mahasamatman

They do it because the vast majority of passengers want it.

Always Flyin

Interesting. I stand corrected.

Thanks.

Randyk47

We finally made the leap and booked a cruise. It’s not until January next year but in coordination with our best friends and cruising partners it was the best choice we could come up with. Actually turned out both couples came to the conclusion that enough was enough and neither off us had been on a true vacation other than “Puerto Backyardo” for two plus years. Case in point, I bought a new car about the time the pandemic started two years ago and I still don’t have 4,000 miles on it. We joke that I haven’t been out of a 20 mile radius since February 2020 which means not even out of the county. Mrs K, thanks to graduate school and one recent conference both on the east coast, has had at least two distant trips but not exactly vacation time away from home. Anyhow, in a five to six hour burst of texts, emails, and phone calls we went from no real desire or plans to cruise to booking a cruise, actually two 7-day back-to-back Silversea cruises. We must have gone through seven or eight more near term potential cruises but they were either fully booked, too long, too short, or too distant. All done now and deposits made…..only 212 days until sailing. 🙄😬

DJ_Iceman

Again, citation? Because my anecdotal experience is that NO ONE wants to see the crew masked anymore. It prevents real, personal interactions and also creates a caste system between the haves (paying passengers who don't have to mask) and have-nots (servants who must mask up to "protect" us).

freecia

I dunno, if I were crew, I would be thrilled not having to put on a smile for passengers who think they can order one or want to be best friends for a week so they can get towel animals, bit of extra booze (on a drink package), or any better service when the dining room and kitchen are both short staffed.

I've always thought highly of crew and their mental resilience. I don't think I could do their job nearly as well as they do. Masks wouldn't really change the (pre-Covid) customer and employee relationship, for me. Perhaps they'd feel a lack of socialization or personal connection but I think some other ways to show appreciation would still convey similar warmth. Maybe I'd take up origami with currency I do wonder if those who don't like to be reminded Covid is still very much a thing or that they could be infectious while pre/asymptomatic take it as a personal affront (both passengers and crew/officers).

mahasamatman

[mod edit]

[T]o respond to your diatribe, everyone I know (not just anecdotally, but personally in reality) wants to see both crew and passengers masked at all times while not eating or drinking.

sfvoyage

Cruise lines mandate mask usage for protecting the crew from getting infected by the guests as much as the other way around. Imagine if a high percentage of the crew get infected and go into quarantine, who will be left to serve the overfed guests on board?!

Always Flyin

I have been on six cruises since they were allowed to start sailing again.

As soon as the mask mandate was lifted, 80% of the passengers took their masks off and left them off.

Very few want to see all the passengers masked.

Boggie Dog

I would like to see faces of crewmembers but their health comes first. They depend on their income to support their families just like other working people and getting sick is a bad deal for them. I thank the crewmembers that I have contact with thanking them for being there and making my cruise enjoyable. I don’t think I could do their jobs and think it's important to show gratitude for their efforts. Over time I've seen crewmembers from previous ships and sometimes they remember us and give a little head nod. On the last night at sea will search out particular crewmembers who made a difference and give a token tip as thanks. I try to treat each crewmember I come in contact with as a friend. I expect nothing in return but doing these things make things more pleasant for everyone.

Need

We are still holding off our Alaska cruise (supposed to happen back in May 2020) because cruising still look dicey to us. My coworker and his wife just got from traveling to South America and got covid. Symptoms are mild because they were both triple vax'ed. At this point, I am not really too afraid of death from covid, but more from other things like trip interruption and lost of taste, etc...

I lost my taste for salt for a few weeks when I don't have any other normal covid symptoms like headaches, cough. I don't think I would enjoy traveling without being able to taste food.

freecia

Health definitely comes first. Their current working conditions are also more challenging, too, which makes mental health care an important consideration. Immune systems also weaken when people are tired and stressed. I've read of involuntary contract extensions, restrictions from shore leave, crew socialization restricted to reduce chances of spread, and covid positive crew being offloaded to keep covid positivity rates low enough to meet port acceptance criteria (possibly unpaid/tipped out while not on shift?).

We/I generally try to be pleasant & easy customers and respectful to crew as fellow people, as you do.

I'd prefer cruise lines protect the crew, especially with how virulent Omicron is, and try to improve their working conditions given how quickly Covid spreads onboard cruise ships, even without passengers. Some people are more social and make friends everywhere while others think distance is polite. This applies to people in general so I imagine there are crew who also miss certain social contact & would prefer not to wear masks. Increasing positivity rates doesn't seem like it'd improve their daily lives, though, with so many ports requiring lower positivity metrics for ships than they do of their land based residents and visitors. Nor would it help those more at risk who may also have the means and desire to enjoy their cruise (because Jan wave did pose a risk for many in the US). If one feels there's different rules for passengers vs crew (unfairness, castes, difference in roles), well, perhaps it's just more obvious to the passenger. Crew were already aware.

Hoyaheel

Just got the email that as of Aug 1, Regent won't be requiring pre-embarkation negative COVID test anymore (subject to local laws). Clearly others are happy with this development but it doesn't please me.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Yes, a bit of a denial thing going on in the world right now. I get it; people are tired of dealing with masks & tests and for the majority of people, the HUGE majority of people, the recent variants, BA4 & BA5, which are tremendously contagious, aren't causing people much trouble.

BUT- nobody's testing to see what variant people have. If appearances are correct, we could let BA4 & BA5 loose in the world and it would be a lesser problem with the regular flu. But we don't know what people are actually spreading. The test kits don't tell us anything useful, other than that we're carrying a viral load of some sort of Covid.

I don't have the answers. I do know that we have to come out of this somehow, and who knows, maybe right now is the correct timing for denial. At least I have my get-out-of-jail-free card; doctor's letter that I'm recovered from Covid (tested positive 24 days ago, symptoms for just a few hours, that's it) but fit into that weird camp of people who could test positive for a very long time. Actually today was my first negative test. 24 days after the initial positive. 24 days. Crazy. Flying to France Sunday. Guess the good thing is that I have a few weeks of super-immunity.

mahasamatman

Don't kid yourself. Omicron provides little to no protection against reinfection (even moreso with BA.4 and BA.5), though previous infection apparently does help reduce the severity.

Fortunately for us, our next two cruises have port calls in Canada, so everyone is still required to test. Still don't know what Australia and New Zealand have planned for us in November/December.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Yeah, I know... I was thinking about seeing Top Gun while my immunity might be peaked, but thought better of it. We'll be doing another cruise late November, which unfortunately corresponds with the start of peak flu season. I wasn't thinking about that when I booked. The week of Thanksgiving, whether in Europe or the US, is where it really spikes up (and stays there for a month or two). Prior to that, very little risk of flu. Extremely predictable.