The following is a previously published column.
I was on a Carnival cruise ship headed to the Caribbean when I got up early to go get a cup of coffee in the main restaurant. As I walked down the stairs, I noticed a member of the crew who seemed to be polishing the banisters on the stairway.
I was impressed. I thought they were detailed oriented. What I found out later is that they constantly try to disinfect certain parts of the ship – including the stairways – to keep passengers from passing along germs and spreading colds or the flu.
No one wants to get sick on their vacation. Especially in the middle of the ocean.
As I write this, some cruise ships have been affected by the outbreak of the coronavirus in China.
Holland America’s MS Westerdam, with 2,000 passengers, was not allowed to dock in Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan or Guam. At that time, cruise officials said there were no cases of the virus on board. The ship left Hong Kong on February 1. They docked in Yokohama but Japanese officials said foreign passengers would not be allowed off the ship. Japan at that time had around 100 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
Japan quarantined the Diamond Princess, run by Carnival Japan, Inc., after a Hong Kong man tested positive for the virus. More than 135 people – including some Americans – have tested positive on that ship.
On February 6, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship had its passengers and crew tested for the virus in Bayonne, New Jersey. The Centers for Disease Control was on top of that situation. Twenty-seven passengers were screened and the rest of the passengers were allowed to leave.
The virus started in the city of Wuhan in China. The Chinese Communist government has reported at least 900 deaths due to the virus but they are notorious for lying. They imprisoned the first doctor to warn of the deadly virus in an effort to avoid publicity. Estimates are that more than 40,000 people worldwide have been infected and that could be a very low number.
The U.S. State Department chartered evacuation flights from Wuhan to America. Two flights had 300 American passengers that landed at military bases in California and Nebraska. They will be quarantined for two weeks.
As of February 7, there were 12 confirmed cases in the United States but no fatalities.
Who knows how bad this will get?
The deadliest flu pandemic in history was the Spanish flu pandemic of 1917-18. It killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million people while infecting half a billion people worldwide.
Estimates are that 675,000 Americans died of the Spanish flu. Of course, medical treatment is 100% better in the United States than 100 years ago.
This is a new threat that CDC officials think was spread to humans from animals (maybe bats). But now it is clearly being spread from humans to humans, with a 14-day period before the appearance of symptoms.
President Donald Trump has pledged to help the Chinese fight this virus. And he is hopeful it won’t impact the U.S. economy. It looks like it will be a heavy economic blow to China.
I can just imagine the problems for cruise lines should this virus spread to more ships.
Our family has taken several cruises – all aboard Carnival. And they have been wonderful experiences. It’s a great way to get the family together for a trip. You can control expenses because you prepay for almost everything. And you get to travel to exotic ports of call and see things you just don’t normally see.
Carnival has been great to us. The crews are wonderful, the food is great and the overall experience is hard to beat.
But Carnival and other cruise lines live and die on publicity. If the American public start to see a cruise as a threat to their health, they may opt for another form of vacation.
Several cruise lines have already cancelled scheduled trips to China and some won’t take passengers from Hong Kong.
We usually take our family on a cruise at Christmas every other year. We didn’t go in 2019 and we were talking about going in December of 2020.
We may have to rethink those plans.
I have no doubt that Carnival will take every precaution possible to keep their passengers safe. But we have to publish the Tulsa Beacon 51 weeks a year to maintain our legal status and a two-week quarantine at a port in the Caribbean or the Bahamas would be devastating to us and to our grown children.
Cancelling cruises would have a deep impact on crew members. Some are from poor countries and they stay on the ships for months at a time. Some are the main breadwinners for their families back home.
Time will tell how this plays out. I hope it doesn’t permanently damage the chances to vacation on a cruise ship and that more people don’t die.
More funnies….
– What do you get when you cross Lassie with a cantaloupe? Melancholy.
– No one is afraid of llama kisses.
So why is everyone so worried about the “alpaca lips?”
– I got bored watching the Earth turn.
So after 24 hours, I called it a day.
– I relabeled all of the jars in my wife’s spice rack.
I’m not in trouble yet, but my thyme is a cumin.
– Ikea didn’t do well in the processed meat products business.
Someone ordered meatballs and Ikea sent them a cow with do-it-yourself instructions
– In winter, the leading cause of dry skin is: towels.
– I have a hard time falling asleep.
It’s much easier to fall while I’m awake.
– I just bought a DeLorean.
But I only drive it from time to time.
– What do you call a man who states the obvious?
A man who states the obvious.
– I said to my wife, “I need to call the doctor today.”
She asked, “Which doctor?”
I said, “No, the regular kind.”
– The other day my friend told me I was “delusional.”
I almost fell off my unicorn.
– Our baby boy was born on the way to the hospital.
We named him, “Carson.”
– What did the arm wrestler who won the tournament say to the other competitors?
I had the upper hand.
– What is the difference between a pest and vermin?
Walt Disney.
– My girl friend told me I was “one in a million.”
When I looked through her text messages, I had to admit she was right.
– What word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?
Incorrectly.
– All the animals came to Noah’s Ark together. Even the insects came in pairs.
Except the worms – they came in apples.