Updated FAQ - Covid Test Required eff 8/15

[Sea Hag]

7 minutes ago, pspatti said:

 

Did you have insurance to reimburse you for the cancellation?  Or has Princess agreed to give you, at least, FCC? 

(I am also considering cancelling because I don't want to wear a mask all the time.  It is very uncomfortable and it seems down right unhealthy to me! Also I have seen how mask wearing changes people's behavior and it's not a good or pleasant change.  The entire atmosphere onboard will be tense ... not what I was hoping for.  I'm sad ...)

We have Princess protection with CFAR, and we also still plan to go if we can figure out how to get tested and get the results back in time to sail. Having said that, I'll also say that I think Princess should allow anybody and everybody to cancel with a full refund since this is a major game changer from the conditions we all booked under. I doubt that's going to be what happens. I did read through the terms for these upcoming sailings when we booked, but I frankly don't remember if there's a clause in there about major changes necessitated by covid conditions. There probably is.

[mjmalino]

3 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

 

Sure, but with 2000+ passengers wandering around on a ship...

(whatever level princess fills ships to)

 

Is there going to be a shipboard employee(s) constantly asking to see/scan the medallion

of any passenger not wearing a mask?

 

Maybe some mask checkpoints everyone has to pass through.

 

That has the potential to make passengers even more cranky than having to use the medallion app

to get on the ship in the first place ... which is a pretty high bar!

 

 

I think that with the Medallions crew members can see who everyone is just by being in proximity. You only have to scan/tap the medallion to order/pay for things.

[beaglesandducks]

We r on 8/22 Alaska sailing   I have scheduled the covid tests within the 3 day window   This is another hoop to jump thru but we will do it   They do have our money and we want to go  i do hope this testing requirement ends before our next cruise in january 2022

[drmel]

18 hours ago, drmel said:

I really don't want to wear a mask all week in Alaska.  We just cancelled everything.😢

We have platinum insurance so can cancel for any reason and get a refund.

[atexsix]

31 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

I have read on the boards that it was a CDC recommendation.  If that's true or not I don't know but I can't imagine that all of the cruise lines would be scrambling now if they weren't coerced into it. The only line that I know of who was sailing unvaccinated was Royal Caribbean but now the islands in the Caribbean are requiring everyone be vaccinated so that has changed as well.   Things on land are changing as well as far as masks are concerned.

 

This is a disaster from a risk management perspective.  And it has the CDC written all over it.  Cruise lines don't make decisions this quickly, it would be a first for them. 

 

The issues:

-confusion over allowable tests

-lack of appointment availability

-too narrow a window, especially Monday and Tuesday sailings when clinics are closed over the weekend (the government itself encourages people to test with their physician before resorting to drug stores)

-no guidance for people en route to the port early and staying in hotel packages sold by the cruise lines (this should have a refund policy at the very least)

-test results not received in time 

-forcing their customers to assume all risk while not accepting any responsibility from an hastily prepared untested implementation

 

What will this add up to for all passengers of Carnival Corporation (Princess, HAL, Carnival):

-half full ships as passengers are turned away at the pier because they got the wrong test, did not complete it within the 72 hour or 3 day window, did not get the results in time, or did not fulfill the requirement at all for whatever reason (i.e.. they don't read cruise critic or email). 

-lawsuits....regardless of the cruise contract, as nothing here indicates they have done their due diligence or acted in good faith.

 

 

[CeCe_]

24 minutes ago, pspatti said:

 

Did you have insurance to reimburse you for the cancellation?  Or has Princess agreed to give you, at least, FCC? 

(I am also considering cancelling because I don't want to wear a mask all the time.  It is very uncomfortable and it seems down right unhealthy to me! Also I have seen how mask wearing changes people's behavior and it's not a good or pleasant change.  The entire atmosphere onboard will be tense ... not what I was hoping for.  I'm sad ...)

 

I am very sad as well.  It is too much money to lose to walk out ourselves.  I compare the situation like being held in captivity with no way out.   Like other poster in another thread said this is an unusual situation and the cruise line should be more flexible.

[Crystabel]

2 hours ago, Syracusefan44 said:

We would NOT have cancelled our Alaska cruise if Princess had testing at the terminal (which we would be willing to pay for).  

 

We were arriving three days early from New York and spending our first day trying to find a testing facility that would guarantee results in 72 hours and then hoping the test results were negative was simply takes the joy out of traveling/cruising. 

We’re somewhat in the same situation. The earliest we can test is the day we fly into Seattle, since we had planned to explore the city for three days before the cruise. Now Im trying to find somewhere in Seattle to get tested and so far, can’t find anywhere we can get a rapid test at any price. 
 

An interesting side note, my DH got the notification from Princess, but I did not. If I didn’t monitor these boards or was cruising solo, I’d never know about the new requirement by Princess. And I'm completely in the green lane on the Medallion Class app., with the only thing left is to confirm my status 24 hours before boarding. So I’d be SOL. I may still be SOL! 

[Doug R.]

You can thank those who won't get vaccinated or the "Knuckleheads" as my governor calls them for these new requirements.

[JF - retired RRT]

12 minutes ago, Crystabel said:

We’re somewhat in the same situation. The earliest we can test is the day we fly into Seattle, since we had planned to explore the city for three days before the cruise. Now Im trying to find somewhere in Seattle to get tested and so far, can’t find anywhere we can get a rapid test at any price. 
 

An interesting side note, my DH got the notification from Princess, but I did not. If I didn’t monitor these boards or was cruising solo, I’d never know about the new requirement by Princess. And I'm completely in the green lane on the Medallion Class app., with the only thing left is to confirm my status 24 hours before boarding. So I’d be SOL. I may still be SOL! 

@Jadn13 posted a link for testing sites https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/testing.aspx

Edited August 5, 2021 by JF - retired RRT

[JF - retired RRT]

3 hours ago, ready2cruzagain said:

We cancelled our Nov/Dec cruise, too much money to sit around wearing a mask with limited activities, I can sit at home without a mask and have limited activities 🙄.  Booked a cruise on MSC for next March instead.

Unless things change drastically, MSC will likely follow suit with masks, testing & vax.

[pris993]

4 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

The quick test is not as accurate as the PCR test. It is better than nothing but a negative quick test still means you might have covid.

 

We did a 4N cruise out of Southampton. We needed to mask whenever we were walking inside in public area and when sitting when not eating and drinking. No, it isn't as good but I'd rather be cruising with masks than not cruising at all.

 

You do know you can still catch covid if you are vaccinated don't you. You will still need a PCR test to check you don't have covid asymptomatically. You could have caught covid on the flight or while staying in Isreal. 

 

I have to say that I really don't understand people that seem to think that vaccination guarantees that they haven't caught covid. It reduces that chances of catching it and it reduces the severity of symptons if you do catch it but vaccinated people are still catching it (look at the Royal Caribbean cruise recently where 7 fully vaccinated passengers tested positive on board).

 

All this testing is a right PITA but it is necessary if we want to stop transmission.

I can get a milder case at home too.... and will stay home till all this test and retesting is over.  As a vaccinated person I am not concerned about getting a mild case.  Anyone traveling should be vaccinated and then travelers would not be concerned either, making all this testing and retesting  not  necessary.   

[wowzz]

Just now, pris993 said:

I can get a milder case at home too.... and will stay home till all this test and retesting is over.  As a vaccinated person I am not concerned about getting a mild case.  Anyone traveling should be vaccinated and then travelers would not be concerned either, making all this testing and retesting  not  necessary.   

Think you could have a long wait !

[pris993]

17 hours ago, pris993 said:

Agree with you, the negative covid test 3 days before travel is over the top for me too, since we are vaccinated.  I want to travel to Israel, even have a $3000 credit on United but Israel requires the negative covid test to board the flight, another test upon arrival; plus a test to take return flight.  I will give up my credit before putting myself and my dh thru all this.    Does not make sense for vaccinated folks.  

 

On one travel web site, that sells Princess cruises I saw policy in place till 12-31-21.  Like you say things change all the time, we need to keep checking on how long this lasts. 

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

I have had three tests at a hospital.

 

There was no physician present for any of them.

Right! "Medically observed" doesn't mean only a physician can observe. Med tech, nurses and so on would count. Heck, you can purchase do-it-yourself tests to take with you on travel out of the US. You use them on a Zoom call with a nurse before you fly home. Those are "Medically observed".

[pris993]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

Think you could have a long wait !

Travel will suffer if travelers have to put up with this test and retest process.   This does not  encourage folks to get vaccinated!!  

[nocl]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

True - the question is why the change was made at such short notice ?

The changes have occurred because of the data that shows that with Delta, unlike the previous variants, if a vaccinated individual gets infected the amount of virus present is considerably higher and as a result they can infect others.  The cruise lines all started making the changes about testing and masking right after that information was published.

 

Which is also when CDC changed their land based recommendations concerning masking indoors, even for vaccinated individuals.

 

With the other variants the data indicated that if a vaccinated individual did get infected, the amount of virus present was low enough that it was unlikely that they would infect anyone else.  No so with Delta where viral loads are much higher.

[gorge girl]

31 minutes ago, Crystabel said:

We’re somewhat in the same situation. The earliest we can test is the day we fly into Seattle, since we had planned to explore the city for three days before the cruise. Now Im trying to find somewhere in Seattle to get tested and so far, can’t find anywhere we can get a rapid test at any price. 
 

An interesting side note, my DH got the notification from Princess, but I did not. If I didn’t monitor these boards or was cruising solo, I’d never know about the new requirement by Princess. And I'm completely in the green lane on the Medallion Class app., with the only thing left is to confirm my status 24 hours before boarding. So I’d be SOL. I may still be SOL! 

Try Carbon Health in Seattle.  They have several locations and it is easy to book an appointment.  They had set up a testing site at the Portland Airport earlier this spring and we used them for getting a test before flying to Hawaii.  Easy to set up appointment and easy to get a test with fast results.  We live in a rural area with no quick testing so will probably drive to Portland Airport and use Carbon Healthy again on the Thursday before our cruise that leaves on Sunday, 9/12.  Good Luck!

 

[Roberto256]

2 hours ago, CeCe_ said:

 

Perhaps someone in Ship Security uniform be able to make people do that.

 

Sure, but the people who are vaccinated, and not wearing a mask will quickly become tired of being challenged.

 

Another poster mention that royal carribbean has wrist bands to identify vaccinated folks.

 

If princess does such a thing, I will sadly watch here for instructions on how to duplicate the bands...

 

[RRFan]

3 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

I believe the Rapid Now you are referring to  is a molecular test, which I haven't done. 

Not all Molecular tests are PCR tests so I wouldn't deviate from the PCR or Antigen since Molecular alone  isn't listed as an approved Princess test. 

I would call the testing facility and maybe they can give a better explanation. 

 

Has Princess published a list of acceptable tests?  If so, could you give us a link?  That information might be very important!  Thanks!

[CeCe_]

For those who wants to cancel.  Princess will waive the cancellation fees.  We just got 2 of our 2021 bookings cancelled; keeping our 2022 bookings for now.  My best wishes to those sailings this year.

[fluffybunny22]

I have a cruise booked that leaves on a Monday and we are flying out on Saturday morning too early to schedule a test before flying out. We could get the test done Friday afternoon and still be within the 72 hour window when we board on Monday. It's still a good ways away but I don't think countries and cruise lines are going to drop the negative test requirement. I could change our EZ Air reservations and fly a different less desirable airline for basically the same price and we'd leave Saturday night.

[Syracusefan44]

5 minutes ago, CeCe_ said:

For those who wants to cancel.  Princess will waive the cancellation fees.  We just got 2 of our 2021 bookings cancelled; keeping our 2022 bookings for now.  My best wishes to those sailings this year.

I received the same information.  Cancelling until May 2023 in hopes this COVID19 travel nightmare will be over.

[Jadn13]

10 minutes ago, RRFan said:

Has Princess published a list of acceptable tests?  If so, could you give us a link?  That information might be very important!  Thanks!

PCR or Antigen

Those are the names of the test that are approved, It's in all the literature that they have been circulating. 

[RRFan]

6 minutes ago, CeCe_ said:

For those who wants to cancel.  Princess will waive the cancellation fees.  We just got 2 of our 2021 bookings cancelled; keeping our 2022 bookings for now.  My best wishes to those sailings this year.

So does this mean you get 100% refund?  or 100% future cruise on account?  That sounds like a good plan for all cruise lines at this point.  They have made a huge mess of this. 

[CSloan]

Just now, Syracusefan44 said:

I received the same information.  Cancelling until May 2023 in hopes this COVID19 travel nightmare will be over.

Do you mean waiving the fees as 100% cash refund, or partial FCCs?