When Will the CDC Drop Testing Requirement for Cruises?

[C4HCG]

8 minutes ago, Guppy99 said:

So wrong. The uptick in cases of covid and long covid with the appearance of the delta variant is significant. Having been fully vaccinated and receiving a booster, I caught covid. That was on a cruise in January. It's June and I still have residual affects. I was very nearly hospitalized as well.  It is certainly different from before vaccinations were available, but saying its now just a nuisance is trivializing what is still a serious disease and threat to the public health. Perhaps people should consider that the protocols  still in place that your tired of, are in fact managing the disease and its spread.

The post you replied to said “rarely” so you are one of those who has unfortunately suffered badly and you have my sympathy. But the post you said was so wrong, so wasn’t.

[Guppy99]

7 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

The post you replied to said “rarely” so you are one of those who has unfortunately suffered badly and you have my sympathy. But the post you said was so wrong, so wasn’t.

 

7 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

The post you replied to said “rarely” so you are one of those who has unfortunately suffered badly and you have my sympathy. But the post you said was so wrong, so wasn’t.

not so "rare"....so yes, wrong

[canderson]

21 minutes ago, Guppy99 said:

So wrong. The uptick in cases of covid and long covid with the appearance of the delta variant is significant.

But the Delta variant just isn't showing up to the party these days, so for current planning, doesn't really factor into the equation.  NY does some reporting on variants.  Its most recent reports follow:

 

For samples of SARS-CoV-2 collected between May 22 -- June 4, 2022 from New York that are sequenced and uploaded into GISAID, 100% were the Omicron variant. During this time period 17.6% of Omicron sequences were lineage BA.2, 76.5% were BA.2.12.1, and 5.9% were BA.4/BA.5 .

 

Between May 29 and June 4, 2022 CDC’s program for HHS Region 2 (New York, New Jersey, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico) estimated 100% of samples were the Omicron variant. During this time period 13.9% of Omicron sequences were lineage BA.2, 80.2% were BA.2.12.1, 2.0% were BA.4 and 4.0% were BA.5.

[latserrof]

1 hour ago, Virginia100 said:

 the testing prevents little now.

Wrong. It prevents a wider outbreak of covid -- the bigger the outbreak among passengers and (moreso) the crew, the bigger the headaches for the cruise line.

[Virginia100]

20 minutes ago, Guppy99 said:

 

not so "rare"....so yes, wrong

Baloney!! In Virginia where there are 8.5 million people their are currently 579 people diagnosed with Covid in hospitals. Since Covid began over 2 years ago 111,000 were hospitalized and discharged, and this  includes a long period with no vaccine (.13%). Your wrong.

[Virginia100]

12 minutes ago, latserrof said:

Wrong. It prevents a wider outbreak of covid -- the bigger the outbreak among passengers and (moreso) the crew, the bigger the headaches for the cruise line.

The impact on cruising is requiring up to date vaccination to vastly reduce its health impact  not a 2 day old test that lets infected on board anyway.

[RichYak]

24 minutes ago, latserrof said:

the bigger the outbreak among passengers and (moreso) the crew, the bigger the headaches for the cruise line.

Agreed, and the "headaches" are due to the now outdated isolation protocols. They cripple the staff for far longer than necessary and result in refunds for frustrated, imprisoned passengers, the vast majority of whom have nothing more than a brief head cold. IMO, until these protocols are eased the pre-boarding test requirements will continue.

[Guppy99]

45 minutes ago, Virginia100 said:

Baloney!! In Virginia where there are 8.5 million people their are currently 579 people diagnosed with Covid in hospitals. Since Covid began over 2 years ago 111,000 were hospitalized and discharged, and this  includes a long period with no vaccine (.13%). Your wrong.

Well we will have to agree to disagree because I don't think you know what you are talking about, and Virginia is hardly a metropolis.

[Guppy99]

22 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Agreed, and the "headaches" are due to the now outdated isolation protocols. They cripple the staff for far longer than necessary and result in refunds for frustrated, imprisoned passengers, the vast majority of whom have nothing more than a brief head cold. IMO, until these protocols are eased the pre-boarding test requirements will continue.

Sure as hell glad your not in charge of these decisions then.

[latserrof]

1 hour ago, Virginia100 said:

The impact on cruising is requiring up to date vaccination to vastly reduce its health impact  not a 2 day old test that lets infected on board anyway.

Many vaccinated/boosted people get Covid. And many cruise lines allow 10% unvaccinated. If infected people board with Covid,  they will likely spread it onboard. Pre-cruise testing, though not perfect, helps prevent this, along with the headaches it causes for the cruise line -- including observing the current isolation protocols. Whether those protocols should/will be eliminated is another question, but currently they are very real.

Edited June 13, 2022 by latserrof

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Guppy99 said:

does it make a difference?

Yes, it does make a difference. If pre-cruise C19 testing is required by the country prior to boarding a cruise, then the cruise lines have no choice but to comply. However, if the country doesn't require a pre-cruise test, then the decision is up to the cruise line.

 

In the case of Viking, they're not going to require you any longer to show proof of a negative C19 test if boarding the ship in a country that does not require one. This opens the door for other cruise lines to follow suit, if they so choose. As many have said, it's time to move on ...

 

Viking Health & Safety Program (vikingcruises.com)

 

[p18750]

5 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

So any idea how one finds out if an EU member country has decided to “ignore” paragraph 7.4, in essence leaving it up to a particular cruise line to make the decision to require/not required a pre-cruise C19 test?

 

For example, we’re flying to Barcelona on July 1 to subsequently board the Princess Regal once we arrive. Barcelona has no requirement  for a C19 test to land in their country if you are fully vaccinated. However, Princess states on their website you have to test within 3 days of embarkation. Is there a way to tell if that’s a Spain requirement or just the EU requirement Princess is adhering to?

It is difficult to know but since different cruise lines have different requirement it would appear there is no Spanish or Italian requirement. For example until a few weeks ago the requirement for Oceania was 72 hours before embarkation while Celebrity was one day. Celebrity then changed from one day to the current 2 days. I believe there is now no requirement for Viking cruises departing Spain and Italy to have a test at all. So my assumption is the cruise lines are deciding on their own what their procedure is. My guess is that if they determine testing is reducing the number of people willing to cruise they will removed the requirement. 

[p18750]

Just now, p18750 said:

It is difficult to know but since different cruise lines have different requirement it would appear there is no Spanish or Italian requirement. For example until a few weeks ago the requirement for Oceania was 72 hours before embarkation while Celebrity was one day. Celebrity then changed from one day to the current 2 days. I believe there is now no requirement for Viking cruises departing Spain and Italy to have a test at all. So my assumption is the cruise lines are deciding on their own what their procedure is. My guess is that if they determine testing is reducing the number of people willing to cruise they will removed the requirement. 

I would also say that if a country had a requirement, they would publicize it through their national health department as Greece and Canada have done. I can find no such verbiage on the Italian or Spanish sites. 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, p18750 said:

It is difficult to know but since different cruise lines have different requirement it would appear there is no Spanish or Italian requirement. For example until a few weeks ago the requirement for Oceania was 72 hours before embarkation while Celebrity was one day. Celebrity then changed from one day to the current 2 days. I believe there is now no requirement for Viking cruises departing Spain and Italy to have a test at all. So my assumption is the cruise lines are deciding on their own what their procedure is. My guess is that if they determine testing is reducing the number of people willing to cruise they will removed the requirement. 

I just checked with regards to boarding a cruise in Barcelona and as you suggested, there is no one standard as of June 13.

 

Celebrity - within 2 days prior to sailing for Up-to-Date Guests and 1 day for fully vaccinated guests

 

Princess - within 3 days for fully vaccinated guests

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Guppy99]

4 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Yes, it does make a difference. If pre-cruise C19 testing is required by the country prior to boarding a cruise, then the cruise lines have no choice but to comply. However, if the country doesn't require a pre-cruise test, then the decision is up to the cruise line.

 

In the case of Viking, they're not going to require you any longer to show proof of a negative C19 test if boarding the ship in a country that does not require one. This opens the door for other cruise lines to follow suit, if they so choose. As many have said, it's time to move on ...

 

Viking Health & Safety Program (vikingcruises.com)

 

What I meant was that you have booked a cruise. It doesn't matter who decides , if it is required by anyone you travel with or anywhere you travel to...then you either do it or don't go.  Time will tell if this was a premature or wise decision on viking's behalf. i think it's premature.

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, Guppy99 said:

What I meant was that you have booked a cruise. It doesn't matter who decides , if it is required by anyone you travel with or anywhere you travel to...then you either do it or don't go.  Time will tell if this was a premature or wise decision on viking's behalf. i think it's premature.

True. When it comes right down to it, we’ll follow what ever protocols are in place for us to cruise as we do love cruising! 😁

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

True. When it comes right down to it, we’ll follow what ever protocols are in place for us to cruise as we do love cruising! 😁

We will too, we wasted the last 2 years of our prime travel retirement time, and no more!! At least we do not have the anxiety and stress of possibly not being able to fly home.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, terrydtx said:

We will too, we wasted the last 2 years of our prime travel retirement time, and no more!! At least we do not have the anxiety and stress of possibly not being able to fly home.

That is so true. We were so hoping the US testing requirement when flying back home would be canceled before we flew back from Barcelona in late July after our 21 day Princess family cruise. Talk about a stress reliever!! 😁

[terrydtx]

10 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That is so true. We were so hoping the US testing requirement when flying back home would be canceled before we flew back from Barcelona in late July after our 21 day Princess family cruise. Talk about a stress reliever!! 😁

We will be in Italy and Greece for 34 days that includes 24 cruise days and 9 land days, our biggest worry was the possibility of missing our flights home. We have a fantastic business class airfare less than $2400pp so having to make last minute flight home changes could have been a huge added cost. We fly to Rome and return home from Venice. If we have to miss one of our cruises for testing positive we could quarantine on land, enjoy Italy and get our money back from the cruise line,  but still fly home on time. That is a way less stressful scenario.

[LGW59]

1 minute ago, terrydtx said:

We will be in Italy and Greece for 34 days that includes 24 cruise days and 9 land days, our biggest worry was the possibility of missing our flights home. We have a fantastic business class airfare less than $2400pp so having to make last minute flight home changes could have been a huge added cost. We fly to Rome and return home from Venice. If we have to miss one of our cruises for testing positive we could quarantine on land, enjoy Italy and get our money back from the cruise line,  but still fly home on time. That is a way less stressful scenario.

Dang, that’s a great price!  Aer Lingus are you paying attention!!! 🤷🏻‍♂️

[terrydtx]

5 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Dang, that’s a great price!  Aer Lingus are you paying attention!!! 🤷🏻‍♂️

We fly on United one stop through Dulles to Rome and home from Venice one stop through Atlanta.

[LGW59]

5 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We fly on United one stop through Dulles to Rome and home from Venice one stop through Atlanta.

We at least have direct Boston to Shannon then direct home Shannon to Boston with great departure time for each