

Lets be clear, the elevator problem is huge for cruise ships and has not been addressed in the various plans.  Large ships may have as many as 16 passenger decks (even more if you add the crew decks) and it is a rare cruise passenger who can always rely on the steps to move vertically about a ship.  Restricting an elevator to only 1 person (or a family) would quickly lead to gridlock...even with reduced capacity.   When we recently rented a Condo in Myrtle Beach our 15 story building had 3 large elevators (several times the size of most cruise ship elevators) but they still limited the elevators to a single family.  It worked fine in that particular building because they had 3 large elevators that moved quickly.  

 

About 10 years ago, DW and I decided to try and deal with the Upper Respiratory Infections (URIs) that DW would often get on our cruises.  We cruise about 100 days a year and DW would routinely get what many of us call "cabin cough" which often needed weeks of follow-up treatment (often with steroids) after we returned home.  So we developed our own simply mitiagtion plan which was to avoid using elevators to the extent possible and move away from folks who were constantly coughing or sneezing.  Not only did we gain the physical fitness benefit of using the stairs, but DW's incidence of URIs significantly decreased!   We give most of the credit to minimizing use of crowded ship elevators which are basically small chambers where you cannot escape the germs/viruses from a person who sneezed, coughs, etc.

 

So now the cruise lines think they can make things safe by more cleaning, some changes in the Lido, etc.  Using HEPA filters might help although there are no studies or science to support that better HVAC filtering will help.  In the absence of really good studies (i.e. we do not know what we do not know) the cruise lines are talking about adopting measures that sound more like a PR campaign rather then anything that will be really effective.   The reality is that there is currently no known way to keep that virus off ships and once on a ship nobody knows (for sure) how it will spread.  Social distancing seems to be the one measure that everyone agrees is helpful and it is also nearly impossible to do on a large mass market ship.  Even assuming that 6 feet is enough distance (some studies show it is not nearly enough) how is that possible in elevators, on deck, etc.  Has anyone ever seen a mass market cruise ship with deck loungers separated by 6 feet?   And how on earth can folks social distance in theaters, lounges, bars, queues, etc?   Sure, we can wear masks (whether this truly helps is also open to debate) and try to keep our distance but this is not the kind of cruise vacation most seek.  And what happens at ports?  Mandatory excursions are a joke in many ports.  Yes, you might be able to bus a group to a private  beach and have some kind of armed guards to keep folks separate.   But forget shopping, eating, browsing, etc.

 

Hank

[KirkNC]

I agree and that’s why we might not be cruising until 2022.  I think people have been so focused on the restart that many have not focused on what the experience will be like.  I know some say they just want to be on a ship but their opinions may change once they are on one.

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, lazey1 said:

 

No, I could not cruise if elevators were not available to me. The answer is could not, believe me I wish that I could climb stairs and still breathe.

 

What would you do in case of an emergency (e.g., abandon ship) when elevators can't be used?  Do staff/crew identify those who need help in such a situation?  It would seem rather risky to me...

 

[bennybear]

Again,  look at Mein Schiff.   They pretested for covid everyone who then flew on charter planes to the ship.   The ship sailed about one quarter the capacity.  Elevators are limited to four people.  

 

So it has and can be done.    And people enjoyed themselves.  

 

The decision will simply be if you if you choose to do so, once they are operating again.  In the meantime, stay safe. 

Edited October 5, 2020 by bennybear

[rkacruiser]

20 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

What would you do in case of an emergency (e.g., abandon ship) when elevators can't be used?  Do staff/crew identify those who need help in such a situation?  It would seem rather risky to me...

 

 

It's made very clear in the instructions provided for the Muster Drill that if one requires special assistance, they are to inform the Front Office of such.  There are specific designated crew members who are assigned to assist such persons in getting to their assembly stations and, I assume, to their lifeboats/liferafts if so required.

 

I would imagine that the Stairway Guides, if they saw a guest struggling with dealing with the stairs, would either help those guests or would try to summon the crew designated to help such guests.