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Preboard PCR testing for 8/15 Indy sailing


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I'm on hold with RC because this is really confusing. I got an email which reads:

Quote

 

Dear Guest,

This is your final reminder to please schedule your boarding day PCR test for COVID-19, conducted by our medical services partner, BioReference Labs. For your safety, all unvaccinated guests ages 2 and older are required to take this test during check-in on boarding day (plus, a debarkation antigen test, which we’ll share more details about once you’re onboard). It's important to register for your boarding day PCR test as soon as possible to avoid delays in your check-in process.

If you're vaccinated, you don't have to complete this registration for yourself. However, you may have received this email because the guest below may need to undergo boarding day testing. Please share this information with them or complete it for them if they are your minor child.

 

 

Then below that it has MY name, and a unique reference ID code for me to register to take a PCR at the terminal on boarding day. Thing is, I'm fully vaccinated. So uh... is this required for me or not? There are 3 other folks on two reservations I coordinated, and all 4 of us are fully vaccinated, so I have no idea why this was sent to me, but it's concerning because it indicates I *must* do this on embarkation day. Help?

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Did you link all 4 reservations? If so, that's probably why their names are on your letter. I would think that the sentence starting "If your vaccinated ......" applies to them as well. IOW, vaxed guests don't need to be tested in the case of your particular cruise and it's itinerary. 

The implementation of the pre-boarding testing policy hasn't been the cleanest. Its created a lot of confusion among booked guests. If you can't get through to RCL before you need to start travel and the boarding process, show up boarding docs and vax card in hand and check-in. 

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37 minutes ago, HtownHolly said:

I'm on hold with RC because this is really confusing. I got an email which reads:

 

Then below that it has MY name, and a unique reference ID code for me to register to take a PCR at the terminal on boarding day. Thing is, I'm fully vaccinated. So uh... is this required for me or not? There are 3 other folks on two reservations I coordinated, and all 4 of us are fully vaccinated, so I have no idea why this was sent to me, but it's concerning because it indicates I *must* do this on embarkation day. Help?

They send this to everyone.

Basically, they send it to everyone to cover their bases.

If you filled out the form to tell them you are vaccinated, you do not have to do anything.

This email is for unvaccinated people. If someone in your group is unvaccinated and is required to get a test, then you fill out the form.

Otherwise, just delete the email.

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@MattYeah I mean... that makes sense, but at this point I want to talk to someone at RC to confirm. All four of us on the two reservations/cabins I set up are linked, but we are all fully vaccinated. There is another reservation for two more travelling "with us" (but not linked) which include a 10 year old, so I need to find out if the 10YO can take the test 3 days beforehand, or if his only option is at the terminal (as was originally communicated).

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32 minutes ago, JeffB said:

Did you link all 4 reservations? If so, that's probably why their names are on your letter.

We are all linked (4 people, two reservations) but their names aren't on my email. Just mine. All 4 of us are fully vaccinated. Seems like this is a blanket CYA email from RC, but I'm not taking any chances. On hold for 56 minutes now.

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OK confirmed that email went out regardless of whether the email recipient is vaccinated or unvaccinated.

Bottom line: everyone on this sailing has to arrive with a negative test that was taken no more than 3 days beforehand... AND those who are unvaccinated also have to take a test onsite on boarding day.

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Great ....... but the language on these emails regarding a requirement for pre-boarding antigen testing MUST be crystal clear. My reading is that they aren't. 

Anyway glad it worked out. 

Seems like the best place to get your pre-boarding antigen testing is at Walmart or CVS. In FL, which tests (PCR and/or Antigen) are being offered depends on the care providers- actually the health care system that hires them -  in these pharmacies. It took me a while to figure out who was giving antigen tests (it was U of Miami Health Care) as by the time I was notified of the requirement I was already inside 72h of boarding. You're 10d out, right? Go on line now and schedule your tests within the 72h before boarding. I prefer antigen testing as after its completed, I'm going to walk out of the clinic with a piece of paper in hand.   

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Wow, ok, so big changes to policy there: your sailing is below the threshold number of days, and vaccinated guests still need to arrive with a test. Also, the tests you procure for your unvaccinated child is essentially rendered meaningless (and unnecessarily costly) if they're doing a PCR test on site before allowing you to board. Also, that better be one of the 15 minute isothermal ones, or families will be waiting for at least an hour or two in the terminal for a result.

Just, ugh. And to think I just made the final payment and checked in for our Nov cruise.

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22 minutes ago, LizzyBee23 said:

Wow, ok, so big changes to policy there: your sailing is below the threshold number of days, and vaccinated guests still need to arrive with a test. Also, the tests you procure for your unvaccinated child is essentially rendered meaningless (and unnecessarily costly) if they're doing a PCR test on site before allowing you to board. Also, that better be one of the 15 minute isothermal ones, or families will be waiting for at least an hour or two in the terminal for a result.

Just, ugh. And to think I just made the final payment and checked in for our Nov cruise.

Yup, that second test for the unvaccinated one  seems like it would preclude HAVING to do one 3 days earlier. Seriously.

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3 hours ago, HtownHolly said:

Yup, that second test for the un-vaccinated one  seems like it would preclude HAVING to do one 3 days earlier. Seriously.

This is coming from the CDC and the cruise lines, while they don't have to comply with the CDC's recommendations, they'd be crazy from a legal standpoint to not comply.

As usual, and IMO, the numbers - facts on the ground - don't support the CDC's change in policy that was announced on July 28th. The change involved reversing their recommendations in May that the vaccinated didn't need to mask indoors and could pretty much go about living normally......IMO, one of the few smart recommendations they'd issued to date. They added that in addition to the new recommendations that the vaccinated should wear masks indoors ("in some circumstances" and that is vague and confusing itself) the recommendation to get tested in the case of an "exposure" (whatever that means???) 3-5d later regardless of symptoms or lack of them was added.

Look, I can make a strong case that the current "surge" among the un-vaccinated (and that's where its happening) should be tolerated and managed with an emphasis on getting the unvaccinated vaccinated. Instead, what we're getting is constant and irrelevant reports of case numbers, without context and because of this the movement, under the pressure of the "DO SOMETHING" meme toward more "soft" mitigation measures at the local level. These are being implemented by local officials and, IMO, they are unnecessary, have no appreciable PH benefits and continue to impose what I consider to be unlawful restrictions on citizens and employers.  It is undeniable that SARS2 is going to spread. Masks aren't going to stop it. Shuttering businesses wont' stop it. Social distancing won't stop it. Restricting personal mobility won't stop it. This has been the case for upwards of 17 months now ...... everywhere on the planet. Why do we keep doing this kind of stuff when vaccines are the one thing proven to stop it or at least make the pandemic manageable.

Here's the obvious problem. If you've traveled, stepped out of your hermetically sealed home, gone to a restaurant and sat inside the chances are pretty high you were exposed to aerosolized SARS2 virions. TBC, that does not mean that you got or will get sick. It does not mean that you will transmit the virus to someone else - again the chances of that being the case are very low and I can produce solid data that statement is accurate. Why test then?

This new CDC policy is just another example of the CDC's unreasonably over-cautiousness that because of factors they don't care about - implied and actual costs with minimum PH benefits - imposes more hardships on citizens and employers who, for multiple reasons, especially legal liability, see these not as recommendations but rather as rules to abide by.  These recommendations from the CDC are not a lot unlike the CSO ...... a set of what Judge Merryday called quasi laws beyond the CDC's authority to issue. 

I'll allow that the cruise lines are in a unique situation. Because of the unfair treatment the lines endured in March of 2020, they can't afford an outbreak aboard a ship. Period. So, they test arriving guests to make sure they aren't asymptomatic carriers that could precipitate an outbreak so, yeah, I get it. They too have to be cautious, probably overly so, even though the risk of that happening, given the effectiveness of the already implemented health protocols, are extremely low. Ridiculous times. 

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I agree completely @JeffB, though I think I have less tolerance for the pseudo-laws written by the CDC than expressed above. I'm particularly worried about what may happen with boosters, etc, and that we may get into an unbreakable cycle with regular shots essentially required to get on a cruise. I worry about society's tolerance for risk in general, and what that means for my children. I was probably among the last to have free reign over my small town equipped with little more than my bike beginning in middle school, and that makes me sad. 

But anyway, all of that borderline-provincial reminiscing aside, if what @HtownHolly is going through is true (and she didn't just get an uninformed agent), this concerns me because it's yet another clumsy policy change that clearly wasn't communicated adequately to the people effected. Hopefully it gets clarified soon.

 

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