Future Policies

[atoz786]

Not sure if this has been asked/discussed or if this is allowed but are the covid policies from Cruise Lines here to stay for good? I mean covid won't just disappear, eventually it will probably be like the flu but no cruise line denies you boarding just because you have the flu or a cold. Making a booking and hoping to test negative or risk your whole vacation be ruined is a huge gamble there has to be some middle ground where folks that take their annual vacation don't get screwed. I am just trying to wrap my head around this because if ppl think this will just mysteriously go way I feel like that would be naïve. I wonder if a resort vacation would be better given if you are stuck at least you are on a resort somewhere.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Not sure if this has been asked/discussed or if this is allowed but are the covid policies from Cruise Lines here to stay for good? I mean covid won't just disappear, eventually it will probably be like the flu but no cruise line denies you boarding just because you have the flu or a cold. Making a booking and hoping to test negative or risk your whole vacation be ruined is a huge gamble there has to be some middle ground where folks that take their annual vacation don't get screwed. I am just trying to wrap my head around this because if ppl think this will just mysteriously go way I feel like that would be naïve. I wonder if a resort vacation would be better given if you are stuck at least you are on a resort somewhere.

At this point in time, I doubt that disease-specific restrictions would be permanent. But I also doubt any one can say for certain one way or the other.

 

[cvjw]

Every time we sailed, you had to fill out the form about your health. Asking if anyone was sick. I bet they have always frowned upon someone with the flu boarding their ships.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Every time we sailed, you had to fill out the form about your health. Asking if anyone was sick. I bet they have always frowned upon someone with the flu boarding their ships.

Well, yes they do. There's always been a Health form prior to boarding. Sadly, many people lie. So they had to come up with something they couldn't fake (testing) prior to boarding.

 

[Freeman867]

Not sure if this has been asked/discussed or if this is allowed but are the covid policies from Cruise Lines here to stay for good? I mean covid won't just disappear, eventually it will probably be like the flu but no cruise line denies you boarding just because you have the flu or a cold. Making a booking and hoping to test negative or risk your whole vacation be ruined is a huge gamble there has to be some middle ground where folks that take their annual vacation don't get screwed. I am just trying to wrap my head around this because if ppl think this will just mysteriously go way I feel like that would be naïve. I wonder if a resort vacation would be better given if you are stuck at least you are on a resort somewhere.

The biggest issue right now is other countries don't have the vaccination rates or medicine or hospital care that we do to help make COVID be like the flu or a cold and it's still killing people. Until we have a global response to this instead of a national approach, cruise ships won't have anywhere to go.

 

[lanejudy]

no cruise line denies you boarding just because you have the flu or a cold

Well...yes they did in the past if the passenger was honest about it.

I think your question is more like "how long will the current policies be in place?" and to that nobody has an answer. Do I think it's permanent? No. But I don't think all the current policies will simply disappear in 6 months for summer cruises and beyond. Some semblence of the current protocols may even stick around for an extended time, hopefully not all.

 

[atoz786]

Well...yes they did in the past if the passenger was honest about it.

I think your question is more like "how long will the current policies be in place?" and to that nobody has an answer. Do I think it's permanent? No. But I don't think all the current policies will simply disappear in 6 months for summer cruises and beyond. Some semblence of the current protocols may even stick around for an extended time, hopefully not all.

Yes exactly we have a cruise scheduled for late September and will be our first ever cruise with our children who will be 3 and 2 at that time, and I would be devastated if we could not board esp in cases when folks test positive but are asymptomatic, or if there is a false positive (which seems to be often).

 

[freshmanjs]

There is no way the ships will sail at reduced capacity and the theaters will be using 30% of capacity permanently.

 

[tvguy]

There is no way the ships will sail at reduced capacity and the theaters will be using 30% of capacity permanently.

Well, if they do, we'll know their profit margin is greater than many thought.

 

[tvguy]

Well...yes they did in the past if the passenger was honest about it.

I think your question is more like "how long will the current policies be in place?" and to that nobody has an answer. Do I think it's permanent? No. But I don't think all the current policies will simply disappear in 6 months for summer cruises and beyond. Some semblence of the current protocols may even stick around for an extended time, hopefully not all.

Just look at the Norovirus protocols. They've been around for about 20 years and never went away. They were in place on out 2003-4 cruise on the Magic. Buffet food was served by crew members, other crew members busy wiping all the common touched items down, and a letter explaing the symptoms of Norovirus left on the bed with the Navigator.

 

[diablodancer]

Yes exactly we have a cruise scheduled for late September and will be our first ever cruise with our children who will be 3 and 2 at that time, and I would be devastated if we could not board esp in cases when folks test positive but are asymptomatic, or if there is a false positive (which seems to be often).

If it’s any reassurance false positives are statistically incredibly unlikely (false negatives are far more common, I’d be dubious about anecdotal case of false positives) but understand your concern more widely.

Best thing you can do is test before travelling to port/the day prior so that hopefully there’s no surprise on the day but realise that’s difficult if you’re travelling far (I’m in the UK and have one of the Hawai’i sailings booked - still on the fence about whether it’s worth the risk of travelling given the number of steps I’d have to get past).

 

[CamColt]

To answer the OP's question, no one knows the answer to that right now.

The Dis's Covid Policy includes the following..."In summary: COVID related discussion should be limited to actual policy and practical application, and NOT veer into opinion or debate."

Since this topic falls under opinion of what may be happening in the future, I am going to close this thread.