New updates as of 5/21

[WestLakeGirl]

Love the idea of a permanent lifetime ban from all cruise ships if you are caught lying about the vaccine

[C-Dragons]

7 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Love the idea of a permanent lifetime ban from all cruise ships if you are caught lying about the vaccine

As severe as that sounds, it might be the only deterrent that would actually work.

But human nature being what it is there would still be people who would try.

[TeeRick]

36 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Love the idea of a permanent lifetime ban from all cruise ships if you are caught lying about the vaccine

Each and every cruise line would need to agree on this together and enforce it.   Somehow I don't see that happening.  But any single cruise line could do it in their passenger contract.  And introduce substantial fines.

[C-Dragons]

Just now, TeeRick said:

...  But any single cruise line could do it in their passenger contract.  And introduce substantial fines.

Yes, this!

[MamaFej]

I would think that associations, such as CLIA, could institute the lifetime ban, and non-member cruise lines could institute thier own bans as well. Frankly, I hope they would. It might be the only effective deterrent. 

[cruisestitch]

Put the passenger at fault (plus all family members traveling with them) off at the next port.   No refund. No assistance making their way home.  No cruising in the future.  Works for me.

[Fouremco]

3 minutes ago, Dwight1 said:

Celebrity can just ignore the law and go with required vaccine documentation. What’s the effect? A lawsuit by Fl that would be years in court? I have seen no $ fine yet identified.

I highly doubt that Celebrity would simply ignore this Florida law any more than they would have ignored the PVSA prior to the exemption. There are too many risks involved in taking such a stance. 

[cruisestitch]

I’m not limiting my thoughts to Florida. Anyone around the world who would provide falsified vaccine documents should be banned from Cruising.

[MamaFej]

15 minutes ago, Dwight1 said:

Celebrity can just ignore the law and go with required vaccine documentation. What’s the effect? A lawsuit by Fl that would be years in court? I have seen no $ fine yet identified.

The governmental overreach/over-regulation bill in Florida includes an up to $5,000 fine per infraction.  

 

From  https://www.govtech.com/health/florida-gov-desantis-signs-bill-banning-vaccine-passports:

 

Florida already requires other types of vaccines for students to attend public schools, but the restriction for COVID-19 vaccines applies to schools as well as private businesses. Violators can be fined up to $5,000.

 

From  https://floridapolitics.com/archives/431173-gainesville-city-commission-tests-gov-desantis-vaccine-passport-ban/:

 

DeSantis’ statement took the issue a step further when it said Gainesville’s policy would violate a new law, Senate Bill 2006, signed by the Governor last month and effective July 1. That law prohibits “governmental entities from requiring persons to provide documentation certifying vaccination against or recovery from COVID-19.” A violation, under that upcoming law, would come with a fine of up to $5,000 per person for a government, business, or institution that asks for vaccine documentation.

 

 

 

[iamaqt2]

I'm not sure if all state DOH keep records, but WA state has a searchable database with all immunization records. Just print and go for provable immunizations.

 

[mnocket]

15 minutes ago, iamaqt2 said:

I'm not sure if all state DOH keep records, but WA state has a searchable database with all immunization records. Just print and go for provable immunizations.

 

 

Surely there's some security that prevents anyone but the individual from accessing this health information?  Otherwise it would sure seem like a HIPAA violation.

[iamaqt2]

1 minute ago, mnocket said:

 

Surely there's some security that prevents anyone but the individual from accessing this health information?  Otherwise it would sure seem like a HIPAA violation.

You have to register for an account.  You'd need alot of personal information to get access.

[MamaFej]

2 minutes ago, Dwight1 said:

Thanks for the information. Either this will change in court and cruise lines exempted or I can see many of the cruise lines pulling out of FL. If held up I will cancel my cruise for February and head to Windstar out of St Martin unless they relocate my 10 day cruise  to TX, New Orleans, SC or to the Caribbean themselves. My jet blue ticket is refundable or changeable with no fees. If FL wants to cut their own throat, so be it.

You're welcome. I imagine none of the cruise lines will be willing to risk a $5000 fine per passenger (it looks like they might be okay with requiring vaccinations for employees). My unverified gut feeeling is that the lines are probably negotiating behind the scenes with the FL government. 

[kearney]

After going to court to try to get crusing going..I can't see DeSantis standing by seeing cruises from Florida cancelled while those from TX, WA,NJ, MD, AL, LA go forward. So they will likely find a solution...even if that means bringing legislature back in session to add an exemption to the law or some other maneuver to allow vaccinated ships to leave. Too much political capital is on the line to be the cause of cancelled cruises. I think he was trying to force action out of the CDC and given all the movement in the past week...perhaps that worked or just the ongoing talks with cruise lines was the cause.... but once the judge ordered mediation... I think Fl is now in the position to keep cruises from happening ...not enabling them..so this will get fixed...

[harkinmr]

3 hours ago, kearney said:

After going to court to try to get crusing going..I can't see DeSantis standing by seeing cruises from Florida cancelled while those from TX, WA,NJ, MD, AL, LA go forward. So they will likely find a solution...even if that means bringing legislature back in session to add an exemption to the law or some other maneuver to allow vaccinated ships to leave. Too much political capital is on the line to be the cause of cancelled cruises. I think he was trying to force action out of the CDC and given all the movement in the past week...perhaps that worked or just the ongoing talks with cruise lines was the cause.... but once the judge ordered mediation... I think Fl is now in the position to keep cruises from happening ...not enabling them..so this will get fixed...

You are giving him far too much credit. He chose the “personal freedom and liberty” position and, apparently, did not think it through enough to recognize that a vaccine mandate ban would be in contradiction to his push for a cruise restart. I think he bet his political capital on winning a challenge against the CDC and things have not gone the way he thought. It will be interesting to watch him backpedal on the vaccine ban so that he can claim some sort of credit for the restart. 

[kearney]

15 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

You are giving him far too much credit. He chose the “personal freedom and liberty” position and, apparently, did not think it through enough to recognize that a vaccine mandate ban would be in contradiction to his push for a cruise restart. I think he bet his political capital on winning a challenge against the CDC and things have not gone the way he thought. It will be interesting to watch him backpedal on the vaccine ban so that he can claim some sort of credit for the restart. 

I agree that he painted himself into a corner... but he knows he has to get out of it... so it will be interesting to see how he does it.

[nocl]

44 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

You are giving him far too much credit. He chose the “personal freedom and liberty” position and, apparently, did not think it through enough to recognize that a vaccine mandate ban would be in contradiction to his push for a cruise restart. I think he bet his political capital on winning a challenge against the CDC and things have not gone the way he thought. It will be interesting to watch him backpedal on the vaccine ban so that he can claim some sort of credit for the restart. 

Keep in mind that the cruise lines need to move quickly to get the Alaska cruises going in time for the season. Thus they need to skip the test cruises and have gone the fully vaccinated route.

 

As far as the Caribbean goes, there are usually very few cruises to the Caribbean in the summer (miserably hot there during that time frame) It normally does not start to ramp up until October.  That gives the cruises lines a few more months to play with to see if there is any more relaxing of rules for not fully vaccinated cruises, actually run test cruises, before having to make the final decision for the Caribbean season. There is also the question of if the CDC extends the CSO past the current deadline.

[wrk2cruise]

The reports from the TA webinar last week basically said they weren't worried about it.  I took this to mean that they had been working on it and were confident that they had a workable solution.  Hopefully we hear more about FL departures next week.

[grandgeezer]

31 minutes ago, nocl said:

Keep in mind that the cruise lines need to move quickly to get the Alaska cruises going in time for the season. Thus they need to skip the test cruises and have gone the fully vaccinated route.

 

As far as the Caribbean goes, there are usually very few cruises to the Caribbean in the summer (miserably hot there during that time frame) It normally does not start to ramp up until October.  That gives the cruises lines a few more months to play with to see if there is any more relaxing of rules for not fully vaccinated cruises, actually run test cruises, before having to make the final decision for the Caribbean season. There is also the question of if the CDC extends the CSO past the current deadline.

 Very few cruises to the Caribbean in the summer? If you think 102 cruises scheduled to the Caribbean, from all Florida ports in August and September very few, then you would be right.

[nocl]

1 hour ago, grandgeezer said:

 Very few cruises to the Caribbean in the summer? If you think 102 cruises scheduled to the Caribbean, from all Florida ports in August and September very few, then you would be right.

During a normal year how many of those are Celebrity, Princess, HAL.  Pretty much zero.  Though Princess for the first time in years has 1 scheduled next year. NCL has 2 ships there.

 

Carnival and Royal does have a number of ships there, but compare your 102 cruises mostly from those two lines to the months of December, Jan, Feb for all of the lines.

[bigdaddyyo]

Reading all of the responses to this topic is hilarious.  Everyone on here has to realize that the State of Florida will not let a cruise ship require proof of vaccination.  It is a non-starter.  Cruise lines have stated that these rules will likely be gone by October.  What is the difference between July/August and October?? Absolutely nothing.  You all go to the grocery store, restaurants, church, etc with unvaccinated people but you won’t get on a cruise ship with them??  I’m trying to figure out what the heck you all do on cruise ships??  Do you get on the boat and immediately get in a complete stranger’s bubble?? The majority of you will get on a domestic flight to get to your cruise port and more than likely half the plane is unvaccinated.  Everyone has been so pissed off that the cruise industry has been treated differently then every other form of tourism, hotels, theme parks, etc and what do you want..  You want to treat the cruise differently for people not like you.. not as wise as you.. give me a break.  You got the vaccine, you are now invincible, why worry about anyone else, just worry about yourself and your family and make sure to stay out of everyone else’s bubble on your superhero cruise where you are traveling to ports where the majority are unvaccinated and you are allowed to roam freely.  This is all to say that your logic of wanting fully vaccinated cruises is a joke.

[iamaqt2]

1 hour ago, bigdaddyyo said:

Reading all of the responses to this topic is hilarious.  Everyone on here has to realize that the State of Florida will not let a cruise ship require proof of vaccination.  It is a non-starter.  Cruise lines have stated that these rules will likely be gone by October.  What is the difference between July/August and October?? Absolutely nothing.  You all go to the grocery store, restaurants, church, etc with unvaccinated people but you won’t get on a cruise ship with them??  I’m trying to figure out what the heck you all do on cruise ships??  Do you get on the boat and immediately get in a complete stranger’s bubble?? The majority of you will get on a domestic flight to get to your cruise port and more than likely half the plane is unvaccinated.  Everyone has been so pissed off that the cruise industry has been treated differently then every other form of tourism, hotels, theme parks, etc and what do you want..  You want to treat the cruise differently for people not like you.. not as wise as you.. give me a break.  You got the vaccine, you are now invincible, why worry about anyone else, just worry about yourself and your family and make sure to stay out of everyone else’s bubble on your superhero cruise where you are traveling to ports where the majority are unvaccinated and you are allowed to roam freely.  This is all to say that your logic of wanting fully vaccinated cruises is a joke.

We want a fully vaccinated cruise because we're spending 1000's of dollars for a vacation that we don't want interrupted by a Covid outbreak amongst unvaccinated passengers.  We don't want to be quarantined in our cabins or have our cruise cut short.  We're not afraid of you, we're afraid of you ruining our vacation.  Big difference.

[jgmorgan]

5 hours ago, bigdaddyyo said:

This is all to say that your logic of wanting fully vaccinated cruises is a joke.

You have an interesting sense of humor.

[Josie201]

Hey bigdaddyo you sound like a lot of fun!  Welcome to cruise critic!   🤣

[Alakegirl]

5 hours ago, iamaqt2 said:

We want a fully vaccinated cruise because we're spending 1000's of dollars for a vacation that we don't want interrupted by a Covid outbreak amongst unvaccinated passengers.  We don't want to be quarantined in our cabins or have our cruise cut short.  We're not afraid of you, we're afraid of you ruining our vacation.  Big difference.

Exactly!  We don’t want some selfish and self-centered yahoo with a faked vaccination card to ruin our trip