Children under 5 Covid vaccination

[Princesca]

This is very frustrating. I would have gotten our son vaccinated either way, but one of the big perks was that we wouldn't have to have that nail-biting anxiety over testing at port and being prevented from going on the trip after we had already flown to Orlando, stayed in the hotel, etc.

 

[four42two]

No explanation. When I additionally spoke to Disney (as safe passage said it’s up to Disney) he was very nice and agreed with the inconsistency. He put me on hold 10 minutes to talk to a supervisor who reconfirmed this is the current practice. I asked him to pass on my feedback that we need consistency amongst vaccinated passengers, and that Disney needs to clearly spell out the current policy. He said he would, but I didn’t want to go overboard and request to speak to a supervisor, etc.

I read your posts and looked back at the email Safe Passage sent me, and I now realize that the shoreside concierge gave me information inconsistent with Safe Passage. According to shoreside concierge, both pre-testing and embarkation day testing were required; the Safe Passage email (consistent with your experience) only mentions embarkation day testing. My 4-year-old's vaccination record is not yet approved, so I don't know if it will work out this way, but I'm hopeful that Safe Passage doesn't end up requiring pre-testing for us, either. That would be at least a small comfort, as we wouldn't have to pay the ~$100 for the additional test and we wouldn't have to scramble to get the pre-testing done while traveling.

Thanks for your posts.

 

[nancipants]

of course Disney has no reasoning for this dumb policy. Figures considering this age group.

 

[Jetku]

I read your posts and looked back at the email Safe Passage sent me, and I now realize that the shoreside concierge gave me information inconsistent with Safe Passage. According to shoreside concierge, both pre-testing and embarkation day testing were required; the Safe Passage email (consistent with your experience) only mentions embarkation day testing. My 4-year-old's vaccination record is not yet approved, so I don't know if it will work out this way, but I'm hopeful that Safe Passage doesn't end up requiring pre-testing for us, either. That would be at least a small comfort, as we wouldn't have to pay the ~$100 for the additional test and we wouldn't have to scramble to get the pre-testing done while traveling.

Thanks for your posts.

We’re all confused together . I just want to get healthily on (and off) the ship!

 

[nancipants]

This is very frustrating. I would have gotten our son vaccinated either way, but one of the big perks was that we wouldn't have to have that nail-biting anxiety over testing at port and being prevented from going on the trip after we had already flown to Orlando, stayed in the hotel, etc.

Yeah. We live locally, so if we get denied boarding we'll just go home and swim in grandma and grandpa's pool all week. But it's really anxiety-inducing when everyone else is approved except for your kid.

 

[Jhondy]

This is the dumbest policy ever. I am a huge Disney fan but Disney is slowly losing me little by little with all their nonsense

 

[nancipants]

This is the dumbest policy ever. I am a huge Disney fan but Disney is slowly losing me little by little with all their nonsense

It’s so baffling because the service onboard DCL is so good. But the communication leading up to cruises has been awful.

 

[galacticb]

As an FYI, it looks like Royal Caribbean is about to treat unvaccinated and vaccinated passengers the same with respect to testing. (Both will now either not need tests or will be able to satisfy testing requirements just with a pre-arrival antigen test. Whether testing is required at all depends on the itinerary/length of cruise.)

See policy here.

There is always a chance that Disney could follow suit with a similar policy which would indirectly solve this problem by just making testing and vaccination two separate things not tied to one another.

In the meantime, has anyone close to sailing heard any updates from Safe Passage or Disney this weekend?

 

[Jhondy]

It’s so baffling because the service onboard DCL is so good. But the communication leading up to cruises has been awful.

I feel like that’s the way it is a lot with Disney. Like most device at WDW is good but prior to being there it is horrible. I think the issue is the higher management and their communication not the on the ground CMs. We are doing a cruise instead of WDW because there were so many changes at WDW that we didn’t like. My daughter is 3 and very much loves Disney (and I love Disney for the memories I have of it). So I am not ready to totally give up on Disney but idk what we will do if the cruise becomes too much of a headache too. I’m hoping that isn’t the case. However, I know if my kid is treated like a vaccinated person and then we get turned away at the port cause she is positive and we couldn’t figure that out a head of time (which I know I can pay to have her tested prior to cruise and it just doesn’t count for cruise but one of the reasons to get her vaccinated was to not have to take multiple tests) that is going to leave a very sour taste in my mouth cause it is going to be so heartbreaking for DD (and me).

 

[nancipants]

As an FYI, it looks like Royal Caribbean is about to treat unvaccinated and vaccinated passengers the same with respect to testing. (Both will now either not need tests or will be able to satisfy testing requirements just with a pre-arrival antigen test. Whether testing is required at all depends on the itinerary/length of cruise.)

See policy here.

There is always a chance that Disney could follow suit with a similar policy which would indirectly solve this problem by just making testing and vaccination two separate things not tied to one another.

In the meantime, has anyone close to sailing heard any updates from Safe Passage or Disney this weekend?

Thanks for the info. That seems like a much clearer policy. Here's hoping DCL follows suit.

I have not received a reply from my email to Safe Passage. I sent another email to the DCL guest communications address this morning.

 

[nancipants]

Even more infuriating, I noticed the "Know Before You Go" page - which says kids 4 and under are ineligible to be vaccinated - has a "last updated" date of June 30... 13 days after FDA approval for vaccines in this age group.

 

[nancipants]

Sorry for the triple post - Norweigan just dropped vaccination requirements. Now everyone 12 and up will need to submit a vaccine card or test results.

I'm hoping that all of these other changes will make Disney realize that forcing vaccinated passengers, regardless of age, to test at the port is ridiculous.

ETA: Celebrity dropped vaccination requirements for under 12. If you're not vaccinated, you need to present a test taken up to 3 days beforehand. No testing at the port.

Come ON, Disney. Don't tell me my VACCINATED child needs to test at the port.

 

[thyunker]

I’m just off the Wonder with my twice Pfizer dosed 3-year-old. Because Pfizer is a 3-dose vaccine, we had to have the 72-hour prior PCR and the day of antigen testing. He was beyond 2-weeks post second dose at the time of sailing. The people administering the port testing said that the under 5 crowd receiving Pfizer won’t be considered fully vaccinated until 2 weeks after the 3rd dose.

I was confused coming into the situation and had uploaded his vaccination card which safe passage accepted. I even had him antigen tested with the rest of the day before the cruise. Thank goodness I had him PCR tested just in case because it was required for him to be able to sail. It made a mess of our safe passage and delayed our on-boarding.

 

[nancipants]

I’m just off the Wonder with my twice Pfizer dosed 3-year-old. Because Pfizer is a 3-dose vaccine, we had to have the 72-hour prior PCR and the day of antigen testing. He was beyond 2-weeks post second dose at the time of sailing. The people administering the port testing said that the under 5 crowd receiving Pfizer won’t be considered fully vaccinated until 2 weeks after the 3rd dose.

I was confused coming into the situation and had uploaded his vaccination card which safe passage accepted. I even had him antigen tested with the rest of the day before the cruise. Thank goodness I had him PCR tested just in case because it was required for him to be able to sail. It made a mess of our safe passage and delayed our on-boarding.

Thank you for the update. That's surprising Safe Passage accepted it. Seems like Disney has not provided them with appropriate guidance. Disney really needs to update their policy, especially since Pfizer and Moderna have a different number of doses. If this continues, someone will be denied boarding because they didn't get the required testing because of the confusing guidelines.

 

[nancipants]

Just checked for curiosity’s sake, and Princess also isn’t acknowledging kids under 5 can be vaccinated. They just say kids 2-4 require a PCR test beforehand and antigen at the port. Kids under 2 don’t need to test at all. So Disney isn’t the only one.

 

[disneylandlocal]

Just checked for curiosity’s sake, and Princess also isn’t acknowledging kids under 5 can be vaccinated. They just say kids 2-4 require a PCR test beforehand and antigen at the port. Kids under 2 don’t need to test at all. So Disney isn’t the only one.

Thanks for all your fact checking. Between this and Disney not issuing renewal info on magic keys I’m losing it a bit.

 

[thyunker]

Thank you for the update. That's surprising Safe Passage accepted it. Seems like Disney has not provided them with appropriate guidance. Disney really needs to update their policy, especially since Pfizer and Moderna have a different number of doses. If this continues, someone will be denied boarding because they didn't get the required testing because of the confusing guidelines.

Exactly! I was a little confused about when my son would be considered fully vaccinated (misinformation from a pharmacy technician when he had the second shot). The risk of being denied boarding is why I posted. Thankfully, I had the PCR test 3 days before otherwise it would have been a huge problem.

The testing coordinators who helped us said that it was human error that allowed his vaccine card to be approved and his status set to clear to arrive.

 

[brent02139]

Might be common knowledge, I was able upload my DS4’s vaccine card, for our 8/22 sailing out of Vancouver. Still not approved yet. And still shows he has to test at port. Will update if status changes.

 

[nancipants]

Might be common knowledge, I was able upload my DS4’s vaccine card, for our 8/22 sailing out of Vancouver. Still not approved yet. And still shows he has to test at port. Will update if status changes.

Thank you for the update. Disney has still been silent on this issue and is telling individual guests conflicting information. Very frustrating.

 

[mja4250]

Very frustrated, have an almost 2 year old who is vaccinated, told on the phone by Disney she would be treated as vaccinated for testing, but reading online and this thread scares me, not sure what testing will be required and worried about being turned away. Sail beginning of September...