I literally have no idea what MSC is thinking.... wouldn't surprise me if they reverse this next week but who knows. The August 29th date is completely arbitrary.
This is absolutely ridiculous! Carnival just changed their policy today and confirmed no testing required after August 8th. So why is MSC now waiting until August 28th? Ugh.
As many of us knew (except 1 person) the rules changed because they didn't make sense. Carnival either misunderstood the Bahamian requirements or something else was happening behind the scenes. However, as predicted Carnival has now fallen in line with all of the other cruise lines. Have a good evening everyone!
LOL... citing what other cruise lines are doing is not "false rumors".... You can't make this stuff up! I feel like whoever this person is is just trying to get a rise out of people. Whoever you are, you are very good at what you do!!
For the 10th time, Virgin and Margaritaville have already been sailing to the Bahamas with untested guests for over a week now and will continue to do so this weekend without any changes.
Exactly! Carnival is the only line requiring testing for the Bahamas and is blaming it on them. As I've said before this makes no sense because Virgin, Margaritaville, MSC, and now Royal are continuing with no pre-test for The Bahamas.
Carnival just updated their policy and re-affirmed that all cruise passengers will be required to test before entering the Bahamas (vaxxed or unvaxxed) due to the local rules. So... either Virgin is right or Carnival is right... not sure how both can be following the correct rules.
OK it looks like Virgin might actually provide some clues here. Originally Virgin's updated policy was that no testing was required at all for vaxxed or unvaxxed. However, this update was made late last night: https://www.virginvoyages.com/voyage-well#general-information
It looks like unvaxxed are now required to test within 24 hours of departure. This is indeed a big change. It is possible the Bahamas was not happy with the possibility of having unvaxxed guests come to their island without testing so they made some changes. Hopefully this is a compromise and Carnival follows (the compromise being that unvaxxed are required to test within 24 hours vs. 2 or 3 days, etc.). What isn't clear though is why Carnival is saying that vaxxed guests are also required to test. That part is still a mystery..... unless perhaps Carnival is planning to sail with significant amount of unvaxxed and Bahamas isn't comfortable with that?
Great...?? I'm not sure if you think you're actually contributing to this conversation or not but regardless I wish you the best of times on your future cruises!
huh? are you new here? The protocols are being based off of the requirements of the DESTINATION. You think Carnival suddenly wants to require tests for the Bahamas just for fun? No.... not how it works.
Just checked and Margaritaville at Sea goes to Freeport every other day and testing has already been dropped. Please make this make sense! Carnival is really doing a number on everyone....
Virgin, MSC, Royal and others have not made any changes to their rules regarding testing and the Bahamas so I'm not sure why Carnival is the only one to have made this change. And with no further clarification today it is doing to be a real mess at the pier next week if this is indeed true..