New appreciation for NCL

[JamieLogical]

3 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Same as in you’ll never delete them, or same as in you never had them to start with?

 

All of the above.

 

Edit: I think I might have a Twitter account from one time when I joined Twitter to sign up for some promotion? I don't remember. But I've definitely never had any other social media accounts, except for LinkedIn, which I had to set up when I was applying for a new job.

Edited June 5, 2021 by JamieLogical

[4774Papa]

On 6/2/2021 at 5:11 PM, oteixeira said:

Honestly I am vaccinated and starting to get to the point that I am not worried about getting "it".  But I damn sure ain't taking a cruise where I have to socially distance and wear a mask, so if that means a fully vaccinated cruise, then kudos NCL, I am all in.

Well said, we are ready to travel again and have visited family in Texas in Philadelphia in the past 6 weeks. We live in Georgia and live is pretty much back to normal.  That was true in Texas and almost true in Pennsylvania (was back to normal), but Philly was hanging on to some rules a bit longer and finally removed them the day we left Philly on June 2.

 

We have trips planned to Iceland (open to USA if vaccinated).  Also, we have a trip planned to Italy in October, flying there and taking a transatlantic cruise home.  Italy hasn't opened up to vaccinated Americans yet, but should, since France, Spain and Portugal have done so.

[Diver2014]

20 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

I left Twitter and Facebook last November and it’s one of the best things I ever did. 

So did I!  (although I never used Twitter to begin with but needed to read something one time that someone had posted.)  Totally useless social media as far as I'm concerned.  Wish more people

would delete their Facebook accounts.

[spanishguy1970]

On 6/4/2021 at 9:53 PM, DCGuy64 said:

I left Twitter and Facebook last November and it’s one of the best things I ever did. 

I have never had twitter, in fact by checking friends tweets i realized how angry and unhappy people get on those posts, so no thank you...LOL. I continue to have Facebook and Instagram however I check them every now and then and is mostly to see the narcissism of some people, it cracks me up. I feel people take some things too seriously on those venues and forget to just log off, relax and enjoy life there's so much more to life than social media. IMO

[spanishguy1970]

On 6/5/2021 at 6:30 PM, Diver2014 said:

So did I!  (although I never used Twitter to begin with but needed to read something one time that someone had posted.)  Totally useless social media as far as I'm concerned.  Wish more people

would delete their Facebook accounts.

I won't delete Facebook, but i deactivate it for long periods of time, it works, maybe in the future i will completely get rid of it, we will see. I for one am one of those that used to turn my phone off on my cruise and put it in the safety deposit box. I remember people telling me to use the NCL app for gatherings, reserving restaurants, text other friends etc and i said to myself WHY? for what? if someone needs to get a hold of me on board just call my stateroom LOL..or just make my reservations on board.

 

I miss the days on the ship when i had no electronics with me, maybe my kindle to just read my good book 🙂

[steveknj]

On 6/4/2021 at 11:24 AM, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

Thank you. As I suspected, the data is skewed and can not be generalized to a broader population. The survey was administered by Cruise Critic and consisted of a very small sample size (only 5,025 members). Of which, 69% had taken 10 or more cruises!!! These are likely true cruise enthusiasts who have FCC to use and realize that the safest way to restart, remain mask-less, and have little chance of a ship quarantine is to require 100% vaccinations.

 

I thought the third paragraph begs the question; Do cruise enthusiasts really want 100% vaccinated cruising or do they want mask-less cruising and believe the only way to take off the mask is to board 100% vaccinated? The part about DeSantis further muddies the survey waters.

 

This survey fun reading, but it is impossible to draw conclusions about Johnny Public's views of 100% vaccinated cruising. I'm not saying you (sthrngary) were making that gigantic leap, but I do think its important to note the survey demographics to limit broad generalizations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would actually think that Cruise Critic readers, who REALLY want to go on a cruise are MORE likely to want to take the risk sans vaccine and go.  I think the general public is more spooked about cruises at this point than those of us here.   We are less likely to react to the scenes we saw of cruises stuck at sea with sick passengers than they are, simply because we understand what that was about.

 

So I disagree with your hypothesis that the survey was flawed because this group is more likely to want a vaccine.  Have you READ some of the posts of P.O.ed people who don't even want to wear masks, let alone vaccines?

[BermudaBound2014]

9 minutes ago, steveknj said:

I would actually think that Cruise Critic readers, who REALLY want to go on a cruise are MORE likely to want to take the risk sans vaccine and go.  I think the general public is more spooked about cruises at this point than those of us here.   We are less likely to react to the scenes we saw of cruises stuck at sea with sick passengers than they are, simply because we understand what that was about.

 

So I disagree with your hypothesis that the survey was flawed because this group is more likely to want a vaccine.  Have you READ some of the posts of P.O.ed people who don't even want to wear masks, let alone vaccines?

 

I didn't make the claim that the survey is flawed because the group is more likely to want a vaccine. I made the claim that the survey is flawed because it's an extremely small sample size of very enthusiastic cruise critic members who likely have lots of FCC to spend and therefore, the survey  can't be generalized to a larger population. In fact, I alluded to your point in my second paragraph where I wrote the following question.. "Do cruise enthusiasts really want 100% vaccinated cruising or do they want mask-less cruising and believe the only way to take off the mask is to board 100% vaccinated?"

 

I do think you have a point in that there are cruise critic members who do not want vaccines or masks. But, there appear to be an equal number who want 100% vaccinated only. Of course, there are CC members who want both vaccines and masks. I suspect supply and demand will tell the final version.

 

 

[CaptainWoody]

44 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

"Do cruise enthusiasts really want 100% vaccinated cruising or do they want mask-less cruising and believe the only way to take off the mask is to board 100% vaccinated?"

 

I think it goes way beyond mask-less, although that's a starting point.  We want cruises where the chances of interruption to "normal" are absolutely minimized.  At this point, that equates to 100% vaccinated.

[BermudaBound2014]

An excellent point. I fall under this category- I want to see cruising resume with the path most likely to be successful. 

[steveknj]

On 6/8/2021 at 5:57 PM, BermudaBound2014 said:

An excellent point. I fall under this category- I want to see cruising resume with the path most likely to be successful. 

And this is why the smartest path is to have 100% vaccine policy.  The risk of a cruise interrupted if everyone is vaccinated is almost nil.  Start including non-vaccinated folks and chances are good that someone will catch it and cause a panic.  For those folks who don't want to be vaccinated, at some point you will have to decide how important cruising is for you.  There are other vacations out there that won't require a vaccination that don't require being "out at sea" where there's no escape from the virus if it infects anyone.  It's probably not a good idea to be on a cruise with a live virus anyway.

[XLVIII]

On 6/1/2021 at 4:32 PM, Old & Retired said:

If you had the shot, why are you so worried about other people's personal medical information?

Because I'm an NCL shareholder. I invest in companies expecting them to make sound business decisions. Allowing unvaccinated passengers on cruises at this point and risking another shutdown because of it ends up costing me and the cruise line money. 

[prov2727]

On 6/3/2021 at 5:07 PM, ECCruise said:

Not exactly true.

He has said that the possibility of infection or transmission is "very, very low" but "not impossible."  That is not "prevents."

Yes- I have an acquaintance whose fully vaccinated grandparent is on a vent due to COVID right now. It doesn't prevent 100%.

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by prov2727
I should add, very young acquaintance; grandparent is in their 50s.

[BermudaBound2014]

2 hours ago, steveknj said:

And this is why the smartest path is to have 100% vaccine policy.  The risk of a cruise interrupted if everyone is vaccinated is almost nil.  Start including non-vaccinated folks and chances are good that someone will catch it and cause a panic.  For those folks who don't want to be vaccinated, at some point you will have to decide how important cruising is for you.  There are other vacations out there that won't require a vaccination that don't require being "out at sea" where there's no escape from the virus if it infects anyone.  It's probably not a good idea to be on a cruise with a live virus anyway.

 

I agree that the smartest path to resume cruising “at this time” is to have 💯 vaccination. I’ve been preaching  that for months. We can’t afford to get the start up wrong. 

 

However; I disagree that those who are unvaccinated )but love cruising) must “decide how important cruising is”.  I think those who remain unvaccinated just need to be a bit patient. This too shall pass. It’s business. 
 

The estimate is that approximately only 60-75% of US citizens will vaccinate. That means somewhere between 25-40% won’t vaccinate. No business in their right mind will alienate 25-40% of its customers if they plan to survive. It may take a little bit of time but as we learn more, handle the virus better, and reach closer to natural herd immunity, the unvaccinated will be welcomed onboard with open arms.

 

Time will tell of course, but I’ll make a note to revisit this thread in Q4.

 

My opinion of course.

[BermudaBound2014]

2 hours ago, prov2727 said:

Yes- I have an acquaintance whose fully vaccinated grandparent is on a vent due to COVID right now. It doesn't prevent 100%.

 

Very sad. Do you happen to know which vaccine he took? 

[prov2727]

53 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Very sad. Do you happen to know which vaccine he took? 

I don't. I believe they said they received the first one in February so that could narrow down which were approved then.

[RocketMan275]

On 6/8/2021 at 3:49 PM, steveknj said:

I would actually think that Cruise Critic readers, who REALLY want to go on a cruise are MORE likely to want to take the risk sans vaccine and go.  I think the general public is more spooked about cruises at this point than those of us here.   We are less likely to react to the scenes we saw of cruises stuck at sea with sick passengers than they are, simply because we understand what that was about.

 

So I disagree with your hypothesis that the survey was flawed because this group is more likely to want a vaccine.  Have you READ some of the posts of P.O.ed people who don't even want to wear masks, let alone vaccines?

I've taken the vaccine and I'm one of those who will not go on a cruise that requires me to wear a mask.

[RocketMan275]

On 6/5/2021 at 4:04 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

All of the above.

 

Edit: I think I might have a Twitter account from one time when I joined Twitter to sign up for some promotion? I don't remember. But I've definitely never had any other social media accounts, except for LinkedIn, which I had to set up when I was applying for a new job.

I get a real kick out of those spam emails I get telling me I need to check because someone is trying to log into my facebook account.  I've never had a facebook account.

[steveknj]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I agree that the smartest path to resume cruising “at this time” is to have 💯 vaccination. I’ve been preaching  that for months. We can’t afford to get the start up wrong. 

 

However; I disagree that those who are unvaccinated )but love cruising) must “decide how important cruising is”.  I think those who remain unvaccinated just need to be a bit patient. This too shall pass. It’s business. 
 

The estimate is that approximately only 60-75% of US citizens will vaccinate. That means somewhere between 25-40% won’t vaccinate. No business in their right mind will alienate 25-40% of its customers if they plan to survive. It may take a little bit of time but as we learn more, handle the virus better, and reach closer to natural herd immunity, the unvaccinated will be welcomed onboard with open arms.

 

Time will tell of course, but I’ll make a note to revisit this thread in Q4.

 

My opinion of course.

Don't disagree.  What I meant is that they should decide how important cruising is to them now, and how important it is to them to risk shutting down the industry if there's an outbreak because of them.   For better or worse, if a cruise goes out and some significant segment of cruisers get sick and the cruise industry gets bad press forcing it to shut down, then we are all SOL for probably another period of time.  I agree, they need to be patient, but there's enough people who are complaining that they want to go NOW.  And in some states they have the government on their side.  

 

So let me ask, is it better to alienate for now 35% of your passengers and have a safe cruise than to let everyone vaccinated or not cruise and risk shutting down the industry for another 6 months or more?  If I'm a cruise line, I think the former is a much better option.

[BermudaBound2014]

12 minutes ago, steveknj said:

Don't disagree.  What I meant is that they should decide how important cruising is to them now, and how important it is to them to risk shutting down the industry if there's an outbreak because of them.   For better or worse, if a cruise goes out and some significant segment of cruisers get sick and the cruise industry gets bad press forcing it to shut down, then we are all SOL for probably another period of time.  I agree, they need to be patient, but there's enough people who are complaining that they want to go NOW.  And in some states they have the government on their side.  

 

So let me ask, is it better to alienate for now 35% of your passengers and have a safe cruise than to let everyone vaccinated or not cruise and risk shutting down the industry for another 6 months or more?  If I'm a cruise line, I think the former is a much better option.

 

Assuming you are asking my personal opinion: YES! Let's start slow to go fast. We can learn from ships that have been sailing already, but we will also learn new things as we go with our big three. I actually think there is enough pent up demand from those cruisers who are vaccinated to get us a solid restart in play at 100% (NCL).

 

Since this is a NCL forum, I think you are speaking specifically about  the 100% vaccinated policy and not referencing the 95% Celebrity, Carnival,, and RCL are recommending. I personally think those numbers are also safe for a solid restart. I think it's highly unlikely to have negative press come from a ship that has 95% vaccinated (especially in the case of Carnival where they are saying the 5% will be children). The difference between 95% vaccinated and 100% vaccinated is likely statistically insignificant in terms of causing a major outbreak. As a consumer who loves cruising and wants it to succeed, I think 95% and higher will give us positive results. But absolutely, I'd prefer to see 100% at the initial onset (but I can live with 95% if that's what it takes to get revenue flowing). 

Edited June 10, 2021 by BermudaBound2014

[warburg]

If the vaccinated reject associating with anyone not vaccinated, it's time to  buy a boat and invite only the qualified. I am vaccinated and wore a mask in the elevator after that because it was required. Now I don't. We have a note about wearing one as a courtesy to others. It's time for the mask wears to be courteous. A year and a half of masks and all the rest of it was enough. The regulation has been set aside, and the anxious can wait for an empty elevator.