Seatrade News - Coping With Florida’s Vaccine Passport Ban

[cangelmd]

To me this just leaves one question, which I truly think is irrelevant to vaccinated persons - will they  keep count at the pier of people who are legitimately unvaccinated (kids) and those who have refused to show their cards and the handful who accidentally left their card at home (you know it will happen, I can see it happening to me!)? And what happens when that number at pier side goes over 5%? Personally, as an MD,  think not much unless it goes over 25%, because the risk is less for many than it is in everyday shoreside life - just stop testing for re-entry into the US, but Celeb might not see it that way, especially after all the advertising of minimal non-vaccinated.

[tunaman2011]

1 minute ago, cangelmd said:

To me this just leaves one question, which I truly think is irrelevant to vaccinated persons - will they  keep count at the pier of people who are legitimately unvaccinated (kids) and those who have refused to show their cards and the handful who accidentally left their card at home (you know it will happen, I can see it happening to me!)? And what happens when that number at pier side goes over 5%? Personally, as an MD,  think not much unless it goes over 25%, because the risk is less for many than it is in everyday shoreside life - just stop testing for re-entry into the US, but Celeb might not see it that way, especially after all the advertising of minimal non-vaccinated.

Greetings

 

For the initial sailings they cannot be over 5% since the CDC's order is still valid until 18 July.  Over 5% they are not allowed to sail.

 

Good Sailing

Tom

[Babr]

4 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

To me this just leaves one question, which I truly think is irrelevant to vaccinated persons - will they  keep count at the pier of people who are legitimately unvaccinated (kids) and those who have refused to show their cards and the handful who accidentally left their card at home (you know it will happen, I can see it happening to me!)? And what happens when that number at pier side goes over 5%? Personally, as an MD,  think not much unless it goes over 25%, because the risk is less for many than it is in everyday shoreside life - just stop testing for re-entry into the US, but Celeb might not see it that way, especially after all the advertising of minimal non-vaccinated.

It appears that every effort is being made to make those calculations before people  show up at the pier. After final payment and during pre-registration, that information should be fairly easy to determine. According to threads here, some are already being contacted for verification. The 5% will be identified and notified ahead of time. I would not think a lot of passengers would show up unprepared.

[Antropos]

It looks like Celebrity dropped the 95% threshold for FL sailings. When unvaccinated (or failing to show proof of vaccination) you still have additional testing requirements, additional costs, mask wearing and possibly other uncomfortable restrictions and protocols to follow, but it looks like you won't be left behind on the pier: Travel Requirements for US Cruises | Celebrity Cruises

[nocl]

3 minutes ago, Antropos said:

It looks like Celebrity dropped the 95% threshold for FL sailings. When unvaccinated (or failing to show proof of vaccination) you still have additional testing requirements, additional costs, mask wearing and possibly other uncomfortable restrictions and protocols to follow, but it looks like you won't be left behind on the pier: Travel Requirements for US Cruises | Celebrity Cruises

Except unless they switch to the protocol requiring test cruises, they would need to stay at the 95% level, at least prior to July 18th, if the CDC does not appeal.

[Host Jazzbeau]

13 minutes ago, Antropos said:

It looks like Celebrity dropped the 95% threshold for FL sailings. When unvaccinated (or failing to show proof of vaccination) you still have additional testing requirements, additional costs, mask wearing and possibly other uncomfortable restrictions and protocols to follow, but it looks like you won't be left behind on the pier: Travel Requirements for US Cruises | Celebrity Cruises

Don't take that one sentence out of context.  The complete section from the policy you link to is this:

 

Following CDC guidelines we will sail with all crew vaccinated and at least 95% of guests will be fully vaccinated.

All guests age 16 and above must be fully vaccinated (at least two weeks prior to sail date). As of August 1, 2021, all guests age 12 and older must be fully vaccinated.

All unvaccinated guests ages 2-15 will require a complimentary SARS-CoV -2 test at the terminal. 

For Sailings from Florida
Guests over 16 years old (over 12 for any sailing on or after August 1st) who decline or are unable to show proof of vaccination at boarding will be treated as unvaccinated and subject to additional protocols, restrictions, and costs for COVID-19 testing. 

 

The first sentence controls ALL cruises.  The last sentence shows how awful it will be for that 5% on the Florida cruises.

[PTC DAWG]

To the person worried about forgetting your proof of vaccination cards, keep them with your passports, I can't think of any reason to have them anywhere else.  

Edited June 23, 2021 by PTC DAWG

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

To the person worried about forgetting your proof of vaccination cards, keep them with your passports, I can't think of any reason to have them anywhere else.  

 

I concur. I even bought these passport covers that have a pocket in the back that is the perfect size to hold our CDC cards:

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VF53P8C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[cangelmd]

30 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

To the person worried about forgetting your proof of vaccination cards, keep them with your passports, I can't think of any reason to have them anywhere else.  

Of course we have done that, I just know me 🤥

2 hours ago, Babr said:

It appears that every effort is being made to make those calculations before people  show up at the pier. After final payment and during pre-registration, that information should be fairly easy to determine. According to threads here, some are already being contacted for verification. The 5% will be identified and notified ahead of time. I would not think a lot of passengers would show up unprepared.

I guess I’m a little more cynical about my fellow man. My point is that after July 18, unless CDC appeals or some other part of the federal government intervenes, it is going to be very very difficult long term for Celebrity to ensure that they are sailing 95% vaccinated from Florida. Early on, I think their tactics of discouragement will work well, but eventually unvaccinated persons will want to start cruising or someone will deliberately challenge the 

policy or the Florida law or both. 
From a medical perspective I don’t think it matters, until vaccine breakthrough infections start to become more serious - either from waning immunity or variants that escape vaccination. And that may never happen.

 I have no real worries about sailing with unvaccinated passengers until the %age gets much higher than it will be initially - I’m more worried about a situation getting blown out of proportion as started to seem to happen with the first Millennium cruise and then again with Odyssey and tanking the entire industry. I think we will all breathe easier when there are multiple safe cruises from multiple ships, and small numbers of positive tests are handled safely and reasonably for the affected individuals.

[Babr]

6 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

Of course we have done that, I just know me 🤥

I guess I’m a little more cynical about my fellow man. My point is that after July 18, unless CDC appeals or some other part of the federal government intervenes, it is going to be very very difficult long term for Celebrity to ensure that they are sailing 95% vaccinated from Florida. Early on, I think their tactics of discouragement will work well, but eventually unvaccinated persons will want to start cruising or someone will deliberately challenge the 

policy or the Florida law or both. 
From a medical perspective I don’t think it matters, until vaccine breakthrough infections start to become more serious - either from waning immunity or variants that escape vaccination. And that may never happen.

 I have no real worries about sailing with unvaccinated passengers until the %age gets much higher than it will be initially - I’m more worried about a situation getting blown out of proportion as started to seem to happen with the first Millennium cruise and then again with Odyssey and tanking the entire industry. I think we will all breathe easier when there are multiple safe cruises from multiple ships, and small numbers of positive tests are handled safely and reasonably for the affected individuals.

Sure. I expect things to change, too. Right now, I see this as gingerly moving forward until the cruise lines can see how things work. I don’t expect the restrictions to be in place long term -only so long as the pandemic is a perceived threat. As you say, we’ll know more after several successful trips.

[harkinmr]

3 hours ago, cangelmd said:

To me this just leaves one question, which I truly think is irrelevant to vaccinated persons - will they  keep count at the pier of people who are legitimately unvaccinated (kids) and those who have refused to show their cards and the handful who accidentally left their card at home (you know it will happen, I can see it happening to me!)? And what happens when that number at pier side goes over 5%? Personally, as an MD,  think not much unless it goes over 25%, because the risk is less for many than it is in everyday shoreside life - just stop testing for re-entry into the US, but Celeb might not see it that way, especially after all the advertising of minimal non-vaccinated.

They don’t have flexibility.  They are committed to the CDC for minimum 95% vaccinated.  Otherwise they don’t sail.  

[harkinmr]

2 hours ago, Antropos said:

It looks like Celebrity dropped the 95% threshold for FL sailings. When unvaccinated (or failing to show proof of vaccination) you still have additional testing requirements, additional costs, mask wearing and possibly other uncomfortable restrictions and protocols to follow, but it looks like you won't be left behind on the pier: Travel Requirements for US Cruises | Celebrity Cruises

No.  It’s still there.  
 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/content/dam/celebrity/pdf/celebrity-healthy-at-sea-protocols.pdf