This Does Not Work For Me: Free Roam Port Ban

[Cruiseathoning]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cruise-lines-plan-ban-passengers-224900008.html (from freely roaming the port) 

 

One of the best times we ever had as a couple was spending the day in Key West and being able to walk around to Ripley's, get some conch, meet locals, and play in the rain.

I am not spending $$ to have someone tell me what to do.

You might.  To each their own.

I went to a Dr. recently and the office asked me if I have recently traveled to a high risk area for Covid.  Talk about oblivious.

I expect once there is a vaccine, and of course a requirement, this issue will self-resolve.  But I don't love cruising enough to have someone Big Brother me.

 

No cruise lines need to send me solicitations until this is resolved.  So I am unsubscribing from all of them.

 

Nevertheless, if you choose to cruise, all the best.

 

[cruizergal70]

Okay. Thanks??

 

[bafinegan]

I wonder how that will affect private islands and cruise line owned docks/ports?

 

baf

[edspec]

To each their own.  Their boat, their rules.

[BlerkOne]

I'm no radical and have no problem complying.

[MeganGC1983]

We’ve never taken a Carnival excursion. NEVER! It’s gonna be weird for sure, but we will try it out in January. 

[bobandsherry]

Guess we'll miss seeing you for a year. I can deal with that for a year until vaccine is finalized and allows life to get back to normal.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[firefly333]

3 minutes ago, MeganGC1983 said:

We’ve never taken a Carnival excursion. NEVER! It’s gonna be weird for sure, but we will try it out in January. 

I was looking at my next cruises excursions and it says pick a time, though you can stay past the tour and go back and see the animals or go to the beach. 

 

Someone speculated all the different times are so they can send more buses and stagger folks more. Never saw a 3 hour excursion say pick a time to go before. Maybe morning or afternoon, but not every 30 minutes. 

[MeganGC1983]

14 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I was looking at my next cruises excursions and it says pick a time, though you can stay past the tour and go back and see the animals or go to the beach. 

 

Someone speculated all the different times are so they can send more buses and stagger folks more. Never saw a 3 hour excursion say pick a time to go before. Maybe morning or afternoon, but not every 30 minutes. 

We have very long port times at 2 of our ports... Aruba- 8-11, Bonaire- 8-10 I can see how staggering would get everyone rotated in. It also means we are looking at 2 excursions on those days... something like snorkeling in the morning and sunset cruise or dinner and bar hop in the evening. Wanna use all the time we can since we can’t go out on our own.... that is IF our ports don’t change. Always gotta factor that in as well. 

[JT1962]

Some cruisers will not be happy with this, but the proposal applies to the crew as well (as it obviously would need to):

“CLIA spokeswoman Laziza Lambert said that means passengers won’t be allowed to venture off on their own. “Guests and crew would only be allowed to partake in preplanned excursions within well-defined boundaries,” she said in an email.”

I can’t imagine working on a ship for months at a time and not being able to get off to be on my own for a few hours during what little free time I may get. Many crew members go ashore to use Internet cafes, shop for basic necessities, have a meal or drink somewhere besides the ship, spend time at the beach, visit friends or family, etc. Hopefully the cruise lines will arrange for ways for them to still be able to do some of these things safely.

[LHARTWICK]

Hubby and I have no issue staying on the ship in each port either. We’ve done that frequently for recent cruises if we’ve already visited that port several times. I will miss being able to go into port and shop a little.  But this too shall pass.  Cruising will certainly be different for a while, but eventually it will return to somewhat of a normal experience as we’ve seen before.  Some things will change for good, but the Overall enjoyable cruise will return someday.  Until then, we’ll comply - we just love it too much.  But yes - to each his own.  Happy cruising regardless of which side you are on! 

[Sillyjilly]

The ship is my destination. Just get me out to sea again.

[TNcruising02]

They have to do what they have to do.  Going on a ship sponsored excursion wouldn't bother me.  I can understand how that would ruin a port experience for those who love to do their own thing.  Until things get back to normal, there are going to be restrictions.  

I don't like wearing a mask, so that's the worst rule for me.  I have no issue with getting a covid test, going on ship sponsored tours, or social distancing.  I have a balcony booked for my April cruise so that I know I can at least sit on my balcony without a mask.  Hopefully, by then there will be a vaccine and the ships will require proof of it and/or covid tests so that we could cruise without masks.  We've been on a lot of ship sponsored tours, so it's no big deal to me.

[trvlgirlmq]

Agreed. My next cruise was booked before anyone ever heard of COVID. I sure hope they offer me a chance to cancel and get a refund. I am not spending twice as much money for half as much time at sites and be paraded with 60 other people who I don’t want to spend time with on my vacation. 

[Butterbean1000]

This is a shame.  Our favorite thing to do at new ports is to go exploring on our own.  We call it free styling.   We have had so many wonderful adventures doing this. We will be visiting two new ports on our upcoming cruise.  We have friends in Aruba and were counting on them to show us their island.  We don't usually go for excursions. Too restricted and confining. Being forced to spend money on an excursion just to get off the ship is akin to being held hostage.   Extreme analogy, but that's what it feels like. 

[hurricane0226]

I like ship excursions, always guarantees you will make it back to the ship and they would not leave you. 

[nybumpkin]

22 minutes ago, trvlgirlmq said:

Agreed. My next cruise was booked before anyone ever heard of COVID. I sure hope they offer me a chance to cancel and get a refund. I am not spending twice as much money for half as much time at sites and be paraded with 60 other people who I don’t want to spend time with on my vacation. 

Based on your signature, it looks like you're on our sailing or a similar one. We too booked long before COVID. If this were a Caribbean sailing, I'd be happy to just stay on the ship if I didn't want to do a ship excursion. But this is British Isles - the ship is not the destination on this one. If this ends up looking too restrictive, I'm inclined to cancel and book a B2B Transatlantic on QM2 (we already have the Eastbound booked to get to the Legend cruise). Nothing against ship excursions - we've done plenty - but I'm inclined to wait on the British Isles until the restrictions are relaxed.

 

Edited September 26, 2020 by nybumpkin

[crewsweeper]

Exploring on own. Researching what's best in a port. Supporting local independent guides. All make a cruise memorable.   If required to take a ship excursion just to get off in a port, we'll consider but if nothing perks our desires, or the ship charges 3X what an excursion is worth,  we'll stay on board.  Love ports, but prefer more sea days, especially on the mega ships.

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, bobandsherry said:

Guess we'll miss seeing you for a year. I can deal with that for a year until vaccine is finalized and allows life to get back to normal.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
 

I think you are going to be waiting a lot longer than a year before life gets back to normal. No vaccine under development is going to eradicate this virus. Most experts (scientists, doctors, etc) have stated a vaccine in the near future will likely have an efficacy rate between 50 - 60 percent at best. Additionally, there is a significant percentage of the population that won’t take any vaccine for this virus. Obviously any approved proven vaccine will help, but issues like social distancing, wearing a mask, frequent hand washing, etc. are likely to be with us for a long time.  

[PhillyFan33579]

19 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

This is a shame.  Our favorite thing to do at new ports is to go exploring on our own.  We call it free styling.   We have had so many wonderful adventures doing this. We will be visiting two new ports on our upcoming cruise.  We have friends in Aruba and were counting on them to show us their island.  We don't usually go for excursions. Too restricted and confining. Being forced to spend money on an excursion just to get off the ship is akin to being held hostage.   Extreme analogy, but that's what it feels like. 

My wife and I feel the same way that it is more fun to explore ports on our own. Over the years we have found lots of restaurants and bars that we have visited countless times at numerous ports. I can only recall a few excursions we have taken in almost 40 cruises. The only point I feel differently about is your hostage comment...no one is forcing anyone to go on a cruise. 

[Butterbean1000]

14 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

My wife and I feel the same way that it is more fun to explore ports on our own. Over the years we have found lots of restaurants and bars that we have visited countless times at numerous ports. I can only recall a few excursions we have taken in almost 40 cruises. The only point I feel differently about is your hostage comment...no one is forcing anyone to go on a cruise. 

As I stated, that analogy is a bit extreme.  Of course,  we are not being forced to cruise, however when we booked our next cruise, having to pay for an excursion to get off the ship was not an issue.  So, yes, we feel like hostages.  We can only hope that Carnival will give those of us who chose not to cruise under these circumstances a penalty free cancelation option. 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Butterbean1000

[stellarose]

it depends on the port.  I in Bermuda we did our own tour.  most times I do take the Carnival excursions bc I know that I won't be left behind and they are generally good. I had an amazing one in Belize last winter. 

[ontheweb]

Once the cruise lines establish that they can enforce the only way off the ship in a ;port is their excursion, does anyone really believe they will be in any rush to rescind this policy? It's a nice revenue enhancer after all.

[Purvis1231]

We have never had a problem taking a ship board excursion. I suspect the will arrange port tours especially in places like Cozumel, Costa Maya, Grand Turk, and places like that where the cruises lines have built up a lot businesses at the dock areas so that passengers can walk around those areas. In any case for us the ship board experience is the main draw for cruising. 

[Tapi]

I normally don’t do ship sponsored excursions, and we do things on our own, but having to do excursions temporarily until things return to a semblance of normalcy, is not as huge problem. I’ll deal with it.
 

I canceled my original cruise. Instead of aport intensive itinerary where I’ll feel deprived if I can’t go on my own, I’ve chosen an itinerary specifically to minimize the impact of this and other rules presented. Rather than saying “heck no”, I’m adjusting my plans accordingly.

 

The way I look at it, I can either stay home and forego going on cruises until these rules are lifted, or I can go on cruises with the new rules in place. In the grand scheme of things, the excursion rule is not a deal breaker, just a nuisance. 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Tapi