Back to Back Covid Testing

[bardstowntraveller]

Has anyone recently done a back to back cruise?  If so, is testing required between cruises?     How is testing administered?  Did you have to disembark?  Currently have back to back scheduled sailing from Fort Lauderdale and want to be prepared

[chrysalis]

read the last couple of pages of the "live from the Grand" thread.

 

[chrysalis]

We have 4 back to backs in  Nov/Dec out of FLL, but don't necessarily expect the procedures there to be the same as on the Grand.

[SargassoPirate]

I'm waiting to see what happens in January.  I have a fourteen day cruise booked.  It was also sold as single seven day cruises.  My fourteen day is not a back-to-back, but a single cruise.

 

Hopefully by then all of the attention on testing will be focused on something else.  

 

Wishful thinking.

[skynight]

1 minute ago, SargassoPirate said:

I'm waiting to see what happens in January.  I have a fourteen day cruise booked.  It was also sold as single seven day cruises.  My fourteen day is not a back-to-back, but a single cruise.

 

Hopefully by then all of the attention on testing will be focused on something else.  

 

Wishful thinking.

While booked as a single cruise with a single booking number your 14 day cruise will actually be two 7 day cruises b2b. If your turnaround is at a U.S. port then you will have to go through the immigration process on turn around day, and you may have to have a negative covid test. 

[QuilterGirl]

We were B2B on the Majestic in Alaska - just arrived home this morning.  We were not required to disembark between voyages, but that was doubtless because of the special circumstances this year in that we never left the United States (no stop in Victoria; no train across the border in Skagway).  We were, however, assigned an appointment for a BinexNOW test in the Medical Center, given the day before turnaround day.  It was done just as you would do it at home, but no video supervision.  The tester person would do the nasal part for you, or you could do it yourself (YMMV) - the tester did the drop stuff and packaging up for the 15-minute wait.  We were not contacted if we passed (and were told this in advance).  We didn't have to pack up our stuff in case we had negative results (but we were staying in the same room both cruises).

 

If testing is still a "thing" when we do a B2B (but booked as a single cruise) out of FLL in January 2022, I would expect we would be tested on the ship between segments but would have to disembark for immigration and then be let back on with "transit" cards. 

Edited October 3, 2021 by QuilterGirl

[mellon1]

Yes, various threads...things ever evolving and changes.

 

 our friend from St. Thomas, who is now in Florida, and his friend in St. Thomas, died.  She had the vaccine, but she had diabetes.  Two days she just had minimal symptoms, but then it turned for the worse and she could not get in Ft. L Hospital as it was full.  By the time she went to Orlando, she was on a ventilator and died.  

 

He just said he knows the islands being from St. Thomas and now moving to Florida, which is high covid rate, but he said many of the islanders do not believe in the vaccine and are not getting it, so you may stay on the ship and others go off bringing it on board.  Just FYI from someone looking out for us.  

 

NOTE:  This is our own opinion, and just putting it out there.

 

 

 

[SargassoPirate]

6 hours ago, skynight said:

While booked as a single cruise with a single booking number your 14 day cruise will actually be two 7 day cruises b2b. If your turnaround is at a U.S. port then you will have to go through the immigration process on turn around day, and you may have to have a negative covid test. 

If it's two separate cruises, then I should be able to purchase a bottle of scotch in the shop on the last day of the first cruise and take it with me or have it delivered to my cabin that evening.

 

They should also close out my account and start a new one for the second leg.

 

I'll see how it all works.  

Edited October 3, 2021 by SargassoPirate

[caribill]

8 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

If it's two separate cruises, then I should be able to purchase a bottle of scotch in the shop on the last day of the first cruise and take it with me or have it delivered to my cabin that evening.

 

They should also close out my account and start a new one for the second leg.

 

I'll see how it all works.  

 

a) The computer system in the shop can show you will be on the ship for the next segment and they may notice that and not let you take the bottle with you. However, they often have tables set up in front of the shop for liquor sales that last day and in the past (pre-Medallion) they write the info on a sales receipt ans enter it into their system long after you have left with the bottle.

 

b) On a B2B, whether booked as a single cruise or two cruises, Princess usually carries the account from the first segment over to the second.

[skynight]

13 hours ago, SargassoPirate said:

If it's two separate cruises, then I should be able to purchase a bottle of scotch in the shop on the last day of the first cruise and take it with me or have it delivered to my cabin that evening.

 

They should also close out my account and start a new one for the second leg.

 

I'll see how it all works.  

Scotch - Maybe, but Princess knows your final disembarkation date and generally delivers alcoholic purchases the evening before you disembark.

Princess does not close out your account(s). Your account with any credit or debit balance will carry over on turn around day. You will receive one final invoice on the day you disembark. 

[skynight]

18 hours ago, QuilterGirl said:

We were B2B on the Majestic in Alaska - just arrived home this morning.  We were not required to disembark between voyages, but that was doubtless because of the special circumstances this year in that we never left the United States (no stop in Victoria; no train across the border in Skagway). 

There are special conditions this year as the ship never visits a foreign port. Interesting to note that when ships sailed Vancouver to Whitter and then back passengers doing the two 7 day sailings b2b did not have to go through immigration at the first U.S. port of Ketchikan nor in Whitter on turn around day. That was because passengers already passed through U.S. immigration in Vancouver as they boarded.