Traveling to and Within Europe to Begin or Disembark from a Cruise in the COVID Era

[JeffB]

I made a post in another thread about "The New Travel Realty" precipitated by the pandemic. Some dismissed the idea that travel had become more difficult, especially within the US for US Citizens. When I suggested the US should adopt the EU's approach (Vaccine Passports and Track and Trace protocols), that idea received howls of disapproval.  

The facts support significant barriers to global travel that did not exit prior to the beginning of the pandemic almost 2y ago. I read an article today that globally the airline industry alone is losing nearly $2 million dollars A DAY year on year. The reason is the mess of COVID related travel regulations and restrictions imposed by different countries. My sense is that there is significant pressure coming from travel and leisure industry organizations for international cooperation between countries to arrive at coordinated and consistent COVID related travel regulations between countries. Right now, these are non-existent. Some of this is political and what is going on with regard to travel between and within the US, Canada and Europe is definitely being influenced by politics with travelers as collateral damage. Many may say this isn't going to happen. I still think it will and there are plenty of signs that the unvaxed are going to be in a class by themselves as travelers at some point in the not to distant future. Follow the money. The vax requirement to dine indoors, go to shows, enter gyms and sporting events and a whole lot more are already present in most of Europe despite protests against them. Studies I'm reading suggest when it comes to a financial cost to not get vaxed (losing your job for instance) people get vaccinated. I believe that when your travel life gets complicated and you want to travel globally but can't do that easily without getting vaxed, people will get vaxed or stay home. YMMV.

The most disruptive recent change is a move by the EUC or EU member states to not accept any record of vaccinations other than the EU authorized and issued COVID Certificate. That's because forgery was rampant and there were plenty of documented leakers - infected with forged proof of vaccination (not breakthrough infections). Not just US passport holders. These EUC directives are recommendations and Spain, for example, among others still accept the CDC vax card. If you are un-vaccinated, you can travel to Europe and within it but you have to get tested at regular intervals varying by country from every 2d to 7d depending on the test (AG or PCR) to participate in most of anything resembling travel life. Your test has to be administered by testing units authorized in Europe to do so. Exceptions are common (e.g. recovery with proof of it). There is also this circumstance involving variance in enforcement of the travel restrictions by gate agents and even by immigration control agents.  It's incredibly hard to keep up with it all. Best advice I've heard is know the travel restrictions for the country you are going to and comply with them. If agents don't check your docs good for you. If they do, you're prepared to not get detained and delayed. See travel restrictions by departure and destination points here here: https://www.iata.org/en/publications/timatic/

We traveled by air between Miami and Lisbon on September 27th, spent 2n there and left again by air from Lisbon to Geneva Switzerland and are, as I write this, in Lausanne. Next stop Barcelona Spain. Portugal is adhering to the EU Guidelines but are in a grace period (that might be indefinite but don't count on it) allowing acceptance of the CDC Vaccination card as proof of vaccination. To enter Portugal you have to complete two on-line entry forms: One, the report of your vaccination status; two a track and trace document - on this form you list your flight, arrival date and seat number. Once you submit the application, you'll get an email with a QR code on it. The information is held securely for 14d then destroyed. You can still travel to Portugal if un-vaccinated but have to conform to specific COVID testing intervals while in country (unless only transiting). When you are tested under these testing protocols, you get an email with result and QR code. On entry to venues, including restaurants, you may be asked to show your vax or testing status. The best proof of vaccination or negative testing is the EU COVID Certificate (QR code kept in a phone app). While I had to show proof of vaccination (my CDC card) and the QR code on paper that I had completed the arrival document as well as my Passport to the airline gate agent on check in, that's the last time I showed the entry form or results of COVID testing. Boarder agent at the entering Lisbon airport asked for passport and proof of vaccination (the CDC card, again). He noted he could not scan the CDC card into a central registry. Apparently that didn't affect our travels in Portugal but could have and suggest health authorities will get stricter as time pases 

While in Portugal, we dined in multiple restaurants and stayed at a hotel in Lisbon both stating they required proof of vaccine to be inside or negative COVID test. I never had these documents checked although it is required to mask indoors and we were reminded by proprietors or staff if we forgot. People following masking rules indoors was particularly noticeable. IOW, compliance rates inside venues appeared to be high.  The mandated indoor masking rule will be dropped on November 1st in Portugal. That is because the vax rate in Portugal for those eligible 12y and up - same as everywhere else - approaches 90%. 99% for over 65s. The 2d we were there, I was told that the entire country had just over 300 new cases reported in the past week, no deaths in several weeks and a percent positivity rate under 1%. When I told that person FL was cheering a drop to 4500 new cases per week and a positivity rate of 11.5%, with around 200 deaths in the state, he was stunned.

On to Switzerland. Entry screening for the Swiss is strict as you'd expect. Boarder agents will not accept the CDC card as proof of vaccination. You have two options: One, apply for a Swiss COVID certificate in advance on-line (hard and I'll get to that) or two, follow the prescribed testing protocol. Either way, there is a Swiss COVID app to record your vaccine or testing status. You must submit an entry document on line. Same as Portugal. Switzerland is not an EU member state. You can apply for a Swiss COVID certificate unlike the EU COVID certificate - only EU citizens can apply for one. Its not hard to submit the application on line. The problem is that the typical French to English translation presents circumstances that do not mean the same thing. For example do you need to have your vaccinations certified by stamp or seal? By an MD or by anyone responsible for administering the vaccine. With multiple emails flowing back and forth between the Swiss Health authorities and me indicating I was being denied even though I thought I submitted all the required documents. My daughter, a Swiss resident, told me to call.

One phone call with an English speaking health agent solved everything and I now have a Swiss COVID Certificate in my Swiss COVID Phone App certifying my vaccine status (Pfizer). Some pointers to applying for the Swiss COVID certificate if you want to go that route to make European travel easier. You have to provide proof you are traveling to Switzerland and spending some time there (how much time I don't know). I sent copies of my flight tickets and said I was visiting my daughter and gave her address in Luasanne. No dates certain just that I was arriving on September 30th. The Pfizer vaccine administration has to be exactly 21d apart. Moderna is at least 4w (28d). Not all vaccines are approved. I think the AZ and J&J vaccines are. Get your vaccination record from a certified registry - forget the CDC card. Certified registries exist in your state and within digital heath records in large health care systems. Mine was from the U of Miami Health Care System. I had my vax record signed and stamped by an Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner (no raised seal required). My two Pfizer shots were 19d apart, not the required 21d. The life saver was my booster that I received on September 15th. That cinched it for my English speaking agent from the Swiss Health Department.  She remarked I was the first US passport applicant for the Swiss COVID certificate to have a booster. Hooray. That I have the Swiss COVID Certificate is a big deal - it's good for a year and works throughout the EU Economic Region (that's everywhere in Europe) as proof of vaccination. That certificate means no quarantines, no testing to enter any European country and no problems entering any venue by showing my Swiss COVID Certificate. Enforcement of the requirement to be vaccinated to enter most venues in Switzerland is legally enforceable on the proprietor by Swiss Public Health authorities. Fines for failure to do that are steep. 

I was fully prepared to show my newly obtained Swiss COVID Certificate to boarder agents upon arrival in Geneva. Instead, we walked off the plane, into the main terminal, got our baggage and went to the train station! No Checks for documents at all! I learned that once you are in the Schengen region and have cleared your first entry point, in our case Portugal, you're done. You can move freely - as far as boarder crossings are concerned - within the Schengen region.

Next stop is Barcelona Spain where we'll board Apex for a 14n translant back to Fort Lauderdale. The easiest and least stressful part of this month long trip ..... as it should be. Readers can scoff at these Vaccination Certificates and requirements to be vaccinated to participate in near normal life but health authorities, at least in Europe, don't care about the myriad reasons people give about why they can't get vaccinated either in Europe or travelers from the US. They are tolerant when there are legitimate reasons present but just because you don't want one in the presence of no legitimate reason doesn't fly. Proof of the value of this approach is found in comparing COVID deaths/100,000 population, new COVID cases and any other metric you might wish to use to measure the impact of COVID between the EU nations with high vax rates, Eastern European nations with low vax rates and the US, somewhere in between explains why Europeans are safely returning to a semblance of normal and places with low vax rates may be returning to "normal" but not without continued viral spread that is hard to control with so many hosts still left to infect who may also develop COVID.

[WAAAYTOOO]

<shudder>

[JLMoran]

Thanks for posting this! Going to bookmark that link you posted, I’m guessing that things won’t have changed much on this front by July of next year, when my family and I fly to Athens and out of Rome two weeks later for our Med cruise.