Archives for June 2020

(CNN) — When she arrived back home after weeks stranded at sea on board the Pacific Princess cruise ship, passenger CJ Hayden, a San Francisco-based author and business coach, submitted a refund request right away.

By her reckoning, she and partner Dave Herninko were owed around $37,500.

“They weren’t going to charge us for the days that we spent floating around the Indian Ocean with nowhere to go,” Hayden tells CNN.

The Pacific Princess set sail back in January for a 111-day round-the-world voyage that was curtailed in mid-March when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the cruise industry.

Hayden and fellow Pacific Princess passengers say they were told they could apply for 100% of their refund back in cash, plus a matching amount in credit against future trips — known as Future Cruise Credit (FCC). Alternatively, they were offered 250% in credit against future trips.

Hayden opted for the former option. She and Herninko say they were also owed for air tickets back home, excess baggage fees, money for prepaid land excursions that never happened and port taxes and fees.

Hayden says she chased up the cruise line three weeks after the refund request as she hadn’t heard anything and was subsequently told by Princess Cruises she should expect to wait 30 days.

A month later, Hayden had heard nothing further. She checked in again and was told 60 days.

Fast-forward to end of June, and Hayden says it’s been 99 days and counting. She’s received her credit, but her cash is nowhere to be seen.

Lengthy delays in processing refunds

CJ Hayden, pictured, by the Pacific Princess cruise ship.

Courtesy CJ Hayden

And she isn’t the only one who’s been affected.

While stuck at sea, Hayden and Herninko formed tight bonds with fellow stranded travelers. Back home, the former shipmates remained in contact and these other Pacific Princess passengers told Hayden they too were waiting to receive refunds.

Browsing online cruise message boards and social media, Hayden realized the issue extended beyond the Pacific Princess. Other Princess Cruises passengers and passengers from other cruise companies were also vocal about long waits.

Frustratingly, while waiting for refunds, they’ve watched cruise operators advertise new excursions. Some of those trips were later cancelled after industry body Cruise Lines International Association extended a “no sail order” until September 15.

Hayden says she has complained to the California attorney general, the US Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Maritime Commission.

Princess Cruises director of public relations, Negin Kamali, told CNN that guests had been updated on the refund process via social media and email.

CJ Hayden with partner Dave Herninko on the Pacific Princess cruise ship.

Courtesy CJ Hayden

“Because we respect our guest’s money and time, processing refunds has remained one of our top priorities since our company paused operations,” the statement read.

Princess Cruises said it had had to “ramp up our systems capabilities” in order to handle the volume and complexity of refunds.

The cruise line said that almost 60% of refunds had been completed and that reimbursements and credit were handled separately.

“Therefore, it’s normal to receive one at a different time than the other. In many circumstances, your full Future Cruise Credit amount will be made up of two or three separate FCCs,” reads the statement.

Cash refunds may also come in a series of payments, the cruise line added.

Kamali told CNN that Hayden’s refund was processed June 19 and she should receive it within five to seven business days.

A widespread issue with delayed refunds

Other cruise passengers who spoke to CNN said they had also faced long wait times with no sign of money. Others have received part, but not all, of their owed cash or credit.

David Hidding, who canceled a family Princess Cruises trip to Alaska in March, received a refund last week.

He says he’s frustrated by how the situation was handled.

“I explained that in over 90 days, we had received zero communication from anyone with Princess- which was unacceptable,” Hidding tells CNN. “No apologies, but [a Princess Cruises advisor] reiterated that they have been swamped with issuing refunds.”

Retired business analyst Judy Schmitz, from Iowa, was also on board the Pacific Princess. She opted to receive 100% of her refund back in cash, plus the matching amount in credit.

She’s received the credit, says Schmitz, but she’s still waiting for her cash refund, which she calculates as roughly $33,500.

When she returned home from being stranded at sea, Schmitz was busy looking after her ailing father, who later passed away.

“Until all of the money is refunded to me, I won’t be able to exhale,” she says.

Christina Golston, with her family on board a cruise trip last fall.

Courtesy Christina Golston

Iowa-based nurse Christina Golston, who is waiting for a refund from Carnival Cruise Line, set up a Facebook page to connect passengers waiting for refunds from Carnival Corporation, which owns Princess Cruises — alongside Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America and Costa Cruises.

“There are a lot of people like me that love to cruise but we are in need of our money for bills now, due to loss of work or reduced hours worked,” says Golston.

Carnival Cruise Line representative Vance Gulliksen told CNN that at the beginning of the pause in service, the “sheer volume” of refunds had caused delays.

“But we have continued to automate and streamline the process and collaborated with our bank processor to work more efficiently,” Gulliksen added. “For the most part, we have worked through the backlog and feel that we can now process and issue refunds in a much more timely manner. We certainly appreciate our guests’ patience in this unprecedented interruption to our business.”

‘Much higher volume than normal of refund requests’

New York civil servant Julie Huang says she is waiting for a refund from Norwegian Cruise Line.

Huang submitted her refund request in March — a claim for $9,100 on behalf of herself and several family members. She received an automated response that informed her she should allow 90 days for the request to be processed.

Day 90 came and went in the penultimate week of June, but Huang had received no updates. After failing to get through via telephone, she Tweeted Norwegian.

“There are 90 days’ worth of missed opportunities for them to proactively let me know that they needed more time,” says Huang. “I’m cool with it, I believe our money will come back eventually. But I’m going to lose a little bit of faith right now, if they respond like that, and I didn’t appreciate it.”

“I’m more hung up about their response than I am about the money,” she adds.

Norwegian Cruise Line told CNN the cruise line had a “much higher than normal volume of refund requests to be processed” due to the unprecedented situation.

“Refunds are being handled by voyage departure date and according to the date that refunds were initially requested. Our team is working tirelessly to finalize these refunds back to the original form of payment as promptly as possible,” reads a statement provided to CNN.

“Regrettably, we are experiencing delays with our ability to deliver within the originally communicated 90-day time frame and want to set proper expectations with our ability to deliver. We greatly appreciate our guests for their understanding and patience.”

‘Atypical’ experience

The Pacific Princess at Los Angeles in April, its final port of call after most passengers disembarked in Australia.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Still, while many cruisers are frustrated, some travelers, such as Robert Sohns, haven’t been put off by the experience of being stranded at sea or waiting for money.

Sohns was also on board the Pacific Princess, but unlike Hayden and Schmitz, he opted to get refunded fully in credit against future cruises.

He had to wait 90 days, but the roughly $36,500 credit is now in his Princess Cruises account, and a further $36,500 of credit is in his wife’s account.

“We were just hoping they didn’t go into bankruptcy,” says Sohns. “We just bided our time, knowing they’d get to us eventually.”

Sohns and his wife have put their credit toward a 2022 Pacific Princess world cruise, aiming to replicate the 2020 voyage that should have been.

“We’ve probably been on close to 100 cruises in the last 50 years, and half of those have been on Princess and we’ve always known that there’s a potentiality for things going on on the ships, but this is just so atypical.”

(CNN) — Disneyland in Southern California, which debuted on July 17, 1955, had been aiming for a phased reopening on its 65th anniversary, July 17.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Disney did not give a new reopening date for the Disneyland resort.

Visitors take photos in front of the Castle of Magical Dreams at Hong Kong’s Disneyland on June 18. The California version hopes to reopen on July 17 but has delayed that plan for now.

Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

The move shows that the pandemic is still a undeniable fact of life. But we can still expect that on some unknown day — and further in the future that we may have thought — Disneyland will reopen.

At that time, each potential Disneyland guest still must ask themselves the same question they were asking before the announcement: Should I go?

The answer you come up with will involve three main considerations:

1. The situation with the pandemic and reopenings is fluid, as Disney’s recent postponement announcement demonstrates. You need to keep up with the latest information and be flexible as things might change.

2. You must think about your medical history and the level of risk you’re willing to take for yourself and your party.

3. Personal preferences matter. How do you think you’ll react to a Disneyland with mandatory face masks, ride schedules and social distancing?

Stay up with the latest information

The center gate at the entrance to Disneyland was shut on this photo from March 16. And for now, it’s going to remain that way.

Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images

The first thing to remember is you’ll need to remain flexible. What we learn about Covid-19 changes daily.

So as you make your plans, remember than none of this is firm.

Your medical considerations

So you’ve caught up with the latest policies and rules — and postponements.

But before you decide whether to go to Disneyland down the road (or any amusement park for that matter), give yourself and members of your party an honest health assessment.

Schaffner said you should give very careful consideration to making a trip to theme parks if you:

— Are 65 and older.
— Have chronic, underlying illnesses or heart and lung conditions.
— Are immunocompromised.
— Have high blood pressure or diabetes.

Even in the days and hours leading up to a potential visit, you’ll need to monitor yourself and your family for telltale symptoms of Covid-19 infection such as a high fever or sudden loss of smell. Remember, Disneyland and many other theme parks plan to take temperature checks before you enter a park.

If you show symptoms, it’s best to head to a doctor’s office instead of Disneyland.

You’ll also need to consider things such as how you get there. Schaffner pointed out you have more control of your environment if you drive instead of fly.

Amusement parks: High-risk activity?

Dr. Shannon Hopson, an endocrinologist in Corvallis, Oregon, gave CNN Travel her reaction to the high risk ranking for amusement parks:

“I was pretty surprised. … But after thinking about it, it does make sense. So much of a theme park is waiting in line, and at Disney, it’s often waiting in line in enclosed spaces.”

Risk vs. reward

In the end, Schaffner says you need to decide your own risk tolerance. Are you “more conservative or more adventurous”?

If you decide to go and you’re in a higher-risk group, you should follow the guidelines to the letter, Schaffner cautions.

“You don’t want to have this wonderful, pleasurable experience and then get infected by this virus. It is very nasty.”

You need to ask yourself this: “Is the benefit worth the risk? And there will be a variety of answers to that.”

Disney’s new line of cloth masks can make a following safety measures more fun.

If you decide the reward is worth the risk, Hopson has some advice: “Wear a mask!”

“Etsy has some great Disney-themed ones, as does the online Disney store. In my office, I see patients on a daily basis who haven’t worn masks much and end up fiddling with it our entire visit because it doesn’t feel comfortable,” she says.

“Make sure it fits comfortably before you leave for the park so you can put it on and then not touch it again.”

The personal experience

Your rendevous with Mickey Mouse and the gang at Disneyland is postponed.

Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort

If you’re armed with the latest updates and feel secure enough about your health to consider planning a Disneyland trip, you have one last — and very personal — question to ask:

Are you going to enjoy a park that’s a safety-first operation?

“Obviously, it’s going to be a diminished experience in many ways. People who like the theme parks tend to like crowds,” Lewison recently told CNN Travel. “You’re really packed in there. That’s exciting, and the people-watching is fun.”

So if you are one of those who feed off the energy of the crowd, think about how reduced park capacity will affect your enjoyment, he says.

Wearing masks all day long, setting appointments for your activities and distancing from the characters could prove a real downer to some people, while other guests could feel more relaxed with lots of safety measures in place, Lewison says.

In the end, you’ll have to decide for yourself if you’re a park half-empty or park half-full kind of person and go from there.

What Disneyland fans are thinking

CNN Travel spoke with three Disneyland fans before Wednesday evening’s announcement that the opening would be delayed. We wanted to find out what’s on their minds as the potential opening date loomed.

“I’ve been to Disneyland too many times to keep count,” Harvey says. “The past couple of years, I have averaged a trip about every other month. My favorite attraction is Pirates of the Caribbean.”

The family had to cancel a three-day vacation in March because of the pandemic.

“We had seen the writing on the wall in the week leading up to the parks’ closure announcement and were watching cancellation windows carefully.”

So will Harvey and her family move fast once the park reopens?

“As of right now, I’m not planning to go to Disneyland right away, although I do have a few friends who will be there on opening day. I’d like to see how the reservations system works in practice and how park operations are handled first.”

Harvey says she’s happy with what she’s hearing so far.

“I’m quite comfortable with the safety measures Disney is putting into place, like requiring masks, installing physical distancing markers, and reducing capacity. Since I’m located in Northern California, however, taking a trip also requires considering the risk factor in flying or embarking on a long road trip.

“I’m a bit less comfortable with the state of air travel at the moment. If we lived in the local area, however, we would probably consider going sooner.”

Instead, Harvey said they are keeping their eye on the fall.

“Although I’m very much in favor of masks and would not consider going at all if they were not required of everyone, I’m realistic about them, too,” she said. “I don’t think I’d be able to keep masks on my kids on a hot Southern California summer day for an extended period of time.

“One of the reasons we rescheduled our family trip for the fall is for the more moderate temperatures that will make mask-wearing a bit easier.”

“For friends who are considering a once-in-a-lifetime trip or even a once-every-few-years trip, I’ve recommended that many of them hold off for now because the experience will certainly be diminished.”

Making up for lost time

Ryan Ritchie, a tub and tile refinisher, lives in Duarte, a small city in Los Angeles County, California. He’s been a Disneyland passholder since the early 2000s and likes to drop in when the mood hits.

“I don’t think I could name a favorite thing about the park. I just love it all — being there feels like home to me. Soon as I enter the park, I just get an overwhelming sense of relief. … I try to spend my birthday there every year.”

He said he visited Disneyland the same week its March closing was announced. And he plans on making up for lost time.

“I plan on going as much as I possibly can to make up for the months I wasn’t able to. Plus my annual pass is good til October 23, which is my birthday. So I will be going that day for sure.”

His main concern with the reopening isn’t health-related but about what happens to his existing pass.

“How will they make it up to passholders?” Ritchie asks. “Will they extend our passes the amount of time they are closed and how will the reservation system for entrance work? Do passholders get priority?

“I’m just ready for them to go back to normal.”

Ready to follow the rules

Lisa Mallory, a stay-at-home mom in Southern California, says she and her daughter, 13-year-old Graysen, “are obsessed with DLand!”

She and her husband, Steve Mallory, have been going to Disneyland for 28 years. In fact, they went there on their honeymoon.

“I can’t count how many times I have gone, but I do know one year I went 17 times. I could probably do it blindfolded.”

Like many Disneyland fans, they had to cancel a March trip because of the pandemic. Where do things stand with the Mallory family now?

The Mallory family planned to put thrilling attractions such as Indiana Jones Adventure on hold until summer is over anyway.

Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort

“We never go during summer months. It’s just too busy and hot,” she says. “We are still planning on going in September and playing it by ear. If anyone can handle a pandemic, it’s Disney.”

What are Mallory’s concerns with coronavirus safety measures?

“I don’t mind wearing masks and following all the rules; it’s worth it,” she said. “I’m just concerned about the one person who doesn’t think masks are needed and causes a commotion. Because we have a pass, we feel that we are going to check it out and decide for ourselves if the fun and joy are taken away because of the strict guidelines.

“I do hope that Disneyland has extra staff to hand out masks when people take them off and have a safe way to remove those people who don’t follow rules.”

A Disney diagnosis from Doctor Mom

The Hopsons of Oregon had really been looking forward to exploring their love of “Star Wars” at Disneyland before the pandemic.

Handout/Matt Stroshane/Disneyland

Hopson, the endocrinologist in Oregon, is also the mother of two boys — Zach, 6, and Finn, 9. Before moving West, she lived in North Carolina, so she’s a fan of Disney World as well as Disneyland.

“Our first visit to Disneyland as a family was over Halloween when Finn was three, and that sparked an obsession with “Star Wars” that continues to this day. We were looking forward to exploring Galaxy’s Edge this year.”

Like the other families interviewed, they also had to cancel a Disneyland trip this spring.

What does a cautious doctor who has two boys that are prime Disneyland age do with a reopening on the horizon?

“So far the data suggests that masks are our best strategy for preventing the spread of Covid-19,” Hopson says. “Disneyland successfully enforcing a mandatory mask policy and maintaining capacity limits would be the only things that would convince me to plan a trip before the worst of the pandemic is over. And even then, I’m hesitant.”

For now, Disneyland is off the table. Instead, “we’re renting a beach house on the Oregon coast for a week this summer.”

In a statement, the government said the move will allow people to “holiday abroad this summer, and also provide a vital lifeline for UK travel operators and those whose jobs rely on the travel industry.”

It added that a full list of the low-risk countries will be published next week and travel to those destinations will be able to resume the following week.

“Our new risk-assessment system will enable us to carefully open a number of safe travel routes around the world — giving people the opportunity for a summer holiday abroad and boosting the UK economy through tourism and business,” a government spokesperson said.

“But we will not hesitate to put on the brakes if any risks re-emerge, and this system will enable us to take swift action to re-introduce self-isolation measures if new outbreaks occur overseas,” the spokesperson added.

Risk assessment

Countries’ risk are calculated using factors including the “prevalence of coronavirus within the country, our confidence in the reliability of their data, and crucially the trajectory of the disease in the country,” a government statement read.

“Low risk countries in the green and amber categories will be exempt from public health measures at the border,” it added.

The 14-day quarantine will remain for international arrivals from “countries not yet deemed to be safe, as well as requirements for all passengers entering the UK to supply their contact information,” it added.

(CNN) — In downtown Buffalo, New York, crossing the border into Ontario, Canada, used to be as easy as driving one mile across the Peace Bridge over the Niagara River. But that’s now a forbidden route.

Since the United States has more confirmed coronavirus cases than anywhere else in the world, with numbers increasing in some states each day, US travelers are unlikely to be allowed in any time soon.

“The US’s chances are close to zero,” an EU diplomat told CNN. “With their infection rates … not even they can believe in that possibility.”

As long as the US-Canada border remains closed, visiting Niagara Falls in Ontario won’t be possible for US citizens.

LARS HAGBERG/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Where does this new world order leave US citizens with a penchant for travel?

Nostalgic for the pre-Covid days when a US passport promised access to much of the world? Anxious of how they’ll be perceived — and received — by foreign countries when restrictions are eventually loosened?

The future of travel for Americans, and whether they’ll be welcome again as tourists, is not clear; in many ways, it’s a moot point for as long as travel to certain regions is prohibited.

Many destinations, including Japan and Vietnam as well as the EU, have indicated they would be open to travel channels with China.

Uninvited

And for many people, that’s just how it should be.

A trip through Canada is unlikely to be a summer vacation option for Americans while the Covid-19 outbreak in the US continues to swell.

Courtesy Via Rail Canada

Colleen Friesen, who lives in a small resort town in British Columbia, hopes the US-Canadian border stays closed.

“The majority of Canadians are strongly against allowing Americans into the country due to the US’s rampant infection rate. Although some states seem to be managing the pandemic, when we see news of Oklahoma allowing an indoor rally, we just shake our collective heads,” Friesen tells CNN Travel via email.

Stacey McKenna, who is based in Colorado, isn’t ready to think about international travel of any kind right now, though she stipulates that it’s partially because the places on her radar “are extremely vulnerable economically and geographically,” and she wouldn’t be willing to risk exposing anyone.

“I think if I reach a place where I feel international (or even air) travel would be appropriate, then I’ll start asking myself if I think I’d be welcome.”

For New York-based travel writer Juliet Izon, who canceled a summer vacation in Italy months ago when there was still a glimmer of hope that things might resume, seeing where the United States is compared with other countries is disheartening and depressing.

Izon believes she’ll take the trip to Italy one day but says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if in certain countries if they don’t allow Americans in for a while or a really strict quarantine for years to come,” adding that the United States’ handling of Covid-19 was likely to be “another black mark against us.”

The other? The state of US politics.

Friesen, who says she appreciates her country’s politicians taking a backseat to the scientific and medical community, is scared of the way the virus in the United States “has become politicized.”

France is moving through stages of reopening, but US citizens are not yet on the list of countries who can visit.

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images

But one EU diplomat ,who spoke to CNN earlier in the week on condition of anonymity, calls the US-EU travel decision a very sensitive issue and insists “it is only ever about health.”

“For sure, you can see not being on the list as something political, when one country is allowed in and another is not, but this is a misrepresentation of what we are doing. We are looking to open our borders, this is a positive step.”

In spite of this statement and the EU diplomat’s insistence that “we want people to come,” the much-changed travel landscape has some people concerned.

“Rather than thinking about the near future of travel, I’ve been pondering how all of this will affect xenophobia more generally,” says McKenna.

A holistic experience

Dennis Geronimus, New York University art history associate professor and chair, has historically combined business and leisure travel, often to Italy. He is not personally concerned about how he’ll be received when he travels internationally again — and he’s someone who’ll likely be able to travel on certain foreign soils well before other Americans.

This is in large part because of the nature of his travel. Geronimus is typically hosted by international colleagues and admits that it is “different than going on vacation somewhere not knowing anyone and then just diving into the culture and going to see the sites and seeing other foreigners at the sites as well.”

At this time, American travelers can’t go to Italy and cities such as Rome (above), at least not for pure leisure travel.

ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

There are steps Geronimus could take now to potentially be granted access forbidden to US leisure travelers, though he’d still be subject to the quarantine.

In any event, though he’d like to see the Raphael exhibition in Rome and collaborate with colleagues in Italy, he’s not planning a trip to the region anytime soon.

It might be deemed essential, but Geronimus doesn’t see it as essential enough. Instead, the professor would prefer to focus on the measures needed to resume on-site classes at NYU this fall.

Likewise, McKenna, whose background is in medical anthropology and public health, is thinking about other, bigger things: “I’ll be honest. I haven’t even gotten to the question of whether I think I would feel welcome as an American” since international travel is just not appropriate right now.

Says US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “We’ve been working with countries all across the world, including our friends in Europe and the EU proper to determine how it is we can best safely reopen international travel. It’s important for the United States to get Europeans the capacity to travel back to the United States.”

Safety first

It’s not about Americans, per se, says New Zealander Elen Turner, though it’s hard to ignore the restrictions impacting them along with the number of confirmed Covid deaths and cases.

“I think once the borders reopen properly, New Zealanders will be as welcoming of Americans as they will be with any other travelers,” Turner says.

But Friesen, who is troubled by the United States’ handling of the pandemic, says, “Given the push back on the pandemic protocols we’ve seen in the US, we just don’t believe that Americans will do the right thing.”

While New Zealand may form a travel bubble with Australia, it’s unlikely Americans will be allowed in any time soon.

Courtesy Shutterstock

However, for so many people CNN Travel spoke with, the health and safety of others — and doing what’s right — is paramount.

Chicago-based photographer and writer Joshua Mellin says: “I think to travel internationally for leisure right now demonstrates a total lack of care, you deserve whatever stares you get.”

Mellin adds: “I’m personally of the mind we’re all global citizens, but there’s still a reality you’re not entitled access to a foreign country, you’re granted entry.”

When it comes to granting foreigners entry, Turner would be comfortable taking cues from the New Zealand government. Right now, returning New Zealand citizens must quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, and no one else is allowed in.

If, down the line, the quarantine was applied to all visitors to New Zealand, what then?

“So if that was to be extended to all arrivals then I think New Zealanders would be fine with that because generally, our government has handled the pandemic well and there’s a high degree of trust in them,” Turner says.

She adds, however, that she doesn’t see this happening, does not envision a New Zealand opening itself up to foreigners until quarantine is no longer necessary.

The idea of a pre-holiday quarantine is the subject of scrutiny anyway.

‘We’re reopening’

While enforced quarantines will deter many a traveler, other regions with no quarantines in effect might entice them.

US travelers can fly to Mexico, but for many, the risks aren’t worth it. Pictured: Parroquia de San Miguell Arcángel in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.

Shutterstock

Whether hotel promotions or upgrades or relaxed policies on cancellation, the sweet chorus of “we are opening” could potentially jump start what has been a very dark period in the tourism sector.

For many of the US travelers that CNN Travel spoke to for this story, being welcomed or feeling welcome in another country is beside the point.

The danger of exposure and of being exposed looms. And then there’s the fear of being stuck somewhere far away.

Elizabeth Lavis, who is originally from upstate New York, found herself scrambling to get out of Vietnam in March amid the outbreak and sudden stringent travel restrictions. That ordeal and what’s transpired with the coronavirus since have made Lavis reluctant to go far away from home for the foreseeable future.

California-based writer Melanie Haikan would like to go to Costa Rica at some point and is only eyeing places that are eager for visitors.

Nell Lewis

California resident Melanie Haiken expresses a desire to help struggling economies as a tourist and is already thinking about her future travels, which include places not so close to home: “As to international travel, I would be ready to travel again in August, but would want to go places that are eager for visitors. I have my eye on Guatemala and Costa Rica, Turkey and Jordan, Scotland, Estonia, and a few other places that seem likely candidates based both on safety and how much their economies depend on tourism.”

Turkey, it would seem, is a likely candidate. On June 19, Turkish Airlines relaunched two North American routes to Istanbul with two others (Miami and Los Angeles) following on June 22 and 24 respectively. By late July, three additional US hubs will be operating flights to Turkey.

Any EU travel ban could change things, but as of June 23, when CNN spoke to Connecticut-based Caryn B. Davis about her upcoming trip to the Azores in Portugal, the travel journalist said she is still planning on going, hopefully in the next six weeks.

Pompeo expressed the importance of the economy in travel between the US and the EU, saying “It’s important for the United States to get Europeans the capacity to travel back to the United States. It’s important, very important for the Europeans to fully reconnect with the American economy as well.”

But until safety concerns can be adequately addressed, Mellin doesn’t think anyone, US citizen or not, should be going anywhere.

“There’s a responsibility of showing respect for other people and places as a traveler that starts at home and is inherently broken by visiting another country during a global pandemic.”

But in fact, international travel may resume sooner rather than later in some currently off-limits places. “I’m confident in the coming weeks we’ll figure that out as between not only the United States and the EU, but the United States and other parts of the world, too,” Pompeo said.

As to what it’ll be like?

“I think if anything, when we do travel, it’s certainly my hope that we bring that sense of, I guess, empathy to wherever we’re going … ,” Geronimus says.

CNN’s James Frater, Michael Conte and Luke McGee contributed reporting to this story.

(CNN) — After months of lonely isolation in my one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, I finally decided to bite the bullet and fly to Northern California on Saturday — using the utmost precautions with a pre-assembled Covid-19 kit: mask, gloves, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes and a straw.

I received two more emails and another safety reminder before boarding. As far as flying during a pandemic goes, they were really going the extra mile to make sure I knew that this was not going to be like any other flight.

I hadn’t really considered flying at all until Delta (and other airlines) cracked down on mask-wearing. And when Delta confirmed that they wouldn’t sell middle seats, I figured I could do this thing.

Empty gates, few planes, unused equipment: Welcome to the pandemic airport.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

Still, I felt unsure of whether I should do it. New York City had so many cases, and despite the fact that I’d taken every precaution to protect myself and others, and been tested (negative) despite having been exposed, I still felt that banking on other passengers being as concerned and careful as I have been and continue to be was a bad bet.

The number of things one can control with air travel hovers around the zero mark regardless of this global pandemic, so I felt that if the airlines were taking this measure for our safety, I could fly with a little less anxiety.

Good day, sunshine

But still when my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m., I thought, maybe I should skip it. The airlines have been great in offering unprecedented flexibility in terms of changing plans without penalties (though not so much with the refunds), and I’m sitting on a lot of unused plane tickets from the before times when I had travel plans.

I ordered my Uber (and this was my fourth time using the service during the pandemic), and the young driver was not masked, nor was there any discussion about masks. The previous rides I’d taken were like hazmat cars with plastic partitions and signs about keeping your mask on and the windows open and a vat of hand sanitizer duct taped to the back of the center console.

Off to an auspicious start, we got the to the airport in under 25 minutes — I kept my masked face pointed out the open window like a bleary-eyed pit bull.

Welcome back

The JFK Terminal 4 airport drop-off area, usually rife with taxis and town cars, was a ghost town. I think I saw a tumbleweed, which I followed metaphorically into the empty check-in area.

Inside JFK Terminal 4 after passing through the nearly-empty security checkpoint on June 27, 2020.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

I proceeded to the bag drop, and there were only four other travelers being helped. The desk agent asked if I was going to LA, San Francisco or Atlanta, because those were the only three flights departing at that hour.

I went through Clear security because, why not, I paid for it, but there were only two or three people moving through the queues. It felt like the world’s largest private jet terminal — or what I imagine that might feel like because I’ve never flown private.

The tumbleweed kept leading me through the empty terminal, a long walk to gate B37, where just in February I had passed swarms of folks, getting last-minute supplies at Kiehl’s, cleaning out the Duty Free stock of Absolut, stocking up at Hudson News, lining up for Shake Shack. But other than the empty Hudson News and the essential Peets Coffee & Tea, not much was open.

Et tu, Shake Shack? Closed stores, shuttered restaurants in a sparsely populated Terminal 4 at JFK.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

I saw few humans. Walking along felt like a post-apocalyptic movie about a ragtag group of survivors living in an abandoned airport terminal, surviving on a diet of rationed Smart Water, self-help books and Pringles. But at least there was plenty of hand sanitizer.

I arrived at the gate right at boarding time, and somehow it was already empty. Was I really the last person to board an 8 a.m. flight at 7:20? It seemed so. I had planned on getting on last anyway so it was a win, albeit a weird one.

A solitary journey ends in a crowded jet way, Gate 37 at JFK Terminal 4.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

Welcome aboard — with caveats

Once I went through the gate and winded down towards the plane, I finally saw a line of about 15 people waiting to board. All were masked as far as I could deduce using backs of heads as a reference, but no one was anywhere near six feet apart. Another great reason to bring up the rear because that’s the only way you can control keeping away from others.

The flight attendant, masked and gloved and tidy, smiled with his eyes as he handed me a tiny Purell packet. Looking down the aisle of the 757-200 (and peaking into the 16-seat business class cabin), I could not see anyone setting next to anyone. The middle seats were empty as promised, and the rest of the cabin was basically full.

Even the lighting on the plane was moody.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

I always use the aisle because I like to get up and walk around a lot during six-hour flights, and I’m a major water drinker. I tried to keep my liquid intake to a minimum, though, as I wanted to minimize lavatory visits.

When I got to 23C the woman in 23A was in deep cleansing mode, reminding me of Naomi Campbell’s pre-flight ritual (shared this time last year, well before Covid-19), which is very much in line with my own airplane seat cleansing regime.

Cleanliness is king

She looked at me suspiciously. I knew she was wondering if I was, well, a clean person. So, as I got settled, I broke out my coronavirus kit with the anti-viral wipes and went to town on every touch point in my vicinity. I saw her smile (I think) — she made eye contact and her cheeks seemed raised — as I wrapped up my used wipes and tossed them, along with my used gloves, into a plastic baggie that I placed under my seat, followed by a rigorous application of my newly-procured Aesop hand sanitizer. Yes, I spent $10 on hand sanitizer, because I’m worth it.

I snapped a few pictures, but nothing really could communicate the silence. It was pin-drop silent, and everyone who had a window seat seemed to decide that despite it being MORNING on a beautiful SUNNY day, we all needed to fly in a tomb.

It felt solemn, dare I say, funereal on that 757-200. In the dark, no one speaking above a whisper if at all, it was as if I had noise-canceling headphones on.

The author’s selfie aboard a nonstop Delta flight from New York City to San Francisco.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

All of the crew announcements before takeoff took on a tone of resilience and resolve: Wear a mask, keep your distance, if you need to eat or drink, do it quickly and get that mask back on. Don’t hover around the lavatory, don’t hover, do your best to keep your distance, understanding it is impossible to keep six feet apart inside a cramped tube going 580 miles-per-hour at 38,000 feet. There will be no food or beverage service, but we will pass around snack bags.

And we’re off

We were, unsurprisingly, number one for takeoff. All I could hear was the roar of the engines. Everyone faced forward, some were watching movies, some were reading, some were sleeping. It could have been the middle of the night for all I knew with those shades drawn and the lack of human voices or babies and children squealing.

Once the WiFi turned on after ascending above 10,000 feet, I started working, actually writing some of the above and taking notes about this article, because I find that makes the time go faster than watching “Knives Out” for the fifth time. I did eye the movie “Cats,” but decided that was a bridge too far for me first thing in the morning, even with Idris Elba playing Macavity.

Snack pack with Cheez-Its, water, Biscoff cookies and Purell.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

When the snack bag cart came towards me, I longed for the sweet relief of a morning ginger ale to settle my tummy, but instead I got a sealed plastic bag, reminding me immediately of school lunches on field trips, but instead of actual food, I received Cheez-Its, a Biscoff cookie and a bottle of water.

Not to be ungrateful, but would it kill them to throw in a banana or a Kind bar?

Passing the time

Since that was all the aisle action we could expect (save for the eight times flight attendants walked up and down the aisles collecting trash), I decided to throw myself a bone and check out “Cats.”

Tried to watch “Cats,” but it didn’t take.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

After about 15 minutes, it was back to work. That movie. I can’t. Not even ironically.

I did sadly have to go to the lav a few times, as did 23A, but it was the cleanest and least gross airplane toilet I have ever encountered. Not a shred of evidence that anyone had ever been inside, so it would seem people are not always filthy, disgusting animals. I still don’t understand what usually goes on in there.

Why, yes. I do happen to want another bag of Cheez-Its.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

Before I knew it, three snack bags later (and yes, I ate six Biscoffs and three bags of Cheez-Its in six hours), the pilot was announcing our descent. The time went by so quickly, I was shocked. I thought it would feel endless.

Touchdown, heavy on the touch

As the plane touched down and the flight leader welcomed us to SFO, he had explicit deplaning instructions. Stay seated until the row in front of you has collected their belongings and cleared at least six feet.

The seatbelt sign turned off and guess what — that’s when the humans returned to their usual air travel/animal brain/fight-or-flight mode.

EVERYONE (not me or 23A, mind you) shot up and started climbing all over each other to get their belongings out of overhead bins. The aisle was immediately jammed, and despite trying to keep away from the throngs, I felt a body part of another traveler pressed against my right arm, which I jerked away, as I made the dirtiest look I could muster while masked.

Pandemonium upon landing — all behavior bets are off.

Brekke Fletcher/CNN

Because I’m conflict-averse, I strenuously texted my friend in NYC that the wheels had officially come off the bus. I was instantly reminded of how New Yorkers had handled the pandemic closures in April. Most everyone followed the rules, the streets were empty and quiet.

And then, boom, it’s late May, the captains turned off the seat belt sign, and everyone swarmed the parks and streets as if the thing was over, simply because they were over it.

Clearly, six hours was the most my fellow passengers could give. As I tried to take my turn, to get up and leave while standing my ground, I stepped aside as people pushed and plunged into me.

Then 23A passed by me, and I said to her, “Thank you for being such a thoughtful aisle-mate.”

Her clipped but polite reply as she whooshed past: “You, too. Be safe. Take care.”

After telling the Fijian parliament last week that his vision for a “post-Covid society” included a gradual resumption of its travel sector, Prime Minister Josaia “Frank” Voreqe Bainimarama has offered an open invitation to billionaires wishing to visit the country.

The country’s Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, confirmed on Thursday that a group of high-net-worth individuals had been given permission to travel to Fiji.

Speaking during a national budget consultation, Sayed-Khaiyum said that around 30 individuals from “a very well-known company” would soon arrive in the country by private aircraft, before taking a seaplane to their final destination, where they would stay for three months.

“From our perspective, this is a balancing between managing our health risks and also opening up the economic pathways; it’s critically important to do that,” the Attorney General added.

Fiji has also started an initiative called “Blue Lanes” to welcome tourists arriving by yacht.

Sayed-Khaiyum said that travelers could serve their 14-day quarantine period on board their private vessels prior to arrival or docked in Fiji. They would then be free to “roam around” the country after a negative Covid-19 test result.

He added that Fiji would also welcome movie and television crews as long as they followed quarantine measures.

Last week, the Fijian PM announced that the country was working on a travel arrangement called the Bula Bubble between itself, New Zealand and Australia.

The Australian and New Zealand prime ministers have yet to comment on the proposal, which is named after the Fijian greeting for hello or welcome.

CNN’s Lilit Marcus contributed to this report.