Updated Vaccation Policy

[yorkshirephil]

23 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

Maybe they're changing it subsequent to my cruise leaving tomorrow then. Perhaps they are phasing out the testing at the terminal to save money, and getting the passengers to self-test instead.

The new rules come into force from 29th April, until then testing at the terminal

[yorkshirephil]

1 hour ago, loveheart said:

Why does is also say if you are jabbed and boosted you are eligible to travel.

That means you meet the vaccination requirements, the testing requirements are in addition to them

[loveheart]

2 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

That means you meet the vaccination requirements, the testing requirements are in addition to them

I see. What a pain. The testing centres will be run off their feet in Southampton. Not to mention the additional cost to us all.

 

[Yorkypete]

A lot of people have a couple of these test kits  and they are acceptable with the certificate you can obtain. We are using one for our coach trip down to Southampton as it is required by the coach company. It is not an easy task to obtain the necessary paperwork etc when you are travelling. We leave on a Sat morning at 5am and the test has to be done sometime on the Friday.  Embarkation time is an early essential as at least one of our choices for the test is nearly booked up already, five weeks before we go.  They also say the tests are available at just a few Boots branches and at Lloyds pharmacies only subject to availability of staff and tests, and are not guaranteed to be available.

 

[loveheart]

2 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

A lot of people have a couple of these test kits  and they are acceptable with the certificate you can obtain. We are using one for our coach trip down to Southampton as it is required by the coach company. It is not an easy task to obtain the necessary paperwork etc when you are travelling. We leave on a Sat morning at 5am and the test has to be done sometime on the Friday.  Embarkation time is an early essential as at least one of our choices for the test is nearly booked up already, five weeks before we go.  They also say the tests are available at just a few Boots branches and at Lloyds pharmacies only subject to availability of staff and tests, and are not guaranteed to be available.

 

We've got home testing kits but where would we get a certificate from? 

[molecrochip]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks, as always, for providing a degree of clarity but I still don’t feel that your explanation of the 270 day rule is as clear as it could be. Things are now so complicated and overwhelming when it comes to going on a cruise, I do feel that these never ending rules, requirements, restrictions and policies need to be expressed in ways that a child could understand. Plain English seems to evade those at P&O whose role it is to explain such things. As has been proved by the confusion expressed in this thread, P&O’s ability to score own goals is now World Class. 

What was your last Covid jab?

 

> 1st jab: Cannot travel - need 2nd jab at least 14 days before embarkation

> 2nd jab less than 14 days before embarkation: Cannot travel

> 2nd jab less than 270 days ago* but more than 14 days before embarkation: Good to go

> 2nd jab less more than 270 days ago*: Need booster 7 days before cruise.

>>> Booster more than 7 days before embarkation: Good to go

>>> Booster less than 7 days before embarkation: Cannot travel

 

*count back from day of disembarkation.

[Selbourne]

3 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

What was your last Covid jab?

 

> 2nd jab less more than 270 days ago*: Need booster 7 days before cruise.

 

*count back from day of disembarkation.

I appreciate your efforts to clarify, but that particular point still doesn’t make sense in two respects. Firstly ‘less more’ and secondly ‘Need booster 7 days before cruise’. I think I’ve worked out what the policy is (but wouldn’t put money on it) but it’s a complete pigs ear I’m afraid. 

[molecrochip]

1 hour ago, darknightsdespiser said:

Point 3; do you know where you get the proof?

Prenetics do a home/hotel/service station self-administered LFT. You activate it, do it, wait 15-30 minutes and then submit a picture of your result via the website. 

 

You then get a pdf/website confirmation once a human has checked it. Took about 3-5 minutes for the confirmation once submitted.

 

£14/£17 depending upon delivery method.

https://www.projectscreen.co.uk/lateral-flow-test-kits/testing-for-travel/

Certificated result within 3 hours of uploading result.

[molecrochip]

@Selbourne Corrected my error:

 

What was your last Covid jab?

 

> 1st jab: Cannot travel - need to receive 2nd jab at least 14 days before embarkation

> 2nd jab administered less than 14 days before embarkation: Cannot travel

> 2nd jab administered less than 270 days ago* but more than 14 days before embarkation: Good to go

> 2nd jab administered more than 270 days ago*: Need to receive booster at least 7 days before embarkation

>>> Booster administered more than 7 days before embarkation: Good to go

>>> Booster administered less than 7 days before embarkation: Cannot travel

 

*count back from day of disembarkation.

[essexblue]

I got the email form P&O regarding the updated procedure, and it says I need to do a test within 24 hours of boarding, so that means pretty much doing it on the day we set sail.  So looking at booking an Antigen test in Eastleigh on the Saturday morning, but a bit worried as it says they are not widely accepted. So is it the Antigen Test or the PCT Test I need? It calls it an Antigen Lateral Flow Fit to Fly Test. Is that the one I need? This is just so confusing to me 😞

[pmd98052]

Just remember if you have kids 12-15 who are over 270 days from their 2nd shot they cannot cruise with P&O anymore as that age range cannot get the 3rd (Booster) dose and NHS has no plans to do so. I'm going to have to cancel our Oct '22 Half Term cruise due to this - we just booked that last week!

[wowzz]

54 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

The point is that it is the GOV who have told P&O not to accept the NHS tests which are acceptable everywhere  but on P&O ships

But what "proof" do you have with a NHS test ?

[wowzz]

We are sailing with Princess from Barcelona next month,  and also need a negative test certificate within 24 hours of departure.

However,  Princess have stated that the 24 hours refers to the previous day - if you are departing on a Saturday, a test result from any time on Friday is perfectly OK.

Surely P&O could adopt the same protocol, or perhaps they have,  but have not been clear in their terminology ? 

[delgirl]

11 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But what "proof" do you have with a NHS test ?

We had to do a lft test to visit MIL in care home. Had to go on NHS  app take a photo of the negative result and no of test and send,  they would then send a confirmation that test was negative which we showed to the home. But I don't think we can use nhs app for cruises

[amfc_lenny]

We sail on the 29th April, for a short cruise and  to be honest this massively puts us off short cruises in future.

 

to make matters even more confusing I rang p and o this afternoon to be told the test has to be supervised antigen not an certified online test! 
 

so who knows what I need in just over 2 weeks time as I don’t?? 

[margsbolton]

2 hours ago, darknightsdespiser said:

This is what I don't understand.

If you take an antigen test at a Lloyds pharmacy for £29.99 it takes approx 15 mins and they give you the certificate whilst you are there ( if you are negative of course }.

[yorkshirephil]

6 minutes ago, delgirl said:

We had to do a lft test to visit MIL in care home. Had to go on NHS  app take a photo of the negative result and no of test and send,  they would then send a confirmation that test was negative which we showed to the home. But I don't think we can use nhs app for cruises

We also take LFT to visit MiL in a care home. We just log the result on the government website and show the resulting email and /or text of negative result. This is obviously based on trust, you can understand why cruise lines won't accept this.

[margsbolton]

6 minutes ago, margsbolton said:

If you take an antigen test at a Lloyds pharmacy for £29.99 it takes approx 15 mins and they give you the certificate whilst you are there ( if you are negative of course }.

P.s. you have to make an appointment,

[Mewat]

We are due to cruise on Wednesday 12th October.  We are travelling down on the day.  My husband is working on Tuesday 11th and all his holiday is used up for this year, so how is he supposed to get an antigen test?  We live in a remote area with no Lloyds pharmacies within 50 miles, so he can't even nip out in his lunch hour!

 

Not looking good for us now.

 

[Ardennais]

Goodness me, what have I missed - been out all day! I really don’t know how we would make this all work. The vaccines and boosters don’t pose a problem,  but the testing might be challenging. No big pharmacies around here and we always travel down to Southampton the day before. It seems like far too much hassle to be honest, even though I understand the reasoning behind it all, 

[bbtablet]

SNAP! - we are in very rural Suffolk and always travel the day before too.

P&O will have to rethink this or spell out exactly how people like us can conform to the requirements.

[davecttr]

58 minutes ago, wowzz said:

We are sailing with Princess from Barcelona next month,  and also need a negative test certificate within 24 hours of departure.

However,  Princess have stated that the 24 hours refers to the previous day - if you are departing on a Saturday, a test result from any time on Friday is perfectly OK.

Surely P&O could adopt the same protocol, or perhaps they have,  but have not been clear in their terminology ? 

This needs to be clarified - SOONEST!. My initial thought was to book an early morning test for the day before before setting off to Southampton. In fact maybe book one with Boots AND Lloyds as a plan B.

However if the time is 24 HOURS before embarkation all bets are off. Embarkation starting at noon mean morning tests will not be accepted.

 

There is then the problem of downloading a certificate as I have a PAYG non smartphone. I do have a tablet that would allow net access and my Gmail email account but only if free WIFI is available

[daiB]

27 minutes ago, Mewat said:

We are due to cruise on Wednesday 12th October.  We are travelling down on the day.  My husband is working on Tuesday 11th and all his holiday is used up for this year, so how is he supposed to get an antigen test?  We live in a remote area with no Lloyds pharmacies within 50 miles, so he can't even nip out in his lunch hour!

 

Not looking good for us now.

 

As it happens we are on that one as well. However don’t stress. You order the test to be sent to you and then take it inside the timeframe. Post the result on to a website and once checked they6 send you an electronic certificate. Clearly you need a mobile phone with a camera to do this.

[Camberley]

50 minutes ago, margsbolton said:

P.s. you have to make an appointment,

Exactly. We just booked with Lloyds Pharmacy for our July cruise in case they book up and to avoid us faffing with technology uploading results etc as we get the certificate…just in case. Fortunate there is one close by. Thankfully no fee until the day of testing if we have to cancel/amend if the rules change - or if P and O develop the capacity for more competent communication.
 

But this is early days so they may well do a lot of clarification soon.

Edited April 12, 2022 by Camberley

[SarahHben]

11 minutes ago, davecttr said:

This needs to be clarified - SOONEST!. My initial thought was to book an early morning test for the day before before setting off to Southampton. In fact maybe book one with Boots AND Lloyds as a plan B.

However if the time is 24 HOURS before embarkation all bets are off. Embarkation starting at noon mean morning tests will not be accepted.

 

There is then the problem of downloading a certificate as I have a PAYG non smartphone. I do have a tablet that would allow net access and my Gmail email account but only if free WIFI is available

I had a look at Boots earlier and Hempstead Valley don’t do the antigen testing, it would mean going to Chatham.

 

I was going to book us in at Lloyd’s but my husband would prefer to do the home tests. I’ll get them ordered and do them at some point before we travel to Southampton the day before our cruise.

Edited April 12, 2022 by SarahHben