Here’s my point. Covid is still very much with us, and cruising is probably too risky. Is anyone keeping tabs of how many people test positive in the weeks following a cruise? – JohnEBgood
We caught COVID early… in January 2021. It was a mild flu-like event for us, fortunately, except I passed out twice over a couple day period and that worried my doctor. Required a bunch of tests in the hospital that said everything was fine… no explanation for that. The only symptom that lasted a while… oddly… was a heightened sense of taste. Which seemed like a great thing! The hospital food seemed spicy. LOL.
We only got a vaccination in order to go on a cruise over the Christmas holiday. And had a COVID test the day before boarding because it was required (negative). Had no issues on board. Had no issues afterward. Didn’t get tested afterward.
We got the JNJ vaccination because it used the “traditional” vaccine development methodology instead of the new mRNA process.
That’s all I’ve got. Sorry.
Rob
Former RB and BL Home Fool, Supernova Portfolio Contributor & Maintenance Fool
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Don’t get me wrong…I’m a real dog lover. I have an 8 yr old American Staffordshire mix that I “rescued” 3 years ago. We spend a lot of time together, and she loves to snuggle up to me when she’s sleeping. Since it’s just her and I these days, I appreciate the love. I sure hope that I do not pass Covid on to her!
Your lifestyle is intriguing. I live in a lovely area near the Hudson River, and I haven’t seen many places anywhere that could compete. Lots to do, but not as crowded as the big cities. The climate is just fine most of the year. Here we are in mid-August, hot as it gets, so air conditioning rules the day. But autumn isn’t far off.
having a friendly neighbor with an AK-47 Glad I live in NY State where that sort of thing is frowned on. My son and his wife jusst bought a second home in North Carolina. Not exactly the “deep south,” but he’s already encountering the “good ole boy” mentality.
We have cruise credits we have to use or lose. So we’re going. Fully vaxxed, and one booster. And we wear masks when out in public. That’s all we can do.
I’m an OLD scientist, but I’ve used my analytical skills to study Covid from the start.
One of the things that has driven me crazy is the underemphasis on SOCIAL DISTANCING. As I mentioned, everybody on my cruise was vaccinated and tested. I’d say that, other than during boarding, way less than 10% of passengers wore masks. If you’re outdoors 90% of the time, I guess that’s ok. And cruisers spend a lot of time stuffing their faces, masks would get in the way. (ha,ha)
But here’s the thing. How can people sit for a couple of hours in a crowded theater or bar with strangers? When I did go to the theater, I always sat on the end of the row…nobody closer than 6 feet. I saw people bunched in swimming pools, etc. STUPID, I thought…then I get Covid. Go figure.
I think we’re gotten too careless to fast. It ain’t over, as bad as we want it to be. After I recover, I know I’ll want to travel again. But I’ll be a lot more careful. I remember that more than a year ago, when things were a lot worse, Amtrak conductors would throw you off a moving train if you didn’t wear your mask. Fine. But how could they allow EVERY seat to be occupied…people squished up against each other for HOURS.
I’m a big fan of vaccination an to an extent, masks. But an even bigger fan of social distancing.
Yes, we try to distance today. Harder in venues like grocery stores. But we try. We no longer go to theaters, and likely never will again. Streaming is good enough. I won’t sit next to strangers if I don’t have to (like an airplane…not much choice there). I will eschew the buffets (which I already did anyway…people of unknown hygiene habits touching serving utensils that I had to touch?! I don’t think so.).
If a grocery aisle is too crowded, I will go around and come back later.
No people squishing. I didn’t like that before COVID, and I certainly don’t like it now.
We’ve gotten in the habit of only one of us (DW) going into the grocery stores, I unload into the PU, load into he house once were home… Costco we both go in because of the heavies, beer, water, but stay masked, distanced, so far so good, Shots, double boosted, but still very careful…
We were going to fly up to Seattle in October, I talked DW into my driving instead, I really don’t like not having my own vehicle, but we’re staying in a downtown hotel, will be able to mostly walk most places, cab maybe… I’ll avoid planes as much as possible… Always had trouble with colds, bronchitis after flights, some were oK, but one nasty long ride back from Australia, really got me…
Not so much into gambling any more… Still trying to get my stamina back from the long spell of no walking, gym, taking a while, need to get into the gym, maybe next week, find a slack time, skip crowded areas…
… and yet we’ve dealing with the dilemma of not being able to live our lives.
Not being able to live a pre-Covid life? Yes. At least until either new vaccines or a changing virus alters the situation. Or unless you’re willing to get Covid again. And again.
At age 73, I am not willing to get Covid again. The risk of long-term damage is too high. We will (and do) travel. But we keep our N95 masks on the entire time on public transportation, other than literally a few seconds to swig some water on long trips (i.e., more than 3 hours).
Cruises hold no interest for us. If you eat indoors with strangers around and you do it regularly, as on a cruise, you’ll likely catch Covid, regardless of “social distancing.” Aerosol particles stay aloft for hours and float all over the room.
We don’t eat in indoor restaurants, period. We eat in outdoor dining areas, away from others. We like eating outdoors. We haven’t been to the movies or a show since Covid began. We may go to NYC this fall to see shows, but–again–we’ll be N95 masked the entire time we’re indoors.
We mask in stores, go in off hours, and minimize our time in them. In Honolulu (where we are now), masks are still fairly common.
We walk outdoors almost daily, even during the Michigan winter of 2020-21. I spend hours each week outdoors running or paddling. We’ve reserved an apartment in Paris for a month next spring.
So life is different for us in some ways, but we’re making the best of it.
I’m back to traveling as I did before the pandemic. I am single and have no reason to do much differently. I was among quite few people in the times I was in Paris and have no regrets. The craziness* of being on the Champs for the Tour is likely a once in a lifetime experience and was just serendipity. Rubbernecking watching David Hyde Pierce and fabulous classic cars for the filming of the series Julia was hard to beat and the were just around the block from my hotel.
I had too many years of putting others first and this is my time. If I know I am positive, I would isolate but not planning on any other measures. 2 Vax + 1 booster. Covid at the beginning of May and made a decision to wait for a more precise booster.
Santa Fe on Monday for a week, bike trip to Prince Edward Island, bike trip to Croatia, couple of weeks on the Big Island, small ship cruise from Barcelona to Lisbon by way of Morocco, couple of weeks on the Big Island, Costa Rica/Panama small ship cruise for the rest of this year.
*listening to Danes singing about Jonas Vingegaard hours before he was due in was a great memory.
Covid at the beginning of May and made a decision to wait for a more precise booster.
We are waiting for the new vaccine that targets BA5 and not just a booster of the original vaccine. We aren’t planning on flying for the rest of this year. The trips we are planning will be early next year and I am hoping that the new vaccine will be available by the end of this year.
I was unaware that dogs can contract Covid-19. I looked it up and the American Kennel Club says that they cannot.
American Kennel Club is very wrong. There are documented cases in dogs, cats and deer. Lots of deer. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/03/09/1084440… Big cats in zoos and family cats and dogs. Even the CDC admits: Pets worldwide, including cats and dogs, have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, mostly after close contact with people with COVID-19.https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/covid-19/pets.html#:~:text=P…. Of course they also say it’s unusual, but IMO it’s just unusual for it to be documented. It’s probably unusual for it to be as severe as it was for our dog. Hopefully, anyway.
Thank you ALL for your interesting replies. As usual, I learned something.
May I just comment that I think it’s a shame that TMF shut down all of the non-financial boards? I hope that at least this one survives.
Hasn’t it been more than 20 years that boards like Political Asylum were around? The United States is in a horrible political crisis right now, and if anything, it could get worse.
I am very wary of ANY social media. TMF provided a mostly civil, well-controlled venue where we could discuss all sorts of things, including politics. Why this very thread provided me with useful information about Covid and traveling.
Since the financial world does NOT exist in isolation, it seems silly to ignore issues like politics, health, etc
Hope TMF takes another look at that decision. If reversed, it could bring in more revenue for paid financial services.
I now know (personally) five different couples that went on cruises in the last month that came home with Covid. I plan on traveling in the next month or so but it will include a beach rental and grabbing takeout or cooking at the house. There’s only one breakfast place that I plan to eat at (with a mask except while eating) but I will go after the early morning rush of the charter fishing folk.
AC intends to hold off on the big trips until mid to late 2023
Make that six. I got sick the last few days of the cruise (fortunately, didn’t miss much). Got home, did a home test…positive. 1poorlady is now feeling achy and sore throat (which is how mine started). She insisted on a CVS test, but I’m pretty sure I know the result. We should find out today or tomorrow.
Most of the crew wore masks. Most of the passengers didn’t. We did, but all of the inconsiderate louts that didn’t ended up giving to me (and probably other people, too).
Though, to be fair, I suspect I got it on the plane. Again, no one was masked except us. And it was roughly a week after the flight that I got symptoms. That’s about the incubation period of COVID.
It’s a lot easier to maintain some distancing on a ship. Impossible on a plane.
I suspect I got it on the plane. Again, no one was masked except us. And it was roughly a week after the flight that I got symptoms. That’s about the incubation period of COVID.
I’m sorry you and your wife got it. If you eat around lots of other people within an enclosed area, esp. for multiple meals daily, it’s highly likely you’ll catch it. It won’t matter whether you’re masked the rest of the time. That’s the reality of it.
Also, distancing isn’t all that relevant in a poorly ventilated enclosed area. Studies show that if someone’s infected and is eating, talking loudly, singing, etc., the aerosol can go all over the place. Conversely, in a well ventilated area, e.g. on deck with the wind blowing, you could be a 2’ apart from the infected person and probably be ok unless they were coughing and sneezing directly into your face.
Could have been on the ship. I started showing symptoms about 6 days (sore throat).
We generally ate at not-busy times. Mostly avoided the buffet. Ship was only half-capacity (just over 1000), so it was pretty easy to avoid crowded spaces.
Though you would think if is so likely to catch it as you describe, then a lot more people would have caught it. And there were some old people on that ship. Enough that people would have been talking about it, crew would have been getting sick, etc.
Not that I dispute your facts. You’re absolutely correct about aerosols, etc. I just would have expect a lot more cases if that was a problem on this ship. (We all had to test negative for COVID prior to boarding, though I know that isn’t a guarantee someone hadn’t contracted it but didn’t have a detectable viral load yet.)
I just would have expect a lot more cases if that was a problem on this ship.
But there’s really no way of knowing how many pax caught Covid on board, is there? If this was a cruise of a week or so, many of them wouldn’t test positive until after it was over. For that matter, unless there was regular testing on board, there’s no way of knowing how many were Covid-positive while on the cruise.
That said, if you took your mask off to eat/drink on the plane, along with everyone else, you might have caught it on the flight.
It was nine days. But you are correct that I can’t know how many people are going to test positive within the next few days. It would actually be interesting if someone (NCL?) would follow-up on that. Though I’m sure they won’t.
I deliberately didn’t remove my mask when others did. I waited.
I’ll never know for sure where I got it, but if the incubation data is correct, it was more likely on the ship than the plane. I didn’t have any symptoms until day 6 when I felt the sore throat beginning. By day 8 it was painful to eat or drink anything.
I should also probably report my infection. I seem to recall there’s a website to do that. Supposed to help traceability, and CDC data. I’ll check for later after we verify if 1poorlady got it too.
1pg: I suspect I got it on the plane. Again, no one was masked except us. And it was roughly a week after the flight that I got symptoms.
You stretched my memory to the max. Actually to the failure point. One of my friends at Boeing worked on the 737 ventilation system. (We’re talking early '70’s here.) He could quote line and verse of the number of air changes in the cabin per minute. It was an impressive number. At any rate, an airliner is likely safer than your average restaurant. But if the guy in the next seat coughs or sneezes, it’s game on.
It was a 737MAX. Not sure if they changed the refresh rate between then and the MAX. But, as was pointed out to me up-thread, the incubation period is shorter than I thought. So I probably got it on the ship. And then gave it to 1poorlady about 3 days later because her symptoms are about three days behind mine. My sore throat is almost gone. Hers is getting worse, and she has the body aches (where mine are gone now).
It’s been many years. The first 737 carried only about 90 passengers. It was rushed into service to try to catch up with McDonnell Douglas’s DC-9. At the time Boeing was simultaneously developing the 747, the SST, and the 737. I recall a doomsday article in the WSJ saying that Boeing missed the bus - the airbus, to compete with Lockheed’s and MacDac’s air busses. Boeing hasn’t made anything called an air bus yet. Where are McDonnell and Lockheed? Oh - they are gone from the commercial airplane market.
The original 737 was stubby, and actually kinda funny looking - short and fat. Boeing advertised that the 737 cabin was as wide as the 707 and 727, bigger than the DC-9.
MacDac was able to get daily DC-9 flights out of Boeing Field in Seattle. Must have been a good feeling for them to have daily commercial flights right across the street from their competition.
I worked as a structural engineer on the SST, but I was put on temporary loan to the 737 project when their wing failed its structural test.
The 737 was developed in Plant 2 - a relic from World War 2 days, when they produced B-17’s faster than the Germans could shoot them down.
Boeing is the US’s sole remaining producer of commercial aircraft, despite the efforts of management to ruin the company. (Turned it over to the accountants instead of engineers.) Lockheed still has a lot of military business.