Third Costa Ship Starts Cruising

[jocap]

I noticed a headline somewhere today about Costa's 3rd ship sailing from Savona, and wondered how many ships are out there now?

I think there's still the MSC and Mein Schiff 6, but am not sure whether Aida has started yet.

It must mean that thousands of people have cruised now- I haven't heard of any illness on these ships.

Has anyone more up to date news?

[drsel]

So far so good, it's safe!

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, jocap said:

I noticed a headline somewhere today about Costa's 3rd ship sailing from Savona, and wondered how many ships are out there now?

I think there's still the MSC and Mein Schiff 6, but am not sure whether Aida has started yet.

It must mean that thousands of people have cruised now- I haven't heard of any illness on these ships.

Has anyone more up to date news?

It is amazing how quickly everyone has forgot the Hurtigruten ship that was the first ship to sail.

[FredT]

7 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

It is amazing how quickly everyone has forgot the Hurtigruten ship that was the first ship to sail.

Sooooo..... The first ship to try screwed up (By the numbers I have heard)...

 

But since then there have been multiple sailings on multiple ships (using the lessons learned from the Hurtigruten.)     

 

But YOU want to simply look at that first attempt and focus on that?     Bu that logic we would never reopen until that day sometime in the future when there is a 100% effective vaccine.  (Which may NEVER happen)    

[ontheweb]

15 hours ago, FredT said:

Sooooo..... The first ship to try screwed up (By the numbers I have heard)...

 

But since then there have been multiple sailings on multiple ships (using the lessons learned from the Hurtigruten.)     

 

But YOU want to simply look at that first attempt and focus on that?     Bu that logic we would never reopen until that day sometime in the future when there is a 100% effective vaccine.  (Which may NEVER happen)    

No, I just wanted to remind those who have said everything has gone perfectly so far that that is not the case.

[c-boy]

This from a Oct. 8th  article. "I think we're going to return to a very healthy cruise environment," said Sasso of the one-year outlook into 2021. "We will adopt to those things that are required of us for COVID safety but we are ready to manage them. MSC is looking forward to adding more ships to the worldwide deployment, and I think it will be happening over the next weeks and months."

 

 

Sasso noted that while MSC's restart will, as other lines have intimated, has been a gradual one, the line hopes to be back to full deployment by October 2021.

 

"We have another ship starting on October 19 in Europe and another in Europe over the next month in a half," said Sasso. "We hope the North American version of that starts very soon. We hope that as an industry this will evolve, and it will evolve sooner than we thought even a month ago." .... 

slowly adding ships to the start up. Select markets, strict guidelines in place. so far 👍

[BSR]

Thanks for the article.  

[jocap]

22 hours ago, ontheweb said:

It is amazing how quickly everyone has forgot the Hurtigruten ship that was the first ship to sail.

I didn't forget that, especially as Hurtigruten had 4 cruises planned after the failed one, for UK/Irish people along the Irish Sea. I'm sure lessons were learnt, and I'm also sure that cruise line managers are closely watching every ship cruising right now, for hints- and lessons learnt. 

[SelectSys]

 

I think this is pretty remarkable that 100% testing of passengers coupled with strong procedures (e.g., managed shore excursions)  is leading to a workable solution to the point of adding another ship.  

 

Hopefully the lines can keep this up as new cases of COVID across Europe in total and inside the major population countries have never been higher.  Look to  https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea if you want to see the data.

 

I wonder if we'll be able to pull off anything similar in the US...

 

Edited October 13, 2020 by SelectSys

[evandbob]

Could a college football team teach us anything about resuming normal activities?  it's the same people in an enclosed, regimented and supervised environment, sharing meals and proximity, just like on a cruise..  I keep hearing about pauses some teams have taken because players have gotten infected.  Florida Gators latest to interrupt their games.  Cruise lines and football coaches seem to follow similar prevention techniques.

 

If a football team comprised of healthy athletes can't keep the virus at bay, how can a ship full of cruisers, some diabetic, some cardiac challenged, some obese and some elderly stay healthy?  Is there a missing protocol, other than a vaccine, that hasn't been implemented in either scenario?

 

Edited October 13, 2020 by evandbob

[CruiserBruce]

23 minutes ago, evandbob said:

Could a college football team teach us anything about resuming normal activities?  it's the same people in an enclosed, regimented and supervised environment, sharing meals and proximity, just like on a cruise..  I keep hearing about pauses some teams have taken because players have gotten infected.  Florida Gators latest to interrupt their games.  Cruise lines and football coaches seem to follow similar prevention techniques.

 

If a football team comprised of healthy athletes can't keep the virus at bay, how can a ship full of cruisers, some diabetic, some cardiac challenged, some obese and some elderly stay healthy?  Is there a missing protocol, other than a vaccine, that hasn't been implemented in either scenario?

 

While pre-existing conditions absolutely complicate patient outcomes, they don't do much to cause you to get Covid. So, if the environment is developed to prevent Covid's admittance, then you are in a bubble, and Covid should not strike, unless someone breaks the bubble. Notice how the NBA held the bubble for 3 or 4 months, kicking out a couple of violators, and all went well.

 

So, the challenge is to create the bubble on a cruise ship.

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

While pre-existing conditions absolutely complicate patient outcomes, they don't do much to cause you to get Covid. So, if the environment is developed to prevent Covid's admittance, then you are in a bubble, and Covid should not strike, unless someone breaks the bubble. Notice how the NBA held the bubble for 3 or 4 months, kicking out a couple of violators, and all went well.

 

So, the challenge is to create the bubble on a cruise ship.

But, how do you create the bubble? And even if you do create a bubble how do you prevent someone who say just caught the virus on the plane on the way to the cruise and is not yet testing positive from blowing the whole thing up?

[dogs4fun]

43 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

But, how do you create the bubble? And even if you do create a bubble how do you prevent someone who say just caught the virus on the plane on the way to the cruise and is not yet testing positive from blowing the whole thing up?

Good point.

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

But, how do you create the bubble? And even if you do create a bubble how do you prevent someone who say just caught the virus on the plane on the way to the cruise and is not yet testing positive from blowing the whole thing up?

That is the key question. Testing (and advances in testing) are a big part of the solution. It could involve testing before you fly...as Hawaii is doing starting tomorrow.

 

There is no one solution, even though people seem used to solutions always being found within the standard running time of a TV show. There are tools out there (masks, social distancing, testing) and more will be invented. 

[c-boy]

perhaps football teams should adopt the 74 step program. https://www.phocuswire.com/healthy-sail-panel-report-cruising-covid-19  although I doubt any of them will be cruising the Med any time soon. 

Edited October 14, 2020 by c-boy

[ovccruiser]

So how many cruise ships are currently operating? There appears to be no bookings in Europe until at least early 2021.

 

Edited October 14, 2020 by ovccruiser

[c-boy]

1 hour ago, ovccruiser said:

So how many cruise ships are currently operating? There appears to be no bookings in Europe until at least early 2021.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5016

[gerryuk]

Well 7 guests have tested positive for covid on the Costa Diadema, oh dear. 

 

https://www.ilsecoloxix.it/italia/2020/10/16/news/turista-francese-positivo-e-sintomatico-sbarcato-il-14-ottobre-da-costa-diadema-a-napoli-1.39424226?refresh_ce

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, gerryuk said:

Well 7 guests have tested positive for covid on the Costa Diadema, oh dear. 

 

https://www.ilsecoloxix.it/italia/2020/10/16/news/turista-francese-positivo-e-sintomatico-sbarcato-il-14-ottobre-da-costa-diadema-a-napoli-1.39424226?refresh_ce

The article mentions one guest, a 78 year old Frenchman, not 7.

 

And I wonder how the posters who keep saying cruising has started again in Europe with no cases will react. 

[cruisemom42]

6 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

The article mentions one guest, a 78 year old Frenchman, not 7.

 

And I wonder how the posters who keep saying cruising has started again in Europe with no cases will react. 

 

The situation seems a little unclear at the moment, but it appears that Costa Diadema was engaged in a sort of charter cruise for French passengers. Initial reports concerned this one guest who left the ship in Naples. 

 

Now, however, there is additional information about passengers on the previous cruise testing positive for COVID after they disembarked the Diadema in Palermo, leading to questions about whether Costa has been transparent about infections aboard ship. Apparently Italian authorities then required testing of all crew members PRIOR to the start of this current French charter cruise. 

 

After all crew reportedly tested negative, the ship was allowed to sail, but this is when the one guest (who tested positive for COVID) was disembarked in Naples and is now hospitalized with symptoms.

 

And now, apparently, Costa has decided to end the cruise early by returning to Genoa.

 

I gathered this from a variety of news items on a Google search, some of which are in Italian. I'm not a fan of the website cited below, but it does seem to summarize the current info:

 

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2020/10/articles/disease/costa-diadema-seven-passengers-test-positive-for-covid-19/

[ontheweb]

2 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

The situation seems a little unclear at the moment, but it appears that Costa Diadema was engaged in a sort of charter cruise for French passengers. Initial reports concerned this one guest who left the ship in Naples. 

 

Now, however, there is additional information about passengers on the previous cruise testing positive for COVID after they disembarked the Diadema in Palermo, leading to questions about whether Costa has been transparent about infections aboard ship. Apparently Italian authorities then required testing of all crew members PRIOR to the start of this current French charter cruise. 

 

After all crew reportedly tested negative, the ship was allowed to sail, but this is when the one guest (who tested positive for COVID) was disembarked in Naples and is now hospitalized with symptoms.

 

And now, apparently, Costa has decided to end the cruise early by returning to Genoa.

 

I gathered this from a variety of news items on a Google search, some of which are in Italian. I'm not a fan of the website cited below, but it does seem to summarize the current info:

 

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2020/10/articles/disease/costa-diadema-seven-passengers-test-positive-for-covid-19/

OK, I see where the number 7 now comes from although the original article mentioned just one passenger.

 

And Costa is owned by Carnival, so this does not reflect well on not only the cruises resuming in Europe, but also the future of cruises which start here in the USA.

[jocap]

Cruise Critic News mentions today that a 2nd MSC ship, Magnifica, has started an 11 day cruise, and that Grandiosa has completed 9 cruises so far.

[SelectSys]

On 10/16/2020 at 10:47 AM, ontheweb said:

..

And I wonder how the posters who keep saying cruising has started again in Europe with no cases will react. 

 

Not sure, but hopefully they will have a more realistic view of the world.  Cruise ships maintaining zero cases of a widely circulating virus with a multi-day incubation period seems just about impossible to me. 

 

The question is what to do about the cases when they occur? The bookend options are to 1) shutdown and suspend cruising or 2) manage it within limits.  I really think Europe has made or is making the decision to restart the cruising on economic grounds and simply manage the infections that do occur. 

 

Will the US and the CDC make a similar conclusion and let cruising resume knowing that COVID cases will occur?  I certainly don't know and the whole subject is embroiled in politics.

 

Again, it does seem that keeping cruise ships infection free is going to be a real challenge as the daily cases for Europe are still going higher.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/covid-is-accelerating-across-the-globe-as-us-and-europe-head-into-flu-season.html

"When adjusting for population, the number of new infections in Europe has now overtaken that in the United States, with Europe reporting 231 new Covid-19 cases per 1 million people, based on a seven-day average, compared with 177 new Covid-19 cases per 1 million people"

Edited October 20, 2020 by SelectSys