Jzx1103 Posted January 30, 2022 Report Share Posted January 30, 2022 They call it Omicron BA2. Looks like if you already had Omicron, you will be protected from this version in terms of symptoms. However you can be re-infected and test positive again. This new version also seem to be more transmissible than the original Omicron (which is already very transmissible). 1.5x more transmissible is whats currently reported. This is horrible news, as someone who's already gotten Omicron 3 weeks ago, we originally thought we're safe from testing positive again for our March cruise, but now it looks like we have to suffer through uncertainty again. Feels like at some point, cruiselines will need to take into consideration if someone's already had Covid in the past. There will just be new variants that keeps on coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted January 30, 2022 Report Share Posted January 30, 2022 BA.2 was first discovered in early December. 1.5x more transmissible is noise. It's also an estimate. That kind of estimate is noise. Viruses evolve. They evolve to survive. That's what they become more infectious yet weaker. VoidoftheSeas, Kata and teddy 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted January 30, 2022 Report Share Posted January 30, 2022 I think there’s a problem with the tests as some can’t detect it. There goes The Australian season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted January 30, 2022 Report Share Posted January 30, 2022 The tests can detect it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rad_Dad84 Posted January 30, 2022 Report Share Posted January 30, 2022 US allows you to re-enter the country with a positive Covid test as long as you have a doctor’s note confirming that you are fully recovered and free of symptoms and fever. I know Royal is still voluntarily participating in CDCs conditional sail mandate, but that could be a reasonable compromise since there are so many people testing positive right now. I’m 6 days from embarkation, and more nervous than ever that a positive result will wreck our trip even though none of us are sick. We should probably self quarantine all week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baked Alaska Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 Yawnnnn. teddy, Neesa, Vancity Cruiser and 11 others 8 2 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 I first mentioned this variant (Ba2) about a month ago after reading about its discovery in France (Marseille) by the way this is the OLD variant the newest one that has been discovered is Ba3. You are correct there is going to be a new strain every other month just as has been predicted by the experts for months who have said its here to stay! Do we learn how to live with it or do we lock ourselves away? Like wise do we start a new thread every time a new variant appears because its like groundhog day! Lets throw in a curve ball, if russia escalates its war with Ukraine will Baltic cruises with stops in St Petersburg be cancelled? Will there be a change of port? But more importantly Will the masks we wear need to protect us from covid and poisonous gases? Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoWaits Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 8 hours ago, Baked Alaska said: Yawnnnn. This 100%. About 40% of cases of what has always been known as "the common cold" are caused by strains of coronavirus. Three years ago, you hoped to get over your cold before cruise started so you could fully enjoy the trip.. Now, you have to worry about whether that cold will PREVENT you from cruising. Rad_Dad84, Yesiamthere and WAAAYTOOO 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 Yawn indeed. There's going to be variants. Lots of them. That's the nature of this type of virus. We, as a society, need to stop be so hyper focused on every single one, especially with the prevalence of vaccines and effective treatments. teddy, Rad_Dad84, WAAAYTOOO and 13 others 13 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonOasis Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 39 minutes ago, Matt said: Yawn indeed. There's going to be variants. Lots of them. That's the nature of this type of virus. We, as a society, need to stop be so hyper focused on every single one, especially with the prevalence of vaccines and effective treatments. Yes Yawn. I look forward to the day where they no longer name Covid variants kind of in the same way we no longer name different variants or strains of flu. The flu vaccine is modified every year based on what scientist believe will be the most active strains of that virus. I look forward to the day when that happens to Covid which will continue to mutate. Just modify the vaccine, make it available to the public and keep it moving while leaving the rest up to the individual to choose if they want to take it or not. At this point there is no eradicating Covid, there is no need stopping the world every time a new variant pops up it is time to move forward. BowTieBrigade, Baked Alaska, Rad_Dad84 and 3 others 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jzx1103 Posted January 31, 2022 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 To elaborate my point, I'm no longer afraid of catching Covid in terms of my health. But more so that each new strain will raise the chance of me testing positive again before every cruise I go on. I wonder how long before cruiselines will start treating all these new Covid strains as the common cold. As of right now the most annoying thing with constant new Covid strains popping up is that you don't even really know if you can go on your cruise or not until 2 days before the cruise. People do alot of work to plan their trip, if a positive test keeps stopping them from cruising despite no symptoms, it would eventually cause folks to just plan other kind of trips where they don't have to worry about testing. Okgladgal, Vancity Cruiser, sammy79 and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovetoCruise87 Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 Covid is going to be with us always, just like the flu. And just like the flu there are going to be different variants. I believe that this will eventually be just as common as the common cold. BowTieBrigade and Ray 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWhoWaits Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 58 minutes ago, LovetoCruise87 said: Covid is going to be with us always, just like the flu. And just like the flu there are going to be different variants. I believe that this will eventually be just as common as the common cold. Already is as common as the common cold. Many colds are caused by coronaviruses - that was known before the unusually serious strain known as Covid-19 appeared on the scene. JasonOasis, LovetoCruise87, WAAAYTOOO and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texascruiser Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 3 hours ago, Jzx1103 said: People do alot of work to plan their trip, if a positive test keeps stopping them from cruising despite no symptoms, it would eventually cause folks to just plan other kind of trips where they don't have to worry about testing. We ended up doing this already - were supposed to be on the 2nd sailing of Wonder over spring break. Initially I was really excited, but jumping through all the testing hoops and then getting on board with the possibility of limited Adventure Ocean, not being able to see shows, etc. We cancelled and are driving to the coast instead. We'll sail on Wonder in June and I hope things will be better by then. We cruised with an open mind over Thanksgiving, but having our kids so restricted cramped our vacation too - couldn't even go have a few cocktails after dinner in the evening which was a bummer, and if we aren't going to have a reliable child care option, we'd rather know it going into the trip than be surprised. sammy79 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonOasis Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 55 minutes ago, texascruiser said: We ended up doing this already - were supposed to be on the 2nd sailing of Wonder over spring break. Initially I was really excited, but jumping through all the testing hoops and then getting on board with the possibility of limited Adventure Ocean, not being able to see shows, etc. We cancelled and are driving to the coast instead. We'll sail on Wonder in June and I hope things will be better by then. We cruised with an open mind over Thanksgiving, but having our kids so restricted cramped our vacation too - couldn't even go have a few cocktails after dinner in the evening which was a bummer, and if we aren't going to have a reliable child care option, we'd rather know it going into the trip than be surprised. You might be in for a much more complicated pre-cruise requirement on Wonder of the Seas sailing in June sine Wonder will be sailing from Europe. Depending on when you arrive in Europe you will need to test before arriving in Europe and if you arrive in Europe more than 2 days prior to your set sail date you will then need to test again before boarding Wonder of the Seas. It is unfortunate but unless we see more governments take the same path of the United Kingdom which has ended all pre-arrival testing requirements for fully vaccinated international arrivals then you will still have to jump through testing hoops prior to boarding Wonder of the Seas. Just keep your eyes open as you get closer to your June sailing to see what requirements are in place especially sailing out of Europe. Hopefully Adventure Ocean is back to normal by then and I think the shows will be back to normal by June. On our last cruise in October on Symphony they played every show, I'm on Anthem right now we set sail in a few minutes we will see if they play every show on this cruise. BowTieBrigade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorCruiser Posted January 31, 2022 Report Share Posted January 31, 2022 Once they stop the pre cruise Covid testing, we know we are golden and it has become endemic. Baked Alaska and WAAAYTOOO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffB Posted February 1, 2022 Report Share Posted February 1, 2022 There are two measures that will define the date upon which SARS-CoV2 will no longer disrupt our normal routines, e.g., we can go back to a pre-COVID life that includes lots of cruising: (1) A medical endpoint. Determining this endpoint is the realm of virologist and epidemiologist who deal with the enormous amounts of data that are available to define it globally, nationally and regionally. Regionally, we are very likely already there or very close to it. The several metrics that define disease burden - viral prevalence or percent positives of screening tests and hospital admissions with a COVID diagnosis are examples; regionally and growing beyond that, all those metrics are declining and in some case significantly. There are others. (2) Reduction in the fear of COVID - measures of mobility and economic activity are examples of ways to measure that; again, there are others - a lot of them. Fundamentally, all of these have been on a steady rise for more than 6 months with an almost imperceptible drop with the onset of Omicron. That in itself is revealing. People are coming to grips with the new reality of life with SARS-2 and it does not have to be awful and definatley not as deadly as it first appeared to be. The biggest obstacle to a return to normal routines - COVID fear - also has two sub-components: (1) The reaction of governments as defined by the degree of restrictions to mobility and social interaction placed on their citizens to control the spread of SARS-CoV2 (China is without a doubt the worst, GB better), (2) Our capacity to rationally judge our real risk of exposure to SARS-CoV2 and the development of a serious, life threatening case of COVID. The reality is that it is low and as government agencies and, specific to our interests, cruise companies come to realize this and act on it, we'll start to see a return to operational normalcy. On January 27th, Boris Johnson, the PM of the UK, lifted all COVID restrictions. ALL OF THEM. Of course, he is being assailed by his political opponents as being dangerously irresponsible. He is cheered by UK citizens and has the backing of the NHS - world renowned in providing good stuff wrt SARS-2 and C19. The net impact on UK citizens is that they are going to have to move from the government telling them what their risks are to making those kinds of decisions themselves. Many countries are headed in that direction, Spain and Portugal are notable practitioners of that approach. We're headed in the right direction. It's going to take time to recover from the fall-out of the Pandemic worsened by the media's constant fear narrative and government's, often inappropriately over- reacting to it. A lot of that movement is going to be changing people's minds about risks - never an easy undertaking. We'll get there. Meanwhile approach your cruise planning like you're going to cruise. Period. Final. Once you've done that go for it and let the chips fall where they may. That's not to say throw caution to the wind. Back-up plans these days are important and if you've formulated them you should cruise with confidence. texascruiser, BowTieBrigade, Yesiamthere and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KWofPerth Posted February 1, 2022 Report Share Posted February 1, 2022 Vax and chill. Baked Alaska, Pooch, SemperMom and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Posted February 1, 2022 Report Share Posted February 1, 2022 14 hours ago, JeffB said: On January 27th, Boris Johnson, the PM of the UK, lifted all COVID restrictions. ALL OF THEM. Of course, he is being assailed by his political opponents as being dangerously irresponsible. He is cheered by UK citizens and has the backing of the NHS - Its hard to tell people what to do and expect them to obey when you are being investigated by the police for breaking the rules you set!!! So what do you do? You just get rid of all the rules.... Boris is cheered by UK citizens? Make that JEERED...even by his own political party. Full backing of the NHS? Try asking doctors and nurses who worked tirelessly throughout lockdown while Boris was having garden parties, birthday parties and even a leaving party for one of his staff the night BEFORE Prince Phillips funeral, thats the one where the Queen due to restrictions had to sit all alone yet her elected prime minister was having a knees up in his house less than 24hrs before. He doesnt have the backing of UK and removal of restrictions was because no one gives a F"c€ anymore to what he says! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texascruiser Posted February 2, 2022 Report Share Posted February 2, 2022 On 1/31/2022 at 3:04 PM, JasonOasis said: You might be in for a much more complicated pre-cruise requirement on Wonder of the Seas sailing in June sine Wonder will be sailing from Europe. Depending on when you arrive in Europe you will need to test before arriving in Europe and if you arrive in Europe more than 2 days prior to your set sail date you will then need to test again before boarding Wonder of the Seas. It is unfortunate but unless we see more governments take the same path of the United Kingdom which has ended all pre-arrival testing requirements for fully vaccinated international arrivals then you will still have to jump through testing hoops prior to boarding Wonder of the Seas. Just keep your eyes open as you get closer to your June sailing to see what requirements are in place especially sailing out of Europe. Yeah, I kind of anticipate that, at least how things stand of today. It doesn't bother me much to test pre-Europe and pre-cruise, I work in diagnostic testing. It's a hoop, we jump through it. We all just got through a bout of Omicron, 3/4 of us were vaccinated and the last one will be in a few weeks. If for some reason we would be denied boarding, we made sure to get travel insurance to help deal with it. We are fortunate enough to have Star class for our June booking so that will alleviate constraints on show availability to us. It was a bummer to try to watch the Oasis show from Deck 12 in November and see at least 60% of seats in the Aqua Theater sitting empty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted February 2, 2022 Report Share Posted February 2, 2022 Scandinavian countries also lifted most restrictions. Now Israel is as well. WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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