Compulsory Pre Cruise Hotel Stay

[GeorgesGal]

On 8/6/2020 at 6:14 PM, Kate-AHF said:

I'm on this cruise.... and we have a rather extensive pre-cruise trip beforehand in France, that is nailed down and sewn up.  Glad I hadn't planned to ferry over to Southampton the day of.  As it is, we have a night booked in Southampton before boarding.

 

I absolutely see the sense of that kind of requirement - if they can get a COVID test turnaround in 24 hours.

MY problem with the COVID tests are the many false positives/negatives there are.

[floridatravelersforlife]

This subject of this thread is the reason I won't be flying anywhere to catch a cruise in 2021.  I'll invest the 3 hours trip down to Port of Miami,  with the chance that we will be denied boarding,  but no more.  As long as we, for certain, will get a full refund of the cruise, it's worth the risk.   And the probability there will be difficulty in making our own excursions, makes it even less enticing.  If we just go for a long on board cruise, then we might as well take a ferry boat ride somewhere.  Disillusioned to say the least.

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, floridatravelersforlife said:

This subject of this thread is the reason I won't be flying anywhere to catch a cruise in 2021.  I'll invest the 3 hours trip down to Port of Miami,  with the chance that we will be denied boarding,  but no more.  As long as we, for certain, will get a full refund of the cruise, it's worth the risk.   And the probability there will be difficulty in making our own excursions, makes it even less enticing.  If we just go for a long on board cruise, then we might as well take a ferry boat ride somewhere.  Disillusioned to say the least.

Providing there are ship sailing from Miami

At this rate  the US ports may still be closed  in 2021

[Paulchili]

10 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

At this rate  the US ports may still be closed  in 2021

At this rate (losing over 1000 lives daily) there may not be too many people left to cruise.

[Issyalex]

On 8/5/2020 at 3:18 PM, ToxM said:

So checking as I do often the status of my cruise booking and current pricing this morning for my May Sirena cruise, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before on my TA website: 

 

“*One night pre-cruise hotel stay may be required”

 

It is worth pointing out that my cruise is Southampton - Southampton. I am in the UK (in fact 60 miles from Southampton) so wouldn’t really need a hotel. My TA is a UK one. 

 

It may have been that I didn’t notice this before - but I think I would have noticed it. 

 

Is this to pre test for covid before embarkation? 

I’m guessing that this may be a standard request incase your travelling from abroad. However either phone your TA or Oceania direct to verify. 

[Norseh2o]

In April, 2019, DH and I sailed on HAL from San Diego-San Diego, with stops in Hawaii. We boarded the ship early (the Port of San Diego is a short Lyft ride from our home) but the cruise did not depart until nearly midnight. The ship, the Eurodam (❤️) waited for a plane load of cruisers to land in San Diego as flights had been delayed due to inclement weather.  Before we sailed on our next cruises (Oceania, Europe and South America), we arrived days early not just to enjoy the countries, but to not miss or delay the cruise. 🚢

[Paulchili]

51 minutes ago, Norseh2o said:

In April, 2019, DH and I sailed on HAL from San Diego-San Diego, with stops in Hawaii. We boarded the ship early (the Port of San Diego is a short Lyft ride from our home) but the cruise did not depart until nearly midnight. The ship, the Eurodam (❤️) waited for a plane load of cruisers to land in San Diego as flights had been delayed due to inclement weather.

This is a unique situation and an exception rather than the rule.

The ship had to wait as the next port of call would have been Hawaii 4 or 5 days later. Normally, even if you book your air through the cruise line and your flight is late, it's up to you to catch the ship in the next port (if you are even allowed to).

[Mura]

I will again make a comment I've made several times regarding delayed departure.

 

When we arrived in Miami for a Panama Canal cruise long ago there was bad weather in the northeast.  There were some passengers who just could not get there in time and so the ship left pretty much on schedule -- if it had not, we would have missed our slot through the Canal.  I never spoke to the passengers involved so I'm not sure when they finally got to the ship but they certainly missed what probably had been intended as the highlight of their cruise.

 

In 2006 we had a Dover-Dover cruise featuring Iceland, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, etc.  As it happened a high school acquaintance was on this cruise.  (This cruise took place apx, 40 years after we graduated and we hadn't talked since.)  They were flying to Dover from Santa Ana, CA, and many flights were cancelled or delayed due to weather so they didn't get to the ship until we were in Oslo, about two days after departure from Dover.  They were NOT happy campers.  They had been using Oceania's air which made them even unhappier at what they considered lack of assistance in finding replacement flights from California.

 

There as just two times when I've been aware of this kind of problem.  We always make it a point to fly in early and leave late.  Largely because we want to see the beginning and departure ports on our own, but also to make sure that we are on the spot when boarding occurs,

 

Mura

[Norseh2o]

16 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

This is a unique situation and an exception rather than the rule.

The ship had to wait as the next port of call would have been Hawaii 4 or 5 days later. Normally, even if you book your air through the cruise line and your flight is late, it's up to you to catch the ship in the next port (if you are even allowed to).

Thank you for explaining that situation, Paulchili. We wondered if the late group had arranged transportation through HAL and as it was a large group, the cruise line waited. We were surprised that our cruise was delayed. It was our first HAL Cruise & a great trip. Oceania is our favorite way to cruise, but Holland does have some nice adventures from San Diego. 

[Hawaiidan]

On 8/5/2020 at 7:54 AM, Flatbush Flyer said:

Of course it is. 

 It's a good bet that US CDC (and other govt. watchdogs worldwide) soon may start requiring some form of very recent Covid testing results for embarking cruise passengers. And some versions of/processes for these tests could require that 24 hour buffer. Thus, a pre-cruise hotel requirement makes sense if the cruise line or govt agencies wants to have control of that testing.

That said, note that your TA said "may be" required. Good that they're covering all the bases.

To me its a totally reasonable  and productive requirement......   Get pre screened before you get to the ship..... good proactive action.....