INDONESIA - 2021 Cancellations Ahead, is your booking at risk?

[elegant_phyllidia]

@elegant _hyllidia

Are you comfortable sharing the name of the boat?

Have you looked at their upcoming scheduling for open slots that will fit your schedule?

Yep, going on Seahorse for March and an excited since the boat itinerary includes stops in Misool, on my bucket list. I did Raja Ampat years ago as a newbie diver (a bad idea ~ had 20 dives under my belt, what was I thinking???) and some of the dives were really hard with strong currents. In fact, one of the dives 3 folks ran out of oxygen and another one, encountered washing machine currents. I also went with a jenky boat that was super backpacker style but hey, had tons of fun as everyone was really cool. Now that I have more dives under my belt and went through the rite of passage of Komodo, I want some redemption going back to Raja lol. My favorite dive stop is Melissa's Garden which blew me away years ago ~ so magical and epic! Raja of course spoiled me for future trips so that is why I am always drawn to Indonesia.

 

[Illini_Fan]

Well - I moved my Jan 2022 trip to Jan 2023 yesterday Mermaid was great. Simple email to them and they moved the booking. Cancelled all the flights and now have miles with AA, UA and a BA "voucher" since they won't actually redeposit the Avios miles.

 

[Cert1967]

Well - I moved my Jan 2022 trip to Jan 2023 yesterday Mermaid was great. Simple email to them and they moved the booking. Cancelled all the flights and now have miles with AA, UA and a BA "voucher" since they won't actually redeposit the Avios miles.

Your decision or Mermaid canceled the trip?

 

[Dan]

Our group of 7 is starting to look for rescheduling option for our trip to Raja Ampat on Feb 10, 2022. Blue Manta won’t make the decision whether the trip is a go or not until 60 days in advance (Dec. 10).

 

[Indah]

Our group of 7 is starting to look for rescheduling option for our trip to Raja Ampat on Feb 10, 2022. Blue Manta won’t make the decision whether the trip is a go or not until 60 days in advance (Dec. 10).

The question which nobody can answer yet is, will there be a next wave of covid-19 cases in January 2022? By then 50% of the population might be fully vaccinated.

 

[Illini_Fan]

Your decision or Mermaid canceled the trip?

Mine - they had planned on making a decision 60 days outs (i.e. around 31OCT), but EVA cancelled my ORD-TPE leg and I didn't feel like trying to find another route just to have to get it cancelled (most likely) by Mermaid a few days later.

 

[drrich2]

The question which nobody can answer yet is, will there be a next wave of covid-19 cases in January 2022? By then 50% of the population might be fully vaccinated.

Which ties into another question; will there be continued COVID-19 variant waves even after the bulk of the population are vaccinated?

In the U.S., high vaccination levels to reach the coveted 'herd immunity level' were expected to erect an strong barrier to the virus' community spread; unfortunately, and particularly with the Delta variant, that's not quite how things have played out.

Yes, vaccination provides strong protection against hospitalization and death (but famous American Colin Powell, in his 80's, just died with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated, from what I understand). But antibody levels drop off substantially within a few months, vaccinated people can contract Delta, at least temporarily host levels similar to an unvaccinated person, and potentially spread it.

So even once Indonesia gets well clear of the 50% vaccinated mark, it may still have occasional waves of SARS-CoV-2, albeit much less damaging (we hope). At what point do we accept this as the 'new normal,' and keep things open despite that?

We live in interesting times.

 

[Indah]

Which ties into another question; will there be continued COVID-19 variant waves even after the bulk of the population are vaccinated?

In the U.S., high vaccination levels to reach the coveted 'herd immunity level' were expected to erect an strong barrier to the virus' community spread; unfortunately, and particularly with the Delta variant, that's not quite how things have played out.

Yes, vaccination provides strong protection against hospitalization and death (but famous American Colin Powell, in his 80's, just died with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated, from what I understand). But antibody levels drop off substantially within a few months, vaccinated people can contract Delta, at least temporarily host levels similar to an unvaccinated person, and potentially spread it.

So even once Indonesia gets well clear of the 50% vaccinated mark, it may still have occasional waves of SARS-CoV-2, albeit much less damaging (we hope). At what point do we accept this as the 'new normal,' and keep things open despite that?

We live in interesting times.

Even if vaccination would offr full protection against becoming very sick, with 50% vaccinated 135 million people are still vulnerable.