Cruiser to Cruiser gift exchange, what Will/won’t or should/shouldn’t happen.

[Snowwhyt]

I don’t think FE’s will be allowed as they start resailing. If they’re going to be spraying the disinfectant throughout the halls every night, I don’t see them wanting to be responsible for applying a chemical on somebody’s personal property that they take home with them. Or accidentally sprayed disinfectant on food or a child’s toy that’s left in the FE.

I think that recipe cards or door magnets could still work.

People could meet and exchange FE stuff at a certain time. (Meh I’m not interested in that. The surprise at the door was most of the fun)

Thank you in advance for giving your opinion. I look forward to your views and know although, like music, we all have different taste. Maybe I don’t play your music at my house but I would never ask you to turn it off when I visit.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Well considering that the fish extender exchanges are not organised by DCL they can not "ban" them. What they can do is ban all door decorations which would include magnets and fish extender holders.

Norwegian Cruise Line did this back in 2019, before Covid

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/4373/
In what it says is an effort to limit fire hazards, Norwegian Cruise Line now prohibits decorations on stateroom doors.

Recent daily programs on some ships warned against the decorating of doors. Photos of the messaging popped up on this Cruise Critic message boards thread.

One announcement reads, "As per safety requirements, stateroom door decorations are strictly prohibited. Your stateroom steward has been instructed to remove and place all decorations inside the room. Thank you for your understanding and compliance with this safety policy."

A Norwegian Cruise Line spokesperson confirmed the new policy for Cruise Critic: "We have often communicated that the safety and security of our guests and crew is always of the utmost importance. As such, we have specific requirements in place, including prohibiting stateroom door decorations, which can be a fire hazard."

 

[Ila Sikorski]

Interesting thought.. I think it will be hard to get the Castaway Club members away from FE... It part of the extra magic of DCL.

 

[MomOTwins]

What do they need to spray the halls for? Disinfectant doesn't really do anything against Covid since it spreads by people breathing it in rather that touching things. Also, people aren’t going around touching hallway floors, doors, and walls in the residential areas (except their own door of course). Disinfecting seems more reasonable in shared high touch areas like bathrooms, pool chairs, stair rails and kids clubs.

 

[mmouse37]

Interesting thought.. I think it will be hard to get the Castaway Club members away from FE... It part of the extra magic of DCL.

I think a huge amount of first time cruisers participate in FE's as well as CC members. All the cruise groups I belonged to had a pretty fair amount of first timers and CC members interested in FE's

I participated in them a few times but personally I find it very stressful to plan, pack and distribute. Maybe when my grandkids are a bit older they will be interested (if they are still allowed).

MJ

 

[T & R]

I enjoy the door décor as some people really go all out. We usually just throw a few magnets on ours so that our youngest can differentiate which door is ours without having to go down the hall reading each room number. If they do ban door decorations hopefully they will still allow magnets as I would think those would hardly be a fire hazard and they sell them in the onboard gift store.

 

[Snowwhyt]

What do they need to spray the halls for? Disinfectant doesn't really do anything against Covid since it spreads by people breathing it in rather that touching things. Also, people aren’t going around touching hallway floors, doors, and walls in the residential areas (except their own door of course). Disinfecting seems more reasonable in shared high touch areas like bathrooms, pool chairs, stair rails and kids clubs.

I followed a lady who went on that very first cruise ship. She showed pictures of people with and without masks. Places that have social distancing places that didn’t on the ship. In addition she showed a man that sprayed the hallways with a very large container. She said that they do that every night. So there must be a reason. I’m not saying that they don’t spray the high touch areas as well but this was the Hallways in front of the rooms and he’s just walking down the hall spraying everything with a really large 3 gallon apparatus

 

[JM23457]

If they're banning door decor at the time of our scheduled cruise (December 2021), we'll cancel. It's a very expensive Christmas week cruise, & if restrictions are still crazy at that point, the cruise won't be worth the cost.

We really like decorating our door & stateroom with magnets, and also participating in FEs. It's part of the DCL experience for us. We also don't want to sail in a sterile-looking ship, with all of the hallways bare of personalized decoration. We enjoy seeing the different families' decorations as we walk through the halls each day.

 

[MomOTwins]

I followed a lady who went on that very first cruise ship. She showed pictures of people with and without masks. Places that have social distancing places that didn’t on the ship. In addition she showed a man that sprayed the hallways with a very large container. She said that they do that every night. So there must be a reason. I’m not saying that they don’t spray the high touch areas as well but this was the Hallways in front of the rooms and he’s just walking down the hall spraying everything with a really large 3 gallon apparatus

I believe you it just boggles the mind why they think that has anything to do with preventing Covid transmission. Then again, I thought it was a bit silly they way they sprayed down the boats on “its a small world” too—It’s not like I’m going to get covid from my clothed backside coming in contact with the same seat as someone else’s clothed backside.

 

[JM23457]

I believe you it just boggles the mind why they think that has anything to do with preventing Covid transmission. Then again, I thought it was a bit silly they way they sprayed down the boats on “its a small world” too—It’s not like I’m going to get covid from my clothed backside coming in contact with the same seat as someone else’s clothed backside.

Covid-prevention theater.

 

[monkeydawn]

It depends where we are in the pandemic when DCL starts sailing if it makes sense to allow for door decor and FE. Anything shy of a mandated vaccine and it makes the most sense to me for DCL to ban. Say we are still in the testing, masking and crossing our fingers phase. It makes sense that DCL would want to have things bare as possible in case there is a positive case. They would want to get to quarantining and cleaning, not stripping doors of decor. Even if weve moved into a reliable treatment phase, it still makes sense to me that DCL would ban door decor and FE for the same reason.

And yes, I see even magnets as being an issue. Some are home made. Ink will run if sprayed with some chemicals, paint jobs and carpets would be ruined. So simply disinfecting the magnets isnt something that easily solves all issues. And I doubt they would want to get into the mandating what magnets are ok game, UNLESS they maybe say their official DCL purchased magnets are ok. If they went that route it would take a lot of the fun out IMO because everyone would have the same 4-5 magnets.

 

[disneygeek401]

Virtually no chance IMO DCL bans FE's they are not affiliated with DCL. Nothing they can do. And as other posters have mentioned it would make much more sense to sanitize things like high touch areas in the kids clubs, door knobs, bathroom stalls, etc.

And, yes. Sanitizing is pretty much covid prevention theater. You are not gonna get COVID from touching something. Sure, this doesn't mean you can just go touch everything everywhere, but you are more than likely going to be fine. Just use hand sanitizer and you will be fine.

I don't think they would ban room decor or room magnets.

 

[Karin1984]

To give my 2 cents on spraying/extra cleaning hallways, yes it will get less touched than buttons in the elevator, but one of my quirks is that when I walk close to a wall, fence and such. I think a lot of kids do this and I never grew out of it
So I think hallways will get touched more than we suspect.

And maybe it is covid theater, but it can have additional benefits, like reducing the spread of illnesses that do get spread through touch. That is one thing we do know the extra cleaning brought us. (Trying to find the article on an interview with a PCP which other illnesses he sees less of during Covid)

 

[monkeydawn]

I dont know think that hallway spraying will occur when guests are present, unless there is a confirmed case and they are doing a decontamination of an area. But in that case, Id also expect that they would want it to occur as quickly and easily as possible since there would be other cleaning burdens that they would be having to take care of. I also do expect that there may be some sort of spray down between guests.

 

[Snowwhyt]

I dont know think that hallway spraying will occur when guests are present, unless there is a confirmed case and they are doing a decontamination of an area. But in that case, Id also expect that they would want it to occur as quickly and easily as possible since there would be other cleaning burdens that they would be having to take care of. I also do expect that there may be some sort of spray down between guests.

nope I was very closely watching the first chip MSC and a cruiser from that ship was showing and commenting that this was a nightly event. Very detailed postings that she left on Facebook people with and without masks most places with distancing. Not shown in America yet of course because we have no sailing currently. But it absolutely is happening for them.

 

[monkeydawn]

nope I was very closely watching the first chip MSC and a cruiser from that ship was showing and commenting that this was a nightly event. Very detailed postings that she left on Facebook people with and without masks most places with distancing. Not shown in America yet of course because we have no sailing currently. But it absolutely is happening for them.

OH, I missed that report. Any chance you can give me a hint of where to find it.

 

[Snowwhyt]

OH, I missed that report. Any chance you can give me a hint of where to find it.

I’m sorry I was just following from others that were showing things on Facebook and I have no clue how to find it again. It was a weird thing it looked like my husband’s really old weed killer in the garage. I watched every thing she posted somehow for several days. I’m sure she was on the MSC ship though. Although I have been on Disney and RCCL sites so that won’t help much either. I’m so sorry, it looked safe but it was the first cruise out so who knows.

 

[monkeydawn]

I’m sorry I was just following from others that were showing things on Facebook and I have no clue how to find it again. It was a weird thing it looked like my husband’s really old weed killer in the garage. I watched every thing she posted somehow for several days. I’m sure she was on the MSC ship though. Although I have been on Disney and RCCL sites so that won’t help much either. I’m so sorry, it looked safe but it was the first cruise out so who knows.

Im not really on FB so that would explain my missing that report.

But yeah if MSC is spraying down hallways and there arent real changes before DCL starts sailing again, then I dont see a way they wouldnt do it nightly. And its an interesting point that even if this is entirely Theater with respect to Covid that it could help with ailments that look like Covid. So that alone would be a good enough reason to do it.

Cases are going to happen at sea, they just are. For cruises to be successful, there needs to be some other solution than grounding the entire cruise and quarantining people. They need to sort out a way for the cruise to continue for the unaffected parties, with heavy monitoring so that positives can be effectively quarantined but negatives can continue.

 

[Starwind]

I’m sorry I was just following from others that were showing things on Facebook and I have no clue how to find it again. It was a weird thing it looked like my husband’s really old weed killer in the garage. I watched every thing she posted somehow for several days. I’m sure she was on the MSC ship though. Although I have been on Disney and RCCL sites so that won’t help much either. I’m so sorry, it looked safe but it was the first cruise out so who knows.

My guess is it may be an electrostatic sprayer. Many airlines and other facilities are using them, as one of th pros of them vs traditional sprayers is that humans can immediately go into the area after use.

This is a description of some of Norwegian Cruise Line's proposed health and safety protocols, from an article at Cruise Critic in June https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5375/

"All staterooms, suites and public areas will be disinfected at an increased frequency with Electrostatic Spray technology. Fogging will use hypochlorous acid (HOCl), a non-toxic, powerful oxidant that effectively kills bacteria, spores, and viruses. It is natural and safe to use in open areas since it is comprised of natural elements such as water and salt, and electric charge."

And some info about electrostatic sprayer systems for Covid [mix of govt, media and commercial links]:

https://www.cloroxpro.com/products/clorox/total-360/
https://globalnews.ca/news/7240082/coronavirus-spray-cleaners-hamilton/
https://www.publichealthontario.ca/...faq-covid-19-electrostatic-sprayers.pdf?la=en [this has some good info re: science of effectiveness of the method]

https://blog.westjet.com/westjet-aircraft-cleaning-and-sanitization-coronavirus-covid-19/ [has a section and video on Aircraft Fogging]

SW

 

[Donna3271]

I think a huge amount of first time cruisers participate in FE's as well as CC members. All the cruise groups I belonged to had a pretty fair amount of first timers and CC members interested in FE's

I participated in them a few times but personally I find it very stressful to plan, pack and distribute. Maybe when my grandkids are a bit older they will be interested (if they are still allowed).

MJ

MJ,
I TOTALLY AGREE! It became so arduous for me. Stressing about suitcase room, gift choices, distribution. I am so much happier not participating. It became a job on vacation! I still hang me FE and put SMALL gifts in for my kids!