Mein Schiff is cruising - what do you think?

[bavaria]

I'm happy they didn't do away with the buffet and actually love that it's not self-service (even if it's a little slower). I'm surprised to hear that the big cruise lines are considering sailing at lower capacity but honestly just don't see Disney doing that, at least not by 60%. I do like that they are taking temperatures daily and I do like that deep cleaning is being done by rotating rooms. I guess we'll all adjust if it means we can get back to cruising.

https://cruiseradio.net/with-cruisi...gA0NpUUHphviDa3JIfj-OS8ckdembMHvNpRwDRD06ppnc

I had already posted weeks ago that cruises were happening in other parts of the globe. On the CDC thread I questioned why the US feels they have to reinvent the wheel, rather than review what is working elsewhere. Of course there are certain issues which make it more challenging (if I were crew, I would prefer not to work on a ship full of Americans to be honest), but in terms of the physical changes there is already enough occurring in the industry to extract what works and use that as a template.

 

[mrp4352]

Additionally with "work in the US" I believe that adds a whole other layer of tax changes - not just for the cruise line, but for their vendors who have to report the spend with the cruise line to the IRS.

 

[Husker Mike]

I had already posted weeks ago that cruises were happening in other parts of the globe. On the CDC thread I questioned why the US feels they have to reinvent the wheel, rather than review what is working elsewhere. Of course there are certain issues which make it more challenging (if I were crew, I would prefer not to work on a ship full of Americans to be honest), but in terms of the physical changes there is already enough occurring in the industry to extract what works and use that as a template.

I think it's premature to say that what is being done elsewhere is working...but you are right, they should be observing what the rest of the world is doing and evaluating how it works. Doesn't preclude asking US citizens their thoughts as well; it can be a "do both" not "one or the other".

You also bring up Europe as a good example... I wonder if it's possible for Disney to resume operations in Europe next summer even if US ports remain shut down.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

One thing some of these "other places" have that US ports don't is rapid testing and contact tracing. The US lacks good systems for either at this point. Mask compliance is also high.

 

[DisBNewB]

Strange. I wonder why the foreign crew would matter to ships and not planes? Back in early 2000's we used to fly Aer Lingus from Chicago to NYC back before they were bought by IAG. It was foreign owned company and vessel, staffed by foreigners (Irish).

If I recall correctly (early 2000s I was booking a lot of air travel for the lawyers I worked for, often on foreign carriers) it was allowed through a technicality where airlines would technically be flying from, say, Chicago to Dublin, but with a stop in NYC, and so people could buy tickets for the Chicago-NYC leg, but the flight was technically still an international flight.

(I may be recalling this wrong, but I thiiiiiiiink that's what was happening.)

 

[PrincessShmoo]

If I recall correctly (early 2000s I was booking a lot of air travel for the lawyers I worked for, often on foreign carriers) it was allowed through a technicality where airlines would technically be flying from, say, Chicago to Dublin, but with a stop in NYC, and so people could buy tickets for the Chicago-NYC leg, but the flight was technically still an international flight.

(I may be recalling this wrong, but I thiiiiiiiink that's what was happening.)

If I recall correctly, this isn't allowed. Now, maybe it was once, or at least it was DONE, even when not allowed.

But it's my understanding that an international airline cannot transport passengers between 2 different US cities. If the flight goes from Chicago to Dublin with a stop in NYC, you can't fly Chicago to NYC, on it.

 

[Intr3pid]

Here is Richard Fain, RCL president, chiming in on a range of issues, including the Mein Schiff experiment: