U.S. State Department Advises That U.S. Citizens Should Not Travel By Cruise Ship

The U.S. State Department has released new advice that U.S. Citizens should not travel by cruise ship due to increased risk of infection of COVID-19 (especially those with underlying conditions). In addition to this many countries have also implemented strict screening procedures and denied port entry rights to ships, preventing passengers from being able to disembark. COVID-19 is such an issue on the Diamond Princess cruise that in a lot of country tallies it’s listed as it’s own country (696 total cases and 7 deaths).
    William Charles
  • On March 8, 2020, 19:35

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  • This is likely the wrong forum for this, but I will offer my 2 cents... I've been on about 40 cruises, mostly RCL and Celebrity, and have contact with some top management there.
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    -- > When this crises, or another one comes years later, they need a "passenger's bill of rights", and a plan that could ensure these plan would occur. OTOH, it might cost a lot WHEN there is an instance. Yeah, so do lifeboats, but we pay a bit extra and there are enough for everyone. The cost of doing it right here is insignificant to scrapping half the cruise fleet.
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    1. MEDS -- if ANY passenger has critical meds needs, they need SOMEONE that would ENSURE that all critical passengers get their meds in a TIMELY manner. This is very doable, and I won't go on here how they could do this, but it isn't rocket science.
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    2. EVACUATION -- IF required, GET the deathly ill OFF the ships. Generally, this has been a staple of cruising for decades. I remember being in the middle of the North Atlantic and a C-130 refueler accompanied a chopper to pick someone up. While not cheap, the other 2,000 passengers wouldn't hesitate to book a cruise with heart disease, either. How often do emergency evacuations happen? Maybe 1 of out 10 trips. Usually, they can reach a port to be evacuated from there at minimal cost.
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    3. HIRE and ASSIGN "crises management" experts and put them in charge with enough power to cut the red tape, and enough understanding that the normal ROI should NOT be followed Captains must be hired that not only sail, but can also command several thousand employees. Captains are NEVER hired to handle ALL emergencies, most of the time. Most "great captains" will always be better MANAGERS rather than "emergency firemen" that mitigate damage. Their expertise is not to bring the ship into difficult ports--that's why the harbormaster captain always captains these operations. Same here. Hire a CRISES pro, who are generally NOT great "managers".
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    -- > If the industry is going to rebound quickly, there must be a radical change in the way they treat emergencies for THIS virus. These are huge "companies" on each cruise. That means without the right policies, there is now way it will "go well", if another ship is quarantined.
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    -- > In the case of the Princess cruises for instance, they interviewed the wife of a diabetic that was only taking HALF a dose, for over a WEEK, because despite being promised to ensure he wouldn't run out, HE DID. Indeed, they did NOT keep him supplied when they could have. This anecdote is likely true, since there would be no emergency policy to ensure ALL the critical passengers' prescriptions are DELIVERED on a timely manner.

  • A certain travel blog just posted an article called "Why XXX cruise expert is not cancelling their cruise plans". Some expert.

        • I think everyone is now seeing why Lc is so big on "just ignore this". Any implication that we MIGHT not have the best "leadership" to deal with anything other than smooth sailing is likely to be met with similar rage by people of a certain...worldview.

        • Hey, I’m just going by what he did during the HIV crisis in Indians. Seems likely he’d follow the same playbook. Like it or not.

  • After a norovirus and heavy seas back on a Carnival Cruise back in 1998, I wouldn't travel on a cruise ship if I was paid $1000...

    • If you're really clever...you'll realize before 1994...Norovirus, was basically unheard of. Then it exploded....bonus points if you know why....you can find the history on the CDC website.

      https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilist.htm

      we're too dumb to ask questions like this though. I never been on a mega cruise liner...so never thought about it until I researched it a couple years ago as part of another effort.

      The answer is staring at us right in the face quite often.

  • My strategy is to get the virus already and build immunity then enjoy as many trips as possible with everyone freaking out over a virus. Only ones that should be worried are the elderly and those with weak immune systems.

    Fun fact: this same group of people should be worried / cautious from all viruses including those that cause the COLD. That's right, people die from the cold every year.

    Live your life already and stop freaking the fk out people!

    • There's no evidence that getting COVID-19 makes you immune from it. There are already DP where people contracted the disease more than once.
      YOLO so don't end it right here.

    • I'm with Lc here. The spirit of this comment isn't suggesting anyone to do dumb things to voluntarily get sick, but to put a healthier perspective on this infectious disease. Half a million people die from flu every year and we hardly pay any attention... half of folks out there wouldn't even get the free and readily available vaccine against it. COVID-19 may be more contagious / deadly (we don't know for sure yet) but it really isn't that different in nature... people who don't take proper precautions against seasonal flu now treat COVID-19 like the zombie apocalypse. That's irrational and unnecessary.

    • Folks aged 50 and younger have a .2% chance of death, right? 1/500 chance of ending your journey forever on the extreme end for young, healthy people like us. You also previously mentioned an 80% chance of mild or no symptoms (I agree), but that's still a 20% chance of the severe or critical (or death) spectrum of symptoms. Like a 14% or so chance of pneumonia, and a 5% chance of respiratory failure, septic shock, and/or multi-organ failure.

      For some, .2% chance of death might be YOLO material, but that doesn't include the ~5% chance of potentially life-altering complications. Multi-organ failure doesn't just get better after 14-21 days.

      Not to mention the spread you will cause, but I'm not really interested in discussing morality with someone like you.

      Live your life if you get the chance, but I intend to live mine by protecting myself and others by not traveling.

    • Some of the most deadly incurable ailments come from viruses. I have seen variations of what you just said all over social media last few weeks. This keyboard warrior nonsense has to stop. Proving no one has an original thought anymore. I would like to make arrangements to give you the virus. Let me know when you’re available.

    • Might want to think twice if this is not an ill-mannered joke, You can die from it in a very painful way (drowning while trying desperately to breath) as well as causing your family and friends to die in the same way.

    • I believe people are more concerned about the death rate percentage rather than how many people have died.

      • 80% of ppl that get it won't have any symptoms or those symptoms will be mild. The numbers are off it's closer to 0.1 - 1.0%.

        • I suspect the numbers coming from South Korea are the most accurate since they're doing mass testing. There the fatality rate is less than 1%. It's still much higher than the typical seasonal flu, and it seems to be more contagious.

        • Still so early to determine actual numbers but heard similar reports. Not sure how accurate they are.

        • Even if that were true, that’s certainly not what’s being reported by the media. Plus can we really believe what China reports? The only numbers we know for sure are how many people have died in our own country and confirmed affected. I’m like you, I actually don’t care and will continue to live my life as I have been and my hygiene standards have always been high. I’m just trying to give you a different perspective that I understand what others are having.

          • Yeah the media.. lol exactly. They are the only ones winning here with all the attention they are getting. I'm just saying these types of things happen all the time. Google swine flu 2009. It was way worse

          • you probably need to care..look at this:https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en
            fatality rate for now is almost 4 percent.....this is not just like flu...more serious than that...of course you can argue fatality rate for now is not accurate or only old people died but you can also look at rate for italy. Like you believe, Italians also think they have high hygiene standards but now more than 7000 patients and fatality rate is almost 5 percent...

          • Because the earlier poster clearly knows more about epidemology than everyone on the planet. Didn't you know that?

          • That's case fatality rate.

            It doesn't include people who aren't tested - which is likely the vast majority of people who have been infected.

            China's CDC published an article stating 80% of the Hubei infections were mild - and they were looking for cases.

            So the death rate is much much lower since many won't (or can't) even be tested.

    • People have already been shown to get reinfected with the virus... wanna revise your plan?

      • Listening to some of the experts, it really was not being "reinfected" at all. Either they hadn't completely recovered, or there are still antibodies present. There's a great daily updated link on ARSTECHNICA.com that is fairly comprehensive, and sorts out most of the fiction from fact.

        "Older" is really a problem if you have these underlying UNCONTROLLED diseases. i.e., Most that have died were in nursing homes. Not the kind of passengers I would expect that would be SCUBA diving with me. Yes, it CAN get worse. I almost died "from a common cold" == But THEN got pneumonia!! Healthy?? YES!! Playing racquetball for 3 hours when it started. A week later, I could barely walk. Took three months to recover. This CAN be serious, but generally secondary infections are the dangers. Henson was sick for a few months while selling his company to Disney, but STARTED on Strep A, and died THREE DAYS later with hospital care. YMMV.. LITERALLY ;)

    • The immunity from getting the virus does not last long and people have been getting reinfected.

    • I guess your strategy is quite selfish. ...of course young people should recover quickly and probably won't die...but young people could spread the virus to the elderly and people with weak immune systems....I mean we all have grandparents...i guess we also should be careful so that we can protect old people....Also some cases in China seem to indicate that you could get the virus even after recovering...seems scary.....

    • Reducing travel times is not just for yourself. It means try not to be the one who spread the virus around the world. You might recover in days but please think about someone that might be infected by you. No one should be freaked out but pretending nothing happens and enjoy life as usual is just going from one extreme to the other.
      BTW, coronavirus is much more contagious than flu (I assume you mean flu not cold) and we won‘t have real treatment and vaccine for a long time. So you know situation is different and no one should treat it as normal flu.

      • I'm saying once I've recovered obviously.. you don't go on trips when you don't feel well. And yes, the cold can kill immunocompromised individuals as well. Of course the flu is worse.

        • However, you are NOT aware of whether you are carrying the virus until you go for a test. The virus could be latent in your body for more than 14 days and be contagious to people around you.

  • Just when I thought it was too late to short the cruise companies after their 20% drop on Friday....

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