When Will the CDC Drop Testing Requirement for Cruises?

[terrydtx]

This a quote from the linked article I read this morning about the CDC and the cruise industry. Ending the testing requirement has both pros and cons and this article doesn't do any more than speculate when it could possibly happen.

Here is the link to whole article: CDC Has Big News for Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Cruise Industry (msn.com)

 

When Will the CDC Drop Testing Requirement for Cruises?

Cruise lines lack the leverage that airlines, hotels, and even theme parks have because they're not U.S.-based businesses. 

They also have a geography problem. While people can catch covid in hotels, on planes, and in theme parks, they don't generally stay in those places very long. 

But if they get sick on or shortly after a cruise, it's fairly clear where they got infected. For cruise lines, where seven-day (or even longer) experiences are common, a week gives someone enough time to catch covid and show symptoms while onboard, which creates a risk of spread. 

Basically, much of the travel industry has plausible deniability and cruise lines don't. So Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian have not lobbied for testing requirement changes publicly while their hotel and airline colleagues have.

Changing the covid testing rules for cruises is not something former Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb, a physician who serves as chairman of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ SailSafe Council, expects to happen right away.

Gottlieb does, however, have a timetable for the rules to go away.

“The short answer to the question is: I think this is kind of a springtime [2023] thing from a CDC policy standpoint," he said

Edited June 11, 2022 by terrydtx

[Arizona Wildcat]

Agree.  You also have the complications from several countries having their own different rules for vaccination and testing including Canada and many Caribbean countries.

2023 is possible.

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Agree.  You also have the complications from several countries having their own different rules for vaccination and testing including Canada and many Caribbean countries.

2023 is possible.

I see the testing requirements going away much much sooner than the vaccination requirements, if ever.

[Jeremiah1212]

As long as crew continues to be stretched thin, it's not going away, even if CDC says it's optional. 

[Homosassa]

27 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

This a quote from the linked article I read this morning about the CDC and the cruise industry. Ending the testing requirement has both pros and cons and this article doesn't do any more than speculate when it could possibly happen.

Here is the link to whole article: CDC Has Big News for Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Cruise Industry (msn.com)

 

When Will the CDC Drop Testing Requirement for Cruises?

Cruise lines lack the leverage that airlines, hotels, and even theme parks have because they're not U.S.-based businesses. 

They also have a geography problem. While people can catch covid in hotels, on planes, and in theme parks, they don't generally stay in those places very long. 

But if they get sick on or shortly after a cruise, it's fairly clear where they got infected. For cruise lines, where seven-day (or even longer) experiences are common, a week gives someone enough time to catch covid and show symptoms while onboard, which creates a risk of spread. 

Basically, much of the travel industry has plausible deniability and cruise lines don't. So Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian have not lobbied for testing requirement changes publicly while their hotel and airline colleagues have.

Changing the covid testing rules for cruises is not something former Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb, a physician who serves as chairman of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ SailSafe Council, expects to happen right away.

Gottlieb does, however, have a timetable for the rules to go away.

“The short answer to the question is: I think this is kind of a springtime [2023] thing from a CDC policy standpoint," he said

This article has been referenced many times since it first appeared.

 

Unfortunately, the posters who always use the article for a timetable do not bother to actually find complete verbiage used by Scott.

 

What he said, and it is only his projection of a possible timeframe, is that the current requirements are currently in place through the winter 2023 cruise season (March).

 

n April, the CDC will evaluate the status of the Covid  pandemic and data from Covid illness on board ships.  At that time,  the CDC will decide on what controls may have to be continued.

 

There is nothing that says the vaccination and testing requirements will end in April 2023; only that the controls will be evaluated and continued if needed.

[terrydtx]

13 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

This article has been referenced many times since it first appeared.

 

Unfortunately, the posters who always use the article for a timetable do not bother to actually find complete verbiage used by Scott.

 

What he said, and it is only his projection of a possible timeframe, is that the current requirements are currently in place through the winter 2023 cruise season (March).

 

n April, the CDC will evaluate the status of the Covid  pandemic and data from Covid illness on board ships.  At that time,  the CDC will decide on what controls may have to be continued.

 

There is nothing that says the vaccination and testing requirements will end in April 2023; only that the controls will be evaluated and continued if needed.

I agree and that is why I posted the whole expert from the article and said it is only speculation on a timetable. 

[Ipeeinthepools]

An interesting question would be for the cruise lines to publish the number of passengers that cancel within the last two days due to Covid.  If they can document that number is very small, they can begin to make the case for dropping the testing requirement.  

[jwlane]

Remember, there is no "requirement".  The cruise lines are voluntarily complying with the CDC testing guidelines.

[Redtravel]

Vaccinations are a must. Testing is a good thing. At least you have some reassurance that most people are negative at the start of your cruise. However, since Celebrity doesn’t test or scan temperatures after that, it’s likely that Covid has made it on to the ship during the cruise.  Also, people on the cruise are less likely to keep distance or be Covid cautious. Crowded elevators, shared tables, pushing in lines, etc. happens.  Celebrity has its protocols which are good. Sadly, not being followed by many passengers.  Sailing now and will test after I disembark.  Just hope that I haven’t picked up Covid.  

[DCPIV]

1 minute ago, Redtravel said:

At least you have some reassurance that most people are negative at the start of your cruise.

 

That's not quite true.  At best, you have some reassurance that everyone was negative shortly before the start of your cruise (which I'm quite fine with).

[terrydtx]

22 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

An interesting question would be for the cruise lines to publish the number of passengers that cancel within the last two days due to Covid.  If they can document that number is very small, they can begin to make the case for dropping the testing requirement.  

On our Equinox cruise last August, one of the retreat concierges told me about 5% of the booked passengers didn't show up for the cruise on departure day. No telling why because back then you could cancel up to 24 hours and get a FCC refund, best guess it was more Covid related than not. The testing requirement for that cruise was within 3 days of departure. We had about 1400 passengers on that cruise so 5% would have been around 70 passengers. Our Retreat Host told me that 2 of the sold out Suites on the cruise were no shows.

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I see the testing requirements going away much much sooner than the vaccination requirements, if ever.

Once there are new versions of vaccines to match Omicron variants (later this year?) then the requirement to get a Omicron-specific booster for everybody cruising will be the likely next step.  Testing will continue.

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, TeeRick said:

Once there are new versions of vaccines to match Omicron variants (later this year?) then the requirement to get a Omicron-specific booster for everybody cruising will be the likely next step.  Testing will continue.

I would get the Omicron booster when released. I see a booster being available every year just like the seasonal flu as new variants show up. Fortunately, the current variants are less deadly and result in far fewer hospitalizations than 2020 and 2021 but are more transmittable. From everything I have seen this is the trend that will continue in coming years. 

[sgmn]

1 hour ago, DCPIV said:

 

That's not quite true.  At best, you have some reassurance that everyone was negative shortly before the start of your cruise (which I'm quite fine with).

You can test negative but already have covid and be incubating it. I tested every day after close contact and even though I has symptoms I was still testing negative. The positive test wasn't until two days after symptoms and five days after contact 

[p18750]

I try to look at this from Celebrity operational perspective and I think vaccinations and testing are viewed differently. Vaccinations drastically reduce the chance of a serious medical conditions on the ship. Since this is very expensive and disruptive to Celebrity operations there is little reason for Celebrity to remove the vaccination requirement as long a Covid is circulating. In addition the vast majority of cruisers are fully vaccinated so there is not a large push back on this requirement. Testing on the other hand is largely a customer perception issue since (as others have pointed out) testing reduces but does not eliminate people with Covid from boarding and spreading Covid amongst their fellow passengers and crew. So I think as soon as Celebrity deems they can remove this requirement and gain more cruisers than they lose the testing requirement will be gone. From the posts it appears there are still a significant number of people who would not cruise without the testing this may still take a while. 

[prmssk]

1 hour ago, Redtravel said:

At least you have some reassurance that most people are negative at the start of your cruise. 

Well, not actually.  Current testing protocols just tell us that everyone received a negative covid test result within a few days of their cruise.  That test result may have been a false negative (common with the antigen tests) or the individual may just not have been contagious enough yet to test positive.  It also doesn't consider the fact that people's travel to the port (usually after they take their COVID test) is likely their riskiest part of the trip as far as exposures go (flights, restaurants, shuttles, etc.).

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, jwlane said:

Remember, there is no "requirement".  The cruise lines are voluntarily complying with the CDC testing guidelines.

 

2 minutes ago, p18750 said:

So I think as soon as Celebrity deems they can remove this requirement and gain more cruisers than they lose the testing requirement will be gone.

Bear in mind that in some countries, testing is indeed a government requirement at the current time.  

[Cowboy296]

3 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

 

Bear in mind that in some countries, testing is indeed a government requirement at the current time.  

As of 12:01AM ET on June 12, 2022, CDC will no longer require air passengers traveling from a foreign country to the United States to show a negative COVID-19 viral test or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before they board their flight. For more information, see Rescission: Requirement for Negative Pre-Departure COVID-19 Test Result or Documentation of Recovery from COVID-19 for all Airline or Other Aircraft Passengers Arriving into the United States from Any Foreign Country.

[Ipeeinthepools]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

On our Equinox cruise last August, one of the retreat concierges told me about 5% of the booked passengers didn't show up for the cruise on departure day. No telling why because back then you could cancel up to 24 hours and get a FCC refund, best guess it was more Covid related than not. The testing requirement for that cruise was within 3 days of departure. We had about 1400 passengers on that cruise so 5% would have been around 70 passengers. Our Retreat Host told me that 2 of the sold out Suites on the cruise were no shows.

 

If 5% is a good estimate then I suspect testing will continue indefinitely.  Sure there may be several people that are infected and still board, but keeping 5% of the people off the ship that are infected is still a good thing.  If 5% is a good number I support continued testing until it's much lower.

 

I suspect that many of the ports do not want cruise ships to stop if 5% of the passengers are infected with Covid.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Ipeeinthepools

[C4HCG]

This is actually a big deal for us flying to the US from the UK, we know we no longer need to test to fly thank goodness but still have the stress of arranging a test on arrival at Fort Lauderdale then it being negative to get on the ship. We are back in late August and know the requirement will still be in place then, but are hoping summer next year it will be lifted.

Edited June 11, 2022 by C4HCG

[Fouremco]

1 minute ago, Cowboy296 said:

As of 12:01AM ET on June 12, 2022, CDC will no longer require air passengers traveling from a foreign country to the United States to show a negative COVID-19 viral test or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before they board their flight. For more information, see Rescission: Requirement for Negative Pre-Departure COVID-19 Test Result or Documentation of Recovery from COVID-19 for all Airline or Other Aircraft Passengers Arriving into the United States from Any Foreign Country.

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make as we are discussing COVID testing to embark on a cruise, not for flying into the US.

[Ipeeinthepools]

2 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make as we are discussing COVID testing to embark on a cruise, not for flying into the US.

 

It's a fun fact to know and tell

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

An interesting question would be for the cruise lines to publish the number of passengers that cancel within the last two days due to Covid.  If they can document that number is very small, they can begin to make the case for dropping the testing requirement.  

The cruise lines definitely would not want to post really any data regarding covid because it could also be negative as all cases diagnosed on board would be "blamed" on cruising.

People that cancel do so for many reasons which I agree are mostly covid related.  Remember you do not need to give a reason for canceling. 

British Columbia had a comment in the Victoria Colonist newspaper saying that they think covid cases are underreported by over 80%.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Arizona Wildcat

[sgmn]

3 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

This is actually a big deal for us flying to the US from the UK, we know we no longer need to test to fly thank goodness but still have the stress of arranging a test on arrival at Fort Lauderdale then it being negative to get on the ship. We are back in late August and know the requirement will still be in place then, but are hoping summer next year it will be lifted.

Depending on the time of your flight you can still test at LHR (and probably other airports ) before you fly, unless you fly in earlier than two days before the cruise

Express testing starts at 6am

[Fouremco]

3 minutes ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

It's a fun fact to know and tell

LOL. That's how thread drift starts, people introducing interesting but unrelated information. We now have a number of posts here that would be better placed on the relevant thread.