QANTAS suspends all international flights until March 2021

[clo]

On 8/3/2020 at 11:40 AM, crusinbanjo said:

 cruising has been about seeing the world without the crowds, having a floating 5 star hotel and restaurant

We've done fewer then ten cruises and way more land trips so I'd say the cruise ports have WAY more crowds than exploring a country or countries either DIY or as part of an escorted land tour. Five star restaurants? Michelin tops out at three and I've only done two but nothing comes close on the ships we've been on. And Oceania food was fantastic but not THAT fantastic. IMneverHO 🙂

[MrsWaldo]

These are the rules for Melbourne.  The rest of the state is Stage 3.   We are doing well be we need to keep doing it well.

 

https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/stage-4-restrictions-covid-19

[philipb]

The Australian Government is, wisely, taking all precautions to prevent a spread of the pandemic across the Country. It is attempting to quarantine the whole country against the outside world. So forget visiting for a long time yet, and cruises scheduled to visit Australian waters in the coming months simply will not happen. If you are within the Silversea cancellation penalty period (ie less than 120 days before the due date of your cruise) then simply wait for SS to cancel and offer you a refund. If you are outside the 120 day period then consider your position and if you wish to cancel for a full refund (subject only to a minimal administration fee) you can do so.

 

Set out below is the story of the little village of Eyam in Derbyshire, UK, which in 1665 self-isolated from the outside world when an outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in the village. In the end their efforts were successful and prevented a spread of the plague in the surrounding countryside. UK readers will be familiar with the story. 

 

The world of cruising has been dealt a major blow this week with the appalling mishaps of Hurtigruten in getting back to cruising too soon and without adequate safety precautions. The industry will have to deal with the consequences of this, but the omens are not good.

 

 

1665 plague outbreak[edit]

Main article: Great Plague of London

See also: Protective sequestration

The history of the plague in the village began in 1665 when a flea-infested bundle of cloth arrived from London for Alexander Hadfield, the local tailor.^[14] Within a week his assistant George Viccars, who noticing the bundle was damp, had opened it up.^[15] Before long he was dead and more began dying in the household soon after.^[16]

As the disease spread, the villagers turned for leadership to their rector, the Reverend William Mompesson, and the ejected Puritan minister Thomas Stanley. They introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread of the illness from May 1666. The measures included the arrangement that families were to bury their own dead and relocation of church services to the natural amphitheatre of Cucklett Delph,^[17] allowing villagers to separate themselves and so reducing the risk of infection. Perhaps the best-known decision was to quarantine the entire village to prevent further spread of the disease.

The plague ran its course over 14 months and one account states that it killed at least 260 villagers, with only 83 surviving out of a population of 350.^[16] That figure has been challenged on a number of occasions, with alternative figures of 430 survivors from a population of around 800 being given.^[16] The church in Eyam has a record of 273 individuals who were victims of the plague.^[18]

Survival among those affected appeared random, as many who remained alive had close contact with those who died but never caught the disease. For example, Elizabeth Hancock was uninfected despite burying six children and her husband in eight days. The graves are known as the Riley graves after the farm where they lived.^[14] The unofficial village gravedigger, Marshall Howe, also survived, despite handling many infected bodies.^[16]

The village's actions prevented the disease from moving into surrounding areas.^[19]

Edited August 5, 2020 by philipb
grammar

[Mocamps]

On 8/4/2020 at 9:29 AM, rojaan19 said:

Wake up  and smell  the roses peeps !!      You will not get into  Australia !!       Cancel  anything   ancillary you have paid for !!

SS will  eventually  cancel  the cruise.

I absolutely KNOW that our cruise won't go ahead and haven't booked ANYTHING around it. Just waiting for Silversea to come clean and do the decent thing. I have to say that I didn't really expect them to hang on as long as they have as they must know as well as we do that the cruise just CAN'T go ahead. So it's all about hanging onto our money for as long as possible. We WERE going to re-book for later in 2021 but will now take the refund..........when it's eventually offered!

 

[crusinbanjo]

On 8/4/2020 at 10:09 PM, clo said:

We've done fewer then ten cruises and way more land trips so I'd say the cruise ports have WAY more crowds than exploring a country or countries either DIY or as part of an escorted land tour. Five star restaurants? Michelin tops out at three and I've only done two but nothing comes close on the ships we've been on. And Oceania food was fantastic but not THAT fantastic. IMneverHO 🙂

Excuuuuuse me.   Mrs Banjo and I have done many high end land tours, and stayed in many exclusive hotels, it still doesn’t give us the same experience as a really good cruise ship, IM not so HO. 

[drron29]

So for people hoping to cruise between Australia and New Zealand the NZ Prime minister Dosn;t think it will happen soon.She has advertised for staff to control mandatory quarantine for visitors to NZ.The job is for 2 years.

 

“One of the things we said as part of our criteria was that anywhere we have quarantine-free travel, they have to be free of community transmission for a period of time – 28 days,” she said.

“That is going to take a long time for Australia to get back to that place.”

Meanwhile, a new job advertisement has been posted on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, calling for applicants to fill several roles that will help co-ordinate returning Kiwis’ stays in hotel quarantine, and it may give a hint of the future as New Zealand sees it.

 

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/job-ad-hints-that-new-zealand-will-be-closed-to-australia-for-two-years/news-story/af86e6b4bde92c54082a0aeae98e2555

[FlyerTalker]

4 hours ago, drron29 said:

So for people hoping to cruise between Australia and New Zealand the NZ Prime minister Dosn;t think it will happen soon.She has advertised for staff to control mandatory quarantine for visitors to NZ.The job is for 2 years.

 

Remember, the British created a civil service job in 1803 calling for a man to stand on the Cliffs of Dover with a spyglass. He was supposed to ring a bell if he saw Napoleon coming. The job was abolished in 1945.

[Bucephalus53]

9 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Remember, the British created a civil service job in 1803 calling for a man to stand on the Cliffs of Dover with a spyglass. He was supposed to ring a bell if he saw Napoleon coming. The job was abolished in 1945.

A job well done I must say. 

[turtlemichael]

7 hours ago, Bucephalus53 said:

A job well done I must say. 

Absolutely! Did Napoleon come? No. Give the man a pay rise.

[UKCruiseJeff]

2 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

Absolutely! Did Napoleon come? No. Give the man a pay rise.

 

You might be interested to know of it seems a virtually unkown fact is that Nappers did indeed visit England and begged to live here, but was refused permission and stayed onboard his ship Bellerophon just off of Torbay.  In fact much to his suprise - he was politely declined. 

 

"Somewhat optimistically considering France had been at war with Britain almost continuously for the last 23 years, Napoleon had actually written a letter to the Prince Regent appealing to the 'hospitality of the British Nation'.

 

"Exposed to the factions which divide my country, and to the enmity of the great powers of Europe, I have terminated my political career, and I come, like Themistocles, to throw myself on the hospitality of the British Nation," he wrote. "I place myself under the protection of its laws, which I claim from your Royal Highness as the most powerful, the most constant and the most generous of my enemies. Napoleon."

 

He continued: "If H.R.H. sees no objection to granting me passports to go to the United States, it would be my intention to go there. But I do not desire to go to any other colony. If I cannot go to America, I wish to stay in England,assuming the name of Muiron or Duroc.

 

"I would need a house large enough for my staff....If the Government intends to provide me with a superintendent, he must not be jailer but a man of quality and honour."

 

Unsurprisingly, his request was refused.

 

Instead, he found himself a prisoner aboard Bellerophon, which arrived off the Torbay coast early on the morning of July 24 as the victors decided what to do with him.  He was supplied with bread and cakes from a local bakery and was in facty oddly showered with gifts from locals.

 

'Quel bon pays' he reportedly said when he saw the Devon coastline: What a beautiful country.

 

https://www.torbay.gov.uk/media/8998/napoleon-in-torbay-1815.pdf

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/sngWh1TrsgNbNrngLFbGY3/napoleon-in-torbay

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by UKCruiseJeff

[turtlemichael]

Fascinating story. Thanks. It looks like he didn't get to Dover so the pay rise for the light keeper should stand!

[Bucephalus53]

Thank you for the link. Interesting read!
I thought I had read everything about Napoleon, but had not recalled that letter. 
 

I wonder where he would have settled if he had been allowed to emigrate here in the US. 

(Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I’m bored out of my skull)

[UKCruiseJeff]

3 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

Fascinating story. Thanks. It looks like he didn't get to Dover so the pay rise for the light keeper should stand!

 

Plus ça change!

 

In July 1815, the great English public closed it's ports to Nappers on his cruise to our waters, but at least sent him gateaux and today history is revisited as over 200 years later our ports are once again closed to cruises from our French cousins who clearly yearn to be here rather than in France.

 

They do however persist in sending their unwanted migrants who managed to make their way through the borders into France and all the way through France to the English Channel (appropriately named if you don't mind me saying so) so that they can blow up their inflatables and make their way to the wonderful Promised Land called Blighty.

 

It says much for both France and Blighty - even in our uncomfortable times - that these migrants are  understandably not content to reach and stay in France but risk their lives passing all the way through France to sit on flimsy dinghies in order to  get to our wonderful country if they can.  They have heard with a tear in the eye William Blake and Jerusalem on the Last Night of The Poms and so they come.

 

I suppose I should be proud but I am finding it difficult to muster up the enthusiasm. 🙂

 

Jeff

[UKCruiseJeff]

15 minutes ago, Bucephalus53 said:

Thank you for the link. Interesting read!
I thought I had read everything about Napoleon, but had not recalled that letter. 
 

I wonder where he would have settled if he had been allowed to emigrate here in the US. 

(Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I’m bored out of my skull)

 

You're welcome.  We must get cranial diversion wherever we can.  Most of the most interesting stuff in life is trivial.

 

There is some evidence that I have seen that makes me think it probably true that Nappers did in fact actually land in Torbay and spend a night in a mansion in Torquay that eventually became a 5* hotel - The Imperial - since sadly relapsed.  In my many days with The American Computer Corporation known as "blue" I use to run management events there and was always given a large suite that there is circumstancial but convincing evidence he used for one night whilst he feasted. I think he was smuggled ashore and then taken back.  I think he was hoping to get The Imperial as his quarters.  But we will never know.

 

I have a seaside Balcony overlooking the bay he anchored which has both a hotel that was a Napoleonic hospital and burial ground.

 

I sometimes smell garlic and can sense Nappers when I have had a bottle or two  of champers on The Balcony.

 

Jeff

Edited August 10, 2020 by UKCruiseJeff

[Mocamps]

30 minutes ago, Bucephalus53 said:

Thank you for the link. Interesting read!
I thought I had read everything about Napoleon, but had not recalled that letter. 
 

I wonder where he would have settled if he had been allowed to emigrate here in the US. 

(Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I’m bored out of my skull)

Maybe try the Water Cooler??

 

That doesn't seem to be much to do with Silversea either!!

 

But all very fascinating and amusing and I suppose we need to do something whilst we can't plan our next holidays!!

[turtlemichael]

8 hours ago, Mocamps said:

Maybe try the Water Cooler??

 

That doesn't seem to be much to do with Silversea either!!

 

But all very fascinating and amusing and I suppose we need to do something whilst we can't plan our next holidays!!

On the subject at hand, the Australian Prime Minister yesterday said that he doubted the internal state borders would be open before Christmas. That will come well before external borders.

[philipb]

On 8/11/2020 at 12:02 AM, turtlemichael said:

On the subject at hand, the Australian Prime Minister yesterday said that he doubted the internal state borders would be open before Christmas. That will come well before external borders.

 

We are due to fly to Sydney in mid-January and cruise from Melbourne to Darwin on Silver Explorer in mid-February. I doubt whether any of this is likely to happen, do you, Michael?

[jillyf]

I live in Regional Victoria in stage 3 lockdown but I can’t see that international travel, in or out of Australia, will begin well into next year. 
Our Covid numbers, second wave, don’t seem to be stabilising at present and all other states have banned us crossing borders.  
No state is keen to have Australians returning from overseas even with the 2 week quarantine so I’m pretty sure they won’t be welcoming cruise ships after the Princess fiascos. 
Unfortunately we have cancelled 2 cruises next year So am feeling pretty depressed about having no travel to look forward to. 

[jimdee3636]

4 hours ago, jillyf said:

I live in Regional Victoria in stage 3 lockdown but I can’t see that international travel, in or out of Australia, will begin well into next year. 
Our Covid numbers, second wave, don’t seem to be stabilising at present and all other states have banned us crossing borders.  
No state is keen to have Australians returning from overseas even with the 2 week quarantine so I’m pretty sure they won’t be welcoming cruise ships after the Princess fiascos. 
Unfortunately we have cancelled 2 cruises next year So am feeling pretty depressed about having no travel to look forward to. 

jillyf:

Thanks for your informative---albeit depressing---update. My wife and I are booked on a 28-night HAL transpacific (Sydney to Seattle), with a scheduled departure date of April 12, 2021. We're looking forward not just to the cruise but to our pre-cruise stay in Sydney (we've never been to Australia). Everything is looking doubtful right now, especially considering that the ship (the Oosterdam) is scheduled to be doing a number of New Zealand sailings prior to ours, and NZ appears to be locked down even tighter than Australia.

I hope you'll keep us informed of any changes in AUS/NZ policies---good or bad. Thanks.

Jim

[Daveywavey70]

[philipb]

On 8/12/2020 at 10:36 AM, philipb said:

 

We are due to fly to Sydney in mid-January and cruise from Melbourne to Darwin on Silver Explorer in mid-February. I doubt whether any of this is likely to happen, do you, Michael?

 

The Northern Territory has now declared isolation from all the other Australian States, so our February 2021 expedition cruise (Melbourne to Darwin) certainly is doomed. I am not surprised.

[crusinbanjo]

4 hours ago, philipb said:

 

The Northern Territory has now declared isolation from all the other Australian States, so our February 2021 expedition cruise (Melbourne to Darwin) certainly is doomed. I am not surprised.

 

And with final payment coming due in about 3 weeks on our January 2021 cruise to Aukland NZ, SS as of yesterday said it is currently not canceled! Wonder when they will decide, or will I need to decide for them?

 

[Mocamps]

If you're not planning on making your final payment then I think you ARE going to have to decide for them if our experience is anything to go by!

 

Our cruise is STILL scheduled to leave on October 10th and end in Sydney on October 31st!! We dithered over making our final payment a few months ago but, at the time, still had a forlorn hope that it might actually go and, if it didn't, we were hoping to re-schedule and get our FCC.

 

We're still waiting!! Silversea have all our money and still haven't cancelled. With hindsight we probably should have taken the hit on the lost deposit.

 

They're obviously delaying cancelling for as long as possible so they can hang onto our money. Worrying!

[FlyerTalker]

It's all a big game of Chicken....who will cancel first.

 

[worldtraveller99]

I think they cancel about 6 weeks max before you sail. Hang on in there!