Good News: Elimination of Pre-Cruise Testing!

[travelhound]

Good News!

 

https://www.azamara.com/discover/what-they-say/azamara-cruise-news/azamara-announces-removal-its-embarkation-covid-19

[scooter6139]

Thanks, but this is the NCL forum, not Azamara.

[markkw07]

40 minutes ago, travelhound said:

Good News!

 

https://www.azamara.com/discover/what-they-say/azamara-cruise-news/azamara-announces-removal-its-embarkation-covid-19

Yea, kinda have to agree with Scooter6139. 

 

This means nothing on an NCL cruise. Unless you are just trying to post that some cruise lines have stopped the pre-testing. 

 

Appreciate it, and for anyone going on an Azamara cruise, that's helpful!

 

 

[julig22]

NCL already removed the testing requirement, effective August 1 - with noted exceptions being the US, Canada and Greece.

Edited July 27, 2022 by julig22

[logan25]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

NCL already removed the testing requirement, effective August 1 - with noted exceptions being the US, Canada and Greece.

According my count for August sailings, passengers onboard 3 out of 17 NCL ships fall under no pre-cruise testing.  
 

I welcome movement in that direction, but the “noted exceptions” weigh more than the “rule”.  At least presently.

[cruiseny4life]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

NCL already removed the testing requirement, effective August 1 - with noted exceptions being the US, Canada and Greece.

And Bermuda....argh! 

[julig22]

15 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

And Bermuda....argh! 

I believe the NCL Bermuda cruises sail from the US so not really an exception.

[julig22]

24 minutes ago, logan25 said:

According my count for August sailings, passengers onboard 3 out of 17 NCL ships fall under no pre-cruise testing.  
 

I welcome movement in that direction, but the “noted exceptions” weigh more than the “rule”.  At least presently.

As opposed to the same "exceptions" on the Azamara list LOL.

I haven't counted but will be on the Star in August so no testing - works for me.

[cruiseny4life]

30 minutes ago, julig22 said:

I believe the NCL Bermuda cruises sail from the US so not really an exception.

That they do! You are oh so right.

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

I believe the NCL Bermuda cruises sail from the US so not really an exception.

 

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

That they do! You are oh so right.

Bermuda requires testing regardless of the cruise's embarkation port so even if there were no testing requirements for cruises embarking in the US, Bermuda cruise passengers would still have to be tested.

 

When repositioning cruises to the US originating in Europe call on Bermuda, which is quite common for NCL as well as other cruise lines, passengers have to be tested prior to embarkation.  If the cruise makes port in Bermuda more than  four days after embarkation, which is normally the case on a repo, the passengers have to be retested while on board no more than two days prior to arriving in Bermuda.

Edited July 27, 2022 by njhorseman

[Karaboudjan]

I think (hope!) that we will see some changes once most of the ships move from Alaska/Bermuda/Canada itineraries to the Caribbean for the winter.

 

 

[nferr]

37 minutes ago, Karaboudjan said:

I think (hope!) that we will see some changes once most of the ships move from Alaska/Bermuda/Canada itineraries to the Caribbean for the winter.

 

 

 They're still cruising from the US so makes little difference.

[travelhound]

6 hours ago, scooter6139 said:

Thanks, but this is the NCL forum, not Azamara.

It's absolutely related to NCL, because it's a crack in the dam.  It will not be long before most other lines will have to follow 🙂

[travelhound]

5 hours ago, markkw07 said:

Yea, kinda have to agree with Scooter6139. 

 

This means nothing on an NCL cruise. Unless you are just trying to post that some cruise lines have stopped the pre-testing. 

 

Appreciate it, and for anyone going on an Azamara cruise, that's helpful!

 

 

Its absolutely relevant to NCL. Competition will force all cruise lines to accept the reality of daily life and will be forced to stop the testing.  

[Karaboudjan]

1 hour ago, nferr said:

 They're still cruising from the US so makes little difference.

 

The US has no requirement for pre-cruise testing, only guidelines.

[njhorseman]

34 minutes ago, travelhound said:

It's absolutely related to NCL, because it's a crack in the dam.  It will not be long before most other lines will have to follow 🙂

 

18 minutes ago, travelhound said:

Its absolutely relevant to NCL. Competition will force all cruise lines to accept the reality of daily life and will be forced to stop the testing.  

Your thread title is misleading clickbait .

Since this is the NCL board everyone reading the thread title will immediately assume that NCL has eliminated pre-cruise testing, which it has not.

Azamara does not have any cruises departing the US until December and no cruises departing Canada at all, so in reality Azamara's rules are no different than NCL's for the ports they currently have in common until the first Azamara cruise from the US in December, and by that time one or both lines are likely to have changed their rules at least once.

 

 

[BirdTravels]

6 hours ago, julig22 said:

NCL already removed the testing requirement, effective August 1 - with noted exceptions being the US, Canada and Greece.

Which are the majority of NCL cruises. 

[BirdTravels]

8 hours ago, travelhound said:

Good News!

 

https://www.azamara.com/discover/what-they-say/azamara-cruise-news/azamara-announces-removal-its-embarkation-covid-19

How horrible. Let's hope that NCL never removes pre-cruise testing. 

[SeaShark]

Whether NCL removes pre-cruise testing or not, there is nothing to prevent you from testing on your own...at any time.

[Sea saw 56]

34 minutes ago, CptBoatface said:

Full testing on the spirit.  We must have got it on the last day or two. Masks don't work, the shots don't work, we need to accept this REALLY bad flu is now part of our lives. Thank you, gain of function research. Human hubris has no limits 

Carnival Spirit or Norwegian Spirit?  

What is full testing?

[CptBoatface]

Everyone had to test. Norwegian spirit 

[karl_nj]

12 hours ago, njhorseman said:

Not one thing you're saying in this post so much as addresses, much less refutes what I said.

 

The fact is that because Azamara at present doesn't cruise from the US or Canada means they do not have to address the environment in those countries. In the rest of the world NCL and Azamara have identical testing protocols...testing is only required when mandated by a country's requirements. 

 

 

Actually, Azamara has identical testing requirements to NCL in the US too.  All Azamara did was to match the NCL brands.  They still require testing in the US, if you read the "fine print":

 

[njhorseman]

17 minutes ago, karl_nj said:

 

Actually, Azamara has identical testing requirements to NCL in the US too.  All Azamara did was to match the NCL brands.  They still require testing in the US, if you read the "fine print":

 

You need to read the "fine print" above that table, specifically 

"Azamara does not require a negative COVID-19 test prior to boarding unless this is required by local country regulations."

The above statement is important because  the CDC recently eliminated all COVID protocol requirements, including testing requirements, and these regulations are being replaced by recommendations so per their written statement Azamara will not require testing for US cruises.

 

As I said, Azamara currently has no US homeport cruises and will not cruise from Miami until December so the fact that their written requirements as quoted above conflict with the table below it is moot as of the moment. Presumably between now and December someone at Azamara will notice they conflict and resolve the inconsistency.

 

In any case no knows what Azamara, NCL, or any other cruise line will be requiring in December but it's a pretty good bet that they'll  change more than once in the intervening months.

[Suntanz]

Its just my personal opinion, but I don't like the pre-cruise testing. My family of 4 is sailing Sunday, so we have to get tested on Friday morning. I have so many things that need to be taken care of before cruise, but won't finalize things until I know we passed the Covid test. None of us have any symptoms, but our excitement is tempered until after the Covid test. I understand the reason for it, but its very nerve racking for us.

[karl_nj]

58 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

You need to read the "fine print" above that table, specifically 

"Azamara does not require a negative COVID-19 test prior to boarding unless this is required by local country regulations."

 

 

Which is very similar to the language used by NCL when they made their announcement weeks ago:

 

MIAMI, July 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH) (the “Company”) today announced it will no longer require guests to complete pre-cruise COVID-19 testing unless required by local regulations.

 

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Announces Revisions to SailSAFE Health and Safety Protocols :: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH) (nclhltd.com)

 

 

It seems pretty clear that when Azamara made this announcement, they didn't expect the CDC to make changes so quickly, since their chart, released as part of this announcement, still mentioned that testing would be required in the US.  They were just matching what NCL did weeks earlier, and not yet making any decisions on how to handle sailings out of the US.  Since they don't have any at the moment.

 

I agree who knows what the situation will be in December, but I would not be surprised if most cruise lines have dropped testing by then.  That does seem to be the direction things are heading in now.