Queen Elizabeth abandoning Bali stop

[buchhalm]

News just in on the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD website.

(Excerpt from the article)

 

Indonesian authorities have requested that an Australian cruise ship carrying about 2100 passengers and crew abandon the Balinese leg of its 17-day tour, following a COVID-19 outbreak on board.

The Queen Elizabeth left Sydney on November 15, stopping at Airlie Beach, Cairns, Port Douglas and Darwin, but will cut short the final week of its tour and head straight to Fremantle.

[NSWP]

5 minutes ago, buchhalm said:

News just in on the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD website.

(Excerpt from the article)

 

Indonesian authorities have requested that an Australian cruise ship carrying about 2100 passengers and crew abandon the Balinese leg of its 17-day tour, following a COVID-19 outbreak on board.

The Queen Elizabeth left Sydney on November 15, stopping at Airlie Beach, Cairns, Port Douglas and Darwin, but will cut short the final week of its tour and head straight to Fremantle.

Reported as Tier 3 Covid by a pax on board via Cunard board of CC.

[Aussieflyer]

DH just sent me the link - wonder what the situation is like  on board? Majestic was back to Level 1 last week and the CD did say  there had been few crew with COVID in the recent outbreak. 

I didn't see any tables outside cabins though not really looking - also the short cruise would have meant positives may not show up till after they return home.

[timtam2]

4 minutes ago, Aussieflyer said:

DH just sent me the link - wonder what the situation is like  on board? Majestic was back to Level 1 last week and the CD did say  there had been few crew with COVID in the recent outbreak. 

I didn't see any tables outside cabins though not really looking - also the short cruise would have meant positives may not show up till after they return home.

The port side of Dolphin deck was closed off - I assumed they were using that for quarantine purposes.

[Aussieflyer]

4 minutes ago, timtam2 said:

The port side of Dolphin deck was closed off - I assumed they were using that for quarantine purposes.

Interesting to know as I didn't go hunting. We were on Riviera and really had no reason to visit Dolphin.

[arxcards]

Long cruises = ships going to tier 2 numbers, then having to test everyone to find they are actually at tier 3. The thought that it was OK to open up to longer cruises seemed like the time was right, but the recent surge has put things back the way they were in June/July when they were chopping-up itineraries to keep the numbers at a lower level.

 

A shame for those aboard.

[By The Bay]

I guess they will now have to hand in their duty free grog, or pay the tax.😵

[OzKiwiJJ]

Lets put the blame squarely where it belongs:

 

- on those passengers who refuse to wear masks properly, especially in crowded theatres and lounges, thus being at risk of spreading the virus to anyone near them.

 

- on those passengers who don't report symptoms to the Medical Centre because they might have to isolate instead of having fun and spreading the virus around the ship.

[arxcards]

27 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Lets put the blame squarely where it belongs:

 

- on those passengers who refuse to wear masks properly, especially in crowded theatres and lounges, thus being at risk of spreading the virus to anyone near them.

 

- on those passengers who don't report symptoms to the Medical Centre because they might have to isolate instead of having fun and spreading the virus around the ship.

Fair to say that is something that won't change in the current climate. To tighten those rules would just be paranoia, wouldn't it. 😉

 

Also, being the first Australian based cruise, the number of passengers arriving from overseas on the previous cruise not being asked to do a RAT for the 2nd B2B leg. You have done a few B2B's this year Julie. How many on those following cruises did you have to provide a negative RAT? They are pushing their ship uphill if there are already passengers with symptoms on day 0.

 

Quite a coincidence that Majestic numbers also went boom 2 1/2 weeks after she arrived here, similarly for Grand as well. At present, if your cruise is longer than 2 weeks, look around at the 8 people nearest you. Numbers for QE, Majestic, Coral and to a lesser extent Grand, have gone from apparently 0 infections to 1:8 infected within 2 weeks.

 

The ships won't voluntarily test anyone, only someone presenting with symptoms and their cabin contacts, or when required by their next port when numbers are elevated. Whether it is passengers or the ship not take adequate measures, it isn't working as it was meant to. Now the ships are trying to push the cost of anti-virals off onto travel insurance, lets see what the premiums look like next year.

[Port Power]

8 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Lets put the blame squarely where it belongs:

 

- on those passengers who refuse to wear masks properly, especially in crowded theatres and lounges, thus being at risk of spreading the virus to anyone near them.

 

- on those passengers who don't report symptoms to the Medical Centre because they might have to isolate instead of having fun and spreading the virus around the ship.

My next door neighbour is on this QE circumnavigation.  She will be so disappointed to arrive home early.  I just hope she and her older friends are okay.

 

Now for the bun fight of refunds for a week of lost cruising!

 

With international arrivals not having to test at all, and up until these recent outbreaks, not having to provide a supervised RAT on boarding, large outbreaks are not a surprise.  Plus the two main factors you highlighted.

 

I wonder if the situation will be different on smaller ships such as Azamara?  They do require a supervised RAT or PCR.

 

P.S.  I think the relatively small amount of duty free is a minor problem in the scheme of things.  I would bet people will just be able to take their purchases home without having to pay duty.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, Port Power said:

My next door neighbour is on this QE circumnavigation.  She will be so disappointed to arrive home early.  I just hope she and her older friends are okay.

 

Now for the bun fight of refunds for a week of lost cruising!

 

With international arrivals not having to test at all, and up until these recent outbreaks, not having to provide a supervised RAT on boarding, large outbreaks are not a surprise.  Plus the two main factors you highlighted.

 

I wonder if the situation will be different on smaller ships such as Azamara?  They do require a supervised RAT or PCR.

 

P.S.  I think the relatively small amount of duty free is a minor problem in the scheme of things.  I would bet people will just be able to take their purchases home without having to pay duty.

Good to read smaller ships like Azamara require a supervised RAT or PCR. I cruised on Coral Expeditions' Coral Geographer this year and they required PCR within a set period and a supervised RAT at Cairns prior to boarding.  A nurse took our temperatures every morning.  Result 100 passengers with no covid.  

Who made the irresponsible decision that international arrivals did not have to test at all?

[arxcards]

14 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Lets put the blame squarely where it belongs:

 

- on those passengers who refuse to wear masks properly, especially in crowded theatres and lounges, thus being at risk of spreading the virus to anyone near them.

 

- on those passengers who don't report symptoms to the Medical Centre because they might have to isolate instead of having fun and spreading the virus around the ship.

Another thing that has nagged at me, is how so many experienced cruisers can be doing all the right things, yet still catching it. Much was made about the aircon on Diamond Princess, and how cruise lines were modifying their systems to prevent room to room contamination. We seem to have accepted this has all been fixed, but I believe many ships had this as still a work in progress. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 hours ago, arxcards said:

Fair to say that is something that won't change in the current climate. To tighten those rules would just be paranoia, wouldn't it. 😉

 

Also, being the first Australian based cruise, the number of passengers arriving from overseas on the previous cruise not being asked to do a RAT for the 2nd B2B leg. You have done a few B2B's this year Julie. How many on those following cruises did you have to provide a negative RAT? They are pushing their ship uphill if there are already passengers with symptoms on day 0.

 

Quite a coincidence that Majestic numbers also went boom 2 1/2 weeks after she arrived here, similarly for Grand as well. At present, if your cruise is longer than 2 weeks, look around at the 8 people nearest you. Numbers for QE, Majestic, Coral and to a lesser extent Grand, have gone from apparently 0 infections to 1:8 infected within 2 weeks.

 

The ships won't voluntarily test anyone, only someone presenting with symptoms and their cabin contacts, or when required by their next port when numbers are elevated. Whether it is passengers or the ship not take adequate measures, it isn't working as it was meant to. Now the ships are trying to push the cost of anti-virals off onto travel insurance, lets see what the premiums look like next year.

We only did one B2B and didn't have to test between those two. We had a few days at home between the others so tested before re-embarking.

 

There will undoubtably be people who are infectious on embarkation day. The pre-embarkation RAT would only identify a very small number of people who had the virus at that point in time. RATs aren't as effective as PCR tests, and even PCR tests aren't infallible. I didn't test positive until the second day of having symptoms. The PCR test on the first day was negative.

 

Australia had just started the current Covid wave when Majestic arrived here. Since there are no requirements for isolation in the community it's not surprising cases got onboard. It's been known for years that some passengers falsify their health declarations - how many times have you heard people coughing heavily on the first or second day of a cruise. From my personal experience coughs that bad don't develop instantaneously.

 

The really interesting fact was that Majestic jumped from Tier 2 status, less than 500 cases onboard but exact number unknown, to Tier 3 status with 800 cases onboard after a mandatory RAT was required. Which means 300+ passengers were either asymptomatic or did not report having symptoms.

 

The spread of Covid is exponential. So with shorter cruises the numbers don't build up enough onboard to be noticeable. Most people who catch it near the end of their cruise will have disembarked by the time they develop symptoms. 10-14 days seems to be the timeframe where there are enough cases floating around the ship to become obvious. More regular RAT testing onboard would be sensible but unless ports demand it I doubt it will happen. Although numbers on Coral were never announced I'm sure the number of cases jumped after WA required a RAT before going ashore in Fremantle. 

 

I think Princess has been very generous in providing free medical treatment for Covid so far. Would the restart cruises have been as popular if they hadn't? We'll never know. However they will have to draw the line somewhere. Expensive antivirals may indeed be the first thing to go.

 

Of all the cruise lines Princess could clamp down on passengers who don't follow the mask mandates. The medallion makes it easy for crew to identify passengers who are transgressing so they could implement a "three strikes and you're out" policy and disembark anyone who repeatedly refuses to comply with the mandates. Can you imagine the outrage if Princess did such a thing though? But why should they have to? The majority of passengers are adults, not unruly children. Furthermore everyone has to agree to abide by the Covid rules during the Medallion check-in process. Of course there will be a number of people who tick the box without really reading the requirements, and even more people who selfishly don't care. Unfortunately living with Covid means living with those selfish idiots and that means Covid will continue to plague longer cruises.

[arxcards]

41 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Australia had just started the current Covid wave when Majestic arrived here. Since there are no requirements for isolation in the community it's not surprising cases got onboard. It's been known for years that some passengers falsify their health declarations - how many times have you heard people coughing heavily on the first or second day of a cruise. From my personal experience coughs that bad don't develop instantaneously.

First cruise back on Explorer, there were some nasty coughs in the MDR at embarkation lunch - part of a larger group that all wore badges, so can be identified as bringing back cruising at the same time as trying to shoot it in the foot. They could have had anything, and may have even tested negative as required, but friends did go home with it after the 4-night cruise, so it had to be present on day 1.

 

Lots of people doing B2B2B transpacific, QLD, NZ on Majestic. I am pretty comfortable in saying there was a degree of covid already aboard when we embarked on the QLD cruise. Those B2B'ing would have been picked-up if tested on the day prior, and that would have gone a long way to mitigate the seeding of 800 cases some16 days later.

[OzKiwiJJ]

51 minutes ago, arxcards said:

First cruise back on Explorer, there were some nasty coughs in the MDR at embarkation lunch - part of a larger group that all wore badges, so can be identified as bringing back cruising at the same time as trying to shoot it in the foot. They could have had anything, and may have even tested negative as required, but friends did go home with it after the 4-night cruise, so it had to be present on day 1.

 

Lots of people doing B2B2B transpacific, QLD, NZ on Majestic. I am pretty comfortable in saying there was a degree of covid already aboard when we embarked on the QLD cruise. Those B2B'ing would have been picked-up if tested on the day prior, and that would have gone a long way to mitigate the seeding of 800 cases some16 days later.

In one way I wasn't surprised that we didn't have to test on the changeover day of the B2B cruises because Irene had already mentioned that about their June B2B cruises. There were quite a few people doing the 3rd Sept / 13th Sept cruises B2B but there wasn't much sign of Covid on Coral at the end of those two cruises. The next cruise we did, 26th Sept, was 12 days but, again, there was little sign of Covid onboard at the end of that cruise. We re-embarked three days later, on the 11th October, and we noticed to first table outside a cabin door in our part of the ship about 10 days later. That was about the time the current wave started and the latest versions of Omicron are apparently far more contagious so it wasn't surprising.

[Galesa]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We only did one B2B and didn't have to test between those two. We had a few days at home between the others so tested before re-embarking.

 

There will undoubtably be people who are infectious on embarkation day. The pre-embarkation RAT would only identify a very small number of people who had the virus at that point in time. RATs aren't as effective as PCR tests, and even PCR tests aren't infallible. I didn't test positive until the second day of having symptoms. The PCR test on the first day was negative.

 

Australia had just started the current Covid wave when Majestic arrived here. Since there are no requirements for isolation in the community it's not surprising cases got onboard. It's been known for years that some passengers falsify their health declarations - how many times have you heard people coughing heavily on the first or second day of a cruise. From my personal experience coughs that bad don't develop instantaneously.

 

The really interesting fact was that Majestic jumped from Tier 2 status, less than 500 cases onboard but exact number unknown, to Tier 3 status with 800 cases onboard after a mandatory RAT was required. Which means 300+ passengers were either asymptomatic or did not report having symptoms.

 

The spread of Covid is exponential. So with shorter cruises the numbers don't build up enough onboard to be noticeable. Most people who catch it near the end of their cruise will have disembarked by the time they develop symptoms. 10-14 days seems to be the timeframe where there are enough cases floating around the ship to become obvious. More regular RAT testing onboard would be sensible but unless ports demand it I doubt it will happen. Although numbers on Coral were never announced I'm sure the number of cases jumped after WA required a RAT before going ashore in Fremantle. 

 

I think Princess has been very generous in providing free medical treatment for Covid so far. Would the restart cruises have been as popular if they hadn't? We'll never know. However they will have to draw the line somewhere. Expensive antivirals may indeed be the first thing to go.

 

Of all the cruise lines Princess could clamp down on passengers who don't follow the mask mandates. The medallion makes it easy for crew to identify passengers who are transgressing so they could implement a "three strikes and you're out" policy and disembark anyone who repeatedly refuses to comply with the mandates. Can you imagine the outrage if Princess did such a thing though? But why should they have to? The majority of passengers are adults, not unruly children. Furthermore everyone has to agree to abide by the Covid rules during the Medallion check-in process. Of course there will be a number of people who tick the box without really reading the requirements, and even more people who selfishly don't care. Unfortunately living with Covid means living with those selfish idiots and that means Covid will continue to plague longer cruises.

Our experience with covid was: a known exposure to DW;  symptoms for DW after 2 days; positive RAT after further 2 days; symptoms for me 5 days after DW; positive test 3 days after symptoms; DW negative after 10 days of symptoms, cruise - 9 days; me still positive cruise  - 7 days; tested negative cruise -3 days, 11 days after testing +.

 

A declaration is required on boarding that we haven't had Covid in the past 7 days - obviously I could have lied but I didn't- cruise cancelled:(.

Edited November 28, 2022 by Galesa
Error

[MMDown Under]

35 minutes ago, Galesa said:

Our experience with covid was: a known exposure to DW;  symptoms for DW after 2 days; positive RAT after further 2 days; symptoms for me 5 days after DW; positive test 3 days after symptoms; DW negative after 10 days of symptoms, cruise - 9 days; me still positive cruise  - 7 days; tested negative cruise -3 days, 11 days after testing +.

 

A declaration is required on boarding that we haven't had Covid in the past 7 days - obviously I could have lied but I didn't- cruise cancelled:(.

I'm sorry you had to cancel your cruise.  Good that you did the right thing.

[arxcards]

It might be too soon to confirm, but QE's heading is currently toward Bass Strait, which would see her missing Adelaide & Kangaroo Island. I don't know if that is the case, but they are well off course if their next stop is Adelaide. Most ships just lay a line from Albany or Esperance across to Adelaide.

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by arxcards

[MicCanberra]

Might be dodging big waves or winds

[Pushka]

Marine traffic still reporting it will arrive here on 7th. 

[bretts173]

It's got 2 days to get there, no need to rush.

[Patois]

On 11/28/2022 at 5:24 AM, MMDown Under said:

Good to read smaller ships like Azamara require a supervised RAT or PCR. I cruised on Coral Expeditions' Coral Geographer this year and they required PCR within a set period and a supervised RAT at Cairns prior to boarding.  A nurse took our temperatures every morning.  Result 100 passengers with no covid.  

Who made the irresponsible decision that international arrivals did not have to test at all?

 

We for off Coral Geographer Adelaide  to Fremantle last week. Had to have a negative RAT 24hr before boarding and RAT again at boarding. Had first reported case 2 days into cruise. A further 6 cases reported during cruise. Judging by the amount of coughs etc in the last week I am sure than were more cases. 

I am not sure about the whole effectiveness of the mask wearing. As during meals people were without masks and that is the times people are closest to each other. I just don't think it is possible to keep any cruise clean particularly longer ones. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Might be dodging big waves or winds

Not seas according to the BOM wave map. And usually high winds affect the waves as well.

[arxcards]

4 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Might be dodging big waves or winds

Even when the shareholders were being well looked after, Carnival Corp was never one to use more fuel to get from A to B than necessary. She is still booked into Adelaide Ports, but it looks unusual to be close to 150 miles south of a direct route. The current angle has her pointed to clear Cape Otway.

 

I had checked the weather before posting, and there is nothing nasty down in the bight. 

 

 

[arxcards]

QE has just altered course back toward Adelaide. Nothing to see here.