Who has decided to take a summer staycation cruise?

[ann141]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Exactly, so why bother with the test.?

Because P and O want people to book their cruises and if they are seen to be doing everything possible (even if not 100% necessary) it will give potential customers the confidence to book with them rather than a company where vaccinations aren't compulsory etc.Apparently P and O sent out a survey to some past customers asking what steps would help them feel safe onboard.No doubt if the results of the survey had showed that the majority of people had not felt vaccinations were necessary P and O wouldn't have included that clause.On the seacation Princess cruise I am sailing on it states that Princess will meet the cost of any tests required.However, if things improve further tests may not be necesary.

[P&O SUE]

On 4/24/2021 at 10:19 PM, Beckett said:

Thanks Gill. I have to admit to being as excited as the girls but, and it's a big but........I have to go on an immediate and urgent diet! Best wishes. Jane.x

I think on my first three cruises I couldn’t sleep the night before I was so excited!! 😊

[Dermotsgirl]

9 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

I could see the logic but how would MSC know you had just got off a P&O ship.

Do you have to provide a test result to go on these cruises? 
 

If so, someone going straight from one ship to another wouldn’t have had the opportunity to obtain a test within the last 72 hours ( or whatever the requirement is) 

[Snow Hill]

20 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Do you have to provide a test result to go on these cruises? 
 

If so, someone going straight from one ship to another wouldn’t have had the opportunity to obtain a test within the last 72 hours ( or whatever the requirement is) 

This is what MSC say about preboarding Covid tests

 

 

MSC VIRTUOSA – UK SAILINGS
For MSC Virtuosa’ sailings around the British Isles in the upcoming months, we will welcome only UK residents of all ages, both vaccinated and unvaccinated. All unvaccinated or partially vaccinated guests (i.e did not receive the full set of vaccine shots) will need to take a lateral flow (antigen) or PCR (molecular) swab test within 72 hours prior to the ship’s departure. Proof of a negative test result will be requested at the terminal and we will accept evidence such as an email, SMS or a printed document. The test is not required for fully-vaccinated (any proof of vaccination needed) or under 2 years old guests. 

However, as per our stringent MSC Health & Safety protocol, all guests both vaccinated and unvaccinated, will need to undergo some Health and COVID 19 screenings including a COVID 19 swab test, a health questionnaire and a contactless temperature check, before boarding the ship.

[wowzz]

18 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

contactless temperature check

Which has been shown to be useless ! 

[MX-Drew]

10 hours ago, ann141 said:

I think I read somewhere(don't ask me where!) that it is not allowed to go from one cruise straight to another. even if a different cruise line.

That is correct P&O, Cunard and Princess don’t allow B2B.

[Pink-belle]

I’m going on a cruise next month!  I’ve waited too long to say that 😀

[Dermotsgirl]

32 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Which has been shown to be useless ! 

The thing is, the cruise companies have got to be seen to take every possible precaution.

 

if they didn’t, and there was an outbreak onboard, the press would be all over it like a rash.

 

(

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

I come from a food manufacturing background, and a deep clean would entail taking machinery to bits and steam cleaning, jet washing the surrounding surfaces, steam cleaning drains, etc. 

To deep clean a cruise ship I would expect every mattress, curtain and carpet to either be replaced or steam cleaned, all the drains to be jet washed, every bathroom to be fogged, and that's before starting on the public areas. 

You can't do a proper deep clean in couple of hours.     

I only said that was always the term they used, and presumably cruise lines will still use that term for an extra deep turnround clean.  

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, ann141 said:

Its probably very difficult to identify that you have covid if you have been vaccinated because the symptoms are likely to be very mild but hopefully a test would prove one way or the other, though I realise the tests aren't always accurate.I'm not a scientist so perhaps we need to rely on Phil! Even the scientists have different views about covid related things

I would imagine that a positive covid test would find the virus in the swab, which should only be there if you have covid.  After vaccination you would have antibodies in your system, but not the virus, hence the swab test should be negative.  But then again I am definitely not an expert.

[Beckett]

1 hour ago, P&O SUE said:

I think on my first three cruises I couldn’t sleep the night before I was so excited!! 😊

I'm the same Sue. A child-like excitement that I hope I never lose. Jane.x

[P&O SUE]

13 minutes ago, Beckett said:

I'm the same Sue. A child-like excitement that I hope I never lose. Jane.x

I remember my son and I giggling in the night when we were staying in a Premier Inn the night before an early ferry to France, hubby was not impressed 😆 

I think my next cruise I’ll be the same as it’s for 14 nights and our longest cruise so far has been 12 nights.

[delgirl]

Bit the bullet yesterday and booked 3 day cruise with princess as hubby wanted to try different cruise line. Only dilemma now is do we go day before or on the day. Decisions, decisions😃😃😃

[Eddie99]

Fingers crossed for you all.  Let’s hope there won’t be any bumps in the road.

I saw this press article yesterday of a Japanese liner that had a cruise curtailed

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/one-positive-covid-19-test-japan-luxury-cruise-ship-passengers-disembarking-2021-04-30/

 

 

Japan's Nippon Yusen (9101.T) subsidiary NYK Cruises Co said on Friday that its luxury cruise ship "Asuka II" was returning to port after a passenger tested positive for the coronavirus.

The ship's 295 passengers and 425 crew members will reach Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, around Saturday noon, an NYK Cruises spokeswoman said.

All passengers tested negative prior to the cruise, but the company conducted another round of tests at its boarding reception on Thursday, she said.

The infected passenger is stable and recovering in a cabin that has been isolated, NYK said in a statement, adding that only one other person had been in close contact.

[snnc2005]

33 minutes ago, delgirl said:

Bit the bullet yesterday and booked 3 day cruise with princess as hubby wanted to try different cruise line. Only dilemma now is do we go day before or on the day. Decisions, decisions😃😃😃

Yay - don't think you will be disappointed!

[yorkshirephil]

11 hours ago, wowzz said:

Sorry, but I thought that if you had been vaccinated,  it was very difficult to identify if you actually had the virus.  

Hopefully Phil will give us his expert opinion.

If you actually have the virus it can be identified regardless of the vaccine, it is very complex and expensive and the current tests are not reliable so you could actually say it is "difficult to identify". There are lots of ongoing studies running and I am sure they will demonstrate differing results. We have still a long way to go in fully understanding the virus and how it is mutating, fortunately for the foreseeable future the finance will be in place. Bottom line is things are looking good and the vaccines are working as designed, in some cases better.

[wowzz]

30 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

If you actually have the virus it can be identified regardless of the vaccine, it is very complex and expensive and the current tests are not reliable so you could actually say it is "difficult to identify". There are lots of ongoing studies running and I am sure they will demonstrate differing results. We have still a long way to go in fully understanding the virus and how it is mutating, fortunately for the foreseeable future the finance will be in place. Bottom line is things are looking good and the vaccines are working as designed, in some cases better.

And 62% of the lateral flow tests that are available free of charge, are showing false positives. 

Really, all this palaver about tests at embarkation,  temperature checks etc is pure window dressing. As long as all passengers are vaccinated,  I cannot see why any additional measures are required. 

I do, however, think that MSC are flirting with danger, by not making vaccinations compulsory on their cruises.

[Beckett]

2 hours ago, delgirl said:

Bit the bullet yesterday and booked 3 day cruise with princess as hubby wanted to try different cruise line. Only dilemma now is do we go day before or on the day. Decisions, 

A nice decision to have to make though Delgirl. I hope you both enjoy your 3 day cruise and it opens up more possibilities for cruising with different lines. Jane.x

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, delgirl said:

Bit the bullet yesterday and booked 3 day cruise with princess as hubby wanted to try different cruise line. Only dilemma now is do we go day before or on the day. Decisions, decisions😃😃😃

Good decision!  

I think the problem you will have is that after Princess you won't want to come back to P&O! 

[delgirl]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Good decision!  

I think the problem you will have is that after Princess you won't want to come back to P&O! 

Depends on cruise destination. Will go with whatever attracts me the most. I must be very fickle😀😀😀

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Good decision!  

I think the problem you will have is that after Princess you won't want to come back to P&O! 

After starting cruising with Princess in the early 2000s, then graduating to Celebrity., I now find that P&O are my natural home.  Maybe that's because as a Yorkshireman I like to get a good bargain, and as Brexit has pushed the pound down, I found that the dollar based lines have become far too expensive compared to P&O, and strangely as P&Os standards have increased, I think the others have declined. But it's now 5 years since I was on either Celebrity or Princess, so maybe I am out of touch.

[wowzz]

16 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

After starting cruising with Princess in the early 2000s, then graduating to Celebrity., I now find that P&O are my natural home.  Maybe that's because as a Yorkshireman I like to get a good bargain, and as Brexit has pushed the pound down, I found that the dollar based lines have become far too expensive compared to P&O, and strangely as P&Os standards have increased, I think the others have declined. But it's now 5 years since I was on either Celebrity or Princess, so maybe I am out of touch.

I agree with you about the fx rate affecting prices,  and we now tend to look at P&O first, but keep an eye open for bargains with Princess. 

Princess are better than P&O in most respects, but, as you say, there is a price to be paid for the higher standards. 

[Dermotsgirl]

4 hours ago, Eddie99 said:

Fingers crossed for you all.  Let’s hope there won’t be any bumps in the road.

I saw this press article yesterday of a Japanese liner that had a cruise curtailed

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/one-positive-covid-19-test-japan-luxury-cruise-ship-passengers-disembarking-2021-04-30/

 

 

Japan's Nippon Yusen (9101.T) subsidiary NYK Cruises Co said on Friday that its luxury cruise ship "Asuka II" was returning to port after a passenger tested positive for the coronavirus.

The ship's 295 passengers and 425 crew members will reach Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, around Saturday noon, an NYK Cruises spokeswoman said.

All passengers tested negative prior to the cruise, but the company conducted another round of tests at its boarding reception on Thursday, she said.

The infected passenger is stable and recovering in a cabin that has been isolated, NYK said in a statement, adding that only one other person had been in close contact.

This is one of the main reasons that I’m not booking any cruises at the moment.  If Covid managed to get on board, in spite  of all the precautions, the cruise would effectively be over, and that would be so disappointing.

 

The  other main reason relates to all the extra preboarding testing. I understand the reasons for it, and I agree with it - but my desire to cruise isn’t so much to make me want to jump through all the new hoops.

 

However, I’ll be looking forward to everyone’s balanced reports of their cruise experiences this summer and hope things go off without any hitches.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

After starting cruising with Princess in the early 2000s, then graduating to Celebrity., I now find that P&O are my natural home.  Maybe that's because as a Yorkshireman I like to get a good bargain, and as Brexit has pushed the pound down, I found that the dollar based lines have become far too expensive compared to P&O, and strangely as P&Os standards have increased, I think the others have declined. But it's now 5 years since I was on either Celebrity or Princess, so maybe I am out of touch.

We like P&O, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, NCL and a line or 2 that we haven't tried yet. Cost,ship, destination and dates are more important than which company. We are loyal to them all.

[Ardennais]

3 hours ago, wowzz said:

Good decision!  

I think the problem you will have is that after Princess you won't want to come back to P&O! 

To be honest, there’s been little difference in our cruises with P&O and Princess. Granted, I haven’t been on the newer ships.