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in this big cruise news update discover
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why guests were thrown off
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the first big ship cruise out of italy
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who the australian inquiry has blamed
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for the ruby princess covert issue
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that led to niner infections 28 deaths
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cruising opening is a story of two
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halves the latest on the u.s cruising
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and what's happening with 2021 world
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cruises i'm gary bembridge this is
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cruise update a huge amount has happened
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over the last week or so
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including a lot of excitement and a
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as big ship cruising opened up out of
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msc cruises is the fourth largest cruise
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in the world it's the third biggest
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individual cruise line so you have
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cruise line you have raw caribbean
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cruise line and then the next in line is
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msc cruises followed by norwegian cruise
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line they started sailing
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out of italy this past weekend with
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huge big strict protocols the protocols
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they brought in place
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included things like only guests from
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which is largely speaking continental
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europe could go on the cruises for
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like the uk and ireland couldn't go
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from further afield couldn't go secondly
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fewer passengers on board around about
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capacity they also introduced a new
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they added covert 19 tests for all
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before they bought it on board there
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were social distancing rules and also
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when social distancing was impossible so
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largely around the public areas of the
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and also they introduced what some
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people saw is quite controversial
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is a rule which said you can only leave
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if you're on an msc cruise you can't
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so what actually happened when they set
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sail and how did these protocols
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well first of all the screening process
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had a couple of rules around where you
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traveled to where you'd come from where
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meant that a couple of passengers were
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refused boarding largely according to
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msc because they didn't
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come and didn't reside in the schengen
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not allowed to board so they the first
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strictly enforced secondly they
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found when they first did the tests in
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five passengers failed their initial
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the first test that they actually do is
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a positive antigen swab test
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so the risk with that test is it does
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false positives what happens if you fail
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that test they then put them through a
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much more specific much more detailed
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pcr test and all those passengers
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pass the test that they were allowed to
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cruisers they actually embark passengers
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at the different ports
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in naples a group of passengers were
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because they failed the first test and
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there wasn't enough time to do the
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test so certainly the screening and the
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is a way of making sure that people who
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come on board are clear of the virus
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the third thing that they did was they
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refused boarding in naples for a family
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four who'd gone out on excursion as i
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mentioned earlier you
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have to go on an msc excursion this
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family of four left the excursion to go
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when they return to the ship they were
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refused permission to board
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they were disembarked and they had to
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so as we can see here the protocols are
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very strict and it's good to see i think
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that the cruise lines are being really
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really strict about enforcing them so
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anyone who breaks the rules
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doesn't follow is denied boarding this
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is really really important
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to make sure that confidence is built
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that it shows that the protocols work
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the cruise lines are being really really
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at implementing them the second big
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piece of news that's really
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evolving over the last week or so is
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that as cruising opens it is very much a
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story of two parts let's take a look at
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and let's take a look at the united
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states let's first of all in europe it's
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very much a story of two parts we're
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seeing big parts of continental europe
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so so far we've seen norway opening
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italy opening malta opening and greece
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opening to cruise ships
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however two of the really big important
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countries in europe for cruising which
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and spain are still resolutely against
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opening and in fact there was some
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reports this week of an interview with
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based in the uk and ireland and also the
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of fred also cruising which is a big
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uk-based cruise line talking about how
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there is still a lot of resistance
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amongst the various authorities around
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for ocean cruising to opening and
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they're still trying to work to get that
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it's very clear that uk based cruise
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lines are not expecting cruising to open
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anytime soon based on looking at what
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they've cancelled so for example
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piano cruisers have cancelled through to
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middle of november that cancelled all
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their world cruises cunard cruises very
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have canceled all the cruises into
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november until the end of november for
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saga cruisers have cancelled one of
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their ships spirit of discovery
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right through to the middle of december
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their new ship they've cancelled
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some of the existing december fred also
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the early screws they've got listed is
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the 17th of december so it looks like
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uk-based cruise lines are pretty much
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assuming that cruising is not going to
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be given the go ahead by the uk
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anytime soon spain also has banned
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cruise ships indefinitely with no signs
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of when they're renewing it
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so we're seeing parts of europe opening
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up interesting enough these are really
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opening up with cruise lines that have a
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very strong european base
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so they're either completely owned and
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a country so for example bernard with
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or they are really strongly rooted
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within the country so like msc cruises
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owned by a european family and very
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strong roots in europe
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but we're even seeing lines like costa
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which is part of carnival or mine chief
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which is ultimately part of royal
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caribbean these companies with very
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very strong european connections being
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allowed to open if we take a look at the
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again it appears very much there was a
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lot of resistance to cruising opening i
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because of this current state still of
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the actual pandemic on land
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but the cdc still appears pretty
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against cruising opening partly for that
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reason also because of the concerns
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one of the things that they did do is
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they launched a consultation
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which i spoke about it in a previous
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video where they're asking
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interested parties to submit their views
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cruising opening with some very detailed
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questions they have started
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publishing the comments that people are
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in practice it is probably not very
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you can submit claims up until the 21st
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so that's only about 10 days before the
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current no sale orders due to expire
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of the 2000 comments so far at the time
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they are basically in two camps other
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people saying please open cruising
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because you want to go cruising
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or don't let cruising open because there
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are floating petri dishes
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what the cdc were asking for is very
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and lots of detailed questions and
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that's not what they're getting from
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which for me still puts a big question
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around why they're doing it because the
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general public are not going to be able
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to answer the sort of questions
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that they have but anyway if you want to
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go and have a look at the sort of things
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that people are commenting
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or you want to submit yourself i will
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have a link in the description of
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the video however it's very clear that
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baselines or lines that rely very
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u.s passengers are assuming that
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cruising is unlikely to happen this year
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we've already seen holland america
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basically cancelling all their cruises
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right to around the middle of december
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again very reliant on uk passengers in
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uk itineraries cancelling everything
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to the end of the year and so we're
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of the big cruise lines which are
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us-based very reliant on used passengers
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counselling towards the end of the year
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and over the coming weeks as we head
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into september i think we will see
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much more of that happening both because
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of the current i guess travel
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of for u.s based people the importance
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u.s passengers to cruising the access to
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ports both in the u.s and around the
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world what we're seeing is
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world cruisers increasingly being
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cancelled so far we've seen seabourn
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holland america and pino who run every
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two world cruises canceling their world
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cruises we still haven't heard anything
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at the time recording from qnap but i
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think we're increasingly seeing that
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2021 in terms of world cruising
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is looking very unlikely to happen and i
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think we will see more and more
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announcements of that over the coming uh
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weeks and possibly even
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days what we are seeing is companies put
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and what we've also seen is how america
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putting on a round africa
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cruise out of fort lauderdale towards
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one of the most controversial cruise
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ship outbreaks other than the diamond
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princess was the ruby princess
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incident in australia where there was a
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princess cruises and new south wales
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the ship boarded in sydney at the
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beginning of the whole pandemic
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passengers disembarked and then
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eventually the ship was linked
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with 900 cases proven tested cases
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and just under 30 deaths huge amount of
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of princess cruises at that time the
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australian government has
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run a inquiry and released its results
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just in the last week at the time of
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made for very interesting reading
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the new south wales authorities for the
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way that they handled the whole process
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and not following the right procedures
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and largely exonerated princess cruises
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a lot of responsibility in the way
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what the report said is the new south
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wales health authority
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incorrectly categorized the ship as
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low risk despite the very fast changing
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of things going on they specifically
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found they made serious mistakes
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allowing the 2650 passengers to
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disembark when the ship docked in sydney
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there was no testing of passengers who
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were ill at any point in time they were
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allowed to basically leave the ship
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they didn't notify the ship about the
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changing criteria for defining what was
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a potential covert 19
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passenger or case so they didn't alert
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around what was seen as high risk at
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basically what the report said is there
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was a kind of a almost a catastrophic
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procedures communication and taking the
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right steps which then
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allowed the ship to dock unquestioned
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the ship and head home of course
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the report specifically says that ruby
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princess didn't mislead
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the authorities in any way and i think
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that's probably quite important because
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at the time there's a real sense
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that princess cruises was trying to
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dodge responsibility
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and not be that honest with the
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another really busy week in terms of
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cruise news and updates
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a lot happening as we start and look
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towards cruising starting some hiccups
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as you would expect as things kick off
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however really encouraging to see the
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protocols put in place certainly by msc
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being really strict about enforcing them
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could make a real big difference
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uh and trust by both passengers and
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authorities to get cruising going
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remember i try and do a weekly update of
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all the cruise news and
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also have a regular video with more
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cruise updates so why don't you watch
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another one of those right now
