Change to Bermuda Travel Authorization

[vagolferbob]

Just got out approvals for Enchantment leaving Friday.

[NCMtnBoys]

3 hours ago, vagolferbob said:

Just got out approvals for Enchantment leaving Friday.

Great! Maybe Saturday's Mariner departure approvals aren't far behind!

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by NCMtnBoys

[Scotty G]

We received the expected follow-up email from Bermuda for the update on our Covid tests which we have scheduled for Friday. We're on Mariner Saturday.

[BND]

53 minutes ago, Scotty G said:

We received the expected follow-up email from Bermuda for the update on our Covid tests which we have scheduled for Friday. We're on Mariner Saturday.

I've seen several posts on FB about people receiving theirs.  I think this change will improve the bottleneck that was caused by the testing upload requirement.  

 

 

[BND]

22 hours ago, johnjen said:

Not to you, perhaps. Send me some money, LOL

Bermuda has always been a more expensive cruise than others.  They could have just billed the cruise line and Royal could have just added it to the cost of the cruise and people still would have booked and paid it.  If $40/person breaks the bank, then I think there's other issues here. This complaint has displaced the whining about passport costs.  I don't know why anyone would think the change was dropping the fee.  

Edited May 24, 2022 by BND

[chawkjewel]

18 hours ago, vagolferbob said:

Just got out approvals for Enchantment leaving Friday.

 

Did you have to call?

[sandy toes]

On 5/21/2022 at 12:03 PM, Sunshine3601 said:

Keeping the $40 pp fee and doing away with the need to upload test results just shows it is a big money grab for Bermuda.     Hopefully their whole TA requirement will be gone by the time we sail there end of the summer.   

 

Our original plan was to wait until we know we tested negative for the sailing before applying for their TA.   I guess a lot of people have been doing that so the fact they require you to register 2 weeks in advance is annoying.    

To me, the $40 TA was not the big deal.

The uploading of a test taken within 2 days of sailing, that gave you results the day before sailing, so the results could be uploaded the day before sailing...see all those hoops we had to jump through? The proctored tests were a fabulous find. (Thank you CC!) Why would anyone want to wait until they had their cruise ship tests results to send in the TA forms, risk a back log of processing time in Bermuda, and issues at the port is just beyond me, certainly not worth the $40/pp fee. But, always, each sailing I have seen or heard of someone refused boarding. I look forward to each cruise and think of that $40 like a visa that some countries demand. Same principle. You want in, you pay. 

[Scotty G]

3 hours ago, BND said:

I've seen several posts on FB about people receiving theirs.  I think this change will improve the bottleneck that was caused by the testing upload requirement.  

 

 

I have since called the 800 number since we are scheduled to take our tests late Friday before Saturday departure. I was on a count down hold starting at customer 87 for nearly 3 hours. We did get our green waiver which merely requires we show up at PC with our vaccine cards and test results within 2 days of departure. 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Scotty G

[johnjen]

3 hours ago, BND said:

 They could have just billed the cruise line and Royal could have just added it to the cost of the cruise and people still would have booked and paid it.

Exactly. This would've been the easiest solution, but maybe there's legal ramifications that prevent the line from doing this (what I would call) a perfect solution!

[vagolferbob]

3 hours ago, chawkjewel said:

 

Did you have to call?

No, it just showed up as anticipated.

[Oceansaway17]

4 hours ago, johnjen said:

Exactly. This would've been the easiest solution, but maybe there's legal ramifications that prevent the line from doing this (what I would call) a perfect solution!

but folks including me want to know what they need the $40 for in the first place. 

I mean the ship pays the port taxes on behalf of every passenger.  

[NCMtnBoys]

I also called tonight to see about getting the approvals for Saturday's Mariner sailing, because I had gotten the "4-day prior" email this morning as opposed to the approval email that I was expecting since uploading of Covid results is no longer required. I didn't know whether to expect an approval email to come later or whether I would fall through the cracks. Began in position 51 and roughly 50 minutes later we had our approval emails. Doing the proctored home tests early Thursday morning, then will hit the road to Port Canaveral early Friday morning so long as our results Thursday are negative!

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, Oceansaway17 said:

but folks including me want to know what they need the $40 for in the first place. 

I mean the ship pays the port taxes on behalf of every passenger.  

It is used to fund the response to Covid 19. Testing and vaccination. Relief for impacted businesses. To maintain the bus and ferry system. Bermuda was heavily impacted. Bermuda is a small island with one hospital not a large industrial country.  Their budget had an unexpected shortfall because of Covid 19. The port taxes were set before the pandemic. That is why I don’t call the $40 which is to increase revenue a money grab. It is a tax increase without calling it that but it is absolutely needed by them to sustain services. My objection to the TA was the process. It caused a lot of stress. The modifications should go a long way in alleviating that. It won’t entirely because a lot of cruise passengers like to see complications that are not there. If I was Bermuda I would call it a electronic visa and collect the $40 without the form.  The US has an electronic authorization and the EU will have one too that US citizens will have to complete and pay a fee. 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Charles4515

[johnjen]

13 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

but folks including me want to know what they need the $40 for in the first place. 

I mean the ship pays the port taxes on behalf of every passenger.  

My rough guess is, maybe they were hit bad - tourism wise, with the pandemic and their trying to make up for the loss in monetary gains from the tourism they missed out on.

[Rewind]

I'm on Mariner on Saturday as well.  Info still says we will get tested on the ship 48 hours before arriving in Bermuda.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/additional-requirements-to-cruise-to-bermuda

[CGinMTL]

short of removing the $40 completely ( which we know won't happen). the next thing they can do is to make if refundable if you don't make the cruise ( very easy for the ship to provide the list). 

then , most people would not have an issue starting the process 30 days prior to sailing. 

And that would clear the backlog. ( my 2 cents)  

[molly361]

1 hour ago, Rewind said:

I'm on Mariner on Saturday as well.  Info still says we will get tested on the ship 48 hours before arriving in Bermuda.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/additional-requirements-to-cruise-to-bermuda

Me too but people on the FB page are saying that our stop there is technically on day 4 so who knows

[RM]

We sail B2B in August. Bermuda is our 2nd cruise. I assume Royal will have to arrange a test for us?? 

[Oceansaway17]

16 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

It is used to fund the response to Covid 19. Testing and vaccination. Relief for impacted businesses. To maintain the bus and ferry system. Bermuda was heavily impacted. Bermuda is a small island with one hospital not a large industrial country.  Their budget had an unexpected shortfall because of Covid 19. The port taxes were set before the pandemic. That is why I don’t call the $40 which is to increase revenue a money grab. It is a tax increase without calling it that but it is absolutely needed by them to sustain services. My objection to the TA was the process. It caused a lot of stress. The modifications should go a long way in alleviating that. It won’t entirely because a lot of cruise passengers like to see complications that are not there. If I was Bermuda I would call it a electronic visa and collect the $40 without the form.  The US has an electronic authorization and the EU will have one too that US citizens will have to complete and pay a fee. 

aw okay thanks for the explanation.  I understand a little bit more now.

But wondering how St Thomas, Barbados and Cayman Island manage without the addl money.

 

 

[sandy toes]

On 5/24/2022 at 2:35 PM, Scotty G said:

I have since called the 800 number since we are scheduled to take our tests late Friday before Saturday departure. I was on a count down hold starting at customer 87 for nearly 3 hours. We did get our green waiver which merely requires we show up at PC with our vaccine cards and test results within 2 days of departure. 

I did that too, called for the waiver numbers. We were given numbers for each in our party/family and now if we don't have all the emails we won't have the hold up at the port. Makes me feel much better as friends had an almost 3 hr wait will clearance was being done as they had an issue with their paperwork. Heavens. Glad there is one less thing to worry about. Really looking forward to this cruise with the family. 

[Scotty G]

34 minutes ago, sandy toes said:

I did that too, called for the waiver numbers. We were given numbers for each in our party/family and now if we don't have all the emails we won't have the hold up at the port. Makes me feel much better as friends had an almost 3 hr wait will clearance was being done as they had an issue with their paperwork. Heavens. Glad there is one less thing to worry about. Really looking forward to this cruise with the family. 

Did you print out a form for each person after they were initialed? 

[Scotty G]

6 hours ago, CGinMTL said:

short of removing the $40 completely ( which we know won't happen). the next thing they can do is to make if refundable if you don't make the cruise ( very easy for the ship to provide the list). 

then , most people would not have an issue starting the process 30 days prior to sailing. 

And that would clear the backlog. ( my 2 cents)  

We submitted our requests at the 30-day point and it didn't seem to make any difference!

[cruisegirl1]

9 minutes ago, Scotty G said:

Did you print out a form for each person after they were initialed? 

I printed  the form but it  cut the second page in the middle of the initial line.  Changing size  didn't help. 

M

[Scotty G]

2 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

I printed  the form but it  cut the second page in the middle of the initial line.  Changing size  didn't help. 

M

Same here. It doesn't look like that matters to us. Probably for their record keeping. Glad we got past this milestone 😉 

[cruisegirl1]

6 hours ago, molly361 said:

Me too but people on the FB page are saying that our stop there is technically on day 4 so who knows

I find the FB page to be mostly clueless. 

According to RCCL, 8 night cruise itinerary

1, Port Canaveral

2. Nassau

3. Coco Cay

4 Sea Day 

5 Bermuda

6. Bermuda

7. Bermuda ( well,  a few hours)  

8. sea day

Bermuda is on the 5th day.  Gotta count Port Canaveral as day one.    Wish we had the Bermuda  itinerary  of the last 8 night  Bermuda cruise so Bermuda would be our first stop and also we would have a few more hours on Day 7.

M