New testing guidelines

[TeeRick]

17 hours ago, bdstickks0944 said:

That means they are trusting you to be honest.  

Yes there are many honest people out there.  The majority.  Especially on a cruise line like Celebrity.  The minority of people that are dishonest get all the attention.

[mayleeman]

50 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Yes there are many honest people out there.  The majority.  Especially on a cruise line like Celebrity.  The minority of people that are dishonest get all the attention.

 

And especially with things like diseases, the dishonest people can create havoc upon everyone.

[TeeRick]

2 hours ago, mayleeman said:

 

And especially with things like diseases, the dishonest people can create havoc upon everyone.

I think with this current version of the virus, ship-board havoc is much less likely (in terms of serious illness).  But more likely in terms of isolation protocols.

[Oceangoer2]

13 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

I think with this current version of the virus, ship-board havoc is much less likely (in terms of serious illness).  But more likely in terms of isolation protocols.

Hoping we don't get the virus, but if we can isolate in our own cabin it will be doable.  Moving won't be.

[Lindabee5000]

We sail on Sept 5th on the Beyond. It would appear that we still need to have a supervised Antigen test due to our itinerary includes Greece.  Oh well….

[NevadaCruiser2023]

I'm good with the testing removal, I never really thought it was accurate (even proctored) as it's just a moment in time test. I really thought they'd maintain the vax requirement though. I understand the short term economics of not closing off a segment of the population, but long term, one major outbreak traced to unvaxxed pax (I went for the rhyme there) , and the cruise line will suffer in the court of public opinion and lose money in the long run.  That's just my opinion, I could be wrong. 

[NevadaCruiser2023]

21 hours ago, Denny01 said:

"And I Won’t worry about $25 for a test. Just pretend you spent it on a test you need instead of 2 candy bars onboard!!!"

 

Den

2?  Where'd you find that kinda deal? 

[di T]

On 8/22/2022 at 5:22 PM, Ellan Vannin said:

I see from the update today that  visits to Greece appear to now require supervised test within 48 hours of boarding and not the 2 days as previously.

 

 

On 8/22/2022 at 5:22 PM, Ellan Vannin said:

I see from the update today that  visits to Greece appear to now require supervised test within 48 hours of boarding and not the 2 days as previously.

 

We sail on 5th September and will visit Greece, I have booked the online proctored tests for Saturday morning the 3rd so it will be just over the 48 hrs but within the two days! On my App it still states 2 days! More stress, I’ll have to see if we can do the tests later.

[phoenix_dream]

IMHO anyone who is so thrilled about the lifting of testing and especially vaccination requirements should pick up the book "Cabin Fever" and give it a read.  Actually it is very interesting reading for anyone interested in cruising,  as you learn a lot about ship operations and behind the scenes management at all levels from Captain of the ship to cruise line upper management to governmental management of cruise lines.

 

The book chronicles the terrible Covid outbreak on the Zaandam in early 2020.  I freely admit and of course know that very much has been learned since those awful days, and the current variation of the virus is less deadly.  That said, it certainly gave me pause in thinking about what could/might happen if another, much more deadly variation were to suddenly rear its ugly head.  We can pretend it would never happen, which is exactly what we thought in late 2019.  And no doubt we would be better prepared to handle it, but at the same time would we be prepared enough?  I don't know one way or another what the future holds and neither does anyone else on this board, but it gives you something to think about for sure.  It's a book I highly recommend reading.  I learned a lot from it about what really happened during those times.

[prmssk]

1 hour ago, NevadaCruiser2023 said:

I'm good with the testing removal, I never really thought it was accurate (even proctored) as it's just a moment in time test. I really thought they'd maintain the vax requirement though. I understand the short term economics of not closing off a segment of the population, but long term, one major outbreak traced to unvaxxed pax (I went for the rhyme there) , and the cruise line will suffer in the court of public opinion and lose money in the long run.  That's just my opinion, I could be wrong. 

How would they ever trace it back to a specific passenger?  With our current vaccines and our current variants, the vaccinated are doing just as good of job spreading it as the unvaccinated are.  And contact tracing isn't really in place anymore and is basically impossible with with how contagious covid has become.

[Silent Penguin]

4 hours ago, prmssk said:

How would they ever trace it back to a specific passenger?  With our current vaccines and our current variants, the vaccinated are doing just as good of job spreading it as the unvaccinated are.  And contact tracing isn't really in place anymore and is basically impossible with with how contagious covid has become.

I was thinking the same thing, but I thought I must be missing something.  

[bdstickks0944]

7 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Hoping we don't get the virus, but if we can isolate in our own cabin it will be doable.  Moving won't be.

If you happen to get it onboard, moving won’t be your decision.  

[bdstickks0944]

I’m finding it quite humorous that people still complain about the “inconvenience “ of having to do a test which takes like 15 minutes.  And btw, vaccinated people are NOT spreading it nearly as much as unvaccinated.   

[dlh015]

6 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

IMHO anyone who is so thrilled about the lifting of testing and especially vaccination requirements should pick up the book "Cabin Fever" and give it a read.  Actually it is very interesting reading for anyone interested in cruising,  as you learn a lot about ship operations and behind the scenes management at all levels from Captain of the ship to cruise line upper management to governmental management of cruise lines.

 

The book chronicles the terrible Covid outbreak on the Zaandam in early 2020.  I freely admit and of course know that very much has been learned since those awful days, and the current variation of the virus is less deadly.  That said, it certainly gave me pause in thinking about what could/might happen if another, much more deadly variation were to suddenly rear its ugly head.  We can pretend it would never happen, which is exactly what we thought in late 2019.  And no doubt we would be better prepared to handle it, but at the same time would we be prepared enough?  I don't know one way or another what the future holds and neither does anyone else on this board, but it gives you something to think about for sure.  It's a book I highly recommend reading.  I learned a lot from it about what really happened during those times.

"And no doubt we would be better prepared to handle it, but at the same time would we be prepared enough?"

 

I don't know about that...being better prepared that is. But I sure would like to think so! I was absolutely appalled at how poorly integrated the various reporting agencies were...and therefore any correlation was out of date by the time it was revealed. Thus, tons of misinformation flourished and helpful  information fell thru the cracks more often than not.

 

Thanks for the recommendation...

[Oceangoer2]

8 hours ago, bdstickks0944 said:

If you happen to get it onboard, moving won’t be your decision.  

Yes...I understand.  Point is, as long as moving to an isolation area is the known practice and out of my booked cabin, I suppose my decision would be to not sail at all.  Some are now saying that they have not had to move out of their cabin after contracting the virus...so it's perhaps a moot point.

[prmssk]

9 hours ago, bdstickks0944 said:

I’m finding it quite humorous that people still complain about the “inconvenience “ of having to do a test which takes like 15 minutes.  And btw, vaccinated people are NOT spreading it nearly as much as unvaccinated.   

With Omicron and BA4 and BA5, this does not appear to be true anymore or at least in any significance between vaccinated and unvaccinated.  This is why CDC and other places have recently changed their quarantine and other guidelines to be the same for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.  

 

And it isn't so much the actual test but the consequences of a test that may not even be all that accurate for asymptomatic individuals, especially for people that can only take one vacation a year and can't reschedule their time off to another time.  Add to that the fact that these tests aren't keeping covid off cruise ships so the risk/reward equation seems unbalanced.