Headlines generated in major newspapers by this year’s Seatrade Cruise Convention last week announced that the cruise lines promised “100% testing” of guests and crew members. This is a dangerously misleading headline.
The cruise lines’ proposed testing protocols are not remotely “100%” as far as availability, accuracy, consistency or responsibility.
The proposed testing is clearly
Yesterday, Dr. Scott Gottleib stated on the Face the Nation program that the U.S. will experience a “difficult fall and winter” due to the expanding COVID-19 epidemic. Although medical care for infected patients has resulted in fewer fatalities, Dr. Gottlieb warned that “we’re still going to have a lot of death and disease by the
A reader of this blog sent me videos, one of which you can see here, of what it’s like on a MSC cruise ship with its much touted COVID-19 protocols.
The screenshot from the video is from the MSC Grandiosa. It says in part:
“. . . two weeks ago in Europe an
The annual Seatrade Cruise Convention continues today. Yesterday, I posed these rather straight forward questions, via Twitter, which remain unanswered. I will post any responses on our Facebook page.
Follow the remainder of the conference on Twitter by clicking on the #STCVirtual hashtag.
Don’t forget to read our summary of the conference which we
Cruise executives excitedly expressed their optimism yesterday about resuming cruises at the annual Seatrade Cruise conference, which is being held this year in an entirely virtual manner due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carnival Corporation’s Arnold Donald, NCL’s Frank Del Rio and Royal Caribbean all stated that they were confident that cruising would soon start from
There are a series of photographs and videos circulating the internet of a Carnival cruise ship, the Carnival Fantasy, sailing its final voyage to the Aliaga ship breaking yard in the port city of Izmir, Turkey. The ship joined two Carnival ships, the Carnival 
Inspiration and Carnival Imagination, as well as two other ships,
Today, President Trump joined the 7,324,716 Americans who have contracted COVID -19. In a tweet sent this morning at 12:54 a.m., the President disclosed that he and the First Lady tested positive for the virus.
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
The science-skeptical President down-played the virulence of the virus over the past six months. He has largely refused to
Robert Redfield (above, far right), the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was reportedly prepared to extent the “no-sail order” on passenger cruises from U.S. ports until February of 2021, according to AXIOS News. However, according to sources with direct knowledge, the White House reportedly overruled the CDC and limited
NCL’s Del Rio – It’s “Absolutely Safe” to Resume Cruising
Royal Caribbean – Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL)’s “Healthy Sail” Panel made its recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week in an effort to resume cruise operations. Travel magazines, cruise writers, travel bloggers, and even major newspapers excitedly reported on what
A dozen crew members on Mein Schiff 6, the first cruise ship to dock in Greece after the coronavirus lockdown, have tested positive for COVID19, according to the Guardian newspaper.
The cruise ship reportedly is moored off the Aegean island of Milos with 922 passengers onboard, according to the Greek coastguard. German media report that
A Costa Cruises crew member on the Costa Diadema, was landed today in Genoa because he tested positive for Covid, according to the Italian News agency ANSA.
The news agency reports that five other people, apparently crew members, who had been in contact with the crew member were also sent ashore. The seafarer,
Carnival Cruise Line is taking steps to terminate and/or not renew the contracts of employment of several thousands of officers and crew members throughout its fleet, according to several crew members who wish to remain anonymous.
Today, several crew members provided internal documentation indicating that Carnival is sending as many as 7,000 termination letters to
Today, Saturday September 19th, Hurtigruten confirmed that a guest on board the MS Finnmarken tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Norwegian newspaper VG.
The person in question who was tested is associated with the group which Hurtigruten chartered the expedition cruise ship to. The cruise ship is being used as a hotel in
Yesterday, Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio introduced proposed legislation, called the “Set Sail Safely Act” in an attempt to circumvent the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from evaluating whether it is safe to resume cruises from ports in Florida, according to the Florida Politics (FLAPOL) website. The text for S.4592 has not
Yesterday’s zoom meeting for the tourism and ports committee brought executives for the major cruise lines together with Miami-Dade commissioners. Agenda item number one involved Miami-Dade County Tourism and Ports Committee Chair Rebeca Sosa discussing the “opening plan for the cruise line.”
The problem, of course, is that none of the Miami-based cruise lines in
Guests and crew members on a CroisiEurope river cruise ship on the Douro River in Portugal tested positive earlier this week for COVID-19, according to a Portugese newspaper TVi24 (with video).
Two French passengers and five crew members on the Vasco da Gama river cruise ship tested positive for the virus, after a passenger began
The first cruise from Saudi Arabia since the pandemic was cut short last week when a person on the Silversea Silver Spirit tested positive for COVID-19, according to several newspapers in the region.
The Al Arabiya newspaper reported that the Silver Spirit cruise ship sailed on Thursday, August 27th from King Abdullah Port in King
The newly formed Global Cruise Activist Network launched its 
website and convened a virtual press conference today.
Representatives of environmental groups, cruise ship crime organizations and port communities worldwide joined forces to demand that the cruise industry not return to “business-as-usual” after COVID-19. Approximately 100 members of the network attended the conference, as well as
