Originally published at: Cruise operators seem to be living in fantasy land | Boing Boing
…
4 Likes
For some reason, however, US ports are still open.
There are several reasons, but they really can be boiled down to one: because Florida.
At this point I’m assuming that the only people foolish enough to give their patronage to cruise lines are the science-denying MAGAts and Know-Nothings, as well as any unfortunate relatives they’ve dragooned into the vacation.
17 Likes
I feel safer on a cruise ship where:
-everyone is required to be fully vaccinated (above 5 years old) and hopefully soon required to be boosted as well
-everyone has had a negative covid test within 2 days before boarding
-crew are tested every few days
-everyone is required to wear a mask in public areas
Than I do at:
-An airport
-A sports game
-A theater
-The grocery store
-On public transportation
-A restaurant
I’m not saying there aren’t risks involved with ANY thing we do these days. And cruising is definitely not for everyone. But cruises have a lot more requirements/restrictions than any other leisure/travel industries. Additionally the cruise industry is reporting their numbers on cases, which is something that cannot be said for others.
6 Likes
Don’t forget Texas. Lots of cruise ships out of Galveston.
6 Likes
We’re booked on the Star Trek cruise that leaves Florida at the end of February. The last one was in March 2020, as people were starting to get concerned about the virus. Just after we got back, the lockdowns started and you started to hear about the ships that weren’t allowed to dock because of onboard cases. We got lucky.
This cruise was supposed to happen last March, but obviously that didn’t happen. It seemed a good bet that things would be betterish by this year, so we rolled our reservation over into the postponed cruise. Now we’re getting nervous. We’d really like to go, cause it’s an amazing experience. But it’s probably not safe. And we certainly wouldn’t want to be part of the group responsible for George Takei getting COVID and dying.
The company that runs the cruise has just cancelled their Jazz charter cruises that were due to sail in January. Maybe they’ll cancel the Star Trek one too. Or maybe the situation will change by the end of February. Fingers crossed.
3 Likes
Monetized petri dishes keeping Florida afloat.
6 Likes
<list of things that are currently required, but despite this cruises are patently unsafe>
<a list of places that are also unsafe>
Is your point that “hey lots of things aren’t safe, so why not do something I know is unsafe, and also contributes to the spread of the virus?” Cause if so . . . . seems weird.
13 Likes
My point is that cruising is a lot safer that other leisure activities. The cruise industry is taking steps to make it that way and are making updates as things change to keep it safe as they can.
Also, please explain how “cruises are patently unsafe” when the rate of covid is lower on cruise ships than it is on land? And again, cruise ships are doing a HECK of a lot more testing for covid cases.
Many things in life are risky, but we take precautions and do it anyway because we find it worth the it.
2 Likes
You’ve no idea how correct you are.
5 Likes
I mean, petting the dog that somebody tells you is a biter is potentially safer than petting a crocodile, but you could just stay out of the petting zoo altogether.
Y nautical MMV, obviously.
13 Likes
Fantasy land, of course, being Texas and Florida.
5 Likes
my wife and i have long wondered at the appeal of cruises in the first place, well before the first outbreaks of covid. we could, maybe, understand taking a cargo ship cruise where the number of passenger berths are capped at 12 but to go on a trip in close quarters with 3,000-6,000 other people? that’s a hard pass. and with their proven facility for infection amplification . . . what is there left to say?
6 Likes
Once a highly infectious virus with a short generation time is present in both places, closing borders and ports to travel between them doesn’t actually slow spread down or delay the peak of a wave by more than a handful of days. Right now, for example, 5% of New York City residents are getting omicron per day compared to about 3% for Miami and about 1% for Aruba. With a generation time of a couple of days for this variant, what exactly does anyone think closing those places’ ports would accomplish? How would introducing a few hundred cruise ship passengers, some of whom probably have covid despite negative tests, matter in a city already getting hundreds or thousands of new cases a day?
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
