(Bloomberg) -- Guests aboard Carnival’s cruise that was scheduled to disembark at the port of San Francisco today are confined to their rooms. Meanwhile, people scheduled on future cruises are encouraged to climb aboard... for free drinks.
Until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives the green light, no one on the Grand Princess is going anywhere.
Yet guests choosing to keep bookings scheduled to depart between Friday and May 31 will receive credits for drinks, spa treatments and excursions of $100 per cabin for three and four day cruises, $150 per cabin for five day cruises, and $200 per cabin for six day and longer cruises, Carnival said Friday in a letter to future guests.
Buffets are free as normal, the company said in a separate email.
Coupled with relatively inexpensive fares the newfound bargains may be enough for some people to climb aboard what have been called floating petri dishes.
In February 2019, Carnival advertised a 15-day Hawaii cruise on the Grand Princess for about $105 a night. Now, the same interior room is going for about $81 a night.
Carnival operates Diamond Princess, the ship where hundreds of passengers became infected when it docked in Japan earlier this year. As part of a lesson learned, ship-goers must pass through no-touch thermometers as they board.
Vice President Mike Pence met on Saturday with representatives of the cruise ship industry, who assured him they are taking all precautions to prevent future outbreaks. He said senior citizens with underlying heath conditions should avoid cruises.
Some medical experts say the risks are too large for anyone.
“The fact that cruises are departing at this moment shows that the Federal government is not taking Covid-19 seriously enough,” UCLA disease professor Anne Rimoin tweeted Saturday.
President Donald Trump told reporters Friday he’d leave it to the experts he’s appointed to decide when to let people off Carnival’s Grand Princess. Personally, he said, “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”
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