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Celebrity will not ask for vaccination proof but.......


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Celebrity is employing a creative approach to satisfy both federal and state restrictions to support restart.  Still holding to the 95% target for passengers, but passengers will need to provide proof, or be handled  (assumed) as not vaccinated.   How do you really know if the 95% rule is met?  You either voluntarily provide info, if not and you say you are, but don't have proof, you're treated as an unvaccinated passenger.  My passengers said so?  Interesting approach, and I'm not against creative solutions.   "Non-proofers" will need to take a test prior to boarding, and be treated differently on-board (masks, excursion limits etc).   What if there's a case or 2 that breaks out?  Doesn't that risk tanking the entire line, if not the industry who go down the "honor system" path?   I like the innovation - not sure the optics are right to play the game.  Leaning forward....

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25 minutes ago, cruisellama said:

What if there's a case or 2 that breaks out?  Doesn't that risk tanking the entire line, if not the industry who go down the "honor system" path?   I like the innovation - not sure the optics are right to play the game.  Leaning forward....

I think it actually shows that Celebrity has a lot of faith in their protocols to help contain it if a case does break out.  What we know about the virus now is worlds different from what we did at the beginning of the pandemic.  A ship trying to offload someone that tested positive isn't going to be refused by every port.  There won't be a big huge Diamond Princess fiasco level event.  Even the negative news report of a few cases will be an insignificant blip as the media goes ...SQUIRREL onto the next headline to put their exclamation marks behind.

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11 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

I think it actually shows that Celebrity has a lot of faith in their protocols to help contain it if a case does break out.  What we know about the virus now is worlds different from what we did at the beginning of the pandemic.  A ship trying to offload someone that tested positive isn't going to be refused by every port.  There won't be a big huge Diamond Princess fiasco level event.  Even the negative news report of a few cases will be an insignificant blip as the media goes ...SQUIRREL onto the next headline to put their exclamation marks behind.

Quantum experience has shown the protocols work.  As we're still under CSO - the 95% guideline cannot be authenticated pre-cruise, as no-proofers are treated s unvaccinated (from a protocol perspective not counting perspective).  I'm not sure how the arithmetic will count guests to get to the 95%.   500 guests show up - 400 volunteer and show proof, 100 affirm vaccination with no proof.  Is that 80% or 100% per the count methodology ?   I'm guessing Celebrity would count it as 100% (even though there's a different rule set for no proofers).   I'm not against this, I'm not sure will satisfy the federal rule.  I'm sure its gone through all sorts of company  legal review, and hopefully coord with FL authorities that this is compliant.  Guess we'll know if or when the sailings occur.

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Personally, I'm comfortable with what Celebrity appears to be doing. I have three cruises booked through October, two of them from EU ports and both having vaccine with proof required for boarding and one from PEV and I'm assuming this will sail with the vaccination strongly recommended proviso.

The EU appears to be trending toward vaccines required for entry to businesses and services from them. So the Celebrity sailing from EU ports comports with this trend. As well, if traveling from the US to an airport located in an EU country you're going to need a vaccination with proof to enter unencumbered with health protocols. While you can enter most EU countries as of June 1st without being vaccinated, if you choose not to, the pandemic/health related hoop jumping is complicated and varies. It gets really hard if you are traveling by air  to one place in the EU and make a stopover at another in a different country your going to face different health protocols at each.

The one concern I have with a hybrid pax manifest, not shared by my wife, is the potential for conflict/confrontation between vaxed and unvaxed guests. Vaccines and requirements to get them are obviously a hot button issue. I remember guests becoming seriously aggravated when diners didn't dress up for "formal nights" and visa-versa. Disagreements over vaccines are at an entirely different level of staked out emotional positions than dress codes.  Hopefully everyone will be cordial and accepting of the choices of other travelers on my August cruise out of PEV but I have a feeling that's fanciful thinking ...... of course lots can change between now and August on this issue. If given a choice, I think Celebrity, at least, would like to require vaccinations. The choice for those eligible but not vaxed if Celebrity goes back to that policy is to choose RCL or lines that won't be requiring vaccinations.  

 

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Some details ..... the two passengers that tested positive for COVID obtained those results through required pre-debarkation testing protocols for return to the US from St. Maartin by air (a requirement to re-enter the US at an airport traveling from abroad). It was not reported but I assume they were asymptomatic and the test was a rapid antigen not a molecular (PCR) test. Side note: Never get an Antibody test to determine if you have COVID after being vaccinated. It will test positive for ABs.

There is a chance that these positive results are false positives. A retest by PCR should be done to confirm the positive. This would or should be protocol either by RCG or St. Maartin authorities but it is not being reported and probably can't be reported by either Celebrity or St. Maartin authorities publicly.

I'm not sure what port agreements Celebrity has with St. Maartin health authorities for handling positive COVID cases debarking from a cruise ship. I assume that the two positive passengers were placed in quarantine in a agreed upon hotel in St. Maartin. The US guidance is 10d if asymptomatic or 10d after symptoms end. Per my understanding of Celebrity policy all expenses associated with this, including rearranging air transport, are paid for by Celebrity. Obvioulsy if a confirmatory PCR test was negative, they will be released from quarantine and fly home using that test to reenter a US airport. 

CDC does not recommend surveillance screening for vaccinated people using rapid molecular or antigen tests. So that's not at issue here. That's not RCG policy and that's not what happened aboard Millennium as might have been implied in earlier posts. The only time testing is warranted for a vaccinated person is if defined contact was made with a confirmed COVID positive person or if COVID symptoms are present or if state, federal (e.g., arriving at a US transportation hub from abroad) or local regulations require it (it's an exception if they do - not many do). Otherwise, no.

A CDC recommendation for fully vaccinated  travelers returning to the US  from international destinations is that they should have a viral test (molecular or rapid antigen) 3-5d after arriving back in the US. I think this is reasonable given essentially unknown levels of viral prevalence where you have visited and the presence of variants. This is especially true for higher risk cohorts. Although experts think the currently known variants are covered by vaccines, that's not yet fact and new variants continue to emerge.  You don't want to come back and be an asymptomatic spreader of the Delta variant.

Carry on.

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This is the first time I've seen this link below. I believe it just popped up within the last few hours. It's from the Celebrity web site under their "Healthy at Sea" section and emboldened in the text ........ For an overview of protocols by homeport country, click here. It is very precisely and clearly done and easy to read.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/content/dam/celebrity/pdf/celebrity-healthy-at-sea-protocols.pdf

I was hoping for no masks at all but it seems the Greek government has both an indoor and outdoor (go figure???) mask requirement still in place. Man, would I like that to be relaxed before I had to Athens on the 8th of July. Greece is moving ahead with vaccines but they're not there yet and I can see the masks indoors thing (not outdoors though) until vax rates get higher. Last time I checked the rate was in the low 40% range. I wasn't able to drill down to the area where the cruise port is but can see viral prevalence country wide is low and very low compared to other EU countries. I'd judge Greece is pretty safe wrt COVID. That may be because they've been hardliners about masking with what appears to be pretty good citizen compliance.

I can adjust.

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