Honeymoon cruise cancel? What else to do?

We are planning a little driving vacation. In your case head north- South Carolina or North, maybe a cabin in the hills/mountains in the Smokys (cute private ones that all seem to have hot tubs). We’re just doing tourist things, hanging out, enjoying life with no set plans.

Yeah, I think they're really trying to discourage cruise travel now given how quickly disease spreads on cruise ships.


Maybe you can book a nice AirBnB or hotel on the beach in Tampa?

I like the idea of just doing an AirBnB with a private pool and relax for your honeymoon. Lots of things to do locally or even a day trip around the area to enjoy.

View Quoted Comment My FH and I have done Airbnb in the Gatlinburg area on two separate occasions and have enjoyed it tremendously.
The only reason we aren’t honeymooning there is because we are getting married in Gatlinburg and wanted to go away from the family who will probably stick around the area a few days after the wedding.

View Quoted Comment

We live in Chicago. We’re going to Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, St. Louis and Davenport Iowa. (The last stop is so we can attend graduation for my great nephew in Iowa City). We’re spending a day in each except Nashville for 2 days. Going to museums, bars, baseball game, jazz club, hunky tonks and just generally hanging out listening to music and enjoying married life.

View Quoted Comment That sounds like fun! I live in the Nashville area!


My FH’s one request for honeymoon was that we do t have to spend a whole day traveling so we are looking at places we can get to in a few hours by car, SC, NC, GA...

View Quoted Comment

Which is why we’re doing one day here and there. I don’t want to be in car for more than a 4-5 at most. We will pack a cooler and crank the Sirius XM up. Besides I’ve never been to any of them besides briefly (more for business and not fun) and FH has never been to any.

This coronavirus sucks! We just canceled our group vacation cruise that was sailing next week. I’ve had zero worry about our wedding or the planning until now. Hope it slows down by October. But regardless, FH and I decided that we’ll still get married on 10/10/20 even if locally at the JOP then celebrate with a reception at another time (even if we lose our payments 🤷🏽‍♀️)

We were just in Tampa...loved it!

Perhaps look at the events there, stay in a hotel at the bay or off the beach and just enjoy the coastal city. The city is always bustling with creative and engaging events and the bay has beautiful water-related activities including sunset dinner cruises. My brother just moved to St Petersburg which is the sister city to Tampa so we hung out there and one of the beach bars and it was like a mini vacation...we loved it!

Hilton head island!!! It is GORGEOUS! That’s terrible about your cruise. Better to be safe than sorry, though. Even if you didn’t get sick...that quarantine would be enough to make you lose your mind.

My sister-in-law is a microbiologist and she thinks this is all ridiculous (as we all do)! People die more from the flu then the virus! This is just a another thing that the media blew out of proportion. You have a higher chance in winning the lottery then getting the virus! Don’t be afraid of doing what you want todo!

We are in the same boat as you! We found a cruise we love but haven’t booked yet. We are now reconsidering maybe going to the Florida Key. I use to leave near Gatlinburg though and it’s beautiful up there with a lot to do! I also seen someone recommend Hilton Head and when I was younger we went there and stayed on Daufuskie Island.

While I agree with pp about caution being overblown for healthy people, FWIW we have close family on a 14-day cruise in the South Pacific. All travelers were thoroughly screened before they boarded and there is currently no reason to think anyone on the ship (a high-end, well-respected luxury line) is infected. However, more than 2/3 of their stops have been cancelled because ports will not allow them to dock/disembark.... They've spent the bulk of their cruise floating around in the middle of the Pacific, and will only make 2, maybe 3 of the planned stops. Not the worst case scenario by any means, but definitely NOT the trip they planned on.

Also, there's been a cruise ship with infected passengers/crew held in San Francisco Bay for nearly two weeks, and if those people are very lucky, they are finally going to let them leave the ship today, but they will go for up to two weeks at one of four military bases in the US for quarantine.... I think the huge potential for disruption is what would keep me off a ship right now, not necessarily personal concerns about getting sick.

OP good luck finding something fun and relaxing to do stateside if you end up postponing the cruise....

We are supposed to cruise on 04/12 for our honeymoon out of Puerto Rico. Worst case scenario...we will still fly to PR (our flights are non-refundable) and will vacation there instead. We'll use the cruise voucher to sail at a later date. I just can't believe this is happening. We waited 6 years to get married and have been planning for 2 years. Never saw something like this coming.

View Quoted Comment

THIS

Don't cancel your plans. I'm a Flight Attendant currently working and just had a micro-biologist who told me the SAME thing. If you as a healthy adult (no immune system disorders, cancer recovery, etc) contract this virus, you literally have a 98% survival rate. The only people who this will truly impact will be those over 70 year's old. The cruise lines are taking all the pre-cautions, they are scanning everyone for fever's prior to boarding the ship, they are taking health questionnaire's and even offering last minute cancellations with ZERO penalties so if you did come down with the flu you could cancel. Going on a vacation is as risky as going to any public place. DON'T CANCEL YOUR LIFE PLANS over Media Hype.

Thankfully we got an email from our cruise line last week letting us know that they were allowing people to postpone their cruises up to 2022. We were planning on still going until i got into work this morning and was told that corporate has decided that anyone who goes on a cruise at this time will have to self quarantine for two weeks. I get paid every two weeks and my cruise is two weeks long and I have no vacation time so I would be without a paycheck for a month or longer and that does not sound like any fun to me so postponing the cruise it is.

Clearwater Beach and St Pete Beach are close and beautiful. Book a place there and do your cruise later.

What cruise line are you on? NCL is allowing cancellation for refunds up to 48 hours before. I would wait until much closer to the deadline before making your decision.

Thanks for the information guys!

I am definitely not worried about me getting the coronavirus, I'm sure I will get it soon enough being a physician in a busy urgent care.

I am more worried about others getting sick on the cruise and having to deal with a quarantine.
I am thinking of looking into a resort in the Keys to hang out for the week

View Quoted Comment

Royal Caribbean- they are also offering credits up to 48 hours in advance but I want to book a back up way before that in case a hotel is booked up etc. I am going to make a decision probably in 2 weeks.