Will this alter Eurodam's return to cruising?

[Laminator]

EU health body warns against visiting popular Greek islands over COVID-19 (msn.com)

 

Itinerary changes on the horizon?

Edited July 29, 2021 by Laminator

[Sir PMP]

I would say so...

[taxmantoo]

Things are not looking very good at this point ...

[kazu]

3 minutes ago, taxmantoo said:

Things are not looking very good at this point ...

 

Agree - who knows what happens now.  

 

 

[KirkNC]

I think the early cruises to Europe are high risk (meaning they could be canceled or significantly altered).  

[canadianbear]

As much as I hated cancelling our Mediterranean/transatlantic cruise for October I’m glad we did.  There’s just too much unsettled right now.  

[Fredrik]

Just getting off Celebrity Apex visiting he same Greek islands, I’m more concerned that Haifa will be cancelled first. I’m not sure that Israel accepts cruise ships right now, but I might be wrong? I’d be more than happy to exchange any of our ports if it means I’m on a cruise again. We haven’t heard anything from HAL about our August cruise on Eurodam, and I’m following no news is good news 😉

[Lindancer]

We are on the Eurodam stopping in Haifa August 24.  I have 11 people going on a non-ship-sponsored shore excursion to Jerusalem.  If HAL is going to change anything, I wish they'd hop to it.

[Fredrik]

Most news outlets in Israel predict the August opening to be pushed back to September. The official Visit Israel site: https://israel.travel/covid19/ would be most up to date I guess, but Haifa looks like it might be cancelled. ☹️

 

 

[Himself]

22 hours ago, Fredrik said:

Just getting off Celebrity Apex visiting he same Greek islands, I’m more concerned that Haifa will be cancelled first. I’m not sure that Israel accepts cruise ships right now, but I might be wrong? I’d be more than happy to exchange any of our ports if it means I’m on a cruise again. We haven’t heard anything from HAL about our August cruise on Eurodam, and I’m following no news is good news 😉

How did you like the APEX?

[Fredrik]

1 hour ago, Himself said:

How did you like the APEX?

It was an absolute amazing experience.  It just being back at sea, but on a brand new ship with 600 Pax and 900 crew. We moved from X to HAL and Oceania because of better itineraries and food options. BUT Apex really excels when it comes to activities. Our last HAL cruise had black our days in the Theatre with nothing on except Music Walk. Now on Apex we had up to 70 activities every day and one day three different shows around the ship at the same time. The suite area was amazing and service impeccable. Sorry for going off topic, I realize I should write a review over on X board :) Anyway, so looking forward to being back on HAL and hopefully we will have an awesome time. Never really been on a bad cruise out of our 86 sailings…. 

[syesmar]

Keep an eye on the Israeli cabinet meeting on Tuesday, as they are expected to add more countries to their “high risk” list: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-august-02-2021/#liveblog-entry-2592796

A couple weeks back, there was anticipation that Greece might added be in the days ahead to a list of countries requiring quarantine upon entering Israel: 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-expected-to-add-greece-to-list-of-nations-requiring-quarantine-report/

I do not know exactly how that would affect cruise passengers.

 

Best Wishes and Safe Travels to All!

 

[syesmar]

The CDC has added 16 countries to the “very high risk” level, to include Greece. 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cdc-adds-very-high-risk-travel-destinations/index.html

 

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/covid-4/coronavirus-greece

 

Best Wishes to All!

[Mandalay1903]

45 minutes ago, syesmar said:

The CDC has added 16 countries to the “very high risk” level, to include Greece. 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cdc-adds-very-high-risk-travel-destinations/index.html

 

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/covid-4/coronavirus-greece

 

Best Wishes to All!

And the US Dept of State also raised their Travel Advisory for Greece to Level 4--Do not travel.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Greece.html

[syesmar]

HaAretz news reports, “Israel has approved requiring arrivals from 18 countries to enter mandatory quarantine after landing in Ben Gurion airport as of August 6. 

A Knesset panel approved the measure, which would see arrivals coming from the United States, Greece, Italy and Germany entering mandatory quarantine upon landing in Israel...Passengers from the countries on the list, including those are who vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19, are required to quarantine for at least seven days with at least two negative tests....”

 

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-adds-18-countries-to-arrivals-quarantine-list-1.10076377

 

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by syesmar

[HappyInVan]

Oh No! Hope it doesn't happen to the Caribbean!

 

😒

[Fredrik]

4 hours ago, syesmar said:

HaAretz news reports, “Israel has approved requiring arrivals from 18 countries to enter mandatory quarantine after landing in Ben Gurion airport as of August 6. 

A Knesset panel approved the measure, which would see arrivals coming from the United States, Greece, Italy and Germany entering mandatory quarantine upon landing in Israel...Passengers from the countries on the list, including those are who vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19, are required to quarantine for at least seven days with at least two negative tests....”

 

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-adds-18-countries-to-arrivals-quarantine-list-1.10076377

 

 

So let’s see how long it takes HAL to reshuffle our cruise since Haifa no longer is an option. My personal wish is leaving Athens and then add ports in Croatia and Italy instead. Never been to Bari or Rimini so HAL if you’re following along here that would be nice to explore. 😉

[Laminator]

17 minutes ago, Fredrik said:

So let’s see how long it takes HAL to reshuffle our cruise since Haifa no longer is an option. My personal wish is leaving Athens and then add ports in Croatia and Italy instead. Never been to Bari or Rimini so HAL if you’re following along here that would be nice to explore. 😉

Several Greek Islands have also been downgraded to deep red status. I am not sure HAL has a clue what is going to happen yet.

[syesmar]

1 minute ago, Laminator said:

Several Greek Islands have also been downgraded to deep red status. I am not sure HAL has a clue what is going to happen yet.

Very concerning about yesterday’s CDC & State Department “Do Not Travel” announcements for Greece. I haven’t tracked this in the past, but does HAL go through with cruises to places with such a warning?

[Laminator]

40 minutes ago, syesmar said:

Very concerning about yesterday’s CDC & State Department “Do Not Travel” announcements for Greece. I haven’t tracked this in the past, but does HAL go through with cruises to places with such a warning?

That is the $64,000 question. 

[Fredrik]

1 hour ago, syesmar said:

Very concerning about yesterday’s CDC & State Department “Do Not Travel” announcements for Greece. I haven’t tracked this in the past, but does HAL go through with cruises to places with such a warning?

Well, St Martin is on the same category… Anyway, within EU there is currently not a “Do not travel” for Greece so I don’t see why HAL wouldn’t cruise. I guess the biggest difference for you coming from the US would be travel insurance issues. At least that is what we face if we travel to a place where our state department is issuing an alert to. I called HAL yesterday about another question and did ask about the likelihood of cancellation and the answer was that the ports are evaluated constantly, but sail it will.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Fredrik

[Suncoastsailors]

27 minutes ago, Fredrik said:

Well, St Martin is on the same category… Anyway, within EU there is currently not a “Do not travel” for Greece so I don’t see why HAL wouldn’t cruise. I guess the biggest difference for you coming from the US would be travel insurance issues. At least that is what we face if we travel to a place where our state department is issuing an alert to. I called HAL yesterday about another question and did ask about the likelihood of cancellation and the answer was that the ports are evaluated constantly, but sail it will.

Greece Covid case numbers have been flat since July 16th. Number of deaths from Covid are still very low compared to previous peaks. Not sure why the advisory level was raised to red now. Lets hope the cases begin dropping soon. 

[Mandalay1903]

7 hours ago, Fredrik said:

Well, St Martin is on the same category… Anyway, within EU there is currently not a “Do not travel” for Greece so I don’t see why HAL wouldn’t cruise. I guess the biggest difference for you coming from the US would be travel insurance issues. At least that is what we face if we travel to a place where our state department is issuing an alert to. I called HAL yesterday about another question and did ask about the likelihood of cancellation and the answer was that the ports are evaluated constantly, but sail it will.

Thank you for the information about St Martin. However, Greece is almost the entirety of these August Mediterranean cruises while St Martin is only one stop on a Caribbean cruise. I believe that the Covid case levels in the Greek Islands, notably Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes, have some of the biggest problems and cause the concern in Greece for the Dept of State. As far as I can tell, these are highlighted in darkest red on your map yet are the major ports of call (plus Haifa) on our cruises.

 

Also, I appreciate that the EU may not have a "Do not travel" advisory for Greece at this time. However, the US does. HAL's Covid-19 Protection Program marketed to us when we booked this cruise--and still marketed on the website today--states, "It [the Protection Program] is also designed to assist guests who, as a result of governmental travel restrictions put in place within 30 days of embarkation, cannot travel to the country of embarkation for their booked cruise."  As of yesterday, my government placed a Level 4 advisory "Do not travel" to Greece. I'm not saying I'm going to cancel, but I want to know my options and I plan to ask my PCC how HAL would "assist" us in the case that the State Department says "Do not travel" from the US to Greece and HAL nevertheless decides to sail there.

 

If HAL promises to follow CDC protocols for the safety of its passengers and crew, I expect the cruise line to adhere to all of those protocols just as I expect ship operations to follow all maritime rules.

[Mandalay1903]

11 hours ago, syesmar said:

Very concerning about yesterday’s CDC & State Department “Do Not Travel” announcements for Greece. I haven’t tracked this in the past, but does HAL go through with cruises to places with such a warning?

 

10 hours ago, Laminator said:

That is the $64,000 question. 

I'm fairly confident that they haven't in the past 18 months or so! 😏   Maybe that's why HAL always stated that their shutdown was "voluntary" so that they didn't sound like they were under CDC or government control. The term "voluntary" always seemed odd to me because governments blocked them from sailing to or from most all of the ports and countries in their itineraries during that time.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Mandalay1903

[Fredrik]

This entire situation is so fluid. Reports of the raging wildfires that still are not under control can also be a concern to add to the list.