Scarlet Lady now CDC Yellow

[drewdawg199]

just FYI
https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html

[CroozFanatic]

Masks coming

[benjaminnicholas]

It would be nice if VV emailed their customers about this.

Not a peep.

[Cloud9 Bob]

That's  disappointing. They were doing so well staying in the green while so many others were going yellow. Wish there were more specifics as far as ratios of passengers to cases. Guess they don't consider it in their best interest to divulge, but it would be better for passengers to have more transparency.

[drewdawg199]

Someone posted this letter to a Facebook group today from the captain.

[benjaminnicholas]

It's a form letter that doesn't address actual cases.

 

They wouldn't be at yellow if they didn't have outbreaks already.

 

@Virgin Voyagesneeds to be transparent.

Edited December 22, 2021 by benjaminnicholas

[_tacocat_]

Yeah, I'm curious to know which voyage triggered the upgrade (yellow is actually 2 notches above green, go figure).  I was on 12/5, so I'd love to know if it was us or a subsequent voyage.  I'd have to imagine the 12/5ers would have heard something by now though...

[PiperHolliday]

I'm on the ship right now. No word, not even any chatter onboard about it that we have heard. But we also don't talk to everybody. It doesn't personally bother me that much since I'm fully vaxxed and recovered from COVID within the last 3 months. But for those that are less comfortable with the possibility of being around the virus, it could mean whether or not to cancel an upcoming cruise. And while I agree that it would look good for Virgin to be upfront about it, the CDC has a regularly updated list of ships and descriptions of what every color means. That can help sailors make an informed decision. Also, are other lines even addressing all of their cases? No. 

 

We've got to be realistic. Omicron is going to be on all ships in a matter of time. And many ships have already had cases or small controlled outbreaks of previous variants that don't make news coverage. 

 

Anyway, we do have some cabins all in a row on our deck that are set up with tables outside and we often see food or cabin items left on them. We are guessing these are quarantine rooms but they could be crew that just came aboard recently. Or it could be the other. I don't know things. I only see things. 

[greenenvy]

I believe all new crew members go through a quarantine period in sea terraces before they are allowed to work full time / interact with passengers or report to their assigned crew cabins. 

[Wildcatllamas]

Looking at the chart of ships it appears that almost all are in the Yellow category. When looking at the break down on how the CDC establishes their threshold for Yellow it is .10% of the number of passengers. The example they use is if there are 6500 passengers it would be 7 or more passengers in the previous 7 days. This percentage includes passenger cases occurring within 5 days of disembarkation that CDC was notified of by state or local health departments.

Or

One or more in the crew.

[CruzinMermaid]

I received an electronic alert from my state yesterday that I had been exposed on/about the 16th (day 2 of my cruise). Friends on the opposite side of the country received notice shortly after they had been exposed on the 17th (day 3). We'd also heard on our last day there were a couple of positive crew members.

 

VV is very good about testing crew and having them mask. I've tested once (neg) since, my friends also tested neg, and I plan to test again asap.

 

The crew are an amazing bunch, I hope all are well, and well cared for.

[slei15]

Yellow status will occur from as little as 1 single case in a crew member even in the absence of any passenger cases. It is not overly concerning. There are currently only 5 ships sailing revenue voyages from the US that are actually Green.  Hoping we don't hear of anything crazy in the next couple days as we are due to board on Sunday (and just got off of an 8 night on the MSC Meraviglia yesterday which is one of the 5 green ships.) Even the "huge" outbreaks the media was reporting on represented less than 1% of passengers/crew on the ships this past week with no serious illness being reported in the media...Norovirus outbreaks are much worse than that!

[drewdawg199]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/30/us-cdc-says-people-should-avoid-cruise-travel-regardless-of-vaccination-status.html