![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutBack in March (the Saturday after my rough shutdown day of Friday the 13th), the CDC put out a No Sail order that it then extended all the way through to the end of October. Bizarrely, having pushed really hard to get that — over the objections of the really reprehensible head of the CDC, Redfield — the majors still wound up canceling all of November and a large chunk of December.
BUT!!!! Somebody sailed out of Barbados: more a large yacht than a cruise ship, with a few dozen passengers and slightly more crew for a total not too far over 100, and with pre-departure testing, self-quarantine, test while boarding on Saturday, and testing at intervals on the cruise — honestly, it was a lot more than the majors had in mind and I think there was this idea that you know it will probably work!
Alas.
It did not work.
On Wednesday, a person who had apparently not been feeling well popped positive, and the 3 Abbott ID Nows were wheeled out and testing commenced while passengers remained sequestered in their cabins and had contactless delivery of menus, meals, etc, and phone convos with solicitous crew. All covered by someone at ThePointsGuy who was on the cruise: Gene Sloan. You can follow along on his updates here: https://thepointsguy.com/author/genesloan/
Anyway. It is Thursday. They are back in Barbados hanging out waiting for .. whatever. All shore excursions were to empty beaches so presumably this did not put anyone else at risk. The person who was positive was part of a larger group, and five of his party have now also tested positive.
“In a shipwide announcement late Thursday, the captain of SeaDream Yacht Club’s SeaDream 1, Torbjorn Lund, said testing overnight of close contacts of the original passenger to test positive for COVID-19 had turned up a total of five positive cases in his traveling party.”
I get motion sick in a rocking chair these days; when I get on a boat, I need to pre-load dramamine (quarter tab every four hours is my usual strategy and before you ask, YES, I have to take one in the middle of the night), and despite that I can still see the appeal of cruising (possibly _because_ of that, honestly — I cannot really do anything and the dramamine is relaxing and I can still have a drink without getting into too much trouble so, you know, kinda awesome). I know people want to get back to that and I _fully support_ them doing so.
But, you know, _after_ we have a workable strategy. This clearly is not a workable strategy.
BUT!!!! Somebody sailed out of Barbados: more a large yacht than a cruise ship, with a few dozen passengers and slightly more crew for a total not too far over 100, and with pre-departure testing, self-quarantine, test while boarding on Saturday, and testing at intervals on the cruise — honestly, it was a lot more than the majors had in mind and I think there was this idea that you know it will probably work!
Alas.
It did not work.
On Wednesday, a person who had apparently not been feeling well popped positive, and the 3 Abbott ID Nows were wheeled out and testing commenced while passengers remained sequestered in their cabins and had contactless delivery of menus, meals, etc, and phone convos with solicitous crew. All covered by someone at ThePointsGuy who was on the cruise: Gene Sloan. You can follow along on his updates here: https://thepointsguy.com/author/genesloan/
Anyway. It is Thursday. They are back in Barbados hanging out waiting for .. whatever. All shore excursions were to empty beaches so presumably this did not put anyone else at risk. The person who was positive was part of a larger group, and five of his party have now also tested positive.
“In a shipwide announcement late Thursday, the captain of SeaDream Yacht Club’s SeaDream 1, Torbjorn Lund, said testing overnight of close contacts of the original passenger to test positive for COVID-19 had turned up a total of five positive cases in his traveling party.”
I get motion sick in a rocking chair these days; when I get on a boat, I need to pre-load dramamine (quarter tab every four hours is my usual strategy and before you ask, YES, I have to take one in the middle of the night), and despite that I can still see the appeal of cruising (possibly _because_ of that, honestly — I cannot really do anything and the dramamine is relaxing and I can still have a drink without getting into too much trouble so, you know, kinda awesome). I know people want to get back to that and I _fully support_ them doing so.
But, you know, _after_ we have a workable strategy. This clearly is not a workable strategy.