THE Big Problem With Cruising as a Canadian Resident Right Now....

[Britchip]

31 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Given the general level of success in keeping cruises COVID free since the restart, I have to wonder how long the GOC will keep the cruise travel advisory in place. As many have posted on CC post-cruise, they felt safer aboard a cruise ship with everyone fully vaccinated and tested than they do going to do their grocery shopping at home.

I know the two have no correlation but I fail to see how the GOC can lift the ban on cruise ships entering Canadian ports in November whilst still telling Canadians not to cruise. It just seems counter intuitive to me. My first trip is next February and I have my daughter who is an insurance broker working on getting insurance coverage for me which is proving a little problematic right now.

[Fouremco]

2 minutes ago, Britchip said:

I know the two have no correlation but I fail to see how the GOC can lift the ban on cruise ships entering Canadian ports in November whilst still telling Canadians not to cruise. It just seems counter intuitive to me. My first trip is next February and I have my daughter who is an insurance broker working on getting insurance coverage for me which is proving a little problematic right now.

It will be interesting to see if the lifting of the cruise ship ban triggers a reevaluation of the cruise advisory. Similarly, should the US finally lift the border restrictions on October 21st, it would be ridiculous having snowbirds and others heading south for holidays in some of the worst COVID-infected regions but the cruise advisory remaining in place.

[broberts]

51 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Given the general level of success in keeping cruises COVID free since the restart, I have to wonder how long the GOC will keep the cruise travel advisory in place. As many have posted on CC post-cruise, they felt safer aboard a cruise ship with everyone fully vaccinated and tested than they do going to do their grocery shopping at home.

 

The premise is questionable at best. Thanks to vaccines and enforced mitigation protocols there have been no serious outbreaks but the fact is that a significant number of ships have enough covid cases to warrant CDC investigation.

 

GOC will use actual data to make its decisions. 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, broberts said:

 

The premise is questionable at best. Thanks to vaccines and enforced mitigation protocols there have been no serious outbreaks but the fact is that a significant number of ships have enough covid cases to warrant CDC investigation.

 

GOC will use actual data to make its decisions. 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html

I'm not sure that 15 out of 80 ships constitutes a significant number of ships being investigated, but more importantly, not a single ship has a red colour status. The threshold for a ship being placed in the yellow category is very low. On a cruise with 1000 passengers, a single case of COVID would trigger an investigation. If the CDC rules were applied to schools here in Ontario, there would be a mass of reds and yellows, yet we send our kids daily with no testing and all the U12 unvaccinated.

 

Our "go to" line, Celebrity, is all green. My only reservation is the time spent on the plane (no vaccine mandate as yet) and the time in Florida pre-cruise, but my time aboard doesn't concern me.

[broberts]

4 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I'm not sure that 15 out of 80 ships constitutes a significant number of ships being investigated, but more importantly, not a single ship has a red colour status. The threshold for a ship being placed in the yellow category is very low. On a cruise with 1000 passengers, a single case of COVID would trigger an investigation. If the CDC rules were applied to schools here in Ontario, there would be a mass of reds and yellows, yet we send our kids daily with no testing and all the U12 unvaccinated.

 

Our "go to" line, Celebrity, is all green. My only reservation is the time spent on the plane (no vaccine mandate as yet) and the time in Florida pre-cruise, but my time aboard doesn't concern me.

 

If 18.75% is not significant, what is?

[Fouremco]

24 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

If 18.75% is not significant, what is?

LOL. I'd go with 25%. 😇

[Ginnyfyr]

On 10/1/2021 at 1:17 PM, Welly9 said:

lets not forget at ~$300+/- USD each

Nomi Health does the PCR testing at Miami and FLL airports. $159 US per person and results in 30 mins to an hour (as per my online chat with one of their staffers last week). 

[Welly9]

thats very good actually, have to be careful they are located before security, or you cant get to them which is dumb, the one in Houston is after security! 

there is one outside 10 min from airport, $250 test, 30 min...i tell you - these people know how to capitalize on a crisis!

[CalgaryMac]

On 9/14/2021 at 6:50 PM, Ginnyfyr said:

@K-_e_short out of curiosity, are the 2 cases at your school unvaccinated kids or vaccinated teachers?

 

Being stuck out of the country wouldn't be such a big deal if insurance companies were including quarantine coverage, especially since not all cruise lines are taking care of their passengers if they have to quarantine. Manulife only includes it for trips 31 days and longer. Blue Cross now covers cruises but medical costs only, not the cost of quarantine. Tugo's website says they include quarantine costs but doesn't specify if there's a minimum trip duration. I'm debating on bringing my laptop so I can still work if, god forbid, my husband or I tests positive at the end of our upcoming cruise. 

If you are not in a location with modern hospitals I might be concerned. Some of the cruises that we have been on stopped in locations where I questions the modernity of their medical services - certainly not like in Canada. Do I want to be in that situation if I need more complicated or intensive interventions? Not me.

[Land&Sea_Cruiser]

Well, we decided to roll the dice and starting our drive to Port Everglades n Monday for our cruise starting Friday. Our #1 focus in this land of uncovered faces is too stay safe and uninfected. We think driving gives us a better chance at this. 

We just past the 1st hurdle and were able to follow what others posted and visited CVS this morning and got 2 free Rapid antigen tests. We used a local address and our DL as our ID. Worked like a charm (thx US Gov).

Now we just need the hoped for change to cruising adversary status to drop from level 4 which Manulife Insurnace believes should happen tonight. Sure hope that goes through or we need to go with option B.

If we keep thinking happy thoughts, maybe the GoC will shift the required testing to Antigen or even not required for returning vaccinated Canadians. Here’s hoping!

[mattR]

1 hour ago, Land&Sea_Cruiser said:

 

We just past the 1st hurdle and were able to follow what others posted and visited CVS this morning and got 2 free Rapid antigen tests. We used a local address and our DL as our ID. Worked like a charm (thx US Gov).

Can you expand on this for me please. 

[Land&Sea_Cruiser]

22 hours ago, mattR said:

Can you expand on this for me please. 

We stayed overnight car camping in South Carolina. I looked up the address of a local hotel and used that as my address. For ID, I used my drivers license # but used SC instead of Ontario on the CVS form. With that info. I was able to book an appointment at the local CVS for yesterday morning (at 9:30am, i booked an 11:20am appointment). When i showed up, i said i had no insurance and showed them my DL as ID. Didn't think it was going to work but it saved me US$260. (for 2 of us).

[mattR]

So they knew you were from Canada?  Did they know you were going on a cruise? 

[Froufie]

On 10/4/2021 at 4:23 PM, Ginnyfyr said:

Nomi Health does the PCR testing at Miami and FLL airports. $159 US per person and results in 30 mins to an hour (as per my online chat with one of their staffers last week). 

Just did an online chat with Nomi - they are saying the the PCR test is $99 at FLL with results in 24-48 hours - HUH?  How is that helpful LOL

 

[Froufie]

10 minutes ago, Froufie said:

Just did an online chat with Nomi - they are saying the the PCR test is $99 at FLL with results in 24-48 hours - HUH?  How is that helpful LOL

 

second chat and their 'tune' has changed!

 

We offer a Rapid RT-PCR and Rapid antigen test for at Fort Lauderdale.

We offer Rapid RT-PCR for $159 and Rapid Antigen test for $59 tax included.

Result will be provided for Rapid RT-PCR within 30 minutes while Rapid antigen test will be within 1 hour.

 

Assume the Rapid RT-PCR test is acceptable for return to Canada (and let's hoping that changes real soon as well!)  Cruising in January!

 

[Land&Sea_Cruiser]

On 11/18/2021 at 8:30 PM, mattR said:

So they knew you were from Canada?  Did they know you were going on a cruise? 

'They' was a young lady stuck in a small test centre who did look at my DL so she knew I was Canadian but as I assumed did not care. I had the required approval from the online system and all she did was verify the approved person was me. I am sure somewhere down the line some auditor may find the  0.1% of tests were as expected but I don't think I am breaking the system.