Well someone has to say it.... what is going to happen to Nassau cruises?

[kearney]

I just booked a cruise in August...and now the CDC wants to stop me, and am beginning to think it is personal..... man I am so tired of sitting home... I was really looking to go through the hassles to get to and from Nassau, just for a change of scenery....  I was even willing to wear a mask around the ship... take the tests... already vaccinated... very frustrated and not sure what to make of it.

[yogimax]

30 minutes ago, kearney said:

I just booked a cruise in August...and now the CDC wants to stop me, and am beginning to think it is personal..... man I am so tired of sitting home... I was really looking to go through the hassles to get to and from Nassau, just for a change of scenery....  I was even willing to wear a mask around the ship... take the tests... already vaccinated... very frustrated and not sure what to make of it.

The only way to end it is to encourage your relatives, friends and neighbors to be vaccinated.

 

As long as up to 50% of the population refuses to be vaccinated, the longer it will be until sailing resumes.

[NCMtnBoys]

They will still sail with or without American tourists. The cruise lines were smart to begin operations outside of CDC jurisdiction or sphere of influence since many cruisers come from other countries. But I also think that unless the CDC or some other entity completely bans travel, people will still travel. I have a trip to CA booked for June and my plan all along has been to go on that trip regardless of what the CDC recommends because I am fully vaccinated, will continue to wear my mask when not in my car or hotel room, and will not do any indoor dining - takeout only. While I applaud the CDCs efforts to try and provide guidance during the pandemic, they're to the point now of overkill. Someone needs to say enough is enough and, in conjunction with health authorities from other countries, define some reasonable guidelines for worldwide travel. If that means mask and vaccination requirements, so be it. But at least get worldwide travel going again. 

[Nemomof3]

Mexico is a level 4 and has been for a while. Thousands of Americans have been and will continue to travel to Mexico every day. It says 80% of countries are level 4 high risk yet No travel bans. They wouldn't care if 100% of people were vaccinated they would still recommend against travel due to variants and you can still catch covid after you are vaccinated.

[kearney]

What seems odd on this.... the ave number of new cases/day in Bahamas over the past 7 days is 47, in a country of 373,200. Looking at the ave number of new cases/day in New York state over the past 7 days..it is 5,927 in a state with a population of 19,450,000. So the ratio of cases per 100,000... new cases in Bahamas is .1196 vs .3047... so ...perhaps people should be warned about going to NY state too. Now Bahamas did have a death in the past week vs 61 in NY. Not sure I understand this sudden concern... perhaps I am missing something....

 

Also, recent CDC data (April 14) suggested 5,800 people who had been vaccinated...went on to get covid... at the time about 77 Million had been fully vaccinated....so ... extremely small likelihood of getting the virus and keep in mind there are a number of different variant circulating and they have been for months.. I don't understand this sudden concern about Bahamas...unless there is additional data that hasn't been published yet.

[firefly333]

It's just a advisory not a ban on flying to nassau or the bahamas. Nothing to be said, nothing has changed other than the cdc saying in their opinion its not safe. Not exactly news. They dont think anything is safe. It's not less safe than when you booked. 

[kearney]

21 minutes ago, yogimax said:

The only way to end it is to encourage your relatives, friends and neighbors to be vaccinated.

 

As long as up to 50% of the population refuses to be vaccinated, the longer it will be until sailing resumes.

Actually, that won't help... they are saying "The CDC warns that because of the current situation in the Bahamas even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants." Anyway per Nemomof3 comments about Mexico...they go on to give the usual wear a mask..social distance etc... the same stuff that will be required... so perhaps it is much ado about nothing...but timing for this seems more political... scaring passengers away.... anyway it kinda looks that way

[kearney]

11 minutes ago, Nemomof3 said:

Mexico is a level 4 and has been for a while. Thousands of Americans have been and will continue to travel to Mexico every day. It says 80% of countries are level 4 high risk yet No travel bans. They wouldn't care if 100% of people were vaccinated they would still recommend against travel due to variants and you can still catch covid after you are vaccinated.

Thanks for this... I kinda freaked...since I just booked the trip yesterday.... I did not realize Mexico was level 4...my brother in-law just got back from there...so I guess I will just sit tight... it seems the CDC goal has moved from flattening the curve to the impossible goal of zero cases.

[natefish95]

Unless the border is physically closed and flights are suspended, the CDC cannot prevent you from traveling anywhere. They can just "advise" against travel. 

[Shipof6Fools]

9 minutes ago, natefish95 said:

Unless the border is physically closed and flights are suspended, the CDC cannot prevent you from traveling anywhere. They can just "advise" against travel. 

Well, the sad part is that the airlines often use the CDC guidance to cancel flights to those areas. For example Southwest just discontinued flights to the Bahamas as of yesterday.

[Smq123]

I’m fully vaccinated for health reasons but I know several people (30 personally) that don’t trust the vaccine/government & begrudgingly got vaccinated simply for travel. If there’s more like minded people in the USA, smart move CDC!! You can’t get enough people vaccinated as it is, now you lost another cohort of those willing to vaccinate for travel. 

[WxNerd]

The State Department list was at least partially updated today and the Bahamas was not upgraded from a level 3 (updated 25 Jan 2021) to a level 4. 
 

Edited to add link:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/

Edited April 21, 2021 by WxNerd

[Smq123]

11 minutes ago, WxNerd said:

The State Department list was at least partially updated today and the Bahamas was not upgraded from a level 3 (updated 25 Jan 2021) to a level 4. 
 

Edited to add link:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/

It has been updated. I’m going to Atlantis in the Bahamas on Sunday. 

[kearney]

15 minutes ago, Smq123 said:

It has been updated. I’m going to Atlantis in the Bahamas on Sunday. 

When you get back...let us know how it went.... with airlines etc... have fun..

[Smq123]

I definitely will. 😃I’m not worried about going there. I’m vaccinated, got tested today, applied for their health visa. But I’m nervous about getting back to USA. 

[long4acruise]

15 minutes ago, Smq123 said:

I definitely will. 😃I’m not worried about going there. I’m vaccinated, got tested today, applied for their health visa. But I’m nervous about getting back to USA. 

Thanks and have an enjoyable trip!

 

I was wondering if getting tested on a Monday would be acceptable for a Saturday Bahamas arrival to meet the 5-day requirement or if I should delay it til Tuesday. 

[Smq123]

I’m Tuesday for a Sunday. The health Visa won’t be issued until you get & submit your results. You need health visa to get into country as well as your neg CV-19 test results. 

[natefish95]

1 hour ago, Shipof6Fools said:

Well, the sad part is that the airlines often use the CDC guidance to cancel flights to those areas. For example Southwest just discontinued flights to the Bahamas as of yesterday.

Do you have a source for that? I'm not seeing anything. I thought they had not resumed service yet 

[Jimbo]

1 hour ago, Smq123 said:

I definitely will. 😃I’m not worried about going there. I’m vaccinated, got tested today, applied for their health visa. But I’m nervous about getting back to USA. 

Maybe pack a month or 2 extra of clothes.

[Jimbo]

39 minutes ago, natefish95 said:

Do you have a source for that? I'm not seeing anything. I thought they had not resumed service yet 

https://www.southwest.com/coronavirus/

 

Destinations currently experiencing travel disruptions

These destinations are currently closed for all travel on Southwest Airlines. We hope to begin serving them again soon. (Last updated Apr 19, 2021)

• Bahamas
• Belize
• Costa Rica
• Grand Cayman
• Turks and Caicos

Edited April 21, 2021 by Jimbo

[Coralc]

2 hours ago, Shipof6Fools said:

Well, the sad part is that the airlines often use the CDC guidance to cancel flights to those areas. For example Southwest just discontinued flights to the Bahamas as of yesterday.

Wow. That would put a damper on people booked and cruising from there. 

[ace2542]

 

 

12 hours ago, kearney said:

I just booked a cruise in August...and now the CDC wants to stop me, and am beginning to think it is personal..... man I am so tired of sitting home... I was really looking to go through the hassles to get to and from Nassau, just for a change of scenery....  I was even willing to wear a mask around the ship... take the tests... already vaccinated... very frustrated and not sure what to make of it.

As discussed in my thread the President could possibly prevent Americans from cruising if he wanted to but he has not done so.

 

If the CDC wanted to stop you from cruising they could in the words on Chengkp75 (I can't do the email quoting thing) they could simply revoke the Vessel Sanitation Program and watch the cruise industry implode as according to what he replied to my thread every ship arriving into USA waters every cruise would undergo 8 to 10 hour delay for health check every time.

 

The CDC could also enforce mask wearing forever on cruise ships within U.S waters possibly attempting that to stretch to ships transporting Americans so worldwide. And they could probably also enforce quarantine and rotation of cruise ships crews sailing out of U.S ports. I doubt Royal could afford that or any line could. Imagine them having to put the entire crew of harmony for example into hotel quarantine for 2 weeks and having 3 crews on rotation. Most cruise lines would go bust if that happened. The ones operating in Europe that did not go bust or withdrew from the USA completely I don't think Americans would be very popular on.

[sandebeach]

10 hours ago, Jimbo said:

https://www.southwest.com/coronavirus/

 

Destinations currently experiencing travel disruptions

These destinations are currently closed for all travel on Southwest Airlines. We hope to begin serving them again soon. (Last updated Apr 19, 2021)

• Bahamas
• Belize
• Costa Rica
• Grand Cayman
• Turks and Caicos

This is not new.  I looked at Southwest a month ago for Nassau flights and they had not yet restarted flights to Nassau. 

[seabeew]

10 hours ago, Jimbo said:

https://www.southwest.com/coronavirus/

 

Destinations currently experiencing travel disruptions

These destinations are currently closed for all travel on Southwest Airlines. We hope to begin serving them again soon. (Last updated Apr 19, 2021)

• Bahamas
• Belize
• Costa Rica
• Grand Cayman
• Turks and Caicos

Another person here telling you that you’re wrong about Southwest suspending service due to recent conditions. Southwest suspended service to the Bahamas over a year ago and never re-instated it. That announcement has been on their website for over a year. 

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, seabeew said:

Another person here telling you that you’re wrong about Southwest suspending service due to recent conditions. Southwest suspended service to the Bahamas over a year ago and never re-instated it. That announcement has been on their website for over a year. 

So, in other words, Southwest wasn't flying there anyway, hence this has nothing to do with the CDC.

Move along folks, nothing to see here.