Covid sub variant on current river cruises?

[littledickens]

I am reading about people on Viking Danube Cruises that are currently testing positive and being quarantined.  Anyone on here know anything about this?  We are supposed to do the Rhine Cruise on May 20.

[Gourmet Gal]

Sounds about right.  There’s a massive surge right now in Europe of the Omicrom sub-variant.  By end of May this surge could be abating but there’s already another lined up to wreak havoc.  I’m just ending two weeks in France with 7 days on Tauck and there were cases on our ship.  It’s definitely a distraction and stressful.  I cannot wait to get home and I’ve never felt this way when in Europe - I  usually don’t want to leave.    It’s still very high risk to travel to Europe right now, in fact the US State department is warning level 4…do not travel to most of Europe mostly due to Covid.

[rosesq]

I have to admit I'm nervous. Leaving in a few days for a Rhine River cruise (Avalon). They require fully vaccinated passengers and are requiring a negative Antigen test before boarding. Fingers' crossed all goes well. I know leaving the US, I will have tested negative (I'm going to do a test even though not required for entry), but after airports, airplanes and a few days in Züruch, I'm hoping those vaccines and KN95 masks work.

[Canal archive]

Gourmet Gal take Forbes with a sack of salt as we do with the BBC!
 

 

Covid levels starting to fall in UK, says ONS https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61106918

[gradyboy]

rosesq - Where do you see Avalon requiring a negative antigen test before boarding?  According to their web site all passengers must show proof of vaccination and complete a health questionnaire but there’s no reference to a negative COVID test.

 

[steamboats]

12 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

There’s a massive surge right now in Europe of the Omicrom sub-variant.  

 

Actually that´s not quite correct. We are almost through the Omicron sub-variant. Numbers are going down very fast. 

 

You may check out this website showing a world map with the current numbers. Germany and Austria had pretty high numbers over the last weeks (Austria hit the 2 K, Germany was a bit below the 2 K).

 

All countries have dropped more or less the regulations. In some places you still need masks. By May most of the countries won´t have a mask mandate anymore.

 

steamboats

[macaroni]

Rosesq- I was going to ask the same thing..we are also boarding Avalon in May, will be in Lucerne for a few days prior….did not see anything about testing beforehand? Would appreciate any info that we may have missed. We fly into Zurich and don’t see any testing required for that either. We are both fully vaccinated and up to date. Please keep us posted on procedures. Would appreciate that.

Thanks!

 

[Coral]

I know several who cruised in March on the Danube. They tested positive immediately after the cruise (post cruise stay) and once they arrived home. Symptoms were similar to omicron strain.

[mlbcruiser]

Not to be a negative Nancy but If you check out the roll calls for Viking and look at the topics titled Covid Increases On Viking In France and especially All Viking France 2022 River Cruises ( listed with the rollcalls threads) you will see a number of reports of quarantined Viking passengers who tested positive during their cruises. Many or all of these passengers underwent Covid testing and were  negative upon boarding the ship. All pax were tested each morning of their cruise while on the ship. Most, if not all, are fully vaccinated. That doesn’t seem to stop the  variant currently raging which is highly contagious. Is now increasing in the US as well which is usually a little behind Europe in our positive numbers. A link someone provided on the virus beginning to drop in the UK did show slight dropping of the virus recently but there are many other countries in Europe and it’s going to take some time for this to die down. Plus there are travelers from other areas of the world doing these cruises and someone can be infected and not get a positive test for the first couple of days they are infected. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on because from reports it’s not exactly fun being quarantined in a land hotel for days when one thought they would be enjoying a nice vacation on a river cruise. Quite a number of pax & cruises have been affected.. Mask mandates and other requirements are sometimes being put back into place in many situations and not only on the cruises. We have a cruise coming up at the end of May and I certainly hope this virus calms down and the next variant has not hit yet by that time. It’s a lot to hope for. 

[Coral]

23 hours ago, rosesq said:

I have to admit I'm nervous. Leaving in a few days for a Rhine River cruise (Avalon). They require fully vaccinated passengers and are requiring a negative Antigen test before boarding. Fingers' crossed all goes well. I know leaving the US, I will have tested negative (I'm going to do a test even though not required for entry), but after airports, airplanes and a few days in Züruch, I'm hoping those vaccines and KN95 masks work.

I wish you luck. I hope you have an uneventful trip health wise. Though an eventful trip experience wise!

[Gopherpharm]

Of the 111 on our Amsterdam to Basel cruise, around 50 tested on the ship because they were flying directly home. Of those ~50, 3 were positive. 
 

We are in our 30s, triple vaxxed and I had covid in December. We were very diligent about masks indoors and only shared a dinner table a couple times the whole trip. We kept our distance from everyone while having drinks on the ship, etc. Having littles at home and jobs to get back to meant having to quarantine in Switzerland would’ve particularly disastrous for us.

[Gourmet Gal]

21 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

Actually that´s not quite correct. We are almost through the Omicron sub-variant. Numbers are going down very fast. 

 

You may check out this website showing a world map with the current numbers. Germany and Austria had pretty high numbers over the last weeks (Austria hit the 2 K, Germany was a bit below the 2 K).

 

All countries have dropped more or less the regulations. In some places you still need masks. By May most of the countries won´t have a mask mandate anymore.

 

steamboats

I was in France and they actually had better numbers than Germany, Italy and others but they are still at over 1/3 of their peak.  Not a small number  and their numbers are going down slowly.  Just because mask mandates are dropped do not mean you can’t contract Covid.  This Easter week end and Easter break has sold out flights and crowded trains.  Masks are still required on mass transit in France but people aren’t very diligent.

 

[steamboats]

2 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

I was in France and they actually had better numbers than Germany, Italy and others but they are still at over 1/3 of their peak. 

 

France has currently the highest numbers in Europe and by today they are at 1,298 (peak was 1,459 on April 2nd) while Germany dropped rapidly over the last few days and is down to 834 (the peak was 1,943 on March 24th). Italy was doing much better but it´s sort of staggering (between 700 and 800, peak 840 on March 25th)... currently 698. Here in Germany the Omicron variant did go up very slowly and then merged with the subtype. So our Omicron peak wasn´t that high as it was in other countries. Our subtype peak was a little higher because of that.

 

steamboats

[Coral]

17 hours ago, Gopherpharm said:

Of the 111 on our Amsterdam to Basel cruise, around 50 tested on the ship because they were flying directly home. Of those ~50, 3 were positive. 
 

We are in our 30s, triple vaxxed and I had covid in December. We were very diligent about masks indoors and only shared a dinner table a couple times the whole trip. We kept our distance from everyone while having drinks on the ship, etc. Having littles at home and jobs to get back to meant having to quarantine in Switzerland would’ve particularly disastrous for us.

My friend who was on a 7 night cruise - most tested positive on their post cruise stay or once they arrived back in the US. It was a charter so they knew each other (thus, knew the counts).

 

I would hope in your situation, having COVID in December would have protected you.

[Gopherpharm]

30 minutes ago, Coral said:

My friend who was on a 7 night cruise - most tested positive on their post cruise stay or once they arrived back in the US. It was a charter so they knew each other (thus, knew the counts).

 

I would hope in your situation, having COVID in December would have protected you.

I’m guessing on a charter they wouldn’t mask on the ship or social distance. I do think that makes a difference!

[Coral]

9 minutes ago, Gopherpharm said:

I’m guessing on a charter they wouldn’t mask on the ship or social distance. I do think that makes a difference!

They did mask as it was required but obviously they didn't when they ate and had drinks. I saw plenty of pictures of them with masks on. They had all tested negative to go on the ship. They were there when numbers were really high in the area they cruised (Danube).

Edited April 17, 2022 by Coral

[rosesq]

To clarify -- I am going on a Charter Avalon next week (Rhine). I suspect that the charter leader is requiring the additional testing as a precaution. I'm not thrilled about it as I've been vaccinated and double boosted and will be in Europe several days before we board. 

[Gopherpharm]

15 minutes ago, rosesq said:

To clarify -- I am going on a Charter Avalon next week (Rhine). I suspect that the charter leader is requiring the additional testing as a precaution. I'm not thrilled about it as I've been vaccinated and double boosted and will be in Europe several days before we board. 

Hope you are negative! It would be the worst to test positive and not be able to cruise. My advice is to wear masks indoors, even when not required, and see if you can be at least 6 feet away from others when eating or drinking indoors. 

[Gourmet Gal]

Right now I do not think it is safe to take a European river cruise.  In another month if past surges may indicate things could be much better.  The Tauck Rhône cruise that just ended had an almost 20% positivity rate for the 21 pax who were tested and who flew out the next day.  My husband and I tested negative on the ship but he tested positive as soon as we came home.  Many people were coughing/sniffling and some were too sick to go to the dining venue onboard and my husband felt sick for several days onboard.  We were willing to take the risk to cruise but now we regret going after seeing how lax Tauck was with testing and mitigating risk for passengers.

[Coral]

49 minutes ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Right now I do not think it is safe to take a European river cruise.  In another month if past surges may indicate things could be much better.  The Tauck Rhône cruise that just ended had an almost 20% positivity rate for the 21 pax who were tested and who flew out the next day.  My husband and I tested negative on the ship but he tested positive as soon as we came home.  Many people were coughing/sniffling and some were too sick to go to the dining venue onboard and my husband felt sick for several days onboard.  We were willing to take the risk to cruise but now we regret going after seeing how lax Tauck was with testing and mitigating risk for passengers.

I am so sorry to hear this. I hope you are feeling better now and didn't have many symptoms.

[MamaFej]

12 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

France has currently the highest numbers in Europe and by today they are at 1,298 (peak was 1,459 on April 2nd) while Germany dropped rapidly over the last few days and is down to 834 (the peak was 1,943 on March 24th). Italy was doing much better but it´s sort of staggering (between 700 and 800, peak 840 on March 25th)... currently 698. Here in Germany the Omicron variant did go up very slowly and then merged with the subtype. So our Omicron peak wasn´t that high as it was in other countries. Our subtype peak was a little higher because of that.

 

steamboats

I hope those numbers don't rise as Europe gets a huge influx of North Americans in the coming weeks. We just tested negatively on PCR for our flight into Portugal tomorrow. I'm glad we had to test to enter the country. Hopefully that will decrease the chances of contracting the virus onboard our Duoro cruise in several days, as most, if not all, passengers will have done the same very recently. After that, it's off to Barcelona for a few days, then 23 days of cruising, with folks who must test negatively the day of or before embarking. 5 days of trains in Switzerland, then back to BCN for 17 days of cruising before disembarking in Scandinavia for a couple of days and heading home. We have many more tests to take (and lots of both proctored and non-proctored tests with us). 

 

This trip seemd like a good idea when we booked during the sweet spot between Delta and the rise of Omicron. It is seeming less like of a good idea now. 

[steamboats]

@MamaFej as I said we´re sort of through with the subvariant. All over Europe the numbers are falling while in the US the subvariant has arrived at the East coast.

 

I would highly recommend wearing a KN95 mask for flying or on trains or on tour busses to reduce the risk...

 

steamboats

[Techno123]

Having picked up Covid on a recent trip to London - I didn't test positive until I had had symptoms for 4 days. The LFTs (antigen) tests are great in that there are fewer false positives but they don't always detect them. I am triple vaccinated and the majority of people who are getting Covid now are also triple vaccinated and the majority (including me) have had cold like symptoms which is the best we can hope for as Covid becomes endemic. Hopefully myself and the other half (who didn't test positive and had no symptoms despite being in very close proximity to me)  will have had a very nice antibody boost in preparation for our river cruise in May 😜

It has always puzzled me re the insistence on vaccination over mask wearing, social distancing and hand hygiene. The vaccination protects me from becoming very ill but doesn't stop me becoming infected or passing it on to others. Wearing a mask, hand hygiene and social distancing is what helps to reduce transmission but that has definitely become a thing of the past in the UK.