Mandatory Vac requirement - when lifted?

[msufan90]

My family is scheduled to cruise on the NCL Bliss on 12/26, Mexican Riviera out of LA.  Right now NCL has a mandatory Vac policy on sailings through 10/31/21.  All of the adults in my family have the vaccine but not the 3 and 11 year old.   I don't have a good feeling that this policy will be lifted before our cruise and final payment date of 8/27.  Any thoughts?

 

 

Mandatory Vaccinations Against Covid-19 on Initial Voyages

All guests and crew must be fully vaccinated, at least 2 weeks prior to departure, in order to board. Guest vaccination requirements are currently for all sailings embarking through October 31, 2021– we will follow the science to make determinations on requirements for all other future sailings.

 

[zerooveride]

As you have said, right now it is only until 10/31/2021. Recently they have extended the 60-day cancellation policy through 3/31/2022 (i believe). I would be shocked if the vaccine requirement isn't extended through at least the end of 2021. With the rise of the Delta variant NCL would be smart to remain cautious. NCL has repeatedly said that they want their ships to be safer than we would be out in our normal everyday lives. I would tread with caution yourself and not be surprised to see this requirement date to be extended. 

[www3traveler]

If I read the latest information from NCL, your final payment date would be late October.   There should be a better idea of vaccine requirements will be by then.

[ziggyuk]

I agree with the above, I doubt the vaccination requirement will go away any time soon, I think it's more likely they will allow under 12s unvaccinated instead.

Even that, I believe is very unlikely but more chance than removing the requirement entirely.

[ColeThornton]

Nothing is changing anytime soon and neither are the policies, at least that's what my crystal ball says and it just came out of the repair shop.

 

I wouldn't be making a 8/27 final payment if I were in your shoes.

[Karaboudjan]

I wonder...

 

According the the latest schedule I saw they plan to have 11 ships operating over the end of year holiday period, and I think many of them would in theory be ready to sail at full capacity.  You would expect a lot of families to normally cruise at that time, so excluding younger children will probably be a significant hit on revenue.

 

Also, who knows what else will change by then?  Maybe even NCL will have to institute masking and other protocols which 100% vaccination was supposed to avoid, so the NCL experience may not be that different than other lines.  Or maybe NCL will have no better success in keeping COVID off the ships than the lines going with 95% vaccination.

[zerooveride]

The FDA is expected to give Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccine for children sometime in the Fall/Winter for children age 5 and older. There is mounting pressure for the FDA to fast track this so that is available sooner.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/covid-vaccine-timeline-children-12/story?id=79367125

[roger001]

With the situation now, answers are no more than a WAG, all equally right... or wrong.  It's a mess to try and figure anything.

[armwinder]

I had the Pfizer Moderna vaccine mix here in Canada, therefore do not meet the FDA or NCL vaccine requirements. WE had a cruise out of Rome to New York at the end of November but realize this is not going to happen for us.  We doubt any vaccine requirements will be lifted or modified before our final payment in September.

They just extended our final payment date for a cruise in March of next year and we hope some changes are made by then otherwise we will be forced to cancel. 

[msufan90]

On 8/11/2021 at 11:44 AM, www3traveler said:

If I read the latest information from NCL, your final payment date would be late October.   There should be a better idea of vaccine requirements will be by then.

Our final payment is due the end of Aug not Oct because we have purchased airfare thru NCL.  We may end up removing the airfare and that would buy us until the end of Oct for final payment.   

[Named-Tawny]

On 8/11/2021 at 2:49 PM, armwinder said:

I had the Pfizer Moderna vaccine mix here in Canada, therefore do not meet the FDA or NCL vaccine requirements. WE had a cruise out of Rome to New York at the end of November but realize this is not going to happen for us.  We doubt any vaccine requirements will be lifted or modified before our final payment in September.

They just extended our final payment date for a cruise in March of next year and we hope some changes are made by then otherwise we will be forced to cancel. 

AFAIK, for sailings outside of US Ports (eg Rome) they do accept mixed Pfizer/Moderna vaccines.

https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruise-faq/what-vaccines-will-be-accepted

[armwinder]

57 minutes ago, Named-Tawny said:

AFAIK, for sailings outside of US Ports (eg Rome) they do accept mixed Pfizer/Moderna vaccines.

https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruise-faq/what-vaccines-will-be-accepted

Unfortunately we will be disembarking in New York therefore are not considered fully vaccinated as I received a Pfizer Moderna mix.  

[AwesomO]

I doubt it will go away. More and more countries are requiring people to be fully vaxxed when traveling through/to them. If NCL lifts their policy, that will continue to limit the ports they're able to visit. 

[roger001]

Until this morning, I didn't know RCL was requiring all guests to be vaccinated, mostly, except. And this is where it gets more tricky, fully vaccinated when sailing out of US ports, except Florida, unless the countries visited from Florida require vaccinations, then that cruise must be fully vaccinated.  The news article I was reading said they left some guests behind at Seattle who didn't know about the fully vaccinated requirement.....out of Seattle.  

[spfar]

15 minutes ago, roger001 said:

Until this morning, I didn't know RCL was requiring all guests to be vaccinated, mostly, except. And this is where it gets more tricky, fully vaccinated when sailing out of US ports, except Florida, unless the countries visited from Florida require vaccinations, then that cruise must be fully vaccinated.  The news article I was reading said they left some guests behind at Seattle who didn't know about the fully vaccinated requirement.....out of Seattle.  

I don't know how they could have not known.  Besides several emails clearly stating the vaccine requirement, you must sign an attestation as part of check in stating that you are fully vaxxed.

[davencl]

3 hours ago, spfar said:

I don't know how they could have not known.  Besides several emails clearly stating the vaccine requirement, you must sign an attestation as part of check in stating that you are fully vaxxed.

Yes I doubt the news article was accurate.  There is no way a guest didn't know. 

 

[spfar]

50 minutes ago, davencl said:

Yes I doubt the news article was accurate.  There is no way a guest didn't know. 

 

I just found the article.  It was a RC ship, not NCL.  https://www.wftv.com/news/trending/coronavirus-unvaccinated-passengers-barred-entry-over-royal-caribbean-covid-19-protocols/EIZDMVVA4RGVBGLODKHS6WF2LE/

[TFLG]

Pretty sure until the zombie apocalypse is well behind us there will be vaccine mandates.  Especially with the new variants popping up every other month and the new Lambda variant seems more able to infect vaccinated people. So lets hope that doesn't start spreading like the Delta. NCL seems to be dead set on 100% and that almost makes it an adult only cruise line right now since (in Cali) the vaccine isn't being given to kids under 12.

The cruise lines can't afford to screw this restart up and possibly get shut down again. So I don't see them allowing unvaccinated guests on until Covid burns out.  Some lines do allow a few like RCCL but then you have mask mandates, additional costs for testing etc. It will be interesting to see if those lines continue to allow unvaccinated passengers for much longer.

[LNielsen]

Vaccine requirement extended through December 31, 2021.  
 

https://www.ncl.com/sail-safe#t4m1

[msufan90]

Thank you for the update!

 

[LNielsen]

1 hour ago, msufan90 said:

Thank you for the update!

 

You’re welcome. 

[BirdTravels]

On 8/15/2021 at 1:54 PM, spfar said:

I just found the article.  It was a RC ship, not NCL.  https://www.wftv.com/news/trending/coronavirus-unvaccinated-passengers-barred-entry-over-royal-caribbean-covid-19-protocols/EIZDMVVA4RGVBGLODKHS6WF2LE/

So you realize that this is mainstream media sensationalized fake news. The cruise line had mandatory vaccination rules. The people showed up unvaccinated and were denied boarding. End of story. If you show up to a NCL cruise unvaccinated, you would be denied boarding. 
 

I have two Royal Caribbean reservations and am bombarded with information on the requirements for sailing from each specific port. Other than not caring what the rules are, there is no way not know the minimum requirements for Royal a cruise. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

56 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

So you realize that this is mainstream media sensationalized fake news. The cruise line had mandatory vaccination rules.

I've read several thread about this here on the forum and I don't recall any posters suggesting that there was any legitimacy in their complaints whatsoever.  My guess is that they just showed up at the port without even attempting advanced check-in (where they would have encountered all the right communications).  There are some folks in this world still living in the seventies.  They call their travel agent (using their land line) and the agent takes their money (probably a personal check) and sends them a confirmation.

[Laszlo]

Their is no way it will be lifted anytime soon. It will go on for years. Can you imagine what would happen if their was a big breakout of or two and the cruise line had to shut down again...... It would be game over

[Firstin87]

4 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

So you realize that this is mainstream media sensationalized fake news. The cruise line had mandatory vaccination rules. The people showed up unvaccinated and were denied boarding. End of story. If you show up to a NCL cruise unvaccinated, you would be denied boarding. 
 

I have two Royal Caribbean reservations and am bombarded with information on the requirements for sailing from each specific port. Other than not caring what the rules are, there is no way not know the minimum requirements for Royal a cruise. 

Bird,

 

Glad you have returned to your nest safely.  Loved your thread about the Encore's sailing.  We're on the Bliss' first sailing in Oct. and your thread was so helpful.

 

I cannot imagine anyone claiming ignorance of the COVID policies.  We have heard it from both  NCL and our travel agent.  Surely these people did, too.  Guessing they didn't read any emails from NCL.  Also, common sense (which is not all that common) should tell one to check constantly the last few weeks before any trip for COVID changes.

 

Sorry they were disappointed, but just do not support their complaint that the cruise line should help them.  Being treated like "they were at fault" is what happens when they are at fault.  Not sure why the article has to take a tone that the cruise line somehow owed them something.