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First Cruise line to mandate vaccination


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8 minutes ago, castle25 said:

will be interesting to see how it is policed as the UK are not giving people who have had the jab a covid passport

In the US we are getting a CDC card that documents both doses (which vaccine, lot#, and date of each). I assume the UK is giving out a similar card. I already have mine inside my passport so I don’t lose it. 

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I understand the sentiment, but as someone who has money wrapped up in FCC for a family cruise where children were definitely planned to be onboard, Royal better have a plan to refund that to us and everyone in our party who will no longer be travelling due to a restriction of this type.

The FDA won't be in any rush to approve a vaccine for children since they are the one demographic where the broadly inaccurate and now gauche sentiment of "the flu is worse" is actually true. The fact that children don't seem to be as susceptible to severe forms of the disease is the reason a few pediatricians on the FDA council for the Pfizer EUA didn't vote to approve it: they had a problem with language approving it for use in 16 year olds since as a demographic they don't have much to gain from a vaccine that hasn't been fully approved (full approval won't come until Apr 2020). Most optimistic estimates put some children less than 16 years old being able to be vaccinated in mid-2022, with the youngest cohort and pregnant women perhaps beyond that (if ever). Requiring a vaccine to sail would effectively mean no young children on board for at least another 18 months.

And all of that "is what it is", meaning I'm sure it's an exercise in what can be gained from operating at different capacity levels with or without families on board that accountants and bean-pushers are all running numbers on as we speak. I just hope RCL treats those of us who are effected by such a monumental change in policy fairly.

 

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10 hours ago, loki007 said:

In the US we are getting a CDC card that documents both doses (which vaccine, lot#, and date of each). I assume the UK is giving out a similar card. I already have mine inside my passport so I don’t lose it. 

I made a copy of my covid vaccine card and keep them in several places.  Including passport and wallet.

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I've already started my cancellation proceedings for my November 2021 cruise on Oasis as I'm sure this is going to be a requirement for future cruising events. My largest fear is to get on a ship and someone tests positive, whether false or true, and I get stuck in my room after paying a lot of money to go on a vacation. I'm out until all this gets sorted out.  I've already booked a house on a beach in South Carolina for August 2021 and this may now be the new vacation norm.

What ticks me off is even if I get the vaccine I will still have to take a Covid test prior to going on vacation and I bet also wearing a mask on ship too. And, that's why I'm not going to jump all these hoops just to go on a vacation that is supposed to be fun and relaxing...?

 

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5 hours ago, VACruiser said:

I've already started my cancellation proceedings for my November 2021 cruise on Oasis as I'm sure this is going to be a requirement for future cruising events. My largest fear is to get on a ship and someone tests positive, whether false or true, and I get stuck in my room after paying a lot of money to go on a vacation. I'm out until all this gets sorted out.  I've already booked a house on a beach in South Carolina for August 2021 and this may now be the new vacation norm.

What ticks me off is even if I get the vaccine I will still have to take a Covid test prior to going on vacation and I bet also wearing a mask on ship too. And, that's why I'm not going to jump all these hoops just to go on a vacation that is supposed to be fun and relaxing...?

 

Agree...we are avid cruisers and have decided not to cruise until we do not have to follow any social distancing, masking, testing requirements. I think that is probably not going to be until mid to late 2022. We just got back from an all inclusive resort in Mexico and it was fantastic. No testing to get into the country, the resort was operating at 50% capacity, very clean and safe. When hanging out by the pool no need to mask (there were tons of open chairs due to low capacity). Highly recommend this as an alternative. We never left the resort and felt safer there than in the US. 

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33 minutes ago, GlassSlipper said:

My 12 year old is in the Phase 3 Pfizer vaccine trial for children 12-15.  They are hopeful they the EUA will come in the next couple of months for that group.  I’m sure younger children will be longer, but they said the trials are moving along well. 

Oh wow! Thank you for supporting your little one through that. The last I read was that Pfizer wouldn't be seeking an EUA for that cohort and would instead wait for the data to seek full approval (which based on when they hit half enrollment for that age cohort would be in July).

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32 minutes ago, LizzyBee23 said:

Oh wow! Thank you for supporting your little one through that. The last I read was that Pfizer wouldn't be seeking an EUA for that cohort and would instead wait for the data to seek full approval (which based on when they hit half enrollment for that age cohort would be in July).

That is what they told me when he went for his 2nd shot last week.  I haven’t read anything official-but I was hopeful.  They said they were looking for authorization within the next few months.   They said things were moving quicker than it had for adults.  Now I’m not an expert-just what the study told us.  

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18 minutes ago, GlassSlipper said:

That is what they told me when he went for his 2nd shot last week.  I haven’t read anything official-but I was hopeful.  They said they were looking for authorization within the next few months.   They said things were moving quicker than it had for adults.  Now I’m not an expert-just what the study told us.  

That's interesting, and I guess a mixed bag... If it's moving quicker I guess that probably means more infections in the cohort at a quicker pace than anticipated. Since that age group is less likely to show symptoms, are they doing asymptomatic tests? Like asking for more swabs performed at home?

(Hubs and I were both in the adult trial... Somehow both assigned to placebo, but we got our first shots last week! If not for the trial, it probably would have been months given how badly our state is botching the roll-out)

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5 minutes ago, LizzyBee23 said:

That's interesting, and I guess a mixed bag... If it's moving quicker I guess that probably means more infections in the cohort at a quicker pace than anticipated. Since that age group is less likely to show symptoms, are they doing asymptomatic tests? Like asking for more swabs performed at home?

(Hubs and I were both in the adult trial... Somehow both assigned to placebo, but we got our first shots last week! If not for the trial, it probably would have been months given how badly our state is botching the roll-out)

My understanding was quicker for enrollments than for the adults-I don’t think the procedures themselves are moving quicker. 

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5 minutes ago, GlassSlipper said:

My understanding was quicker for enrollments than for the adults-I don’t think the procedures themselves are moving quicker. 

Oh, ok. I misunderstood. I just checked the news and it said Pfizer's adolescent trial is already fully enrolled! That is quite a bit quicker than the adults.

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18 minutes ago, LizzyBee23 said:

Oh, ok. I misunderstood. I just checked the news and it said Pfizer's adolescent trial is already fully enrolled! That is quite a bit quicker than the adults.

LizzyBee, Since you were in the Pfizer study too and got the placebo-can I ask a question.  We obviously don’t know which my son got-but we are hopeful he got the vaccine.  His arm didn’t hurt at all on the first one, hurt in his upper arm on the 2nd for about a day.  Did you have any pain with either?  I know we won’t know for sure, but just curious.  Thanks!

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it will be interesting (irritating) if the CDC ultimately requires a vaccine as a condition to board a cruise but then WON'T accept the same vaccine to allow you to board a flight home without an accompanying negative covid test. ?

I get that asymptomatic spread is what is driving all of this, but eventually we need to move this past "presumed positive until your rapid test shows otherwise" phase.  

that didn't stop me from booking 4 cruises in 2021 already, but after this weeks announcement, I'll get the vaccine and opt-out of any travel that requires a test until things loosen up.  I dont enjoy getting my brain tickled with a q-tip enough to jump through the hoops solely for the love of travel (and I do love travel!)

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I had actually convinced myself I had the real thing... Had arm pain, a slight fever after the second shot. I also had a weird and sudden bout of lymphadema. That freaked me out enough to check with my normal doctor. He did a cbc workup and said I could get an antibody test to remove any doubt it was related to the vaccine, so I unblinded myself via an s-protein specific antibody test and found out I was given placebo. My kids probably gave me a little non-covid bug.

Having had the first shot now, I honestly wouldn't have been able to tell a difference. Neither of us had any symptoms, aside from mild arm pain we also had with the placebo. And, funnily enough, on the paperwork I saw that Pfizer has ammended their side effects to include transient lymphadema.

 

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On 1/20/2021 at 10:36 PM, Yo2slick said:

Hopefully Royal will make a decision on this soon.  If they require a vaccine Ill be requesting a full refund for our 2022 cruise.

Without people getting the vaccine you won’t need to request a refund they will just give it to you. It’s funny people want things to get back to normal but don’t want to take the proper steps to help society return to some sort of normalcy. 

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5 hours ago, Ogalthorpe Haywood said:

Without people getting the vaccine you won’t need to request a refund they will just give it to you. It’s funny people want things to get back to normal but don’t want to take the proper steps to help society return to some sort of normalcy. 

Not everyone will be able to get a vaccine before their next cruises are planned, and even if they can meet the requirement their travel companions may not. 

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2 hours ago, CruisinForABruisin said:

Then it looks like they just got themselves a shiny new FCC

I'm unsure of the tone this was intended, but surely you can see the problem with issuing an FCC with an expiration date when there are no certainties about when a vaccine may be available to select populations.

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42 minutes ago, Ogalthorpe Haywood said:

I was speaking more on the “anti vaccination” people, not to when people qualify for the vaccine. 

If everyone operated with honest intention, there would be a way to separate those with legitimate reasons (either no access or a true medical reason to avoid the vaccine) from the people who would view those reasons as a loophole to be exploited (our brand of rugged individualism in the US manifests in troubling ways occasionally). I suppose you could do something along the lines of "if a vaccine has been authorized for use in your demographic for x months, then you must have had it to sail" but even something like that could be abused.

I doubt issuing an FCC in a minor's name knowing full well it may expire before a vaccine is available for said minor would be good publicity (or even legal), and you have the issue of cruises booked with extended families that could cause a cascade of cancellations around one family with minor children. The cruise lines know this, of course... They probably even have data on what level of secondary bookings come from a family with children deciding on a cruise instead of a pilgrimage to the Mouse when grandmas/grandpas, aunts and uncles, etc all decide a vacation at sea with all of the amenities of a ship actually sounds nice. They don't market themselves as family friendly for nothing, after all. But all that kind of ties their hands... How do the cruise lines verify that these passengers are actually cancelling because of a relationship to minor children (or some other population without access to a vaccine) or because they're anti-vaxxers jumping at the opportunity to get their money out of the booking? I think you'd almost have to open up actual $$ refunds to anyone at that point.

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4 hours ago, LizzyBee23 said:

I'm unsure of the tone this was intended, but surely you can see the problem with issuing an FCC with an expiration date when there are no certainties about when a vaccine may be available to select populations.

They keep pushing the FCC expiration date. Let's put it this way, if people who want to be vaxxed are unable to do so before late 2022, we have bigger problems than cruising

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On 1/24/2021 at 7:54 AM, Ogalthorpe Haywood said:

Without people getting the vaccine you won’t need to request a refund they will just give it to you. It’s funny people want things to get back to normal but don’t want to take the proper steps to help society return to some sort of normalcy. 

Conforming with the masses is not what I consider "taking proper steps to help society return to normal".  If people would think for themselves we wouldn't be in this situation.  I am far from anti vaccination but I do not agree with this vaccination and will not be getting it. 

If cruise lines start requiring all vaccinations and not just Covid then we can talk about normalcy.  

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1 hour ago, Yo2slick said:

Conforming with the masses is not what I consider "taking proper steps to help society return to normal".  If people would think for themselves we wouldn't be in this situation.  I am far from anti vaccination but I do not agree with this vaccination and will not be getting it. 

If cruise lines start requiring all vaccinations and not just Covid then we can talk about normalcy.  

People are thinking for themselves, that's why we haven't gotten the virus under control 

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2 hours ago, Yo2slick said:

I am far from anti vaccination but I do not agree with this vaccination and will not be getting it. 

If cruise lines start requiring all vaccinations and not just Covid then we can talk about normalcy.  

According to numbers, there is not enough vaccines to vaccinate a huge percentage of the population, in the U.S. alone, for the CDC or Cruise lines to justify making it mandatory to cruise, unless the Reset date for cruise is set sometime pass possibly Summer of 2022, moving forward.  

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9 hours ago, Zambia-Zaire said:

According to numbers, there is not enough vaccines to vaccinate a huge percentage of the population, in the U.S. alone 

Not according to our new President Biden and his plan to distribute 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office. Its a nice goal but I don't believe it to be realistic.

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1 hour ago, Psycho and Barb said:

Not according to our new President Biden and his plan to distribute 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office. Its a nice goal but I don't believe it to be realistic.

We're already at that rate... It all hinges on J&J getting approved, but I think the new goal is 1.5mil/day. 

The US's strategy for herd immunity by sunmer does depend on natural infection, though. If the ships want to sail before the end of the year, they'll probably have to make some allowance for non-vaccinated passengers.

... Or fork over cash refunds.

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