The only Green ships are Crew Only, and one Restricted. No chance I’d get on a boat right now.
Even at the best of times (like, before covid), cruise ships are hotbeds of pestilence. There are diseases that you almost never hear about people catching, because their transmissibility is so low that they’re almost never a problem… except that one of the few places you do get major outbreaks is on cruises. Right now? With a disease as contagious as omicron covid? Even with all of the measures they’re requiring, a cruise is pretty much a guarantee that a significant fraction of the passengers will be infected.
For what it’s worth, I draw a line between small-boat river cruises and the big-boat ocean liners.
We did do a river cruise last July. It was the second week that they were back in operation after the previous shut-down. There were only 40 passengers on board, and because of the size of the boat, it’s a lot easier to keep fresh air ventilating. We are booked for another one at the end of May, but we are “wait and see” on that.
The big liners are a different story for me, I don’t love them, and avoid the party boat types. We are more “luxury silver set”. So, no big boats for now.
I’m glad that I cruised in October 2019, because I’ll never do it again post-covid. (Besides, we’re still paying off the credit card we had to use.)
You prepared to be stuck on a cruise ship for a month or longer eating rice and questionable-looking oranges? Because that’s happened. Bring plenty of your required medications, and don’t be surprised if you’re restricted to your stateroom for most of your stay. Honestly, the horror stories about covid cruising aren’t hard to find.
But clearly, you’re looking for validation and not informed opinions.
Honestly, I’m reading all of this as well as Cruise Critic. I know we’ll be less than 1000 people on ship with a capacity of 2500 people, & we’ll all be tested 2X & vaxed & boosted. No exceptions. Hoping for the best, aware of the risks, will report back!
My wife and I have been making travel plans for the next 5 year or so since I retired. One of the items on our list was a cruise that did not include Alaska (we have been on 2 in recent years). It is still on the agenda for next year, we are thinking about a 10 day cruise from Long Beach to point in Mexico and Central America and back. Right now those plans are on the maybe list. And it’s not only Covid that is an issue, we both got pretty sick on our last Alaska cruise. Not sure if we want to risk getting that sick again.
Hopefully your cruiseline has paid their fuel bills.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/cruise-ship-us-judge-orders-seizure-82427536
If I were to go on a cruise again (which I won’t until Covid has been in the rear view mirror for at least enough time that we don’t expect another wave), I would never get on one of those 5,000 passenger behemoths. I’ve never understood why people don’t look at small ship cruises more. They actually aren’t all that more expensive.
We did a 7-day Carribbean cruise on the Wind Surf, a sailing schooner that holds about 300 people. It was $1799, all inclusive.
The registration process took half an hour. The ‘line’ for initial embarking was about 10 people. The food is all 5-star quality, there are never any lines anywhere. No fighting for deck chairs. No overcrowded pools. Free watersports, high end alcoholic beverages, entertainment… The price included a full day party o; a private beach that was totally awesome.
Conscierge service is amazing. They planned a dive trip for us that included a private instructor/guide to handle our recertification since we hadn’t been diving in a couple of years. The guy was waiting for us at the end of the gangplank and the dive boat was 20 feet away and ready to go. No additional charges for any of this.
And when you dock and disembark at a destination, you are doing it generally at a smaller port where you don’t have thousands of tourists milling around.
I will never again get on a cruise ship with more than 500 people.
You’re vaxxed and boosted, so you’ll likely not get to sick when you get infected. You’ll be eating inside with how many people 2-3X a day? 100? 200? Chances are, you’ll be dining with at least one positive person on the first day. Three days later, it will be at least 5 and so on. So count on getting infected and simply quarantine yourself for at least a week after you get back.
Yes, this. My doctor floored me when he told me just how much more infectious the omicron variant is than the previous ones. If an omicron-infected person coughs in a room with 10 people in it, all 10 of those people are likely to get omicron. It’s like that.
If you want to expose yourself to that level of risk for that amount of time, it’s your funeral, perhaps literally, but I’m not going to.
I would never cruise on a small ship but it has nothing to do with the expense. It has to do with the fact that there is a difference in the entertainment even between ships with a capacity of 2000 vs 5000 and the difference between a ship of 500 and one of 2500 must be even bigger. I’m not talking about the quality - I’m talking about the number of choices. I’m going strictly from memory here, but the 2500 person ship might simultaneously have three or four venues with different live music , a comedian , a trivia contest and a “game show” in addition to the casino being open . I can’t imagine that a ship with only 300 passengers has more than two choices for on-board entertainment at any given time.
I’ve been on three big ship (Celebrity) cruises, but I’ve never partaken in any “entertainment “ on board other than drinking. I’ve done all sorts of things off the ship, but the onboard entertainment never attracted me.
We loved the trivia contests. In pre-COVID days I would take a cruise with my extended family every couple of years. We would form a big team for the trivia contests and often won.
We have attended sessions with the naturalists, but otherwise this is us as well. The small ships sound intriguing.
When I was on the cruise, we went to one big show, did Karaoke a couple times and listened to some music, and spent the rest of the time in the sports bar watching my Nationals in the World Series.
Ditto. I would not go on a cruise as they currently exist, regardless of the pandemic. Cruise ships generate too much unnecessary pollution and often treat their employees quite poorly. They often manipulate what regulations and labor laws they have to follow by flying a flag of convenience from whatever country has the least requirements. The Disney cruise line is possibly the least offensive, but they still pollute too much.
Did it generally travel solely under sail, or was it using its engines a lot of the time? (I think even primarily sail-powered vessels are required to have engines. When I toured the reconstructed Nina, they mentioned that due to maritime regulations, they were required to have engines.) A sailing cruise sounds interesting to me.
It depended. They used the sails as much as possible, and made a big deal out of the number of hours and miles we spent purely under sail. But the ship also has enough engine power and fuel to complete a cruise without any sail power at all.
As for entertainment, they had a bar with Karaoke, another lounge with some kind of entertainment, a full day beach party, a talent night with the crew participating (lots of fun), and the ship has a watersports platform that they lower when at anchor and you can swim, kayak, or sailboard right off the backmof the ship. They also arranged multiple SCUBA trips and had pre-planned shore events for anyone who wanted them.
Oh, you were also allowed on the bridge any time you wanted to observe, and they had an awesome fitness room.
The biggest thing I appreciated was the food and lack of crowding. Every single thing I ate on that ship was amazing.
Given the all-inclusive nature of the trip (including drinks and some shore excursions) the price is really not much higher than you’d pay on one of the big ‘cattle car’ ships. Also, with less than a 2:1 ratio of guests to crew, everything was always spotlessly clean and service was always excellent.
With no crowding, it would be my choice if I were going on a cruise in the Covid era but even on a clean, uncrowded ship…
Hmm… SmarterTravel.com has this to say about Windstar’s cruises, and mentions Canada’s Maple Leaf Adventures which sounds even more sailboaty.
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Windstar Cruises
Wind-powered anything is better for the environment than fuel-powered anything, an axiom which definitely applies to boats. Though Windstar’s vessels—which carry around 150 to 300 passengers at a time through Europe, the Caribbean, Tahiti, and Central America—do rely on their engines a fair amount, their massive masts can add more than five knots to the ships’ speed, especially when breezes prevail. Plus, the fuel is sulfur-free to reduce emissions. Onboard, the crew uses biodegradable cleaning supplies, reduces food waste, and recycles cooking oil into fuel. Bathrooms in the lovely guestrooms are outfitted with water-saving showerheads and taps. All Windstar staffers get environmental training every year, and all Windstar boats have a designated environmental officer onboard. Windstar’s parent company, Xanterra, is a member of World Wildlife Fund’s Climate Savers program and a major national parks concessionaire, operating at Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Zion. It claims to be “one of the world’s most environmentally responsible travel and hospitality companies” (even though it’s run by a conservative oil heir).
If you’re interested in going “all wind,” however (and don’t mind a taste of ruggedness), book with Maple Leaf Adventures, a deeply green Canadian company that offers expedition cruises in British Columbia and Alaska aboard classic wooden schooners.
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Also, here is the 2021 cruise ship report card from Friends of the Earth, if anyone is interested. Disney cruises came out best again. https://1bps6437gg8c169i0y1drtgz-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Cruise-_Report_2021_v5.pdf
I would do a cruise but probably not soon. Being on a half filled ship sounds pretty appealing. I’m vaxxed, about to be boosted and already had Omicron.
There are things ahead on my list to spend money on.