Cap’n Tom:
Since you follow cruise line doings closely, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions, if you know:
- When a ship cruises now, and there’s an outbreak during the cruise, do they freak out and abort the cruise, or just isolate the people with COVID?
- When these cruises go into port, can the passengers get off and mingle and shop and go on short expeditions, like they used to pre-COVID? Or do they have to stay in herded, cruiseline mandated expereinces?
- Because of COVID, do you know if ships have updated their air filtration systems, like airlines have (supposedly)? On a ship, AFAIK, there are a dozen or so big HVAC systems supporting their share of the rooms. So, there’s a lot of potential for mixing of aerosols between rooms. Have they done anything about it?
- Do cruise ships currently operate with full passenger loads, or have they kept them restricted so they can have more spacing around the ship (e.g. dining areas, decks, night club)
If you have any opinions, I’d be grateful for them. I do invest, and I too can’t see how these companies climb through their debt mountains absent some dilution by selling more shares.
I can read a balance sheet, but I haven’t been on a cruise since a few years before COVID, and don’t know whether operations have recovered. Some of the items I mentioned directly impact profit; some go to the desirability of taking a cruise, which will indirectly affect revenues.
Thanks.
I’ll try to answer some of your questions.
Unless there is an incredibly large outbreak, they quarantine the passengers.
It depends on what ship and port they are in whether you can go off on your own, or need to be in a ship approved shore excursion.
Supposedly they have the latest air conditioning systems, but who really knows.
As far as going with full passengers, they are claiming that now, but experiences shows some ships are far from filled.
Since they cannot stop the vaccinated and boosted passengers from coming down with COVID, they changed the rules recently, where the ships won’t report the COVID outbreaks, and you have to inquire with the cruise line to find out how many people had covid on your trip. -Tom
Before you INVEST, go on a DECENT CRUISE LINE....CELEBRITY....ROYAL.....PRINCESS! Cruising has been fabulous for us.....we’ve done 90......and 9 since the COVID restrictions have been lifted.