Cruise ship’s testing regime behind cancellation
(CNS): The tourism ministry issued a press release Thursday evening blaming the testing protocols on board the Nieuw Statendam cruise ship for the decision to cancel the one-off visit that had been scheduled next week as dummy run for the return of regular ship calls next year. A day after Premier Wayne Panton revealed that the Holland America vessel due to arrive on 28 December would not be coming, officials said the cruise line was unable to meet the recent change in policy here for all travellers to have a negative COVID-19 test result no more than 24 hours old.
“While strict embarkation protocols are in place for passengers prior to boarding the ship, the day prior testing requirement for disembarkation in Grand Cayman unfortunately could not be accommodated,” the ministry said in a press release.
The decision to allow this one-off call had been to “stress test the safety protocols and policies” in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19, but the cruise failed that test.
The ministry stated that staff had worked in collaboration with representatives from the Holland America Line and its parent company Carnival Corporation to ensure that all disembarking passengers and crew were fully vaccinated, the capacity was reduced to a maximum of 1,600 and that Grand Cayman was the first port of call on the ship’s itinerary.
However, the idea of so many people coming ashore several days after their last test proved the sticking point for the tourism ministry.
Dwayne Seymour, who is acting as tourism minister since Kenneth Bryan is on leave, said government had not taken the decision to cancel lightly and regretted the inconvenience to all concerned, including the cruise line, cruise businesses and passengers.
“While uncertainties persist regarding the spread of the virus, adopting a cautious approach is the right thing to do,” he said. “The cancellation of this single cruise ship call will ensure that the Cayman Islands is better able to protect our people and we look forward to welcoming cruise tourism business in 2022 when it is safer to do so.”
However, creating safe cruising in the age of COVID is proving very difficult as outbreaks continue on board ships as they return to the seas. The decision to allow this test-run in the first place was not a popular one and the decision to cancel has been broadly welcomed.
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As stated above in this article:
“Dwayne Seymour, who is acting as tourism minister since Kenneth Bryan is on leave, said government had not taken the decision to cancel lightly and regretted the inconvenience to all concerned, including the cruise line, cruise businesses and passengers.”
Remember, Dwayne Seymour was who, at a recent BT meeting with constituents, literally said:
“…anything I’m involved in, I will make bit worse…and I know some people might have a problem with that.”
Not sure about anyone else, but it is very concerning that Jon Jon Seymour is Acting Minister of Tourism and Transport.
Don’t know what’s worse for the PACT: letting Jon Jon address the public or let the Premier.
Not a fan of PPM or PACT, but a big fan of real, competent change. Until then the Hansards only represent hot air, lies and incompetence.
The CDC is actively investigating 86 cruise ships
with fully vaccinated passengers with COVID
I have lost all faith in PACT. Very little of their decisions seem to have any logic. Did a quick google search on Omicron deaths, can only find a couple. I am unsure why we are acting like this is March 2020. Wouldn’t it make sense to focus on therapeutics? Maybe stock up on monoclonal antibodies, rather than engage in a policy of zero Covid, that we know is outdated, unsustainable, and self defeating? I just think this is pointless.
CNS: Forbes – There’s A Shortage Of Monoclonal Antibody Treatments For Covid-19.
24 @ 12:16pm – Quite appropriate quote – coincidentally from “Stealers Wheel”. Quite appropriate indeed! KB you listening?
You present a unique situation, upon which I must, of course, expound.
Disagreed with the first paragraph, and agreed with the second, so therefore, no soup for you either way.
‘It was the worst Christmas,’ says COVID-positive passenger disembarking Odyssey of the Seas
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-ne-odyseey-of-the-seas-returns-20211226-5y4pltnucjdetf6kf6dcb63piq-story.html?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=2021-12-26-Nearly-70-on-cr
Paywall/subscription to view only…
Thanks for nothing
It was an ignorant decision to consider a cruise ship to stop in Cayman when every cruise ship out there have Covid cases. Life has become very difficult and mentally the protocols/regulations are draining. Last year this time things were so different and happier.
And it’s getting worse! Today’s update on toxic cruise news
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/us-monitoring-covid-hit-holiday-cruise-ships/ar-AASa4zy?ocid=msedgntp
2 days later much worse. 86 cruise ships with fully vaccinated passengers with covid.
Biden last week said you won’t get Covid if you get vaccinated. That’s a lie
What has become very difficult is the idiocy behind the moronic knee-jerk measures only the brain dead can feel comforted by.
What American in their right mind knowing the current situation with the virus would go on a cruise ship now?
We Americans are pretty stupid at times but suspect they are Trump supporters on the cruises.
What does politics have to do with this? You are obviously a liberal looney who loves to stir up trouble.
Wait until the hotels have spent all that money to reopen and BAM! We are not opening. Then do it again. Wait until the scheduled ship is almost here and BAM! We aren’t open still. Making enemies of your tourist partners Cayman. When you do reopen and need them BAM! We’ll be right back. Not! You seem to love sowing hate and screwing others left and right just because you can. What does your Cayman style Christianity tell you is coming for Christmas?
Maybe you can look into your crystal ball and precognise what is going to happen to which country, why, when and to what degree.
For the rest of us mortals, we are forced to rely upon the decisions made by those who hold all the cards, all the money and all the lives in their hands.
I wouldn’t want that job for any amount of money. You, however, are apparently smarter than all the rest of us, and your jumbo chip on your shoulder appears to be weighing you down. “Cayman style Christianity”. Nice. Real classy.
We are all ALL of us trying to wrangle this virus, these rules, those policies and this life to figure out how to adapt to a rapidly-changing lifescape.
Give it a rest, and be grateful for whatever safety you enjoy by living in the Cayman Islands. Our government are not prophets. Our people are sometimes frightened, but frequently compassionate and friendly.
What is coming for Christmas is Hope, with a capital H.
Merry Christmas
Well said.
The hospitality industry could well be decimated by this time next year .don’t be shocked if we see hotels and restaurants mothballed in the future very tricky times ahead
Personally, GT east, I really don’t give a flying flip.
You need help. You sound like a spoiled child who always wanted their way.
Get a reality check.
Only a drooling idiot would mix theism and atheism with reopening the borders.
You are forgetting one thing. They need us too! Cayman does have a high tourism value and we cannot be easily replaced as a destination. Stop the fear mongering please.
BAM! You can just stay away. See? Simple
“Carnival Freedom is following all protocols and has a small number on board who are in isolation due to a positive COVID test,” the statement said. “Our protocols anticipate this possibility and we implement them as necessary to protect the health and safety of our guests and crew.”
One thing for sure, Kenny’s not on vacay in the good old USA..
Him & Several Others.
Keep your ears open and your eyes peeled.
There’s alot to be understood about their dilemmas.
Uncle Sam doling out sanctions.
Dear politicians, do the right thing and resign immediately. You didn’t see this coming?
“Stranded at sea at Christmas: More than 1,000 Americans are stuck onboard cruise ship as Mexico refuses to allow them to disembark after 21 vaccinated crewmembers test positive for COVID”
You present a unique situation, upon which I must, of course, expound.
Disagreed with the first paragraph, and agreed with the second, so therefore, no soup for you either way.
According to the press release referred to in the article, the Panton/PACT Clown Car decision to allow this one-off call was to “stress test the safety protocols and policies” in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19. This statement offers us yet more compelling evidence that inviting the cruise ship to call was a mindless, moronic, empty-headed plan to conduct a supremely irresponsible experiment. This puts all of us face to face with the stark, chilling fact that the Panton/PACT Clown Car occupants were quite eager to use the entire population of the Cayman Islands as lab rats in their ghastly “stress test”. The shameless inhumanity of the Clown Car’s proposed test is unfathomable. Thank God that enough people raised enough hell that Panton got the message that we intended to hold him peresonally responsible for the consequences if their experiment led to a dire outcome. Get word to Minister Bryan that he is welcome to return home once the Covid epidemic is totally over. He is in the best place that he can be now: far, far from the Cayman Islands. Now we need to FOI the records of the meetings that led to the decision to invite the cruise ship to call. If it is revealed that it was indeed conceived to be an experiment using Cayman as a petri dish, we should demand that Panton park his PACT Clown Car in the garage and all of the clowns disembark and resign so we can call a new election and hopefully elect true leaders and ones possessing a collective moral compass and good measures of sensibility and responsibility and respect for the people of the Cayman Islands. Our country and our people deserve no less.
I know damage control when I see it. I’m glad –for whatever the reason — we aren’t getting a cruise ship disgorging travelers of indeterminant health. I understand that some of us depend upon those cruise ships. My own business has been struggling since Covid emerged. I hope we can continue to keep cruise ships from our shores.
“It’s crazy that it’s not even 2022, and we’re pretty much done booking-wise (through April). We have a day here and there. And we have a couple new properties opening up, too,”
“Our first Florida Christmas, so yeah, we wanted to enjoy warm weather this year,”
https://www.winknews.com/2021/12/24/fort-myers-beach-experiencing-a-record-number-of-visitors-despite-record-covid-19-numbers/
Get a life
This is the current information online about this ship’s itinerary. Since it is a 14 day cruise how on earth could Grand Cayman ever been the first port of call? Answers, PACT!!
https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/ms-Nieuw-Statendam-1337?tab=itinerary#itinerary
Let’s focus on stay over tourism and not cruise ships. We know that’s where the money is.
CNS, in a previous story you wrote Officials have confirmed that Deputy Premier Chris Saunders will be acting for Ebanks as minister while he remains in isolation until the New Year.
Now today you write Dwayne Seymour, who is acting as tourism minister since Kenneth Bryan is on leave,
I was going to ask if just any old fool can do these jobs, but I believe I already know the answer.
Especially since we don’t even have tourism anymore in Cayman, exactly what is the ministry doing ? Better, what are they being paid for ?
Riding donkeys on full moons
So why does the Holland America web site show this ship stopping in Half Moon Cay in Bahamas then Ocho Rios in Jamaica before sailing past Cayman. Is it that Cayman was never going to be the first stop? Care to comment PACT?
That route was there from day one but included Cayman.
I suspect part of the reason for the cancellation is they wanted to keep that route and pressure CIG to take it, but with Omicron and our cases locally, there was no way they would achieve this so they pulled out – as well as the reality that the 24 hour pre-arrival test would be an issue, especially with the hoped for stops.
It is not feasible for them to sell a cruise stopping first in Cayman – no one wants to do two days at sea just to include us in their itinerary.
And I for one am glad for that as hopefully it keeps them away longer!!!
In fairness to Omicron Kenny, the graphic on the website showed it coming to Cayman first.
Yes, let’s have some answers. Cayman was NEVER going to be the first port of call. NO cruise line would ever agree to three days at sea for passengers on this itinerary. Shame on this Big Lie from The Minister of Tourism who fled to UK so he could not be held accountable!
I looked at the itinerary, it sailed the 26, day at sea, arrived here the 28.
Since the cancelled stop here, they just changed the route and the stops.
It’s what ships do. If they don’t want to stop somewhere, they wont.
The tourism industry will put their resoureces to reliable destinations. American, Delta, United are all out until at least March. Long term planning must be until tomorrow!
American has flights here starting Feb 17th.
There’s only one solution for this loss of revenue for hard working or hardly working Caymanians and expats is a 2nd pension fund withdrawal from those underperforming grossly overcharging pensions.
You trusted these fools with your money and retirements? Good god my man.
Umm – no choice under the law. Had to use a Cayman provider.
It was — and is yet — a mandatory contribution, both by the employee and employer.
“Trust” represented no variable in the equation.
We have a whole lot of trouble coming when all these people dipping into their pension pots come to retirement. Who is going to pay tyheir way when they have no money?
With the first withdrawal, there were so many new cars and everything else (obviously for those not hit hrd by the lack of tourism)- not what it was supposed to achieve.
What ARE we going to do when all these people have no money to retire?
You must understand that a lot of the pension withdrawal funds have left Cayman shores for good. You must also understand that the holders of those funds won’t be retiring in Cayman .
So, it was the “stress test the safety protocols and policies” failure on board the Holland America Cruise Ship, is the “…circumstances that conspired against us.”
Thank You PACT Government for bring much clarity to the situation 😊
Can someone explain to me how Wayne was able to act as Premier from Scotland when he went on his jolly to COP 26. He stated something like he was able to fulfill all his duties remotely and even when he quarantined on his Hatteras (the S.S. Compensation)? But somehow we need Jon Jon to fill in for Kenny when he is gone.
Can someone explain to to me how Wayne is able to act as Premier at all, given his severe and manifest inadequacies?
#UnfitForPublicOffice
11.19 at that time Wayne did not have the considerable talents and experience of JonJon Seymour available to him.
You have got to be kidding me, Seymour is heading up Tourism currently. Heaven help us.
Well I don’t know why I came here tonight.
I’ve got the feeling that something ain’t right.
I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs.
Clowns to the left of me!
Jokers to the right!
Here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Interesting since a previous communication on that matter identified Chris to act in that role.
But let’s be real – amongst Kenneth, Chris or Dwayne, it’s a real shallow talent pool.
Shallow is an understatement. It’s a mirage in a desert – dry as a bone.
DuWayne “The Brain” is on the case. Or should it be Dumb and Dumber are charting our path to reopening. 🤔🤔🤔🤔
Maybe he can organise donkey rides on the beach?
Clowns
Incompetent buffoons.