gretchendz

I just ran a quote for a $5000 cruise for two people and the cancel for any reason rate was $355 for both. Guess it depends a great deal

Badenoch

Cruising is a most often a last minute affair for us so we've got nothing set in the near future. I wouldn't worry about Europe, North America or the Caribbean but would be cancelling anything thing Asian until this issue sorts out. But I'm in reasonably good health and have no existing pre-conditions. Were I in those categories or elderly I might feel differently.

A cruise is meant to relax and enjoy. Those who worry about the coronavirus and are anxious about the possibility of a month-lonq quarantine would perhaps be better off to cancel and accept the penalty.

mahasamatman

From contaminated food. Do you think it just springs up from nowhere? Noro is not endemic to cruise ships - more than half our company was hit this year from contamination at our annual holiday party.

Need

If they don't have too many crew and passengers kept moving the virus around, the virus should be gone in 9 days right...

Randyk47

Maybe. Testing on the viability of the virus in and out of the human body is still ongoing. Right now there is no firm timeline for either situation. We’re still in the more questions than answers mode.

ottiehund

We have told our travel agent this morning to cancel our cruise, and we will walk away from our deposit. I have too many questions/concerns/unknowns to be comfortable with proceeding. I did tell her we might rebook but that will be 'last minute' and if things are looking 'better' before we depart for UK to see our friends (we were tagging the cruise on to that trip).

Happy

On all our HAL TATL cruises, the buffet area is strictly served by the crews on the first 3 days, at every station. Then we will hear the cheerful PA from the Captain that we do not have any new reported illness that relates to such nature, so now the salad bar / appetizers / breads, can be self-served. The main courses, pasta station and oriental station are always served by the staff behind the counters. Princess / Celebrity / Royal Caribbeans do not have such precautions.

However on the newer ships they now all have hand-washing facilities right at the entrance of the buffet restaurant. The Royal class of Princess have them. The "revolutionized" Millenium we sailed last Spring TYO-YVR has large hand washing "compartments on both sides once you endter the buffet restaurants. Many passengers use such facilities, and that is a very good sign. We are lucky that not having ever been on a ship that had a Noro outbreak. I suspect a lot of these outbreaks are from passengers already infected before they board the ships. Therefore the HAL's policy is a very good one. Other lines should follow that.

YVR Cockroach

Can be hit or miss. On a HAL cruise 5 1/2 years ago, they were doing this, as well as changing serving utensils every 20 mins or so when pax did self-serve. IIRC staff-served was out of Vancouver but not when the ship left San Diego where many pax got off and some new ones got on.

Incubation period, I guess, is 48-72 hrs which is why they hand serve.

My last bout was with raw oysters (area the oysters were cultivated has defective septic fields.)

Hoyaheel

Oceania buffet is ALWAYS staff-served, which I have learned to appreciate....

MSPeconomist

I posted somewhere here on FT, IIRC in response to a post with a link to a RFP for cleaning and sanitizing the Wuhan Princess, that there was an announcement that the Westerdam's cruises through early May were all cancelled.

747FC

Do you recall in which thread resides this link to RFP?

Hoyaheel

Not sure about where it is on FT, but I saw HAL's press release on facebook, I think. It's on their website

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US...-advisory.htmlSeattle, Wash., Feb. 20, 2020 (5:58 PM PST) — Out of an abundance of caution, Holland America Line has decided to cancel all Asia cruises of Westerdam remaining in the sesason. This includes thedeparture dates below. Given the fluidity of changing restrictions in the region we are not confident we would be able to deliver the cruise experience our guests expect and that we strive to deliver. Booked guests and their travel advisors have been notified.

• March 14–28, 14-day South Korea and Japan, sailing roundtrip Yokohama, Japan.
• March 28–April 11, 14-day Japan Explorer, sailing roundtrip Yokohama.
• April 11–25, 14-day Japan and Russia, sailing roundtrip Yokohama.
• April 25–May 10, 16-day North Pacific Crossing, sailing Yokohama to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

MSPeconomist

The obvious choices would be here, the WuFlu thread in Japan, and the big authoritative WuFlu thread in the China destination forum. Beyond that,there's the OMNI/PR thread plus threads on WuFlu in the Hong Kong and Korea (unlikely) destination fora.

Hoyaheel

Oops, sorry, I linked the Westerdam info, not the RFP on cleaning. Read too quickly...The RFP I don't remember seeing (I read mainly the China forum thread, not other country forum threads)

747FC

Thanks. I've not seen it in any of the country fora, but it may have escaped my review.