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CRUISE UPDATES: Guests Kicked Off For Breaking New Rules, USA & Europe Cruise Developments & More
Jan 28, 2025
In my 11th cruise update, a busy round of breaking cruising news including why cruise passengers were kicked off one of the return-to-service cruises by the cruise line in the first port of call (which of the more controversial new protocols for return of cruising did they break), the latest developments from Europe, the CDC in the USA starts publishing responses for the return to cruising (but are they any help in opening cruising?), World Cruises in 2021 and the findings in the Ruby Princess Covid situation in Australia.
See the comment to the CDC request for input on ow cruising can resume in the USA: https://beta.regulations.gov/document/CDC-2020-0087-0001/comment
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0:00
in this big cruise news update discover
0:02
why guests were thrown off
0:04
the first big ship cruise out of italy
0:06
this week
0:07
who the australian inquiry has blamed
0:09
for the ruby princess covert issue
0:11
that led to niner infections 28 deaths
0:13
why europe
0:14
cruising opening is a story of two
0:16
halves the latest on the u.s cruising
0:18
opening
0:18
and what's happening with 2021 world
0:21
cruises i'm gary bembridge this is
0:22
another
0:23
cruise update a huge amount has happened
0:25
over the last week or so
0:27
including a lot of excitement and a
0:29
little bit of drama
0:30
as big ship cruising opened up out of
0:32
italy
0:33
msc cruises is the fourth largest cruise
0:37
company
0:38
in the world it's the third biggest
0:40
individual cruise line so you have
0:41
carnival
0:42
cruise line you have raw caribbean
0:43
cruise line and then the next in line is
0:46
msc cruises followed by norwegian cruise
0:48
line they started sailing
0:49
out of italy this past weekend with
0:53
huge big strict protocols the protocols
0:56
they brought in place
0:57
included things like only guests from
0:59
the schengen zone
1:00
which is largely speaking continental
1:02
europe could go on the cruises for
1:04
people
1:04
like the uk and ireland couldn't go
1:06
obviously people
1:07
from further afield couldn't go secondly
1:10
they sailed with
1:11
fewer passengers on board around about
1:13
70 percent
1:14
capacity they also introduced a new
1:16
screening process
1:18
they added covert 19 tests for all
1:20
passengers
1:21
before they bought it on board there
1:22
were social distancing rules and also
1:24
masks had to be worn
1:26
when social distancing was impossible so
1:27
largely around the public areas of the
1:30
ship
1:30
and also they introduced what some
1:31
people saw is quite controversial
1:33
is a rule which said you can only leave
1:35
the ship in port
1:36
if you're on an msc cruise you can't
1:39
self explore
1:40
so what actually happened when they set
1:42
sail and how did these protocols
1:43
actually work
1:44
well first of all the screening process
1:47
which
1:48
had a couple of rules around where you
1:49
traveled to where you'd come from where
1:51
you were
1:52
meant that a couple of passengers were
1:53
refused boarding largely according to
1:55
msc because they didn't
1:57
come and didn't reside in the schengen
1:59
zone so they were
2:00
not allowed to board so they the first
2:03
part of the protocol
2:04
strictly enforced secondly they
2:07
found when they first did the tests in
2:09
genoa that
2:10
five passengers failed their initial
2:13
covet 19 test
2:14
the first test that they actually do is
2:16
a positive antigen swab test
2:18
so the risk with that test is it does
2:20
have a number of
2:22
false positives what happens if you fail
2:24
that test they then put them through a
2:25
second
2:26
much more specific much more detailed
2:27
test which is the
2:29
pcr test and all those passengers
2:32
pass the test that they were allowed to
2:34
board now msc
2:36
cruisers they actually embark passengers
2:38
at the different ports
2:39
in naples a group of passengers were
2:41
refused boarding
2:42
because they failed the first test and
2:44
there wasn't enough time to do the
2:46
second
2:46
test so certainly the screening and the
2:49
actual testing
2:50
is a way of making sure that people who
2:52
come on board are clear of the virus
2:55
the third thing that they did was they
2:58
refused boarding in naples for a family
3:01
of
3:01
four who'd gone out on excursion as i
3:04
mentioned earlier you
3:05
have to go on an msc excursion this
3:07
family of four left the excursion to go
3:09
self-exploring
3:10
when they return to the ship they were
3:11
refused permission to board
3:13
they were disembarked and they had to
3:16
leave the cruise
3:16
so as we can see here the protocols are
3:18
very strict and it's good to see i think
3:21
that the cruise lines are being really
3:22
really strict about enforcing them so
3:23
anyone who breaks the rules
3:25
doesn't follow is denied boarding this
3:27
is really really important
3:28
to make sure that confidence is built
3:30
and also i believe
3:32
that it shows that the protocols work
3:34
the cruise lines are being really really
3:35
disciplined
3:36
at implementing them the second big
3:38
piece of news that's really
3:40
evolving over the last week or so is
3:43
that as cruising opens it is very much a
3:46
story of two parts let's take a look at
3:48
europe
3:48
and let's take a look at the united
3:49
states let's first of all in europe it's
3:51
still
3:52
very much a story of two parts we're
3:54
seeing big parts of continental europe
3:56
opening to cruising
3:57
so so far we've seen norway opening
3:59
france opening
4:00
italy opening malta opening and greece
4:03
opening to cruise ships
4:05
however two of the really big important
4:08
countries in europe for cruising which
4:09
is the uk
4:10
and spain are still resolutely against
4:13
ocean cruising
4:14
opening and in fact there was some
4:16
reports this week of an interview with
4:18
people from clear
4:19
based in the uk and ireland and also the
4:22
head
4:22
of fred also cruising which is a big
4:24
uk-based cruise line talking about how
4:25
there is still a lot of resistance
4:27
amongst the various authorities around
4:29
the uk government
4:30
for ocean cruising to opening and
4:32
they're still trying to work to get that
4:33
to break down
4:34
it's very clear that uk based cruise
4:36
lines are not expecting cruising to open
4:38
anytime soon based on looking at what
4:40
they've cancelled so for example
4:42
piano cruisers have cancelled through to
4:44
the
4:45
middle of november that cancelled all
4:46
their world cruises cunard cruises very
4:49
reliant on the uk
4:50
have canceled all the cruises into
4:51
november until the end of november for
4:53
queen elizabeth
4:54
saga cruisers have cancelled one of
4:56
their ships spirit of discovery
4:58
right through to the middle of december
5:00
their new ship they've cancelled
5:01
some of the existing december fred also
5:04
the early screws they've got listed is
5:05
the 17th of december so it looks like
5:07
uk-based cruise lines are pretty much
5:09
assuming that cruising is not going to
5:10
be given the go ahead by the uk
5:12
government
5:13
anytime soon spain also has banned
5:15
cruise ships indefinitely with no signs
5:17
of when they're renewing it
5:18
so we're seeing parts of europe opening
5:20
up interesting enough these are really
5:22
opening up with cruise lines that have a
5:23
very strong european base
5:26
so they're either completely owned and
5:28
operated out of
5:29
a country so for example bernard with
5:31
france
5:32
or they are really strongly rooted
5:34
within the country so like msc cruises
5:36
really strongly
5:37
owned by a european family and very
5:40
strong roots in europe
5:41
but we're even seeing lines like costa
5:43
which is part of carnival or mine chief
5:45
and haberglue
5:46
which is ultimately part of royal
5:47
caribbean these companies with very
5:49
strong roots
5:50
very strong european connections being
5:51
allowed to open if we take a look at the
5:53
united states
5:55
again it appears very much there was a
5:57
lot of resistance to cruising opening i
5:58
guess partly
5:59
because of this current state still of
6:02
the actual pandemic on land
6:04
but the cdc still appears pretty
6:06
strongly
6:07
against cruising opening partly for that
6:09
reason also because of the concerns
6:11
around the protocols
6:12
one of the things that they did do is
6:14
they launched a consultation
6:15
which i spoke about it in a previous
6:18
video where they're asking
6:19
interested parties to submit their views
6:22
on
6:23
cruising opening with some very detailed
6:24
questions they have started
6:27
publishing the comments that people are
6:30
leaving and
6:30
in practice it is probably not very
6:33
helpful
6:34
you can submit claims up until the 21st
6:35
of september
6:37
so that's only about 10 days before the
6:39
current no sale orders due to expire
6:42
of the 2000 comments so far at the time
6:45
of recording
6:46
they are basically in two camps other
6:48
people saying please open cruising
6:49
because you want to go cruising
6:50
or don't let cruising open because there
6:52
are floating petri dishes
6:54
what the cdc were asking for is very
6:56
detailed commentary
6:57
and lots of detailed questions and
6:58
that's not what they're getting from
7:00
this public exercise
7:01
which for me still puts a big question
7:02
around why they're doing it because the
7:04
general public are not going to be able
7:05
to answer the sort of questions
7:06
that they have but anyway if you want to
7:08
go and have a look at the sort of things
7:10
that people are commenting
7:11
or you want to submit yourself i will
7:13
have a link in the description of
7:15
the video however it's very clear that
7:17
u.s
7:18
baselines or lines that rely very
7:20
heavily on
7:21
u.s passengers are assuming that
7:23
cruising is unlikely to happen this year
7:25
we've already seen holland america
7:27
princess seabourn
7:29
basically cancelling all their cruises
7:30
right to around the middle of december
7:32
we've seen viking
7:34
again very reliant on uk passengers in
7:36
uk itineraries cancelling everything
7:37
to the end of the year and so we're
7:39
seeing more and more
7:41
of the big cruise lines which are
7:42
us-based very reliant on used passengers
7:44
counselling towards the end of the year
7:45
and over the coming weeks as we head
7:47
into september i think we will see
7:48
much more of that happening both because
7:51
of the current i guess travel
7:52
restrictions
7:53
of for u.s based people the importance
7:57
of
7:57
u.s passengers to cruising the access to
8:00
ports both in the u.s and around the
8:02
world what we're seeing is
8:04
world cruisers increasingly being
8:06
cancelled so far we've seen seabourn
8:08
holland america and pino who run every
8:11
two world cruises canceling their world
8:12
cruises we still haven't heard anything
8:14
at the time recording from qnap but i
8:16
think we're increasingly seeing that
8:17
2021 in terms of world cruising
8:19
is looking very unlikely to happen and i
8:23
think we will see more and more
8:24
announcements of that over the coming uh
8:26
weeks and possibly even
8:28
days what we are seeing is companies put
8:30
on 2022
8:31
and what we've also seen is how america
8:32
putting on a round africa
8:34
cruise out of fort lauderdale towards
8:35
the end of 2021.
8:37
one of the most controversial cruise
8:40
ship outbreaks other than the diamond
8:41
princess was the ruby princess
8:43
incident in australia where there was a
8:46
lot of criticism of
8:47
princess cruises and new south wales
8:50
when
8:51
the ship boarded in sydney at the
8:53
beginning of the whole pandemic
8:55
passengers disembarked and then
8:56
eventually the ship was linked
8:58
with 900 cases proven tested cases
9:02
and just under 30 deaths huge amount of
9:05
criticism
9:06
of princess cruises at that time the
9:08
australian government has
9:09
run a inquiry and released its results
9:12
just in the last week at the time of
9:14
recording and this
9:16
made for very interesting reading
9:18
basically criticized
9:19
the new south wales authorities for the
9:21
way that they handled the whole process
9:23
and not following the right procedures
9:26
for the time
9:26
and largely exonerated princess cruises
9:29
from
9:30
a lot of responsibility in the way
9:32
things played out
9:34
what the report said is the new south
9:36
wales health authority
9:38
incorrectly categorized the ship as
9:41
low risk despite the very fast changing
9:43
nature
9:44
of things going on they specifically
9:46
found they made serious mistakes
9:47
allowing the 2650 passengers to
9:50
disembark when the ship docked in sydney
9:53
there was no testing of passengers who
9:55
were ill at any point in time they were
9:57
allowed to basically leave the ship
9:58
they didn't notify the ship about the
10:01
changing criteria for defining what was
10:02
a potential covert 19
10:04
passenger or case so they didn't alert
10:08
the authorities
10:09
around what was seen as high risk at
10:11
that time
10:13
basically what the report said is there
10:14
was a kind of a almost a catastrophic
10:16
failure of
10:17
procedures communication and taking the
10:20
right steps which then
10:21
allowed the ship to dock unquestioned
10:24
let passengers get
10:25
the ship and head home of course
10:27
spreading the virus
10:28
the report specifically says that ruby
10:31
princess didn't mislead
10:33
the authorities in any way and i think
10:35
that's probably quite important because
10:36
at the time there's a real sense
10:38
that princess cruises was trying to
10:40
dodge responsibility
10:41
and not be that honest with the
10:44
authorities
10:45
another really busy week in terms of
10:47
cruise news and updates
10:49
a lot happening as we start and look
10:51
towards cruising starting some hiccups
10:54
as you would expect as things kick off
10:56
and start up again
10:57
however really encouraging to see the
10:59
protocols put in place certainly by msc
11:01
being really strict about enforcing them
11:03
could make a real big difference
11:04
uh and trust by both passengers and
11:06
authorities to get cruising going
11:08
remember i try and do a weekly update of
11:10
all the cruise news and
11:11
also have a regular video with more
11:14
normal
11:14
cruise updates so why don't you watch
11:16
another one of those right now
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