CDC Director Overruled On Cruise Ship Ban

[firefly333]

Just now, SOCACRUISEGUY said:

I’m at risk and I want to be alive. I also have to work with the public to support my family.  The issue is the general public wants to “live their life” with total disregard about anyone else around them. This isn’t just about an Individual, this is a collective effort. 

That's kind of a unfair generalization. I havent even eaten in a restaurant. Took me months before I finally did drive thru food pick ups. Most rowdy thing I've done is get my car inspected to get my license plate renewal. 

 

My parents have left their house 1 or 2 times at most, doctors visits. They are sheltering in place.

 

Masks required here or you cant go in. Havent seen anyone not wearing one. Those at risk for age reasons I know are staying home still. 

[Moviela]

The CDC order expires in a little over an hour, and just like people everywhere if they can avoid making a decision, they will.

 

The CLIA's "voluntary" shut down lasts until October 31. The CDC is saying it wants to kick the can down the road to the same spot. I don't see how they can let the Sept. 30th expire, then enforce the new order without publishing the new No Sail order in the Federal Register. They really don't need to enforce it because no ship wants to sail before November. They want to reserve the ability to extend it at the CDC. 

 

Listening to the man who runs the agency, he said a mask is better than a vaccine. I have no medical training, but I am sure I don't believe a mask is better.

[PhillyFan33579]

51 minutes ago, Moviela said:

The CDC order expires in a little over an hour, and just like people everywhere if they can avoid making a decision, they will.

I think you are off by 24 hours. 

[CCLcruiser91]

This is getting ridiculous.  I would feel safer on a large cruise ship vs an airplane were there is no social distancing.

 

So it's okay for the CDC to destroy the cruise industry and allow the airlines to continue flying?

 

Enough is enough.

 

Let's start cruising again in November!

[hurricane0226]

Yes, let's start in November as the cruise lines have been planning all along. They have a plan in place, and if

you do not want to go then that's fine, but don't penalize everyone else that does.

[xDisconnections]

2 hours ago, hurricane0226 said:

People need to be able to go to work IMHO.

Sure, it’s nice being able to go to work but how do they need to be able to go to work in the cruise industry? There are many other opportunities available and one shouldn’t be sitting around waiting this long for an employment opportunity.

 

PS- my industry is heavily connected to the cruise industry and is suffering as well. It is what it is.

Edited September 30, 2020 by xDisconnections

[hornje77]

Long time lurker...first time poster. Single dad trying to take his kids (8 and 3) on a Thanksgiving cruise. Mom won't let our 8 year old start 3rd grade in the classroom yet, but even she recognizes that the first cruises out are likely to be the safest environment anyone could ask for and will allow them to go if they sail. 

 

It's time to let the public make their own decisions and determine for themselves what an acceptable risk is. Put the protocols in place, whatever they may be, and let each person decide for themselves if they are acceptable. 

 

This pandemic has been a wake up call for society. It has reinforced the need to be conscious of our health and sadly, our personal hygenie. 

 

If we don't try something, we will never accomplish anything. This virus isn't going away so we need to figure out how to live with it, while people much smarter than us work on eliminating it. 

 

Let the ships sail November 1st and let's try. We have to start somewhere. 

 

Of course my passport needs renewed before I go, but I'd rather cancel for that reason (under the relaxed covid restrictions for refunds/rebooking of course) than to continue watching our society cower in fear. 🤷‍♂️

[RWolver672]

5 hours ago, hurricane0226 said:

Yes, let's start in November as the cruise lines have been planning all along. They have a plan in place, and if

you do not want to go then that's fine, but don't penalize everyone else that does.

 

As of right now, they are penalizing the ones that don't want to go though.  

 

We have a cruise booked for the third cruise of the Mardi Gras.  I contacted our PVP yesterday to see if we could cancel that cruise.  We booked with a reduced rate of $198 for the two of us.  We then put $500 down on the account to get the $100 off from AMEX.  If we cancel now, we stand to lose $463.  

 

We can however put that money towards a different cruise.  Does anyone out there have a crystal ball that could tell us when cruising will be back to normal.  No wearing masks, not social distancing, no only way to get off the ship is through one of their excursions that don't appeal to us.  

 

If I order something and when it gets here, it's not what I ordered, I send it back and expect a full refund.  Same with a cruise.  I booked wanting to be able to roam freely like we have for the past twelve cruises that we've taken.  Not the case anymore.

 

I don't have a problem with the lines starting back up for those that want to cruise.  The problem I have is that those that don't want to take the chance are forced to either book another cruise or lose what they've put down on their current booking.

[chengkp75]

I suspect that the 30 day extension is what the CDC was hoping for when they floated the February date.  This gives them the required time to review the "request for information" and formulate the new federal regulations that that forum was a pre-requisite to.  I am thinking that all of the requirements of the no sail order will become permanent federal regulations as of 1 Nov.

[lobster1313]

3 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

I've got two Carnival cruises left. It's not the line I dislike, it's the inability of its passengers to follow directions. If Carnival starts sailing in November, it will look like the beached of Florida.

Stick to bashing your own state since most of the Florida pictures were taken before the Pandemic 

 

Carnival will enforce the rules because they want to sail and it will be similar to how its done in Europ3.

[Earthworm Jim]

11 hours ago, hurricane0226 said:

So cruising might start Nov 1st?

 

Yes, it might. Or it might start any day thereafter. We just know it won't restart before November 1st. Whether there is another extension beyond October 31st has yet to be seen.

 

Actually, I'd guess even being able to start November 1st if the order is not extended is questionable. I assume Carnival would need enough warning to get everything in place to sail on November 1st. So the CDC would have to inform the cruise lines in advance that they were going to let it expire. It's not like Carnival could be waiting for the minutes to tick down until midnight Saturday, October 31st to see if the order is allowed to expire and then be ready to board people at noon Sunday, November 1st.

 

I don't know how much warning they'd need, but it might be substantial to get the ships and crew where they need to be and trained in all the new procedures.

[Earthworm Jim]

Either way, extended or not, sitting here without official word as to whether the no sail order will be extended less than 24 hours before it expires is no way to run a railroad. Whatever they are going to do should have been announced well before this.

[cruizergal70]

10 hours ago, SCDreamWeaver said:

Define what living means to you and it will become much more clear that those that are at risk need to be taking the protective measures, everyone else needs to go back to actually being alive....

Are you kidding? Living has nothing to do with the optionnal act of going on a frivolous cruise vacation.  Life will be 100% okay if cruising shut down completely. Let's keep the real important things in life in perspective. 

[Linda the Book Lover]

It is time to cruise, period. MSC is doing well in Europe and added another ship to their sailings. Yes, there are still cases popping up but I think especially since one could fly all of these months we should also be able to cruise with a good protocol in place. 

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I can’t disagree with anything you said. I am probably guilty of putting too much blame on the CDC. But I also think the CDC is guilty of placing too much blame on the cruise industry. 

I don't feel the CDC placed any blame on the cruise industry.  They set up requirements based on best practices, to protect the health of the US public at large, not the cruising sub-set.  The industry has not come back until just now with suggestions that are "doable" to meet those requirements.

1 hour ago, BroadwayGirl said:

 

Absolutely guilty of targeting the cruise industry while airlines, trains, large destination resorts, and theme parks are now open.   Yes, the start of Covid and the cruise industry was kind of a disaster (and some of it not the cruise lines fault like not letting anyone off)  but they need to use what they learned to protect cruisers just like were using what they learned to protect in other areas of travel.  

CDC has no mandate over resorts and theme parks.  They can't enforce anything on them.  Airlines and trains have not been shown to be major transmission vectors for the virus, while cruise ships have.  Other areas of travel are different environments to cruising, and those different areas of travel include essential travel.

1 hour ago, Linda the Book Lover said:

It is time to cruise, period. MSC is doing well in Europe and added another ship to their sailings. Yes, there are still cases popping up but I think especially since one could fly all of these months we should also be able to cruise with a good protocol in place. 

Again, the big difference is that Europe has universal health care, and the EU has agreed that the cruise lines can make agreements with local public health agencies to care for ill passengers and quarantine those who need it.  In the US, with our public hospitals run by for profit corporations, and not having universal health care, the CDC does not want cruise ships to overburden that local, state, or federal health care system, and so requires that ill passengers and those needing quarantine be handled by private firms contracted to the cruise lines.  Until just recently, when the advisory board recommended that this be adopted, the cruise lines had fought tooth and nail against it.

[CJHAN]

I hope this slightly faster ending of the ban doesn’t hut cruising in the long run. The first COVID outbreak aboard ship is going to be a disaster for cruising. I hope they not rushing this return.


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[Mawamw]

57 minutes ago, CJHAN said:

I hope this slightly faster ending of the ban doesn’t hut cruising in the long run. The first COVID outbreak aboard ship is going to be a disaster for cruising. I hope they not rushing this return.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Hopefully that's the motivation the cruise-lines need to make sure that they are as safe and smart as possible, and that they require the utmost compliance from their guests  at all times on board.

[HLGW60]

I think it would not be wise for cruise lines to ignore the advice of scientists and infectious disease specialists and sail again based purely on political considerations during an election season.  

[Don Kehote]

Science...is a liar sometimes.

 

This is Aristotle, thought to be the smartest man on the planet. He believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and everyone believed him because he was so smart.  Until another smartest guy came along, Galileo, and he disproved that theory, making Aristotle and everybody else on Earth look like a...fool.

 

'Course, Galileo thought comets were an optical illusion, and there was no way the moon could cause the ocean's tides, and everybody believed that because he was so smart.  He was also wrong, making him and everyone else on Earth look like a fool again!

 

Then, best of all, Sir Isaac Newton gets born, and blows everyone's shoes off with his big brains. 'Course, he also thought he could turn metal into gold, and died eating mercury, making him yet another fool.

 

Are you seeing a pattern?  These were all the smartest scientists on the planet.  Only problem is, they kept being wrong. 

 

Sometimes.

[Cruiseboy06]

18 hours ago, hurricane0226 said:

Hope I get to sail Nov 21st.

unlikely......

[Cruiseboy06]

if the no sail order is lifted on Oct 31st it does not mean that cruises will resume on Nov 1st..   There are many steps  to restart cruising, especially now

[PhillyFan33579]

25 minutes ago, HLGW60 said:

I think it would not be wise for cruise lines to ignore the advice of scientists and infectious disease specialists and sail again based purely on political considerations during an election season.  

I don’t disagree with your comment, but if the CDC keeps issuing no sail orders, pretty soon there is going to be no cruise industry left that sails from the US. I don’t think cruise lines will ignore science and they will implement rules scientists have been stating from the beginning to include social distancing as much as possible, wearing masks, frequent hand washing, etc. 

 

This virus isn’t going away any time soon. Businesses need to be allowed to operate including cruise lines in my opinion. No one is forced to take a cruise. If the CDC suspends cruising until this virus is completely gone or at least completely under control, you are looking at years at a minimum for this to happen. Even if an effective vaccine is developed and released. It is not going to eradicate this virus. So in my opinion cruising should be allowed to resume from US ports immediately while passengers need to understand COVID rules on ships like social distancing and wearing a mask are likely going to be around for a long time. 

[Saint Greg]

14 minutes ago, Cruiseboy06 said:

if the no sail order is lifted on Oct 31st it does not mean that cruises will resume on Nov 1st..   There are many steps  to restart cruising, especially now

 

And I would think those steps would be started in October if they know the no sail order will end on November 1st.

[BlerkOne]

37 minutes ago, Don Kehote said:

Science...is a liar sometimes.

 

A better way to put that is sometimes theories are wrong. Theories are just that, and not absolute.

 

37 minutes ago, Don Kehote said:

Are you seeing a pattern?  These were all the smartest scientists on the planet.  Only problem is, they kept being wrong. 

 

 

I'm seeing a pattern, but maybe not the one you are implying. Those scientists were right a lot of the time.

[ProgRockCruiser]

53 minutes ago, Cruiseboy06 said:

if the no sail order is lifted on Oct 31st it does not mean that cruises will resume on Nov 1st..   There are many steps  to restart cruising, especially now

 

37 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

And I would think those steps would be started in October if they know the no sail order will end on November 1st.

I suspect those steps are already underway.  The cruise industry will be looking for the CDC and other relevant bodies to give them fair warning that the No Sail Order, if extended to 31 Oct, will not be further extended, but instead there will be some new set of protocols/regulations to work with.  The industry would also be working right now with the island ports/Governments to co-ordinate port visits.

 

The industry should be all lined up on the grid, waiting for the lights to go out and hammer the throttle on 1 Nov.

 

If the industry waits until 1 Nov to fuel up the car, put on the tires, and roll around to the pit exit, then they would be fools.

 

Hmm.