vaxxed kids

[kitt82078]

So my 11 yr old is fully vaxxed, but the app doesn't let me upload her vax card (like I can for my teen and myself). Meanwhile I just received the email to register her for testing at the pier. The question is THIS: How much of a pain in the ass will it be to avoid this extra test? Will we be able to consider her fully vaxxed because she is? Or will this be a logistical nightmare at boarding? AND slightly unrelated, will they allow her to age up to the teen club with her sister? I pretty sure there will be almost no kids on our Serenaded sailing 1/8.....

[Arch2000]

If she’s vaxxed you just show the card at embarkation, and they will give her a sticker to wear showing she has been vaccinated and on you go. 
 

for my cruise (on the Explorer now out of San Juan), they directed us to a special line because we had young kids, at the end of that line (much shorter than the regular boarding lines), we showed the vax card and passports and got the stickers. 
 

Once on board guest services called and asked us to come down with the vax cards and proof of negative tests, to make copies as you know the app won’t let you upload this. Seems there were 16 kids on this list in a similar situation. A small hassle but we appreciated their concern and thoroughness. 

[Cel_cruise]

Hopefully this will be updated in the app soon as it will be required right? 
 

sounds like they have the situation under control though which is good!

[Biker19]

Just now, Cel_cruise said:

Hopefully this will be updated in the app soon as it will be required right? 

Nothing in the app is required pre cruise, yet.

[Nik_in_IL]

We just left Liberty of the Seas (and had a great cruise!) with our 11-year-old fully-vaxxed kiddo. Going through the boarding process with her was easy and painless. At the very first stop in the process all our vax cards were checked and she was given a sticker for her shirt. From that point forward she was treated as fully vaxxed at every other checkpoint. They did take picture of her vax card (they didn’t for the rest of us - just checked them) at the boarding window. We were able to get our MDR reservation changed to the vaxxed-only room once we were onboard.

 

No need to register for the boarding day test (note is says “unvacccinated” children in all the emails). Your daughter will be identified as fully vaxxed before that point in the process.

 

For anyone who’s interested, of the ~275 under-12-years kids on Liberty, they told us slightly over half were fully vaccinated.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Nik_in_IL
Additional info

[MandyGirl]

I’m the terminal waiting to board Odyssey with a fully Vaxed 11 year old:

They still pulled us out of the 10:30 checkin line to go get at end of “family line”. Got sticker kid is Vax after showing everything. Still routed to PCR testing area. Nobody seemed to know what to do with us - we obviously did not have a PCR test scheduled nor needed one. (Past security scanning bags) Finally someone said the employee for that area wasn’t there and we were supposed to go back over to where everyone was doing the iPad checkin. Tenth Cruise since the restart but only second Royal and first at Port Everglades so it can definitely vary. Was just kinda weird to me that they have areas for Vax vs not Vax on ship but first thing they do at port is local port employees pull us out of normal Line to put us in line with families who may have unvaccinated children. Hadn’t done it that way on other lines. 

[topnole]

13 hours ago, kitt82078 said:

So my 11 yr old is fully vaxxed, but the app doesn't let me upload her vax card (like I can for my teen and myself). Meanwhile I just received the email to register her for testing at the pier. The question is THIS: How much of a pain in the ass will it be to avoid this extra test? Will we be able to consider her fully vaxxed because she is? Or will this be a logistical nightmare at boarding? AND slightly unrelated, will they allow her to age up to the teen club with her sister? I pretty sure there will be almost no kids on our Serenaded sailing 1/8.....

Anything is possible, but moving up far in the age range is less likely.  So if she is barely 11 or a few days from 12 might matter if it is even possible.  And if the other is 15+ I’m sure it isn’t going to happen.  Putting an 11 year old with 14 year olds can surely be a liability for the cruise line and 15+ I’m sure is a no from the get go.  Plus the whole Covid situation adds another layer that probably further restricts them from allowing the little bit of flexibility that used to grant.   
 

Basically, you won’t know until you get onboard.  While possible, I certainly wouldn’t count on it.  

[mek]

There is a reason it is called the Teen Club.

[travelhound]

14 hours ago, kitt82078 said:

So my 11 yr old is fully vaxxed, but the app doesn't let me upload her vax card (like I can for my teen and myself). Meanwhile I just received the email to register her for testing at the pier. The question is THIS: How much of a pain in the ass will it be to avoid this extra test? Will we be able to consider her fully vaxxed because she is? Or will this be a logistical nightmare at boarding? AND slightly unrelated, will they allow her to age up to the teen club with her sister? I pretty sure there will be almost no kids on our Serenaded sailing 1/8.....

RCL really needs to update their protocols for the 5-11 fully vaccinated category.  If they have a vaccination card, they should be treated like everyone else that are fully vaccinated.

[topnole]

22 minutes ago, mek said:

There is a reason it is called the Teen Club.

Yeah but the teen range starts at 12-14.  So it isn’t all teens.  It isn’t a crazy question.  

[travelhound]

1 hour ago, MandyGirl said:

I’m the terminal waiting to board Odyssey with a fully Vaxed 11 year old:

They still pulled us out of the 10:30 checkin line to go get at end of “family line”. Got sticker kid is Vax after showing everything. Still routed to PCR testing area. Nobody seemed to know what to do with us - we obviously did not have a PCR test scheduled nor needed one. (Past security scanning bags) Finally someone said the employee for that area wasn’t there and we were supposed to go back over to where everyone was doing the iPad checkin. Tenth Cruise since the restart but only second Royal and first at Port Everglades so it can definitely vary. Was just kinda weird to me that they have areas for Vax vs not Vax on ship but first thing they do at port is local port employees pull us out of normal Line to put us in line with families who may have unvaccinated children. Hadn’t done it that way on other lines. 

I suspect RCL and most other lines will have to start requiring everyone to be vaccinated.  It would help to reduce the chaos.

Edited January 2, 2022 by travelhound

[topnole]

1 minute ago, travelhound said:

RCL really needs to update their protocols for the 5-11 fully vaccinated category.  If they have a vaccination card, they should be treated like everyone else that are fully vaccinated.

Clearly they haven’t updated their IT system to put in vax for the younger kids.  How hard can it be to get that fixed?  It has been a while now and they obviously have a team of people who do this for a living.  It’s been a while since I built a website, but this shouldn’t take a weeks or months.   They are simply just ignoring it.  

[topnole]

1 minute ago, travelhound said:

I suspect RCL and most other lines will have to start requiring everyone to be vaccinated.  It would help to reduce the chaos.

Or just update their IT.  These kids are vaccinated and the system won’t allow them to document it.  

[travelhound]

4 minutes ago, topnole said:

Clearly they haven’t updated their IT system to put in vax for the younger kids.  How hard can it be to get that fixed?  It has been a while now and they obviously have a team of people who do this for a living.  It’s been a while since I built a website, but this shouldn’t take a weeks or months.   They are simply just ignoring it.  

It's definitely something that needs to be delt with soon.  We have a fully vaccinated 10 year old and hope this chaos will be resolved by the end of March for our cruise.

Edited January 2, 2022 by travelhound

[mek]

52 minutes ago, topnole said:

Yeah but the teen range starts at 12-14.  So it isn’t all teens.  It isn’t a crazy question.  

11 isn't 12.

[topnole]

22 minutes ago, mek said:

11 isn't 12.

You are the one who said there is a reason they call it teens club.  In that context, more importantly, 12 isn’t a teenager.  There will be many kids in the teen club that aren’t teens so the OP has a legit reason for asking.  

Also, pre Covid it wasn’t uncommon for kids to get exempted into a different age group based on some other factors.  So if an 11 year old turns 12 on day 2 of the cruise, they would technically be considered 11 all cruise and not be allowed in the 12-14 group. In this scenario it might be possible to have them moved up with a 13 or 14 year old sibling for example.  Also, in this example, by official rule 12 is considered 11.  So sometimes 11 is in fact 12.  

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by topnole

[kitt82078]

1 hour ago, topnole said:

Yeah but the teen range starts at 12-14.  So it isn’t all teens.  It isn’t a crazy question.  

Her sister is 13 and she is 11 and a few months. Since she is fully vaxxed, and all 12 and over are vaxxed, it made sense to me to keep her with the vaxxed kids. Plus, I don't expect there are many kids on board week of Jan 8.

[topnole]

1 hour ago, kitt82078 said:

Her sister is 13 and she is 11 and a few months. Since she is fully vaxxed, and all 12 and over are vaxxed, it made sense to me to keep her with the vaxxed kids. Plus, I don't expect there are many kids on board week of Jan 8.

It is worth a try.  But you won’t know until you are given an answer onboard.  Good

luck.  

[topnole]

1 hour ago, kitt82078 said:

Her sister is 13 and she is 11 and a few months. Since she is fully vaxxed, and all 12 and over are vaxxed, it made sense to me to keep her with the vaxxed kids. Plus, I don't expect there are many kids on board week of Jan 8.

Just keep in mind that half the 14 year olds might be in high school.  And half of 11 years are likely in elementary school.  That is just a big difference when it comes to mixing the kids.  
 

So independent of Covid, that is a pretty big issue for Royal.  I turned 14 my first week of high school and one of my friends in class had a beard.  It took me 20 more years to grow one like his.  😂😂

[DCPIV]

18 hours ago, kitt82078 said:

will they allow her to age up to the teen club with her sister?

 

I can't speak to how the vaccination and testing is handled, but (unless things have changed a great deal), they are rather strict about age limitations in the kids/teens clubs.

[cruisingguy007]

4 hours ago, travelhound said:

RCL really needs to update their protocols for the 5-11 fully vaccinated category.  If they have a vaccination card, they should be treated like everyone else that are fully vaccinated.

 

Indeed. I waited for so long to get my little guy vaccinated so we can cruise and I'd be irritated if he were treated differently or we had to deal with extra steps and confusion. As soon as the mask mandates are lifted, we will cruise again in hopefully, some normal fashion. 

[Gelerp]

Not sure about the kids club age up but we aged down.  We sailed on the Serenade in 2019, my daughter turned 12, 8 days before we cruised.  We asked on day one at the kid club orientation and there was no problem aging her down to be with her brother (age 8).  They did tell us that she would have to pick one age group and that she wouldn’t be allowed to go back and forth between clubs. There were about 300 kids on that sailing.  There were a group of teens from the kids club hanging out together throughout the cruise and having lots of fun but it definitely would not have been a good fit for my 12 yr old.  We sailed with grandparents and the kids didn’t end up going to the club at all!  Not once. It was their first cruise and they loved the Serenade.  They were never bored and had an amazing time.