CDC Announcement

[Steelers36]

31 minutes ago, dfields1814 said:

Keep the vaccines drop the testing. Apologies to The Godfather.

 

I am a big fan of the testing in conjunction with mask wearing and social distancing. However I think testing needs to be dropped in that it is not doing what it is supposed to do, as of now.  For example we test negative 3 days prior to our December cruise. Then the next day we take public transport to the airport, wait in the airport gate area with 100's of unmasked people none social distancing . Take a 5 hour flight in an airplane full with unmasked people. Get our luggage in area with lots of unmasked people. Then take a public transport to a hotel and wait in line with to register with unmasked people who are not socially distancing. Finally we eat a crowded restaurant after waiting in the waiting area. The next day we take a tour on bus crowded with people none wearing a mask. Eat at three crowded restaurants. Hang out by the crowded pool with unmasked people who are not social distancing .  Cruise day, we take a crowded public transport to the terminal, Stand in line with people not social distancing and not wearing a mask even though they are supposed to. Then two later we have covid and wonder why.  

I get your point - and agree - but you could avoid at least some of these potential crowds.  And outdoor situations are not really risky at all.  It amazes me to see people walking alone around here in the hot summer with a mask on.

[Alcairns]

2 hours ago, dfields1814 said:

Keep the vaccines drop the testing. Apologies to The Godfather.

 

I am a big fan of the testing in conjunction with mask wearing and social distancing. However I think testing needs to be dropped in that it is not doing what it is supposed to do, as of now.  For example we test negative 3 days prior to our December cruise. Then the next day we take public transport to the airport, wait in the airport gate area with 100's of unmasked people none social distancing . Take a 5 hour flight in an airplane full with unmasked people. Get our luggage in area with lots of unmasked people. Then take a public transport to a hotel and wait in line with to register with unmasked people who are not socially distancing. Finally we eat a crowded restaurant after waiting in the waiting area. The eext day we take a tour on bus crowded with people none wearing a mask. Eat at three crowded restaurants. Hang out by the crowded pool with unmasked people who are not social distancing .  Cruise day, we take a crowded public transport to the terminal, Stand in line with people not social distancing and not wearing a mask even though they are supposed to. Then two later we have covid and wonder why.  

This is why the original U.K. protocol of testing at the terminal immediately before boarding made more sense. This has since changed to the 3 day rule and outbreaks have risen. 

[caribill]

11 hours ago, toofewcruises said:

Has anyone seen the new CDC announcement?  The CDC guidelines for cruise ships are no longer required...  

 

1.  I hope the vaccination requirement stays in place;

2.  Testing will no longer be required, which could be a very good thing for all of us;

3.  I wonder how long it will take for Princess to enact this?

 

Yes, I have seen it in the link provided. Not yet time to celebrate:

 

Some quotes from the link:

 

"CDC said it will continue to provide testing recommendations for cruise ship operators to follow, and cruise ships will continue to report COVID-19 cases to the agency."

 

"Cruise operators contacted by Seatrade Cruise News generally referred to the CLIA statement and said they're reviewing the news. 'We haven't made any decision if we're going to change anything — if we make any changes at all,' one company's spokesperson said."

 

On the other hand, it does say:

"the agency's color-coded status for cruise ships is going away, and that web page is being retired."

Which means there will no longer be transparency as to which ships have a significant number of Covid cases.

[dreaminofcruisin]

My 'guess' is the cruise lines will follow the data.

There are 3 Holland America cruises happening now with no pre-cruise testing required. When those are finished, they will see if the number of covid cases on those ships is significantly higher than cases on similar cruises where pre-cruise testing was required. If not, they might start rolling out no pre-cruise testing. If they find a significant increase, they might leave it as it is for a while.

Only a guess.....

[Daniel A]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

On the other hand, it does say:

"the agency's color-coded status for cruise ships is going away, and that web page is being retired."

Which means there will no longer be transparency as to which ships have a significant number of Covid cases.

There really never was transparency with the color coding.  One never knew if an orange ship had 8 cases onboard or 800.  It was just a color with no release of an actual statistic.

 

Here is the new CDC web page with the new announcement and FAQs:

 

Cruise Ship Travel During COVID-19 | CDC

 

[Mary229]

57 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

My 'guess' is the cruise lines will follow the data.

There are 3 Holland America cruises happening now with no pre-cruise testing required. When those are finished, they will see if the number of covid cases on those ships is significantly higher than cases on similar cruises where pre-cruise testing was required. If not, they might start rolling out no pre-cruise testing. If they find a significant increase, they might leave it as it is for a while.

Only a guess.....

Data?  I don’t think so, they will follow the money.   It all hinges on the CDC guidance. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Mary229

[Alcairns]

2 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Data?  I don’t think so, they will follow the money.   It all hinges on the CDC guidance. 

Only on US cruises only. CDC guidance only applies to cruises from and to US Ports.  CDC guidance does not apply to the vast majority of cruises where local rules will apply. They will not be allowed to follow the money on those cruises where testing will be around for a while. 

[Billish]

1 minute ago, Alcairns said:

They will not be allowed to follow the money on those cruises where testing will be around for a while. 

Although Norwegian have already declared that most of their European cruises will not require tests, as of August 1st.

[toofewcruises]

18 hours ago, jimbo1683 said:

Serious question - ignoring the nonsence above about brainwashing - if a passenger is unvaxed but you are vaccinated, does the risk to you increase? Or is the risk wholly theirs?

 

New updated article:

 

What the CDC Decision Means for Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruisers (msn.com)

[caribill]

5 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

My 'guess' is the cruise lines will follow the data.

There are 3 Holland America cruises happening now with no pre-cruise testing required. When those are finished, they will see if the number of covid cases on those ships is significantly higher than cases on similar cruises where pre-cruise testing was required. If not, they might start rolling out no pre-cruise testing. If they find a significant increase, they might leave it as it is for a while.

Only a guess.....

 

I doubt that will be of any use.

 

As reported on these boards, there are many cases of Covid detected after the cruisers return home at the end of the cruise.

 

There is no way to report these cases to the cruise lines. HAL will not know at all how many cases of Covid developed due to not testing  pre-cruise.

[cr8tiv1]

13 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Yes, I have seen it in the link provided. Not yet time to celebrate:

 

Some quotes from the link:

 

"CDC said it will continue to provide testing recommendations for cruise ship operators to follow, and cruise ships will continue to report COVID-19 cases to the agency."

 

"Cruise operators contacted by Seatrade Cruise News generally referred to the CLIA statement and said they're reviewing the news. 'We haven't made any decision if we're going to change anything — if we make any changes at all,' one company's spokesperson said."

 

On the other hand, it does say:

"the agency's color-coded status for cruise ships is going away, and that web page is being retired."

Which means there will no longer be transparency as to which ships have a significant number of Covid cases.

 

9 hours ago, Daniel A said:

There really never was transparency with the color coding.  One never knew if an orange ship had 8 cases onboard or 800.  It was just a color with no release of an actual statistic.

 

Here is the new CDC web page with the new announcement and FAQs:

 

Cruise Ship Travel During COVID-19 | CDC. 

 

 

I've been monitoring the CDC cruise ship color website for months.   Almost every ship out there has been orange for a good part of the time since cruising resume.

 

I agree, too, that the chart was pretty useless without the total daily numbers.  3% of what?  See...algebra is useful.  

[Daniel A]

9 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

 

I've been monitoring the CDC cruise ship color website for months.   Almost every ship out there has been orange for a good part of the time since cruising resume.

 

I agree, too, that the chart was pretty useless without the total daily numbers.  3% of what?  See...algebra is useful.  

But the colors were pretty too!  (Unless your ship was coded gray because you wouldn't play with the CDC...)

[JimmyVWine]

On 7/19/2022 at 8:36 AM, Mary229 said:

I don’t think so, they will follow the money.

But the demand for cruises is already high even with vaccination and testing requirements and passenger loads reported in trip reports seem like they are pretty much back to "full boat".  So I'm not sure that there is any financial aspect to the "should we or shouldn't we" decision by the cruise line.  I'm not saying that Princess won't make a change as soon as it is humanly allowed to do so.  Of course it will.  But I don't know that the bean counters are salivating at the coming of that day thinking that revenues will increase dramatically.

[PacnGoNow]

10 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

But the demand for cruises is already high even with vaccination and testing requirements and passenger loads reported in trip reports seem like they are pretty much back to "full boat".  So I'm not sure that there is any financial aspect to the "should we or shouldn't we" decision by the cruise line.  I'm not saying that Princess won't make a change as soon as it is humanly allowed to do so.  Of course it will.  But I don't know that the bean counters are salivating at the coming of that day thinking that revenues will increase dramatically.

Bottom line.  They will save a bundle without having to test so many guests, put them up in hotels with comped meals and the staff it takes to continue these efforts. 

 

These July  trial non-test cruises of HAL & P & O, are for 7 nights.  Most likely some may be infected at the beginning and the end, but a lot will go home with it.  They don’t care about it once you leave the ship.

 

What about the crew?  Will the quarantine area be mostly for them?  What about the staff shortage, if the crew is ill?

 

A lot to consider before jumping into the next phase.  
 

IMO, I think the next phase may be to drop testing for the short cruises up to

10 days and continue for a bit on the longer cruises, especially oceanic ones, where there are no hospitals in case of an emergency.  JMO

 

[JimmyVWine]

41 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

Bottom line.  They will save a bundle without having to test so many guests, put them up in hotels with comped meals and the staff it takes to continue these efforts.

Right now they are charging for tests.  $60 per person.  It is actually a profit center.  And the paid-for hotel and meals ends as September when the Cruise With Confidence plan ends. 

[PacnGoNow]

17 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Right now they are charging for tests.  $60 per person.  It is actually a profit center.  And the paid-for hotel and meals ends as September when the Cruise With Confidence plan ends. 

I thought the $60 test is a third party, like DocGo and other companies, not PCL.

Anyway, they are doing thousands of tests on the ships and using staff to do those.  At least the shorter b2b’s no longer need to be tested.

 

The PVP insurance plan still covers covid even after Sep 30th.  But of course you have to buy that.
 

Not wanted to debate this…just another rant!  Lol

[prmssk]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

But the demand for cruises is already high even with vaccination and testing requirements and passenger loads reported in trip reports seem like they are pretty much back to "full boat".  So I'm not sure that there is any financial aspect to the "should we or shouldn't we" decision by the cruise line.  I'm not saying that Princess won't make a change as soon as it is humanly allowed to do so.  Of course it will.  But I don't know that the bean counters are salivating at the coming of that day thinking that revenues will increase dramatically.

I don’t think this true across all itineraries. The Caribbean Princess in the Caribbean is absolutely around full but that is an easy port to get to for a lot of people without a lot of concern for having to quarantine in a foreign country. I think round trip Alaska routes are also doing fairly well. But passenger numbers on north and southbound Alaska routes don’t seem as high and ships are definitely not full in Europe. 
 

There still are plenty of people not booking cruises (especially ones further away from home) because of protocols. Taking away some of those protocols may make a few cancel that aren’t comfortable but I think there are a lot more who will book when protocols are relaxed. 

[JimmyVWine]

22 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I thought the $60 test is a third party, like DocGo and other companies, not PCL.

The charge goes on to your stateroom account.  What happens to the money after that I know not.

[Mary229]

2 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

But the demand for cruises is already high even with vaccination and testing requirements and passenger loads reported in trip reports seem like they are pretty much back to "full boat".  So I'm not sure that there is any financial aspect to the "should we or shouldn't we" decision by the cruise line.  I'm not saying that Princess won't make a change as soon as it is humanly allowed to do so.  Of course it will.  But I don't know that the bean counters are salivating at the coming of that day thinking that revenues will increase dramatically.

I think they will be closely watching competitors’ bookings who have removed restrictions 

[Billish]

As I pointed out elsewhere, P&O are abolishing the need for observed tests. You now have to take a test within 48 hours of departure,  and declare that you tested negative on the pre-cruise medical questionnaire.  No evidence of test results are required. 

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Billish

[PacnGoNow]

24 minutes ago, Billish said:

As I pointed out elsewhere, P&O are abolishing the need for observed tests. You now have to take a test within 48 hours of departure,  and declare that you tested negative on the pre-cruise medical questionnaire.  No evidence of test results are required. 

 

That will be easy since we can get the free tests easily.  That also protects them and the insurance company, if you lie and end up getting sick.  I would definitely make a screenshot of my negative results for proof.  Cover yourself.
Interesting…

[asalligo]

I am sorry for all the people worried about us unvaccinated, but I am so happy they are reducing restrictions. I just got approved to sail on my first Princess cruise. Guess they had not yet hit their 10 percent. Fourteen Carnival cruises and two RCCL cruises so far, but my first Princess. Cheaper than Carnival same week, which is strange. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

On 7/18/2022 at 9:34 PM, dfields1814 said:

Then two later we have covid and wonder why.  

I'm guessing that you wouldn't literally "wonder why." 😁

[memoak]

3 hours ago, asalligo said:

I am sorry for all the people worried about us unvaccinated, but I am so happy they are reducing restrictions. I just got approved to sail on my first Princess cruise. Guess they had not yet hit their 10 percent. Fourteen Carnival cruises and two RCCL cruises so far, but my first Princess. Cheaper than Carnival same week, which is strange. 

That would not work for cruises leaving from Canada. You cannot get into the country without being vaccinated without a medical exemption from the Canadian government not Princess

[latserrof]

Thanks.