How, When and Where will Crewmembers be Vaccinated in time for June cruises?

[C-Dragons]

5 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Yes and that strategy might be ok for a while.  If we take Millennium sailing at 50% capacity then they presumably need less crew.  Normally about 1000, so perhaps 600?  APEX (based on Edge) normally about 1300 so perhaps 800?  So can Celebrity recruit maybe 1500 crew members for these two ships that have been vaccinated by end of June? 

According to remarks last week by a X VP, the first ships to sail will have almost a full crew on board due to all the health protocols in place. They will be needed to take care of all the cleaning and disinfecting.

[GonzoWCS]

On 3/28/2021 at 1:27 PM, GerScot said:

Any cruise line which sails without their crew being vaccinated would be a huge risk, so I believe them when they say all crew will be vaccinated, as to how when and where that happens I guess is their business and not something they might want to share.

Concur

[paulh84]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPwxrk4413eG58xribQLaqg

 

This staffing agency posts Town Halls and other videos geared towards crew members. It seems like they mostly deal with Carnival crew. The videos are pretty bad, to be honest, but they may offer a little insight once more progress is made. 

 

[Baron Barracuda]

8 hours ago, CroozFanatic said:

New article up on Crew Center about RCCL crew vaccinations...

 

http://crew-center.com/royal-caribbean-group-latest-vaccine-information-crew

Have my doubts about prospect for implementing plan B (vaccinate aboard ship) anytime soon.  If RCG had access to doses expect they would look to gain a marketing edge on competition by  promising that Silhouette's crew will be fully vaccinated.  

 

Also have doubts about how quickly crew can obtain shots in their home countries.  Those of us in US where vaccine is becoming plentiful may not appreciate how scarce it is in developing countries where majority of crew come from.   The Philippines for example has an adult population of 70 million (including 1.7 million healthcare workers) but have only received 500k doses. It will be quite some before cruise ship workers there become eligible for shots.

[Arizona Wildcat]

2 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Have my doubts about prospect for implementing plan B (vaccinate aboard ship) anytime soon.  If RCG had access to doses expect they would look to gain a marketing edge on competition by  promising that Silhouette's crew will be fully vaccinated.  

 

Also have doubts about how quickly crew can obtain shots in their home countries.  Those of us in US where vaccine is becoming plentiful may not appreciate how scarce it is in developing countries where majority of crew come from.   The Philippines for example has an adult population of 70 million (including 1.7 million healthcare workers) but have only received 500k doses. It will be quite some before cruise ship workers there become eligible for shots.

They most logical method to obtain doses is from the US.  The US will shortly have a couple hundred million doses more than it can use.  There is a decision in places to assist Canada and Mexico.  An extension to businesses with employees that visit the US is logical.

[jelayne]

It seems that a vaccinated crew is only for the initial sailings,  the  Silhouette 

will not make vaccines mandatory for crew.  For  reasons I have trouble comprehending there is a move to boycott RCG if they require vaccinated passengers or crew.  

[Shadow9612]

I can't wrap my head around this. Why would Celebrity mandate crew vaccinations on the millennium, but not the silhouette? Where is the logic in this?  

 

 

[lyndarra]

18 hours ago, CroozFanatic said:

Still, to me, it looks like the strategy is put the onus on the crew: you wanna work here? get the vaccine. We don't care how. If you do, you'll get a job.

That's how I read it.

[Jeremiah1212]

9 hours ago, Shadow9612 said:

I can't wrap my head around this. Why would Celebrity mandate crew vaccinations on the millennium, but not the silhouette? Where is the logic in this?  

 

 

 

My guess is they were able to secure vaccines through the government for SXM departures but couldn’t in the UK. Many of the UK only cruises across several lines do not have a vaccine requirement. 

Maybe they did the same for Greece. A bit tone deaf since Greece was seeing a second peak in cases at 97% of their first peak and having barely 5% of their population vaccinated the day those cruises were announced.

 

[TeeRick]

18 hours ago, C-Dragons said:

According to remarks last week by a X VP, the first ships to sail will have almost a full crew on board due to all the health protocols in place. They will be needed to take care of all the cleaning and disinfecting.

OK that makes sense, but based upon the original idea that the virus is spread and lingers on surfaces.  That is now considered a secondary way for spreading infections at best.  But if they abide by the original Healthy Sail recommendations they would definitely need to have a lot of hands to do the extra cleaning.  So more crew requiring vaccines for Millennium.  Unless it is Silhouette in the UK which does not require crew member vaccines.  So they seem to be making the rules as they go along and by ship to boot for these non-CDC sailings in other countries.  This does not make me personally ready to cruise with them.

[Hlitner]

I think the posts about "how many in the crew" are interesting.  Even when the cruise lines reduce capacity on a ship they cannot proportionately reduce the numbers of crew.  They certainly can reduce some of the waiters and cabin stewards but they still need most of their hotel staff for the ship to function properly....not to mention new cleaning/disinfecting protocols that put more strain on existing crew.  There are also minimum staffing requirements built into the vessel's safety plans (SOLAS) which require enough crew to properly staff all the safety stations, evacuation areas, life boats, etc.   Many may not realize that even when a ship is docked, and most passengers off the ship, there are minimum crew requirements in order to have adequate bodies in case of an emergency.  

 

One interesting development (yesterday) was a study in the CDC's MMWR which is a weekly insider publication of studies and policies related to the CDC.  A new study of about 4000 first responders and healthcare workers (from Dec 2020 - March) verified the efficacy of the two mRNA vaccines.  The report concluded that the two vaccines are at least 90% effective in "real world" circumstances.  Dr. Walensky also said (on Monday's Rachel Maddow show) , when speaking about the study, that it showed there was no virus in the vaccinated subjects and they do not get sick.  Bottom line is that the vaccinated cannot spread the virus they do not have (my words).  In a sense this small study shows the folly of "asymptomatic spread" among folks vaccinated with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.  I thought another interesting item was that the study showed the efficacy of the two vaccines at 80% two weeks after only one shot (rising to over 90% after the 2nd shot).

 

Hank

[harkinmr]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

I think the posts about "how many in the crew" are interesting.  Even when the cruise lines reduce capacity on a ship they cannot proportionately reduce the numbers of crew.  They certainly can reduce some of the waiters and cabin stewards but they still need most of their hotel staff for the ship to function properly....not to mention new cleaning/disinfecting protocols that put more strain on existing crew.  There are also minimum staffing requirements built into the vessel's safety plans (SOLAS) which require enough crew to properly staff all the safety stations, evacuation areas, life boats, etc.   Many may not realize that even when a ship is docked, and most passengers off the ship, there are minimum crew requirements in order to have adequate bodies in case of an emergency.  

 

One interesting development (yesterday) was a study in the CDC's MMWR which is a weekly insider publication of studies and policies related to the CDC.  A new study of about 4000 first responders and healthcare workers (from Dec 2020 - March) verified the efficacy of the two mRNA vaccines.  The report concluded that the two vaccines are at least 90% effective in "real world" circumstances.  Dr. Walensky also said (on Monday's Rachel Maddow show) , when speaking about the study, that it showed there was no virus in the vaccinated subjects and they do not get sick.  Bottom line is that the vaccinated cannot spread the virus they do not have (my words).  In a sense this small study shows the folly of "asymptomatic spread" among folks vaccinated with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.  I thought another interesting item was that the study showed the efficacy of the two vaccines at 80% two weeks after only one shot (rising to over 90% after the 2nd shot).

 

Hank

To be fair, whether there could be symptomatic spread by vaccinated persons was not formally "proven" until the study was completed and published this week.  So "folly" may be a misnomer.  Let's give the CDC time to deal with the ramifications of the study.  

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, harkinmr said:

To be fair, whether there could be symptomatic spread by vaccinated persons was not formally "proven" until the study was completed and published this week.  So "folly" may be a misnomer.  Let's give the CDC time to deal with the ramifications of the study.  

There was all kinds of evidence (from around the world) that folks had a vaccine in their arms at least 2 weeks were at very little risk to either get a serious case of COVID or spread it!  But apparently that did not fit some agendas which seem to flourish by using fear as the means to an end.  A lot of statements such as about the "asymptomatic spread of COVID by vaccinated folks" had absolutely no basis in science, studies or statistics.   And we still seeing a lot of disinformation, or perhaps we should call it conjecture by experts with no scientific support.   As one example, many folks have been convinced (by experts) that our existing vaccines do not work against many of the newer variants.  But the science shows that the vaccines seem to work against all the variants although the efficacy does vary depending on the variant.    But say that to a government expert and their response is often something along the lines that "we must continue to be cautious because there could be a new variant for which the vaccines don't work."    Even the latest CDC study (done by the CDC) that was published this past Monday in CDC's own weekly publication (MMWR) shows a vaccine efficacy of over 90%...and that is against any and all variants that existed from Dec - Mar.  

 

The next time I hear an expert talking about the danger of the newer variants I would also like to hear the them put forward some facts to support the comment instead of using generalities to stoke fear.  Perhaps they have a very valid point but that does not seem to be showing up in the statistics related to those who have been vaccinated.   There has been some evidence that natural immunity (those who have recovered from COVID) may not extend to some of the variants, but that is already covered by the CDC's recommendation that even those who have recovered from COVID should get vaccinated.

 

Hank

[harkinmr]

10 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

There was all kinds of evidence (from around the world) that folks had a vaccine in their arms at least 2 weeks were at very little risk to either get a serious case of COVID or spread it!  But apparently that did not fit some agendas which seem to flourish by using fear as the means to an end.  A lot of statements such as about the "asymptomatic spread of COVID by vaccinated folks" had absolutely no basis in science, studies or statistics.   And we still seeing a lot of disinformation, or perhaps we should call it conjecture by experts with no scientific support.   As one example, many folks have been convinced (by experts) that our existing vaccines do not work against many of the newer variants.  But the science shows that the vaccines seem to work against all the variants although the efficacy does vary depending on the variant.    But say that to a government expert and their response is often something along the lines that "we must continue to be cautious because there could be a new variant for which the vaccines don't work."    Even the latest CDC study (done by the CDC) that was published this past Monday in CDC's own weekly publication (MMWR) shows a vaccine efficacy of over 90%...and that is against any and all variants that existed from Dec - Mar.  

 

The next time I hear an expert talking about the danger of the newer variants I would also like to hear the them put forward some facts to support the comment instead of using generalities to stoke fear.  Perhaps they have a very valid point but that does not seem to be showing up in the statistics related to those who have been vaccinated.   There has been some evidence that natural immunity (those who have recovered from COVID) may not extend to some of the variants, but that is already covered by the CDC's recommendation that even those who have recovered from COVID should get vaccinated.

 

Hank

Evidence concerning getting a serious or life-threatening case of COVID, yes.  I have not seen any scientific evidence or studies concerning asymptomatic or symptomatic spread after vaccination until the report that was issued this week.  The other evidence you talk about may be anecdotal?  Not a scientist or doctor, nor do I pretend to be one.  And, personally, I do not believe it is part of any "agenda" or any sort of conspiracy to keep us all from cruising or chained to our masks for the duration.  That is my opinion only, yours obviously differs.  

Edited March 30, 2021 by harkinmr

[Goodtime Cruizin]

On 3/27/2021 at 8:40 AM, TeeRick said:

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity are offering cruises out of St Maarten, Bahamas and Greece early this summer.  All passengers 18+ must be fully vaccinated by two weeks before boarding a ship.  And all Q&A and information on these cruises state "fully vaccinated crew".  So how, when and where will that take place?  Presumably to meet the timelines- they need to start soon.  Cruise lines have opened booking and are taking deposits.  They must have plans to quickly vaccinate crew.

 

I am not looking for speculation.  I am looking for facts and verifiable information from the RCG corporation, Travel Agents, or official sources.  It would be great if any crew members who read these boards could give us information on what is happening with them vaccine-wise in order to get cruising started by June. 

 

Well here you go. No speculation at all. RCG just needs to host a 'vaccination clinic' like they're doing in Oklahoma.  I like it! 

 

https://kfor.com/news/coronavirus/lucky-star-casino-hosting-covid-19-vaccine-clinic-offering-25-in-free-play/

[Hlitner]

30 minutes ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

Well here you go. No speculation at all. RCG just needs to host a 'vaccination clinic' like they're doing in Oklahoma.  I like it! 

 

https://kfor.com/news/coronavirus/lucky-star-casino-hosting-covid-19-vaccine-clinic-offering-25-in-free-play/

Just keep in mind that Americans cannot fly to Greece at this time.  If the situation does not change then the cruises from Athens (Pireaus) will be limited to those in the EU and perhaps a few other countries where the folks can get into Greece.  Like many folks who routinely go to Europe (not just for cruises) we are carefully watching the situation in Greece vis-a-vis opening the country.  Their tourist minister wants to open up to just about anyone, by late May, who has been vaccinated.  But whether this happens is a big question mark.

 

Hank

[TeeRick]

14 hours ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

Well here you go. No speculation at all. RCG just needs to host a 'vaccination clinic' like they're doing in Oklahoma.  I like it! 

 

https://kfor.com/news/coronavirus/lucky-star-casino-hosting-covid-19-vaccine-clinic-offering-25-in-free-play/

Thank you!  Very interesting!  Many casinos are owned by and run on sovereign land of Native Americans.  Are any on the ocean?  They could open up their own cruise ports and not come under the CDC.  Good find.  Perhaps these cruise ships could contract with Native American tribes to run their on board casinos too.  And do on board vaccination clinics.  

Edited March 31, 2021 by TeeRick

[Goodtime Cruizin]

5 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Thank you!  Very interesting!  Casinos run on sovereign land of Native Americans.  Are any on the ocean?  They could open up their own cruise ports and not come under the CDC.  Good find.

 

"Officials say there are no tribal citizenship, employment, state residency, or registration requirements."

 

Looks like all one needs to do is host a 'vaccination clinic'. RGP can pull this off w/ the help of the county & state governments. Dock the Adventure in a Florida port, open up free tours w/ a vaccine and 'BOOM'... vaxing the crew is set. 

[TeeRick]

20 minutes ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

"Officials say there are no tribal citizenship, employment, state residency, or registration requirements."

 

Looks like all one needs to do is host a 'vaccination clinic'. RGP can pull this off w/ the help of the county & state governments. Dock the Adventure in a Florida port, open up free tours w/ a vaccine and 'BOOM'... vaxing the crew is set. 

Overall a very interesting solution!

[39august]

Several Indian Nations here in Oklahoma have now either opened their health clinics to all, regardless of ethnicity or residence. or are holding these vaccination clinics.  As of Monday, March  29, all Oklahomans are eligible for vaccines. 

[AstoriaPreppy]

On 3/27/2021 at 1:25 PM, PTC DAWG said:

In my state, anyone 16 years and older is eligible, appointments appear to be easy to get...that tells me there is plenty of the vaccine around...I see no issues getting the crew vaccinated...

 

On Tuesday, they lowered the vaccination age in New York State to 30+ (from 50+), and as a newly eligible person, I can say that getting an appointment here was not remotely easy.

 

It took me around 14-15 hours of constant refreshing and clicking attempting to get an appointment.  The issue is that appointments get snapped up in seconds. Once you clear the "I'm not a robot" test, and click on a date and time, the appointment is already gone. I was only able to get an appointment for 26 May, almost two months away. 

Twitter has been an amazing resource, with some NYC vaccine feeds that that steered me to CVS (an entirely separate scheduling system). It took a few more hours, but I was finally able to get an appointment for April, but it wasn't easy by any stretch.

 

 

[NMTraveller]

On Monday they are opening up vaccinations to 16 and over in NM.  The J&J vaccine is coming to town.  

[CroozFanatic]

Looks like NCLH policy is similar to RCCL...

 

http://crew-center.com/nclh-releases-list-accepted-vaccine-brands-crew-and-vaccination-updates

[Redtravel]

Crews may not be fully vaccinated.  Question was asked on another cruise line forum. If everyone on the ship must be vaccinated, why the need for masks or social distancing?  Guests must be vaccinated. Crew may not be vaccinated yet. The crew comes from many countries that haven’t had vaccines.  That means everyone on the ship must wear masks and distance.  

[cruisestitch]

Celebrity says crews will be fully vaccinated.  Other cruise lines might do it differently.

 

what cruise line forum were you reading?