Canadian cruiser with Astra Zenica vaccine is it accepted?

[cnkgirl]

Does anybody know if Astra Zenica  vaccine a double dose, is accepted by celebrity I am being told no but I’m sure others have sailed with a double dose of this. I am to cruise in October I thought I was good now I’m finding out I might not be

Edited September 19, 2021 by cnkgirl

[Cg52]

We were told that was the only reason they would give us a refund as they do not accept it for sailing.

[LGW59]

3 minutes ago, cnkgirl said:

Does anybody know if Astra Zenica  vaccine a double dose, is accepted by celebrity I am being told no but I’m sure others have sailed with a double dose of this. I am to cruise in October I thought I was good now I’m finding out I might not be

They way I read their requirements as posted on their website site, no mention of Az, only Pfizer, Moderna or a mix with mNRA mix with either of the two.

 

[drakes2]

4 minutes ago, cnkgirl said:

Does anybody know if Astra Zenica  vaccine a double dose, is accepted by celebrity I am being told no but I’m sure others have sailed with a double dose of this. I am to cruise in October I thought I was good now I’m finding out I might not be

Yes Astrazeneca is one of the vaccines accepted by WHO, but not FDA approved as yet so whoever told you no is misinformed. As long as you have not mixed vaccines you are good to go.

[canderson]

From Celebrity:

"Vaccines that are fully approved or authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the World Health Organization (WHO) are accepted. Sputnik V and CanSino are not accepted Covid-19 vaccines.  Please be aware that certain countries we sail from or visit during a voyage may require a specific vaccine, and only those travelers vaccinated with the requisite vaccine will be considered fully vaccinated. Be sure to review your departure country's requirements or consult our guest materials prior to sailing for these requirements."

 

You are one of the lucky Canadians that didn't get doses of different vaccines, so you are good to go per WHO.  It's really a bummer that mixed vaccines have caused so much trouble for so many.

[Ken the cruiser]

Does this help?

 

MONTREAL - Although the AstraZeneca vaccine is not licensed for use in the United States, U.S. health authorities now officially consider people who have received two doses of the vaccine (or of Covishield, the version of the vaccine produced in India) as “fully vaccinated.”

 

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/07/16/fully-vaccinated-after-two-doses-of-astrazeneca-vaccine-us-says.html

 

 

[LGW59]

10 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

They way I read their requirements as posted on their website site, no mention of Az, only Pfizer, Moderna or a mix with mNRA mix with either of the two.

 

@cnkgirli apologize, the response I posted I took from Celebrities website and was dated 9/3/21.  So glad it’s going to work out for you!

[cnkgirl]

Thank you all for your responses but I just spoke to another travel agent that said Astra Zeneca is not approved for cruising because they follow the CDC guidelines 😞 i’m going to talk to my celebrity cruise planner tomorrow hopefully I will find out something different 🤞

[AlbertaCruisers]

1 minute ago, cnkgirl said:

Thank you all for your responses but I just spoke to another travel agent that said Astra Zeneca is not approved for cruising because they follow the CDC guidelines 😞 i’m going to talk to my celebrity cruise planner tomorrow hopefully I will find out something different 🤞

 

FYI, I could be wrong, but I think that brontravel from this other thread may have double AZ and I believe she is on the Edge right now.  Hopefully she will respond to you.

 

 

[1025cruise]

As long as you had two AZ doses, you are OK. What is not accepted by the CDC is a combo of AZ and either Pfizer or Moderna.

[drakes2]

13 minutes ago, cnkgirl said:

Thank you all for your responses but I just spoke to another travel agent that said Astra Zeneca is not approved for cruising because they follow the CDC guidelines 😞 i’m going to talk to my celebrity cruise planner tomorrow hopefully I will find out something different 🤞

Your travel agent is ill advising you. Two doses of AZ vaccine whether its Covishield (SII) or Oxford is the same manufacturer and accepted by the WHO and Celebrity.  I wish some of these TA'S would do a little more research but I guess their jobs are to sell cruises. 

[brontravel]

Hi there. There were no questions asked when I boarded with my two doses of AstraZeneca. They even let me stay an extra week. Lol. I had received conflicting information but as it got closer I called again and had two different celebrity reps tell me they would be accepted and that I was good to go. Was still a sigh of relief when they let me on. Lol. 

[brontravel]

Just now, cnkgirl said:

Thank you all for your responses but I just spoke to another travel agent that said Astra Zeneca is not approved for cruising because they follow the CDC guidelines 😞 i’m going to talk to my celebrity cruise planner tomorrow hopefully I will find out something different 🤞

Please call Celebrity directly. There is nothing in the CDC guidelines that says AZ is not an accepted vaccine. It just was never approved by the FDA for emergency use in the USA. I am a travel agent. I was told by my Celebrity Cruise sales rep that it wasn’t accepted. She even went higher up to confirm. Came back and said the same thing. But I was certain they were wrong because if it wasn’t accepted their website would list it specifically like they did with the other brands. 

[LGW59]

6 minutes ago, brontravel said:

Please call Celebrity directly. There is nothing in the CDC guidelines that says AZ is not an accepted vaccine. It just was never approved by the FDA for emergency use in the USA. I am a travel agent. I was told by my Celebrity Cruise sales rep that it wasn’t accepted. She even went higher up to confirm. Came back and said the same thing. But I was certain they were wrong because if it wasn’t accepted their website would list it specifically like they did with the other brands. 

The proof in the pudding is you were able to board the ship!  Though I still totally understand the angst of the OP!

[Florida_gal_50]

I have a related question to Canadians that are traveling.  How are you able to get travel insurance with a travel advisory in place?  Thank you.

[AlbertaCruisers]

34 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I have a related question to Canadians that are traveling.  How are you able to get travel insurance with a travel advisory in place?  Thank you.

 

I recommend you check out the Canadian board here on Cruise Critic, there is lots of information there.  Depending on what province you are from the answer is different.  I am from Edmonton, Alberta and sailed on the Celebrity Equinox on August 27.  I was able to get insurance with Johnson that covers regular medical and regular trip interruption, etc. and COVID medical and covers us on the cruise.  No one I found will cover trip interruption or trip cancellation for COVID, but for now the Cruise lines (at least Celebrity) has some comfort on that.

 

If you are in Ontario, I understand your Blue Cross is now covering COVID and cruising (Alberta Blue Cross is not, except in some cases if you have the appropriate work plan).

[drakes2]

2 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

 

I recommend you check out the Canadian board here on Cruise Critic, there is lots of information there.  Depending on what province you are from the answer is different.  I am from Edmonton, Alberta and sailed on the Celebrity Equinox on August 27.  I was able to get insurance with Johnson that covers regular medical and regular trip interruption, etc. and COVID medical and covers us on the cruise.  No one I found will cover trip interruption or trip cancellation for COVID, but for now the Cruise lines (at least Celebrity) has some comfort on that.

 

If you are in Ontario, I understand your Blue Cross is now covering COVID and cruising (Alberta Blue Cross is not, except in some cases if you have the appropriate work plan).

I live in Ontario and plan on purchasing a yearly policy from Blue Cross. Spoke to an agent on the phone who stated the policy covers illness related to Covid 19 when traveling outside Canada.

Also received a PDF version with confirmation. 

[Fouremco]

45 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I have a related question to Canadians that are traveling.  How are you able to get travel insurance with a travel advisory in place?  Thank you.

As @AlbertaCruisers said, the Canadian Cruisers board has a wealth of information on travel insurance during the COVID-related travel advisories.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2510-canadian-cruisers/

[Florida_gal_50]

Thank you everyone.  I had no idea there was a Canadian cruisers section.  You learn something new everyday.  Much appreciated 🙂.

[brontravel]

4 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I have a related question to Canadians that are traveling.  How are you able to get travel insurance with a travel advisory in place?  Thank you.

I called many many different insurance companies and finally found that Johnson insurance would cover for Covid even while an advisory was in place. 

[nocl]

2 hours ago, cnkgirl said:

Thank you all for your responses but I just spoke to another travel agent that said Astra Zeneca is not approved for cruising because they follow the CDC guidelines 😞 i’m going to talk to my celebrity cruise planner tomorrow hopefully I will find out something different 🤞

If you look at the CDC web site for the definition of fully vaccinated there is a sub note that clearly states that anyone that has received the complete vaccination set, for any of the vaccines as approved by FDA or WHO (AZ is shown as the WHO example) is considered to be fully vaccinated by CDC inside the US.

[cnkgirl]

4 hours ago, brontravel said:

Hi there. There were no questions asked when I boarded with my two doses of AstraZeneca. They even let me stay an extra week. Lol. I had received conflicting information but as it got closer I called again and had two different celebrity reps tell me they would be accepted and that I was good to go. Was still a sigh of relief when they let me on. Lol. 

I am so happy to hear from you Brontravel  I saw in an earlier post that you were going on a celebrity cruise and have the Astra Zeneca vaccine and are Canadian. I’m so glad this worked out for you this makes me so happy! I spoke to a Celebrity rep today and her supervisor,  both told me that celebrity was following the CDC guidelines and would not accept  Astra Zenica, I mentioned that I saw on their website that it said they are following the  WHO  guildlines and they accept Astra Zeneca the reps said no. I will be speaking to my Celebrity planner  tomorrow and hopefully I can get this worked out. It is so crazy it’s really a shame that everyone can’t follow the same rules, I do understand that things change quit often. 

Thanks so much Tracey

[cnkgirl]

5 hours ago, brontravel said:

Hi there. There were no questions asked when I boarded with my two doses of AstraZeneca. They even let me stay an extra week. Lol. I had received conflicting information but as it got closer I called again and had two different celebrity reps tell me they would be accepted and that I was good to go. Was still a sigh of relief when they let me on. Lol. 

Hi Brontravel is there a chance you could email me so I could ask you a couple of questions my email is cnkgirl@telus.net

[drakes2]

6 hours ago, cnkgirl said:

I am so happy to hear from you Brontravel  I saw in an earlier post that you were going on a celebrity cruise and have the Astra Zeneca vaccine and are Canadian. I’m so glad this worked out for you this makes me so happy! I spoke to a Celebrity rep today and her supervisor,  both told me that celebrity was following the CDC guidelines and would not accept  Astra Zenica, I mentioned that I saw on their website that it said they are following the  WHO  guildlines and they accept Astra Zeneca the reps said no. I will be speaking to my Celebrity planner  tomorrow and hopefully I can get this worked out. It is so crazy it’s really a shame that everyone can’t follow the same rules, I do understand that things change quit often. 

Thanks so much Tracey

My CVP has been with Celebrity for 12 years and said 2 doses of Astrazeneca is considered to be fully vaccinated.  I really don't have much faith in some of the reps who answer the phone lines as often they are in foreign countries and are reading outdated marketing material. Last night I downloaded my vaccine receipts from the Ontario ministry of health site so I have everything ready when boarding. 

[brontravel]

9 hours ago, cnkgirl said:

Hi Brontravel is there a chance you could email me so I could ask you a couple of questions my email is cnkgirl@telus.net

Email sent.