New testing protocols

[mz-s]

3 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I think the first major step was eliminating mask requirements.

 

I put those words in quotes because those were his exact words when he announced the testing protocol change, just hours before they retraced their steps and reinstated testing for their #1 destination.

[BlerkOne]

2 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

I put those words in quotes because those were his exact words when he announced the testing protocol change, just hours before they retraced their steps and reinstated testing for their #1 destination.

John doesn't make policy, but people sure like to blame him if they don't like it.

[mz-s]

Just now, BlerkOne said:

John doesn't make policy, but people sure like to blame him if they don't like it.

 

I never said he wrote the policy.

[prmssk]

Royal just posted their updated protocols and their short cruises to the Bahamas do not require testing for vaccinated passengers.  The only countries excepted from the new no testing policy are Bermuda and Canada.

 

I wonder what makes Carnival different.

[Fredric22]

2 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Royal just posted their updated protocols and their short cruises to the Bahamas do not require testing for vaccinated passengers.  The only countries excepted from the new no testing policy are Bermuda and Canada.

 

I wonder what makes Carnival different.

Exactly!  Carnival is the only line requiring testing for the Bahamas and is blaming it on them.  As I've said before this makes no sense because Virgin, Margaritaville, MSC, and now Royal are continuing with no pre-test for The Bahamas. 

[BlerkOne]

I see Royal's Certificate of Recovery policy differs from the Carnival policy. Perhaps Carnival should adopt the Royal policy?

[ninjacat123]

Just now, BlerkOne said:

I see Royal's Certificate of Recovery policy differs from the Carnival policy. Perhaps Carnival should adopt the Royal policy?

If you don't mind, how does it differ?  Thx!!

[ninjacat123]

25 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Royal just posted their updated protocols and their short cruises to the Bahamas do not require testing for vaccinated passengers.  The only countries excepted from the new no testing policy are Bermuda and Canada.

 

I wonder what makes Carnival different.

When you say "short cruises" is that 5 days and under?  Thx!!

[BlerkOne]

2 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

If you don't mind, how does it differ?  Thx!!

Among other things, it appears Royal requires a certified medical health certificate and besides Bermuda,

 

The following require a Certificate of Recovery to be presented with a negative test result, in order to go ashore:   {so the Certificate looks meaningless to me)

• St. Kitts
• Panama
• Panama Canal
• St. Lucia
• Guatemala
• Colombia
• Trinidad & Tobago
• St. Vincent
• the Grenadines
• Haiti
• Cayman Islands
• Bermuda

[shof515]

2 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

When you say "short cruises" is that 5 days and under?  Thx!!

Here is new royal policy posted on their social media:

 

Carnival is now the only cruise line with testing for short cruises to the Bahamas

[prmssk]

 

7 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

When you say "short cruises" is that 5 days and under?  Thx!!

 

Yes, MSC, Royal, Celebrity, and Carnival all are making changes to their testing policy for certain cruises that are 5 nights or less.

 

Margaritaville At Sea only has 2 night cruises.  Virgin Voyages eliminated testing for vaccinated passengers for all sailings but the majority of their sailings are 5 nights or less.

[JT1962]

41 minutes ago, prmssk said:

 

I wonder what makes Carnival different.

My best guess is Carnival decided to have everyone test to simplify the process at the pier. No need for agents at the pier to have to verify who does and does not need a negative test. Just make everyone show one. 
 

The other possibility is the percentage of unvaccinated guests Carnival is allowing exceeds what the Bahamas was comfortable with, unless everyone was tested.

[prmssk]

9 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

My best guess is Carnival decided to have everyone test to simplify the process at the pier. No need for agents at the pier to have to verify who does and does not need a negative test. Just make everyone show one. 

If that weren't the case they wouldn't let vaccinated passengers not test on other five night itineraries.  In Mobile, New Orleans, and other ports with short cruises to Mexico they will have to check test results for the unvaccinated but not for the vaccinated.  They would have just kept testing across the board.

 

10 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

The other possibility is the percentage of unvaccinated guests Carnival is allowing exceeds what the Bahamas was comfortable with, unless everyone was tested.

I can't find anything that Carnival has drastically reduced their unvaccinated guest percentages.  Virgin Voyages says they are at 90% vaccinated.  Royal/Celebrity are talking about 80% vaccinated although I'm not sure they have implemented that yet.  Carnival's website just says they are still doing vaccinated cruises and I can't find a percentage.  But maybe they are dropping that percentage faster than the others.

[JT1962]

5 minutes ago, prmssk said:

If that weren't the case they wouldn't let vaccinated passengers not test on other five night itineraries.  In Mobile, New Orleans, and other ports with short cruises to Mexico they will have to check test results for the unvaccinated but not for the vaccinated.  They would have just kept testing across the board.

 

I can't find anything that Carnival has drastically reduced their unvaccinated guest percentages.  Virgin Voyages says they are at 90% vaccinated.  Royal/Celebrity are talking about 80% vaccinated although I'm not sure they have implemented that yet.  Carnival's website just says they are still doing vaccinated cruises and I can't find a percentage.  But maybe they are dropping that percentage faster than the others.

The only other thing I can come up with if those aren’t the answer is that Carnival wants to be the first major cruise line to go bankrupt. Maybe the new CEO wants to get out from under all of the debt they are in quickly.

[mz-s]

19 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

The only other thing I can come up with if those aren’t the answer is that Carnival wants to be the first major cruise line to go bankrupt. Maybe the new CEO wants to get out from under all of the debt they are in quickly.

 

Carnival Corp's debt has tripled in less than 3 years to over $35 billion, and the interest alone on their debt is $120M a month. I would agree that reorganization bankruptcy is in their near future.

[BermudaBound2014]

31 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Carnival Corp's debt has tripled in less than 3 years to over $35 billion, and the interest alone on their debt is $120M a month. I would agree that reorganization bankruptcy is in their near future.

 

Just to clarify (not that it matters much), but I believe CCL's debt has reached nearly 40 billion now. They sold 1 Billion in bonds and offered a 1 Billion dollar stock option recently 🙂

[BlerkOne]

Let's see - RCL has a 522 debt to equity ratio; CCL has a 354 debt to equity ratio. Hmmm.

[Lane Hog]

I wouldn't read too much in to debt just yet.  None of the banks are interested in owning ships or taking $0.30 on the dollar right now, so they're going to work with the companies who were most affected yet have a proven track record of generating cash.

American Airlines is sitting on $37B in debt, United at $29B, Delta at $25B and Southwest at $11B.

They're at far more risk of going bankrupt than either CCL or RCI.

[hockeyluver]

This is from John Heald's facebook post today :

 

 

Before I head to my cruise tomorrow I wanted to share the news on testing which many of you have already received from our wonderful President Christine Duffy.

It reads as follows.

“ August 5, 2022

Dear Carnival Guest,

We are pleased to share that our COVID protocols continue to evolve. We remain, as always, committed to the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we serve. Effective August 8, 2022, guests should be guided by the following COVID-19 testing requirements related to cruises visiting The Bahamas. This applies specifically to itineraries 5 days or shorter only:

• Vaccinated guests do not have to present a COVID test result at embarkation.

• All unvaccinated guests must present the negative results of a pre-embarkation test – either

a supervised PCR or an antigen test taken up to three (3) days prior to embarkation.

For complete information on vaccination and testing requirements and other protocols, please visit

our Have Fun. Be Safe. page here.

We apologize for the late notice but trust you will find this to be good news.”

——

[ninjacat123]

44 minutes ago, hockeyluver said:

This is from John Heald's facebook post today :

 

 

Before I head to my cruise tomorrow I wanted to share the news on testing which many of you have already received from our wonderful President Christine Duffy.

It reads as follows.

“ August 5, 2022

Dear Carnival Guest,

We are pleased to share that our COVID protocols continue to evolve. We remain, as always, committed to the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we serve. Effective August 8, 2022, guests should be guided by the following COVID-19 testing requirements related to cruises visiting The Bahamas. This applies specifically to itineraries 5 days or shorter only:

• Vaccinated guests do not have to present a COVID test result at embarkation.

• All unvaccinated guests must present the negative results of a pre-embarkation test – either

a supervised PCR or an antigen test taken up to three (3) days prior to embarkation.

For complete information on vaccination and testing requirements and other protocols, please visit

our Have Fun. Be Safe. page here.

We apologize for the late notice but trust you will find this to be good news.”

——

I have a 5 day cruise going to Nassau over Labor Day weekend and I haven't received an email from Carnival about this change.  Hmm.

Edited August 6, 2022 by ninjacat123

[bguppies]

3 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

I have a 5 day cruise going to Nassau over Labor Day weekend and I haven't received an email from Carnival about this change.  Hmm.

We were the opposite.

We have a September cruise to Bimini.

We immediately got an e-mail the first day, they changed the policy, but then nothing when they added the Bahamas back in and nothing yet about the changes again.

(I'll personally wait until I see it officially printed on their website versus a John Heald facebook post.)

 

I applaud them for being smart enough to follow other cruiselines towards dumping a wasteful, ineffectual policy, but feel for how poorly they are handling the communications. (I really feel for anybody cruising this past week or next week to the Bahamas. Stressful enough getting last minute stuff done to cruise, without waffling policies to prevent you cruising)

 

Now hopefully they all wise up and do away with testing on anything less than multiweek cruises in the near future.

[ninjacat123]

4 hours ago, bguppies said:

We were the opposite.

We have a September cruise to Bimini.

We immediately got an e-mail the first day, they changed the policy, but then nothing when they added the Bahamas back in and nothing yet about the changes again.

(I'll personally wait until I see it officially printed on their website versus a John Heald facebook post.)

 

I applaud them for being smart enough to follow other cruiselines towards dumping a wasteful, ineffectual policy, but feel for how poorly they are handling the communications. (I really feel for anybody cruising this past week or next week to the Bahamas. Stressful enough getting last minute stuff done to cruise, without waffling policies to prevent you cruising)

 

Now hopefully they all wise up and do away with testing on anything less than multiweek cruises in the near future.

From Carnival's website:

 

TESTING REQUIREMENTS (UPDATED 8/05/22)

CRUISES 5 DAYS OR LESS

Except for sailings visiting Bermuda (see below), there will be no pre-cruise testing for fully vaccinated guests booked on cruises with itineraries 5 days or less.

• Due to destination requirements, ALL guests on itineraries that include Bermuda must complete a pre-cruise test, irrespective of the length of the cruise.
• To comply with destination regulations, guests may take either a PCR or an antigen test within the timelines specified below:
  • A PCR test within 72 hours prior to sailing (for example, if the sailing is on Saturday, the test may be taken any time from Wednesday).
  • An antigen test no earlier than two days prior to sailing (for example, if the sailing is on Saturday, the test may be taken any time from Thursday).

[Nike4000]

New procedure went into effect a couple of days ago, any word on how it's going so far on the short itineraries? Is embarkation total chaos? Any reports of port agents still asking for proof of negative Covid tests on the 5-days or less cruises that don't visit places like the Bahamas?

 

Just wondering what the scuttlebutt has been. 

[mouche]

Good news, I just hope it doesn't keep flip flopping, but good news indeed.

[JT1962]

After Sept 2, Norwegian is dropping testing requirements for all cruises for those that are vaccinated and allowing unvaccinated to cruise with a negative Covid test. Certain itineraries May still require a vaccine and / or test, based on port requirements. Hopefully other cruise lines will follow.
 

https://cruiseradio.net/norwegian-cruise-line-drops-covid-19-vaccine-requirements-welcomes-everyone-to-sail/