Time to check back in with my new cruise buddies. Thank you for the warm welcome when I posted for the first time to this thread last week. When I left off, the swine flu was not a 'pending pandemic', my passports had not arrived, and we were still headed to Cozumel. My how things have changed.
Bibbidy, sorry to hear of all the closures in your area. Here in the Phoenix area, there has been 1 (perhaps 3) confirmed cases. One school closed down the other day and my DH tells me two more closed down today. So far, the thinking seems to be close down a school where confirmed cases in children are noted. However, they are not closing down entire school districts. This has not hit us directly yet. All events here are still going as planned. Schools are still sending kids on overnight field trips (Grand Canyon and Catalina Island to name a couple).
Here's hoping that as this thing spreads (and it will) it continues to behave as a typical flu - onset, feel yucky, recovery and we (general public) do not lose our heads about this. Are we taking precautions? Sure, washing hands more frequently, covering coughs and sneezes correctly, trying not to touch faces, eating well, sleeping enough. However, we are stopping well short of full shut down mode and hazmat suites.
On a side note, my DH travels quite a bit for work. On Tues. in LAX he said quite a few people were wearing masks. On Thurs. in Ontario, CA airport while boarding, one lady chewed out more than one SW employee as to why they were not handing out masks to all passengers. In the end, she boarded, but was not happy. My DH was of the feeling, wear one if you like it is certainly your choice, but if it is important to you then shouldn't you provide it yourself? 
On a happier note, our passports arrived yesterday!! So if anyone is still waiting for theirs, have hope. When we applied the web site said they were processing in 4-6 weeks. Ours arrived 2 days shy of 5 weeks, so pretty much right when they said they would.
I am sorry to hear Cozumel is out for May 2 cruise, but have also resigned myself to the fact that it will most likely be out for us as well. I had planned to book excursions on my own, but went ahead and book through DCL until I feel more confident about what our itinerary will be. I may still book something on our own and cancel DCL as necessary, but for now at least we have something on the books. If we end up in Nassau, we will most likely do some sort of excursion as we have not been there before. I understand it is not the ideal choice for many of you, but we have decided we will find something fun to do. I prefer going some place instead of a sea day.
Finally, Bruce, thank you for adding us the the list of DIS travelers. Seriously, some of you are so organized I'm embarrased to admit I haven't shopped, even thought about packing and only yesterday booked excursions. Maybe because I put so much time and effort into our Alaska trip last summer, I am sort of playing this one a bit more off the cuff. (Any of you ever heading to Alaska, I am more than happy to share what we did). Oh well, we have passports, reservations on the ships, and excursions booked. Seems like a good start. Yikes, just remembered I haven't booked hotel or made car rental reservations. Maybe I should off the stick and finish up.
Bibbidy, sorry to hear of all the closures in your area. Here in the Phoenix area, there has been 1 (perhaps 3) confirmed cases. One school closed down the other day and my DH tells me two more closed down today. So far, the thinking seems to be close down a school where confirmed cases in children are noted. However, they are not closing down entire school districts. This has not hit us directly yet. All events here are still going as planned. Schools are still sending kids on overnight field trips (Grand Canyon and Catalina Island to name a couple).
Here's hoping that as this thing spreads (and it will) it continues to behave as a typical flu - onset, feel yucky, recovery and we (general public) do not lose our heads about this. Are we taking precautions? Sure, washing hands more frequently, covering coughs and sneezes correctly, trying not to touch faces, eating well, sleeping enough. However, we are stopping well short of full shut down mode and hazmat suites.
On a side note, my DH travels quite a bit for work. On Tues. in LAX he said quite a few people were wearing masks. On Thurs. in Ontario, CA airport while boarding, one lady chewed out more than one SW employee as to why they were not handing out masks to all passengers. In the end, she boarded, but was not happy. My DH was of the feeling, wear one if you like it is certainly your choice, but if it is important to you then shouldn't you provide it yourself? On a happier note, our passports arrived yesterday!! So if anyone is still waiting for theirs, have hope. When we applied the web site said they were processing in 4-6 weeks. Ours arrived 2 days shy of 5 weeks, so pretty much right when they said they would.
I am sorry to hear Cozumel is out for May 2 cruise, but have also resigned myself to the fact that it will most likely be out for us as well. I had planned to book excursions on my own, but went ahead and book through DCL until I feel more confident about what our itinerary will be. I may still book something on our own and cancel DCL as necessary, but for now at least we have something on the books. If we end up in Nassau, we will most likely do some sort of excursion as we have not been there before. I understand it is not the ideal choice for many of you, but we have decided we will find something fun to do. I prefer going some place instead of a sea day.
Finally, Bruce, thank you for adding us the the list of DIS travelers. Seriously, some of you are so organized I'm embarrased to admit I haven't shopped, even thought about packing and only yesterday booked excursions. Maybe because I put so much time and effort into our Alaska trip last summer, I am sort of playing this one a bit more off the cuff. (Any of you ever heading to Alaska, I am more than happy to share what we did). Oh well, we have passports, reservations on the ships, and excursions booked. Seems like a good start. Yikes, just remembered I haven't booked hotel or made car rental reservations. Maybe I should off the stick and finish up.
. I don't understand big business sometimes.
Keeping my fingers crossed that GM doesn't have to file bankruptcy.
