M&A

I'm wondering if the first couple of cruises will be Israeli residents only and then they will open it up to anyone that is vaccinated.  Would love to take a cruise out of Israel and spend a few days pre-cruise.  We spent 2 weeks there in 2013 so much to see.

More flights available to Tel Aviv over the past couple of years.

American Steamboat Company requiring a vaccine before cruising.

https://www.porthole.com/american-queen-steamboat-company-ceo-explains-mandatory-vaccine-decision/?fbclid=IwAR0BE9wFF5WQPJ7QE2ja4CBb0J0nGxeRKEvZavJcqeQ2McpyA8lDjeH9sz4

On 2/15/2021 at 12:22 PM, keyboardjunkie said:

 

Just an FYI - I always thought Florida had the largest population of people over 65 in any state.  This actually is not correct.  I was surprised to learn that Maine beats Florida by a small percentage by percent of the state's population.  (https://www.prb.org/which-us-states-are-the-oldest/ )  Who would have guessed!

But not in the winter !!  Florida's population may be 21 MILLION but likely 30 MILLION in the winter and mainly old folks

On 2/14/2021 at 6:33 AM, Mapleleafforever said:

I'm jealous of all the things you can currently do in Florida that we can't in my home Province (we are slowly opening up though). On the other hand Florida has been more than doubling my entire Country in cases and deaths of late and we are currently being warned of the inevitibility of the even worse "third wave" that's coming in Spring so will probably be in strict lockdown again real soon. 

But unlike anywhere else in North America, Florida's economy is tourism.  The Governor made the decision to keep things open, if he closed down like in other areas of North America the economy would be devastated and more people would be suffering.

People forget that Florida has more seniors than anywhere else in the world and considering the amount of seniors, and the fact that restaurants/bars are fully open,  the numbers of hospitilizations and deaths are surprising low.  Hospitals are not overwhelmed.

Yes  the positive cases are higher, because they are testing everywhere in Florida.  You can't compare to your province it's apples and oranges.

On 2/3/2021 at 1:11 PM, Mapleleafforever said:

If vaccines are mandatory for passengers you can bet that they'll be mandatory for crew. We still don't know for certain if they will be though. 

But the cruise ships won't have access to vaccines for crews, the vaccines are being bought by governments.  It's going to be much easier for passengers, especially North Americans to be vaccinated by the end of the year.

I think the cruise lines will take the risk of starting up with requiring passengers to show they've had the vaccine.   But they will take the risk with the crew and just have them tested.  The crew are coming from places like the Phillipines, Indonesia, India etc where it's going to be impossible to get a vaccine probably for a few years.  The cruise lines are not going to wait that long, they are going to take the risk with having passengers only requirement.

5 hours ago, Mapleleafforever said:

Getting the passengers vaccinated will be the easy peasy part. Good luck getting enough crew vaccinated in the next year or 2. 

But if all the passengers are vaccinated then as far as the cruise lines are concerned that is the most important thing.  Passenger aren't going to be infected by a cruise member and a cruise member won't be infected by a passenger.  It's likely they would just keep testing crew members until they do get a vaccine down the line sometime.

We did a B2B  - Sydney to Hawaii and then the second one was Hawaii to Vancouver.  We had a balcony cabin from Sydney to Hawaii but the price for a balcony for the second leg was too expensive so we took an ocean view for the second part.   They did move our bags for us to the new cabin and yes we had to do the muster drill again

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

 

It's been plenty publicized in recent weeks that all the major American lines are stuck in idle because the CDC won't give them any additional guidance on the return to sail protocol.

Even if the CDC gives the go ahead I doubt there will be Alaska or New England/Canada cruises this year.  The Canadian government will likely not open ports until after the general public is vaccinated and they have stated it will be September by the time they start vaccinating the general public. 

3 hours ago, time4u2go said:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-distribut/local-funding-crisis-threatens-u-s-vaccine-rollout-idUSKBN295135

 

From the article:

 

In counties across the United States, the funding crisis has limited the hiring of needed vaccine staff, delayed the creation of vaccination centers, and undermined efforts to raise public awareness, officials told Reuters.

 

The federal government spent more than $10 billion to speed COVID-19 vaccine development but has so far disbursed little funding for distribution, even as it pushed the responsibility of actual immunizations onto state and local governments.

I understand why it's slower than expected, they didn't plan on the fact that Phizer vaccine has to be stored at MINUS 80c.  That has created some logistical problems, not enough freezers to transport and store.  Just have to be patient

10 hours ago, grapau27 said:

That was awful.

Living in the UK I never heard about this until you posted yogimax.

He should've mentioned that it took place in 1932 !!  

First Christmas that we will have no family from up north coming to see us.

Wouldn't they be looking for RCI crew members/employees to do this?  

On 11/4/2020 at 7:15 PM, Iamcruzin said:

Key West is a destination on it's own.   A hit and run cruise stop  probably doesn't bring in as much compared to what the hotels and Airbnbs bring in from people who stay a few days. 

 

Exactly,  Key West is always crowded especially in the evening when the cruise ships are gone.  It's always difficult to find a hotel in Key West and their prices are pretty high.  The cruise ship passengers come in the morning and may walk around and take tours but they aren't around at night when the bars, restaurants and clubs get going.  The locals won't miss the cruise ships.

We have friends that are vacationing in St Maarten right now and they said that it's dead, very few tourists around, that island like many others are missing the cruise passengers

.

On 10/5/2020 at 11:06 AM, boscobeans said:

Very true. Subways, Trains, buses and planes seem to be fine, but as far as I am concerned being on a cruise ship with 50% capacity and well regulated social distancing seems a lot safer than being in a plane for 3 or 6 hours...

 

But according to the Canadian transport minister no one ever got covid from flying  

https://globalnews.ca/news/7288950/marc-garneau-aviation-safety-coronavirus/

If a vaccine is approved by November, then it has to be manufactured/produced.  Then  distribution, with the initial batches going to front line health care workers, essential workers then the elderly, children.  Availability and widespread inoculation to the general public is likely months after that.  I can just imagine huge line ups for the vaccine when it's announced locally where it's available.  It will be a logistic nightmare

18 hours ago, grapau27 said:

In the UK and Europe a passport is vital,no one shows a driving licence.

Passport must match name on the booking so you will be fine.

Graham.

I think she is talking about cruising from US ports where you don't need a passport for visiting Caribbean/Bahamas/Mexican /Hawaiin ports.  When you return to the ship the local authorities may ask for picture ID and your boarding pass only to get in to the port area, they never ask for a passport.

On 8/23/2020 at 11:08 PM, scottca075 said:

If the question is purely philosophical, the answer is yes, but the real life question isn't a yes and no answer.

 

If RCCI announced a cruise on Nov1, 2020 and said you had to get a vaccine that was approved Oct 15, 2020. I wouldn't book the cruise. I want to be sure the vaccine is safe and effective before I take it. And I will get the vaccine, cruise or no cruise, when I am reasonably sure it is safe.

If a vaccine is approved Oct 15th, there is no way that anyone would be vaccinated that fast.  It is going to be a huge logistics effort to produce and distribute it.  The priority will be health care workers first, then essential workers, the elderly, school kids and then the general public.

Maybe by 2022 everyone that wants one can get one.

Just hope that the cruise lines do not make it a requirement.

Getting back to the Original Post - "should people be tested  before boarding"?

Kind of useless if the next day the ship stops at it's first port of call and one person gets infected and brings it on the ship.   Can't see them testing after each port stop.  Even if the new 5 minute quick test, that's a long time per passenger to be standing around outside the ship waiting.

A two week Carib or Med cruise may have 10 or 12 port stops

6 hours ago, Bobal said:

I will be having the vaccine as soon as it becomes available, not to cruise with RC but to provide a level of protection to start living a more normal life.

 

We met up with a friend yesterday who is a recently retired professor of tropical diseases. He has been avidly following all the studies and papers which have been published and the work being done by Imperial and Oxford on vaccines. He has already signed up to be a participant in the Oxford scheme- they are looking to recruit a large number of people over the age of  65. I would take his advice any day over the many armchair experts on here. He is 65 and with a heart condition 

 

Looks like it's proving to be one of Trump's best investments.  $1 Billion to fund the Oxford vaccine

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/21/coronavirus-us-gives-astrazenena-1-billion-for-oxford-vaccine.html 

2 hours ago, TheMastodon said:

Great move, but in the end medicine will dictate when it's "safe" to cruise.

 

No one has been able to answer the big problem even if we get rapid response testing - test negative embarking, but then show symptoms on day 4.  By then it's too late (potentially) and others will have been exposed.  This is the #1 issue for cruise lines IMO.  Hope the vaccine comes soon!

Yes and then by day 4, they could've visited 3 ports and infected locals in the ports

1 hour ago, Cthy651 said:

We will be sailing on the Allure in November, and I am wondering how this is going to work, as we are flying in from Toronto, Ontario.

Do we need to take in account the isolation period?

 

 

You can fly into the US right now from Toronto, it's the land border that is shut.  The only region that requires a 14 day self-isolation is Hawaii

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/u-s-travel-restrictions-covid-19-land-border-fly-1.5607741

1 hour ago, Airbalancer said:

Canadian. - USA border closed until July 21 

 

Land border,  by car, train or ferry, but you can still fly 

25 minutes ago, Meekomist said:

They were actually partially right. Canadians can still FLY to the U.S. They just can't cross the land border.  (I like many assumed we could not fly; because the airlines stopped flying into the US)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/u-s-travel-restrictions-covid-19-land-border-fly-1.5607741

 

Yes it's the LAND border that is closed, Canadians can still fly in.  Yes there are still flights to the US out of Toronto, they just have cut the number.  We just checked on flights out of YYZ on Travelocity to the US, Air Canada, Delta and a few others flying to the major US cities. 

Air Transat is flying now out to Spain, Italy as they open again.  The only thing is that Canadians have to 14 day self-isolate on return.

20 minutes ago, hazence said:

RCCL knows full well that some people do not follow the rules they have now and they haven’t found the will or way to deal with them.

 

In the future, they may be sailing with rules mandated by federal policy.  How will they handle customers that refuse to comply?

 

And what will be their liability if they don’t?

The ships are not registered in the US, they won't be sailing with rules mandated by federal policy.  The cruise line will have their own rules and can have their own security staff trying to handle customers but I doubt they will enforce things too much.

As has been discussed a few times how do you keep people apart on elevators?  only 2 people per elevator?  that's not going to happen.  Security making sure only 2 people in a hot tub?  Security make sure people in the pools stay 6 feet apart.

How do they handle the tenders?  to get people off the ships and into a port fast they pack them in.  Do they eliminate the tender ports?

Just announced that the Canada/US border closed for another 30 days and it will be reviewed again June 21st.   Canadian ports were already closed until July 1st.