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CoronaVirus Impact on the Cruise Industry


Hlitner
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5 hours ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

I am not sure why you quote my post to make this comment. I said nothing that was in any way judgmental of others or their choices. I merely presented my own position, and I am not sure why you are judging that? 

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I had a long phone call yesterday with the couple who were going to share with us an expensive private excursion on one of our upcoming trips. They are canceling their cruise and of course canceling their share of our excursion. I regret seeing them go, I think it would have been fun, but I totally understand why others might make such a choice and I am very grateful to them for letting me know sooner rather than later.

 

Stan

 

 

**  It seems that though your message was inoffensive (IMO) , it triggered my wish to post   my response,  reaction.    I had  (have)no desire to offend you or anyone and hope you took my message at face value saying  only exactly what I meant.

 

My view on where to travel, when  and  what to avoid is vastly different  than used to be.  I tell no one what they should choose an especially avoid commenting  to persons  I have never even met    Until I know  their circumstance, history, means, likes.... who am  I to have or express such an opinion to any ??   Choices I likely would have made ten years ago are not   even close to many choices I must  make to day to do all possible to assure my safety and chances of having a safe, fun vacation without avoidable unpleasant   events

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by sail7seas
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10 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

Maybe a poor choice of words, but both are viruses with similar symptoms

I've read (reputably) that it resembles SARS and MERS to the tune of 50% and 75% (can't remember which was which). I've not read any data comparing it to our seasonal influenza.

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I just discovered that the WHO has a manual for managing covid 19 outbreaks on ships.  If the following link does not work, perhaps go to the WHO website and do a search on "operational-considerations-for-managing-covid-19-cases-outbreak-on-board-ships".  A bit dry reading but I found it interesting.

 

file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Personal/Travel - 2020/20200224-outbreaks-on-ships.pdf

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On 2/25/2020 at 9:03 AM, sfaaa said:

You think so? Some hot climate countries like Australia & NZ (summer right now), Singapore Malaysia, Thailand, Mid East etc are all getting hit by coronavirus. So much for this theory.

 

"Hit" as there is one case in NZ and I think, 11, in Australia?

 

Those have come in from "hot" places (Iran in the NZ case) no reports I've heard so far of it spreading.

 

Still early days but I think there is an over-reaction to this event. Over the same period the number of common influenza deaths is orders or magnitude higher.

 

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On 2/29/2020 at 2:10 PM, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

There were no cuts.  There were proposed cuts but they were never enacted.  

 

I can't get this board to give me the correct post but to clarify on your complaint about the Snopes cite. Your cite is not talking about the same thing as what I and at least one other person said. Your cite is an AP article talking about allover budgetary cuts and subsequent restoration by Congress.

My cite was about an event which can be found elsewhere and DID happen - that the pandemic response team established by the Obama administration was lost two years ago under Trump.  This is the team which we most need now - it isn't there. Here is a further article with an imperfect headline but lotso cites at the bottom. Of course none of this talks about his current budget proposal with cuts.

 

But things are messy enough, need to avoid mixing apples and oranges.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/28/michael-bloomberg/did-donald-trump-fire-pandemic-officials-defund-cd/#sources

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4 hours ago, sayanne said:

 

I can't get this board to give me the correct post but to clarify on your complaint about the Snopes cite. Your cite is not talking about the same thing as what I and at least one other person said. Your cite is an AP article talking about allover budgetary cuts and subsequent restoration by Congress.

My cite was about an event which can be found elsewhere and DID happen - that the pandemic response team established by the Obama administration was lost two years ago under Trump.  This is the team which we most need now - it isn't there. Here is a further article with an imperfect headline but lotso cites at the bottom. Of course none of this talks about his current budget proposal with cuts.

 

But things are messy enough, need to avoid mixing apples and oranges.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/28/michael-bloomberg/did-donald-trump-fire-pandemic-officials-defund-cd/#sources

 

What is not being done that would have been done had those responsibilities not been reassigned?

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4 minutes ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

What is not being done that would have been done had those responsibilities not been reassigned?

 

They were never reassigned. You're also moving the goalposts. 

Edited by AlyssaJames
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Viking just sent out a notice that they're relaxing their cancellation policy for booked passengers: you can cancel up to 24 hours before your flight and receive 100% refund (in the form of a travel voucher, good for 24 months).  

 

This does help us (European river cruise in April)...basically, we can put off the go/no-go decision until the last moment.  

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32 minutes ago, Jchivers said:

Viking just sent out a notice that they're relaxing their cancellation policy for booked passengers: you can cancel up to 24 hours before your flight and receive 100% refund (in the form of a travel voucher, good for 24 months).  

 

This does help us (European river cruise in April)...basically, we can put off the go/no-go decision until the last moment.  

 

Yes, just got the email. I think their offer is very generous. My plan was to go on the flights and the river cruise unless it was cancelled. Now I will have to make the decision myself. I am also a little worried that they may have to cancel our cruise if enough people cancel. Would they cruise if 50% cancelled? So even if we don't cancel, I won't be surprised if they cancel on us. Given the average age of their clientele (Our previous Viking river cruise seemed to me to be mostly Americans in their 70s) I think many will be likely to do what they think is the prudent thing and cancel.  

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I was assuming that the greatest issue in terms of access around  a river cruise in France I have coming up would be if the coronavirus exploded in France while I was on the trip. That could complicate my return to the US.

 

But frankly, I am seeing France take better proactive measures to prevent hot spots than the US. So I am sincreley curious about whether the majority-US citizen river ships will have some resistance heading out to excursions. Granted my own ship is small, but when they tie up at docks along the river there could 6 or more of them side by side and end to end. So in a small town, that is a lot of tourists all leaving for their morning excursions. I don't envision rock throwing mobs, but if the US is seen as being behind the curve on handling this by the time I get there I can understand the local French authorities having issues.

 

Is anyone on this board in contact with someone who has an early March river cruise in France? I know the itineraries for small ship coastal cruises involving Italy are being modified, but even with my own trip coming up I am not hearing a peep about potential work arounds. The only people I know on a similar trip leave two weeks later than me.

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19 minutes ago, KnowTheScore said:

 

Don't know where your cruise would be going to but this may or may not be relevant.   I'm mindful that when Italy went into lockdown they closed lots of tourist attractions like cathedrals so the same may apply to France.   French hotspots appear to be Morbihan (Brittany), Haute-Savoie and Montreuil (Paris) and there's a case in Marseille

 

Thanks, I have been watching. They closed the Louvre a couple of days ago, Sunday morning.

 

There was also a person in Lyon who was found to be positive, whether passing thru or from there I forget. I doesn't matter - France is still on the increase so a single day's status will only change again anyway. Frankly I would be OK with it exploding in the next couple of weeks in hopes the curve would start moving down again. I am going to be south but there is no 100% safe place until it stabilizes.

 

There should be river boats starting their cruises on the Rhone within 2 weeks. I hope that someone takes one of these early trips and can report back. The Rhone excursions are less about churches than some other trips, except for Avignon.

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"Frankly I would be OK with it exploding in the next couple of weeks in hopes the curve would start moving down again."  
U.K. health minister reckons it will peak May/June and take a further three months tailin off. Certainly cannot see it reversing in weeks......
 
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20 hours ago, Cee_Jay said:
 
"Frankly I would be OK with it exploding in the next couple of weeks in hopes the curve would start moving down again."  
U.K. health minister reckons it will peak May/June and take a further three months tailin off. Certainly cannot see it reversing in weeks......
 

 

I am being a bit facetious. And not going to the UK so not tracking there at all. France is running ahead of them.

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On 2/24/2020 at 9:03 AM, Hlitner said:

We think its time to start a macro topic on what impact the CoronoVirus will have on the industry.  From what we are reading here on multiple CC blogs and seeing on other social media we now think the impact will be huge.  In fact, we now think it will be unprecedented!  Initially it looked like the virus would mainly impact a handful of Asian cruises.  But now, the near panic in Italy will likely scare away many cruisers and other travelers.  In the past when we had "cruise panic" such as during the Gulf Wars, the impact was relatively short lived and was quickly countered by the cruise and travel agency offering lots of incentives to lure folks to book.  But this situation seems to be different.  Some experts are predicting that the virus could continue to be a major issue into next year!   We see posters talking about cancelling Caribbean cruises, which at this time, are not even in an area with Coronovirus issues.  Folks are scared and/or being very cautious.   

 

We think the fast spreading virus in Italy is a huge cruise related issue.  Those with Spring/Summer cruises in Europe are generally outside of the final payment period and one can speculate that many will cancel.  That probably bodes well for the Alaskan cruise season since many will likely assume that it is one of the safer places to travel.

 

What do you think?

 

Hank

 

Looks like another Princess ship got a case and VP is going to meet with the cruising industry, in the end this will be a huge blackeye that will take a long time to recovery.

 

I love my cruise vacations for their value and unique way to vacation, but rubbing shoulders with thousands others in such close proximity is part of the value proposition and challenge.   I'm sure cruise industry will put in places changes like Chipotle did for their issue, but you can't change the fundamental fact that you bring thousands of people together and put them in close proximity eating, drinking, partying and who know what other intimate activities, anything one person has, most certainly will be given to many others, that is the fact of the experience.   

 

I am sure the food handling and etc. will become more stringent, but everyone touches the handrails, touch the elevator buttons, holds the hand rails in the narrow hallways, sit in close proximity in the theater, share air everywhere, and the pool tool.  

 

Sigh, we won't be going on our summer cruise to Northern Europe for sure.

 

But this will pass, like 911, like DC10,  the Airbus issues we will soon get back to it, with a few changes

 

 

Edited by chipmaster
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2 hours ago, chipmaster said:

 

Looks like another Princess ship got a case and VP is going to meet with the cruising industry, in the end this will be a huge blackeye that will take a long time to recovery.

 


They should be suspending all cruise sailings for the time being. Unfortunately many passengers won’t cancel on their own because of the financial commitments they made for cruise fare and airfare. 

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For river cruisers in Europe, I have been following the situation in France due to it being an area of increase and having a trip there in April. As far as I can tell there are no river cruises starting in France for another 10 days, on any of the lines, so no way to see actual impact yet.

 

But I found this today. Note that on these river cruises, they tend to be heavily dependent on local drivers and guides for the excursions. While many excursions can be walked to from the boat, there are usually one or two a day where a bus is required for transport to and from that location. Per this article, bus drivers are among those able to make a decision to stay home w/o penalty. Granted that this article is talking about drivers on public transit and I am talking about hired livery. But a similar sentiment could show up. https://nationalpost.com/news/world/people-in-france-are-walking-off-the-job-to-protect-themselves-from-coronavirus

 

For anyone who was contemplating the steam train out of Tournon, as of today there have been no alterations in their schedules. I consider that excellent news.

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Ah boy!
Just when you need them, they're not there for ya!

 

Two major Canadian travel insurance providers

will no longer cover new customers who need to cancel their trips......

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/coronavirus-manulife-tugo-travel-insurance-1.5486117?fbclid=IwAR2Cf8xY8CR10hN6cKeHwCsGOtmYyuzQsIOEN08t82eUZwBUuus5uliWFXI

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19 minutes ago, Aplmac said:

Ah boy!
Just when you need them, they're not there for ya!

 

Two major Canadian travel insurance providers

will no longer cover new customers who need to cancel their trips......

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/coronavirus-manulife-tugo-travel-insurance-1.5486117?fbclid=IwAR2Cf8xY8CR10hN6cKeHwCsGOtmYyuzQsIOEN08t82eUZwBUuus5uliWFXI

 

Not at all surprised. Would expect all to already be doing this. They would go out of business otherwise. Believe alot of insurance providers have quoted a date in January where it became a known issue and insurance purchased after  that date couldn't be used for a related cancellation. I agree that this virus and the potential implications are a known issue if you were to book now.

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