Information : Parents Traveling with unvaccinated kids

[svcruiser]

Ship: Symphony of the Seas
Date: Nov 6th departure
Days: 7 nights

1) IMPORTANT: You could only book a shore excursion through RCB. You will not be allowed to get off the ship without excursion tickets if traveling with the kids. The adults can step outside without kids. 
2) meeting point of the excursion with kids will be different from the gangway
3) Kids will be tested on the day of departure at the port ( and possibly one more time before the return)
4) Email registration link will be sent out prior to the day of the departure to register unvaccinated kids for the covid antigen test at the port
5) You will be asked to wait in the designated area until kids' test result comes out negative
6) if kids are expected to test again due to the length of the cruise, look for a link in the app or in-room flyer on day 3
7) book an appointment early in the morning (like 7 AM).  Result of antigen test during the extended cruise won't be available right away; call guess service after 1 hr to confirm you can get off the ship.
9) Kids will not be allowed in specific locations of the ship (e.g. Symphony didn't allow kids in the Solarium area)
10) book all the shows in advance as limited seats are available due to social distancing
11) Kids' adventure ocean activities are limited. Check their schedule on day 1. We were able to drop kids a couple of times for 2-3 hours.
12) no babysitting available 
13) Kids are allowed in the pool and most other areas of the ship. Mask is required indoors
14) Have fun; there are certainly few restrictions or workarounds, but the overall experience is still enjoyable.. so if you are thinking of postponing your cruise due to Covid restrictions, it may not be necessary - IMO. 

 

[Matt]

Thanks for sharing your experience

[Momof4crazytocruise]

Thanks for this. However, after traveling last week without the kids on Liberty, we were pretty discouraged by what we saw as far as how the kids were being treated. We have a cruise scheduled for March, and our youngest will still be ineligible for vaccination - so we are likely to cancel unless protocols change. In addition to the perception of the 'dirty, dirty unvaccinated people' restrictions, in general the children on our cruise were looked on as lepers and with disgust by many of the other traveling guests - I will NOT be putting my children through that. We asked around to some of the moms on the ship with kids, and I was very disappointed to hear what the experience has been like for their kids. So, we'll wait. 

[wannabecruiseexpert]

1 hour ago, Momof4crazytocruise said:

Thanks for this. However, after traveling last week without the kids on Liberty, we were pretty discouraged by what we saw as far as how the kids were being treated. We have a cruise scheduled for March, and our youngest will still be ineligible for vaccination - so we are likely to cancel unless protocols change. In addition to the perception of the 'dirty, dirty unvaccinated people' restrictions, in general the children on our cruise were looked on as lepers and with disgust by many of the other traveling guests - I will NOT be putting my children through that. We asked around to some of the moms on the ship with kids, and I was very disappointed to hear what the experience has been like for their kids. So, we'll wait. 

This makes me sad! Not something we experienced with our little one but for anyone - especially kids - to be ostracized makes me really sad!  

[IzzyB]

This is really good information.  I have 3 kids (4,6,&10) and only two of them for obvious reasons will be fully vaxed by the time we cruise in December.  We did book excursions and I was aware about the extra testing and not being allowed in the one pool area.  I was planning on trying to see what shows to expect based on uploaded Compass once Harmony gets back into the US and starts to sail here.  That way I know exactly what I want to reserve as soon as we get on the ship I plan to do that.  We have a 12pm check in time, should we show up earlier to start the testing process?  Do they test then check in?  Hoping with only 1 kid things will go faster.

The end of the cruise test our last day is CocoCay so that is the one I am most concerned about, but I can send my husband and other two kids to go ahead and snorkle since my son won't be snorkling.  I am hoping to use the kid center for a couple adult comedy shows and maybe a relaxing hour or two by the pool.  I imagine most of the time they will want to be with us doing activities on the ship.

Did your kids enjoy the Adventure Club?  It will be interesting when we go since kids 5+ can be vaccinated so I wonder if they will allow vaccinated to no longer social distance in the adventure club.  It will be several weeks into when kids 5+ can be fully vaxed.  I can't imagine I am the only one who got my kids vaxed in preparation for the cruise.

I am not concerned about how people look at me or my kids.  My son is 4 I doubt they will bother him and honestly I just don't care.  I have had a handicapped son before and my daughter had to wear a midsection cast for 16 months.  Like people look and my family knows to ignore and knows it is those people's issue not us.  And I mean even prior to Covid most people thought 4 year olds were germ factories lol

[GatorCruiser]

52 minutes ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

This makes me sad! Not something we experienced with our little one but for anyone - especially kids - to be ostracized makes me really sad!  

Agreed on this. It’s unfortunate that some adults may have looked down their noses at the children. If they are vaccinated (the adults) they should have nothing to be concerned about especially since the children are required to have negative Covid tests prior to boarding even with one administered in the terminal prior to embarkation. I guess some people forget what it’s like to have kids. I’ll be sailing on March for my boys spring break and they’ll be vaxxed by then so no snobbery abound 

[MattG]

Thank you for sharing. We're cruising on Anthem in 3 weeks with 3 kids (2, 3.5, and 5) and i'm a bit anxious about kids activities. Part of me wishes we had booked on Oasis earlier in the season because of the more kid-friendly activities (Splashaway Bay, Aquatheater, Studio B, Central Park, etc) but hey, we'll make the best with what we're given!

 

I'm also curious of the kids experiences in Adventure Ocean...

[svcruiser]

Just to provide additional context in reference to few questions asked by @MattG@IzzyB

We have a 12pm check in time, should we show up earlier to start the testing process?

Yes. our checking time was 2:00pm, and we showed up at 1:00. It shouldn't be a problem. 

Do they test then check in? 

before you enter into the cruise terminal, they will verify your tickets, vaccine status. Parents with unvaccinated kids are redirected to another location where there are temporary tents setup to perform antigen test. Part of the process, 1st they will verify kids names/details and than direct you to technician for the antigen test. Once, test is complete you will join back vaccinated people to complete final boarding check-in process and security. After clearing through security (just like airport TSA) you will be asked to wait in a designated seating area. Your result will be delivered by email, so make sure your phone is fully charged. Typical turnaround for the result is about 1 hr. If you still haven't received the result ask attendant to give a call to the lab people and confirm your status. You will only be allowed to proceed further post negative result. Though, I'm not aware of anyone who tested positive and denied the boarding. 

 

The end of the cruise test our last day is CocoCay so that is the one I am most concerned about...

You could book your appointment as early as 6 AM. I didn't feel like waking up that early so booked an appointment for 7:10 AM. Link to booking is in the app if you look at on day 1 (if I recall it was under health and safety section) or you could wait until Day 3 when they provide QR code to register for the appointment. Please make sure you call the front desk to confirm you result after 1 hr. We called around 9:30 and were cleared to get down. Official test result in the email came around 1:00pm...!! so don't wait.. call fornt desk after 1 hour.

I am hoping to use the kid center for a couple adult comedy shows.... Did your kids enjoy the Adventure Club? 

In our group we had 5 kids, from age 3 to age 8. I would say  Kids were not extremely impressed with adventure club mainly because it appears that they have cutdown on number of activities and modified over all experience to maintained social distancing. Though, it's not like they will not enjoy at all!! Just need to lower the expectations a bit.  There are three time slots to pick from - AM, afternoon and late evening. Depending upon time slots they offer different activities by age group. In our case we picked up afternoon time slot 2:30-5:00 during day at sea. Typically, they would have theater shows and other fun activities but it seems like they ended up doing mostly crafts and quizzes. (each time slots offer different type of activities) 1st day review from kids was..... Bad. 2nd day -- they had a great time, want to go back again!!! so go figure

one thing I suggest is to visit adventure club on day 1 and register your kids. This will also allow you to plan for other shows/activities accordingly. Curiseline is not offering any type of babysitting during night hours. We figured out that our kids ones go to sleep don't wake up so turned on video call and left one of the phone in the room to monitor!

i'm a bit anxious about kids activities...

Kids (unvaccinated) are allowed in all pool areas and water slides, there is no special covid related restriction. (and that's kind of strange why they have restrictions at other places but guess it is by CDC rules)

 

Over all, Adults and kids all had a great time together. As long as you don't mind few minor inconveniences..you should be OK!!  

 

[svcruiser]

On 11/16/2021 at 3:32 PM, Momof4crazytocruise said:

 In addition to the perception of the 'dirty, dirty unvaccinated people' restrictions, in general the children on our cruise were looked on as lepers and with disgust by many of the other traveling guests - I will NOT be putting my children through that. 

sorry to hear that.. our experience was way different and everyone provided necessary space to kids for being kids!!! I would say we had close to 50+ families with young unvaccinated kids and lot more teenage vaccinated kids.

[MattG]

1 hour ago, svcruiser said:

Just to provide additional context in reference to few questions asked by @MattG@IzzyB

We have a 12pm check in time, should we show up earlier to start the testing process?

Yes. our checking time was 2:00pm, and we showed up at 1:00. It shouldn't be a problem. 

Do they test then check in? 

before you enter into the cruise terminal, they will verify your tickets, vaccine status. Parents with unvaccinated kids are redirected to another location where there are temporary tents setup to perform antigen test. Part of the process, 1st they will verify kids names/details and than direct you to technician for the antigen test. Once, test is complete you will join back vaccinated people to complete final boarding check-in process and security. After clearing through security (just like airport TSA) you will be asked to wait in a designated seating area. Your result will be delivered by email, so make sure your phone is fully charged. Typical turnaround for the result is about 1 hr. If you still haven't received the result ask attendant to give a call to the lab people and confirm your status. You will only be allowed to proceed further post negative result. Though, I'm not aware of anyone who tested positive and denied the boarding. 

 

The end of the cruise test our last day is CocoCay so that is the one I am most concerned about...

You could book your appointment as early as 6 AM. I didn't feel like waking up that early so booked an appointment for 7:10 AM. Link to booking is in the app if you look at on day 1 (if I recall it was under health and safety section) or you could wait until Day 3 when they provide QR code to register for the appointment. Please make sure you call the front desk to confirm you result after 1 hr. We called around 9:30 and were cleared to get down. Official test result in the email came around 1:00pm...!! so don't wait.. call fornt desk after 1 hour.

I am hoping to use the kid center for a couple adult comedy shows.... Did your kids enjoy the Adventure Club? 

In our group we had 5 kids, from age 3 to age 8. I would say  Kids were not extremely impressed with adventure club mainly because it appears that they have cutdown on number of activities and modified over all experience to maintained social distancing. Though, it's not like they will not enjoy at all!! Just need to lower the expectations a bit.  There are three time slots to pick from - AM, afternoon and late evening. Depending upon time slots they offer different activities by age group. In our case we picked up afternoon time slot 2:30-5:00 during day at sea. Typically, they would have theater shows and other fun activities but it seems like they ended up doing mostly crafts and quizzes. (each time slots offer different type of activities) 1st day review from kids was..... Bad. 2nd day -- they had a great time, want to go back again!!! so go figure

one thing I suggest is to visit adventure club on day 1 and register your kids. This will also allow you to plan for other shows/activities accordingly. Curiseline is not offering any type of babysitting during night hours. We figured out that our kids ones go to sleep don't wake up so turned on video call and left one of the phone in the room to monitor!

i'm a bit anxious about kids activities...

Kids (unvaccinated) are allowed in all pool areas and water slides, there is no special covid related restriction. (and that's kind of strange why they have restrictions at other places but guess it is by CDC rules)

 

Over all, Adults and kids all had a great time together. As long as you don't mind few minor inconveniences..you should be OK!!  

 

Thank you for this! 

[Flowrider]

On 11/16/2021 at 12:32 PM, Momof4crazytocruise said:

Thanks for this. However, after traveling last week without the kids on Liberty, we were pretty discouraged by what we saw as far as how the kids were being treated. We have a cruise scheduled for March, and our youngest will still be ineligible for vaccination - so we are likely to cancel unless protocols change. In addition to the perception of the 'dirty, dirty unvaccinated people' restrictions, in general the children on our cruise were looked on as lepers and with disgust by many of the other traveling guests - I will NOT be putting my children through that. We asked around to some of the moms on the ship with kids, and I was very disappointed to hear what the experience has been like for their kids. So, we'll wait. 

This is really surprising.  We’ve cruise with our 4 children on the Adventure, Independence, and Symphony this year.  Zero problems and had a ton of fun.  The crew treated them like family and we all can’t wait to go back. Also other families were plentiful…. We’ve got Liberty booked in Jan.  

[Neesa]

Sadly we found this to be true on the Adventure in June. Our daughter was given a RED band at the time "the band of the unvaxed" We were treated as lepers especially by our dining team. The service was non existent, even though they wore masks and we all had negative Covid tests minutes before stepping on board and days before as well. Let's just say it was not a nice experience. The crazy thing was the servers stood so far from the table they practically tossed our plates it was all very dramatic yet the dining tables were nearly on top of each other when there was room to spread out more, strange It was a weird dynamic and some other passengers dramatically covered their faces with their arms or tucked their head in the top of their shirt, or even a cloth napkin they took from the dining room it seemed! We just ignored the behaviors and made the best of it.

We always had the elevator by ourselves though, as soon as the band was in view it was ours! 

[GKMCruising]

After taking my 2 year old daughter on Ovation in September, I definitely saw a little of both sides here.

 

We did have some passengers that were less than happy about her being onboard. I heard one person in the Windjammer commenting that he didn't understand why anyone that young was even allowed on board and why you'd want to bring a toddler on a cruise in the first place. We also had a couple of people definitely opt for the next elevator because they didn't want to be in one with a small kid.

That said, most passengers didn't care at all and interacted with her (and us) just like normal. The staff *definitely* didn't treat us like second-class citizens, as you can see. The only real issue with staff was when we were trying to get off for excursions and one of the guys working the desk didn't understand how the system worked when her card beeped for "not allowed to debark", as they have to manually override and note which excursion you're on.

[ChessE4]

Love your photos.  A bit of digression about kids.  We took our son years ago when he was four, and I managed to lose him in a rest room at the pool deck (there were two exits)!  It's great to see proud parents on a cruise, and we find Royal's family focus a plus.  Our next cruise is in February, and we aren't quite sure what the passenger mix will be, but we are hoping for the best.

[DunkelBierJay]

On 11/16/2021 at 2:32 PM, Momof4crazytocruise said:

Thanks for this. However, after traveling last week without the kids on Liberty, we were pretty discouraged by what we saw as far as how the kids were being treated. We have a cruise scheduled for March, and our youngest will still be ineligible for vaccination - so we are likely to cancel unless protocols change. In addition to the perception of the 'dirty, dirty unvaccinated people' restrictions, in general the children on our cruise were looked on as lepers and with disgust by many of the other traveling guests - I will NOT be putting my children through that. We asked around to some of the moms on the ship with kids, and I was very disappointed to hear what the experience has been like for their kids. So, we'll wait. 

This saddens me beyond belief...thank you for sharing this

[Ampurp85]

I don't understand people who behave like that to children. I am sure in their everyday life they come across many unvaxxed. If you are doing what you need to stay healthy, it shouldn't matter. 

[fireclan]

54 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I don't understand people who behave like that to children. I am sure in their everyday life they come across many unvaxxed. If you are doing what you need to stay healthy, it shouldn't matter. 

I agree...I don't understand people who behave like that based on what someone's relationship is with a current pharmaceutical.

[amcooper]

Disney Cruise Lines announced today that they will require customers ages 5 and older to be fully vaccinated starting Jan. 13. I would be surprised if the other cruise lines don't follow suit. 

[VolantTraveler]

Haha. I can only imagine what runs through their heads when the elevator door opens and they meet my half-vaxxed, masked, wide-eyed 5 year olds. "Oh, yuck...unvaccinated kids. Why do people choose to bring these things on MY cruise and put ME at risk of catching COVID and getting sick and possibly dying. There is no way I'm getting on an elevator with you".  What's going thru my kids' minds: "What a strange reaction - why were they so disgusted when they saw us"? Me: "Don't pay them any mind - they are out of theirs".

We won't let you get in the way of our having fun - have a nice day.

[barbeyg]

Some people act like jerks on cruise ships (or any vacation) for a myriad of reasons, and this must just be their latest thing to go off about.  Sorry for those of you who have had to encounter it, and I hope you shook it off and had a great time despite them.  

[teddy]

The association of kids=unvaccinated never crossed our mind when we were on Freedom.  Maybe it’s because all three of ours are full-fledged adults and we miss the younger years?
 

There were a lot of kids on the fri-mon sailing.   It was neat to see the excitement. 

[IzzyB]

51 minutes ago, barbeyg said:

Some people act like jerks on cruise ships (or any vacation) for a myriad of reasons, and this must just be their latest thing to go off about.  Sorry for those of you who have had to encounter it, and I hope you shook it off and had a great time despite them.  

This.  We go to a resort that some older people are amazing with the kids and other ones wish we didn't exist and this was long before Covid.  I feel like saying to them, "weren't you a kids once?" or "didn't you have young kids once?"  Like I have every right to be in this pool lol  My kids are well behaved so typically anyone that gives us that look or whisper loosen up.  We also get that look at nicer restaurants.  I am like what?  We aren't allowed to have nicer meals once we have kids?  But we also get a TON of comments from people about how refreshing it is to see well behaved kids and most that give us that stink eye also tend to say those things at the end of their meal.  My guess if they have had bad experiences with kids and so they tend to brace for the worse.

[Matt]

I’ve said it before, but I’ve been annoyed by far more many adults (many inebriated) than kids on a cruise ship. 

[AlohaLivin]

On 11/17/2021 at 10:00 PM, svcruiser said:

sorry to hear that.. our experience was way different and everyone provided necessary space to kids for being kids!!! I would say we had close to 50+ families with young unvaccinated kids and lot more teenage vaccinated kids.

We also have not seen or heard anything onboard either the Symphony or Allure the last 2 weeks to suggest a bias against families or children in either action or speech (and most certainly nothing of the kind of highly negative commentary suggested by the phrase “dirty, dirty unvaccinated people”). Who knows what people perceive, but I have seen zero evidence (with ships full of children and with a number of families with multiple young children in the CK on both sailings) that there is any discrimination against families with kids. Yes, there are areas of separation since the younger children will not have been vaccinated, but I haven’t seen any indication that it was done with any derision or prejudice (much less malice).