deadzone1003

We have a 10-day r/t cruise from Bridgetown, Barbados on Nov. 11th.  I am expecting the cruise to go on as planned with all passengers and crew vaccinated.  Whether we can dock anywhere may be another question.  

2 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Deadzone, news outlets may be idiots, but that info about vaccinations was a quote from the nation’s prime minister, as seen on the video he made which you can see on Youtube

Could only find edited quotes, but it sounds like the vaccinations are required if the cruise ships happens to drop off these passengers on other Caribbean islands.  This sounds like the cruise ships may be stuck with these passengers unless they are only transporting them to other islands of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  

On 4/8/2021 at 6:09 PM, cruisestitch said:

At least one news outlet reported that those who will be allowed onto the cruise ships are required to have been vaccinated.

That news outlet are a bunch of idiots.  St. Vincent only received their first batch of covid vaccines 4 days ago.  Most of these passengers are probably from the more rural area of the island plus the small towns near the volcano.  Maybe, one or two are vaccinated??  If ash is raining down on you, covid is the least of your worries.  Heck, the cruise lines, Royal Carribean, Celebrity, & Carnival can test their covid  protocols on real live people, but I doubt any of these ships are sufficiently staffed to do a proper job.  Just glad there were apparently sufficient number of empty cruise ships nearby to help out.  Aren't alot of these ships have a bare minimum of around 100 crew members?  Food may become a problem unless these ships are just used as transportation.

Always - any cruise line with the right itinerary at an affordable price and has a passing CDC sanitation score.  We sailed Costa for the Norwegian Fjords because they were the only cruise line that had sufficient time in Stavanger for us to hike the Pulpit Rock.  

Never - any cruise line which requires formal or semi-formal wear for dinner

It is funny to see all those "never", especially for Carnival and Costa.  We have sailed both Carnival and Costa - they weren't the best cruises that we have been on, nor were they the worst cruises that we have been on.  Every cruise line has a niche in the cruise market.  One day you may want to treat your kids who are young adults to a cruise.  Do you go on a cruise that is targeted more for you or one that is targeted for them?  Furthermore, even Carnival is more similar to other cruise lines when the cruises are entirely outside of the USA.

4 hours ago, AstoriaPreppy said:

We also prefer Celebrity to Princess,.

Celebrity has a much more... urban sophistication vibe, while Princess feels much more traditional (and older as many people have noted). If you were in Vegas, Celebrity would be Aria: sleek, modern, amazing spaces. Princess would be the Bellagio: still high quality, but definitely a different vibe. 

Re: entertainment. Celebrity's newer ships are 💯. Entertainment on the Edge was astounding, both in and out of the main showroom.

 

Princess... has some of the worst shows I've seen at sea. Imagine if you created a show, picked the worst songs, and then performed them poorly. Is "Three Coins in the Fountain" an iconic song? Only when a man in his 80s who has inexplicably show up 40 minutes late to a Princess show spills his whisky on you trying to get to the one empty seat in the theater at the end of your row. 

 

That said, Princess does a much better job of incorporating destinations into the voyage: they'll bring on food and beverages specific to the itinerary, have performers and cultural reps from port stops come on board, etc. On our Celebrity sailing in Japan, the food and bev and entertainment was exactly what you'd find in the Mediterranean or Caribbean. We had a lecturer on Buddhism, but that was it.

One thing no one has mentioned is that Princess has rolled out "Ocean Medallion" across all their ships, which is INSANE. Essentially it's a little tag you use instead of a cruise card, and it's spectacular. 

For example, you can be sitting by the pool, pull up the app on your phone, and order drinks and a snack. A steward finds you via GPS and drops everything off. It opens your stateroom door when you walk up to it, without having to fumble with the handle or tap anything (great when carrying coffee). You can find other people in your party on a little map of the ship on your phone.

 

You never have to hand someone a card for anything... literally, they know who you are just by walking up. It's game-changing for the cruise industry, and Carnival plans to roll it out to all of their brands eventually. 


 

The Medalliion will probably be on all cruise lines.  They will have different names, but all it is is a tracking device.  This enables the cruise line to determine if any sick person has interacted with another passenger long enough that might require quarantine.  

8 minutes ago, nocl said:

If it is a sticker than often drug information including lot number is in that form, you often see those on medicine bottles as well.

More likely the information of where, what, and when the vaccination had taken place with a name or number assigned to it.  If it is a number, a number and name will be stored in a different database along with vaccination information.  It could contain the lot number of the vaccination so in case of problems, it can be easily traced.   

13 hours ago, njhorseman said:

Without having any specific knowledge of UK cabotage laws my guess is that if they're like many if not most  others (including the USA) a wholly UK itinerary would be limited to UK-flagged ships. so Oceania would not be permitted to do those types of itineraries. Now if Ireland were to also open up that would solve the problem. There are some current Oceania itineraries that are solely UK and Ireland.

I question whether the door will suddenly be wide open on Nov. 1 just because the current Conditional Sailing Order would be expiring. If you recall the prior No Sail Orders were extended several times and the Conditional Sailing Order could also be extended. Obviously at this time no one can say exactly what is or isn't going to be permitted that far down the road.

I think in June we would have an idea if vaccines are helping us reach herd immunity.  There is talk already of easing of travel restrictions between USA & UK, but that is if vaccine plans are succeeding.  Like I said, I can't see EU getting their people vaccinated by the end of summer.  If they don't do that, Ireland is unlikely to be available.

5 hours ago, njhorseman said:

How does a cruise from London to Miami avoid dealing with the CDC? Any cruise starting, ending or making a port call in the US has to comply with CDC guidelines.

Since there has been limited cruising in Europe for some time now why would a European itinerary be automatically be out of the question?

I'm just not optimistic that EU can get it's citizens all vaccinated by the end of summer.  UK may be able to by start of summer.   I hope I'm wrong. I just don't like the idea that my Nov. 11th, Bridgetown to Bridgetown cruise might be the re-start of Oceania cruising.  The London to Miami cruise might be the easiest to modifed - add two days at sea so it lands in Miami on Nov. 1st and shorten the Miami to Bridgetown cruise by two days.  I noticed that the Nautica cruises that are entirely within the EU, but American tourists might still be banned from the EU so can Oceania fill the the Nautica with European passengers so that it will be profitable or, at least, not a negative cash flow.  UK might be the only country where American tourists may enter by summer, but how many itineraries are wholly within the UK?

Not sure they can do a gradual restart with all of their ships in European or Alaskan itineraries over the summer and 1st half of fall.  First itinerary that you can start is, maybe, the Oct. 15 London to Miami aboard the Sirena.  All the other itineraries you may have to deal with  the CDC or the EU or Australia. 

Any suggestions as to what current itinerary to begin the restart?

Oceania should be doing what other cruise lines are doing.  Just one ship for testing protocols and new procedures and equipment.  You have to walk before you could run.  To start the 4th quarter with all ships is asking for trouble.  

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

Can you reference this statement?  The US has 7 million releasable doses meaning that they have finished manufacturing and have passed Quality Control and Quality Assurance Release requirements as set by the FDA.  Other doses are likely undergoing final fill/finish, QA and QC and then will be releasable.  Also the AZ /Oxford vaccine presumably is more stable and that is why some consider it the world wide vaccine.  Where are you seeing 30 million doses in a warehouse in Ohio about to expire?  

Can't find the original article of the 30,000,000 vaccines, but here is a link were they are referencing it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/politics/coronavirus-astrazeneca-united-states.html

The 7,000,000 releaseable vaccines is referenced in this article:

https://nypost.com/2021/03/18/us-to-send-millions-of-covid-vaccine-doses-to-canada-mexico/

As for the shelf life, a small boo-boo on my part.  I was mixing up the remaining shelf-line of an article that I had been reading on AZ vaccines in South Africa.  AZ has a shelf-line of 6 months if stored properly.   What I can't understand is why we should be accepting AZ vaccines when it looks like we can't use them?  We should have started getting rid of them as soon as J&J was approved. 

36 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

For what its worth, a comment from an FDA vaccine official in relation to the expiration of the stored AZ vaccine.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/543661-fda-official-us-astrazeneca-stockpile-not-in-danger-of-expiring

Well, we do have 30,000,000 doses of AZ vaccines which have not been approved, at least, given an EUA.  They have a 3 month storage limitation.  I read somewhere the EU and other countries have been asking for them.  If there are only 7 million releaseable vaccines, what is the other 23,000,000 vaccines for, a strategic reserve??  Give them all away as this may be the vaccine that most Americans will try to avoid.  The reporter should have asked the FDA official when does the AZ vaccine in storage starts expiring. 

16 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I was wondering what the new administration was going to do with the excess vaccines we've purchased, especially if/when the FDA approves the AstraZeneca EUA. Glad they'll be going to our neighbors, Canada and Mexico.

 

Biden to send surplus AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Mexico, Canada | TheHill

Problem is we have about 30,000,000 doses of AZ vaccines sitting in a warehouse in Ohio and it has a shelf-line of 3 months, hope it wasn't shipped to us in January, but since they said they only had 7,000,000 releasable AZ vaccines, I think they are having a problem with inventory control.  When AZ and Novavax gets approved, their contracts kicks in and, theoretically, we can vaccinated 500,000,000 adult Americans (a little less since we may have to throw away some AZ vaccines).  We have 330,000,000 Americans of all ages and kids can't take this vaccine.  You do the math. 

The odds of it going somewhere is good, but don't plan on visiting many of the ports in the intinerary.  Not quite a cruise to nowhere, but there will likely be a port or two that will be open.  

1 hour ago, Tigrou said:

I've just read a news report which says, "President Biden said the number of places where people could be immunised would be increased, with veterinarians and dentists among those also allowed to vaccinate people".

 

Which made me wonder, so I'll ask - who is currently allowed to give the vaccine in the US?

 

Here in the UK we've got a wide range of people doing it including volunteers from all walks of life who applied and were trained to vaccinate.

 

I would take that comment with a grain of salt.  Dentists and vets are trained to use needles, but our problem is that demand is greater than supply.  We don't have a shortage of personnel to administer the vaccines.  We simply do not have enough vaccine available.  We have our flu vaccine apparatus that we have only began to use.

1 hour ago, cangelmd said:

I think it is very telling that my smart, risk adverse 20 something son, who has worked from home, masked consistently and maintained a very small bubble throughout this entire year, told me he wanted to get j and j because it was less hassle - there may be a lot of people that think that and we are months away from lots of j and j vaccine.

Might be alot easier than you think.  Many risk-averse people will go for the mRNA because of the higher efficacy.  Also, I think they will fill the usual flu vaccine pipeline, i.e. pharmacies and doctors, with the J&J as it only makes sense to minimize storage problems.  Those young people who don't think they really need it (unfortunately, there are alot of them and I don't blame them as a 25 year old don't have the same risk as a 70 year old) will gravitate towards J&J simply because of ease and, perhaps, availability.  Might be tight for March, but it should be available in April for your son.  

In California they are offering the vaccines through some pharmacies and even doctors!.  I suspect the supply chain is reaching the standard flu vaccine apparatus.  The pharmacies are apparently getting all 3 vaccines.  Not sure about the doctors though I suspect it will be the J&J.  Might be easier for one's own doctor to convince someone who is hesitant about taking the vaccine. 

One thing about Molnupiravir and if it works as plan (5 day regiment as early treatment and you are cured), you can go on a long cruise and you may lose only 6-7 days of that cruise.  Along with required vaccinations, this expected new drug can only help restore some confidence in cruising.    

Maybe, something is better on the horizon - Molnupiravir - 5 day treatment that get rid of the virus in 5 days for early treatment.  A Merck drug that is phase II study.

It is in pill form!

6 hours ago, MarkWiltonM said:

 

This came out on March 4 re ivermectin in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association):

 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2777389

 

This was a study that said Ivermectin was no better than a placebo, but you may want to take a look at this before concluding that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yynnQK6An_8

It appears that it was supposed to be a study on Ivermectin preventing worsening conditions for covid-19 patients, but very few got worse whether in the Placebo or Ivermectin group.   If both groups had a same number of worsening patients, the study would have the correct conclusion  If hardly anyone got worst, you have a lousy sample group.  

On 3/3/2021 at 9:11 AM, 8420PR said:

Thanks for posting - it's fascinating to read what happens from someone who experienced it. 

 

Do you know how the family member was identified as a close contact - was it the wristband or something else?

 

Will you claim on the MSC covid-19 insurance for the lost cruise day?

 

What was the atmosphere like onboard before you were isolated?  Any big differences compared to pre-covid?

 

Given what happened - if you could go on a cruise next week, would you? 

 

 

As Happygcruiser said it was the wristband, it's as if you had your mobile phone with you the whole time and they could track your every move.  Princess has this with their medallion system.  With contact tracing they could determine if 2 or more people who were sufficently close together for a long enough time, there was a likely chance the unaffected party could have caught the virus from the affected party.  Of course, the contact tracing may not work if an infected person who walks by you, sneezes or coughs at you and both parties do not bother to take notice.  So, in the future on the cruiseship, if you do some extra-cirricular with anothe cruiser who is not your spouse, big brother would know.

TeeRick, noted, it was just my response to her middle comment and I thought it best to give counter-examples.  

19 hours ago, nocl said:

Keep in mind that different agencies have different jobs.  The FDA determines which drugs are approved in the US and what is on label according to the data presented to them.

 

Once a drug is approved, physicians can based upon their own knowledge and opinion use the drug off label

 

The CDC who has the job and responsibility for administering the vaccines program has made such a decision due to some real world issues.  They have stated that the time period specified in the label can be exceeded if necessary.  Note they are not recommending that it be exceeded or that the US go to single shot approach, but recognizing that some issues with supply might make such a delay necessary.

Not anymore for your middle comment or, at least, they applied different rules for this pandemic.  Remember hydroxychloroquine, it has been around since 1955 for malaria, but they limit it to hospital use for this virus where it was not effective (as an anti-viral, it stops or inhibits the growth of virus, but by the time you enter the hospital because of breathing difficulties, your immune system is attacking the live/dead virus in your lungs - paradoxically, they can't find live covid-19 virus in almost all patients 12 days after onset of 1st  symptoms, I guess your immune system kills all the live virus, but it is also continue to attack the dead virus).  You can find many negative studies concerning HCQ for clinical/hospital applications, but you can't find any negative study on outpatient application of the drug.  They also did not recommend physicians to use ivermectin for covid-19, but they recently have changed their mind, now they left it up to doctor and patient where it should have been.  So, if you haven't gotten your vaccine and you catch covid-19, you might want to discuss the use of ivermectin between you and your doctor for outpatient use.  There are dozens of observational and some formal studies of ivermectin throughout the world except in the Western world.  The overwhelming number of them are positive.  

On 3/5/2021 at 5:55 AM, TrulyBlonde said:

How about this:

Get your vaccine, wear a mask, and lose some weight:

Countries with high obesity rates have more deaths.

You can Google all of the latest info on it.

That was a bit obvious when nurses and people who had to lift people in and out of gurneys or who had to turn them over were complaining about how big many patients were back in March 2020.    

37 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Maybe someone can explain this to me. Today, Canada just approved their 4th vaccine. They now have access to Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines. Why have they only vaccinated a little over 2 million so far?

 

COVID-19 Tracker Canada

 

On the other hand in the UK almost 21 million have received at least 1 dose?

 

Daily summary | Coronavirus in the UK (data.gov.uk)

 

I'm sure there are a variety of reasons. I was just curious and, hopefully, most of their issues will be resolved in the coming days and weeks. Maybe this article I just found might shed some light on the issue.

 

Canada just made a major change to its coronavirus vaccine rollout (msn.com)

 

Probably, the same way that the EU is having so few that are vaccinated.  It's first come, first serve - at least, in this case, if you order first, you get it first.  If you order last, you get it last.  That question of why you are not higher up in the queue should be asked of your political leaders.

We were on the last cruise aboard the Nautica, a 30-day cruise from Cape Town to Singapore, but it was diverted to Dubai where all passengers disembark.  At that time the ship was still in good shape.  My cabin, an inside, was in good shape.  It didn't look like she really needed a full refurbishment.  Oceania does a good job of maintaining their ships.  However, I'm not as detail-oriented as some of my fellow cruisers so take my opinion for what it's worth.  Even if they didn't refurbish the Nautica, I would still go on her with the right itinerary.