Updated testing requirements?

[bluemarble]

Cunard's "Preparing to sail - at the terminal" page has been updated today. Not sure what all has been changed. I don't happen to see any changes when I drill down into the details of the testing requirements for the various countries. The one item I notice is this addition.

 

Changes to testing requirements.

Guests on cruises after 5 September 2022, whose testing requirements differ from the below policy will be contacted directly for their upcoming voyage.

 

 

Cruise Industry News has some additional detail in this article.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/28041-cunard-relaxes-covid-19-travel-requirements.html

 

Here are some of the key items from that article.

 

"From Tuesday September 6, 2022 self-testing prior to travel will change from “mandatory” to “highly recommended” for vaccinated guests on the vast majority of holidays.

 

Only guests sailing on longer, more complex itineraries will be required to have an observed or in person antigen or PCR test with a fit to travel certificate prior to departure. These include a number of holidays of 16 nights or more and other specific voyages, the company said.

 

These new guidelines apply to all Cunard itineraries sailing from Southampton and all other departure points with the exception of countries where government regulations and protocols may vary including Canada and Australia."

[Tracey/Thom]

That's great news! We hope to sail an 8 night next May, and though we're fully vaccinated, we don't want to handle the stress of travelling great distances to board a ship and testing positive just before we're supposed to board.

[ClefsDor]

We board in Perth in November for 8 nights but it appears that even though we are vaccinated and fully boostered that we may have to still test prior to boarding. I'm unsure what Australia's policy is at the current time in terms of cruise ships. I know that there is no testing required to board a flight to Australia. 

[bluemarble]

Here's a link to the official Carnival Corporation press release. There are actually two press releases saying the same thing. One is from Valencia, California quoting Matt Gleaves, vice president, Commercial, North America and Australasia. This one contains the same quotes from Carnival UK president Sture Myrmell.

 

Cunard updates Covid-19 travel requirements

[BouncingWheel]

Does this also mean the end of quarantine cabins? Will they still be asking people to report for a test if displaying symptoms? 

It seems that they are classifying the virus like the common cold but I do not know what the restrictions were onboard, pre-covid, if you had a common cold though I know it was not quarantine. Allowed free-roaming with the passenger expected to be mindful of not spreading it about?

[david,Mississauga]

On 8/12/2022 at 1:31 PM, bluemarble said:

...

 

These new guidelines apply to all Cunard itineraries sailing from Southampton and all other departure points with the exception of countries where government regulations and protocols may vary including Canada and Australia."

 

The Canadian government rules permit a rapid antigen test to be taken up to two days prior to embarkation. For some reason Cunard has reduced this to one day. For the Alaska cruises from  Vancouver this was an inconvenience for those of us who had to travel a great distance.

 

There is only one Canadian embarkation left for this year (Québec on 30th Sept.). We are taking that voyage and hope Cunard will allow the two-day rule as they do with USA embarkations.