CDC-update May 5th

[TNcruising02]

9 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

I appreciate your thoughts.  Living in a pandemic on land or sea is restrictive.  It does seem odd that restaurants on land are allowed to have diners without masks at a table, regardless of whether they are eating/drinking or not and cruisers have to keep their masks on in between bite or sips.

Right.  Plus, nobody takes a covid test before entering a land based restaurant.  Yet, all of the cruisers will have been tested or vaccinated, so eating on a cruise ship will actually be much safer.  Everyone will have been screened and the majority vaccinated.  Even that isn't enough for the CDC and they will require those ridiculous masks while sun bathing and DINING.  It's unreasonable and very frustrating that no common sense is used with their rules.

[Radiioman46]

5 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

I know that’s what you were responding to. And you used NCL as an example of a line not requiring ship excursions.  As I said, if they sail out of the UK, Italy, Greece or Israel, the non-ship excursions are not allowed. Other places (the Caribbean) apparently they are. 
 

And, again, your commentary is wrong. It is BECAUSE of similar protocols that other cruises have been successful.  Therefore they ARE called for. 
 

Not going to even comment on the conspiracy “hidden agenda” nonsense. 

LOL!

[Jasonsterling]

I'm not too panicked by the "requirements" just yet. I think the buffet will just go cafeteria/pre-portion style which it partially was anyway and masks in port in the U.S- okay, fine. I mean you can drive all the way through Texas stopping all the way without one but once you enter the port zone you have to wear it. LOL but okay fine. That said I really don't see the point. I'm vaccinated so that I don't have to wear it, so that my life can get back to normal- the small chance of catching it tied to what will be low symptom response if I do get it isn't worth bothering with it imho. I think some of the resistance to getting vaccinated is because people don't see that there will be a change back to normal, they see only that there will be one more reason after another for things not to change no matter what they do because that's been the case now for a year. No matter what we've done we've been told that it's still not enough and we need to do more and stretch it out longer. I don't blame people for being frustrated in the face of what we've been through and then being told "oh sorry, it's still not enough". It's time to get back to normal.  

[bdever]

3 hours ago, regoodwinjr said:

The grab n go does come from COVID-19 Operations Manual for Simulated and Restricted Voyages under the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order.

 

Recommendations

To further reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, cruise ship operators as best practices should:

Consider options for consumers to order ahead of time to limit the amount of time spent in the restaurant.

Provide alternative meal services options, such as prepackaged grab-and-go meals, for consumption on open decks or in individual cabins to minimize risks associated with congregate indoor dining.

Use touchless payment options as much as possible, if available. If pens are needed for some purposes, disinfect between uses and/or encourage customers to use their own pens.

Just a recommendation though.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, musbeus said:

No one, especially the CDC, wants to own a potentially bad outcome. They are making the rules incredibly burdensome to protect themselves. We may all ultimately want to just get back to cruising but it is going to be a slow a painful start with very few cruisers without complaints of some sort. 

 

If people would just play nice in the sandbox, we can get closer to normalcy. All it will take is one highly publicized outbreak or suspected outbreak on a cruise ship  to shut it all down for a very long time. 

I agree with you that no one wants a bad outcome. The CDC who all along have been criticized as too strict and inflexible would all of a sudden be roundly criticized for being too lax. And the cruise industry would be hard pressed to ever revive from another major setback.

 

An analogy I read was we are near the goal line, and you don't spike the ball at the 10 yard line.

[toad16X]

I thought the vaccine was the "caveat" for a return to normalcy.....why the huge push for vaccine if  no opening.....?  Curious...

[kleibo]

2 minutes ago, toad16X said:

I thought the vaccine was the "caveat" for a return to normalcy.....why the huge push for vaccine if  no opening.....?  Curious...

 

It is opening up everywhere - EXCEPT on a cruise ship.  Ridiculous.

[cruisingguy007]

29 minutes ago, iheartmarshall said:

 

 The restrictions might seem excessive but they're necessary and shouldn't be of any surprise.  We're still in a pandemic. 

 

Disagree. Unnecessary, burdensome and ridiculous.  

[ProgRockCruiser]

6 minutes ago, toad16X said:

I thought the vaccine was the "caveat" for a return to normalcy.....why the huge push for vaccine if  no opening.....?  Curious...

I wonder if the CDC is playing a bit of a game here.  (I know a lot of you think they most certainly are!)

 

If the CDC says to the cruise industry: here's what you need to do to resume cruising with these onerous requirements for masks, social distancing, etc, but the CDC is also having side discussions with the industry that also say: "If everyone gets vaccinated a lot of this doesn't apply - like masks on Lido deck.  But we can't announce that yet, just in case."  

 

That will spur the cruise lines to push (behind the scenes) for vaccinations as a requirement "so the passengers can enjoy the cruise and go maskless the entire time except when in port as required blah blah blah".

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by ProgRockCruiser
clarity

[kleibo]

3 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Disagree. Unnecessary, burdensome and ridiculous.  

 

100% agree!!!

[harkinmr]

38 minutes ago, kleibo said:

 

I think what all cruisers want is fairness.  The required guidelines are excessive especially if they are going to have 95/98 vaccinated cruisers/workers.  Absolutely ridiculous.

 

I am vaccinated, I do wear a mask and I will take my money elsewhere and I think many others will too unless some of the requirements are loosened.

Is Carnival actually going to be doing vaccinated cruises?  They have made no other statement except that they will not be mandating vaccines for crew OR passengers. 

 

Where are you going to take your money?  All of the cruise lines will be abiding by the same protocols.  In fact, cruise lines currently sailing already are. 

[BoozinCroozin]

I disagree as well. Nothing the CDC has done has stopped or remotely reduced the spread of covid. The whole thing of no mask, one mask, not that mask, that mask is now ok, you need two masks, you must social distance, close schools, don't close schools, close restaurants, restaurants can be open until 10PM. All of it is a joke. Then the scientific, repeatable, and provable fact on social distancing from MIT that proves the CDC wrong has never been addressed by them.

 

Remember, Senators and higher do not follow what the CDC says openly discarding it and ignoring it.

[harkinmr]

5 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Disagree. Unnecessary, burdensome and ridiculous.  

I don't think the CDC is going to be taking a poll concerning what anyone on CC thinks.  Nor are the cruise lines.  It is what it is for the time being no matter what anyone's opinion is.  

[ProgRockCruiser]

Just now, harkinmr said:

Is Carnival actually going to be doing vaccinated cruises?  They have made no other statement except that they will not be mandating vaccines for crew OR passengers. 

 

Where are you going to take your money?  All of the cruise lines will be abiding by the same protocols.  In fact, cruise lines currently sailing already are. 

Carnival's previous statements about requiring vaccines are OBE.  The latest round of statement/policies by the CDC, combined with the EOs and laws passed in FL & elsewhere and the related lawsuit(s) against the CDC, are culminating in a storm for going forward, and we won't know the aftermath for a few weeks, IMHO. 

 

In the meantime, the cruise lines like Carnival do their best to wring their hands and say "we are looking into it", because really, what else can they do?  Too many political pieces in play.

[cruisingguy007]

23 minutes ago, Radiioman46 said:

LOL!

 

Good luck, it's like pigeon chess with that guy. 🤣 

Edited May 6, 2021 by cruisingguy007

[embarkation75]

1 hour ago, BoozinCroozin said:

You obviously have absolutely no clue do you?

 

This is a win-win situation for the cruise lines regardless of the outcome. If FL and Alaska win, then the CSO is gone. Cruise lines can start as soon as the ports can be staffed and their ships to ports. If the CDC wins, then the cruise lines can continue on their merry way with the mid-July agenda. 

 

In the end, the only outcome I would love to see is the CDC put in its place and investigated. They made decisions without data nor facts on publicly traded companies. If any one person profited or prevented loss in the CDC because of those decisions, it is a crime.

LOL!  Whatever Boozin as I guess if believing in fairy tales keeps you happy then go for it!

[kirtihk]

16 hours ago, joepeka said:

In addition to the above, this (from cruise industry news) today from the CDC regarding buffets and shore excursions:

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24942-cdc-will-eliminate-cruise-ship-buffet-require-organized-shore-excursions.html

"cruise lines provide alternative meal services options, such as prepackaged grab-and-go meals" - I keep repeating... this kind of experience doesn't resemble even distantly cruising; daily muffin as a main meal? and paying for it as for some luxury extraordinary food?  Oh, boy!  I have no idea why they even "offer" such alternatives.  It's like to buy a TV to watch all day everyday a colored web of settings.

 

"cruise lines should limit shore excursions in foreign ports of call to countries listed as Level 1: COVID-19 Low in CDC’s COVID-19 Travel Recommendations by Destination, which would take a number of Caribbean destinations out of itineraries" - which actually would take a majority of countries' ports of calls destinations out of itineraries.

[LHARTWICK]

For those of you who believe herd immunity is here, think again.  Nowhere near it.  And won't be for a while.  I had a doctor tell me it could be years away, especially with so few being vaccinated.

I don't see why they don't just require all crew/passengers to be vaccinated and be done with it.  There seems to be plenty of cruisers who are vaccinated to fill up ships.  Oh I know - because the CDC would LOVE for the cruise lines to just go out of business so they don't have to deal with them anymore!  🤬

[kleibo]

11 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

Is Carnival actually going to be doing vaccinated cruises?  They have made no other statement except that they will not be mandating vaccines for crew OR passengers. 

 

Where are you going to take your money?  All of the cruise lines will be abiding by the same protocols.  In fact, cruise lines currently sailing already are. 

 

Land vacation - no cruising.

[BoozinCroozin]

Just now, LHARTWICK said:

I don't see why they don't just require all crew/passengers to be vaccinated and be done with it.  

Because everyone cannot get the vaccine. Currently it is 16+. By next week it will be 12+. There are still a ton of families with under 12 that cruise. The only thing I have agreed with the CDC on is the flexibility with what they announced last week. I am not keen on the strict number at 5% though. I think that needs to be flexible in case say 8% of the cruise is of children under 12. The cruise lines should have the flexibility with that number.

[harkinmr]

4 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

Carnival's previous statements about requiring vaccines are OBE.  The latest round of statement/policies by the CDC, combined with the EOs and laws passed in FL & elsewhere and the related lawsuit(s) against the CDC, are culminating in a storm for going forward, and we won't know the aftermath for a few weeks, IMHO. 

 

In the meantime, the cruise lines like Carnival do their best to wring their hands and say "we are looking into it", because really, what else can they do?  Too many political pieces in play.

And time is a ticking.  So there will be no startup in July it seems.  August may be out of the ballpark too if things keep up this way.

 

[d12j28]

I just wish one of the lines would get a ship sailing. Nobody is going to know anything until someone actually sails. 

[kirtihk]

31 minutes ago, topaz123 said:

I've worked for a few years in a Government position, it's amazing how just the simplest idea can mean 35 hours of meetings, re-meetings, paper work, etc.  In order to get a new pen, I had to fill out 3 forms. I can see a wall of CDC bureaucrats playing the "what if.." game for weeks upon weeks. What if a fly gets onboard at Miami, and lands on our latte in Jamaica what is the  CDC plan for this ? It's ENDLESS>>!!!!

Precisely!  The "fly" brought to my mind Oct 8, 2020 senseless imprudent articles regarding a fly on Pence's head instead of focusing on what he tried to deliver.

[EastTex]

7 minutes ago, embarkation75 said:

LOL!  Whatever Boozin as I guess if believing in fairy tales keeps you happy then go for it!

Earlier you called the lawsuit frivolous and now you refer to it as a fairy tale. Have you read the lawsuit? I did, and it's compelling.
Maybe, instead of unproductive comments like "frivolous" and "fairy Tales" you could enlighten us all with something more substantive for your use of those terms?

[ProgRockCruiser]

Just now, d12j28 said:

I just wish one of the lines would get a ship sailing. Nobody is going to know anything until someone actually sails. 

The analogy I can think of is that is it like a rainy session at the race track during practice/qualifying, and all the teams are hanging out in their garages/pitlanes, instead of running cars because they are afraid of crashing in the wet.

 

If the first team to go out there crashes it is just going to make it even more cautious for everyone else.

 

So no-one wants to be the first cruise (yay!) but then have problems (boo!).  It would be instant fodder for the petri-dish naysayers.