Until late 2020, it’s unlikely that U.S. passport holders may be permitted to travel on “real” cruise ships. The ships are banned from U.S. ports and U.S. passport holders are not permitted to sail from European, Australian, or the ports of most other nations. On the few ships that attempted to sail from European ports (without Americans onboard) over the summer, nearly all of the cruises terminated early when COVID-19 appeared among passengers or crew. This was despite everyone being tested within a few days of boarding the ship. Read the rest of this entry »

Many travel advisors and industry experts agree that cruising is unlikely to rebound until cruisers feel much safer. After six months of intensive work, the travel industry is taking baby steps towards regaining its former glory and strength.

A few ships sailed in August, but several didn’t complete even their first few cruises. Now it looks like most other cruise lines won’t try again until January. Read the rest of this entry »

According to The Washington Post, the University of Arizona detected a coronavirus outbreak in one of its dorms, after everyone in the dorm had passed antigen tests before moving in. They found two infectious students that had previously tested Negative. All that needed to be done was monitoring the wastewater in each dorm for infectious feces.

It ends up that feces “shed” not only onto your hands where they can be transported to your face (hence the emphasis on washing your hands), but also into the wastewater that come from flushing toilets. Testing samples of wastewater coming from the sewage lines connecting cabins on ships can identify groups of cabins that have infectious guests or crew. Then, these persons can be given individual COVID-19 tests Read the rest of this entry »

Booking cruises is easy. If you know where you want to go, and the kinds of ships you like, it’s really hard to go wrong. Similar ships offer the same kinds of experiences for roughly the same prices. Going on a Seabourn cruise to the Med is only slightly different than sailing on Silversea or Regent.

Travel insurance used to be the same. Most policies offered similar protection and the companies reliably paid their claims. COVID-19 changed all that. Witness this review published on Squaremouth for a popular “Platinum” travel insurance policy: Read the rest of this entry »

Many veteran cruisers see no reason to book cruises right now. Their income is uncertain, many resent how they’ve been treated by cruise lines and insurance companies, and they’re not sure they can cruise safely. Many avid cruisers thought they knew the rules of the game:

Sail on a few favorite cruise lines, get to know the ships and key staff, and the companies would look out for you.

This changed when COVID-19 struck. Read the rest of this entry »

On June 30, 2020, the European Union (EU) released their first EU Healthy Gateways Report, their guide for cruise companies operating in the EU resuming operation. The report was written by a “working group” that represented the Ministries of Health in nine European nations. Many major cruise lines participated in the writing, but it probably went further than many of them imagined.

The first six chapters — which we discussed last week — focused on mandatory testing for guests and crew; quarantine facilities both on the ship and in ports; compulsory notification to port authorities of guests and crew, if COVID-19 infections are suspected. This week, we’ll discuss the structural modifications and changes Read the rest of this entry »

On June 30, 2020, the European Union (EU) released their first EU Healthy Gateways Report: their guide for cruise companies operating in the EU resuming operation. The report was written by a “working group” that represented the Ministries of Health in nine European nations. While many major cruise lines participated in the writing process, the report probably went further than many of them wished.

The report emphasizes mandatory testing for guests and crew; quarantine facilities both on the ship and in ports; compulsory notification to port authorities of guests and crew if COVID-19 infections are suspected; and costly engineering changes Read the rest of this entry »

The luxury small ships such as those owned by Azamara, Crystal, Oceania, Paul Gauguin, Ponant, Hapag-Lloyd, Regent, Seabourn, Silversea, and Windstar are safer from Covid-19 than any other cruise vessels. Carrying 150-1300 guests, these are the new crown jewels of cruising because they can meet most of the European Union’s new “suggested” standards for cruise ships nearly immediately. Read the rest of this entry »

Our contributor, Steve Frankel, is one of the first travel advisors to complete a five-course certificate program in Epidemiology taught by the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

According to CNN, which developed this graphic, April Fool’s Day had a special meaning this year: It was about the date that European Union redoubled its efforts to control the Covid-19 pandemic, and the United States shifted its focus to “rebuilding the American economy and restoring our quality of life.” Read the rest of this entry »

Many Caribbean nations have already adopted the notion of health passports, and several European countries are strongly considering these. Boiled down to the essentials, this means that to enter the country, you have to present proof that you tested Negative for Covid-19 within the past 48 or 72 hours. If you haven’t been able to be tested before arriving at the airport, they will test you immediately outside the terminal so as not to endanger the people within. Read the rest of this entry »

(Last week we covered the manner in which Screening and Social Distancing will have to be conducted on a variety of ships. Now let’s move on to Ventilation, Dining, Staffing, Contact Tracing, and Insurance.

Ventilation

An important lesson learned from all the ships that were marooned in ports with guests and crew onboard was that the Covid-19 virus loves recycled air, even if it’s filtered and purified. This probably means that all staterooms should vent directly to the outside of the ship. Read the rest of this entry »

In an interview with Cruise Critic, Carnival Corporation CEO Arnie Donald said, “It’s too soon to tell when ships will return to service. If we let the science community and the medical community do their thing in the coming weeks, there’ll be more alignment around what the most effective protocols are to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

Here’s my take, that’s based on what we already know. Read the rest of this entry »