Cruising During Covid

[mominwestlake]

We have a cruise scheduled on the Mardi Gras in February.  My husband just texted that I should cancel because of the 48 positive cases on the Royal Caribbean ship.

We are vaccinated and have had the booster.  Is it still safe to cruise?  How can I convince him?  This would be our 3rd cancellation during covid.

[Buckeyefrank100]

11 minutes ago, mominwestlake said:

We have a cruise scheduled on the Mardi Gras in February.  My husband just texted that I should cancel because of the 48 positive cases on the Royal Caribbean ship.

We are vaccinated and have had the booster.  Is it still safe to cruise?  How can I convince him?  This would be our 3rd cancellation during covid.

Only you and your husband can decide what the risk tolerance you are willing to take for anything.  48 people out of 6000 is less than 1% of the population so not a lot.  However if you do get the virus, depending on your mode of travel, you may be stranded in quarantine.

 

On a slightly different note, my wife and I are booked for February as well but I am not hopeful that we will get to actually go.  I have a bad feeling this omicron variant (even though much less impactful) could force cruise lines to shut down again for a period of time.

[sparks1093]

Everyone has to be vaccinated and everyone needs to be tested before boarding. I feel safer on a cruise than I do in a store. 

[crewsweeper]

RCCL SOTS had different protocols than Carnival.  Lots of Vaccinated people not wearing masks and mixing with unvaccinated.

 

We're boosted and tested negative and sailed on Mardi Gras last  month.   No cases reported on our cruise.   No need to let fear of unknown cancel your cruise.  Just follow the  rules and you'll be fine.

[my kids mama]

We are deciding the same thing right now.  Our next cruise is supposed to leave on New Years 
Eve. We are vaccinated and boosted, as well.  I am not too worried about getting real sick, even if I do get Omicron.  My only concern is that my son's wedding is a week after we return.  I just don't want to test positive and be in quarantine for his special day. 

[jsglow]

5 minutes ago, my kids mama said:

We are deciding the same thing right now.  Our next cruise is supposed to leave on New Years 
Eve. We are vaccinated and boosted, as well.  I am not too worried about getting real sick, even if I do get Omicron.  My only concern is that my son's wedding is a week after we return.  I just don't want to test positive and be in quarantine for his special day. 

THAT is a pretty challenging situation.  Best wishes and congrats to your son and new DIL.

[my kids mama]

3 minutes ago, jsglow said:

THAT is a pretty challenging situation.  Best wishes and congrats to your son and new DIL.

Thank you!  They were supposed to get married last year.  We all know what happened with that.  The venue wouldn't give them a refund.  They could only change their dates.  They decided to do a marriage license ceremony this past January, and do the actual ceremony this coming January.  I still don't want to miss it though.  BTW...I totally lucked out in the DIL department! She is great!

[audcc77]

We sail on January 2. 
 

We’re still going.  
 

DH is not a cruise fan in the first place, so obviously he’s very nervous even though we’re boostered.  I keep telling him that I’ll find a friend but he keeps saying no.   
 

The best thing for you to do if you still want to go, is to get some good  masks, travel insurance, a passport, and go.  
 

A passport card is no good for flying into the US from a foreign port, so beware.  
 

Once everything is in place, don’t give it another thought.  
 

And tell your DH that once he makes his decision to go, you’re not dragging around a dead horse on this  one.  😁

[jsglow]

36 minutes ago, my kids mama said:

Thank you!  They were supposed to get married last year.  We all know what happened with that.  The venue wouldn't give them a refund.  They could only change their dates.  They decided to do a marriage license ceremony this past January, and do the actual ceremony this coming January.  I still don't want to miss it though.  BTW...I totally lucked out in the DIL department! She is great!

Fantastic.  Was your cruise already booked when they set the new date?  Like you, I'd really be thinking about hunkerin' down.

[akeka]

56 minutes ago, crewsweeper said:

RCCL SOTS had different protocols than Carnival.  Lots of Vaccinated people not wearing masks and mixing with unvaccinated.

 

We're boosted and tested negative and sailed on Mardi Gras last  month.   No cases reported on our cruise.   No need to let fear of unknown cancel your cruise.  Just follow the  rules and you'll be fine.

This isn't correct.  The only places indoors where masks weren't required were vaccinated only venues (bars mostly or the lower level of the show room).  I've sailed two Carnival ships and two Royal Caribbean ships since the restart and felt Royal was safer.  Their staff actually enforced mask requirements while Carnival largely ignored people ignoring it in the few indoor places it was required before this week.

[stellarose]

boosted.  wear a mask every day at school.  I teach with over 30 kids in a classroom.  I just want to sit on the lido, feel the breeze and relax.  

 

I can only control myself.  i will do whatever CCL tells me to do- to sail.

[TheSeagoer]

3 hours ago, mominwestlake said:

We have a cruise scheduled on the Mardi Gras in February.  My husband just texted that I should cancel because of the 48 positive cases on the Royal Caribbean ship.

We are vaccinated and have had the booster.  Is it still safe to cruise?  How can I convince him?  This would be our 3rd cancellation during covid.

You can contract covid anywhere.  If you are Vaxxed, go

[HarborHermit]

Like others have said, it's your call. I just got off the Breeze on December 11th, and like sparks1093 said, I still felt safer than at the grocery store. Most people were adhering to the mask requirements, and I wore my mask and socially distanced as much as possible. A few people in my Facebook roll call have tested positive for Covid-19, but the vast majority of us have tested negative.

[my kids mama]

2 hours ago, jsglow said:

Fantastic.  Was your cruise already booked when they set the new date?  Like you, I'd really be thinking about hunkerin' down.

Yeah, we were booked.  We have 4 cruises booked at the moment. At first I thought "surely we will be better by then".  Felt better about it after vaccines and booster.  Then Omicron walked in the room.  I just want to punch Omicron in the face!!!!

[crewsweeper]

2 hours ago, akeka said:

This isn't correct.  The only places indoors where masks weren't required were vaccinated only venues (bars mostly or the lower level of the show room).  I've sailed two Carnival ships and two Royal Caribbean ships since the restart and felt Royal was safer.  Their staff actually enforced mask requirements while Carnival largely ignored people ignoring it in the few indoor places it was required before this week.

I agrre that Royal seems "safer".  We'll see in 3 weeks.  I like the way they designate vaxxed from non-vaxxed.  On MG last month, it was confusing as the where and when you could be masked or unmasked.  The crew didn't really chime in.  No cases of positive  on cruise or post cruise that I have heard of.  On SOTS, I was reading where passengers were saying the enforcement was lax.  That's the source of my comments.

[Crismess669]

A lot of the restrictions you see expire on Jan 31. That doesn’t mean they won’t renew them, but we’re going Feb 3 and not making a decision for another month. This could be a whole lot worse by then, but it could also get better. 

[icft]

Mominwestlake – everyone has to make their own risk assessment and decision. As for us; we just got back from our second cruise this year and have another in January and another in February. Our risk assessment is that we are safer on a cruise with the much, much higher vaccination rates, testing before boarding and time spent in the open under the sun. Of course that would not hold true for someone whose alternative to a cruise is to sit in their house by themselves with no human contact. But lockdown is not an option for us. We are old enough that we don’t have the time to throw away and our hope for our lives is to live, not to just be alive like some disembodied brain in a jar on a shelf being surrounded by oxygenated nutrients.

[Earthworm Jim]

There is no reason to rush to cancel. Carnival's Covid cancelation policy allows you to get a FCC (which you've already done several times so you know the ropes) as long as there is Public Health Emergency in effect. They extend it 3 months at a time, so as of the October 18, 2021 federal extension it's definitely in effect until mid-January, and the way things are going it would be an absolute shock if it wasn't extended another 3 months at that time.

 

Wait until mid-January (or even closer to you cruise if PHE is extended again, as seems likely) and see how things are going. Are there a lot of cruises with Covid outbreaks, or was this an isolated incident? Did this Omicron wave so contagious that hit so fast that it's already fading by the time of your cruise, and we're back to where we were this fall? Or are things still getting worse?

 

Bailing now has no real benefit since you'll still have the option to bail in about a month and at that time you'll have more information to base your decision on.

[ninjacat123]

2 hours ago, icft said:

We are old enough that we don’t have the time to throw away and our hope for our lives is to live, not to just be alive like some disembodied brain in a jar on a shelf being surrounded by oxygenated nutrients.

This is what I tell my DDs, I will never die, I'll be a head in a jar on their fireplace mantle and telling them what I want to watch on TV.  DH will have his own jar🤣

[Ilovesailaway]

It will be interesting to see what happens with the omicron variant. As was predicted by many scientists the virus has changed and has become more contagious but less deadly. The virus needs its host, its counter productive to kill the host. Look at what just happened in the NFL, they just had dozens of players test positive. They had to reschedule several games. So what do they do? They change policy and won't be testing A-Symptomatic vaccinated players anymore... lol 

Best way to have numbers go down was to stop testing I guess... money money money...

I wonder what will happen when enough cruisers can't pass the required covid test for their cruise? There will be a lot of people testing positive who had no idea they were infected.

What will happen to those FCC for covid cancelation offers when they start to multiply exponentially?

[TomCruise48]

8 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

RCCL SOTS had different protocols than Carnival.  Lots of Vaccinated people not wearing masks and mixing with unvaccinated.

 

We're boosted and tested negative and sailed on Mardi Gras last  month.   No cases reported on our cruise.   No need to let fear of unknown cancel your cruise.  Just follow the  rules and you'll be fine.

Not my experience from two RCCL cruises in October.  RCCL was 95% + vaxed.  Vaxed had wristbands to show that they were vaxed and unvaxed did not.  Unvaxed were separated in different levels of dining room and theater, and not allowed in certain venues.  4 max per elevator was generally followed.  Crew was good about reminding guests to wear masks in public areas, and would not let anyone into a mixed venue unless they were wearing a mask.  All and all, RCCL protocols were more strict than Carnival.

 

Have another RCCL cruise in February and a Carnival B2B in March.  I'm more concerned about the Carnival cruises since RCCL now requires masks indoors, while Carnival only recommends masks.

[Cruzlover7]

10 hours ago, mominwestlake said:

We have a cruise scheduled on the Mardi Gras in February.  My husband just texted that I should cancel because of the 48 positive cases on the Royal Caribbean ship.

We are vaccinated and have had the booster.  Is it still safe to cruise?  How can I convince him?  This would be our 3rd cancellation during covid.

We just returned from a four day cruise out of Port Canaveral. Most everyone wore their masks indoors and if not the staff did a great job reminding people.  There were hand sanitizing stations everywhere. You and your DH must remember to wash your hands regularly. Halfway through the cruise we received a letter that there was no more smoking aloud in the casino.  I believe Carnival is doing all they can to be safe.  The staff cleaning all the time.  They did so previously but, even more so now. Cruisers need to do their part too.  I do hope you can get to go. It was so nice to be back on the water.  Good luck 

[Gamecock_Cruiser]

Have you left home since March of 2020? If so, cruise. You are exposed EVERYWHERE that you go.

[AQW]

On 12/20/2021 at 2:42 PM, Earthworm Jim said:

There is no reason to rush to cancel. Carnival's Covid cancelation policy allows you to get a FCC (which you've already done several times so you know the ropes) as long as there is Public Health Emergency in effect. They extend it 3 months at a time, so as of the October 18, 2021 federal extension it's definitely in effect until mid-January

 

I haven't been keeping up with the boards and I didn't know this! How does one go about getting the FCC? I canceled a cruise last week and expect to cancel our January 4 cruise shortly.

[Kris Lee]

On 12/20/2021 at 5:42 PM, Earthworm Jim said:

There is no reason to rush to cancel. Carnival's Covid cancelation policy allows you to get a FCC (which you've already done several times so you know the ropes) as long as there is Public Health Emergency in effect. They extend it 3 months at a time, so as of the October 18, 2021 federal extension it's definitely in effect until mid-January, and the way things are going it would be an absolute shock if it wasn't extended another 3 months at that time.

 

Wait until mid-January (or even closer to you cruise if PHE is extended again, as seems likely) and see how things are going. Are there a lot of cruises with Covid outbreaks, or was this an isolated incident? Did this Omicron wave so contagious that hit so fast that it's already fading by the time of your cruise, and we're back to where we were this fall? Or are things still getting worse?

 

Bailing now has no real benefit since you'll still have the option to bail in about a month and at that time you'll have more information to base your decision on.

Thank you for posting this! We have a cruise booked Jan 9 that we are on the fence about. This is great advice and it has immediately helped my anxiety. I no longer feel rushed to make a decision.