In one of my recent articles I wrote about how we are going to make the VEGAS VOYAGERS great again and build it back better than ever before. I believe that with all my heart. Our travel club has achieved great success and we have truly brought thousands of people together through the love of travel.
Now, we are beginning to see signs of a reawakening of the urge to travel. We are receiving phone calls about when we will announce our “WelcomeBack” VEGAS VOIYAGERS trip. Folks are making initial inquiries about individual travel. So there are rumblings; there is a pent up desire to travel.
And the real good news, especially as it deals with cruises, is that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has lifted the “No Cruise” order here in the U.S., and replaced it with a “Path to Cruising rules” that the cruise lines must meet to reopen. There are “hoops” that the cruise lines must jump to get the necessary certification from the CDC to open. For example, the cruise lines will have to provide social distancing plans for their ships. The cruise lines will have to show the enhanced medical rules regulations and facilities they will have for each ship. Finally, the cruise lines will have to have “trial” cruises with cruise line employees as passengers to actually see how all these “new normal” procedures work in a real time basis.
This is the path that has been outlined by the United States Center for Disease Control.
The next question is; when can we expect the first cruise to sail with paying passengers? The simple answer is not before we get the public health issue of the pandemic under control. The sooner we tamp down the infection rates all over the country the better. If we do the things that public health care officials are telling us to do the quicker the world of travel will open up. An effective vaccine will help tremendously. Social distancing, washing your hands and wearing a mask will hasten the VEGAS VOICE travel plans for our groups. These small temporary measures that bring down infection rates will certainly increase the degree of confidence in the public to travel.
In my opinion, If we do all these things we could see the first cruises as early as mid-March. But this is all dependent, as mentioned, on the infection rates coming down. If we don’t follow guidelines it will just take longer for the travel industry to come back. For those of us who like to travel, it’s just that simple. Stay safe. MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HANUCAH to all.
