U.S. Virgin Islands requires all cruise ship passengers 12 and older to be fully vaccinated

[bajathree]

I haven't seen this posted yet..https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/08/02/us-virgin-islands-requires-all-cruise-ship-passengers-12-and-older-be-fully-vaccinated

[bajathree]

I know this is for Royal but obviously applies to all cruise ships...so will apply to all Celebrity sailings also.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

The Edge I believed docked there yesterday. So either (1) all of their passengers 16+ years old are vaccinated or (2) they just got in under the wire before this new Virgin Islands rule took effect. Since the next time the Edge is scheduled to stop there is on their Aug 14th cruise, which we will be on, it will be interesting to see if there are any unvaccinated passengers 12+ years old on that cruise or will they have to change their itinerary and bypass St Thomas? I guess time will tell.

[bajathree]

18 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

The Edge I believed docked there yesterday. So either (1) all of their passengers 16+ years old are vaccinated or (2) they just got in under the wire before this new Virgin Islands rule took effect. Since the next time the Edge is scheduled to stop there is on their Aug 14th cruise, which we will be on, it will be interesting to see if there are any unvaccinated passengers 12+ years old on that cruise or will they have to change their itinerary and bypass St Thomas? I guess time will tell.

Since Celebrity is sailing with at least 95% vaccinated....I would think they will just pull anyone not vaccinated over 12 from the sailing. Doubt they will change itinerary for such a small amount of passengers along with ports dwindling. St Kitts is out as an option and they are already going to have to alter itinerary for any ships that had St Kitts as a stop.

Edited August 3, 2021 by bajathree

[Jeremiah1212]

Since this is in direct opposition to the Florida law, I wonder if this was RCL's backdoor plan. The Governor of the USVI's apparently was strongly opposed to FL's new law. You would think RCL would just adjust ports but I find it very interesting they chose this approach. Eastern Caribbean cruises are facing a growing amount of hurdles. 

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, bajathree said:

Since Celebrity is sailing with at least 95% vaccinated....I would think they will just pull anyone not vaccinated over 12 from the sailing. Doubt they will change itinerary for such a small amount of passengers along with ports dwindling. St Kitts is out as an option and they are already going to have to alter itinerary for any ships that has St Kitts as a stop.

Glad to hear it. Just wasn't sure how much pull the Florida law would play telling ALL unvaccinated passengers over 12 they would not be allowed to board because of the new St Thomas rule, even though the ship potentially hadn't reached the allowable 5% unvaccinated level.