Germany starts no port cruises again

[jas72]

Since last weekend German cruise operator TUI (50% owned by Royal) has started doing 4 night blue cruises to Norway. They run them at 60% capacity.


I notice on their site they are also offering 7 night cruises around the fjords but obviously no port stops yet.

Should cruise lines offer similar from Southampton would you go on one?

Here you can see a vlogger on one you have to choose CC and auto translate to english in settings unless your German is better than mine of course

[Omega1]

German cruise line Aida (part of Carnival Corp) were planning to do the same - until 10 crew members tested positive for Covid. Nine were asymptomatic, one had mild symptoms- all tested negative before they departed to join the ship.
This just shows how precarious the position of cruise lines is and I don’t believe we will see anything that resembles cruising pre-Covid until there is a vaccine or effective treatments. All the rhetoric about Covid safe cruises (reduced capacity, social distancing, enhanced hygiene, no buffets, temperature checks, testing, etc) are imo just that - rhetoric, because as soon as the first asymptomatic person steps on board, the damage is done.

[jas72]

Please explain.

From what I read AIDA's controls worked as they avoided the situation where crew members were allowed on the ship with an infection.

I don't expect pre-covid cruising either, my post was asking if a post-covid 4 day cruise would appeal to anyone.

If you socially distance then there is no issue with other cruisers being infectious or not.

There is no known evidence that aerosol infections are happening, there is very little evidence to show that touching things has significantly spread the virus. Most likely spread is still thought to be close contact (less than 1m) for an significant amount of time. Also there is some scientific evidence that suggests that most asymptomatic people do not generate enough viral load to spread the virus and that pre-symptomatic people don't generate enough viral load until they have symptoms (first couple of days).

You could therefore more likely get covid from your local highstreet where people aren't temp checked each day and shop assistants aren't checked every 2-3 days and there isn't a army of staff cleaning everything or enforcement of mask usage.

who.int/news-room/commen...on-precautions - 90% is "unknown"

[Omega1]

I was only adding more information to the cruising activity out of Germany and expressing my opinion regarding the prospect of cruising in the near future, nothing more, nothing less. The crew members who tested positive, according to the reports I read, tested negative in their own countries and again on arrival in Germany but tested positive on the ship and are self isolating in single cabins. miamiherald/news/bus...244474032.html
The Aida spin is that their ‘systems’ picked up the infections and therefore ‘worked’. I’m not so positive, and given that passengers will not be subjected to the same degree of health scrutiny, the chances of asymptomatic spread are still there. If cruise lines, national authorities and ports of call were confident in their Covid safe systems they wouldn’t be cancelling cruises through to mid December (Princess).

[jas72]

Originally Posted by Omega1

I was only adding more information to the cruising activity out of Germany and expressing my opinion regarding the prospect of cruising in the near future, nothing more, nothing less. The crew members who tested positive, according to the reports I read, tested negative in their own countries and again on arrival in Germany but tested positive on the ship and are self isolating in single cabins. miamiherald/news/bus...244474032.html
The Aida spin is that their ‘systems’ picked up the infections and therefore ‘worked’. I’m not so positive, and given that passengers will not be subjected to the same degree of health scrutiny, the chances of asymptomatic spread are still there. If cruise lines, national authorities and ports of call were confident in their Covid safe systems they wouldn’t be cancelling cruises through to mid December (Princess).

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You cannot guarantee 100% safety from a virus on board. That is not a realistic option.

It's about risk management.

Would I go on the cruise? Hell no! But we should be looking at starting things by slowly introducing these type of post-covid cruises with the proper protocols in place.

With masks social distancing and hand washing your chances of becoming infected even if another passenger is infectious should be minimal. But you are right it's always a risk but I don't see any reason why there should be an outbreak on a ship, yes a few infections probably but not 100s from one person.

[Omega1]

Originally Posted by jas72

You cannot guarantee 100% safety from a virus on board. That is not a realistic option.

It's about risk management.

Would I go on the cruise? Hell no! But we should be looking at starting things by slowly introducing these type of post-covid cruises with the proper protocols in place.

With masks social distancing and hand washing your chances of becoming infected even if another passenger is infectious should be minimal. But you are right it's always a risk but I don't see any reason why there should be an outbreak on a ship, yes a few infections probably but not 100s from one person.

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Managing the risk is key from an individual passenger perspective. The majority of cruises we go on, most passengers are the ‘wrong’ side of 60. Even a ‘few infections’ could be disastrous for this demographic.
Back to your original question, would we go on a cruise to nowhere at the moment? Definitely no. For us, cruising is a balance of ship board experience, itinerary and cost - so hopefully we’ll be back on a ship by mid 2021, we need it! In the meantime, we’re looking forward to our trips to Devon, the Cotswolds and the Lakes. Happy cruising (eventually)!

[mickeyspal]

Cant see the point of going on a cruise and not being able to get off and explore. Weve moved our Nov cruise to Nov next year. Hopefully we will be back to normal by then

[gismo1554]

Personally I would love a cruise to nowhere Even on normal cruises for me its as much about the cruise ship as the ports and I would gladly just enjoy the ship. Yes I'd rather have the option to enjoy everything but it wouldn't bother me not being able to so much.

I also think that the safety measures on a ship would make it safer than some places in the UK (went to the beach last week for a family outting and we were the only people wearing masks in the shops and around the town for example). Yes if the virus gets on the ship then it is likely to spread quickly but I think they are likely to have so many cleaning regimes and protocols to reduce the chance of this happening that it will end up being safer personally.

[dcmax]

Originally Posted by mickeyspal

Cant see the point of going on a cruise and not being able to get off and explore. Weve moved our Nov cruise to Nov next year. Hopefully we will be back to normal by then

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Normally I would agree but after being on the very last cruise that ran on the Smeralda back in MArch
notesfromthebarn.blogspot/ which ended up being a cruise to nowhere it was still fantastic.. And cruising round the Fjords would be fantastic..

I agree with the previous few posts above..

Your never going to remove Covid risk from a ship or any public space VAccine or not - (its becoming a bit of a farce that a vacccine is the silver bullet (to paraphrase the WHO) or it will go away - why its taken so long for the WHO to finally point this out is another mystery )..

but you can have a systems in place to make an environment safer (they are not and never have been safe places for people with underlying health issues - and some of the cruise lines need to start spelling this out more clearly ) ..

I trust what the ships are coming up with far more than what I trust our supermarkets, restaurants , Shopping centers , pubs and bars are doing - (its quite ironic that most of them are only now implementing things cruise ships have been doing for years - yet its cruises that are the evil ones or the press latest clickbait).. Never mind this govt (at least a ship can realistically track and trace its guests unlike our own non existent world class systems)

[mskitty]

Originally Posted by dcmax

Normally I would agree but after being on the very last cruise that ran on the Smeralda back in MArch
notesfromthebarn.blogspot/ which ended up being a cruise to nowhere it was still fantastic.. And cruising round the Fjords would be fantastic..

I agree with the previous few posts above..

Your never going to remove Covid risk from a ship or any public space VAccine or not - (its becoming a bit of a farce that a vacccine is the silver bullet (to paraphrase the WHO) or it will go away - why its taken so long for the WHO to finally point this out is another mystery )..

but you can have a systems in place to make an environment safer (they are not and never have been safe places for people with underlying health issues - and some of the cruise lines need to start spelling this out more clearly ) ..

I trust what the ships are coming up with far more than what I trust our supermarkets, restaurants , Shopping centers , pubs and bars are doing - (its quite ironic that most of them are only now implementing things cruise ships have been doing for years - yet its cruises that are the evil ones or the press latest clickbait).. Never mind this govt (at least a ship can realistically track and trace its guests unlike our own non existent world class systems)

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I keep going around places saying "it's just like being on a cruise" and at work I find myself saying "we need to start doing XYZ like they do on cruise ships "