Health & Safety Guidelines - Canada - Update

[Fouremco]

The Guidelines previously stated:

 

CRUISES ORIGINATING IN CANADIAN PORTS:

Proof of Negative COVID-19 Test

Guests who are up to date with their vaccines or fully vaccinated may take their COVID-19 PCR within 3-days prior to sailing or an antigen test within 1-day before sailing.

 

This information has now been updated as follows:

 

CRUISES ORIGINATING IN CANADIAN PORTS:

Proof of Negative COVID-19 Test

Guests who are up to date with their vaccines or fully vaccinated may

take their COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours prior to sailing or a

medically observed antigen test within 48 hours before sailing.

 

The Canadian requirement is that passengers provide "Evidence of a negative COVID-19 antigen test (e.g. RAT) – performed on a specimen collected from the person no more than 2 days before initially boarding the cruise ship.

 

It's unclear whether this is simply an error or if HAL has deliberately chosen to implement a more stringent time frame. With a Sunday 5:00PM sailing time, a passenger would have to have been tested no earlier than Friday at 5:00PM, whereas the Canadian requirement would allow the test at any time on Friday, an additional period of 17 hours. For many passengers having to travel to the port of embarkation, those additional hours can make a significant difference to their planning.

[karen_6161]

The Canadian government site is updated and aligned with HAL's update which is awesome! The extra time for the test definitely helps ! 

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise

[CruisinShips]

40 minutes ago, karen_6161 said:

The Canadian government site is updated and aligned with HAL's update which is awesome! The extra time for the test definitely helps ! 

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise

Agree!  Very hard to do a test on the day you're traveling!

[karen_6161]

Looks like HAL FAQ's have been updated to show two days vs 48 hours.  I also chatted in with HAL and they confirmed this.   🙂

[macpiper]

30 minutes ago, karen_6161 said:

Looks like HAL FAQ's have been updated to show two days vs 48 hours.  I also chatted in with HAL and they confirmed this.   🙂

Do you have a link for HAL showing two days vs. 48 hours? When I go to HAL's FAQ's I still get a document that specifies 48 hours☹️

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, karen_6161 said:

Looks like HAL FAQ's have been updated to show two days vs 48 hours.  I also chatted in with HAL and they confirmed this.   🙂

 

1 hour ago, macpiper said:

Do you have a link for HAL showing two days vs. 48 hours? When I go to HAL's FAQ's I still get a document that specifies 48 hours☹️

I too would appreciate receiving a link to the HAL website where it shows 2 days and not 48 hours. The information in post #1 was taken from the HEALTH AND SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR ALASKA & CANADA/NEW ENGLAND CRUISES PDF, and the same information is still there.

 

BTW, the GOC website was updated on April 1. It was HAL that attempted and failed this morning to align itself with the Canadian requirements.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Fouremco

[karen_6161]

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/worry-free-promise/travel-well/frequently-asked-questions/faq-for-cruises-from-usa.html

 

Guests embarking in a Canadian port:
All guests age 2 and older are required to take either a medically supervised antigen COVID-19 test within 2 days of embarkation or PCR COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to embarkation.

 

 

The pdf hasn't been updated though 😞  I chatted with 

with Jessica via live chat and she was the one who confirmed faq update and I did mention the pdf so hopefully the pdf will be updated asap. 

[Fouremco]

41 minutes ago, karen_6161 said:

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/worry-free-promise/travel-well/frequently-asked-questions/faq-for-cruises-from-usa.html

 

Guests embarking in a Canadian port:
All guests age 2 and older are required to take either a medically supervised antigen COVID-19 test within 2 days of embarkation or PCR COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to embarkation.

 

 

The pdf hasn't been updated though 😞  I chatted with 

with Jessica via live chat and she was the one who confirmed faq update and I did mention the pdf so hopefully the pdf will be updated asap. 

Thanks for the link. Good to see the updated information, even if the pdf is lagging behind.