Covid-19 at Sea

[sugar magnolia]

Yeah, let's do our sums.

Three thousand, two hundred people on the ship. Does that include non-passengers? Anyway, 3,200. They are all - ALL - vaccinated against the virus. They visit Belize, Honduras, and México. Somehow by the time they get back to N'awlins, 10 of them - about a third of one percent - have breakthrough cases. Which will not be terribly serious, if they're being honest about having gotten the vax.

That's really not time.

IMHO.

Except that the incubation period for Omicron is 5-7 days. Assuming the infected people were actually negative when they boarded the ship and became positive over the next few days, they only boarded 7 days ago. No reason to think that there won't be more positives in the next few days.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... sting.html

And it's now up to 17.

[RTH10260]

They visit Belize, Honduras, and México

How many passengers did go free-wheeling site seeing ? Picking up the virus in the tourist traps ?

[AndyinPA]

I don't know about Norwegian, but Viking is not allowing anyone on the ship who has not been vaxxed. They are also testing every day and isolating anyone who tests positive, plus anyone who has been in contact. Guests wear tracing monitors, so they know. Then, according to the country involved, they are taking you off the ship and quarantining you in the country. Princess has sent me a couple of surveys that they ask be confidential, but they are obviously trying to see what people expect and want. They only get the strongest reaction from me.

In any case, between the people on the ship (kept limited on Viking) and all the problems with the airlines, that kind of travel is nowhere in our foreseeable future. We did feel pretty safe on our train trip earlier this year and have another one planned for next year.

Traveling these days anywhere is really iffy and can be a little dangerous.

[Volkonski]

[AndyinPA]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/busine ... 03847.html

In a second coronavirus outbreak in less than a week, 55 fully vaccinated crew members and passengers on Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas ship that set sail Saturday from Fort Lauderdale have contracted the pandemic disease, the cruise line confirmed late Wednesday.

The ship was denied entry to the island nations of Curacao and Aruba. It will remain at sea until its planned return Dec. 26 to Fort Lauderdale, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson said.

The ship had docked on Sunday at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas. The remaining two stops on the eight-day cruise were supposed to be Curacao and Aruba.

[filly]

Saw a guy on the local news last night who was at a free testing site because he's going on a cruise tomorrow!

[notorial dissent]

Somehow, I just don't see this as a sensible life choice right now.

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[neonzx]

We are fucked, aren't we? (regardless of TFGs lies)

[pipistrelle]

We are fucked, aren't we? (regardless of TFGs lies)

I’m optimistic about Walter Reed’s vaccine and the pill treatments. If COVID-19 can be reduced to cold-like symptoms with no long COVID through vaccines and early treatment, that’s a lot better than it looked.

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[RTH10260]

details following the link:

The AIDAnova, with 2,844 passengers and 1,353 crew onboard docked in Lisbon on Dec. 29 while en route to the island of Madeira for New Year's Eve celebrations, but was unable to continue the journey after 52 cases of COVID-19 were detected among the fully-vaccinated crew.

It had been allowed to leave port and head to the Spanish island of Lanzarote on Sunday, but now another 12 people have tested positive, including four passengers, captain of the port Diogo Vieira Branco told TSF radio.

[Volkonski]

The Associated Press
@AP
Thousands of passengers are being held on a cruise ship in Hong Kong for coronavirus testing after health authorities said nine passengers were linked to a recent omicron cluster and ordered the ship to turn back.

[Volkonski]

Norwegian Cruise Line cancels its Caribbean voyage mid-trip due to Covid, leaving travelers stuck at sea until the ship returns to New York. https://t.co/u2jsRH3pgk

[RTH10260]

How does one get "stuck at sea" when the pupose of sea travel was to be on the water? They are only missing some shore leave that covid related was anyhow severly limited.

[raison de arizona]

How does one get "stuck at sea" when the pupose of sea travel was to be on the water? They are only missing some shore leave that covid related was anyhow severly limited.

I believe they confine everyone to their rooms in a situation like this.

[AndyinPA]

We like cruising, particularly with Viking, but I wouldn't get on a cruise right now. Viking has put into place many protocols that the other cruise lines haven't. Passengers wear a tracking device that lets them know who has come into contact with a positive passenger because they test everyone in a private lab on each ship each morning. If you come into contact with a positive, you are isolated to your cabin (all have balconies) until you can be put off the ship. What happens then depends on the country you are in. You don't have to test positive yourself; you just have to come into contact with someone who has. This is very aggressive, but has kept the numbers down considerably. They are also not booking anywhere near to capacity. I'm sure this is a very expensive process to them; they are probably losing money on each cruise. But they are keeping their employees working, and are there for any who want to cruise with them. And they aren't offering any special deals to the passengers. They have ridiculously loyal passengers, so they have come up with a model that's more or less working for them. They also have much smaller ships, 930 passengers, now usually under half that. Most people seem very comfortable with it.

Personally, it's not worth the hassle of dealing with the pre-testing before the flights, the hassle of flying right now, and the uncertainty of what happens if you end up off the ship and have to be quarantined even if you are negative. Viking does take care of changing your flights to get you back home when you are allowed, so no one is stranded, but I'm not willing to potentially put myself through any of that.

From what I can tell, although you have to be vaxxed to cruise on the standard lines, they are not aggressively testing, and instead of being allowed to stay in your own cabin, you are put into isolation cabins, which from what I've seen are inside cabins. That's just stupid, as I doubt many of those people will not be back on that line, particularly if they had a higher level cabin with a balcony.

It's just not the time to cruise.