Rick and Cindy,
I just came off the Norwegian Jade in Singapore on February 6, 2020 and I would say to you take them up on the re-book/future cruise credit offer and RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY as FAST AS YOU CAN!! You do NOT want to go to Italy now. Terrible time to be there -- surely every tourist attraction will be closed. People on our February Norwegian Cruise and the one immediately afterwards, were absolutely FURIOUS and said they would never cruise with Norwegian again.
Biggest issue: Really, they did not keep people updated as situations were changing, usually not until 24 hours beforehand. For our cruise dates, Norwegian refused to give refunds, so people came on the cruise because they felt trapped financially. Some people at the last minute, decided against going on the cruise because the coronavirus situation was worsening day by day in China. Those people said on Cruise Critic that they lost thousands & thousands of dollars on their cruise costs, airfares, non-cancellable hotels pre and post cruise, independent tours, etc. A lot of Cruise Critic people have complained that the bad thing about many of the travel insurance policies is that their travel insurance would get them OUT of the situation if they CAUGHT coronavirus and had to cancel the remainder of their trip. But said their trip insurance did not cover the fact that they did not want to GO on the trip because of the RISK coronavirus. I think the only insurance that covers that is the "cancel for any reason insurance" and that only gives you 50% reimbursement for the standard policy or 75% reimbursement if you paid the highest premium rate.
We were very fortunate because no one on our cruise ever had a fever, and everything went off without a hitch. We departed on schedule from Hong Kong on January 30, successfully went to all 4 of our scheduled Vietnam ports: (1)Hanoi/HaLong Bay, (2)Hue/DaNang/HoiAn, (3)Nha Trang, and (4)PhuMy/Saigon/HoChiMinh City, and then disembarked on schedule at Singapore. The cruise after us was scheduled to do the exact same ports in Reverse heading back to HongKong. But while we were on our cruise, the mayor of Hong Kong decided to close the port. So, that left people on the cruise after us (the Feb 6th cruise was Singapore to Hong Kong) needing to change their flights home. My understanding was that a lot of people didn't know until they actually boarded the ship on Feb 6th in Singapore, that they should change their return flight to be from Singapore instead of Hong Kong. They said that Norwegian gave them free phone/internet help to do that. But, again, Norwegian didn't offer to let anyone cancel the cruise & get refunds. There were lots of people on our cruise that were doing back-to-back (B2B) cruises, and were staying on the Jade for the Feb 6th cruise which was a 11-day cruise with a slightly different itinerary because they were scheduled for an overnight in Bangkok, Thailand & another port, before heading up the coast for the same 4 Vietnam ports we visited the week before. Thank Goodness we were not on that ship as a B2B, because I hear that anyone on the Feb 6th cruise who had been in Hong Kong within the last 14 days had to leave the ship, mid-cruise.
Anyways, I understand the Jade was able to make the ports in Thailand & Cambodia, but Vietnam decided to close all its ports to cruise ships. So, the Feb 6th cruise ended up with 6 Sea Days before heading back to Singapore! I don't know all of their plights, as I wasn't on that cruise -- but the concensus seemed to be that "yes, ports close, things happen -- but Norwegian put their concerns for profits ahead of their concerns for their passengers". Many were angry because they didn't know if their cruise was going to be cancelled, or not, when people had long flights and hotel rooms booked. Eventually, Norwegian DID decide to cancel the following mid-February cruise. But how many people were already enroute, or had already arrived in Singapore days earlier? Unfortunately, Norwegian was extremely slow to make decisions about things, and slow in notifying passengers that would be affected. That seems what people were most upset about. They say other cruise lines were cancelling cruises well ahead of time, and not leaving their passengers scrambling to make alternative arrangements at the last minute. There are reviews from passengers on Cruise Critic about the February cruise fiascos. Link:
https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=678797
My cruise was fine, but I doubt that I would book with Norwegian again, based on the experiences of the cruisers after ours. Anyways, I think we will probably skip cruising for the next 12 months, or so. We are young retirees, but my husband has diabetes, takes high blood pressure meds, and has sleep apnea (but won't use his machine). Now I have a better understanding that he is truly in a HIGH RISK category when something like Coronavirus comes along. So, we will cancel our upcoming confirmed RCI exchange for Venice, Italy scheduled for August 2020. We made it safely out of one Coronavirus region --- with all the face masks everywhere, closed tourist attractions, daily temperature checks before you are allowed to enter your hotel, or a bank, or a museum. I have no desire to re-enter the belly of the beast again! I am sure we can find something interesting to do this summer here in the US.
Our trip was pretty long: 2 days in Hong Kong before the cruise on the Jade, the 7-day Vietnam cruise (meh), a 2-week Gate1 Escorted Tour of Thailand (THAT was the highlight!! Wow!), and a week in Singapore. Luckily, we were always just ahead of travel bans that would NOT have allowed us in because we had been in Hong Kong. Originally, the bans were on China-only, but as our trip progressed, Hong Kong & Macau were then included as a part of Mainland China. Had we not already been in Thailand or Singapore at that time, we would have been banned from entering. When touring the Grand Palace in Bangkok our tour guide told us how lucky we were. Usually 50,000 per day visit the Grand Palace, but with the China ban in place there are only 5,000 people per day visiting the Grand Palace.
Now, Thailand will no longer allow people in who have been in Singapore without a mandatory 2-week quarantine. Singapore only has 50 active cases of Coronavirus in a city/state with a population of 5 million people --- so Thailand's travel ban makes absolutely no sense. There seems to be a lot of fear, both on the part of people as well as countries.
We were never sick, never coughed, no fever, wore our face masks, washed hands constantly, and drenched ourselves in hand sanitizer. But when we arrived back in the USA, still, my husband & I have self-quarantined ourselves for 2 weeks. We are fine with no symptoms or health issues, but what if we are "asymptomatic carriers" of coronavirus? We just couldn't take the chance of possibly infecting someone else. I don't want to be famous for being patient #1 bringing Covid-19 to my community. Plus, in all honesty, the people in our gym, and my watercolor classes, and all my friends are soooo happy we are self-quarantining. I can hear it in their voices on the phone -- they don't want to be exposed to someone who may have accidentally come into contact with the virus.
For Rick & Cindy who are thinking of a trip to Italy in April --- I think anyone coming from Italy, Iran, Korea & China will have to deal with the REAL possibility of 14-day mandatory quarantines after returning, and/or being denied entry from a wide assortment of countries. There is a LOT of worry out there about the fact that someone can have Covid-19 and have no fever or symptoms. Countries seem to be resorting to the idea that "you can't come HERE if you've been THERE". Plus, Italy will be much more enjoyable without face masks, empty streets, closed tourist attractions, etc. Having just left a Coronavirus-infected region, I can tell you it can add a LOT of extra stress to your trip. And you are not really able to see and enjoy the country at its best. Everyone is a little stressed-out
Also, Italy has announced that someone at the Vatican has coronavirus. So I would not be surpised if soon the Vatican musuems are closed, Sistine Chapel is closed, as well as many places in Rome that attract large crowds of tourists. Even today, people on Cruise Critic are saying the Jade has had problems with port closures enroute from Singapore to Dubai. Apparently Dubai has just closed it's port and now Celebrity is scrambling for a port to disembark in. A lot of people are experiencing a lot of stress and chaos (as are the cruise lines) as Eqypt & Israel shut the door, and people's vacation plans are ruined.
Many people scheduled for March cruises on the Norwegian Jade are worried about Italy & other European ports closing, as the cruise ships leave Asia heading for Spring/Summer cruises in the Mediterrean. The best place to get the latest news are on the Cruise Critic BBS section called "Roll Calls". There will be a roll call for the date of your cruise, but it is always a good idea to read the last pages of the roll calls ahead of yours -- to find out what's going on/being discussed. Unfortunately, once a ship has sailed you'll no longer be able to see it's roll call unless you have made a post.
Just sharing my experiences and my two cents worth -- from someone just back from the "original" Coronavirus regions - Asia.
--- Rene
www.politico.com
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