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Norwegian drops testing for vaccinated passengers


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https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/27996-norwegian-cruise-line-drops-pre-voyage-covid-19-testing.html

Subject to local destination rules Norwegian is dropping pre cruise testing for all passengers who are fully vacinated from September

Expect the other lines will follow their lead

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30 minutes ago, Mike.s said:

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/27996-norwegian-cruise-line-drops-pre-voyage-covid-19-testing.html

Subject to local destination rules Norwegian is dropping pre cruise testing for all passengers who are fully vacinated from September

Expect the other lines will follow their lead

Hopefully... but on the other hand, NCL dropped pre cruise testing out of Europe in July, but RCL still requires it.

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I bet the testing requirements for everyone are gone by October or November.  I was thinking they might wait until the first of the year, but now I doubt it, the other lines will follow suit and drop all testing for any vaccinated on any length of cruise, I bet on the 15th or whenever RC was supposed to announce again.

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13 minutes ago, Bowen said:

I bet the testing requirements for everyone are gone by October or November.  I was thinking they might wait until the first of the year, but now I doubt it, the other lines will follow suit and drop all testing for any vaccinated on any length of cruise, I bet on the 15th or whenever RC was supposed to announce again.

Testing for unvaccinated will be a while with so many countries still requiring it

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8 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Testing for unvaccinated will be a while with so many countries still requiring it

Yes, sorry, I am just referring to US ports. I tend to think US since I never cruise out of other countries. We were supposed to starting in 2020, but....

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22 minutes ago, DublinFC said:

This is exciting news!  I have already started looking at replacing our RC sailing for next May with a cruise on NCL.  Pricing, even with the FCC we have would be close when we add in the drink packages we have to buy with RC.  Not doing anything yet, but I am glad to know we have this option now.

Next May is a long time away as far as protocols go. If you look backwards 9 months and where the industry was then is nothing like where it is now. NCL was 100% vaccinated (no one under the age of approved vaccines was allowed to sail) and they were testing everyone at the terminal on embarkation day. Royal had vax and unvax zones. Masks were required everywhere onboard. 

Hopefully by next May there will be zero restrictions and we will all be cruising in harmony. 

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Be sure to check the port/country COVID restrictions.  NCL currently says AFTER September 3rd, unvaccinated guests 12 and older will not be able to board ships to Bermuda, Canada and Grand Cayman.  Vaccinated guests 12 and older will still need negative COVID test results within 2 days of embarkation.  Those are host country restrictions. 

 

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28 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

Next May is a long time away as far as protocols go. If you look backwards 9 months and where the industry was then is nothing like where it is now. NCL was 100% vaccinated (no one under the age of approved vaccines was allowed to sail) and they were testing everyone at the terminal on embarkation day. Royal had vax and unvax zones. Masks were required everywhere onboard. 

Hopefully by next May there will be zero restrictions and we will all be cruising in harmony. 

I 100% agree to with you here.  We have until the end of February for our final payment date.  So IF Royal doesn't make a change then we have another option as long as NCL doesn't revert back to 100% vax requirements. 

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I'd almost rather have all the cruise lines go to 100% testing for everyone regardless of Vaccine status and here is why. Some of these vaccines shots taking by individuals can be very old by now, over a year old and efficacy rate could be close 0%, Then you have the 4 and 5 shot crowd and their efficacy rate is varying depending on a whole set of factors that I'm not going to get into. If the goal is to keep Covid off the ship, with the highest chance of success, the only way to do that is test 2-3 days prior to have as best of a baseline as you can have. We all know that this is not 100% guaranteed but it seems the easiest way to make it work. We are just going to have to learn to live with this virus always knowing it is present.

I type this as I sit here with Covid coming back from a vacation at the South Carolina beaches. I had my shots, and boosted, but the little beast got me anyways. It didn't matter how many shots I have had because there is no meter on my body that tells me my day-to-day efficacy rate of the shots in my body...today you are at 05% left on your shot status - oh no better get another one. It becomes an exercise in chasing your own tail.

I can say having a summer sickness is the worst way to end a vacation and it has truly over stayed its welcome. I had to take another 40 hours off from work, which I didn't want to do, and I have to wear a mask at work 😷 when I do go back because I'm typhoid Mary. Can't say I blame my co-workers this coughing doesn't sound good - ugh!

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It's not entirely accurate to state that NCL has dropped vax requirements.  They have simply pushed the onus to be compliant with destinations onto their guests.  Look at the fine print highlighted in blue.  That is their highlighting and that is their emphasis that "Guests may be denied boarding if all country specific requirements are not not met".

image.jpeg.6c9efe886d686580f556d4f26cb373b1.jpeg

 

So basically if you are unvax you are free to book a cruise with NCL but when you go to check in at the terminal if you are not compliant with any country specific requirements for that cruise you may be denied boarding.  

They are shifting the onus to ensure a passenger meets the destination requirements to the guest.  

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3 hours ago, VACruiser said:

I'd almost rather have all the cruise lines go to 100% testing for everyone regardless of Vaccine status and here is why. Some of these vaccines shots taking by individuals can be very old by now, over a year old and efficacy rate could be close 0%, Then you have the 4 and 5 shot crowd and their efficacy rate is varying depending on a whole set of factors that I'm not going to get into. If the goal is to keep Covid off the ship, with the highest chance of success, the only way to do that is test 2-3 days prior to have as best of a baseline as you can have. We all know that this is not 100% guaranteed but it seems the easiest way to make it work. We are just going to have to learn to live with this virus always knowing it is present.

I type this as I sit here with Covid coming back from a vacation at the South Carolina beaches. I had my shots, and boosted, but the little beast got me anyways. It didn't matter how many shots I have had because there is no meter on my body that tells me my day-to-day efficacy rate of the shots in my body...today you are at 05% left on your shot status - oh no better get another one. It becomes an exercise in chasing your own tail.

I can say having a summer sickness is the worst way to end a vacation and it has truly over stayed its welcome. I had to take another 40 hours off from work, which I didn't want to do, and I have to wear a mask at work 😷 when I do go back because I'm typhoid Mary. Can't say I blame my co-workers this coughing doesn't sound good - ugh!

Wow...conflicted much ?

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4 hours ago, VACruiser said:

I'd almost rather have all the cruise lines go to 100% testing for everyone regardless of Vaccine status and here is why. Some of these vaccines shots taking by individuals can be very old by now, over a year old and efficacy rate could be close 0%, Then you have the 4 and 5 shot crowd and their efficacy rate is varying depending on a whole set of factors that I'm not going to get into. If the goal is to keep Covid off the ship, with the highest chance of success, the only way to do that is test 2-3 days prior to have as best of a baseline as you can have. We all know that this is not 100% guaranteed but it seems the easiest way to make it work. We are just going to have to learn to live with this virus always knowing it is present.

I type this as I sit here with Covid coming back from a vacation at the South Carolina beaches. I had my shots, and boosted, but the little beast got me anyways. It didn't matter how many shots I have had because there is no meter on my body that tells me my day-to-day efficacy rate of the shots in my body...today you are at 05% left on your shot status - oh no better get another one. It becomes an exercise in chasing your own tail.

I can say having a summer sickness is the worst way to end a vacation and it has truly over stayed its welcome. I had to take another 40 hours off from work, which I didn't want to do, and I have to wear a mask at work 😷 when I do go back because I'm typhoid Mary. Can't say I blame my co-workers this coughing doesn't sound good - ugh!

Testing isn't the answer and testing doesn't stop covid because in incubation period for covid according to the CDC is now up to 14 days. During that incubation period an individual can still test negative.  I don't know how long your vacation was in South Carolina but it is entirely possible that you had covid prior to the start of your vacation but were in the incubation period and developed symptoms as your vacation was winding down. This can and is happening on cruises there is no such thing as keeping covid off cruise ships the Delta variant was proof of that and vaccines were fresh when Delta swept through,.  Then came Omicron which left a slew of infected individuals and now we have the BA5 variant. What do all of these variants have in common they all found their way onto cruise ships despite cruise lines requiring all passengers over the age of 2 to present a negative Covid test and requiring adults over the age of 12 be fully vaccinated.

The idea that testing and vaccines will keep Covid off cruise ships has already been dispelled, and Royal will do away with the vaccine requirement just as soon as more destinations drop their vaccine mandates.

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33 minutes ago, JasonOasis said:

Testing isn't the answer and testing doesn't stop covid because in incubation period for covid according to the CDC is now up to 14 days

Actually it's 2-4 days now. 14 was the original strain.

But the problem is the antigen tests are giving a lot more false negatives than they did pre-omicron

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Just let everyone cruise. I really do not care if COVID positive peeps are on the ship or not - hint hint they are already on every cruise. As long as the bars are open...  

People with colds and other communicable diseases have always been allowed to cruise. A woman ,in the casino, was coughing up a lung for hours the other day. Didn't slow me down at all.

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15 hours ago, Swar said:

Just let everyone cruise. I really do not care if COVID positive peeps are on the ship or not - hint hint they are already on every cruise. As long as the bars are open...  

People with colds and other communicable diseases have always been allowed to cruise. A woman ,in the casino, was coughing up a lung for hours the other day. Didn't slow me down at all.

I totally agree with your assessment and would love to see that happen; BUT, in this environment I think the cruise lines will take a very conservative approach like we are starting to see now. Cruise lines get the microscope on them as a vacation industry more than any of the other vacation venues. And, those headlines kill the industry so that is the reason they will be very conservative.

As you can tell in this blog site alone there are many strong feelings on the way forward. If you bring up an idea, even what I would consider benign, lots of people get offended by the mere mention of an idea that may not be mainstream.

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21 hours ago, Swar said:

Just let everyone cruise. I really do not care if COVID positive peeps are on the ship or not - hint hint they are already on every cruise. As long as the bars are open...  

People with colds and other communicable diseases have always been allowed to cruise. A woman ,in the casino, was coughing up a lung for hours the other day. Didn't slow me down at all.

I agree with you to a point. I honestly don't care who is vaxxed and who is not but I do feel that people who are sick should not be cruising. A woman coughing up a lung wouldn't slow me down either, it would speed me up to get the hell away from her!

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20 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

I agree with you to a point. I honestly don't care who is vaxxed and who is not but I do feel that people who are sick should not be cruising. A woman coughing up a lung wouldn't slow me down either, it would speed me up to get the hell away from her!

There are many reasons to be coughing up a lung (as unpleasant as it is to be around) that wouldn't mean she's infectious with anything.

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7 hours ago, VACruiser said:

I totally agree with your assessment and would love to see that happen; BUT, in this environment I think the cruise lines will take a very conservative approach like we are starting to see now. Cruise lines get the microscope on them as a vacation industry more than any of the other vacation venues. And, those headlines kill the industry so that is the reason they will be very conservative.

 

Totally agree with this!

I'm all for restrictions being lifted everywhere and just getting on with life but it's not that easy for companies such as RC etc.

They have to follow lots of differing regulations for numerous countries.

 They also know that the first serious outbreak onboard will result in a lot of negative press and a lot of potential lawsuits! 

Thats why it's baby steps first, yes it will upset some who have to pay extra for tests etc but as a company RC have to think about themselves first especially when they know the sharks will be circling. 

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1 hour ago, Ray said:

 They also know that the first serious outbreak onboard will result in a lot of negative press and a lot of potential lawsuits!

This is an interesting point. I wonder how much of their restrictions are due to the American 'sue first' mentality. This has to be the reason behind all the confusing and convoluted requirements. Its all for covering their ass.

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33 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

This is an interesting point. I wonder how much of their restrictions are due to the American 'sue first' mentality. This has to be the reason behind all the confusing and convoluted requirements. Its all for covering their ass.

I think knots more about staying in business and avoiding bad PR than it is CYA

They can cover themselves legally just fine with verbiage in the contract 

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52 minutes ago, twangster said:

Royal has a lot of data regarding how many positive cases are being caught with pre-cruise testing.  If it was trivial they wouldn't think twice about eliminating testing.  

I think it's simpler than that. Vax rules changed when cdc vax guidance changed. If the cdc eases congregate setting testing guidance in the near term like they say they're doing, I bet rc then changes testing rules to align. 

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I have to say RCG is not as "desperate" as the other lines, so I can see why they are the hold out. Many, *cough* all, of the ones that have eliminated testing have lots of caveats. I think Royal wants to avoid any confusion. Until the ports say, "yes come one, come all," there will be quite a bit of "if, ands and buts."

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12 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I have to say RCG is not as "desperate" as the other lines, so I can see why they are the hold out. Many, *cough* all, of the ones that have eliminated testing have lots of caveats. I think Royal wants to avoid any confusion. Until the ports say, "yes come one, come all," there will be quite a bit of "if, ands and buts."

Port country rules aren't dictating testing though (other than Bermuda/Canada), just vaccines.

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One of the many interesting converstations on the Independence this week.  Great guy nestled next to me at one of the bars after dinner.  Side note, we weren't enjoying the very LIMITED selection of bourbon on board (Gentlemen Jack, Buffalo Trace, Wild Turkey, Makers Mark...please....it's almost insulting).  Had a good conversation about all of "this".....he had just finished a gluttonous Chops meal, I     didn't see him there, but we did too.  It was over the top, too much food, yet still managed dessert....why?  Why not?!?  So we collected ourselves to drink at a bar and fellowship a bit.  He was coughing some and told me why, so he got up to go get a smoke and basically said...."The flood gates are open, the toothpast is out of the tube, water is flowing over the dike, the levee is busting, RCCL employees on board are completely confused, the people in the Bahamas in the marektplace have NO CLUE what the problem is, Coco Cay is a different world than ships"....this is paraphrased of course.  Point is......it's over.  The protocols are dropping it's all about PR management.  It will happen fast now you can't stop it.  Sorry, it's invevitable....not like Thanos inevitable....but still it's happening soon.

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14 hours ago, twangster said:

Anyone surprised Royal is last?

 

14 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

They managed to be first and last at the same time

I don't think we're being fair to Royal. At the time, we all celebrated them getting ahead of other lines in announcing it.

Fast forward a couple days and other lines have announced more. I think the writing is on the wall that Royal will match.  And since the new policies for all of these lines don't kick in until early September, there's plenty of runway to amend the policy.

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21 minutes ago, Matt said:

 

I don't think we're being fair to Royal. At the time, we all celebrated them getting ahead of other lines in announcing it.

Fast forward a couple days and other lines have announced more. I think the writing is on the wall that Royal will match.  And since the new policies for all of these lines don't kick in until early September, there's plenty of runway to amend the policy.

Royal was first to make an announcement... that led to confusion and more questions than answers.  We've seen that play out here on the boards.  

Some of the other cruises lines haven't been completely transparent in their announcements while once again the usual suspect blew it wide open.  

In time Royal may prove to be have the best approach but as the CDC has all but given up and universally removed protocols that has left Royal as the only cruise line in the industry still keeping its protocols.  Speaking as an investor as well as a cruiser it does make me wonder what Royal is doing while the rest of industry and the CDC have moved forward.  

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