CDC to announce no masks

[Jancruz]

If you have been fully vaccinated inside or out..now they just have to come up with a way to prove it..well I just heard doesnt apply to cruise ships..so disappointing

Jancruz1

Edited May 13, 2021 by Jancruz

[susiesan]

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html

This says nothing about cruise ships.

 

• If you are fully vaccinated, you can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic.
• Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
• If you travel, you should still take steps to protect yourself and others. You will still be required to wear a mask on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within, or out of the United States, and in U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and stations.

Edited May 13, 2021 by susiesan

[RJB]

13 minutes ago, susiesan said:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html

This says nothing about cruise ships.

 

• If you are fully vaccinated, you can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic.
• Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
• If you travel, you should still take steps to protect yourself and others. You will still be required to wear a mask on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within, or out of the United States, and in U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and stations.

Is a cruise ship public transportation?   Still a lot of rules.  Too many.   Each state, city and town can make their own.  Will be very confusing.

[susiesan]

I believe each cruise line can make their own rules. Most of them are following CDC guidance as members of CLIA. I know that even though yesterday the CDC guidance said vaccinated cruisers can go ashore independently, some cruise lines are still making pax take ship excursions. Windstar is one that for now is sticking with this rule. 

 

I would hope Oceania would be one of the forward thinking cruise lines and do away with the masks indoors since everyone on O ships will be vaccinated. The hyper fearful pax can still wear their mask if they choose to.

 

I live in Kansas City and we are still under an indoor mask mandate. It is supposed to end May 28 and this CDC announcement puts pressure on our mayor to go along with it and not extend.

[p18750]

Well, the CDC says the mask mandate still applies to transportation but they are looking at that mandate. We can only hope they are looking at cruise line limitation and airline mask requirements. 

[Lori Dobson]

Moot point since we can’t get near a cruise ship....☹️

[susiesan]

Progress. After the CDC  said yesterday no more mask needed for vaccinated people our mayor in KC backed off and canceled the mask mandate early. Free at last, free at last. It is looking better and better for Sirena in December with no masks and going ashore independently. The only remaining barrier is DeSantis backing down on vaccine passport or Oceania dropping the vaccination requirement.

[mexicobob]

1 hour ago, Lori Dobson said:

Moot point since we can’t get near a cruise ship....☹️

You are correct for the United States. Ships are sailing in other parts of the world though, and more will probably soon follow. 

[mamaclark]

Mask or no mask, I wish O would just go ahead and cancel the October 2021 cruises. Nowhere from Tokyo to Singapore is going to be open to cruises, so why make us wait. They have done such a great job and I have no complaints about my refunds, etc., it's just pretty obvious for my particular cruise (Tokyo-Singapore) that we'll either be floating around for two weeks or it's not happening. Anyone else feeling the same?

[LHT28]

5 minutes ago, mamaclark said:

Mask or no mask, I wish O would just go ahead and cancel the October 2021 cruises. Nowhere from Tokyo to Singapore is going to be open to cruises, so why make us wait. They have done such a great job and I have no complaints about my refunds, etc., it's just pretty obvious for my particular cruise (Tokyo-Singapore) that we'll either be floating around for two weeks or it's not happening. Anyone else feeling the same?

Can you not just cancel the cruise yourself??

If you have an FCC  you could probably move it to a cruise in 2022

[Queen of DaNile]

No masks outside if you have been fully vaccinated as of 5/14/2021:

 

Fully Vaccinated Travelers

• Cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may advise passengers and crew that—if they are fully vaccinated—they may gather or conduct activities outdoors, including engaging in extended meal service or beverage consumption, without wearing a mask except in crowded settings.

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/covid19-operations-manual-cso.html

[RJB]

On 5/14/2021 at 10:43 PM, susiesan said:

Progress. After the CDC  said yesterday no more mask needed for vaccinated people our mayor in KC backed off and canceled the mask mandate early. Free at last, free at last. It is looking better and better for Sirena in December with no masks and going ashore independently. The only remaining barrier is DeSantis backing down on vaccine passport or Oceania dropping the vaccination requirement.

O should NOT back down.  This is a safety issue and I agree all should have a vaccination to sail.  Let the cruise lines make their own rules about who can sail on their ships. DeSantis is  doing a good job at messing up the whole Florida cruise industry.  Many jobs lost.  Too bad.

[susiesan]

21 minutes ago, RJB said:

O should NOT back down.  This is a safety issue and I agree all should have a vaccination to sail.  Let the cruise lines make their own rules about who can sail on their ships. DeSantis is  doing a good job at messing up the whole Florida cruise industry.  Many jobs lost.  Too bad.

Since I am vaccinated, I could care less about vaccines being required. I suspect the vast majority of O's clientele are vaccinated as we are an older demographic. 

 

If Oceania decides to permanently leave Florida I hope they announce it soon, definitely before the penalty phase kicks in for winter cruises from Miami on Sirena and Riviera. My penalty date is Aug. 13. We need time to make alternate flight and hotel reservations or to just cancel the cruises if we don't like the revised itinerary. Sirena is due to sail a TATL October 15 to reposition from Europe so with needing 3 months to bring a ship out of cold layup, Oceania should know by June where their ships are going.

 

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, RJB said:

O should NOT back down.  This is a safety issue and I agree all should have a vaccination to sail.  Let the cruise lines make their own rules about who can sail on their ships. DeSantis is  doing a good job at messing up the whole Florida cruise industry.  Many jobs lost.  Too bad.

You are certainly assuming that the Governor of FL has great power.  Do you realize except for some very small ships there are no cruise ships cruising from any port in any state in the US?  How in the heck can you possible think the Governor of FL has had any negative impact on cruises up to this point?  Except perhaps a positive impact by applying pressure?

 

Also I thought the Florida Legislatures passed a law and the Governor’s executive order is not longer valid even if the CDC allowed cruises.   
 

I am fairly confident that when thenCDC allows Cruise ships to cruise from the US, they will be cruising from FL.

[Tranquility Base]

25 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

I am fairly confident that when thenCDC allows Cruise ships to cruise from the US, they will be cruising from FL.

 

The question is: for those cruise lines requiring 100% vaccination, will they be permitted to require passengers to provide proof of vaccination ?

Edited May 16, 2021 by Tranquility Base

[LHT28]

4 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

 

The question is: for those cruise lines requiring 100% vaccination, will they be permitted to require passengers to provide proof of vaccination ?

I would hope Federal law supercedes  De santis law 🤔

[PaulMCO]

46 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

You are certainly assuming that the Governor of FL has great power.  Do you realize except for some very small ships there are no cruise ships cruising from any port in any state in the US?  How in the heck can you possible think the Governor of FL has had any negative impact on cruises up to this point?  Except perhaps a positive impact by applying pressure?

 

Also I thought the Florida Legislatures passed a law and the Governor’s executive order is not longer valid even if the CDC allowed cruises.   
 

I am fairly confident that when thenCDC allows Cruise ships to cruise from the US, they will be cruising from FL.

The legislature passed a law that stated the same as the governors executive order.   It covers more than cruise ships and was designed to prevent businesses (restaurants, movies, schools) from requiring COVID vaccinations for admittance.  It is the LAW in Florida.  Both FDR and the Governor are grandstanding.   Both do like to do this.   Like two alpha's we will see who blinks first.

 

There are obvious ways to circumvent the checking of vaccine cards where Florida law does not exist, like on board the ship.

[jagoffee]

Just now, PaulMCO said:

The legislature passed a law that stated the same as the governors executive order.   It covers more than cruise ships and was designed to prevent businesses (restaurants, movies, schools) from requiring COVID vaccinations for admittance.  It is the LAW in Florida.  Both FDR and the Governor are grandstanding.   Both do like to do this.   Like two alpha's we will see who blinks first.

 

There are obvious ways to circumvent the checking of vaccine cards where Florida law does not exist, like on board the ship.

Or perhaps advance on line requirements.  
Personally  I do not think FL is slowing down the CDC approval process at all.  Actually the pressure on the CDC was long overdue.  

[1985rz1]

21 minutes ago, PaulMCO said:

There are obvious ways to circumvent the checking of vaccine cards where Florida law does not exist, like on board the ship.

Do you think that is practical?  Would Oceania disembark onboard passengers who can't produce a vaccine card?

[RJB]

1 hour ago, Tranquility Base said:

 

The question is: for those cruise lines requiring 100% vaccination, will they be permitted to require passengers to provide proof of vaccination ?

They should be able to run their business the way they think they need to.  Some stores require a mask and others don't.  The government should not be able to tell them different.   Seem to have too much government these days. 

[susiesan]

1 hour ago, 1985rz1 said:

Do you think that is practical?  Would Oceania disembark onboard passengers who can't produce a vaccine card?

Why not disembark them? Knowing you must have a vaccine card to cruise and you show up not having it with you, either the card itself or a photo of it on your phone, you deserve to be booted off. That would come under the category of your problem, not Oceania's. Same as if you showed up to cruise without your passport. You will not be let on the ship.

[RJB]

4 hours ago, susiesan said:

Why not disembark them? Knowing you must have a vaccine card to cruise and you show up not having it with you, either the card itself or a photo of it on your phone, you deserve to be booted off. That would come under the category of your problem, not Oceania's. Same as if you showed up to cruise without your passport. You will not be let on the ship.

Agree with you 100%  

[Host Jazzbeau]

6 hours ago, susiesan said:

Why not disembark them? Knowing you must have a vaccine card to cruise and you show up not having it with you, either the card itself or a photo of it on your phone, you deserve to be booted off. That would come under the category of your problem, not Oceania's. Same as if you showed up to cruise without your passport. You will not be let on the ship.

The only problem is with the checked luggage.  I have been on flights where a passenger was forcefully removed, and there was quite a delay while they went through the holds finding that party's luggage.  But the cruise lines could require proof of vax at check-in several days before the cruise.  Then the check on the ship is merely a verification, so the number booted off would be very small.  [This assumes they can claim the check-in occurs outside Florida even for FL residents.]

[susiesan]

Easy solution: go to terminal to embark. Get a barcode tag put on your luggage, like what the airlines do. Have all luggage staged on the pier. Passenger goes up gang way, shows vaccine proof on the ship which is not Florida anymore,  has their luggage tag scanned and a message sent down to the pier,  okay to load on the ship. This could work with the smaller ships.

[NantahalaCruiser]

1 hour ago, susiesan said:

Easy solution: go to terminal to embark. Get a barcode tag put on your luggage, like what the airlines do. Have all luggage staged on the pier. Passenger goes up gang way, shows vaccine proof on the ship which is not Florida anymore,  has their luggage tag scanned and a message sent down to the pier,  okay to load on the ship. This could work with the smaller ships.

Boarding a ship does not take them out of Florida's jurisdiction while they are in port.  That's why the state can charge sales tax for on-board sales until they are outside the 3 nautical mile limit.