The Next Phase of Crusing

[Bourbon Believer]

Covid-19 is here to stay. The cruise industry by their nature will continue to see cases pop up even once cruising opens up.

 

Ships are perfect breeding grounds for this and other communicable illness. This is  not an indictment, it's just the nature of the business.

A huge part of cruising clientele are also by their demographic the most susceptible to transmission of an illness.

 

These are the facts so the cruise industry need, in order to remain sailing, to establish and beef up their procedures and capability for medical response of treatment and containment for spread of future virus attacks sure to come.

 

Formalized procedures and communication of what to do if passengers get sick will be required. Detailed information as to what and where to get health care on ship needs to be included in Pre-departure drills.

Medical care on ship has always sort of been the illegitimate step child of ships services. Always there if needed but extremely expensive leading to passengers hesitation for receiving medical care.

That will have to change to a system of affordable and available medical care. A system more fitted to 24/7 clinics on land will be needed.

Currently all medical services are pushed into a corner on the bottom deck on most ships.

Cruise lines will not only have to enhance medical support but also advertise it as a primary destination on a ship just like the muster station, entertainment, food and drinking venues.

 

The cruise lines now have 100 additional days, per the CDC, to make medical services a primary benefit to be advertised and proud of. 

Doing so will hasten a return to the robust industry they were before Covid-19 and give passengers a good feeling for returning to cruising.

 

Every passenger should now expect this going forward, every passenger must require it. This is the future of cruising.

[Kwaj girl]

Looking back 30+ years to when we started cruising....why were these communicable diseases not an issue?  Norovirus?  Common cold? Flu?  They all existed back then.

[Bourbon Believer]

The higher exposure rates comes with the increased popularity of cruising in just the last decade. 
Just the Theaters hold more people than the total number of passengers 20 to 30 years ago. 
Size and number of ships, and number of passengers make the chance of exposure to illness while on ship inevitable. 

[chipmaster]

19 hours ago, Kwaj girl said:

Looking back 30+ years to when we started cruising....why were these communicable diseases not an issue?  Norovirus?  Common cold? Flu?  They all existed back then.

 

Did you cruise 30 years ago, perhaps you can comment on the following

 

1) Demographics of the cruisers

2) Size of the ship and style and experience of what was on the ship.

 

The world has changed a LOT in 30 years.  You might as well ask why is obesity and diabetes and allergies so widespread now and non-existent 30 years ago, LOL

[NSnJW]

I know that on my first Alaska cruise almost 4 years ago there were idiots running around coughing in the elevators without covering and I ended up with the flu before I left the 10 day cruise and then it went to double pneumonia shortly after I got home.

[lenquixote66]

On 4/17/2020 at 6:52 PM, NSnJW said:

I know that on my first Alaska cruise almost 4 years ago there were idiots running around coughing in the elevators without covering and I ended up with the flu before I left the 10 day cruise and then it went to double pneumonia shortly after I got home.

I was on a cruise in 2018 and people in the library was coughing into the air.The Librarian would not do anything about it nor would anyone else on the ship in authority.

[SargassoPirate]

On 4/16/2020 at 9:40 PM, Kwaj girl said:

Looking back 30+ years to when we started cruising....why were these communicable diseases not an issue?  Norovirus?  Common cold? Flu?  They all existed back then.

 

I think a lot of it is because there have been a couple of generations raised without an awareness of the benefits of hand washing.  

[iancal]

We have absolutely no idea what the next phase of cruising will look like.  This is the reason why we would not book a cruise.  

 

Ours is a wait and see attitude.   We want to understand from others first what the on board environment is like.  We may or may not find it to our liking.  It could be that buy a cruise or that the beg off forever.  Don't know.  

 

Same for the port stops.  Simply because an itinerary is published today does not mean that in 6 months (or more) that the ports will be open as well as any venues that we wish to see/visit.   

 

So, no cruises, no booking cruises until we have some degree certainty on the above.  Plus of course we will not accept any undue risk to our health or well being.  It will be land travel until this time.

[KEN W]

Totally agree.

[KEN W]

CDC now saying that virus does not spread much from touching surfaces. Mainly from person to person contact.

[cb at sea]

We have to learn to LIVE with this stupid virus....just like we've learned to live with flu, noro, and herpes....all viruses...all "communicable"...some die from them, most don't.  The longer the virus is here, the less deadly it will become, because, even without a "brain", a virus does NOT want to kill it's host, which is us.  They will mutate to a less lethal variety.

 

It's up to US to get back to "normal"...and not a "new normal"...but a regular way of life.  Stop being so freaked out.  It's NOT as bad as you've been told.

 

[Kwaj girl]

47 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

We have to learn to LIVE with this stupid virus....just like we've learned to live with flu, noro, and herpes....all viruses...all "communicable"...some die from them, most don't.  The longer the virus is here, the less deadly it will become, because, even without a "brain", a virus does NOT want to kill it's host, which is us.  They will mutate to a less lethal variety.

 

It's up to US to get back to "normal"...and not a "new normal"...but a regular way of life.  Stop being so freaked out.  It's NOT as bad as you've been told.

 

 

 

AMEN!  Been saying this since Day 1.  We are tired of the control Big Brother is trying to inflict on us.  We WILL NOT be one of the "sheeple"!