Contact Tracing

[boblerm]

I am wondering if Regent is doing any sort of contact tracing?

 

The reason that I ask, is that some may have heard that on a recent voyage of the Crystal Symphony, prior to visiting Bermuda, 5 passengers tested positive and had to disembark and quarantine for 10 days in a hotel (Bermuda's rule).  I think that everyone that chooses to cruise now understands that this is a risk.  But the bigger bummer is that 14 passengers who were deemed to be "close contacts", all asymptomatic,  also had to disembark and quarantine, pending further testing (!)  😱

 

Fortunately, I believe all 14 were released from their incarceration within a few days, some chose to fly directly home, others rejoined the ship prior to it's returning to NY, but had to wear masks and maintain social distancing for the duration.  The "close contacts" were identified via Crystal's required contact tracing devices, which monitors who you have been close to, and then rats you out to the fuzz if anyone of them have tested positive.  I am booked on Symphony in 2 weeks, and am a bit concerned about this, (well, maybe a little more than a bit), but I will deal with it. 

 

Is Regent using any sort of electronic snitching device, or any other sort of contact tracing?  If you can't tell, I am hoping the answer is no.

 

Bob

[DaisyUK]

No contact tracing on our recent 11-22 cruise.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

1 hour ago, DaisyUK said:

No contact tracing on our recent 11-22 cruise.

What????

[UUNetBill]

1 hour ago, DaisyUK said:

No contact tracing on our recent 11-22 cruise.

 

7 minutes ago, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

What????

It's okay.  We know where you've been.

 

Signed,

Apple, Google and Samsung

[briar14]

No contact tracing on September 11 & 22 cruises. 

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

1 minute ago, briar14 said:

No contact tracing on September 11 & 22 cruises. 

Got it now….

[boblerm]

58 minutes ago, UUNetBill said:

 

It's okay.  We know where you've been.

 

Signed,

Apple, Google and Samsung

Point taken.  But the above do not cuff you and march you off to the brig for your associations.

Yet.

[mj_holiday]

Contract tracing not needed unless someone has tested positive.  I haven't heard of anyone on a Regent cruise testing positive.  

[Sunprince]

I been reading Regents website and Contract in quite a bit of detail lately in preparation for booking an upcoming cruise. I have not read anything related to being disembarked/quarantined when you are a close contact of a positive or suspected positive case.  In the Crystal situation, it was Bermuda that required the close contacts to be quarantined, not Crystal policy.  So it depends on where the ship docks.  For Regent, there is only reference on the R website  to a guest testing positive, and being either symptomatic or asymptotic and requiring quarantine.  Since there has been no positive case on Regent to date, we are not sure what actual practice on board would be, including any close contacts.   Regarding contract tracking, this is what the website says (it’s not very specific): “If a positive case of COVID-19 occurs, we have various contact tracing methodologies to identify and notify those who may have been exposed”. Not sure what this really means. 
 

If we do choose to cruise in the next few months, we would follow normal health and safety guidelines (of where we currently reside): wear masks, maintain social distance etc regardless of Regent policy. It no longer bothers us to wear a mask in limited social situations…it’s better than the alternative, especially when choosing to travel in the current environment,  otherwise we stay home, in front of the fireplace with a glass of wine…as we have done for the last 18 months.  At some point that gets a bit routine!  

[Portolan]

Actually, if you think about it, they have a lot of the information they'd need to contract trace.  They know your suite location and proximity to that of a positive test.  They know who you had dinner with since they always record the suite number for the table.  They record the excursions you go on.  That leaves mostly breakfast, lunch and casual social contacts.  I think many folks eat as couples for breakfast and frequently lunch.  Lounge and public venue contacts could only be traced using some form of proximity recorder which I doubt people would accept.

 

But, as previously noted, we won't know to what extent they contact people until there is a reported case on a Regent ship.

[Pudgesmom]

I don’t need a tracking device for my cruise. Regent can just access the chip implanted with my vaccine. 🤪

[boblerm]

11 hours ago, martiniking said:

 

 

I'm glad the the thought of cuffs made you think of this.  When I think of handcuffs, the first image to enter my mind is from Gerald's Game.

[boblerm]

10 hours ago, Portolan said:

Lounge and public venue contacts could only be traced using some form of proximity recorder which I doubt people would accept.

Well, people have been accepting it on Crystal. at least up until now.  Until the past Symphony cruise, no one seemed to care much since no one knew the exact ramifications.  Now that everyone knows what they are, there are lots of folks that are none too happy about it; others are pleased because they think it helps to keep them safer.

 

Cruise lines are trying to thread a needle now, they want to attract people back to cruising by generating  confidence that they can be kept safe on a ship, without turning others off by restrictive policies that dampen enjoyment of cruising.   Not so easy.  From what I am hearing, I think that Regent is on the right track, but we really won't know too much until such time that we start seeing some positive tests, and see how Regent handles it.  Nothing bad ever happens until it does.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Viking apparently has wristbands that the passengers wear, that act as proximity detectors of some kind. They've been sailing for some time now, on a limited basis, and have had stringent protocols in place, including daily testing.

[RetiredandTravel]

Great news Friday on the Merck antiviral drug.  Hopefully its successful, that would make the whole process a lot easier.  

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/01/merck-to-seek-emergency-authorization-for-oral-covid-19-treatment.html

[boblerm]

6 minutes ago, Sheila9thofJune said:

 

Boblerm, my safe word is "Neptune". What's yours? 😇

TMI, Sheila9thofJune. 😯

Only 1 person knows this info. And I sure hope it is not forgotten! 😱

[Gcto]

On 10/1/2021 at 11:38 AM, DaisyUK said:

No contact tracing on our recent 11-22 cruise.

how would you know ? I mean...contact tracing only comes to "play" when there are active cases and they want to find out who was in contact. If all was dandy and nobody was sick/infected/symptomatic/tested positive.... why do contact tracing in the open ? 

Just wondering. 

[boblerm]

13 minutes ago, Gcto said:

how would you know ? I mean...contact tracing only comes to "play" when there are active cases and they want to find out who was in contact. If all was dandy and nobody was sick/infected/symptomatic/tested positive.... why do contact tracing in the open ? 

Just wondering. 

I believe that DaisyUK was responding to my question in regard to the electronic snooping devices. 

[Gcto]

2 minutes ago, boblerm said:

I believe that DaisyUK was responding to my question in regard to the electronic snooping devices. 

Ah, I see...yes, those would be fairly obvious...   sorry. Hope we'll never need this on the upcoming trips. 

 

[Jimmcdaniel]

Gotta say…We are on Crystal now in Europe. We have contact tracers (a.k.a. snoop devices) but no masks. We will be on Splendor later in Oct. I’d rather have contact tracers than masks. 

[Jimmcdaniel]

30 minutes ago, citric bird said:

Not sure what one has to do with the other.

I’m not sure either. It’s just that one line has one requirement and the other line has the other. Im just expressing my preference. I’m hoping Regent ditches the mask requirement by the time we board in Istanbul.  Their reasoning that masks are  an “EU requirement“ doesn’t seem to square with my current experience. 

[SusieQft]

For the record, since the incident on Crystal described by the OP, Bermuda has changed their official policy.  Bermuda no longer requires asymptomatic PCR negative "close contacts" to disembark and quarantine at a hotel.  (I'm not sure if this change would apply to traveling companions, probably just to others identified by contact tracing.)  Crystal really had no choice in the matter, because they were under Bermuda jurisdiction and they had to do what Bermuda told them to do.

 

No more Crystal passengers have tested positive since the initial incident, and in this constantly changing world we don't know for sure how it would be handled in the future.  But it sounds like some lessons were learned and if there is a next time, the impact on PCR negative passengers will probably be significantly less bad.

 

Other cruise lines, including Regent, should also be the beneficiaries of the lessons learned from this event since the magnitude of the negative impact was driven by Bermuda.

Edited October 9, 2021 by SusieQft