Cruise lines mislead future passengers
(CNS): While the Cayman Islands Government is planning to officially open the borders, with restrictions, on Thursday, 1 October, it has made it clear that it will not be allowing cruise ships to visit Grand Cayman until well into next year. Despite these public declarations, Carnival Cruise Lines is selling five-night cruises that include Grand Cayman as a port of call in November, misleading their potential customers.
All cruise ships based in the United States are currently under a no-sail order issued by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and it is still not certain that the ban will be lifted before the end of October. It could even be extended, given the continuing pandemic and mounting death toll.
The major cruise lines have submitted a proposed plan that they say will protect passengers from the virus, though the very nature of cruising is a super-spreading environment.
Cruise ships played a significant role in spreading the virus around the world and were fundamental in bringing it to the Caribbean. While it is not certain when the coronavirus actually arrived in Cayman, the first and only fatal case was in passenger from a cruise ship who came ashore because of an unrelated medical emergency.
It is also now known that in the weeks leading up to the closure of Cayman’s borders several cruise ships that later recorded outbreaks of COVID-19 on board had docked here.
The cruise sector has been hard hit by the pandemic but it was suffering significant publicity challenges in the months before the pandemic turned all tourism on its head. An appalling environmental record and concerns over employee abuse were just some of a list of issues facing a sector of tourism that has enjoyed massive growth over the last couple of decades.
Carnival is currently facing legal action by investors who say the company falsely represented its outlook, which led to inflated share prices.
In the latest in a long line of questionable behaviour, Carnival is now selling cruises that it is not going to be able to provide, even if the CDC clears the company’s ships to return to the water.
Just to confirm….it’s wrong to have a marketing plan? If the US cruise ship are under a no-sail order and the port isn’t going to allow call to port, where is the discrepancy?
You book a trip, get credit for a future trip that is allowed to sail and allowed to call to port, which turns into a reservation for a future booking that keeps the cruise ships and the CI tourism industry alive.
“Cruise ships play a significant role in spreading of the disease” is a moot point if they aren’t allowed to call to port and even more so if the ships are under a no-sail order. Take the money now and decide when you are going to allow tourists to land on the rock.
Build the dock……quick!
Fug da dock! I hope they never come back! Polluting bastards!!!
If the cruise industry never came back then thousands would be out of work. Look how much money is made and comes in thanks to the cruise ships. Don’t wish for something you really don’t want to see happen. It might just bite you in the rear end.
Easy to say when you ignore actual facts.
More money is made from stay over tourists than the cheapskates that get off those Petri dish cruise ships. Hope they never come back. Destroying our marine life and polluting our waters.
Cruise ships played a significant role spreading this globally? I don’t think near as big of a role as airlines which travel from everywhere multiple times a day in many cases. Perhaps to the Caribbean, yes they did. But airlines and cargo vessels go everywhere as well.
The cabin air on a pressurized jet aircraft is changed every few minutes. I would feel much safer on a plane than on a ship. Cargo ships don’t carry thousands of passengers like cruise ships do. There have always been press stories of cruise ships with noro virus and the like, not so much on planes.
Correct. The amount of misinformation that was spread since March is mind boggling.
But I hear flight attendants on BA flights wear hazmat suits. You can’t make this up.
2:26 ‘I hear flight attendants on BA flights wear hazmat suits.’ LOL, that is not only completely untrue but so much bull I can smell it from here. You say, ‘The amount of misinformation that was spread since March is mind boggling,’ but it’s being spread by idiots like you! If you’re going to post fake news here you can jog off!
don’t try and bring facts into this!
let’s just hate on the cruise industry…
@ 12:44 O.K , I hate the cruise industry! Are you happy now?
Exactly, people for cruise ships and the port do not care about facts.
Most of the ships we saw here in Cayman as recently as these past couple of years are now scrapped.
Video Link: blob:https://www.news.com.au/cdff81bc-626b-4760-8392-b1871ab14521
Story Link in video.
Not sure if this is a news story or an editorial but it definitely hits all the points. As too many people have found out the hard way in the past you can trust the cruise lines about as far as you can throw one of their ships.
The Carnival tourists who come in the cheap summer season are terrifying. I doubt they read itinerary. I doubt they read.
10.29 Trump supporters all of them.
Have another glass of Chardonnay and chill.
But they did put dinner on a lot of tables.
Sure, if a bowl of rice is dinner. Not worth the other sacrifices and the mass importation of poverty.
that’s a bit rich after all the nonsense cig has spoken over the last 6 months.
btw our borders are not re-opened.a tiny amount of pre-approved people can now come in under dracanonian (and necessary) measures.
the cayman econmoy is currently unsustainable…there is no getting away from the economic reality.
I dont understand why more people havent left this terrible place
Because everywhere else you have to wear a mask or get videoed and called ‘Karen’ for not wearing one.
Many places getting ready for a second shutdown.
I’m packing but waiting for things to improve before I leave. I can’t bear to see what else Cayman tears down to ‘improve’ their island. And I do not want to be here for the Iconic Building that may or may not happen (only because of what’s going on w/the economy it may be delayed).
Cannot wait for the door to hit me on the a$$ as I leave. And taking my 2 pensions with me.
You are a beautiful little hush-puppy.
Happy that you chose Cayman as your home for a little while.😘
9:02 am
You’re either grossly misinformed, naive or a troll.
• everywhere else you have to wear a mask. FALSE
• called ‘Karen’ for not wearing one FALSE
• Many places getting ready for a second shutdown FALSE. THERE IS NO SECOND WAVE. THEY COUNTED DEAD IN THE BEGINNING, NOW THEY COUNT CASES. APPLES AND ORANGES. NOT ALL ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO COVID19 FOR THEY HAVE T-CELL IMMUNITY
• waiting for things to improve LOL
What a horrible human to wish ill upon others. You should be ashamed of yourself… SERIOUSLY!
Well said. I was hit with reality when the response to COVID was implemented.
There is nowhere to hide if the government do anything draconian like raise a militia without democratic input….. Oops they did that already.
Imagine a mandatory vaccine and you don’t agree. Soldiers going door to door, no way to leave unless you have a private jet or a friend with a good boat.
After 3 days in the swamp with the mosquitoes, you’d be out, hands up just begging for the guillotine.
“No Martyn, I don’t want the vaccine and I accept the consequences.”
“Just rest your head in the groove, Sir”
Yes, the second lockdown is within spitting distance. Watch for the….. incident. Something’s gonna happen. With public assembly banned, Cayman is easy pickings.
Pretty much accurate description. But Cayman, as you know it would cease to exist long before that. Their dreams of attracting mega rich would never materialize. Check Azores for comparison. Many don’t even know about it’s existence. They believe that toxic Dump is a national attraction.
Why haven’t you?
Airlines are doing the same, %$@ng thieves; they tell passengers they will only refund their money if the flights are CANCELLED; that passengers are responsible for knowing if the borders are open or not. 😡😡
And these are the people the CIG wanted to deal with to build the dock but then they let Dart in so why not right?
CIG isn’t very smart.
Let’s build a better stay-over tourist sector and leave cruise toutism alone at least for awhile.
The bigger bucks is with stay-over tourism as well as continuous push to promote domestic tourism.
Start with fixing the Dump and cleaning the environment. But….there’s no money for that anymore…
And frankly it is embarrassing they talk about mega rich as if they are nothing but bags of money. Cayman has nothing to offer to regular visitors, let alone mega rich, other than SMB. Absolutely nothing. Even Bermuda has more attractions.
Financial sector is the main money maker for Cayman. Catering to its employees and their families should be the CIG focus.
What would you expect from a corporation of sinking ships! The only thing they’re useful for are artificial reefs.
Good time to just permanently cut ties with this lowbrow industry. Onwards and upwards.
The irony is that many Caymanians take cruises. What do you have to say about us?
6:53 What do I have to say about that comment? How many?
That sounds like complete BS to me because I don’t know anyone here who be seen dead on a cruise ship!
What do you have to say about us?
That you didn’t use the word irony correctly.
i•ron•y ī′rə-nē, ī′ər-►
n. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
If Caymanians take cruises to come to Cayman, they’re idiots and we don’t want them.
i’m no fan of unregulated mass cruise tourism and the chaos that used to be gt on a daily basis.
however blanket ban on cruise ships makes zero sense.
Like your grammar?
Please – can we just ban them forever? Their behavior has been terrible. You can only imagine what they would be telling their passengers about us as they sail on by.
Oh dear! Hands up if anyone is surprised.
I am shocked – shocked! – to find that gambling is going on in here.
6:02 If you’re going to quote from Casablanca at least credit your comment to the movie.
Someone lifted the entire ‘know your limitations’ speech from Michael Caine in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels the other day, to tell Arden he was a moron no less. I was just inspired by that. The comment had roughly 120 likes and the comment identifying the film as the source had fewer than 5. It really didn’t seem important to attribute, but you must be a Casablanca fan. I haven’t even seen the movie, but we can all appreciate the faux-indignation of the officer.