For the fourth time in the last two months, a COVID-19 outbreak has occured river cruise ship in Europe. This outbreak involved the MS Thurgau Chopin (formerly the MS Frederic Chopin) river cruise ship operated by Swiss company Thurgau Travel, according to the Italian shipping publication ShipMag. (Nicko Cruises was reportedly involved in
Friday afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifted the “no-sail” order and entered a “conditional sail” order, as I expected on Friday morning.
The CDC Gives a Thumbs-Up to Cruising During a Deadly Pandemic
The order starts off by mentioning that COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly around the world with no
The latest “no-sail” order (NSO) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to expire this weekend, on Saturday October 31st at midnight. There is an obvious scientific basis for the CDC to protect U.S citizens by extending the order for several months, as discussed below. The Director of the CDC, Robert
Today there are numerous stories about the efforts of Florida Govenor DeSantis who states that he is working with the White House to restart cruise operations in the state.
A FOX news station in Tampa published an article today stating “DeSantis says he’s working with Trump administration to get cruise ship industry running again
Around 60 of the 92 passengers (two-thrids) who sailed on the river cruise ship MS Swiss Crystal from October 10th to 17th have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Swiss newspaper Blick. The majority of the cruise guests were from Switzerland and had sailed on the Swiss Crystal on the Main and Danube
Last Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that “travelers defer all cruise travel worldwide.” The CDC issued a level 3 warning – “Avoid Nonessential Travel – Widespread Ongoing Transmission.” The CDC stated that “Cruise passengers are at increased risk of person-to-person spread of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, and outbreaks
Newspapers in Germany are reporting that there has been a COVID-19 outbreak on a river cruise ship on the Moselle River in Germany. The outbreak occurred on the MS Vista Serenity river cruise ship.
Germany newspapers Trierische Volksfreund, Focus, and Bild report that members of the ship’s crew contracted the virus from a
Last Friday, a status conference took place in the criminal pollution case pending against Carnival Corporation (Carnival) and its brands.
Judge Patricia Seitz, who is the senior federal judge presiding over the case for the last four years, stated that she planned to require Carnival to certify that each of its cruise ships is compliant
Former guests on the MSC Grandiosa received emails (copy available here) this weekend from the Italian Ministry of Health advising them that a case of COVID-19 was confirmed on the cruise ship which left from Palermo on October 7th.
The email in question had been posted by former cruise guests, who indicated that
This week, eight Costa Cruises guests tested positive for COVID-19 during two cruises on the Costa Diadema. As USA TODAY reported yesterday, the Costa cruise ship departed from Genoa on September 28th and ended its voyage on October 12th. The ship then departed on a second 14-day cruise with many of the same passengers on
The Italian newspaper, Il Secolo XIX, reports that a 78-year-old man, described as a French citizen, was disembarked in Naples, Italy on October 14 from the Costa Diadema. The guest tested positive for COVID-19 after he was swabbed aboard the ship. He was transported by private ambulance to the “Covid Hospital of the San
Seven guests on the Costa Diadema tested positive for COVID-19 after leaving the ship, according to the Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX.
The newspaper reports that the Italian health authorities requested that all crew members on the Costa Diadema undergo swab testing earlier this week after the ship was in Genoa. The 
request from
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,
