Cruilse lines Call for CDC to change covid testing policy

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, sagosto63 said:

 

Thanks. For the 3 VAC'ed, the only real concern is getting an appointment 3 days which shouldn't be a problem but we are at the mercy of getting the results prior to the cruise. I am reading up on the 4 year old now.

i.e. If your cruise leaves on a Sunday the 3 vaxxed can test as early as Friday.     If you have a Walgreens in your area offering Rapid NAAT test you get the results emailed to you within an hour of taking the test at their drive thru.   You should be able to schedule 3 of you for the same time frame.    It has worked well for us for the several cruises we have done this year.     They are the easiest, in my opinion.   

[sagosto63]

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-documents-are-accepted-as-proof-of-vaccination

 

The VAC card needs to be laminated? I am from NJ and we use the Docker app. I have the physical card "folded" in the wallet but also took a picture of it. Is that adequate?

 

I do see the "digital image" below but it is odd that it is not included in the original requirements?

 

If you do not have any of the above, Royal Caribbean can work with you to verify your vaccine status if you are able to provide the following:

1. A digital image of the original vaccination record card on your phone; or an image of the card uploaded to the Royal Caribbean app;  or a photocopy of the original card
2. Confirmation emails or letters for an administered vaccine from a health provider, government agency or pharmacy (must show record of both shots administered)

Edited June 14, 2022 by sagosto63

[pyrateslife4me84]

19 minutes ago, sagosto63 said:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-documents-are-accepted-as-proof-of-vaccination

 

The VAC card needs to be laminated? I am from NJ and we use the Docker app. I have the physical card "folded" in the wallet but also took a picture of it. Is that adequate?

 

I do see the "digital image" below but it is odd that it is not included in the original requirements?

 

If you do not have any of the above, Royal Caribbean can work with you to verify your vaccine status if you are able to provide the following:

1. A digital image of the original vaccination record card on your phone; or an image of the card uploaded to the Royal Caribbean app;  or a photocopy of the original card
2. Confirmation emails or letters for an administered vaccine from a health provider, government agency or pharmacy (must show record of both shots administered)

You are fine. They are saying it CAN be laminated. Not that it must be. Basically, they are saying, “it’s okay if you laminated yours.”

[Merion_Mom]

I just got home from a B3B on the Oasis.  Each leg had a VERY active group on FB.  

 

On each group, DOZENS of people are reporting that they have tested positive since getting home.  Some are quite sick;  others more mildly ill.

 

Statistically, that's a LOT of people.

[sagosto63]

29 minutes ago, pyrateslife4me84 said:

You are fine. They are saying it CAN be laminated. Not that it must be. Basically, they are saying, “it’s okay if you laminated yours.”

 

I read it the same way -- don't want to screw this up. I've never waited more than 2 days for my results but I think that's cutting it close. I wonder if RC wants you to use their test kid (3 for $99 isn't bad). The 4 year old gets a full extra day for PCR so we might just do that.

[Lane Hog]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

I just got home from a B3B on the Oasis.  Each leg had a VERY active group on FB.  

 

On each group, DOZENS of people are reporting that they have tested positive since getting home.  Some are quite sick;  others more mildly ill.

 

Statistically, that's a LOT of people.

Statistically,  30 out of 5600 is only 0.5%.  Not really a lot....

[Merion_Mom]

10 minutes ago, Lane Hog said:

Statistically,  30 out of 5600 is only 0.5%.  Not really a lot....

 

Seriously, did you just write that?  

 

That's dozens out of maybe 300 people in a FB group.  🙄

[rhino7176]

10 hours ago, Jasukkie said:

Really? I could have tested out on day 7 or 8 but was still positive both days so it was a full ten days out of work for me. It's a real challenge for staffing but my employer has stuck by this. Do you still have workplace mask requirements?

Not sure who your employer is, but it is 5 days now to be out... I don't require employees to be out even that if they are symptom free and have no fever, especially our outside workers.

 

[cementhands]

Tested negative 3 times prior to adventure May cruise for Bermuda registration. Fully vaccinated and double boosted. Wife came home from cruise with covid19 and had pav medicine recovered, I followed with covid19 even though I avoided her.
Pav medicine too then recovered and negative test!

Days later I got rebound covid19 and doctor said to ride it out, feeling worse than original covid19. tested positive now!

I thought vacination and double boosted made me safe!

Mid June now and a few weeks ago I was feeling fantastic now not so much!

Don’t know what the answer is but we wear masks and exercise all the time and are healthy.

[MommaBear55]

9 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

I just got home from a B3B on the Oasis.  Each leg had a VERY active group on FB.  

 

On each group, DOZENS of people are reporting that they have tested positive since getting home.  Some are quite sick;  others more mildly ill.

 

Statistically, that's a LOT of people.

We had 400 people on our FB group for Anthem May 15. Over 40 came back on FB after the cruise to say they tested positive, some on the cruise, many the week after. That's a very high percentage.

[BND]

14 minutes ago, MommaBear55 said:

We had 400 people on our FB group for Anthem May 15. Over 40 came back on FB after the cruise to say they tested positive, some on the cruise, many the week after. That's a very high percentage.

Did they go ashore?  Just as easy to catch it ashore (or traveling home) as onboard and pre boarding testing hasn't been proven to actually make any difference.  As I've said before, the only way to prove it works is to have control groups of cruise(s) with no preboarding testing to use for comparison.  Otherwise, no one knows that it actually does anything.

Edited June 14, 2022 by BND

[not-enough-cruising]

10 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

I just got home from a B3B on the Oasis.  Each leg had a VERY active group on FB.  

 

On each group, DOZENS of people are reporting that they have tested positive since getting home.  Some are quite sick;  others more mildly ill.

 

Statistically, that's a LOT of people.

 

36 minutes ago, MommaBear55 said:

We had 400 people on our FB group for Anthem May 15. Over 40 came back on FB after the cruise to say they tested positive, some on the cruise, many the week after. That's a very high percentage.

Are these testimonials to eliminate pre boarding testing, or to continue with?

[Cruise a holic]

38 minutes ago, MommaBear55 said:

We had 400 people on our FB group for Anthem May 15. Over 40 came back on FB after the cruise to say they tested positive, some on the cruise, many the week after. That's a very high percentage.

In addition, many people do not report it- so the numbers aren't accurate.

[Jasukkie]

8 hours ago, rhino7176 said:

Not sure who your employer is, but it is 5 days now to be out... I don't require employees to be out even that if they are symptom free and have no fever, especially our outside workers.

 

A very large academic medical center. I was too sick to work anyway but I followed along and took the two tests they sent me in the mail. Both positive so that kicked me out to ten days, which happened to be when I felt better so it was appropriate for me.

[rudeney]

10 hours ago, pyrateslife4me84 said:

You are fine. They are saying it CAN be laminated. Not that it must be. Basically, they are saying, “it’s okay if you laminated yours.”

 

Ours are laminated.  We both had the J&J vaccine and laminated them after the first shot, not considering that we'd have boosters.  For the booster, the pharmacy put a piece of tape over the laminate and wrote on it with a Sharpie.  I then re-laminated them.  I have also scanned them and can re-print and re-laminate copies if needed.  Honestly, I am surprised that something so easily lost or damaged as this piece of paper can adversely affect so many things in life, like the ability to travel.  This should have been managed better. 

 

BTW, I have heard people say that if you lose or damage your card, just go get a replacement from your pharmacy.  I called the CVS where we got our first shots and they said they do not have those records available.  The independent pharmacy where we had our boosters said the same thing, thought the pharmacist said he'd give us replacement if we had a copy of the original.

[RFerrington]

1 hour ago, cementhands said:

I thought vacination and double boosted made me safe!

🤐

[pyrateslife4me84]

2 hours ago, cementhands said:

Tested negative 3 times prior to adventure May cruise for Bermuda registration. Fully vaccinated and double boosted. Wife came home from cruise with covid19 and had pav medicine recovered, I followed with covid19 even though I avoided her.
Pav medicine too then recovered and negative test!

Days later I got rebound covid19 and doctor said to ride it out, feeling worse than original covid19. tested positive now!

I thought vacination and double boosted made me safe!

Mid June now and a few weeks ago I was feeling fantastic now not so much!

Don’t know what the answer is but we wear masks and exercise all the time and are healthy.

Well, you are still alive to post this. And not hospitalized. 
 

That’s what vaccines do. 
 

But sorry you are ill. 

[Big_G]

On 6/12/2022 at 9:58 PM, flhokie said:

Agreed! We're supposed to sail with my elderly mother next month. My father recently passed and we are supposed to go to relax before she has knee replacement surgery. Sadly, if they scrap the testing requirement, I don't think she (or the rest of us) will be comfortable sailing. 

 

It will be interesting to see if they allow cancellations up until 48 hours before for a period of time if the protocols are changed to no test before boarding.

[cruiselvr04]

Maybe the point to make is despite pre cruise testing many will become positive on the cruise or after.  But many are becoming sick in the community also, just not sick enough to seek medical attention or be hospitalized.  DS got it post Allure in May. They had cold symptoms and head congestion.  My sister in Florida now is sick from community spread.  It’s going around again but most will not be reported.  It’s never going away so now we need to learn to live with it.  I think self testing is good if you don’t feel well so you can reduce the spread but otherwise it’s kind of pointless.  It’s not stopping it from getting on the ships. 

[doppelganger2621]

I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding about why pre-cruise testing is done. Of course it's not going to fully stop COVID from getting on board. But COVID has like an r0 of somewhere (depending on the strain) between like 3 and >7.

 

If you can even stop a few active infections from coming onboard, you can at least reduce the number of people becoming infected. And even a small number of people not coming aboard with an active infection can make a big difference.

 

I don't think that any cruiseline is under the impression that COVID testing is going to stop COVID from coming on board, but it can (hopefully) reduce the number of people needing to be quarantined onboard, or needing to go to medical, or paying for quarantines upon arrival back in port.

Edited June 14, 2022 by doppelganger2621

[ace2542]

2 hours ago, BND said:

As I've said before, the only way to prove it works is to have control groups of cruise(s) with no preboarding testing to use for comparison.  Otherwise, no one knows that it actually does anything

That is very good logic and would apply to T/As I think where the spread could be better tracked perhaps. Though they would never do it.  Apparently the NCL Star and Epic used to do T/A in convoy. A good idea to test that method might be one ship no test and 1 ship all tests/daily tests though they would never do it.

Edited June 14, 2022 by ace2542

[ace2542]

37 minutes ago, doppelganger2621 said:

But COVID has like an r0 of somewhere (depending on the strain) between like 3 and >7

What is the rO number of noro like 100?

[smokeybandit]

6 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

The problem with quarantines is that they are still treating this like original recipe COVID from 2020 where panic ensued when a nearby person coughed.  With today's less dangerous strains, they really need to consider the severity of the illness/symptoms as opposed to just "a positive test".  Asymptomatic (or lightly symptomatic without a fever) people do not need to quarantine.  Even hospitals are not quarantining patients or healthcare workers in these situations. 

This definitely needs to go.  Or even if you keep the quarantine, let it be in your own room (there have been reports some have been allowed to do this), not down in covid jail.

[latserrof]

11 minutes ago, rudeney said:

 

 Asymptomatic (or lightly symptomatic without a fever) people do not need to quarantine.  Even hospitals are not quarantining patients or healthcare workers in these situations. 

People are not quarantined because of their symptoms, but because of their contagion.  And asymptomatic people can be just as contagious as the very sick.  And hospitals are not cruise ships -- far from it.

[pcur]

18 hours ago, wingatesl said:

If they stop requiring tests, why in the world would somebody take one unless they were symptomatic? 

Because if one is asymptomatic, it's still a good idea to be responsible and make sure you're not carrying the virus to other people.