What do you think will happen to US cruises if Coronavirus spreads?

[Karin1984]

Because the Chinese government doesn't have a good track record of honesty.

If it is of any consolation, here in Europe we do not trust everything the US government says either.

I am sure that most governments will try to do everything they can to keep panic down. Whistleblowers are usually forced to keep quiet, that happens in many countries and cultures.

 

[gotomu212]

Your points are well-taken, but here's the thing - none of us here are epidemiologists (actually, I take that back - I think there is at least one active member who actually is an epidemiologist). None of us are locked in on this anywhere near the level that the CDC is.

All of those things you listed above - as I said earlier, you can clutch your pearls about all of the "what if"'s until the cows come home, but the fact of the matter is that the people at the CDC are not naive fools; they know about the Chinese government's control of information. I guarantee you that they are not taking any information released by Beijing as a given. All of the stuff you listed above is already "baked into" the CDC's most recent guidelines.

And as of today, they are not calling for any drastic changes for the public as a whole. They describe the immediate overall health risk to the U.S. as low. The guidance they are giving - other than not going to mainland China - is pretty standard stuff: wash your hands; cover your mouth and nose with your sleeve when you sneeze; avoid sick people who were recently in China, especially if you're very young, very old or already have compromised health. The public is not being told to don face masks or stay indoors. The public is not being told to avoid large crowds, air travel or cruise ships.

Yes, the situation is fluid and it could change, but honestly, if the CDC thought there was something major that China was withholding - something that could drastically impact the nation's health for the worse - we'd be getting a lot more stringent guidelines than we've gotten so far.

I think I've made my point by now. Some people may disagree with me, and that's OK. I don't need to keep going back and forth to prove anyone "wrong" just to make me feel "right". It's merely my opinion.

Signing off.

My father in law is the head of infectious disease at a major metro hospital so it’s been a big topic around our house. And, I’m not saying clutch your pearls, don a face mask, and avoid public- you asked why it was a big deal we weren‘t getting complete info out of China and I answered why the medical community was concerned and that your theory we had enough independent cases to study was insufficient.

The government quarantines are actually pretty drastic for the US and display a level of concern we havent seen since smallpox (that’s what is catching the interest of the medical community. The gov response is so strong that everyone believes this is more serious than anything we’ve seen in decades). The risk in the US is still very low, they’re just trying to get data and figure out if it will stay low or morph into a new annoying but fairly innocuous bug.

 

[Adventurelawyer]

And the results for the 4 passengers removed from the RCI vessel and tested for Corona? Negative for Coronavirus, positive for influenza A.
Interesting side note: the body of a 50 year old male crew member was found in the engine room while theship was at sea. He was kept on ice and removed from the ship when it docked. So thats the real reason that ship isn’t putting to sea until probably Monday. They are waiting on rush autopsy results “out of an abundance of caution.”

 

[smmco]

And the results for the 4 passengers removed from the RCI vessel and tested for Corona? Negative for Coronavirus, positive for influenza A.
Interesting side note: the body of a 50 year old male crew member was found in the engine room while theship was at sea. He was kept on ice and removed from the ship when it docked. So thats the real reason that ship isn’t putting to sea until probably Monday. They are waiting on rush autopsy results “out of an abundance of caution.”

50 year old male. Sounds like sudden cardiac arrest.

 

[Adventurelawyer]

50 year old male. Sounds like sudden cardiac arrest.

Yeah. So he failed to report for shift that morning and no one had seen him since the day prior. They found him down in the engine room. Your assessment is likely accurate.

 

[smmco]

I think cruise lines are over reacting.Are you going to delay cruises or quarantine passengers every time someone has flu like symptoms? It’s February and it’s flu/cold season. Many people with corona virus have only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. I’m not sure how they think they are going to police it.

 

[Adventurelawyer]

I think cruise lines are over reacting.Are you going to delay cruises or quarantine passengers every time someone has flu like symptoms? It’s February and it’s flu/cold season. Many people with corona virus have only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. I’m not sure how they think they are going to police it.

That cruise is delayed over an unattended death. No one from that crew can leave port until they have manner, mode, and cause of death. While it's more than likely a medical cause, it's a criminal investigation until coroner or ME says otherwise.

 

[Lisa F]

And the results for the 4 passengers removed from the RCI vessel and tested for Corona? Negative for Coronavirus, positive for influenza A.
Interesting side note: the body of a 50 year old male crew member was found in the engine room while theship was at sea. He was kept on ice and removed from the ship when it docked. So thats the real reason that ship isn’t putting to sea until probably Monday. They are waiting on rush autopsy results “out of an abundance of caution.”

where did you read that? i went looking and only saw confirmation that the 4 passengers were negative for coronavirus and positive for the flu, and I did see a reference to a dock worker saying that there's no way he'd get on that ship - too afraid of coronavirus, while noting that the cleaning crew on the ship was not in hazmat gear. Sounds like a lot of people are pretty ticked off and RCL is not being remotely forthcoming with information. Just wondering where you found that out - seems like from interviews with passengers who were supposed to depart yesterday that the passengers are not aware!

 

[Adventurelawyer]

where did you read that? i went looking and only saw confirmation that the 4 passengers were negative for coronavirus and positive for the flu, and I did see a reference to a dock worker saying that there's no way he'd get on that ship - too afraid of coronavirus, while noting that the cleaning crew on the ship was not in hazmat gear. Sounds like a lot of people are pretty ticked off and RCL is not being remotely forthcoming with information. Just wondering where you found that out - seems like from interviews with passengers who were supposed to depart yesterday that the passengers are not aware!

https://patch.com/new-jersey/hoboke...s-nj-ship-where-27-tested-coronavirus-reports

 

[5lilfish]

We cruise on a different line next week (Western Caribbean). I’m only Very mildly concerned about getting the virus.
My main concerns:
1). With 6 people in our party, and given that it is cold/flu season....is there a chance that people will be denied boarding simply due to normal cold symptoms? I mean, there’s a pretty decent chance that one of us could have sniffles or even a slight cough at this time of year.. We are good so far, but colds happen in February.
2). I have mild concerns over a situation where someone else in the ship could have cold/flu symptoms and get us all quarantined.

Jess

 

[Lisa F]

https://patch.com/new-jersey/hoboke...s-nj-ship-where-27-tested-coronavirus-reports

thanks. A lot of people are ticked off about the delay in the cruise and I was surprised that they didn't seem to know why it was delayed.

We cruise on a different line next week (Western Caribbean). I’m only Very mildly concerned about getting the virus.
My main concerns:
1). With 6 people in our party, and given that it is cold/flu season....is there a chance that people will be denied boarding simply due to normal cold symptoms? I mean, there’s a pretty decent chance that one of us could have sniffles or even a slight cough at this time of year.. We are good so far, but colds happen in February.
2). I have mild concerns over a situation where someone else in the ship could have cold/flu symptoms and get us all quarantined.

Jess

the US is not quarantining entire ships - they are just quarantining individuals returning from china at the moment and in the case of the RCL ship they removed the people who they deemed risks - not simply because they had flu symptoms but also because they were chinese nationals. If someone has no realistic vector of transmission of coronavirus here to the US it does not sound like they are assuming every sniffle is the coronavirus. But if you've been to an infected area or have family who have, it raises the risk that what you've got is that and not flu -although it doesn't make it 100%. No one has the time to track down whether people are lying or not so they are making some sweeping generalizations about those who are of asian descent.

 

[ahain]

Yes, all true. But if people were not prescient enough to buy insurance, I don't want to punish (and thus discourage) traveler's from honesty reporting their medical issues, concerned with losing thousands of dollars in travel bookings. I am not talking about an ideal world, but the real world and what can be done as a practical matter to encourage people to honestly self-report and protect everyone.

But if the cruise lines issues credit, there are those who would take advantage and rationalize: why buy travel insurance if I can just tell the cruise line I am sick and get my money back when in fact that some other issue cam up that prevents me from traveling?

 

[smmco]

That cruise is delayed over an unattended death. No one from that crew can leave port until they have manner, mode, and cause of death. While it's more than likely a medical cause, it's a criminal investigation until coroner or ME says otherwise.

That's not what Royal is telling people. They are saying they are waiting for results on the 4 passengers test results. The updates have been posted on cruise critic.

 

[Adventurelawyer]

That's not what Royal is telling people. They are saying they are waiting for results on the 4 passengers test results. The updates have been posted on cruise critic.

Doesn’t really matter what’s posted on social media. Reality matters. Test results have been back for awhile. RCI’s PR people aren’t going to announce the death investigation onboard. Read between the lines and synthesize the information you are given rather than blindly believing interweb nonsense. Cruise critic updates. SMDH

 

[smmco]

Doesn’t really matter what’s posted on social media. Reality matters. Test results have been back for awhile. RCI’s PR people aren’t going to announce the death investigation onboard. Read between the lines and synthesize the information you are given rather than blindly believing interweb nonsense. Cruise critic updates. SMDH

Do they normally shut down hotels when there's a death? Or do they investigate and keep the hotel open? Unattended deaths on cruise ships are not uncommon. I've never heard of a cruise ship being delayed to investigate one.

 

[Adventurelawyer]

Do they normally shut down hotels when there's a death? Or do they investigate and keep the hotel open? Unattended deaths on cruise ships are not uncommon. I've never heard of a cruise ship being delayed to investigate one.

They would if the hotel were capable of transporting a potential murder suspect out of the country.

unattended deaths do happen on ships and it’s typically a person with significant medical history dying and being found in a natural place, like bed. Not suspicious, and technically not unattended under the legal and medical definitions, whivh I won’t go into here. Having a body found in an engine room after no one has seen the person in greater than 8 hours, on a ship with thousands of people and cameras, where there were likely no cameras (I say that because if there were cameras they would have noted a man down, rather than finding a stiff body), is suspicious and warrants investigation and detention.

 

[smmco]

They would if the hotel were capable of transporting a potential murder suspect out of the country.

unattended deaths do happen on ships and it’s typically a person with significant medical history dying and being found in a natural place, like bed. Not suspicious, and technically not unattended under the legal and medical definitions, whivh I won’t go into here. Having a body found in an engine room after no one has seen the person in greater than 8 hours, on a ship with thousands of people and cameras, where there were likely no cameras (I say that because if there were cameras they would have noted a man down, rather than finding a stiff body), is suspicious and warrants investigation and detention.

Do you have inside information you'd like to share? You have basically called me an idiot for believing social media and updates put out by Royal. Last time I checked the Disboards was also a social media site.

 

[Adventurelawyer]

Do you have inside information you'd like to share? You have basically called me an idiot for believing social media and updates put out by Royal. Last time I checked the Disboards was also a social media site.

I linked a news article. One of several I by going beyond social media hits.
Social media IS NOT NEWS.

As for my inside info, it comes from years of investigating various crimes, including suspicious deaths, some of which were murders before I became an attorney, which gave me insight into the prosecution side of investigations. What you are doing is contributing to the spread if fake news and fear. So stop.

 

[smmco]

I linked a news article. One of several I by going beyond social media hits.
Social media IS NOT NEWS.

As for my inside info, it comes from years of investigating various crimes, including suspicious deaths, some of which were murders before I became an attorney, which gave me insight into the prosecution side of investigations. What you are doing is contributing to the spread if fake news and fear. So stop.

WTH? I have no words. I don't want to get in a tit for tat with you on a social media site. So let's just agree to disagree.

 

[DisneYE]

This is an interesting thread but I haven't read every post.
One question I have related to this issue and I'm not sure if someone has offered their insight is this:

- What would happen if one (just 1) person on a DCL sailing shows symptoms of the coronavirus.
What would be the protocol?
I've heard of instances where ppl with norovirus have been quarantined to their SR's for as long as the duration of their cruise. And that's a good precautionary measure.

But what about this current virus? What if someone shows sypmtoms?

- Will they quarantine the entire ship? It seems to be the case given the current (and justified) fears.
I can't begin to imagine the chaos/frustration of ppl confined to their rooms for 4/7+ days
I'm just dreading this scenario.
And all it takes is one person who's had direct (travel to China) or indirect (a family member, someone catching it in an airplane, etc) contact with the virus.
Scary stuff.