Coronavirus

Well travels getting easier
No mask in the dial 7 or uber
And the entire walk from the entrance to the plane only asked twice to pull up the mask
Once at tsa
Once boarding
No coffee or n hand
It’s an improvement
 
Helluva parade today........

Millions spent for what? No one won anything, thousands died..........many poorer areas still under vaccinated. Many businesses bankrupt or trying to play catch up from last year.

In April 2020, When King Cuomo designated certain public hospitals as Covid only, all departments had to shift gears and face this unknown plague. When it was time for a photo op, he headed to Northwell, a private hospital!

While workers in private hospitals were given hazard pay, public hospital workers received nothing. Not a cent. Not a comp day off. Not a voucher for a bottle of water! Its not about the money. Healthcare is a labor of love for your work and patients. The compensation doesn't make up for the hours put in day after day. After a while, the "atta boys" ring hollow.............Its the complete lack of acknowledgement and support that makes this so frustrating. Check the attrition rate among healthcare workers and you'll see what I mean.

Complete lack of respect!

Sorry for the rant.........just needed to share..........
 

Could never figure out why anyone would want to cruise with 4300 others on a floating city. I do adore cruising, but on smaller ships and have delayed all sailings until late 2022. Maybe rules like this will be an incentive for folks to get vaccinated...​

​

On cruises that allow them, the unvaccinated are second-class citizens​

pressherald.com/2021/07/07/on-cruises-that-allow-them-the-unvaccinated-are-second-class-citizens/

By Fran Golden July 7, 2021

Royal Caribbean’s 4,275-passenger Freedom of the Seas has restarted sailings from Miami to the Bahamas with two classes of passengers on board – those who’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19, and those who have not. Jabbed guests, identified with special wristbands, get full run of the ship; those unprotected from the virus won’t even be able to walk into the sushi bar, casino, or spa.

Freedom is the first ship to depart the U.S. without a vaccination requirement, and it’s also the first to depart from the nation’s cruise capital of Miami. For all the city’s influence on the cruising industry, it’s also proved to be a difficult place

to restart business, given that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has barred businesses from requiring vaccine cards.

“The cruise experience benefits from being impromptu,” says Jukka Laitamaki, a tourism marketing expert and professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. Cruisers are typically free to hang out where they want, do what they want to do, and make friends. But unvaccinated cruisers on Freedom will find much of that restricted.

“It is the cruise lines’ worst nightmare to have to have separate areas for the vaccinated and unvaccinated,” Laitamaki says.

The system has proved necessary. Even on cruises with strict COVID-19 vaccine requirements for adults, issues have already cropped up. In late June, Royal had to pay to repatriate two unvaccinated teenagers who tested positive-and their families-from the Bahamas. Sister line Celebrity also had an incident of two asymptomatic guests testing positive on a sailing from St. Maarten. (Remember, you can still carry the coronavirus even when vaccinated.)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s rules for cruise companies require lines to enforce mask-wearing and social distancing when unvaccinated cruisers are on board. But companies have some discretion about the finer points.

Royal Caribbean’s list of restrictions for Freedom, issued in mid-June, is a long one. It applies to all sailings on the ship in July-and likely to four other ships the line plans to launch from Florida this summer, with capacities of up to 6,680 passengers.

Those with a hole punched in their SeaPass-indicating that they haven’t been jabbed or declined to show a vaccine card-will be segregated to one deck of the main dining room and will be banned from some of the better, more intimate for-a-fee dining venues. (That includes families with unvaccinated kids, too, so long as they’re sticking together.) Off limits will be the popular maritime-themed Schooner Bar pub and Viking Crown nightclub, the casino, art auctions, and the indoor Solarium pool and bar. Gatherings such as the 1970s-themed party will be open only to vaccinated guests. If you aren’t immunized and want to see a show, you’ll sit in a segregated area in the back of the theater. And you can only use the gym during specified hours.

At least for now, mask wearing is required indoors (but not outdoors) of everyone on board Freedom when not eating or drinking-though some venues that are only open to vaccinated guests will be able to nix the rule.

The trip will cost more for unvaccinated guests, too. Anyone over the age of 12 who doesn’t voluntarily show proof of vaccine will have to provide a negative result from a COVID-19 PCR test taken within three days of departure. They’ll also have to pay for a second test at the pier and a third upon disembarking on the last day-totaling $136 or $178 per person, depending on the sailing.

In addition, Royal is requiring unvaccinated travelers leaving from Florida to purchase travel insurance-at least $25,000 per person for medical expense coverage and $50,000 per person for medical evacuation-from Aug. 1 through the end of 2021. On a one-week cruise, this can add $200 or more to the combined fare of an unvaccinated family of four.

And that’s just on the ship. Each port of call has its own constantly changing rules, some requiring guests without immunity to stay on board or limit themselves to select shore excursions.

For cruise lines, which have already lost billions of dollars in the pandemic and are just getting back to business, the two-class system may have an impact on the revenue stream. Onboard spending accounted for 28.3% of Royal Caribbean’s total revenue in 2019, according to Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Brian Egger. If there are many unvaccinated passengers, those figures may end up suppressed.

So far that’s not the case. Only 7% of the passengers on the first Freedom cruise are unvaccinated, and most are kids. At that rate, onboard spending losses may tap out at about $50,000-a drop in the bucket on a ship that, say, rakes in $1.5 million per trip. Mark Tamis, senior vice president of hotel operations for Royal, said lost revenue didn’t even enter into the equation.

But the line is currently only sailing at 40% capacity to allow for social distancing and put new health protocols to the test-with plans to ramp up capacity throughout the summer. What’s more, immunized guests may not want to co-mingle with the un-jabbed, potentially hampering ticket sales or driving cancellations, which have been high since Royal announced its protocol.

“The people who are not vaccinated don’t want restrictions,” says Mindy Breitman, a travel adviser with Cruise Planners, who has been busy fielding cancellation requests. “And the people who are vaccinated don’t want to wear masks because of the non-vaxed on board,” she says.

Both cruisers and cruise executives agree that a vaccine requirement would be the ideal way to go. The CDC recommends at least 95% of passengers and crew be vaccinated. And in fact both Royal’s sister line Celebrity Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line are appearing to put DeSantis’s decree to the test, with carefully worded policies that boil down to vaccine requirements for anyone on board.

In places like Alaska and Galveston, Texas, where they’ve been given the choice, major cruise lines have also only allowed inoculated guests on board-making exceptions only for children. Norwegian Cruise Line says its ships only will sail with vaccinated passengers through October. And all the lines are aiming for 100% crew vaccinations.

Richard Fain, chairman of Royal Caribbean Cruises, parent of both Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, has said repeatedly that he’d prefer that all guests get the jab-adding that surveys show that more than 90% of the line’s customers are vaccinated. Micky Arison, chairman of Carnival Corp. (parent company of brands such as Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, and Holland America Line), has taken to Twitter to urge vaccines.

Cruisers don’t need much persuading. Most are showing a strong desire to sail with other vaxed passengers-a survey of 5,000 readers of the popular website Cruise Critic found last month that 89% would cruise if vaccines are a requirement.

But there has also been some pushback. When Mike Bayley, president and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean, explained policies for unvaccinated guests on Facebook recently, the hundreds of responses he received included both applause and vitriol from opponents espousing anti-vax rhetoric.

“My only request is please share your opinion or comments in a polite way,” Bayley said in a follow-up. “If you could read some messages I have received! It’s scary!”
 
At pbi and masks are
Mandatoryish
As in you gotta have one somewhere close by in case one of the few pantywaists biatch
Then a half hearted head fake towards adjusting it shuts them up
Luckily no ones said boo to me after the tsa check in
 
So what’s the point

once the girl came around with water and chip ( which I don’t eat)
I took two glasses of water and a page of crap and nursed them until I put the tray table up to land
And not one more word was spoken about the mask being off

just a stupid stupid policy
 
Still bitching about wearing your mask.............because its all about you

Not the immunocompromised transplant patient who's seated next to you
Not the immunocompromised cancer patient who was behind you on TSA line
And on and on......

A true narcissist in every way imaginable.
 
Let them stay home , wear a mask or jump up and down and spit wooden nickels out their butts

I ain’t wearing no friggin mask
Sure I’ll play the game but that’s exactly what it is

don’t like it tough
 
OVERBORED said:
Still bitching about wearing your mask.............because its all about you

Not the immunocompromised transplant patient who's seated next to you
Not the immunocompromised cancer patient who was behind you on TSA line
And on and on......

A true narcissist in every way imaginable.
Click to expand...
OK, but shouldn't the immunocompromised be doing everything they can to protect themselves? Until I got the shots and turning 70 I sure as hell did. (and with hearing aids and eyeglasses I especially hate wearing a mask as well and can't use the ones with ear loops. I have cute little ears, lol.)
 
Yes. They should be doing everything they can and if includes staying home, maybe they should.

HOWEVER

Being human and having a general concern for my fellow man, if I am in a confined space with many people....(ie, plane, bus, airport, supermarket) I will continue to wear a mask in the event I come across a compromised person and I am an unknowing carrier. Thats just a personal choice and I dont want to preach to anyone.

Just though that wearing a mask on a plane is obvious............guess Im wrong.
 
I carry a bandanna in my pocket. If a store still posts a sign saying that everyone must be using a face covering, and I absolutely positively have to enter and not find what I need elsewhere, I will knot the bandanna at the back of my head. I have managed not to have to pull it out of my pocket for about two months now. If our cruise requires masks next year, I will postpone it again. If the airline requires even vaxxed people to mask, I will take some ambien and skip the 6 oz of water and tiny snack. If Moderna decides a booster will be needed, I will get the third shot. A lot of ifs.

On another note. Just found out last week that my allergist finally was hospitalized for the virus. After closing from March to August last year, he had reopened the office until ten or twelve weeks ago when he caught it. It seems his wife had hemmed and hawed about getting the shot and dutiful husband decided to wait for her.
 
Eats some pizza live your life. Or just die

your choice
Bless u
 

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