Daily testing is over

[Mrs Miggins]

There was no requirement for testing in Spain on our April cruise.  Spain is a member of the EU.  We embark on a river cruise in France in two weeks and there is no requirement for a pre arrival test there either.  France is a member of the EU.

There is no blanket requirement by the EU.  Each individual country has its own rules.  However proof of vaccination OR negative test for those who are unvaccinated is required in many countries.

[keokukjoe]

29 minutes ago, Kamfish642 said:

Will see when you try to get on cruise ship in EU port.   At least for now.  See Section 7.4 of the link above.

1.Did you read the first page of the document you quoted? Obviously not.

"The EU HEALTHY GATEWAYS Joint Action has received funding from the European Union, in the framework of the Third Health Programme (2014-2020). The content of this document represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility; it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA) or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains."

NOT a EU directive!

2. I guess you are not aware that the individual countries in the EU get to set their own requirements even if this was an EU directive, which it is not. 

I am only posting this so that your misinformation does not confuse other travelers. Wishing you a lovely journey. 

 

[keokukjoe]

22 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

There was no requirement for testing in Spain on our April cruise.  Spain is a member of the EU.  We embark on a river cruise in France in two weeks and there is no requirement for a pre arrival test there either.  France is a member of the EU.

There is no blanket requirement by the EU.  Each individual country has its own rules.  However proof of vaccination OR negative test for those who are unvaccinated is required in many countries.

Agree. 

[Flgreg]

19 minutes ago, keokukjoe said:

Agree. 

Certainly no prearrival/preboarding testing required for Greece which has been in the EU for quite some time.

[Kamfish642]

33 minutes ago, keokukjoe said:

1.Did you read the first page of the document you quoted? Obviously not.

"The EU HEALTHY GATEWAYS Joint Action has received funding from the European Union, in the framework of the Third Health Programme (2014-2020). The content of this document represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility; it cannot be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA) or any other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains."

NOT a EU directive!

2. I guess you are not aware that the individual countries in the EU get to set their own requirements even if this was an EU directive, which it is not. 

I am only posting this so that your misinformation does not confuse other travelers. Wishing you a lovely journey. 

 

Thank you for clarification.  So each cruise line is choosing to follow or not EU guidelines, similar to cruise lines out of US port volunteering to follow CDC guidelines.  Obviously, HAL and Princess, and not Viking, have chosen to follow EU protocol based on my calls today with HAL and Princess since I have upcoming cruises with them.  Thanks again, I missed up front statement and was confused further by input from various cruise line representatives.

[keokukjoe]

11 minutes ago, Kamfish642 said:

Thank you for clarification.  So each cruise line is choosing to follow or not EU guidelines, similar to cruise lines out of US port volunteering to follow CDC guidelines.  Obviously, HAL and Princess, and not Viking, have chosen to follow EU protocol based on my calls today with HAL and Princess since I have upcoming cruises with them.  Thanks again, I missed up front statement and was confused further by input from various cruise line representatives.

You are welcome but it is the individual countries NOT the EU who set their individual regulations. Do yourself a favor and check the websites of the individual countries you are visiting to allay your worries and don't believe a cruise lines front line (probably minimum wage) employee as Gospel. Our State Department is also a very reliable source of information.

Edited June 17, 2022 by keokukjoe

[millybess]

11 hours ago, Twitchly said:

 

We sent aerograms (remember those?) 

Yes😊

[JerryInIL]

Are Meet&Mingle’s coming back?

[GonzoWCS]

Any thoughts about the cancellation of ALL pre cruise C19 testing?

 

Cheers

[snookie1]

All talk here is of requirements in Europe, which is certainly interesting.  We will be traveling to South America in December on Viking; am wondering if anyone knows about the regulations in Chile or Argentina.  I read a little yesterday, but it just confused me!

[Sapphire_07]

4 hours ago, snookie1 said:

All talk here is of requirements in Europe, which is certainly interesting.  We will be traveling to South America in December on Viking; am wondering if anyone knows about the regulations in Chile or Argentina.  I read a little yesterday, but it just confused me!

This is the current Additional Country-Specific Travel Requirements in my portal for my upcoming Mediterranean cruise in July.  Argentina and Chile are included. 

 

https://docs.vikingcruises.com/pdf/14-PreCruiseRequirement-All-US_CAN_UK_AU_NZ.pdf

[snookie1]

Thank you so much Sapphire 07.  I can see clearly what I need, and that I can at least start on some of it now.  Helps keep my stress level down if I do things a little at a time!

[Sapphire_07]

19 hours ago, snookie1 said:

Thank you so much Sapphire 07.  I can see clearly what I need, and that I can at least start on some of it now.  Helps keep my stress level down if I do things a little at a time!

You’re welcome!  Just keep in mind the requirements can often change.  If I see any updated changes to Argentina and/or Chile prior to my departure in July, I’ll post the updates here.
 

[kcpvwill]

We have been on 2 cruises on Viking Venus during the era of pre boarding PCR testing and then daily spit tests on board.  As far as we know there were few or no cases of Covid.  We are now on probably the first to sail under the new rules i.e. no pre-cruise testing and no daily saliva testing either.  Unfortunately we are now both in isolation for 5 days, as we felt ill and asked for a Covid test, which confirmed that we are both positive.  They did an antigen test which gave the results in 15 minutes, and  PCR tests which were also positive.  
 

There had been a lot of people on board coughing but we don’t know how many have done as we did and got tested. 
 

 

[keokukjoe]

1 hour ago, kcpvwill said:

We have been on 2 cruises on Viking Venus during the era of pre boarding PCR testing and then daily spit tests on board.  As far as we know there were few or no cases of Covid.  We are now on probably the first to sail under the new rules i.e. no pre-cruise testing and no daily saliva testing either.  Unfortunately we are now both in isolation for 5 days, as we felt ill and asked for a Covid test, which confirmed that we are both positive.  They did an antigen test which gave the results in 15 minutes, and  PCR tests which were also positive.  
 

There had been a lot of people on board coughing but we don’t know how many have done as we did and got tested. 
 

 

I certainly hope that you and your husband do well without any serious complications.

Although not required by the airlines, Viking or the various governments, did you pre-test before leaving home and wear N95 or KN95 masks while in the crowded airports and on the airplanes?? While not required, they are certainly recommended.

Best of luck for a speedy recovery.

[Clay Clayton]

Someone just off Mars posted on the site that cannot be named that there were many entertainers and passengers with Covid. Before the end of the cruise, masks were required on excursions and if you had a cough. They wondered how long before mandatory mask and testing would return. 

[philw1776]

Wow. I missed that.

[Kamfish642]

On 6/16/2022 at 8:24 PM, Kamfish642 said:

Thank you for clarification.  So each cruise line is choosing to follow or not EU guidelines, similar to cruise lines out of US port volunteering to follow CDC guidelines.  Obviously, HAL and Princess, and not Viking, have chosen to follow EU protocol based on my calls today with HAL and Princess since I have upcoming cruises with them.  Thanks again, I missed up front statement and was confused further by input from various cruise line representatives.

keokukjoe - I want to thank you again for your insights.  I have an upcoming HAL cruise of Norway in early July, and HAL just cancelled pre-cruise COVID testing for European cruises for countries not requiring COVID test for entry.  Also looking forward to no COVID test worries on our December 2022 cruise on the new Viking Neptune.

[OnTheJourney]

On 6/26/2022 at 6:25 PM, Clay Clayton said:

They wondered how long before mandatory mask and testing would return. 

Wow....bummer. Given the apparent uptick in covid, it wouldn't surprise me if the ol' spit tubes reappear fairly soon, especially if cases are showing up. 

[OnTheJourney]

On 6/26/2022 at 6:25 PM, Clay Clayton said:

the site that cannot be named

What's with this? I've heard this before...what is the site and why it is not to be named? Something too politically controversial or such? If it's that egregious is whatever manner, why hasn't it simply been removed? 

Edited July 1, 2022 by AnyWayIsGood

[Clay Clayton]

4 hours ago, AnyWayIsGood said:

What's with this? I've heard this before...what is the site and why it is not to be named? Something too politically controversial or such? If it's that egregious is whatever manner, why hasn't it simply been removed? 

It’s a site that lots of folks who have both books and faces are on….not sure why it was disallowed to be mentioned on here…maybe because it’s seen as competition as some people use it to discuss cruising 

[CurlerRob]

4 hours ago, AnyWayIsGood said:

What's with this? I've heard this before...what is the site and why it is not to be named? Something too politically controversial or such? If it's that egregious is whatever manner, why hasn't it simply been removed? 

It's a company mostly owned by some guy named Zuckerberg ...

 

I have no clue why we are not supposed to reference it by name ... others may have some insight ... 🍺🥌

[LindaS272]

Here’s all I found about Facebook in the Cruise Critic Guidelines:

 

Our Policy Regarding Facebook and Roll Calls

 

Cruise Critic loves Facebook. in fact, we maintain FB pages for all of our sites (Cruise Critic, CruiseCritic.co.uk, our Australia site, etc.). We have many people who participate on both our FB page and our message boards. We have no issues with people linking their own, personal FB pages in their profiles, or on your signature on Cruise Critic forums. You understand that doing so allows our members to know your "real life" name.

ROLL CALLS created on FB are not anonymous. Most of them are open to the public. Even if they are private groups, once you are accepted into the group everyone will know your real name. In doing so you have pretty much told all those people -- strangers -- when you will be away on vacation. The fact of the matter is most people do not understand how much personal information they are sharing.

On Cruise Critic roll calls, everyone is anonymous. You have the ability to remain as anonymous as you'd like throughout the entire Roll Call timeframe and throughout your entire cruise if you so desire. You can be JoeCruise101 until the day you disembark. The choice is yours, you share as much or as little as YOU choose to; everyone starts out on a level playing field on Cruise Critic. Anonymous user names only.

Also, FB Roll Calls have already proven to divide Roll Calls. People, for whatever reason, who cannot seem to get along may open a FB group and then want more people to participate, so they harvest members from the original ROLL CALL. There have been actual disruptions encouraged on FB directed towards our ROLL CALLs.

[KBs mum]

6 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

 

ROLL CALLS created on FB are not anonymous. Most of them are open to the public. Even if they are private groups, once you are accepted into the group everyone will know your real name. In doing so you have pretty much told all those people -- strangers -- when you will be away on vacation. The fact of the matter is most people do not understand how much personal information they are sharing.

On Cruise Critic roll calls, everyone is anonymous. You have the ability to remain as anonymous as you'd like throughout the entire Roll Call timeframe and throughout your entire cruise if you so desire. You can be JoeCruise101 until the day you disembark. The choice is yours, you share as much or as little as YOU choose to; everyone starts out on a level playing field on Cruise Critic. Anonymous user names only.
.

I'm confused, I was able to easily sign up here and for Facebook without using any genuine personal information, other than a vague location (I could easily have said I live somewhere else) We have a phone number we use only for signing up for things,

 

This is basic good practice for any Internet forum. I have seperate email accounts for both, again set up easily without ID,, and not used for anything else. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[photopro2]

3 hours ago, KBs mum said:

I was able to easily sign up here and for Facebook without using any genuine personal information

I know we're suffering from serious topic drift here, but I can't resist pointing out that unless you're using your real name on Facebook that puts you in breach of their guidelines and renders your account liable to deletion.