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Test cruises soon?


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This is great, although it makes me wonder. Does this mean that Royal Caribbean is actually going to offer cruises to unvaccinated people? That was what I got from earlier, that if you have 98% crew and 95% guests vaccinated, test cruises would NOT be required. The fact that they are doing this simply means they are going to have ships that will have unvaccinated people. Correct?

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I’m so confused about test sailings and Royal’s policy on vaccinated passengers?

I got lost somewhere along the way.. why would royal have non-revenue test sailings AND vaccinated passengers and crew? What did I miss? 
 

I know this is all fluid but I thought it was test sailings OR vaccinated passengers and crew??? Not both. 
 

is this all to appease the CDC? 

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7 minutes ago, UNCFanatik said:

I’m so confused about test sailings and Royal’s policy on vaccinated passengers?

I got lost somewhere along the way.. why would royal have non-revenue test sailings AND vaccinated passengers and crew? What did I miss? 
 

I know this is all fluid but I thought it was test sailings OR vaccinated passengers and crew??? Not both. 
 

is this all to appease the CDC? 

Maybe they will do both.

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11 minutes ago, wordell1 said:

Maybe they will do both.

Maybe so... 

and maybe I have misunderstood the nature of test cruises? Will they be non-revenue? Would test passengers pay for extras on the ship? 
 

too much for my feeble mind of 20 to comprehend ..err.. I mean 30... ok.. it’s over 30 years ...well maybe it’s a “few” years past 30... lol BUT Who asked you???!!!

But looking forward to another lightning round of Royal information game show this week!!!

But seriously, it will be good to see them finalize and flesh out their plans and the communications that follow!

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If anything I could see test voyages a great way to knock the rust off guest operations. Working sit down meal services with wait staff and kitchen staff needing to be on pace. Housekeeping cleaning staterooms on a daily basis plus end of voyage cleaning and change over. Laundry services getting use to guest laundry volume. True 10% of expected capacity can be a small number. Just remember 10% is the minimum don't think any restrictions were made for a maximum number of volunteers.

Plus getting the test voyages out of the way it opens up the opportunity to be flexible down the road on the vaccination front. Worst case if the certificate paperwork is resubmitted using vaccination numbers in place of test voyage(s).

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8 hours ago, UNCFanatik said:

I’m so confused about test sailings and Royal’s policy on vaccinated passengers?

I got lost somewhere along the way.. why would royal have non-revenue test sailings AND vaccinated passengers and crew? What did I miss? 
 

I know this is all fluid but I thought it was test sailings OR vaccinated passengers and crew??? Not both. 
 

is this all to appease the CDC? 

My understanding is that Royal is requiring all eligible passengers to be vaccinated, right? Maybe they are doing the test cruises to make sure that children under 12 can cruise, without having to limit them to less than 5% of the passengers?  (The rule is still that 95% of passengers need to be vaccinated in order to avoid test cruises, right?) I'm thinking that an Oasis class ship over the summer, even at 50% capacity, could have more than 5% (150-ish) of its passengers made up of children under 12.

I also agree with the idea that they are testing all the new procedures that will be put in place when sailing resumes.

I'm just happy that there seems to be bits of positive news every day!

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2 hours ago, 12thman said:

Since Alaska cruises require FULL vaccination and I'm guessing PCR testing. Any chance of not having to wear a mask? Social distancing is fine for now. 

Alaska cruises do not require FULL vaccination, only those eligible for vaccination (over 16 years old up to Aug 1, over 12 years old after Aug 1)

no testing other than for the non vaccinated. 

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10 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Test cruises are a CYA.  Cruise lines would be nuts not to do them because you never know how things will change in the future.

Something we can both agree on, from the business point of view it just makes sense to test all approaches.

As you also stated with only 10% minimum passenger capacity the cost over just having the crew on board is minimal.  Additionally this low capacity allows Royal to test there processes with little likelihood of a massive disruption as it could if capacity was higher

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32 minutes ago, Tarheel0907 said:

test cruises are not any different for the normal paid cruise cant have the same amount of vaccinated vs non vaccinated from my understanding 

They can be different...

From "Technical Instructions for Simulated Voyages by Cruise Ship Operators under CDC’s Framework for Conditional Sailing Order | Quarantine | CDC" https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/ti-simulated-voyages-cso.html

 

The cruise ship operator must ensure all volunteer passengers have either:

Proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 using an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized vaccine or a vaccine product that has received emergency use listing from the World Health Organization (WHO); or

If not fully vaccinated, written documentation from a healthcare provider or self-certified statement that the volunteer passenger has no medical conditions that would place the volunteer at high risk for severe COVID-19 as determined through CDC guidance.

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3 hours ago, Tarheel0907 said:

test cruises are not any different for the normal paid cruise cant have the same amount of vaccinated vs non vaccinated from my understanding 

 

They're most certainly different than a normal cruise. You're essentially a guinea pig the whole time.

 

You will participate in exercises to

 

-Evacuate the ship

-Room quarantines

-Transfer mock-infected patients into isolation

-Expect to wear a mask and social distance the entire time, whether you're vaccinated or not

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1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

They're most certainly different than a normal cruise. You're essentially a guinea pig the whole time.

 

You will participate in exercises to

 

-Evacuate the ship

-Room quarantines

-Transfer mock-infected patients into isolation

-Expect to wear a mask and social distance the entire time, whether you're vaccinated or not

That sounds like a unique experience. Almost like a new excursion!

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Agree with @smokeybandit ....... I think the CDC wanted live, unvaccinated bodies that were not crew members to simulate all kinds of shipboard activities aboard a ship sailing w/o a requirement for PAX to be vaccinated. The desired outcome was zero cases. After that and if you had one, how did each ship handle it. That was before vaccines. One thing the CDC backed off on and provided an option to restart was to require 98/95%. There's some other tweaks but basically the CDC is standing pat with the CSO. Since I view this whole thing from the perspective that the CSO is unlawful, it's hard for me to get worked up by the details of compliance ...... that didn't stop from submitting a request to be considered for a test sailing though. Shoot, I'll play along ? 

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On 5/23/2021 at 6:48 AM, TXcruzer said:

Alaska cruises do not require FULL vaccination, only those eligible for vaccination (over 16 years old up to Aug 1, over 12 years old after Aug 1)

no testing other than for the non vaccinated. 

Wait!?, when did the Alaska cruises change and allow non vaccinated passengers? They are testing non vaccinated passengers for the Alaska cruises? 

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On 5/23/2021 at 1:24 AM, RyanS said:

Curious what will happen with this and which ports/ships they will have test cruises for...

If I had to look at trends the Michael Bayley posts when it comes to Crew Vaccinations .... usually, it seems it's a few hundred at a time when the ships are in port..... but a weird anomaly occurred over the weekend .... almost a thousand from Adventure OTS was vaccinated ..... makes me wonder if AOTS may be one of the test cruise ships.

Just putting it out there.

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9 minutes ago, 12thman said:

Wait!?, when did the Alaska cruises change and allow non vaccinated passengers? They are testing non vaccinated passengers for the Alaska cruises? 

That’s the way they have always been. No vaccines for those under the age of 16 in July, no vaccines for those under the age of 12 in August and beyond. 

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7 minutes ago, coneyraven said:

If I had to look at trends the Michael Bayley posts when it comes to Crew Vaccinations .... usually, it seems it's a few hundred at a time when the ships are in port..... but a weird anomaly occurred over the weekend .... almost a thousand from Adventure OTS was vaccinated ..... makes me wonder if AOTS may be one of the test cruise ships.

Just putting it out there.

Adventure is to begin revenue cruises from Nassau in a very short time. 

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