SWFLAOK

Here is the relevant part of the email we received precisely after the 31 day deadline.

"We plan to operate the Fiji to Bali itinerary as close as possible to the original itinerary. It is a dynamic situation, and the Captain will make changes as necessary as we are notified of any updates from the ports.

With all of this in mind, we have decided to adjust our payment and cancellation policies to offer guests more flexibility and greater assurance. If you prefer to cancel your booking completely, we will issue a Future Cruise Credit for the amount of the cancel fee, less any fees imposed by the airline/hotels. The Future Cruise Credit will be valid for cruises through 2021 aboard the m/s Paul Gauguin. Cancel fees amended to 10% (cruise only fare) for cancellations received 31 days prior to sailing.

We will continue to update our Travel Advisory at this link: pgcruises.com/travel-advisory. Please monitor it for the latest updates.

Thank you for sailing with us and we look forward to making your voyage with us most memorable for you.

Sincerely,"

Our next Regent cruise is not until fall of next year. But if we had one scheduled for this year, we would cancel it. We are in our 60's and we both work out regularly. We always walk the stairs rather than taking the elevator. We aren't bothered by warm temperatures, and we never find ourselves out of breath unless we're pushing ourselves to expect it. Neither of us has an underlying health issue.

Our last cruise was a back to back, Singapore to Singapore, followed by Singapore to Sydney last December and January, and

I'm sorry to say, but some of the people our age, and most of the people over 70 on those last 2 cruises were not people I would want to cruise with again. We overheard in the dining room a number of times, people complaining about how long they had to wait for kidney dialysis, which apparently has many patients in the early morning or late afternoon,  and sometimes they are late for breakfast in the morning, or for happy hour in the afternoon. One woman said that she had never had dialysis before she boarded in Singapore, but her doctor diagnose her just before her cruise, and gave her a note that allowed the ship's doctor to perform it. I can't even imagine doing this myself, or Regent allowing it. But it does tell me that anyone will be allowed onboard with a note from their doctor, which is easily obtained.

A man stopped at our table in the main dining room at lunch to ask us about our excursion. He had previously stopped at a table of 6 asking the same thing. Just as he had told the larger table, he told us that his wife had been diagnosed with viral pneumonia and didn't feel well enough to take the excursion..We extended our sympathy, and saw him walk to a table 2 away from ours where his wife was seated, and was coughing uncontrollably over the table. They appeared to be at least late 70's, and why they weren't put off the ship or quarantined, I don't know. But Regent needs to step up their game.

When we were waiting to disembark in Sydney, we had to wait in the Theater for an excessive amount of time, as we did everyday waiting for excursions. The amount of uncontrollable coughing was unbelievable, and we eventually went upstairs trying to get away from it, and still had to move twice on the balcony to avoid it. No one made any attempt to cover their mouths, or aim away from others while they coughed.

I understand why people want to go on a cruise, and why they don't want to cancel when they're old and sick. But if those who are very elderly, with underlying health problems, and take 30 minutes to walk slowly to the buses, and require strangers to help them up 3 steps to board the bus, and then cough at the front of the bus where they pass their illnesses onto the rest of us, then we'll let them support the cruise lines. We won't be OK with being onboard with people like this in the future.

On 3/9/2020 at 3:11 PM, Tahitiancruise said:

Hello Moderator.   Can I post content on this roll call list?   Marc

I'm not the Moderator, but this isn't the roll call list, it's the board, so you can post and ask what you want about corona virus.

For those of you on cruises through the end of July, there's an update on the PG website today about policy updates. As you might have noticed, no one on the current cruise had anything to say about their cruise being a French Polynesia only itinerary, or what that cruise entails. Is this a non-disclosure situation, or just people onboard who don't really care that others were asking them about it. Maybe the ship has turned off the WiFi. But, I'll keep their lack of posting in mind before participating on this board in the future.

For those of us who are unfortunate enough to be on the March 28 and June 11 sailings,  we've decided that we're going unless we want to lose a lot of money. We would get a future cruise credit (minus a 10% penalty, and an unknown loss for airlines and hotels that they booked)  that can only be used on the PG, and not other Ponant cruises.The only reason we booked this cruise was for the stops that we made between Fiji and Bali. Today's update says that the itinerary for the March 28 and April 11 sailings are unknown,  but we can trust them to do their best, but that situation is fluid.

Having kept track of the situation so far,  the March 28 sailing will not stop in the Cook Islands since they have closed their ports until the end of April. Tonga is also closed and has been for some time,  but having been there in September on PG to Fiji, it's no loss. Cruise ships should just avoid Tonga in the future. In the past few days, Fiji allowed a last minute stop by Silver Whisper on it's World Cruise, with last minute stops arranged at Suva, SavuSavu and Laveu Island before their scheduled stop in Laukota. Kudos to Silver Sea for arranging this, and for Fiji keeping their country safe enough for smallcruise ships to travel to. Silver Whisper was supposed to stop in the Cook Islands (and announced onboard that they would stop at Rarotonga instead of Atutaki, apparently not knowing that they were both part of the same country and under the same restrictions), and several very small islands in Tonga. They were not allowed to stop in these places despite having only spent port time in Papeete, Bora Bora, Moorea, and Pitcairn Island (population 50 with no airport), in the last 2 weeks.

We hope to make it from Florida to Fiji where we have 3 nights at the Pullman. From there, we would be surprised if we stop anywhere on our way to Bali,but hope to spend a few nights at the IC, including a significant Birthday celebration. If we need to be quarantined in Bali, we have credit cards for that. We had a cruise scheduled on a different cruise line later in May. They reached out to us an offered the ability to reschedule within the next 2 years. There was no penalty for the cruise, and no penalty  for airfare or the pre or post hotel.   We rescheduled at no cost to us so we have no worries about getting home.

According to today's update, the Captain is responsible for arranging alternate stops. That does not instill any confidence in me since that is not part of a Captain's job. I'm watching fo Silver Whisper stopping in an alternate port in Vanuatu. If they make it, we might. Papua New Guinea has no cases of corona virus, so they may not allow any crew shiip entry if that's still the case. Bali has had passengers with corona virus passing through their airport. So far, none of them stayed in Bali, and tourists who were on those flights have been quarantined.

PG booked us through Hong Kong on the way back from Bali, and would not change it when we expressed concern about it. We had to book our own flights back through Sydney, and get a refund from PG. If we cancel and reschedule in the future, we could lose that entire business airfare, and that's a significant amount of money.  We did purchase insurance for the trip, but it doesn't cover everything we would lose.

If we were cruising in June or July on the PG, which might be a much better situation at that point, we could cancel and get a future cruise credit valid through 2021, without a penalty, and that's what we would do.

Sorry for the long rant, but it's been very frustrating with no information from PG, or this board,  and the cruise I looked forward to a year ago now keeps be awake at night.

Not only does the Bahamas use floating dry docks, but our Navy does as well. This is a photo we took while passing through Norfolk Va. on our boat.

On 3/4/2020 at 9:01 PM, azdrydock said:

A ship is never lifted out of water. It is floated into a pen very similar to a lock on a river cruise. The water is pumped out and the ship is gently lowered onto a support structure,.

Actually, a floating drydock does lift the ship out of the water. The old style graving drydock is like a lock, with a door that opens and closes. A floating drydock floats on top of the water. Chambers are filled with water to sink it, the ship pulls in on top of it, then the water is pumped out of the chambers, raising the drydock, and lifting the ship out of the water.

They have 3 of these at the Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport. It's pretty spectacular to see a giant cruise ship out of the water.

1 hour ago, FlightMedic555 said:

 

Don't think that the officials in FP may not still require you to have some type of documentation.  You will be arriving in FP from another country which means the PG or you may have to provide some documentation.  I am not sure what your itinerary is but I did read that all ships stopping anywhere in FP must first stop in Papeete.  Not sure how that may alter your trip.

 

As I said, we're on the Fiji to Bali PG cruise so we fly to Fiji from LAX, and go west  from there to Bali on the ship. We fly back to LAX from Bali via Sydney.  French Polynesia is not part of this cruise.

If our Fiji to Bali cruise on April 11th isn't cancelled, we plan to be on it. But if we had to fly to Tahiti with it's new policy, rather than Fiji, I would cancel.

The last thing I want to do is go to a doctor's office right before I leave for a trip. Most people in a doctor's office are there because they're sick, and I would not want to be in a waiting room with sick people right before I board a plane for a long (and expensive) trip. If French Polynesia wants to screen people coming into the country, they should have medical personnel doing that in the airport as they board. It still won't be very accurate, but it's better than 5 days before. The verification of the history of where you've been, and who you've been in contact with that's most important since the incubation time is longer than 5 days.

2 hours ago, azdrydock said:

I was also able to find out that historically PG drydocks in Singapore. Also found out today that the AidaVita which was scheduled to drydock in Singapore later this month will now dry dock in Dubai.

 

Judging  by Tahitianbigkahuna earlier post and the length of time the ship is out of service this may also be a mandatory class  maintenance drydock.  It is unlikely the aft cabin conversions would be done with passengers on board at sea since this requires cutting steel and welding which are safety concerns. I believe NCL had a big problem  a few months ago with toxic fumes due to deck work they started at sea  prior to the scheduled drydock .

 

As far as what the crew does during the dry dock..... Since it is a good  time for training  there is a lot of lifeboat/tender practice that may end up  in races, Water slide evacuations may be also practiced several times as are on deck fire hose drills  All of the amenities get thoroughly tested. Usually depends on what the captain and port allow.

 

They are trying to get the mandatory health inspections done prior to the flights so,  if necessary, the quarantine would be at origination instead of destination..... hmmm two weeks in Tahiti vs two weeks in Nebraska🙂

 

 

Just to clarify, drydock means the ship is lifted out of the water to give access to the bottom from dry land. Doing lifeboat/tender practice and water slide evacuations would be quite painful while a ship is in drydock. Lifting a cruise ship out of the water isn't something that every port has the ability to do, but many things on the interior can be done at a shipyard that doesn't have the ability to lift a large ship out of the water, and only crew would be onboard, not guests. 

My description of what the crew does after the passengers leave the ship and it heads to drydock is based on our conversations with several crew members who have done it in the past. Crew members who stay onboard work very hard on the upgrades that we all get to enjoy on future cruises.

The only news we have heard is found here -> https://www.pgcruises.com/travel-advisory

Our TA has no insight.

I don't think there are drydock facilities in Bali for cruise ships, but maybe that's not really needed.

In the past, drydock for the PG was in Singapore. After the passengers disembark in Bali, some crew members go home for vacation, and others stay onboard, prepping for drydock. They do things they never do normally, like rip up old carpeting. While in drydock, most of those crewmembers stay onboard,  where the AC doesn't work well while not in the water, and they put in new carpeting, and furniture. While out of the water, other work is done on the bottom and props by the drydock facility.
The question is whether they really need to go to drydock for what they need to do this year. The conversion of the aft cabins will be done by contractors who come onboard, but they wouldn't need to be out of the water for that. If they can delay any maintenance or repairs that require them to be out of the water, they may be able to wait for the drydock.

At this point, Singapore isn't necessarily a good airport to come through, but Bali could soon have the same problem. If you can get onboard, you may have trouble getting off and returning home without being quarantined, so we're keeping that in mind if we're able to complete our Fiji to Bali cruise before drydock. We were originally booked by PG to come back to the US through Hong Kong, and we rebooked through Sydney.

I was hoping that the latest update would address the Fiji to Bali situation on the way to drydock. Within the last week, 2 people have taken flights from Dubai to Bali, after visiting Iran. One tested positive when she reached New Zealand, and the other tested positive when he reached Melbourne. The government in Bali has already tracked down tourists seated near the first positive passenger. They are being "isolated" at their hotels, and told to "limit their activities". There are 3 hotels in Bali involved, but they weren't named. They are still working on locating tourists in Bali who sat near the second positive passenger. He transited the Bali airport on Feb 28.

Maybe there will be another update this week.

9 hours ago, Shippy said:

Interesting discussion on the news last night.

Becoming more and more a scandal about the lack of testing kits in the U.S.

A man whose company has a new, he says better testing kit, has it held up by the FDA.

The newscaster asked if he thought that the U.S. government was doing that on purpose because if were able to test the masses.....we would then have to report the  

‘real’ numbers of those that test positive, which is great.

I had never thought of that but it makes sense.

Here in California there is now a case where a woman was sick for a week before she went to the hospital. She was there for a few days before anyone thought to test her.

She was positive. Now transferred to a different hospital where they say she is on a respirator and not doing well.

How many people do you think she came in contact with? 
Test kits ?

My doctor says her (my) hospital is not allowed to have them. They would have to take a swab and send it to the CDC.

 

I'm sorry but this just sounds like California is not doing a good job of detecting and containing the corona virus. It's an old woman in the same area as 2 previous people who returned from China and weren't sick when they returned, and the had corona virus. How much investigation was really done to see who the previous 2 cases could have spread it to. I'm sure they were out and about until they felt sick, and they most likely infected others.

The rest of your post is totally political, and there's no place for that when it comes to stopping the spread of this virus.

Test kits are certainly available in all states, and thinking that someone has come up with one of his own that doesn't need to be tested by the FDA before replacing the CDC's is naive. I saw a similar comment today from a news story in Washington that said that it takes 6 days to get a test result for corona virus. And Washington state doesn't report any of their corona virus cases to the CDC because health information is private. Maybe there are communication problems between the CDC and California and Washington. Other than China, Iran, and Italy, these 2 states seem to be the only ones who can't figure out where their corona virus is coming from.

2 hours ago, Cruisedreamer1 said:

I don't think SWFLAOK's idea of warmer climate rings true. I, personally, am not worried at this point. I can think of worse places to be "quarantined" than on the Paul Guaguin! That said, I would bring my cold and flu medications with me.

I'm not sure what you think about my idea doesn't ring true. The warmer climate that the PG cruises operate in at this time of year are detrimental to the virus spreading, and that's a good thing.

Right now in China, it's cold and dry, just as it is in Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea. That's when viruses spread. Dried out noses and sinuses pick up viruses more easily, and being chilled depresses the immune system.

High temperatures (mid 80's and higher) don't allow the virus to live for any length of time on surfaces, and humidity keeps noses working well as virus filters.

All of the upcoming PG cruises are South of the equator, where it's summer. It's hot and humid, which will hopefully slow the spread of the virus. Singapore has been able to control their cases, despite them being a popular place for business travelers from China, bringing corona virus with them. It's always hot and humid in Singapore.

We've paid 40K for our upcoming PG cruise since we added hotel stays on each end, upgraded to business air, and have to get to LA and back from Florida. If this was just a Society Islands cruise, I wouldn't be worried, but we really have no chance of doing this cruise again, since it's only been offered every 3 years. If this cruise sails, we'll be onboard, but spending the whole time onboard is not what we want to do since we'll never pass through these ports again.

In addition, we have a European River cruise on Viking in mid May that we would not be allowed to board if we were quarantined in April. We have "cancel for any reason" on that cruise,  but we booked and paid for that trip almost 2 years ago, and got the last suite onboard. Another 2 year wait might not work for us.

We always bring a large supply of cold and flu medications, and I wipe down our airline seats, and every touchable surface in our cabin when we embark with Clorox wipes. There always seem to be a lot of people with respiratory problems on cruise ships (and we only take cruises on smaller ships). On this trip, if anyone is coughing uncontrollably, I will be calling them out, and then pointing them out.

We were actually offered a "fam" upgrade on our first Regent cruise, and didn't know it until now. It was a cruise from Vancouver to Seward Alaska. It was offered through our TA on the morning that we were to embark. We had a Veranda Suite, and were offered a Penthouse Suite. We had already paid for our transfer to our hotel, which we also had  paid for, and our luggage had already been taken by the hotel to the ship, with our room number tags on every piece. The location of the new suite was not available to us. We turned it down, and have never been offered an upgrade again. Now we know why.

But, it we had been offered this in advance, we would have taken it.

If you have a Sunday at sea, there will be caviar and champagne at breakfast, and there's no additional charge. We aren't caviar experts, but it seemed fine to me. And the champagne was good.

7 minutes ago, orvil said:

There is also Insuremytrip.com.  This where I get my travel medical.

 

 

Well that's definitely an advertising site for insurance.

I wasn't sure if it was an oceanic white tip or a whitetip reef shark, based on what I had read. From someone onboard the cruise ship, they weren't far outside the reef, and reef sharks do follow small boats outside of the reef, associating small boats with fish.

7 hours ago, Jacqueline said:

I just found out my cabin disappeared through these threads! No word from the cruiseline or TA. 
I see from logging on that I have been reassigned to 8009. I have zero use for a butler on a cruiseship. 

The cabins on Deck 8 are definitely nice. I wouldn't turn one down if offered that for the price of the aft cabins on Deck 7. We normally don't make much use of our butler on Paul Gauguin,  but they can get you additional dinner reservations, and they can also help with other things that come up unexpectedly. On our first PG cruise, my husband had a latent back injury that was made much worse by a bumpy excursion at our first stop in the Marquesas. Our butler and room stewardess made that experience much better for both of us while he was bed ridden for several days.

Deck 8 is quiet, and convenient to the Pool area, the Pool Bar, and breakfast in the morning. We hope to be in our Deck 8 cabin for the 4th time on the Fiji to Bali cruise on April 11th,  but who knows what will happen between now and then.

I am spouse of SWFLAOK and lurk here LOL. I think the closer one is to the Equator, the less likely the virus is to spread because the virus is sensitive to higher temperatures and humidity. Both Fiji and Bali, are humid and 90 at this point. So hopefully this virus does not explode in those areas close to the Equator and that spares cruises within that area as long as they take preventative measures.

7 hours ago, FlightMedic555 said:

The screening of people using thermometers has already been shown to be ineffective in determining disease.  There have been a couple of cases of people who were diagnosed with the virus after returning from Indonesia (citizens of other countries-unknown if they had the virus while in Indonesia) and there is a lot of speculation (only speculation) that it is unlikely that there have not been cases in Indonesia.  All in all a lot is still unknown.  What is known is that Asia is the hotbed of virus activity and stopping the spread of the disease thus far has not been totally effective. 

 

If (a big if) the virus spreads to Indonesia (as it appears to be doing in South Korea and Japan) it could potentially result in a 14 day quarantine period which would effect the crew and therefore subsequent cruises.  I am not trying to say the sky is falling but we are entering uncharted territory with this disease.  I question at what point in time “better safe than sorry” enters the picture and tough choices are made.  

 

Even hospitals in the US (including mine) have implemented strict additional screening procedures for all patients presenting in the emergency department and clinics. 

Which cruise are you on that's affected by this? I'm more worried about flying through LAX than taking the Fiji to Bali cruise on PG. In fact, I'm more worried about our neighbors coming back from Hong Kong after several months there since we live in the same building, and touch the same handles and buttons.

The South Korea and Japan cases have come from China. I don't know if Indonesia has cut off flights and cruises from China. But having just been in Indonesia on a cruise back in December, there were not a lot of Chinese tourists as there were in Viet Nam, Thailand, and Singapore, or even Australia. The same was true for Malaysia which has had minimal cases. Who knows how many Chinese visitors have come to the US during this time, and just disappeared into our country.

I hate seeing sharks while I snorkel, but I've been able to tolerate the smaller sharks in shallow water. They're fed, along with the rays, and all are happy.

In deeper water, I never want to see them, and hated the Faka Rava snorkeling with very large black tips following me 5 feet under and 10 feet back.

Last October, a woman was decimated by a white tip reef shark off Moorea. I believe this was outside of the reef on a whale encounter. So be careful about the sharks you want to see.

On 2/17/2020 at 11:47 AM, Floridiana said:

 

Better have a tissue ready, but your sleeve is better than my face. Next time a table mate sneezes all over the  table, I will get up and leave. I have had passengers cough at me in a narrow hallway. Next time, I will say something.

The tables on Regent are something I have a problem with. At the Coffee Connection, the table is not wiped between customers. I complained about this onboard, and nothing was done about it. I made a show of wiping the table with a Clorox wipe each time I arrived, and still nothing was done. We were onboard for 32 nights . At the restaurants, most of the time, the table cloth is not changed between seatings. We had people with pneumonia onboard (confirmed by those they sat with), who coughed excessively on the table cloth while eating. We saw some of the waiters change the table cloth between seatings, but others did not. We complemented  the waiters that did, but we started purposely leaving food stains on the table cloth to make sure they were always changed.

I agree with everything that Floridiana said about what I will do going forward. I have tried to be discrete, but next time, I will say something to the passenger.

On 2/15/2020 at 12:27 PM, mrlevin said:

One of the passengers off the Westerdam arrived in Malaysia on a chartered flight from Sianoukville displayed symptoms and was tested; positive for COVID-19. Future charters have been cancelled with some of the Westerdam passengers still stuck in Cambodia.  

This is going to really put a damper on any more Asia port visits. Voyager nearing Singapore; I wonder where she will go next.

 

It was an elderly American heading home, with 175 other passengers from the Westerdam on the same flight. I guess all of the ports that turned down the Westerdam knew something that  HAL wasn't acknowledging. We did one HAL cruise a few years ago, and would never do another since our captain made a number of decisions on our 2 week cruise that we found questionable.

But, what the Westerdam did is very bad for the rest of us who have cruises over the next few months, whether they're in Asia, heading toward  Asia, or heading elsewhere after going through Asia. The Westerdam left from Hong Kong and stopped at a port in China a few days later. Obviously, at least one passenger onboard picked up corona virus before boarding, or at their only stop. They should have been quarantined in Sianoukville before disembarking since so many ports denied them entry, but they all went quickly on their way,  taking their virus with them.

2 hours ago, Tahitianbigkahuna said:

Paul Gauguin is being very pro-active   .... and I for one am glad they are  ....

 

New policy:

 

"In accordance with the recommendation of the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA), for any passenger who has visited, or transited through an airport in China (including Hong Kong and Macau) or Taiwan, within 14 days prior to their embarkation (period of incubation) even without presenting a fever, and for all passengers that have stayed or transited recently through an airport in China (including Hong Kong and Macau) or Taiwan, and presenting a temperature higher or equal to 100.4F / 38C, will not be accepted for embarkation onboard the ship.

Accordingly, for the safety of you and all our guests, checks will be carried out prior to your embarkation. For any further information, we invite you to contact your Paul Gauguin Cruises Reservation Department or your Travel Advisor. We look forward to welcoming you aboard."

Thank you so much TBK, this is what we were hoping to hear. 

4 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

Myself, I'm not sure that Regent has it perfectly right, but the PG situation is perhaps unique.

 

I think that the PG's spring schedule is at risk.  It's too bad they're doing this drydock, which means they add the trips over to Asia.  The best thing for them right now would be to stay right in FP, and go nowhere else. 

 

We'll see how that plays out.  Sorry your cruise is in jeopardy.

At this point, we will try to stop worrying and see what happens. It's too expensive to cancel. We have insurance, but it doesn't cover cancelling the trip for fear of catching a virus, or for a lack of ports to stop in.

And the reason we booked this cruise is to celebrate a milestone Birthday, with a cruise that stops in many small ports that we've never stopped at before, and will soon be too old to stop at in the future. If it was just the usual FP cruise, we would have chosen something other then the Paul Gauguin cruise since we've already done all of the other itineraries within the past 3 years.