Can We Save Some Alaska Cruises Even if BC Stays Closed?

[yorky]

21 minutes ago, az_tchr said:

Your opinion as well.  The issue is the CDC stated until an acceptable plan is put in place by cruiselines that RCCL is our case is responsible for providing private transport for EVERY passenger to their home.

I phrase it as a question.  Ok?  How can cruises resume with a risk of COVID on board?  Under today's rules that would cost a minimum of $10K per passenger to get everyone home and think of the the reaction by the media?

If cruises resumed and COVID occurred. . . . how many ports would close? How many ships would wander about looking for a place to disembark passengers?

Sadly, I think my opinion - shared my many - will be close.  I also think we will have a vaccine early in 2021.

 

We will see.

[markeb]

27 minutes ago, az_tchr said:

 I also think we will have a vaccine early in 2021.

 

Maybe. For health care workers, first responders, and laboratory workers to get the virus out of BSL-4. No way for the general  public, and certainly not to enable a purely recreational pursuit.

[Covepointcruiser]

Because many people won’t get a vaccination even if available, I don’t see this as a necessity for cruising.   A real health questionnaire filled out honestly is required.   Unfortunately, certain pre existing conditions do make you much more susceptible to catching this virus and many other diseases in addition to making you more likely to have complications.   It’s a good time for these folks to skip any kind of travel and stay home for safety.

[Fouremco]

10 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Because many people won’t get a vaccination even if available, I don’t see this as a necessity for cruising.   A real health questionnaire filled out honestly is required.   Unfortunately, certain pre existing conditions do make you much more susceptible to catching this virus and many other diseases in addition to making you more likely to have complications.   It’s a good time for these folks to skip any kind of travel and stay home for safety.

Certain countries already require vaccinations against, for example, yellow fever. No proof of vaccination? Then no cruise. There's no reason why the same couldn't apply to a COVID-19 vaccination at some point down the road. Let the anti-vaxers be the ones to skip any kind of travel and stay at home..

[az_tchr]

30 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Certain countries already require vaccinations against, for example, yellow fever. No proof of vaccination? Then no cruise. There's no reason why the same couldn't apply to a COVID-19 vaccination at some point down the road. Let the anti-vaxers be the ones to skip any kind of travel and stay at home..

In the US probably a Constitutional issue to force vaccination, but once a vaccine is available certainly an enforceable requirement to cruise.

Could Canada force vaccination?  When I worked for Ministry of Education some years ago in remote communities they required proof of several vaccinations.

On a note more relating to your posts - Norwegian announced its stock sale was fully subscribed and they would resume cruising in July.  No mention at all of CDC or WHO.  Are the cruise lines delusional or simply trying to flatten the cancellation curve?

[Charles4515]

I am not advocating (at least in this post) proposing changes to the rules that prevent (foreign flagged) vessels from sailing without docking at a foreign port.  I am proposing a way to comply with those rules (PVSA).   

The PVSA does not allow token port stops.


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[Fouremco]

4 minutes ago, az_tchr said:

In the US probably a Constitutional issue to force vaccination, but once a vaccine is available certainly an enforceable requirement to cruise.

Could Canada force vaccination?  When I worked for Ministry of Education some years ago in remote communities they required proof of several vaccinations.

On a note more relating to your posts - Norwegian announced its stock sale was fully subscribed and they would resume cruising in July.  No mention at all of CDC or WHO.  Are the cruise lines delusional or simply trying to flatten the cancellation curve?

Canada was one of the first countries to make masks mandatory on flights. Want to fly? Wear a mask! Whether there could be a similar vaccination requirement for cruises from Canada at some future point? Who knows. At this time, we just don't have any idea what the future holds, on or off a cruise ship.

 

Are cruise lines delusional? Let's just say overly optimistic. In some cases, like their failure to cancel cruises that they know can't sail, I think that they are well aware of the facts and are simply delaying because of the financial benefits for them. The failure to announce concrete steps to mitigate or eliminate COVID-19 aboard may not preclude a lot of work going on behind the scenes to come up with a solution. We'll see. We've pushed off our one remaining cruise to 2022, and hope that there will be some resolution by then.

[markeb]

31 minutes ago, az_tchr said:

In the US probably a Constitutional issue to force vaccination, but once a vaccine is available certainly an enforceable requirement to cruise.

 

Getting off topic  again, to an extent, but the US had (probably still has) well established legal precedents for requiring vaccination for public health purposes. We've made it easier for exemptions.

 

On the other hand, I doubt there's really anything that would keep a private employer (and many public  employers, depending on the job) from putting  a vaccine into their occupational medicine  program.  Tysons, Smythfield, etc., will almost certainly do that given what you've seen on their production lines. Most health care organizations. Etc. As long as it's not the federal government requiring the vaccination, it would probably be up to the courts to determine if requiring an immunization as as a condition of employment serves a legitimate purpose. Or a state question. As a silly for instance, you can be required to be immunized for various pathogens to work in a BSL-3 lab; if you don't want vaccines, go full self-contained suit and work at BSL-4. By definition there are no vaccines for those pathogens...

[SeaHunt]

39 minutes ago, az_tchr said:

On a note more relating to your posts - Norwegian announced its stock sale was fully subscribed and they would resume cruising in July.  No mention at all of CDC or WHO.  

 

NCL's Frank Del Rio sounded a bit more realistic in this article:

 

"Del Rio said the restart of cruising now is mostly in the hands of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has issued a “no-sail” order for cruise ships operating in U.S. waters, citing the risk of coronavirus outbreaks at sea. The agency will have to lift that order before cruise vessels can resume operating.

 

When pressed on when that might happen, Del Rio said his “best answer” is that the company, which operates three brands — Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises — would be in a position to resume sailing “sometime in the third quarter, more likely than not the back end of the third quarter.”

That suggests a comeback sometime in late August or September.

 

https://thepointsguy.com/news/norwegian-cruise-ceo-frank-del-rio-future-of-cruising/

 

[middlehaitch]

Just throwing this in as it is giving BC's views on opening Victoria and Vancouver for Alaska cruising.

It says Alaska, the Yukon, BC,  and Washington State, as well as BC, at this point in time, are not anticipating opening the ports after the July closure.

 

BC, even if the federal gov does ease the port restrictions, will not allow passengers to disembark, even for a visit, without 14 day quarantine.

 

This is the 3pm 12 may 2020 Covid 19 Provincial update, so straight from the horses mouth so to speak.

If I don't manage to load this correctly skip to 37:20.

 

 

Cheers, heather

[JT1962]

Looking less likely that Alaska cruises will happen this year.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-health-officials-say-cruise-ships-not-welcome-this-summer-1.5567086.

B.C. health officials say passengers will not be permitted to disembark if cruise ships arrive at the province's ports later this summer although it's still unclear if the federal government will decide whether to resume the cruise ship season on July 1.

On March 13, Transport Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada announced as a safety measure to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, that the cruise ship season which normally starts at the beginning of April would be delayed until the beginning of July.

There have been questions over whether coastal cities including Vancouver, Victoria and Prince Rupert could see the arrival of international cruise ship lines this summer but Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said that will not be the case.

Henry said the province has made its position clear about the possible resumption of cruise ship visits.

"We've had those conversations with our counterparts in the federal government. We are as you can imagine not in favour of cruise ships coming into anywhere in British Columbia."

Henry said she has spoken to health officials in Yukon, Alaska and Washington State who feel similarly concerned about cruise ships which have seen some of the worst outbreaks of coronavirus.

Henry explained that federal government rules requiring people to self-isolate for 14 days after international travel will apply to cruise ship passengers.

"So if a cruise ship somehow had somehow planned to come here, then we would not be allowing people to come off the cruise ship for example."

[TeeRick]

2 hours ago, JT1962 said:

Looking less likely that Alaska cruises will happen this year.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-health-officials-say-cruise-ships-not-welcome-this-summer-1.5567086.

 

How do you get less likely than the previous chance of zero likelihood?

[JT1962]

How do you get less likely than the previous chance of zero likelihood?

 

I totally agree that there was never a chance that any Alaska cruises were sailing this year, however, many on this and other sites seem to have thought their July 2 or later cruise was a sure thing. I was trying to be nice by not saying they were delusional [emoji4]