"COVID-19 Protection Program" Quaranteen Question

[cruisegeek1974]

Apologies if this was asked elsewhere, but I am unclear on what happens if you test positive during the cruise.  For example, let's say you have a PCR test for your flight home but you test positive for covid and therefore need to quaranteen before you can fly home (to Canada).  Does Princess cover the cost of the hotel quaranteen period?  I found this on the website as an FAQ on the Covid-19 Protection Program page.

 

1. Can I book my own hotel if I am required to quarantine post-disembarkation before returning home?
   Hotel accommodations will be arranged by Princess with one of our contracted hotel partners. Should you select a different hotel, you will be reimbursed only for the amount of the contracted hotel rate. Any incidental charges, costs related to room upgrades and additional room nights in excess of what is provided by Princess, requested or arranged by you, is your responsibility. Princess will provide hotel accommodations until a medical professional clears you to travel home.

 

This seems to say that Princess will pay for your hotel stay for any quaranteen period, but it's not crystal clear.  It says "arranged by Princess" as opposed to saying Princess will pay for any hotel costs.  Maybe I am being too paranoid, but I get suspicious because they use the word "arranged".

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Ginnyfyr]

15 minutes ago, cruisegeek1974 said:

Apologies if this was asked elsewhere, but I am unclear on what happens if you test positive during the cruise.  For example, let's say you have a PCR test for your flight home but you test positive for covid and therefore need to quaranteen before you can fly home (to Canada).  Does Princess cover the cost of the hotel quaranteen period?  I found this on the website as an FAQ on the Covid-19 Protection Program page.

 

1. Can I book my own hotel if I am required to quarantine post-disembarkation before returning home?
   Hotel accommodations will be arranged by Princess with one of our contracted hotel partners. Should you select a different hotel, you will be reimbursed only for the amount of the contracted hotel rate. Any incidental charges, costs related to room upgrades and additional room nights in excess of what is provided by Princess, requested or arranged by you, is your responsibility. Princess will provide hotel accommodations until a medical professional clears you to travel home.

 

This seems to say that Princess will pay for your hotel stay for any quaranteen period, but it's not crystal clear.  It says "arranged by Princess" as opposed to saying Princess will pay for any hotel costs.  Maybe I am being too paranoid, but I get suspicious because they use the word "arranged".

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

They will pay for your hotel. That's why they mention that they will reimburse you for the contracted rate if you choose to stay elsewhere, and that incidental charges in excess of what is provided by them is your responsibility. I'm thankful they include this coverage as our travel insurance does not provide quarantine coverage if you test positive, only medical. 

[cruisegeek1974]

Great, thanks.  Yes, from my research it seems no insurance company will cover trip interruption due to a covid issue.  But you can get medical coverage now.

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, cruisegeek1974 said:

Apologies if this was asked elsewhere, but I am unclear on what happens if you test positive during the cruise.  For example, let's say you have a PCR test for your flight home but you test positive for covid and therefore need to quaranteen before you can fly home (to Canada).  Does Princess cover the cost of the hotel quaranteen period?  I found this on the website as an FAQ on the Covid-19 Protection Program page.

 

1. Can I book my own hotel if I am required to quarantine post-disembarkation before returning home?
   Hotel accommodations will be arranged by Princess with one of our contracted hotel partners. Should you select a different hotel, you will be reimbursed only for the amount of the contracted hotel rate. Any incidental charges, costs related to room upgrades and additional room nights in excess of what is provided by Princess, requested or arranged by you, is your responsibility. Princess will provide hotel accommodations until a medical professional clears you to travel home.

 

This seems to say that Princess will pay for your hotel stay for any quaranteen period, but it's not crystal clear.  It says "arranged by Princess" as opposed to saying Princess will pay for any hotel costs.  Maybe I am being too paranoid, but I get suspicious because they use the word "arranged".

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

It seems pretty clear that they WILL pay for your hotel, but only up to a certain amount. If you stay at a hotel they specify, they would pay for all of it, but if you decide to stay at a $1000/night hotel on the beach, they would only pay the difference up to the maximum of their rate, not the entire amount.

 

In our case, the thought of being trapped in a hotel room for a few weeks is so worrying that we would probably end up renting a car and driving back home. Two or three days driving sure beats a week or two locked in a hotel room.  We'd still have to quarantine at home.

[cruisegeek1974]

Right.  I did see the part about only covering up to a certain amount, but i guess i was just being paranoid about the language Princess used.

 

This included protection seems pretty good then.  I would still purchase "regular" travel insurance that would cover trip cancellation for a non-covid reason.  The additional Princess trip insurance that you can buy does not have great coverage in terms of the medical, the amounts are quite low compared to medical coverage from insurance companies.  Some insurance companies are selling medical that will cover covid issues but they are not providing trip cancellation/interruption if it relates to covid.

 

At any rate, I will need to continue researching before making a decision.   Thanks.

[lx200gps]

35 minutes ago, cruisegeek1974 said:

Right.  I did see the part about only covering up to a certain amount, but i guess i was just being paranoid about the language Princess used.

 

This included protection seems pretty good then.  I would still purchase "regular" travel insurance that would cover trip cancellation for a non-covid reason.  The additional Princess trip insurance that you can buy does not have great coverage in terms of the medical, the amounts are quite low compared to medical coverage from insurance companies.  Some insurance companies are selling medical that will cover covid issues but they are not providing trip cancellation/interruption if it relates to covid.

 

At any rate, I will need to continue researching before making a decision.   Thanks.

I don't think you're being paranoid, there are still a lot of specifics missing from Princess's statements on this as to exactly how this would work. I'm with you on Princess's own insurance being pretty thin, we only ever bought it because of their excellent CFAR coverage, but once it became unavailable in Quebec a few years ago, we have to rely on other coverage. In our case, at least for our next trip in November out of PE, we're going to probably buy Medipac coverage, as they do seem to cover COVID, and rely on my premium credt card coverage for the "trip stuff". If only there was medical evacuation coverage available that would fly us home after testing positive but asymptomatic, that would be great ;o)

[Steelers36]

57 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

In our case, the thought of being trapped in a hotel room for a few weeks is so worrying that we would probably end up renting a car and driving back home.

Aside from the fact that you would not be quarantining for several weeks.  Typical quarantine outside Canada is 10-days max.  But the key is a negative test result.

 

Anyway, I wanted to mention that I understand the desire to get home, but it isn't always possible to drive a US rental car across border and drop in Canada.  I guess you can do it as no one will physically stop you, but the cost could be prohibitive. 

 

ETA - In fact, you won't be able to make the res with the rental company in most/all cases and would have to use a drop-off near the border and then just ignore it and carry on into Canada.  Check contract provisions and such.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Steelers36

[lx200gps]

39 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Aside from the fact that you would not be quarantining for several weeks.  Typical quarantine outside Canada is 10-days max.  But the key is a negative test result.

 

Anyway, I wanted to mention that I understand the desire to get home, but it isn't always possible to drive a US rental car across border and drop in Canada.  I guess you can do it as no one will physically stop you, but the cost could be prohibitive. 

 

ETA - In fact, you won't be able to make the res with the rental company in most/all cases and would have to use a drop-off near the border and then just ignore it and carry on into Canada.  Check contract provisions and such.

Unfortunately, a long quarantine away from home is very problematic for us for personal/home reasons, hence our wilingness to jump through a bunch of hoops to get back home ASAP. A week, or 10 days, or two weeks trapped in a cheap hotel room in Florida until we test negative is something we want to avoid if possible.

 

I've done a bit of research on one way rentals into Canada and they definitely do seem to be possible. Not all companies allow it, and not all individual outlets allow it, but they are out there and are fairly easy to find through various booking engines. I will qualify this by saying I haven't confirmed whether they have any COVID-specific policies, and I haven't contacted them yet to confirm that what their website says is actually accurate. As a few examples, the extreme case of a one-way rental from FLL all the way back to Montreal airport in the same vehicle was an eye-watering $C2200! Turns out that one-way rentals over much smaller distances are MUCH cheaper, so renting three different vehicles, making two over-night stops and picking up a new vehicle in each town on the way, is well less than half of that.  

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

Unfortunately, a long quarantine away from home is very problematic for us for personal/home reasons, hence our wilingness to jump through a bunch of hoops to get back home ASAP. A week, or 10 days, or two weeks trapped in a cheap hotel room in Florida until we test negative is something we want to avoid if possible.

 

I've done a bit of research on one way rentals into Canada and they definitely do seem to be possible. Not all companies allow it, and not all individual outlets allow it, but they are out there and are fairly easy to find through various booking engines. I will qualify this by saying I haven't confirmed whether they have any COVID-specific policies, and I haven't contacted them yet to confirm that what their website says is actually accurate. As a few examples, the extreme case of a one-way rental from FLL all the way back to Montreal airport in the same vehicle was an eye-watering $C2200! Turns out that one-way rentals over much smaller distances are MUCH cheaper, so renting three different vehicles, making two over-night stops and picking up a new vehicle in each town on the way, is well less than half of that.  

Good on you for looking into this closely.  To use an example closer to my home, taking a rental one-way from BUF to YYZ has to be a lot more possible and less costly than from FLL to YYZ - no matter who allows or doesn't allow it.  And I can see where the further a vehicle ends up from it's home location, the more costly it can be as it is less certain when it can be returned.  The last time I looked at a one-way from USA to try and get home was after 9/11.  I ended up waiting it out until planes were flying again.  (That was a surreal experience flying home then I can say).

 

[007colocruz]

4 hours ago, cruisegeek1974 said:

 

 

1. Can I book my own hotel if I am required to quarantine post-disembarkation before returning
2.  
3. . Princess will provide hotel accommodations until a medical professional clears you to travel home.

 

re: car rental 
Would Princess have a medical professional clear you to drive home rather then quarantine?

[redrobin]

4 minutes ago, 007colocruz said:

re: car rental 
Would Princess have a medical professional clear you to drive home rather then quarantine?

 

I agree, this is the part I would be focused on too:

 "Princess will provide hotel accommodations until a medical professional clears you to travel home."

 

Does Princess or other govt. authorities have the ability to restrict travel once you disembark? Early in the cruise restart I remember reading about and seeing videos where a cruise line was flying passengers who tested positive home on a private plane. The current Princess protocol covers costs related to a hotel 'quarantine' if you test positive prior to disembarkation. By definition, quarantine means isolation from others. A multi-day, cross country road trip would involve the rental car company, hotels, gas stations, rest stops, food establishments...

[lx200gps]

5 minutes ago, redrobin said:

 

I agree, this is the part I would be focused on too:

 "Princess will provide hotel accommodations until a medical professional clears you to travel home."

 

Does Princess or other govt. authorities have the ability to restrict travel once you disembark? Early in the cruise restart I remember reading about and seeing videos where a cruise line was flying passengers who tested positive home on a private plane. The current Princess protocol covers costs related to a hotel 'quarantine' if you test positive prior to disembarkation. By definition, quarantine means isolation from others. A multi-day, cross country road trip would involve the rental car company, hotels, gas stations, rest stops, food establishments...

There are a lot of interesting legal and moral questions here. As I understand it, Princess have now decided to test pax AFTER disembarkation, and not on the ship, so it's hard to know how, or whether, they can forcibly "quarantine" you as they could if you tested + while still on board. You can undergo the test, then head off somewhere (like the airport) to await the results, so I'm assuming they can't physically detain you until the results are known, by which time you have moved on. Right now, there appear to be few, if any, restrictions on travelling while Covid-positive, particularly within the US. You can't fly into Canada if tested +, but AFAIK you can fly inside the US. And yes, the fundamental question of whether it's "OK" to travel while + is very valid. We would never, ever, travel if symptomatic, but I wonder just how many peiople out there, fully vaccinated, are + but don't know it simply because they are asymptomatic, haven't been tested but are happily getting on airplanes in droves anyway, simply because they don't know that they are +.

[ebeluga]

2 hours ago, lx200gps said:

Unfortunately, a long quarantine away from home is very problematic for us for personal/home reasons, hence our wilingness to jump through a bunch of hoops to get back home ASAP. A week, or 10 days, or two weeks trapped in a cheap hotel room in Florida until we test negative is something we want to avoid if possible.

 

I've done a bit of research on one way rentals into Canada and they definitely do seem to be possible. Not all companies allow it, and not all individual outlets allow it, but they are out there and are fairly easy to find through various booking engines. I will qualify this by saying I haven't confirmed whether they have any COVID-specific policies, and I haven't contacted them yet to confirm that what their website says is actually accurate. As a few examples, the extreme case of a one-way rental from FLL all the way back to Montreal airport in the same vehicle was an eye-watering $C2200! Turns out that one-way rentals over much smaller distances are MUCH cheaper, so renting three different vehicles, making two over-night stops and picking up a new vehicle in each town on the way, is well less than half of that.  

That’s a very out of the box solution on car rental for one-way long distance.  I may adopt it to do a x-country one-way road trip and then fly home when Covid is “over”.

[Florida_gal_50]

Wouldn’t you have to provide a negative covid pcr test to cross the border to come into Canada?

[007colocruz]

20 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Wouldn’t you have to provide a negative covid pcr test to cross the border to come into Canada?

Yes

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, lx200gps said:

There are a lot of interesting legal and moral questions here. As I understand it, Princess have now decided to test pax AFTER disembarkation, and not on the ship, so it's hard to know how, or whether, they can forcibly "quarantine" you as they could if you tested + while still on board. You can undergo the test, then head off somewhere (like the airport) to await the results, so I'm assuming they can't physically detain you until the results are known, by which time you have moved on. Right now, there appear to be few, if any, restrictions on travelling while Covid-positive, particularly within the US. You can't fly into Canada if tested +, but AFAIK you can fly inside the US. And yes, the fundamental question of whether it's "OK" to travel while + is very valid. We would never, ever, travel if symptomatic, but I wonder just how many people out there, fully vaccinated, are + but don't know it simply because they are asymptomatic, haven't been tested but are happily getting on airplanes in droves anyway, simply because they don't know that they are +.

Just following on your thoughts, putting any personal moral issue aside for the moment, you could fly to a border town (BUF in my case), and then rent the car.

[cruisegeek1974]

A fair portion of passengers, like myself, would require a PCT test to fly home which Princess does on the ship.  I believe the results would be known before disembarkation as I believe it is done a day before the cruise ends. 

[Steelers36]

24 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Wouldn’t you have to provide a negative covid pcr test to cross the border to come into Canada?

 

3 minutes ago, 007colocruz said:

Yes

Well, yes you are expected/supposed to do that, but technically they cannot deny a citizen entry to Canada - and you are already in Canada when you present yourself to CBSA. 

 

If your return-home test is +ve for some reason, you could still show up and would be ordered into quarantine I expect.  Since the hotels are gone, presumably you could drive home with a suitable quarantine plan.  Otherwise, they could send you to a facility.

 

Assuming you are fully-vaccinated, there is a relatively low chance, but you never know.  I am just saying what you might do and what happens at the border in terms of admission.

 

 

 

[lx200gps]

29 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Wouldn’t you have to provide a negative covid pcr test to cross the border to come into Canada?

AFAIK, Canada won't formally prevent you from entering your own country, at least by land. You certainly do require a negative test to fly in. If you showed up at a land border ASYMPTOMATIC, they should let you in with the firm understanding that you would have to head straight home and quarantine.  Still, it's something to investigate and confirm.

[lx200gps]

7 minutes ago, cruisegeek1974 said:

A fair portion of passengers, like myself, would require a PCT test to fly home which Princess does on the ship.  I believe the results would be known before disembarkation as I believe it is done a day before the cruise ends. 

I believe you'll find that things have changed in recent weeks, and that Princess no longer tests on the ship the day before. As I understand it, they will be setting up testing facilities on the pier AFTER disembarkation.

[cruisegeek1974]

Ahhh, ok.  I guess you need to double check everything you read every few days as things are always changing! 

 

Thanks for pointing that out!

 

I hope they don't decide to stop offering the PCR test as that would be a pain to have to start arranging a test myself.

Edited September 18, 2021 by cruisegeek1974

[lx200gps]

20 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

 

Well, yes you are expected/supposed to do that, but technically they cannot deny a citizen entry to Canada - and you are already in Canada when you present yourself to CBSA. 

 

If your return-home test is +ve for some reason, you could still show up and would be ordered into quarantine I expect.  Since the hotels are gone, presumably you could drive home with a suitable quarantine plan.  Otherwise, they could send you to a facility.

 

Assuming you are fully-vaccinated, there is a relatively low chance, but you never know.  I am just saying what you might do and what happens at the border in terms of admission.

 

 

 

I just realized I hadn't checked ArriveCan recently. When you go to the website, there is a link to answer a few questions "Find Out If You Can Enter Canada". For Canadian citizens, if you have no symptoms, you can enter. It does not ask about whether you have tested + or -, but it does confirm that you have to have had a PCR test within 72 hours prior to entering. If you do  answer that you ARE symptomatic, and are coming in by land or sea, then again, you can enter, but then have to follow a series of protocols (private vehicle, masking at all times, quarantining etc.). So as near as I can understand it, they seem more concerned with whether or not you would be showing symptoms, and not so much results of a PCR  test.  In our case, the only possible way we would return like this is if we are asymptomatic, so this seems comforting.

 

This is the ArriveCan link....

 

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/wizard-start

[Steelers36]

31 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

I believe you'll find that things have changed in recent weeks, and that Princess no longer tests on the ship the day before. As I understand it, they will be setting up testing facilities on the pier AFTER disembarkation.

 

25 minutes ago, cruisegeek1974 said:

Ahhh, ok.  I guess you need to double check everything you read every few days as things are always changing! 

 

Thanks for pointing that out!

 

I hope they don't decide to stop offering the PCR test as that would be a pain to have to start arranging a test myself.

 

Princess.com info indicates they are doing the test after exiting the terminal and indicate a PCR result can be had within about 60 minutes.  PITA sort of as delays getting to airport, compared to getting the test on the ship a day or two earlier.  Perhaps they are expecting to have a large volume over a longer period of time than when first conceived. 

 

 

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

I just realized I hadn't checked ArriveCan recently. When you go to the website, there is a link to answer a few questions "Find Out If You Can Enter Canada". For Canadian citizens, if you have no symptoms, you can enter. It does not ask about whether you have tested + or -, but it does confirm that you have to have had a PCR test within 72 hours prior to entering. If you do  answer that you ARE symptomatic, and are coming in by land or sea, then again, you can enter, but then have to follow a series of protocols (private vehicle, masking at all times, quarantining etc.). So as near as I can understand it, they seem more concerned with whether or not you would be showing symptoms, and not so much results of a PCR  test.  In our case, the only possible way we would return like this is if we are asymptomatic, so this seems comforting.

 

This is the ArriveCan link....

 

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/wizard-start

As I stated, CBSA officers cannot deny a citizen entry to Canada.  But you should have a good quarantine plan or they may bundle you off to a not-so-nice facility.  Going back to the rental car, it would be useful to tell them that a friend or family member is going to return the rental car for you after you arrive home.

 

[007colocruz]

As far as the rental car. I suggest letting them know you tested positive for covid when renting and dropping it off 

and

what about stopping at restaurants and washrooms along the way? 2-3 day drive from Ft Lauderdale to Ontario-Quebec 

Edited September 18, 2021 by 007colocruz