Norwegian dropping vaccine requirements

[DFII]

I can only hope Disney follows soon. Would love to get back on the ships!

Here are the Norwegian changes:

Key fleetwide protocols changes, subject to local regulations, effective September 3, 2022 include:​

• Vaccinated guests aged 12 and older will no longer have any pre-cruise COVID-19 related protocols
• Unvaccinated guests, aged 12 and older, or those who cannot or decline to provide proof of vaccination, will need to present a negative medically administered PCR or Antigen COVID-19 test taken no more than 72 hours prior to boarding
• Guests aged 11 and under will not be subject to vaccination requirements or testing protocols of any kind
• Vaccinated guests must meet the generally-accepted definition of “fully vaccinated” based on the destination they are embarking and/or traveling to and must provide proof of vaccination

 

[Jhondy]

Interesting. I’m curious to see how it goes as it doesn’t seem like the vaccine or testing is slowing Covid from spreading on ships.

 

[dcassetta]

Key fleetwide protocols changes, subject to local regulations, effective September 3, 2022 include:

This is probably the key statement. Cruise lines will have to navigate the requirements of the ports they visit.

 

[Disneychick13]

Seems reasonable. Hopefully other lines will follow suit. Have to start ripping the band-aid off at some point.

 

[nancipants]

I am simply hoping that Disney will finally acknowledge children 4 and under can now be vaccinated, and put a policy in place that treats all vaccinated passengers the same regarding testing, regardless of age.

 

[emmabelle]

my husband is vaxxed, with one booster and currently has Covid. I'm just glad he got it now and not next month when we're sailing on the Wish. It seems inevitable that we will all come down with it at some point. He wasn't out partying either, must have picked it up at the golf course.

 

[holula]

At this point I’m fine with them getting rid of testing completely. It’s not keeping COVID off the ships so why bother?

 

[Princesca]

Testing unvaccinated adults but not kids makes no sense to me from an epidemiological perspective.

All I can figure is this is not to protect passengers so much as to protect the cruise line. COVID is typically a lot easier on children (though not always) so I'm wondering if they're banking on severe illness in kids being very rare and not taxing ship medical resources. Since you can walk out the door and catch COVID right after you test, but the incubation period of COVID seems to be at least 2-3 days (the 72 hour testing period), this all feels to me to be more of a way of trying to reduce the risk of adults having severe COVID at sea.

 

[Cheburashka]

At this point I’m fine with them getting rid of testing completely. It’s not keeping COVID off the ships so why bother?

Personally I'm fine with all of the restrictions because they're keeping passenger numbers lower than they would be otherwise.

 

[orum]

At this point I’m fine with them getting rid of testing completely. It’s not keeping COVID off the ships so why bother?

It would for sure make the pre cruise time less stressful, but even if it isn’t keeping ALL Covid off the ships, it is keeping some off. If it wasn’t keeping any off, no one would be denied boarding.

 

[mousefan73]

Ok an antigen test taken within 72.- gives one plenty of time to try best out of 2 or 3.

Did it state anywhere if they based on the lenght of cruise or for all sailings, regardless of lenght??

 

[emmabelle]

so true that they are catching some Covid with the pre testing. I kind of wish they were still testing everyone at the port, but I guess that's just a hot mess.

 

[DisneyDadBama]

I can only hope Disney follows soon. Would love to get back on the ships!

Here are the Norwegian changes:

Key fleetwide protocols changes, subject to local regulations, effective September 3, 2022 include:​

• Vaccinated guests aged 12 and older will no longer have any pre-cruise COVID-19 related protocols
• Unvaccinated guests, aged 12 and older, or those who cannot or decline to provide proof of vaccination, will need to present a negative medically administered PCR or Antigen COVID-19 test taken no more than 72 hours prior to boarding
• Guests aged 11 and under will not be subject to vaccination requirements or testing protocols of any kind
• Vaccinated guests must meet the generally-accepted definition of “fully vaccinated” based on the destination they are embarking and/or traveling to and must provide proof of vaccination

IMO. It's about protecting the cruise line. period

 

[Kwami]

so true that they are catching some Covid with the pre testing. I kind of wish they were still testing everyone at the port, but I guess that's just a hot mess.

Testing everyone at the port was pretty effective, though. We saw very few reports of Covid-19 on the ships back then.

 

[EddieK76]

Testing everyone at the port was pretty effective, though. We saw very few reports of Covid-19 on the ships back then.

I'd be interested to know the actual percentage though. Sheer numbers don't matter when the actual people sailing was quite less and in addition the variant was quite different back then compared to now.

 

[Mango7100]

We just sailed Norwegian a month ago and 45% of the FB group tested positive within 3 days of the 7 day cruise ending. So testing and vaccine requirements certainly aren’t slowing spread. I am surprised that they stopping the vaccine requirement though—not because vaccines stop spread but you are less likely to have severe complications and therefore are less likely to be a medical issue for NCL while on a cruise

 

[Cheburashka]

I am surprised that they stopping the vaccine requirement though

That is likely because they need higher passenger numbers to get a better profit margin.

 

[Disneychick13]

That is likely because they need higher passenger numbers to get a better profit margin.

Absolutely. The cruise lines have cut off a large segment of the population from being able to cruise these last two years. I’m not saying that there was not a rational basis to do that (esp. In the beginning of the pandemic). But the cruise lines are going to have to let unvaccinated people cruise if they are going to get back to “normal”. Personally, I think it makes more sense to drop the vaccine requirements and reinstate pcr testing at the terminal (from a epidemiological point of view). But that will hurt them too much profit wise so this is the next best thing for them to do.

 

[bcwife76]

This is probably the key statement. Cruise lines will have to navigate the requirements of the ports they visit.

Yes, this won't apply to cruises that go to Bermuda, Greece or Canada at this time.

 

[goofystitch]

I really hope Disney drops vaccine requirements so that my son and his family can go on a cruise with us again.