Abandon Ship?

[Cheburashka]

Anyway guys, if I was you, I would make sure to have a passport from now on, just in case.

Absolutely. It was always a bit of a gamble to cruise without a passport. To do so now would be plain reckless.

I wouldn't be surprised if cruise lines start requiring passports for all cruises.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I wouldn't be surprised if cruise lines start requiring passports for all cruises.

Some cruise lines already do.

 

[alieila]

It took one time on Disney Wonder for a 2 night Ensenada weekend, that made me rush to grab our passport! No need to convince me not! We got our passport for the NYC to WDW/Castaway Cay for 2018 Thanksgiving week! Will never go cruising without a passport!

 

[ChicosWife]

Let me throw out some examples, just to get the ball rolling:

1. One way halls/stairs on the ships
2. Designated hours that you can use your balcony (to prevent people on their balconies on either side of you, above or below you)
3. Mandatory vitamin D/zinc supplements
4. BMI limits
5. Elevator use by exception only, with sign up times, etc.
6. Quarantine times before and after embarkation
7. No daily cabin cleaning/turn down service
8. Sign-up times for shuffleboard, miniature golf, ping pong, or basketballs
9. No one on upper decks during breezy conditions, since germs could carry further, faster
10. Confinement to quarters during certain times of day
11. No childrens' clubs
12. Two meals per day, to accommodate more distanced dining with an option for an additional charge room service for a third meal
13. Lottery system for shows and movies with a guarantee of one show per passenger

I would think if mandatory masks and, especially mandatory vaccines are in play, most of these rules would be extreme overkill. If grocery stores, schools, etc. can function with the public in close proximity, then the cruise lines can do so also (given the vaccine mandate especially).

 

[Snowwhyt]

I would think if mandatory masks and, especially mandatory vaccines are in play, most of these rules would be extreme overkill. If grocery stores, schools, etc. can function with the public in close proximity, then the cruise lines can do so also (given the vaccine mandate especially).

I think the proximity recommended for school is 6 feet. That is going to limit the number of kids in clubs. So I am not sure how the school example is considered a more relaxed option. I’m sure Disney will keep 6’ rule and add a few hourly hand washing times and who knows what else. But kids will be use to it from school so no complaints from them.

 

[4077]

I think the proximity recommended for school is 6 feet. That is going to limit the number of kids in clubs. So I am not sure how the school example is considered a more relaxed option. I’m sure Disney will keep 6’ rule and add a few hourly hand washing times and who knows what else. But kids will be use to it from school so no complaints from them.

Actually, we are about to start a return to full 5 day all student school over the next month and a half (a few grades at a time before adding the next ones) in our town in CT. Classrooms are to return to "normal" set up (and they have made it clear that this means 2 1/2 foot spacing for most). So, I think as we proceed further along with more vaccinations and continued experience that children are GENERALLY less susceptible to symptomatic reactions, that the 6 foot rule will begin to be less of a rule....but who knows. My main point of the post is that the 6' thing in schools will be going away as schools start a return to all students in building...and CT has been VERY careful/conservative with pandemic restrictions...so, if CT is easing and doing this in schools, I have to think it is coming or all ready there in many other places. Of course, I am sure kids are pretty good at rule following (even if not good at home...when on a ship with "new" authority I think most are good rule followers) whatever the ships implement.

 

[Cheburashka]

I think the proximity recommended for school is 6 feet.

I'm an in-person public school teacher and have had 21 students seated about 3 feet apart in my classroom since January. Keep in mind that recommendations are different from reality.

 

[Clojel]

I'm an in-person public school teacher and have had 21 students seated about 3 feet apart in my classroom since January. Keep in mind that recommendations are different from reality.

Yes, I believe 3 feet is the actual minimum...at least in the elementary schools...I know my district opened in person this past September with “3-6 ft” as the goal.

 

[cmph]

I'm an in-person public school teacher and have had 21 students seated about 3 feet apart in my classroom since January. Keep in mind that recommendations are different from reality.

3ft is the goal in my kids' district, too, and honestly - doubt it's really even that. I work at a university, and I know that the 6ft measuring done in my department's labs was a very literal 6ft from point to point, as though we're all 2-dimensional... not accounting for the space the human body is taking. So really 5ft apart from body to body at best. I don't know how they measure in our school district, b/c no visitors have been allowed on campus. In any case, our district has relied less on distancing (knowing that it was literally impossible to get 6ft of separation with 25-30 kids in a room) and more on seating charts, so they know *exactly* who was exposed and has to go into mandatory quarantine. The latter part is what cruiselines are never going to be able to replicate. They can't possibly contact trace the way schools can. And a cruise is not like a grocery store situation either - where you are in and out and not mixing with the same people repeatedly.

 

[mevelandry]

I'm an in-person public school teacher and have had 21 students seated about 3 feet apart in my classroom since January. Keep in mind that recommendations are different from reality.

How is it working out? Here, they have started asking them to wear masks during class in High School because otherwise they kept having outbreaks and have to close classes (and sometimes the whole school). It’s been slightly better, they keep closing classes once in a while but a little bit less than during the fall.

 

[Cheburashka]

How is it working out?

Terrible as far as transmission goes. I'm currently teaching virtually because my entire class and I are in quarantine due to one of my students testing positive. And that kind of thing happens on at least a weekly basis at my school and has ever since they reduced the required spacing to 3 feet after Christmas break, plus returned to in-person specials (art, music, P.E.) classes where all of the students in the school take turns being in the same few rooms for those classes.

I taught from September through December in person with 6 foot spacing and virtual specials classes without incident, and there were only a few positive cases schoolwide in that whole semester. But administration won't have us go back to that because they don't want to anger parents by making specials virtual or reducing the number of students who can learn in person. The district will not hire more teachers, so it's either have bigger classes in person or have more students have to learn at home.

 

[Cheburashka]

And a cruise is not like a grocery store situation either - where you are in and out and not mixing with the same people repeatedly.

And the bottom line in that comparison is that a grocery store is not going to be held accountable for cases the way a cruise ship will, precisely because people anonymously go in and out and you'll never know who picked it up there or spread it there. But because cruisers are in a closed system onboard, the cruise ship will have to answer for any positive cases.

 

[AquaDame]

This thread has seemed to run its course and gone off topic, I am going to retire it.