New Bahamas Vax Requirements

[dswallow]

Just now, livingonthebeach said:

 

Yes, you're right, those with underlying medical conditions are probably not going to be cruising anyway.  I was thinking more of the people who use religious and philosophical reasons. 

 

While Royal Caribbean does provide for them, most likely due to US ADA requirements, The Bahamas doesn't need to pander for religion. And their executive order does not provide that exclusion. 🙂

[smplybcause]

32 minutes ago, dswallow said:

 

No cruises have changed. There are simply now 64 Royal Caribbean sailings over the 9/3 to 11/1 period from Florida ports that are available only to those age 12 and older who provide proof of vaccination. And there are 5, all starting near the end of October that remain available from Florida ports to those who choose not to provide proof of vaccination, and about 9 more that will have sailed and returned before the new requirement from The Bahamas comes into effect.

 

 

I do not see on Royals website where they make that distinction. It says all September cruises. But I may have missed exceptions. 

 

If they did they're stupid. Opens them up way too much to "but I thought mine was one I didn't need the vaccine for" stories.

[shipmate13]

So we are scheduled to leave Florida on Allure of the Seas August 29th. Our stop on the 3rd is in Nassau and on the 4th is the private island coco cay.  What's to say that Royal Caribbean could change the course and head to those ports first avoiding the new rule which begins September 3rd?  Am I wrong in thinking that it is possible for Royal Caribbean to consider that move?  We are vaccinated so covered no matter what.  I am praying for the day that these post will no longer exist about COVID and that will take a bit if we don't get serious about consequences. 

[Ocean Boy]

15 minutes ago, dswallow said:

 

It looks like the Symphony of the Seas sailing I linked to has a visit to St. Thomas on 11/3/2021, so I guess it might be excluded too from non-vaccinated passengers if the USVI still has that restriction in effect then.

So we're talking almost all Caribbean sailings having vaccination rules. Might as well include the 4 unaffected sailing. It would help avoid confusion.

[coffeebean]

4 hours ago, dswallow said:

 

What it can and will change is removing all unvaccinated passengers among all ages of people who are eligible to be vaccinated other than those with some documented medical reason they cannot be vaccinated.

Is the Bahamas allowing vaccine medical exemptions? The link in the original post did not mention that. Seems ALL passengers 12 and above must be vaccinated.

[Ocean Boy]

6 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

 

I do not see on Royals website where they make that distinction. It says all September cruises. But I may have missed exceptions. 

 

If they did they're stupid. Opens them up way too much to "but I thought mine was one I didn't need the vaccine for" stories.

Those folks may face the same result as the folks in Seattle.... waving to the ship as it sails away.

[dswallow]

6 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

 

I do not see on Royals website where they make that distinction. It says all September cruises. But I may have missed exceptions. 

 

If they did they're stupid. Opens them up way too much to "but I thought mine was one I didn't need the vaccine for" stories.

 

Well, actually there are no September sailings from Florida ports that aren't affected by The Bahamas executive order. No sailings depart on 9/1 or 9/2 at all, and the couple at the end of August don't visit The Bahamas on or after September 3, and one that does get affected (but technically those aren't "September Sailings" either).

There are 5 in October that aren't. Though one of those 5 is affected by the similar requirement of the US Virgin Islands. So coming up in October there could potentially be 4 sailings from Florida ports that will actually sail allowing some unvaccinated people 12 and over. At least until another country steps up with a similar requirement. 🙂

 

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by dswallow

[jrapps]

1 minute ago, dswallow said:

 

Well, actually there are no September sailings from Florida ports that aren't affected by The Bahamas executive order. No sailings depart on 9/1 or 9/2 at all, and the couple at the end of August don't visit The Bahamas on or after September 3 (but technically those aren't "September Sailings" either).

There are 5 in October that aren't. Though one of those 5 is affected by the similar requirement of the US Virgin Islands. So coming up in October there could potentially be 4 sailings from Florida ports that will actually sail allowing some unvaccinated people 12 and over. At least until another country steps up with a similar requirement. 🙂

I've said it before, I'll say it again. This all ends with a consolidation of rules. Doesn't matter where you are going, what ship you are on, or what state or port you depart from....all US sailings are going to have the same requirements. Vaccines, Masks, whatever they are. Same rules, regardless of sailings. Then there is no more confusion and ambiguity.

 

Today's announcements just bring us closer to this.

 

And if you think this won't get extended by the Bahamas before it expires on November 1st, then you are watching a different pandemic than I am.

[smplybcause]

6 minutes ago, shipmate13 said:

So we are scheduled to leave Florida on Allure of the Seas August 29th. Our stop on the 3rd is in Nassau and on the 4th is the private island coco cay.  What's to say that Royal Caribbean could change the course and head to those ports first avoiding the new rule which begins September 3rd?  Am I wrong in thinking that it is possible for Royal Caribbean to consider that move?  We are vaccinated so covered no matter what.  I am praying for the day that these post will no longer exist about COVID and that will take a bit if we don't get serious about consequences. 

 

Your cruise is specifically listed as one that has vaccines required. They listed a handful of August cruises that will still be sailing come Sept 3 as needing to be vax.

[dswallow]

6 minutes ago, shipmate13 said:

So we are scheduled to leave Florida on Allure of the Seas August 29th. Our stop on the 3rd is in Nassau and on the 4th is the private island coco cay.  What's to say that Royal Caribbean could change the course and head to those ports first avoiding the new rule which begins September 3rd?  Am I wrong in thinking that it is possible for Royal Caribbean to consider that move?  We are vaccinated so covered no matter what.  I am praying for the day that these post will no longer exist about COVID and that will take a bit if we don't get serious about consequences. 

 

Subject to any CDC requirements about US departure ships visiting CocoCay one ship at a time to allow no mask requirement, and Nassau and the other ports being able to adjust the schedule, sure. I'm sure there's going to be some announcement forthcoming one way or the other for you if you're booked on it.

[Babr]

3 minutes ago, coffeebean said:

Is the Bahamas allowing vaccine medical exemptions? The link in the original post did not mention that. Seems ALL passengers 12 and above must be vaccinated.

Yes. It is further down in the order. Perhaps you did not see it. Section 2c. Order does not apply to those ineligible for vaccine because of medical reasons.

[dswallow]

7 minutes ago, coffeebean said:

Is the Bahamas allowing vaccine medical exemptions? The link in the original post did not mention that. Seems ALL passengers 12 and above must be vaccinated.

 

Answered a little earlier in the thread; yes they permit medical exemptions.

[Jkaczanowski]

Just received email protocols for our Sept 26 Oasis sailing. 
 

[smplybcause]

5 minutes ago, dswallow said:

 

Well, actually there are no September sailings from Florida ports that aren't affected by The Bahamas executive order. No sailings depart on 9/1 or 9/2 at all, and the couple at the end of August don't visit The Bahamas on or after September 3, and one that does get affected (but technically those aren't "September Sailings" either).

There are 5 in October that aren't. Though one of those 5 is affected by the similar requirement of the US Virgin Islands. So coming up in October there could potentially be 4 sailings from Florida ports that will actually sail allowing some unvaccinated people 12 and over. At least until another country steps up with a similar requirement. 🙂

 

 

 

Ah and they haven't said anything about Oct yet. I'd be surprised if they did. It was probably annoying enough when it was just St Thomas. Now that they're pretty much all in on vax I'd think they'd stick with it. We'll see! 

[smplybcause]

8 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Those folks may face the same result as the folks in Seattle.... waving to the ship as it sails away.

 

Undoubtedly... it's just the Florida may be more sympathetic to their plight that I would want to avoid. No need to hand politicians something to rant about. 

[shipmate13]

5 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

 

Your cruise is specifically listed as one that has vaccines required. They listed a handful of August cruises that will still be sailing come Sept 3 as needing to be vax.

Oh I was under the assumption that it said those 12 and older they highly recommend being vaccinated on our cruise.  I must of read that wrong for our August 29th cruise

[smplybcause]

5 minutes ago, shipmate13 said:

Oh I was under the assumption that it said those 12 and older they highly recommend being vaccinated on our cruise.  I must of read that wrong for our August 29th cruise

 

The protocols communicated here apply to cruises departing Florida in August 2021, with the exception of Allure of the Seas departing August 22nd and August 29th, as well as Symphony of the Seas departing August 21st and August 29th. Guests onboard these sailings should instead refer to this page for their travel requirements.

 

It's supposed to link to the Sept Florida page which states everyone 12+ must be vaccinated but I'm not sure if it's doing it correctly.

Edited August 20, 2021 by smplybcause

[dswallow]

3 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

 

The protocols communicated here apply to cruises departing Florida in August 2021, with the exception of Allure of the Seas departing August 22nd and August 29th, as well as Symphony of the Seas departing August 21st and August 29th. Guests onboard these sailings should instead refer to this page for their travel requirements.

 

It's supposed to link to the Sept Florida page but I'm not sure if it's doing it correctly.

 

They've screwed up their ability to link to some of the individual US port protocols and have the drop-down appear as they want because they all share the same verbiage now except Florida(August) and have the same value of "united-states". So your link is right, but it'll select the first US port, which currently is Cape Liberty, from the drop-down when it displays.

 

[Espn]

I am curious what this means for the on ship protocols like masking and vaccinated only lounges and if there will be changes coming. This just seems kind of pointless now. I know RC still has to account for unvaccinated kids but all lounges and some venues should now be vaccinated which would be most adults. 

[smplybcause]

7 minutes ago, Espn said:

I am curious what this means for the on ship protocols like masking and vaccinated only lounges and if there will be changes coming. This just seems kind of pointless now. I know RC still has to account for unvaccinated kids but all lounges and some venues should now be vaccinated which would be most adults. 

 

Nothing. Royal ships are still approved to sail under the test cruise protocols which includes masking inside. Considering it has the same on-ship protocols in ports that always were vax only - this will change nothing. Royal still doesn't want to turn away kids too young to be vaccinated so they can't (and don't want to) guarantee 95%+ vax.

[abpplh]

Folks - the new law for the Bahamas and St Thomas says that anyone 12 and over must be vaccinated.  Children that are not eligible for vaccine yet can still go - just more testing involved on RCCL.  NCL is only taking vaccinated passengers 12 adn up.

[RFerrington]

1 hour ago, zekekelso said:

 
There’s like four hurricanes lined up and headed that way. Note: I don’t actually know if there are hurricanes headed to Mexico. At one point there were. All I’m trying to say - very poorly obviously - is that there’s a lot going on in this part of the cruising world right now. 

Ok. Gotcha. I thought you were saying that Mexico had a vacation requirement like Bahamas an USVI.  Thanks

[dswallow]

1 minute ago, RFerrington said:

Ok. Gotcha. I thought you were saying that Mexico had a vacation requirement like Bahamas an USVI.  Thanks

 

It always bothers me when Mexico required vacations. Glad I'm not alone in that.

 

[RFerrington]

13 minutes ago, dswallow said:

 

It always bothers me when Mexico required vacations. Glad I'm not alone in that.

 

Oops. Missed that typo

[atgood]

So before Bahamas’ new requirement, 20 unvax’d passengers go on a RCI cruise, 10 who chose not to be vax’d and 10 who can’t be b/c of medical issues.  
 

With Bahamas’ new requirement, 20 unvax’d passengers go on a RCI cruise, all who qualify under the medical exemption.  How is the new scenario going to be any safer?