Canadian Cruisers

[ilovetotravel1977]

Griff and Alyssa has been on freedom of the seas within the last 14 days therefore out of the country. That is why they needed a test. They just didnt know about the rule at the time of their arrival to the port.

[Robjame]

Thank you Jill & Jerry for you information on cruising from Canada.

What is the point of driving across the border and then flying to Miami as opposed to simply flying YYZ-MIA? Monetary or is there some other advantage?

[broberts]

2 hours ago, Robjame said:

Wow. Previously we had watched Alyssa and Griff  who were taken off the ship and reported on a B2B cruiser who had been removed as well. I thought that process was bad but Parodeejay's experience makes me reconsider our b2b. 

 

The username does not suggest accuracy.

[Robjame]

49 minutes ago, broberts said:

The username does not suggest accuracy.

Alyssa and Griff??

They are well-respected, travel and cruise vlog-ers with over 41k subscribers and over 300 travel and cruise vlogs.

 

They were removed and had to COVID retest between cruises. It was some of the first cruises so everybody was learning. 

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Robjame
incomplete

[Sprocket]

3 hours ago, Robjame said:

Thank you Jill & Jerry for you information on cruising from Canada.

What is the point of driving across the border and then flying to Miami as opposed to simply flying YYZ-MIA? Monetary or is there some other advantage?

Flights can be considerably cheaper from the US and it also opens up airline choices.  I have driven to Seattle many times to catch flights flew Southwest mostly as they do not fly from Vancouver.

[CruisingCanucksTwo]

21 hours ago, Robjame said:

Thank you Jill & Jerry for you information on cruising from Canada.

What is the point of driving across the border and then flying to Miami as opposed to simply flying YYZ-MIA? Monetary or is there some other advantage?

 

Flights are MUCH cheaper flying out of the USA than flying from Canada.  For example our MIA flight from a small local airport that's only 10min across the border is just over $300 CAD each.  Or we can drive to Toronto (7 hours away) and pay double or triple - at the time we booked these flights 3 weeks ago, the cost from Toronto was just over $900 CAD each!! 😮  (and the funny thing is that the flight flew to Detroit and ended up connecting to the same flight we would have caught flying from the local USA airport!)

 

Another factor is the ease of clearing customs.  We drive across the border here and it takes less than 60 seconds to tell the border guard where we are heading and then we go to the airport and get straight on the plane without doing customs.  This means we can arrive at the airport about an hour before the flight  - compare that with Toronto where we need to be there 2-3 hours before the flight and we have to go through a customs process that is much slower and extensive than driving across the border.

 

The last factor is parking.  We can go across the border and park are car for free at the small local airport, whereas 14-days parking at Toronto Pearson can get pretty expensive.

 

The flights are so much cheaper that many times we will do the six hour drive and fly out of Detroit, instead of driving to Toronto.  That option obviously costs a little more in gas and parking, but we'd have to do that anyways to get to Toronto and pay more for the flight.

Edited July 18, 2021 by CruisingCanucksTwo

[Robjame]

3 minutes ago, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

Flight are MUCH cheaper flying out of the USA than flying from Canada.

Thanks. I was wondering if there was something that I was missing about COVID restrictions that made it simpler to fly from US after driving from Canada. Border is closed for non-essential travel for both land and air AT THIS POINT. 
 

[CruisingCanucksTwo]

Big (devastating news) for Canadians wanting to cruise just came out this weekend - may do a video about it...

 

Norwegian and Royal Caribbean announced they will not be accepting cruisers that received mixed vaccines.  So if you received one Pfizer and one Moderna shot - they will not consider you fully vaccinated (and no cruising for you.)  This is regardless of what our national policy is/was for vaccination status.  This is totally insane since the chemical properties the those are the same (MRNA), just a different name on the package.

 

We feel this is very unfair of NCL And RCL, I didn't reach out to my NCL travel agent business manager to voice my displeasure and suggest that they should now offer cash back instead of credits for Canadians since we are unable to sail with them.  I'll let you know what I hear back.

 

CCL (so Carnival, Princess and Holland America) considers folks fully vaccinated based on your countries definition of fully vaccinated and so are currently accepted mixed dosages.  Guess I'm doing all my cruising on CCL.  Of course this could all chance in the days, weeks and months ahead - but right now that's the policy.

 

This is what came out yesterday....

 

Edited July 18, 2021 by CruisingCanucksTwo

[CruisingCanucksTwo]

This is Carnival's policy....

[CruisingCanucksTwo]

I attempted to post this a while ago, but it was blocked by the site?  Not sure why.  But this came out from NCL and then Royal Caribbean yesterday.  Basically saying that Canadians with mixed vaccines of any sort will not be allowed to sail with them.  

[CruisingCanucksTwo]

Just now, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

I attempted to post this a while ago, but it was blocked by the site?  Not sure why.  But this came out from NCL and then Royal Caribbean yesterday.  Basically saying that Canadians with mixed vaccines of any sort will not be allowed to sail with them.  

This is terrible news for some Canadians ...

 

So if you received one Pfizer and one Moderna shot - they will not consider you fully vaccinated (and no cruising for you.)  This is regardless of what our national policy is/was for vaccination status.  This is totally insane since the chemical properties the those are the same (MRNA), just a different name on the package.

 

We feel this is very unfair of NCL And RCL, I reached out to my NCL travel agent rep and will let you know what I hear back.

 

So since Carnival, Princess and Holland America considers folks fully vaccinated based on your countries definition of fully vaccinated - I'll be doing all my cruising on CCL.  Of course this could all chance in the days, weeks and months ahead - but right now that's the policy.

 

[Thechamp555]

21 minutes ago, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

This is terrible news for some Canadians ...

 

So if you received one Pfizer and one Moderna shot - they will not consider you fully vaccinated (and no cruising for you.)  This is regardless of what our national policy is/was for vaccination status.  This is totally insane since the chemical properties the those are the same (MRNA), just a different name on the package.

 

We feel this is very unfair of NCL And RCL, I reached out to my NCL travel agent rep and will let you know what I hear back.

 

So since Carnival, Princess and Holland America considers folks fully vaccinated based on your countries definition of fully vaccinated - I'll be doing all my cruising on CCL.  Of course this could all chance in the days, weeks and months ahead - but right now that's the policy.

 

So leaving Florida with on e Aztra and one Pfizer seems to be acceptable ?

[CruisingCanucksTwo]

16 minutes ago, Thechamp555 said:

So leaving Florida with on e Aztra and one Pfizer seems to be acceptable ?

Depends on what cruiseline...

 

So NCL And RCL are 'no' to cruising with that mix.

Princess and HAL are a 'no' to that mix, but yes to Pfizer and Moderna.

Carnival is 'yes' to whatever is the policy of your own country to be considered vaccinated

 

[Winnigirl]

Lord, now I'm more confused than ever.

 

[Thechamp555]

9 minutes ago, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

Depends on what cruiseline...

 

So NCL And RCL are 'no' to cruising with that mix.

Princess and HAL are a 'no' to that mix, but yes to Pfizer and Moderna.

Carnival is 'yes' to whatever is the policy of your own country to be considered vaccinated

 

I'm with Celebrity sailing Oct 21, and I have   shots of Aztra and Pzifer, like many many Canadians.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Thechamp555

[Cardex]

7 minutes ago, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

 

Carnival is 'yes' to whatever is the policy of your own country to be considered vaccinated

 

 

Unfortunately Carnival is a yes to Pfizer/Moderna but a no to anything else

Carnival - https://www.carnival.com/Legal/covid-19-legal-notices/covid-19-guest-protocols?icid=advisory_cruisehealth_052521

Is it acceptable that I received a Pfizer vaccine as my first dose and Moderna as my second?

Pfizer and Moderna can be mixed to complete a full vaccination series. All other vaccines in a 2-dose series are required to be of the same type.

 

[CruisingCanucksTwo]

Just hunting around for more info and saw that some people that have called Royal to complain are being told to wait - as the latest statement about mixed vaccines is currently under review.

So this could all change again in the days ahead.

 

This restart to cruising is bumpy and we can expect changes to happen weekly, if not daily.  So hold on - things will likely get more obvious and uniform as it all gets ironed out.

[Thechamp555]

3 minutes ago, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

Just hunting around for more info and saw that some people that have called Royal to complain are being told to wait - as the latest statement about mixed vaccines is currently under review.

So this could all change again in the days ahead.

 

This restart to cruising is bumpy and we can expect changes to happen weekly, if not daily.  So hold on - things will likely get more obvious and uniform as it all gets ironed out.

This is really not a funny situation. Hopefully things will be clarified this week.

But what I doesn't understand is why  the cruise companies are posted something that is not final !!

[3Shelaghs]

23 hours ago, Robjame said:

They were removed and had to COVID retest between cruises. It was some of the first cruises so everybody was learning. 

 

This is standard procedure on B2B. Ship count must be zero, then pax are reswiped onboard. They must physically exit ship and walk back on, therefore would need a Covid test per policy as they are technically on US soil.

[Thechamp555]

27 minutes ago, Thechamp555 said:

This is really not a funny situation. Hopefully things will be clarified this week.

But what I doesn't understand is why  the cruise companies are posted something that is not final !!

I just called Celebrity and they confirmed that mixing Aztra and other vaccines are no nore accepted. I'm done ! 

 

😔😔😔

[Robjame]

Life Well Cruised - a Canadian vlog - just published a recap on vaccines which you might find helpful

 

 

[Sprocket]

6 hours ago, Robjame said:

Thanks. I was wondering if there was something that I was missing about COVID restrictions that made it simpler to fly from US after driving from Canada. Border is closed for non-essential travel for both land and air AT THIS POINT. 
 

We are flying from Vancouver to Seattle in August.  No quarantine for fully vaccinated on return  and we are booked at YVR for our COVID test and the ship will test us for our return. They will test us either at YVR or give us a home test when we arrive.  We are also fully covered under my group insurance, can’t wait to be onboard.

[DirtyDawg]

3 hours ago, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

This restart to cruising is bumpy and we can  expect changes to happen weekly, if not daily.  

 

Or hourly. 

 

3 hours ago, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

So hold on - things will likely get more obvious and uniform as it all gets ironed out.

I would just add, chill out with a nice cold bottle of Canadian or a double of CC. This mess will get sorted out. 🍺🥃

[K_e_short]

8 hours ago, CruisingCanucksTwo said:

Depends on what cruiseline...

 

So NCL And RCL are 'no' to cruising with that mix.

Princess and HAL are a 'no' to that mix, but yes to Pfizer and Moderna.

Carnival is 'yes' to whatever is the policy of your own country to be considered vaccinated

 

 Could you put a link to the Carnival rule? I thought they also did not allow AZ and Moderna/Pfizer mix.

 

I do remember hearing that Carnival will have an announcement this week about Canadian travellers.

 

[CruisingCanucksTwo]

1 hour ago, K_e_short said:

 Could you put a link to the Carnival rule? I thought they also did not allow AZ and Moderna/Pfizer mix.

 

I do remember hearing that Carnival will have an announcement this week about Canadian travellers.

 

Here is the link for Carnival... Return to Service FAQs | Have Fun. Be Safe. | Carnival Cruise Line 

 

You will see this statement...

So it looks like only Pfizer and Moderna mix - which is different from what I originally heard several weeks ago about whatever is appropriate for you country of origin.

So not good news for those with AZ.

Edited July 18, 2021 by CruisingCanucksTwo