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Cruise ships may finally be operating again in much of the world. But not everything about cruising is back to normal. As I’ve experienced first-hand over the past few months on some of the first sailings to resume in North America and several voyages in Europe, the cruise experience has been changed by the COVID-19 pandemic in ways big and small — for both better and worse. Taking a cruise right now involves dealing with new hassles such as pre-cruise COVID-19 testing and once-unthinkable restrictions both onboard ships and on land. But it also brings some unexpected rewards, including experiencing...

A 77-year-old woman who sailed aboard a Carnival cruise ship from Texas to Belize has reportedly died of COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated. Marilyn Tackett, a retired Sunday school teacher from Oklahoma, departed Galveston aboard the Carnival Vista on July 31 “so excited to take her first trip outside the US,” her granddaughter Tara wrote on a GoFundMe page. “While on the Caribbean Cruise she got sick and diagnosed with covid in Belize,” the relative said.

Though the coronavirus devastated the entire travel industry, cruising took a particularly brutal blow. After years of steady passenger growth and cruise lines competing with each other to launch the biggest and most elaborate ships, suddenly the industry went full astern. Ships like the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess were major coronavirus hotspots, with passengers being locked in their staterooms as the disease spread quickly. Some countries also refused to let ships dock, leaving passengers stranded onboard for days. It was enough for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a No Sail Order on March 14,...

Cruise prices fluctuate wildly based on the time of year, the destination, and what type of room you're booking. But it's possible to find rooms for less than $100 per day per person. If you're living on a cruise ship full-time, $3,000 per month can seem expensive. Keep in mind, though, that you'll also be saving money in other areas. For example, most food and drinks are included in your cruise fare. So unless you're splurging on specialty drinks or fancy restaurants, you won't need to budget much for food. You also won't need to worry about other costs you're...

A handful of major news outlets have jumped on the opportunity to broadcast the scandal that is SeaDream 1 along with other articles spreading fear of cruise ship travel since the pandemic hit earlier in 2020. In the meantime, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reinstate the previously lifted No-Sail-Order immediately. With the heavy-duty reporting that’s going on, you would almost think that the small vessel, carrying a mere 53 passengers and 66 crew members, had a 100% infection rate amongst all guests and crew. Nothing...

Reports out of Berlin tell of a German Arctic cruise ship being fired on by a Venezuelan naval vessel, which then rammed the passenger liner, sinking itself in the process.No, this is not a story that appeared in The Onion. The Jerusalem Post says that the incident occurred on March 30 and took place in international waters. The Iranian regime-allied Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the captain of the RCGS  RESOLUTE cruise ship of “terrorism and piracy" and sought to force the ship into a new direction on the high seas. The cruise ship, which had no passengers on board...

The Coral Princess cruise ship with 12 COVID-19 cases on board plans to dock at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. But according to Broward County Mayor Dale Holness, there is not yet a plan in place for the ship’s arrival to Port Everglades Princess Cruises, owned by Carnival Corporation, said in a statement Thursday that seven passengers and five crew members tested positive after the ship dropped off samples in Barbados on March 31. The ship has been sailing toward Florida since Argentina permitted only Argentine citizens to disembark in Buenos Aires on March 19. There are 1,898...

On Tuesday, authorities in Broward County, Fla. — where the cruise ship with four dead and two in dire need of medical attention hopes to dock this week — said a plan presented by owner Carnival Corp. does not yet address all their concerns. A representative for the U.S. Coast Guard said the Zaandam and an accompanying ship would not be allowed to enter U.S. waters without submitting “a complete plan for self-support of the medical issues occurring on board the vessels.” At a meeting Tuesday, Coast Guard Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian said a “unified command” — a group of local,...

The coronavirus can survive on surfaces for up to 17 days, a study published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

A cruise ship carrying at least 77 people with flu-like symptoms on board is on its way to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., according to a statement from the cruise line. The ship, MS Zaandam, intends to arrive in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, March 30 but cruise line Holland America notes that “plans are still being finalized.”snip Zaandam left Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 7 on a trip that was supposed to end in San Antonio, Chile on March 21 — but that route was disrupted over coronavirus concerns. Holland America announced on March 13 that it would suspend its global cruise...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The ABC7 News I-Team has confirmed that a majority of passengers from the Grand Princess who are quarantined at Travis Air Force base are refusing to be tested for coronavirus. Their release is just days away. After 21 passengers and crew aboard the Grand Princess tested positive for coronavirus, the rest of the passengers were quarantined off the coast of San Francisco for five days, then went into quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield for 14-day; it ends next week. But, the Grand Princess passengers are ready to go home and that's one big reason...

OK, here are my questions. We had a perfect petri-dish coronavirus disease (COVID-19) experiment with the cruise ship “Diamond Princess”. That’s the cruise ship that ended up in quarantine for a number of weeks after a number of people tested positive for the coronavirus. I got to wondering what the outcome of the experiment was. So I dug around and found an analysis of the situation, with the catchy title of Estimating the infection and case fatality ratio for COVID-19 using age-adjusted data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship (PDF), so I could see what the outcomes...

While there are plenty of critics of President Trump’s handling of the Wuhan virus, one person who is not complaining is progressive California Gov. Gavin Newsom—and that should be telling. Speaking to reporters about the administration's cruise ship response, Newsom said Trump delivered on all of his promises to him during a private phone call to help California, which is in a state of emergency over the virus. "We had a private conversation, but he said, 'We're gonna do the right thing' and 'You have my support, all of our support, logistically and otherwise,'" Newsom said at a news conference....

A California man who died of the novel coronavirus brought it on board the Grand Princess cruise ship, officials said Saturday, suggesting the virus has been in the state much longer than originally believed. Dr. Grant Tarling, the cruise’s medical officer, said the man — who later died in Placer County after leaving the cruise — sought medical care on the ship Feb. 20 and had been sick for several days. Tarling said two waiters who served the man multiple times were subsequently infected.

President Trump visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters Friday and expressed confidence in the public health response to the new coronavirus while airing a disagreement he has with the vice president on whether to bring the Grand Princess cruise ship passengers onshore in California. "I have great experts, including the vice president ... they would like to have the people come off," Trump said in arguing he'd prefer to have the passengers stay idling off the coast of California. "I would rather have the people stay. But I'd go with them. I told them to make...

Carnival shares suffer worst day in 19 years, close at 11-year low; Royal Caribbean’s stock suffers biggest loss in 11 yearsShares of cruise ship operators took double-digit dives Thursday to their lowest closes in years, as the global spread of the coronavirus fueled fears of a drop in travel demand. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s stock RCL, -4.439% plummeted 17.1% to $65.78, to suffer the biggest one-day drop since Jan. 30, 2009. The stock closed at the lowest price since Sept. 19, 2016. It has lost more than half its value (51.3%) since closing at a record $135.05 on Jan. 17....

SAN FRANCISCO —Military helicopters delivered testing kits Thursday to a cruise ship being held off the coast of California, as officials in Washington faced angry questions about whether the vessel is set to become the latest breeding ground for the deadly novel coronavirus. The Grand Princess, which was returning to San Francisco after a two-week cruise to Hawaii, remained offshore and in limbo at the request of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). About 100 people were expected to be tested, among them 11 passengers and 10 crew members who have shown potential signs of covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by...

Some passengers on Princess Cruises' Grand Princess ship were told on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stay in their rooms before receiving coronavirus screenings, the company said in a statement. The order came after a passenger on the Grand Princess' prior cruise died on Wednesday of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. snip... The Grand Princess is now nearing the end of a 15-day cruise that began in San Francisco and is scheduled to end there on Thursday. Princess Cruises said in a statement that it was working closely with the CDC and following...

Meet the new quarantine, same as the old quarantine. Two charter flights from Japan took hundreds of Americans from the cruise ship Diamond Princess to California and Texas, but not all of them are happy to be back in the good ol’ US. The evacuation comes from an “about face” on the US policy on coronavirus, CNN reports, and leaves all of the Americans stuck in limbo for at least two weeks longer than they first thought.“I’ve lost a month of my life,” one American woman says after finding out that the US changed its mind about relying on...

39 new cases in Japan. They were found on the “Diamond Princess” cruise ship off Yokohama, raising the ship’s total to 174.