SWFLAOK

This would be funny, except it's not. We've always paid for cruise travel insurance. We had it for all of our cruises that have been cancelled, from Allianz for Rengent and Paul Gauguin, and from Viking ("cancel for any reason"). But they all had an exemption for a pandemic, and after paying 8.5% of the cost of our cruise, they did nothing for us. The cruise lines cancelled, and we could only get what they offered us, which would mostly just a FCC for what we had paid. PG cancelled 2 weeks before our cruise, and we held in until then. We did get 125 % FCC, but no other non-refundable expenses during the cruise were covered. We already have medical coverage outside if the US through our Medicare supplemental insurance (which we pay more for since it has that coverage). We also have evac insurance through a Diver's membership that covers non-diving injury evacuation.

We'll be looking closely at any new policy to see if it covers Covid. We've had both does of the vaccine, but we could still have a fever and be denied boarding after flying a long way to get on board. Will that be covered?

On 2/21/2021 at 8:16 AM, JES4845 said:

 

The waitlisted status shows as a sash across the voyage when you look up voyages in the main voyage search area if the entire voyage is waitlisted.  Decks and room types show up once you scroll down for a given voyage.  The color for that voyage’s box is also less vivid, kind of shaded, in addition to the sash, if the entire voyage is waitlisted. Short of it being shown as waitlisted for an entire voyage or room type I’m not aware the public website shows exact number of rooms booked/available.

 

I think what the original posting person and others, including us, find out is that supposedly the winter 2023 schedule was just this past week released to Club Members - in the past voyages were never waitlisted within days, except maybe one new itinerary. Does this mean others were given preferential treatment to book them?  Or is that SD is holding some back - either entire voyages or rooms on some - to see how things go?

 

Well I still have no idea what you're referring to by saying that a sash (I thought you meant a slash, but you repeated it so?) across the voyage when you look up voyages in the main search area if the entire voyage is waitlisted. Nor do I see any less vivid areas. For our back to back cruises at the end of March next year, I see some cabins that say "call for availability" and others that indicate that only a 1 or 2 cabins are available for that cabin type. I looked at similar cruises in winter 2023, and it looks like nearly all cabins are available. That's what I saw previously, and it's what I see now. We've sailed  SD before, and we've booked through our Cruise TA as we did this time. I haven't seen any cruises marked as unavailable due to waitlisting. I've been looking at the SD website.

We've already had to rebook cruises from 2020 to 2021 to 2022. And some cruise lines have indicated that they will not book all cabins until they know that it's safe to do so. I'm not surprised that 2023 cruises are waitlisted.

People really want to cruise again, and now 2023 feels safe to do so. We really don't want to wait that long.

I'm not sure how to check if a SD cruise is waitlisted. We're booked for March 2022, which we booked back in September. I don't seem to be able to see the available cabins on the SD website without having to enter all of my personal information.

8 hours ago, Lonedaddy said:

Temperature checks will probably be the norm embarking and disembarking and entering an eating venue - If you have a fever you would be tested and sent to your cabin if you have the flu or covid.  I think given the length of the cruises a doctor on board and a small bed facility might be added

On our cruise from Singapore to Singapore to Sydney, temperature checks were done when we got off the plane in Singapore, as well as disembarking in many ports on the first cruise. It was also checked before we reembarked in Singapore after taking a day excursion between cruises. From Singapore to Sydney, no temps were taken.

We have never been on a cruise that did not have a doctor and medical facility onboard. And we've been on some pretty small cruise ships. On our last Regent cruise, people were lined up every morning at the medical facility to have renal dialysis.  We heard some of them complaining at breakfast that it took too long and should have a more extensive facility. That sounds like a good idea if they're paying for it.

On the Regent website, they say that they have added a Health Officer onboard, as well as testing facilities for Covid 19, and isolation units should it be required. I feel comfortable with what they've added, such as the hospital grade HEPA filters. But we always have 2 types of insurance coverage to be airlifted, because at least one of them will find a way to tell you that you're not covered. I'm still more worried about being bitten by a shark than anything else.

41 minutes ago, wcsdkqh said:

Never??  Really??  Perhaps you meant to say never prevent 100 pct of sickness associated with COVID or flu,. If not, your statement is absurd.

I agree with you wcsdkqh. Vaccines have already done that really well for viruses. How about the smallpox vaccine? It was developed in the late 1700's, and smallpox has been eliminated.

Vaccines will never prevent 100 percent of sickness associated with any virus or bacteria, because a small percentage of the population doesn't have a good enough immune system to react to the vaccine and prevent an infection in the future. In the past, those people didn't survive. Now we can sometines keep them alive to be infected again.

On 2/16/2021 at 12:02 PM, leanstostarboard said:

We have just booked our first cruise on Regent, for August 2022.

I see that Regent does not charge for gratuities, but do passenger tip?    We have sailed Holland America often and we tip selected staff members based on our experience with them while in the cruise.   Are those kinds of tips common on Regent? 
 

We have always given an extra tip to the crew fund, which benefits everyone, since we have always had overall good service on our Regent Cruises. Have we also given an extra tip to someone who interacted with us everyday on a long cruise, such as our back to back cruise that lasted over a month? Yes, we have. Do we pass out plenty of tips to everyone we've interacted with? No, we don't. But we do mention everyone by name who's service was memorable when filling out our comments card, and hope that Regent keeps them as employees in the future.

On 2/18/2021 at 3:08 PM, Hutchinj said:

9. ITINERARY; COMPANY RIGHT TO CHANGE ITINERARY; DETENTION OF PASSENGER:

        b.     [...]    Company may for any reason whatsoever cancel any sailing or terminate the Ticket/Contract at any time before departure of the Ship, and in such event, Company’s only liability will be to refund to the Passenger the amount it has received for the Ticket/Contract.

 

(this is what I had on file from my cc dispute. not sure if this is the latest version)

I don't see anything that says the refund will be in cash rather than a Future Cruise Credit. We're still dealing with this with both PG and Viking. Both cruises were cancelled and no cash refund was offered. Having paid for insurance on both cruises (Allianz for PG and Viking's highly touted "cancel for any reason") we found that neither covered their cancellation of our cruise for a pandemic.

22 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

I have heard (from a semi-reliable source) that the J&J one-shot vaccine will be approved in a week or two, and will send out several million doses that require only normal refrigeration. If true, this will be a step forward but probably not a quick game changer as to cruising. For example, it is reported that Crystal will require all guests to have proof of vaccination. Good move, but that line is also requiring other things like a rather current negative test. In many places those tests are hard to get. And then, there are restrictions in many countries and ports that will prevent cruise visits there. Other matters besides vaccinations are involved in any return to cruising. Some of us wonder if all of these will be resolved in time to save to save the cruise lines.

Several million doses is a drop in the bucket. And even though we have had our second dose of vaccine, we can't fly from Florida to Pennsylvania without quarantining or having a negative Covid19 test within 72 hours of our arrival. If the US doesn't accept the vaccine for interstate travel, other countries won't want us there without a negative Covid19 test. And we'll probably still need one to return home since the US is not accepting the vaccine as valid for entry (or reentry) into the US.

12 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

Sometimes this virus seems like an intelligent being

Please do some research online about viruses before posting something like this.  And only read reliable medical or scientific sites. A virus isn't as advanced as a bacteria or parasite. It's just RNA that tells other cells what to do to reproduce itself because it can't do it on it's own. There's no intelligence involved. All it does is find a cell that it can use to reproduces itself. Anything that disrupts a virus from reproducing itself in human cells is an effective anti-viral agent. Stimulating our immune system to disrupt it is what Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been designed to do.

We just checked on the PGcruises web site to see how many cabins are still available on the December 4 Society Islands and Tuamotus cruise to see if there's really a chance that this will sail. Last time we looked, almost all cabins were available. This time, there were still way more cabins available than booked on both Deck 8 and Deck 7. But none of the aft cabins on Deck 7 were available. Between that and the deck plan shown with 2 giant cabins on the Ponant website, I think we have a good idea of what will happen to that area during drydock.

While I haven't stayed in the aft cabins on deck 7, the last thing I want to see are 2 large family cabins instead of 5 cabins that couple can enjoy. Large family groups with kids is not what I want when I'm paying for a luxury cruise.

29 minutes ago, Carol From California said:

We have an Alaska cruise scheduled for September and just verified what you posted....that our cruise is indeed now showing WAITLIST for every category. While they haven't officially cancelled the Alaska sailings it is looking more and more unlikely that there will be any Alaska cruises in 2021. I know they are trying to work something out with Canada but it is not looking too hopeful. I am so disappointed after carefully planning all the details of a pre-cruise trip to Denali (on our own), with all hotels, rental car, etc., as well as flights.  This is really going to be devastating for Alaska tourism. Still hoping things might change and maybe they put waitlist for every category so they don't overbook the number of passengers....in the off chance that cruises are allowed to go ahead with less people.  

Why not make your pre-cruise trip a vacation even if the cruise is cancelled. You can add some extra nights and fly back home again from Anchorage. After our 2018 cruise to Alaska, we spent an extra week there, visiting relatives in Anchorage, then driving to Denali, Fairbanks, Valdez, and some place along Route 1 between Valdez and Anchorage, and ending up back with the relatives before flying home. We really enjoyed it. In fact, I think I may have enjoyed it more than the cruise. We were there the week after Labor Day, and a few things were closed, but we found plenty to do, good places to eat, and the drive was totally spectacular, especially the road to Valdez and back. We did it in a small RV without a car, but there were many B&B's and small lodges that looked very interesting in the areas where we stayed. Both Fairbanks and Valdez have many options for lodging. 

2 hours ago, Chunky2219 said:

Try this for a little thought excercise.................  Whatever your view about how the Covid versus vaccine dynamic might pan out in your own corner of the world, begin by recognising that no vaccine ever works 100% of the time for 100% of people - the best you can hope for is a high percentage of people avoiding the very worst effects of a disease.  Now assume that it is dramatically different in half a dozen other countries where:

• a new variant has just sprung up a month ago, or
• vaccine uptake is poor or patchy because of political/philospohical/theological or just plain stupid reasoning, or
• vaccines work great but some people, some countries, some groups won't use or don't trust vaccine passports, or
• vaccine uptake has been awesome but after 2, 3, 4 or more waves they now don't trust many other countries and don't want their citizens, plus
• one of these countries is on your cruise itinerary, or
• someone from one of these countries is on your ship, or
• someone from one of these countries was on your flight to your cruise start point

Now factor in that a cruise ship is an almost perfect breeding ground for the virus, like a big prison where people can mix freely 24/7.  Now think about the typical demographic of most cruise ships with respect to succeptibility to serious effects.  (it's not positive).

 

Once you've got this far, now imagine you are a cruise ship operator planning 3 years in advance normally and maybe 3 months in advance now.  All this while trying to make at least a break even position out of it all.  It's a high sunk capital cost, rapid revenue turnover and highly inflexible business.

 

I personally can't think of a more difficult industry in which to keep operating.  Unless and until Covid 19 naturally dies back to be as threatening as the common cold it's not going to be sustainable.  Sadly, vaccines won't change the game.

Please feel free to stay home. Many years ago, I was a microbiologist for 3 years before I discovered that I could make more money (and not have to lie about research results paid for by grants), and switched to being a software engineer instead.

I will feel much safer on cruise ships and airlines in the future if they screen people and remove those that are sick. They should never have been onboard, and if diagnosed with a contagious illness

after boarding, they should always have been removed or restricted to their cabin. Allowing people to remain onboard after they have been diagnosed by the shipboard doctor with a contagious disease, such as viral pneumonia, isn't a good idea. Allowing them to leave their cabin and eat in Compass Rose, should never be allowed, but it was on our cruise last January. Since our cruise originated in Singapore, and the previous cruise encountered many Chinese tourists on our excursions in Nha Trang, there was certainly a chance that those onboard could have come in contact with Covid19.

My point is that, there are always a large number of elderly people onboard Regent. They allow people who need daily dialysis, and others who might be more prone to infections than the normal population. We are in the 65 and over population, but we will stop cruising when we expect to need the onboard medical facility. Any medicare recipient who expects to need that, should restrict their cruises to the US.

Too bad we couldn't keep the Canadian snowbirds from coming down this winter. To avoid the "no driving across the border" law into the US (as Canada had imposed already going the other way), the Canadians had their vehicles and RVs towed across the border. Sounds like we needed to make a change to that law as well as to the outdated law from the 1800's that requires cruise ships to make a bogus stop in Canada.

Having to take an Alaska cruise by starting in Vancouver was enough to make us never take one again. The hotel was very overpriced, and C&I was a nightmare coming into the airport. It was actually the worst airport experience we have ever had, and we're pretty well traveled.

"By the way, to perform the "Technical Stop" requires contact between the Canadians and people on the ship."  Can you explain why this can't be done without masks and social distancing, which the CDC says protects us?

2 hours ago, CruiserFromMaine said:

Technically it the Passenger Vessel Services Act  (https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=3363), just to be clear. I looked it up before writing all of Maine’s US congressional reps/senators to suspend enforcement of the PVSA until 2024. It’s a big deal in New England too, despite the focus on Alaska. 

I thought the same thing. This was an Act from the 19th century, and there were no cruise ships. It could easily be suspended be the US government, and if not, challenged by the cruise ship industry in the courts. But the suspension seems like an easy way to allow cruise ships to operate without stopping in Canada to avoid the law.

We just got a call from our TA today to book pre and post hotels through PG for our December cruise, and our flights booking will follow shortly after that. After so many disappointments (including our first ever river cruise that we just had to reschedule for 2022), we almost feel excited.

We're booked on back to back cruises at the end of March 2022, and convinced my brother to book as well. We hope that all of this is over by then. We've already had our first vaccines. My brother watched the video of the fogging machine used in the cabins on SeaDream each day, and he was impressed. He suggested I buy one for my condo. If I let anyone other than him visit us, and that's only on holidays, I might need one of those. We are so looking forward to our SeaDream cruise. Our first was the winter after Hurricane Irma, which hit us hard, but hit many of the islands we visited harder. We were happy to contribute to their recovery with our tourism.

20 hours ago, doc47 said:

Forgive me if this topic has been discussed, but I think the new CDC directive deserves some attention. As of today, anyone entering the US needs a negative COVID test within the 3 days of entry. I just returned from Cabo, and my resort's plan is to offer in-room testing--PCR test with 2-3 day turn-around for $200 or the quick test for $35. If someone tests positive, they will need to quarantine for 14 days. This resort plans to dramatically reduce their daily rate for these folks. I wonder how this will further complicate the cruise industry. Everyone will need to be tested on-board and somehow arrangements will need to be made for anyone who tests positive. I can't imagine anyone would be left on the dock to fend for themselves. Thoughts? 

When we take our next Regent cruise in September, we are not worried about them providing Covid19 tests to continue on our trip on our post cruise excursion and our Regent flight home. They will arrange that, and help us get home since we take the flights that Regent arranged for us. If we should test positive, we trust them to help us with what we should do. We pay for travel insurance, and with Covid19, that may or may not help us. It hasn't so far on other cruise lines. But we trust Regent will look out for us if we book our flights through them. If you take the flight credit and book your own flights, then I think you might be on your own if you test positive.

17 hours ago, Guerncruising said:

The belief is that the latest batch was brought in via an inbound essential worker. These people can only fly in from Southampton and it would be reasonably easy to contact them via passenger lists. The contact tracing group are on the case. 

It's good to hear that you have contact tracing. In the US, I don't think it's being done effectively. It is disturbing that an essential worker brought it in. I suspect that they aren't looked at as closely as other travelers, and maybe a few days of quarantine should be required. Flying is still an extremely frightening thought to me. My sister-in-law passed away 3 weeks ago, after a long bout with cancer. We had booked flights to visit on her Birthday a few months ago, but we would have needed to quarantine with her after flying interstate from Florida to her home in a NE state. It wasn't a problem for us, and we would never have gone if we were ill, but she didn't feel comfortable with us coming. And now she's gone, with no service possible until some time in the future. And for the rest of us, life has to go on.

Let's hope this virus fades into the background as so many others have, and the vaccine helps it on it's way.

Just now, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

We received our first dose last week and, at that time, the second dose was scheduled for us. All of our friends, here in Florida, New York and New  Jersey had the second dose scheduled when tbey received their first. 

Are you and all of your friends front line hospital workers? New York and New Jersey weren't even giving the vaccine to anyone other than that until this past week.

And it's certainly been easier in SW Florida for hospital workers and their friends and family,  as well as patients of hospital associated physicians to receive the vaccine.

We received our first dose of the vaccine last week by scheduling an appointment online through Collier County, and were told when we received it that they could not promise a second dose.

Apparently, you were able to find a better source of the vaccine. Wish we could have been eligible for that as well.

From what we've heard from our friends and neighbors in Florida (where we're year round residents), other than hospital workers, the only ones who have been contacted for a second dose are those that stood in line outside in the middle of the night at a Lee County site, and they waited 6 to 8 hours to receive their first dose. After doing that in their 70's, I think they deserve to be scheduled for a second dose.

On 1/23/2021 at 7:12 PM, pappy1022 said:

12 weeks? Pfizer has recommended the 2nd dose within 21 days or so.That is what has been tested and proven. I wonder what value it will be to get the 2nd dose in week 12. 

When we received our Moderna vaccine, we were told that any time between 28 days (it's a week more than Pfizer, which was only offered to hospital workers in our area) and 6 months after our first dose. We weren't promised a second dose where we received our first dose, but hope we'll find one before our September Regent cruise.

6 hours ago, Guerncruising said:

@SusieQft

Well 24 hours later and we now have a further 20 cases. It’s the speed at which this has happened, when you relax it comes back to bite you on the bxm. 

I just hope that our health people manage to rein it all back in and carry on with the vaccine. 

 

 

So sorry to hear that as well, but I'm just wondering what your flu situation is there in a normal winter. As an isolated place, do you all get flu shots, and do you have outbreaks with deaths among the elderly?

In the US, many of us older people get flu shots every year. And while it's worked for us, many people die of the flu every year. Last winter, there were many fewer flu deaths, and so far this flu season, the cases are much lower than usual. They say it's because of hand sanitizing and masks. But for some reason, that hasn't worked for Covid19, which makes no sense.

We've always encountered many sick people on cruises that should not have been allowed on board, or should have been offloaded at the next port. And on some cruises, we have seen people taken away by ambulance as we docked.

There have been vaccines available for the flu and Pneumococcal pneumonia, but they weren't required to prevent others from catching it. And cruisers were allowed to board even when ill when boarding. Is there anything different about Covid19? It's a corona virus just like SARS and MERS. Neither of these shut down all cruises for years, or for good, and no one bothered to even create a vaccine for them, assuming they would go away or become insignificant over time. At least we did much better than that this time.

We had our first vaccine through Collier County and when we were lucky enough to make it through Eventbrite (where we had a chance to get tickets to one of 3 comedy shows in Collier as well as the vaccine appointment event) we thought that they would be giving us a second appointment for our 28 day vaccine. But when we got our shots at a well managed drive-through were out 30 minute appointment time was honored, we were told that they did not know if they could provide a second dose. They will notify us at 21 days, as a reminder, and let us know if they have a second doses available. Otherwise, we'll be back to work trying to find a second dose. They told us we should get it between 28 days and 6 months, and couldn't count on any protection without the second dose. I don't really believe that, but trying for 6 months to get the second dose isn't something I would look forward to.

I definitely feel for you on the 65+ vs just under that. My brother, and our 2 best friends, are in that just under group.

We already booked back to backs at the end of March 2022, hoping that things will be better by then. Had our first vaccine last week, and hope to be able to find somewhere to get the second one next month. By next March, we'll need another one if Covid19 is still around.

15 hours ago, SusieQft said:

The non-gateway airport fee and the deviation fee are separate things and if you do both you pay both.

Thanks for the confirmation Susie. That's what I thought.