Rare PaulMCO Posted December 11, 2021 #1 Share Posted December 11, 2021 (edited) We were at the Port of St Maarten yesterday. Next to our ship NCL Epic was berthed. We were walking around the port and we saw many NCL crew members around the port and they were for most part all without masks. Most cruise lines are requiring crew members to remain on the ship to remain in the Covid free bubble. NCL apparently does not. Furthermore masks on shore were a requirement and of course these crew are mixing with local vendors who's COVID history/status is unknown. Just find this really bad policy. We just came back from Argentina, where our Quark Expedition cruise was cancelled because 10 crew had contracted COVID by introducing new crew who were not in a COVID bubble. So if you read the EPIC has COVID in the near future, St Maarten was its cause. Edited December 11, 2021 by PaulMCO 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsTabbyKats Posted December 11, 2021 #2 Share Posted December 11, 2021 Give them a break....let them have some fresh air for a few minutes. 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare PaulMCO Posted December 11, 2021 Author #3 Share Posted December 11, 2021 (edited) My title is 100% correct. Poor policy. Next thread will be NCL crew gets COVID.... So Breakaway issues have no bearing.... Edited December 11, 2021 by PaulMCO 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lixogab Posted December 11, 2021 #4 Share Posted December 11, 2021 From I heard from a crew member (Breakaway) crew doesn’t have shore leave. At all. So the only crew members you could see were the ones where working. It doesn’t make any sense to wear mask outside unless you are in a very crowded place ( think Times Square). With that I think NCL policy is pretty good. May be they can tighten it little bit by setting expiration on last vaccination and doing more frequent tests. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare craig01020 Posted December 11, 2021 #5 Share Posted December 11, 2021 19 minutes ago, PaulMCO said: So Breakaway issues have no bearing Correct. Breakaway issues are blown out of proportion. NO ONE GOT SICK. The goal of the vaccine is to prevent severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths. It worked! 14 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkrickles1 Posted December 11, 2021 #6 Share Posted December 11, 2021 1 hour ago, PaulMCO said: We were at the Port of St Maarten yesterday. Next to our ship NCL Epic was berthed. We were walking around the port and we saw many NCL crew members around the port and they were for most part all without masks. Most cruise lines are requiring crew members to remain on the ship to remain in the Covid free bubble. NCL apparently does not. Furthermore masks on shore were a requirement and of course these crew are mixing with local vendors who's COVID history/status is unknown. Just find this really bad policy. We just came back from Argentina, where our Quark Expedition cruise was cancelled because 10 crew had contracted COVID by introducing new crew who were not in a COVID bubble. So if you read the EPIC has COVID in the near future, St Maarten was its cause. Bad take. And totally unnecessary. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BirdTravels Posted December 11, 2021 #7 Share Posted December 11, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, PaulMCO said: My title is 100% correct. Poor policy. Next thread will be NCL crew gets COVID.... So Breakaway issues have no bearing.... You are making statements that are absolutely not true. This is like main stream media sensationalism taking a bunch of unrelated facts and stringing them together to draw an invalid conclusion. Edited December 11, 2021 by BirdTravels 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionkingrichard Posted December 11, 2021 #8 Share Posted December 11, 2021 1 hour ago, craig01020 said: Correct. Breakaway issues are blown out of proportion. NO ONE GOT SICK. The goal of the vaccine is to prevent severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths. It worked! Well they must have been sick or they would not have been tested? I know if I over eat or have a hangover I'm not asking for a covid test! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare craig01020 Posted December 11, 2021 #9 Share Posted December 11, 2021 5 minutes ago, Lionkingrichard said: Well they must have been sick or they would not have been tested? Having minor symptoms and being sick are different things. Did you hear of any hospitalizations? I didn't think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oteixeira Posted December 11, 2021 #10 Share Posted December 11, 2021 So you are saying fully vaccinated people were outside in fresh air without masks on? Do tell..... Seems St Maarten thinks it is OK as long as they can social distance from others (read through the requirements).https://stmaartenehas.com/general-information/ 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raitch Posted December 11, 2021 #11 Share Posted December 11, 2021 24 minutes ago, Lionkingrichard said: Well they must have been sick or they would not have been tested? I know if I over eat or have a hangover I'm not asking for a covid test! You’ve heard of routine testing, right? You know, then they test you on a regular schedule even when you have no symptoms- like they do with the crew on NCL? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Turtles06 Posted December 11, 2021 #12 Share Posted December 11, 2021 I found the thread title rather ironic, because my wife and I are on the Celebrity Silhouette right now in the Caribbean, and have discussed how poor this ship’s covid protocols are compared with those of the Breakaway, which we sailed in October. The crew on Celebrity are supposed to be masked, but here on the Silhouette, we see numerous crew members every day in public places, including serving food or talking to guests, with their masks below their noses or chins. On our entire time on the Breakaway, we never saw a single crew member wearing a mask improperly. That behavior clearly starts at the top, and was indicative to us of how seriously NCL takes their protocols. Here on the Silhouette (where other Celebrity covid protocols are also being ignored), not so much. 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionkingrichard Posted December 11, 2021 #13 Share Posted December 11, 2021 4 hours ago, craig01020 said: Having minor symptoms and being sick are different things. Did you hear of any hospitalizations? I didn't think so. Minor symptoms does not mean you run down and get tested for covid! 4 hours ago, raitch said: You’ve heard of routine testing, right? You know, then they test you on a regular schedule even when you have no symptoms- like they do with the crew on NCL? I have NOT heard of routine tested for the passengers other then the Breakaway after this batch. can you link to where on our cruise we will be routine tested? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnfulk Posted December 11, 2021 #14 Share Posted December 11, 2021 It's a tiny bit inflammatory to proclaim an entire cruise line has poor covid protocols because a couple of staff members from one ship, who are vaccinated and tested regularly, were unmasked outdoors. The CDC has approved any protocols in place to allow these ships to carry passengers, so either the CDC considers the behavior you observed is safe or a few staff weren't following protocol, which has little to do with NCL's protocol and more about enforcement of said protocol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old & Retired Posted December 11, 2021 #15 Share Posted December 11, 2021 7 hours ago, lixogab said: From I heard from a crew member (Breakaway) crew doesn’t have shore leave. At all. So the only crew members you could see were the ones where working. It doesn’t make any sense to wear mask outside unless you are in a very crowded place ( think Times Square). With that I think NCL policy is pretty good. May be they can tighten it little bit by setting expiration on last vaccination and doing more frequent tests. I don't know about Breakaway, especially after the covid hysteria last week, but the Bliss crew get to go to Wal-Mart in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Traveling Man Posted December 11, 2021 #16 Share Posted December 11, 2021 31 minutes ago, Lionkingrichard said: Minor symptoms does not mean you run down and get tested for covid! I have NOT heard of routine tested for the passengers other then the Breakaway after this batch. can you link to where on our cruise we will be routine tested? We were on the Epic in October. As a routine precaution, 100% of passengers were required to take a Covid test on board the ship a day or two prior to debarkation. We were told that this was a requirement for passengers on all ships sailing in Europe, but I cannot verify that information. I do know that the routine on the Epic was to test everyone on our cruise, on the cruise before ours, on the sailing after ours, and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare craig01020 Posted December 11, 2021 #17 Share Posted December 11, 2021 38 minutes ago, Lionkingrichard said: Minor symptoms does not mean you run down and get tested for covid! It does these days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnfulk Posted December 11, 2021 #18 Share Posted December 11, 2021 Just as any passenger leaving the ship poses the same risk. I pointed out the vaccination fact to point out some of the things that NCL is doing to mitigate risk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raitch Posted December 11, 2021 #19 Share Posted December 11, 2021 2 hours ago, Lionkingrichard said: Minor symptoms does not mean you run down and get tested for covid! I have NOT heard of routine tested for the passengers other then the Breakaway after this batch. can you link to where on our cruise we will be routine tested? I said “like they do with the crew”. That’s how/why the first asymptomatic Breakaway case was identified, and why they eventually tested all passengers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_sobe Posted December 12, 2021 #20 Share Posted December 12, 2021 They work 6 days a week and 12 hour days with a mask. On their day off please let them enjoy fresh air and walk freely in open spaces. They are fully vaccinated and probably have the strictest Covid protocols of any workers in the world. let them be 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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