The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Are You Ready For Cruising?

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

The cruise ships want to leave dock, should they be given that permission?  Plus, airlines begin retraining laid off pilots.  And The Bridge goes with some humour as the website "Yahoo Answers" signals it's shutting down.

Hello there, Peter Mansbridge here with the latest episode of The Bridge, where in just a couple of moments we'll be asking the question, are you ready for cruising? That's right, the question of the day is, are you ready for cruising? And you'd be amazed the number of people who are. And the number of places where cruising, you know, ship cruising, is already taking place in the world. And where it isn't. And the fight to get it going. Well, we'll update you on that situation. Because it's, you know, rather interesting.

And we've got a number of other things. Because this is Thursday. It's potpourri day. So we have any number of different issues we want to kind of throw out there, stories that perhaps have not quite made the agenda in the last, you know, few days. So we're going to put them forward because they're good talkers. And we've got one really good one. Probably going to save that for the end,

which is funny. At least it's funny to me. Puts a smile on my face. In fact, it put a few smiles on my face. So we'll tell that to try and get everybody in a good mood. But I've got to start with some housekeeping. And as I've said to you before, if we make a mistake, we'll concede that we made a mistake.

That's the right thing to do. Get it out there. Well, a couple of days ago, I was talking about the worst, what was it, the five worst pandemics of all time. It was kind of like a little history lesson, which was history for me. I enjoyed it. And I got a lot of mail

suggesting you enjoyed it too but there was a little error in one of the stories i told and it was my fault and i got caught up in discussing this you know the way you used to date things or people date things and you know know, in reference to time, there's, you know, 2000 BC and there's 2000 AD, right? And to strictly take the Latin form on those is one way or just the way I used to learn it at school. I know this isn't absolutely accurate, but I used to do it. BC was like before Christ and AD was after death. That's the but I used to do it. B.C. was like before Christ, and A.D. was after death. That's the way I used it.

Well, for a lot of reasons, some people are changing that lettering, those letters that go before a date or after a date. And one of them was in the Justinian Plague that we talked about, which happened A.D. I think it was around, I can't remember the exact number, 586 or something like that, A.D. was the way we'd normally have said it. But that day I said, I used one of the new terms,

C.E., the current era. And that has gained some popularity in using those letters to describe the date. Anyway, I got it wrong that day. I said it was replacing BC, but in fact it was replacing AD. So the difference, I don't know, 1,200 years, a good chunk of time. So correctly, the Justinian plague happened in the current era.

Okay? Okay? Second piece of housekeeping, I received, I don't know, two or three, maybe four emails this week. I love getting your emails. As I've said before, I get somewhere 40 or 50 emails a day

from listeners to this podcast or to seriousxm.ca where you can find our work including good talk and smoke mirrors and the truth so i get quite a bit of mail and this week there have been three or four referencing my eating and drinking habits because they think that i'm eating and drinking while I'm doing the podcast. Because they hear my lips smacking or my teeth grinding. Now, I have

been trying some different things in with my microphone, which may account for that. And so I'm working on that. But I can assure you of this. I don't eat or drink in my, I call it a studio. It's my office here in Stratford. And so if you are picking up lip smacking like that,

it's not because of eat or drink. But I'm working on it. We'll get to the bottom of this. And the final piece of housekeeping, you may recall around the inauguration of Joe Biden, we were talking a lot about the former guy and the mess he'd left and the crazy relationship he had with his number two,

with Mike Pence, the vice president. The toady in waiting. And we often wondered aloud as to, why doesn't he just come out and say what it was really like, and especially what happened in that final month. But he didn't. He, you know, disappeared. And a number of you wrote in and quite correctly suggested,

well, he's probably waiting for his book because he figures he can make some money on a book. So we find out this morning that, in fact, that is certainly on his mind because he signed a book deal that appears to be with simon and schuster who happened to actually publish my book extraordinary canadians last year with mark boldridge and they will be publishing a new book of mine later this year which i can't tell you about yet, but I will when I do. I'll let you know all about it. But Mike Pence

and Simon & Schuster have reached a two-book deal worth somewhere between $3 and $7 million. That's slightly higher than mine. But And that's slightly higher than mine. But it won't be out until 2023. So he's either a really slow writer or he's all about timing. And he wants to time this so he can position himself to run for the presidential nomination in 2024. All I can say is if the Republicans' answer to Donald Trump is to put the toady in his place, good luck to them.

Anyway, so much for updating all those things. Let's get to the question that I asked at the top of this the bridge today. And the question was, are you ready for cruising? You know, luxury cruises. Now, what you probably didn't know, because when we used to talk about this a year ago, most of you would say, the last place I want to be ever is on a cruise ship after all the problems that happened on cruise ships at the beginning of the pandemic. Those moods have changed somewhat in the years since.

But what you probably didn't know is that cruising has already resumed in more than 10 major cruise markets globally, with nearly 400,000 passengers taking cruises over the last eight months in Europe, in Asia, and the South Pacific. This is according to the industry group Cruise Line International Association. Additional sailings are planned in the Mediterranean and maybe the Caribbean later this spring and summer. Canada, to make this point, Canada will not be on anybody's list because it has banned cruises

in the next year, into 2022. But there was a significant announcement this week on part of one of the biggest cruise ship lines in the world, and that is Norwegian Cruise Lines. They want to start U.S. cruises again on July 4th, and they're willing to require that all passengers and all staff be vaccinated before they set sail. Now, in spite of its name, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and you should know this if that's who you travel,

they're not Norwegian, okay? They're a U.S.-based company. I guess they just like the name Norwegian. And that's why they call themselves that. So they sent a letter this week to the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, notifying of its proposal. It's the first major American cruise line to lay out plans for a resumption of U.S. sailings. I found all this information

on CNN's website. No industry has been decimated quite like the U.S. cruise ship industry, which hasn't been able to set sail to or from a U.S. port in more than a year now. Other industries, even in travel and hospitality, are showing signs of a rebound. Rising vaccination rates are raising hopes of a return to normalcy, but the U.S. cruise industry is still stuck in limbo with no clear sign when it'll be back in business. The CDC on Friday, almost a week ago now, put out guidance on how it expects to allow a resumption of sailings. It said it recommends, it doesn't say requires, it recommends vaccinations for all aboard a ship. The group also said it wanted to see simulated, in other words, trial voyages

that will allow crew and port personnel to practice new COVID-19 operational procedures with volunteers before sailing with passengers. Didn't give a date by which the CDC planned to allow U.S. sailings again for the first time since March of 2020. So that's kind of where we are, and I know a lot of you, and I've seen some of the data in terms of the research and the polling. A lot of you who are big-time cruise ship people want to get back. They want to sit on those deck chairs on the cruise ships,

looking out at the sea, going from port to port in the Caribbean. They want to do that. And they want to do it soon. So Norwegian Cruise Lines is the first of what will probably be any number of different cruise lines who are pushing to let's get going again. And we're willing to enter this discussion about vaccination requirements testing all of that but the one area won't be happening at least not this year is in Canada and cruising in Canada is a big deal. It's a huge deal on the East Coast.

Newfoundland, Nova Scotia. PEI, I think there's cruise ships going to PEI. But it's a big deal. And it's a lot of money that's brought into that area in tourist dollars. And they missed it last year, and they're going to miss it again this year. West Coast, you see all those cruise ships going up and down the West Coast. Sites are spectacular. The economy does extremely well as a result of cruising along the West Coast.

But in terms of Canadian ports, not happening. Not this year. Doesn't mean there won't be some American cruise ships going up and down the West Coast, not docking anywhere, but going up to Alaska and doing that. That may well be happening this year. Now, here's another travel-related piece of information that does give you some, you know, if you're one of those who is really anxious to get the travel business and the tourism business back in gear, you'll find this fact interesting.

Keep in mind, you know, I've mentioned this a number of times the last year, tourism in our country alone represents 10% of the economy. One in 10 jobs in Canada is related in some fashion, directly or indirectly, to the tourism trade. So it's critically important when that portion of our economy gets back on some stability. That can be cruise ships. It could be hotels, motels, beds and breakfasts.

Festivals like the Stratford Festival here in Stratford and all the different theater groups in the rest of the country from east to west. Airlines are critical, as you know. So here's something that Bloomberg is reporting this week, which is encouraging. U.S. airlines are bringing back more pilots as they prepare for expected travel to rebound.

More than 1 and a half million passengers passed through domestic security checkpoints last weekend, compared with just 122,000 a year earlier same weekend. Delta has recalled all its previously recalled pilots, while Southwest announced many of its pilots will return from leave in June. The pilot recall demonstrates U.S. Airlines' efforts to prepare for a potentially busy summer as more people receive the vaccine and begin traveling more frequently.

A good way to look at things in terms of travel is pilots. So many were laid off, furloughed. I had different terms for this because it all impacted what kind of financial support they were or were not going to get. Now, I've received a number of letters whenever I've talked about the airlines and coming back from concerned potential passengers who ask, will they be retrained?

Yes. First of all, there's a rigorous training program that goes on all the time for pilots. They're tested often. You know, flight checks both on board aircraft, but usually in simulators on the ground where they go through testing. And they will certainly go through testing, all of them, and retraining as they come back on stream and go back into the flying business

after, for many of them, more than a year not being in the air. So it's only natural that that will take place. And these simulators are great. I've been in a couple of them. And, I mean, you feel like you are on a real flight. Everything in front of you, I mean, obviously all the instruments, but also what you're seeing out the windows. You know, I did one where it was, I did a flight from Pearson Airport in Toronto

to JFK in New York. And everything you see is just like it would be if you were on a real flight. From guys taxiing you on the, you know, the ground crew giving, you know, waving those flashlights or whatever they are to tell you which way to turn, how to back up, all that stuff. You see the airport terminal building, you taxi out to the runway, you take off, you see the ground disappearing beneath you,

you cross over Lake Ontario and you head down to New York and then the same thing goes at the other end in terms of the landing. So everything is in remarkable detail. And the pilots and the check pilots all swear by these things. It's a lot easier to use the simulators, which are multi-million dollar pieces of machinery. And Canada's kind of a leader in groundbreaking in some of the uh

the building of these uh machines um and some of these as i said some of the pilots swear by it saying this is as good as being in the air in terms of testing and prepping and retraining so a lot of that is going to take place. All right. I promised some humor. Humor is what you're going to get when we come back. So which search engine do you use? You know, I guess most people use Google,

and I refer to it perhaps more than I should. But there are, you know, there are others out there, and there were ones before Google. And one of the early ones involved Yahoo. And they had this thing, still do for another couple of weeks anyway, they have this thing called Yahoo Answers. So you can kind of ask any question you want, and they or people who are reading will suggest answers online. Well, Yahoo Answers is going out of business. Not Yahoo, but just this particular arm of Yahoo

is going off the net as of the end of this month. So in honor of that, Yahoo has put out the 31 funniest questions that they've been asked over time. So for the most part, this is just the questions. They're funny enough so i i'm not going to read all 31 but i'm going to read a few of them because they're pretty good and it'll put us in a better mood as we as as we wrap up our thursday potpourri day okay here's one how do you get YouTube to come and film you?

I've been calling, calling, calling YouTube all day to come film me, but no answer. How do other people get their videos up there? I have some really funny stuff, but they won't come. Okay. Well, you just keep waiting there buddy will my laptop get heavier if i put more files on it my macbook air weighs two to three pounds if i download more files on it will it make it heavier it was an answer yes mine has a ton of files now i need a forklift to take it to the next room

what is the phobia of chainsaws called? You know, I can remember many years ago, someone near and dear to my heart, for a birthday present, bought me a chainsaw. I couldn't sleep at night. I was so afraid of that piece of machinery that I made them take it back I just had this image of this thing going wild on me so I have a chainsaw phobia so the answer to the question what's the phobia of chainsaws called? The answer suggested here is common sense. Seems reasonable.

How do I turn off caps lock? I accidentally turned it on yesterday and I don't know how to turn it back off. All my friends are mad because they think I'm shouting at them over the Internet. This problem is literally ruining my life and tearing my family apart through emails. I just want to be whole again. Please help. Yeah, that's a tough one.

How do you turn off caps lock? You enjoying this? I know I'm certainly enjoying it. Let me just say, there are quite a few of these that I can't repeat on this podcast. It doesn't mean they're not funny. It just means they're not really appropriate. In the old days, did people see in black and white? Because like new movies that are in black and white

because they used to be in like color okay some of these people need help. Do you think humans will ever walk on the sun? Oh, dear. Which is worse, ignorance or apathy? And the answer is, I don't know and I don't care. That's good, right? There had to be a conspiracy theory one in here somewhere, so here it is.

Do you think NASA invented thunderstorms to cover up the sound of space battles? Well, of course they did. Of course that's what thunder is there for. It covers up space battles. Are you tired of being nice? You know, I don't go on facebook i i don't belong to facebook i think the cbc signed me up for facebook like 10 years ago or something i never followed through on it so i've never been i've never been on facebook like on my facebook page or anything like that, I've occasionally seen an article that was on Facebook. In fact, I've even referenced one or two here on this podcast in the last year.

But here is a Facebook question. My wife changed Facebook status from married to widowed. Should I be worried? Yeah, you might want to check that out, buddy. If I eat myself, would I become twice as big, or would I disappear completely? Now, that's a really interesting question. Now, you've got to think that one through.

That's a little like, you know, if a tree fell in the forest and there was nobody there, would it make any sound? I love that question. That's my go-to question. But this one's not bad. If I eat myself, would I become twice as big or would I disappear completely? completely we got a little here's one more there's the final one I'm gonna read how do I unbake a cake?

Now, you would normally think, well, you can't unbake a cake. Once everything's been mixed, you're done. It's permanent. But apparently not, if you believe the answers in Yahoo Answers. Because here's an answer. To the question, how do I unbake a cake? Put it back in the oven. Set it to the negative of whatever temperature you baked it at.

Such as minus 325 degrees. And leave it in for the same amount of time you baked it for. It has to be exact. If you unbake it too much, the flour may turn into wheat and the eggs will turn into a chicken. Don't ask me how. I love that people would spend their time coming up with great answers to stupid questions. But the time is up for Yahoo Answers, as I said. They've decided to pull the plug on that section, which is too bad, because some of that was fun. And for us,

occasionally having a bit of fun is not a bad thing. It's been a tough year and we get our fun in strange ways. And this has been one of them. Anyway, that's our potpourri edition for this week. Hope you enjoyed it.

Hope you gained some knowledge from it. Now you know how to unbake a cake. Tomorrow's the weekend special. And we didn't have one last week, so there's actually quite a lot of stuff hanging around in the old mailbag. I'll pick up some of it, and we'll try to have some fun with it tomorrow. Well, not necessarily fun.

There's, as usual, lots of good letters from different parts of the country. People who've written in to the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. So that's on tap for tomorrow. For the Friday edition of The Bridge, the weekend special. A reminder that normally on Thursdays on SiriusXM, channel 167 at 5 p.m. Eastern,

we have Good Talk with Chantal Hébert and Bruce Anderson. This week, kind of the Easter week break, is in Ottawa and it is for Good Talk. So there will be no Good Talk for today, but we're back next Thursday at 5 p.m. Hope you join us then. That's it for this day. I'm Peter Mansbridge.

This has been The Bridge. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours. Thank you.