Big CDC News

[marieps]

Courtesy of a poster on the =X= board:

 

CDC rules are out, as are self-guided excursions.

 

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

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24939-cdc-releases-instructions-for-trial-voyages-in-path-to-service-resumption.html

 

 

[susiesan]

What are the dates for when this applies or expires? Does this apply only to ships leaving from US ports? Supposedly Oceania was not going to require ship only shore ex, but was to allow pax to do their own thing.

[pinotlover]

Only affects ships touching US ports. Typical CDC. Make up rules that are sure to shut down the industry. Per the article, the entire Carribe would be off limits to US based cruise ships. If most all foreign ports are declared off limits, and cruises to nowhere are illegal, they shut down cruises.

 

I’ve said it before. Stop wasting time with the CDC. Move your operations outside the US and get on with cruising. 

This entire thing is so Fauci and CDC. Even with 100% vaccinated passengers, it’s too dangerous for those passengers to walk around the streets of Bar Harbor, or any town, independently without being on a ship tour! 

[marieps]

2 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Only affects ships touching US ports. Typical CDC. Make up rules that are sure to shut down the industry. Per the article, the entire Carribe would be off limits to US based cruise ships. If most all foreign ports are declared off limits, and cruises to nowhere are illegal, they shut down cruises.

 

I’ve said it before. Stop wasting time with the CDC. Move your operations outside the US and get on with cruising. 

This entire thing is so Fauci and CDC. Even with 100% vaccinated passengers, it’s too dangerous for those passengers to walk around the streets of Bar Harbor, or any town, independently without being on a ship tour! 

I have to agree.  Airlines can reintroduce the middle seat, but pool loungers have to be 6 feet apart outdoors?  If the CDC says fully vaxed people can be close together w/o masks, and all cruise passengers will be fully vaxed, why the excursion ban.  Can I just go to Eagle Beach or Cas Abao in peace?

[pinotlover]

Slightly off subject, but just received a new Oceania catalog today. 
 

Perhaps Jancruz could relay to Binder that Key West has banned all cruise ships the size of Oceania’s and up. It was done nearly a year ago! His staff clearly doesn’t keep up with the news. Perhaps Oceania should stop listing KW as a port of call in its advertising. Perhaps!

 

Now that the CDC has mandated that only ship tours are allowed in KW, who would want to go there on a ship anyway ? 

[lj77346]

The Key West cruise ship ban applies to ships with a passenger capacity of 1300 or more.  So Oceania ships would be below that size.

[njhorseman]

31 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Slightly off subject, but just received a new Oceania catalog today. 
 

Perhaps Jancruz could relay to Binder that Key West has banned all cruise ships the size of Oceania’s and up. It was done nearly a year ago! His staff clearly doesn’t keep up with the news. Perhaps Oceania should stop listing KW as a port of call in its advertising. Perhaps!

 

Now that the CDC has mandated that only ship tours are allowed in KW, who would want to go there on a ship anyway ? 

 

2 minutes ago, lj77346 said:

The Key West cruise ship ban applies to ships with a passenger capacity of 1300 or more.  So Oceania ships would be below that size.

@pinotloverin addition to the limitation not applying to Oceania ships due to their size, the vote wasn't  nearly a year ago, it was in November, 6 months ago...and recently a state law has been passed in Florida overturning Key West's vote and prohibiting any Florida port from attempting similar limitations, leaving those decisions strictly in the hands of the state, not localities.

[susiesan]

I just booked yesterday Sirena Dec. 12, 2021 from Miami to 6 Caribbean ports. When final payment is due Aug. 13 and if the independent going ashore ban is still in place, I won't be going, I will cancel. I'm okay with the other CDC ridiculous rules about spacing and no buffets, but not limits on going ashore on my own. On Caribbean cruises that stop in ports I have been to many times, I often just grab a cab and go to the beach for the day. If I can't even do that, what's the point?

 

There's 3 months time to decide.

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

Per the article, the entire Carribe would be off limits to US based cruise ships

The interpretation I read says that is a recommendation, not a requirement...and that some Caribbean ports do meet the CDC's guidelines:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/ab/agents/variation-a/news/6095/

 

"The agency further recommends, but does not require, that shore excursions only take place in foreign ports listed as Level 1: COVID-19 Low in the CDC's Travel Recommendations.

In the Caribbean, the list of CDC safe spots currently includes Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Grenada, the British Virgin Islands and St. Kitts and Nevis. It does not include the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica, St. Maarten or other announced destinations for startup cruises beginning next month."

[marieps]

57 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I just booked yesterday Sirena Dec. 12, 2021 from Miami to 6 Caribbean ports. When final payment is due Aug. 13 and if the independent going ashore ban is still in place, I won't be going, I will cancel. I'm okay with the other CDC ridiculous rules about spacing and no buffets, but not limits on going ashore on my own. On Caribbean cruises that stop in ports I have been to many times, I often just grab a cab and go to the beach for the day. If I can't even do that, what's the point?

 

There's 3 months time to decide.

Your first question in your initial post is a crucial one: when does this apply and when does it expire.

As they have yet not extended the CSO, which expires Nov 1, we can only hope initial start-up cruises go well so as to get CDC to let the thing expire before the Caribbean season gets in full swing.  There's another wrinkle: Sirena's TA hits Miami on Oct 30.  Does that mean the CDC rules will apply, lest she offload in some foreign port? 

[cotto22]

So people on bus tours from any city in the US can stop at any city in the US, but a cruise ship from NY (for example) cannot stop at a port in a city in the US and let its passengers off, even if they are fully vaccinated, unless they are on a paid shore excursion through the ship? Does this make any sense? 

[marieps]

8 minutes ago, cotto22 said:

So people on bus tours from any city in the US can stop at any city in the US, but a cruise ship from NY (for example) cannot stop at a port in a city in the US and let its passengers off, even if they are fully vaccinated, unless they are on a paid shore excursion through the ship? Does this make any sense? 

Nope.

[jagoffee]

15 minutes ago, cotto22 said:

So people on bus tours from any city in the US can stop at any city in the US, but a cruise ship from NY (for example) cannot stop at a port in a city in the US and let its passengers off, even if they are fully vaccinated, unless they are on a paid shore excursion through the ship? Does this make any sense? 

You can leave the US, do anything that  you want, obtain a negative Covid test result, and then return to U.S. by air without any quarantine requirement. Even Hawaii. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by jagoffee

[clo]

4 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

You can leave the US, do anything that  you want, obtain a negative Covid test result, and then return to U.S. by air without any quarantine requirement. Even Hawaii. 

Are there any of those conveyances or situations where thousands of people are together from a week to six months???

[jagoffee]

15 minutes ago, clo said:

Are there any of those conveyances or situations where thousands of people are together from a week to six months???

Sure.  As far as I know they are no restrictions of what a US resident cannot do before taking a test and flying back to the US.  

[CptBoatface]

Packed in on a bus like rats, but boat travel still gets extra scrutiny.  😕 

[hamrag]

4 hours ago, cotto22 said:

So people on bus tours from any city in the US can stop at any city in the US, but a cruise ship from NY (for example) cannot stop at a port in a city in the US and let its passengers off, even if they are fully vaccinated, unless they are on a paid shore excursion through the ship? Does this make any sense? 

Yes, it does to me!

[pinotlover]

17 minutes ago, hamrag said:

Yes, it does to me!

Ok , I’m game. Give us your rationale.

100% vaccinated cruise ship = unsafe.

 

Tour bus with either vaccinated or unvaccinated OK.

 

This should be interesting.

[Petoonya]

5 hours ago, cotto22 said:

So people on bus tours from any city in the US can stop at any city in the US, but a cruise ship from NY (for example) cannot stop at a port in a city in the US and let its passengers off, even if they are fully vaccinated, unless they are on a paid shore excursion through the ship? Does this make any sense? 

It sorta makes sense to me as far as keeping you in the ship's "bubble". You board the ship, and you've had your COVID pre-testing along with all the others onboard who've been vaccinated. You're in the bubble now. You stay in the bubble on the ship. You leave the ship and go out on your own amongst those who are not vaccinated, or those who might be carriers, (remains to be seen the rate of COVID infection among those who are vaccinated), and you've left the bubble. You board the ship having left the bubble and put crew and other passengers at risk. Now everyone's out of the bubble.

 

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so please correct me if there's something I'm not seeing. I perceive that the cruise lines are being extremely cautious and I applaud them for it.

 

Maybe when when we know more about rate transmission of the virus among vaccinated, and the effectiveness of the vaccine on known and unknown variants, we'll get to circulate once more.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Petoonya

[CptBoatface]

If we are all vaccinated, who cares if there is any pass through possible transmission? 

[Tranquility Base]

13 minutes ago, CptBoatface said:

If we are all vaccinated, who cares if there is any pass through possible transmission? 

The countries you are visiting.

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, CptBoatface said:

If we are all vaccinated, who cares if there is any pass through possible transmission? 

 

1 hour ago, Tranquility Base said:

The countries you are visiting.

No, only CDC.  EU is preparing to open to vaccinated Americans.  Several countries (Croatia, Iceland) are already open.

[CptBoatface]

But where would the vaccinated get any pass through from? The country visited ?  Well,  then they've already got it around them.  Keep moving the goalposts forever...  bubble wrap world 

[clo]

6 hours ago, CptBoatface said:

Packed in on a bus like rats, but boat travel still gets extra scrutiny.  😕 

For a week or a month or six months?

[clo]

3 hours ago, Petoonya said:

It sorta makes sense to me as far as keeping you in the ship's "bubble". You board the ship, and you've had your COVID pre-testing along with all the others onboard who've been vaccinated. You're in the bubble now. You stay in the bubble on the ship. You leave the ship and go out on your own amongst those who are not vaccinated, or those who might be carriers, (remains to be seen the rate of COVID infection among those who are vaccinated), and you've left the bubble. You board the ship having left the bubble and put crew and other passengers at risk. Now everyone's out of the bubble.

 

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so please correct me if there's something I'm not seeing. I perceive that the cruise lines are being extremely cautious and I applaud them for it.

 

Maybe when when we know more about rate transmission of the virus among vaccinated, and the effectiveness of the vaccine on known and unknown variants, we'll get to circulate once more.

I think you described it perfectly. And I swear that no one can FACTUALLY dispute you.