COVID precautions on Oceania tours

[smj]

Does anyone know what precautions are in place for Oceania shore tours? Are the guides vaccinated? Do they wear mask? We will be on the Sireana in Feb. The thought of being on a bus with unvaccinated guides and drivers is a concern for us.

[LHT28]

I would  call Oceania  & ask

 

[basor]

We were on Marina this November and all guides and drivers were vaccinated and wore mask.  The buses were at about 50% capacity and everyone wore mask in the bus and when going inside any venue.  

[edgee]

55 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I would  call Oceania  & ask

 

One reason to call and ask is that Sirena in the Caribbean in February may have different covid rules/precautions than, for example, the Marina in a different part of the world had in November.

[smj]

I did reach out to Guest Services with my question. I have not yet received an answer. I guess they are busy and short staffed like the rest of the world.

 

[Queen of DaNile]

We did one ship tour in the Caribbean in November on Riviera and driver, guide and guets were masked as that was the requirement for St. Lucia. Don't know if they were vaccinated and the the bus was full with vaccinated O passengers. With requirements changing daily, who even knows what ports the ship will be allowed to visit?

[ToxM]

I saw a report of a tour that took place yesterday with a fair % of guests on the coach on the return removed masks because the coach had no air con. 

 

1. I would hope there was a representative from O on the tour that could report back to the excursions desk that coaches weren’ t suitable for use at the current time.

 

2. I’d be speaking to the health officer on board the ship on my return to the ship and report the situation.

 

This could be the wrinkle in the otherwise smooth operation that O has got going atm to counter Covid issues.  

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

On 12/24/2021 at 10:30 AM, ToxM said:

I saw a report of a tour that took place yesterday with a fair % of guests on the coach on the return removed masks because the coach had no air con. 

 

1. I would hope there was a representative from O on the tour that could report back to the excursions desk that coaches weren’ t suitable for use at the current time.

 

2. I’d be speaking to the health officer on board the ship on my return to the ship and report the situation.

 

This could be the wrinkle in the otherwise smooth operation that O has got going atm to counter Covid issues.  

Are we sure that Oceania still puts a rep on each coach?  A competing line stopped doing it because of Covid, to keep their excursion people AND their passengers safer.   And what we found was that the guides, at least in the country we visited, didn't do much checking to make sure people wore masks on the coaches, especially in the back.  I only saw a few people take off their masks, though. But Oceania can be a little different from the line I used. But in any case, the guides, coach drivers and excursion folks can only do so much.  I think we should all be prepared to give occasional polite reminders ourselves.

 

[basor]

54 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Are we sure that Oceania still puts a rep on each coach?  A competing line stopped doing it because of Covid, to keep their excursion people AND their passengers safer.   And what we found was that the guides, at least in the country we visited, didn't do much checking to make sure people wore masks on the coaches, especially in the back.  I only saw a few people take off their masks, though. But Oceania can be a little different from the line I used. But in any case, the guides, coach drivers and excursion folks can only do so much.  I think we should all be prepared to give occasional polite reminders ourselves.

 

I can only report from our Marina cruise Trieste to Miami, NOV 2021 and there was an Oceania rep on each of our Oceania excursions...

[ORV]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

I think we should all be prepared to give occasional polite reminders ourselves.

 

Yeah, I think I'll leave that to someone else, I'm not the mask police. Way too many instances of violence over this exact type situation in the last few months. 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

4 hours ago, basor said:

I can only report from our Marina cruise Trieste to Miami, NOV 2021 and there was an Oceania rep on each of our Oceania excursions...

Thanks. That helps. Good to know.

[smj]

I did receive a reply from Colleen Belmont at Oceania yesterday. She states our ground operators, drivers, and tour guides "do not fall under our vaccine mandate nor do we test them"

I personally do not like the policy but now I do know how to plan my tours.

[Vineyard View]

I am fairly surprised at this response - and it does make me wonder if this isn’t universal with most cruise lines. Thank you for providing this. I think that it was a very good question to ask. 

[smj]

We are kn the cruise at this time. We have not done any Oceania tours yet. We did book 3 and tried to choose ones which would be outdoors. We did the transfer from Miami to the ship. There was absolutely no enforcement of mask wearing. There were only 2 people on our bus wearing a mask. They were my wife and myself. People took their mask off in the airport and kept them off. There was a sign on the bus to mask up but even the driver wore his mask below his nose and mouth. Some passengers even went mass free thru the COVID testing and boarding. Thankfully we are not at high risk but if someone is immunocompromised this would be a big concern.

On the ship most people are following the rules. There are some exceptions.

i hope my comments will not be seen as complaining but as a help to those that may be concerned about cruising at this time.