Change in HAL Pre-Cruise COVID Test Requirement (June 30, 2022)

[dfish]

9 minutes ago, dfish said:

I hope I get my email soon.  I leave on July 17th on the same ship for Norway.  

My traveling companions got the same letter.

[CATandSQUID]

4 hours ago, Kamfish642 said:

Just received the following email from HAL for our upcoming 14-Day Best of Norway cruise departing on July 10:

 

June 30, 2022

 

Dear Valued Guest:

 

We look forward to welcoming you on board Rotterdam for your upcoming voyage (booking XXXXXX).

 

We are reaching out to advise you of a change to our COVID-19 testing requirement that affects your sailing. As health protocols around the world continue to evolve, we are adjusting our policies to align with those of the countries we visit. As a result, you are no longer required to undergo pre-cruise COVID-19 testing or produce a negative test result at embarkation for this cruise. 

 

Our COVID-19 vaccination requirements remain in place:

 

·        All guests 12 years and older are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with the final dose of an approved vaccine received at least 14 days prior to embarkation.

·        Guests 18 years and older must have received a COVID-19 booster dose if their final dose of an approved vaccine is older than 9 months (270 days) from the last day of their cruise.

·        Guests who do not meet these vaccination requirements must receive an approved vaccination exemption from Holland America Line in advance of their cruise.

 

For full health and safety guidelines for your voyage, please visit our website. Please note that at this time, the removal of testing requirements only applies to select voyages, so our full FAQ has not been updated. For this cruise, please disregard the testing requirements listed there.

 

Here at Holland America Line, the health and well-being of our guests, team members, and the communities we visit are our highest priority. Our protocols are designed to ensure a relaxing and memorable vacation experience while maximizing the health and safety of our guests and crew. 

 

Thank you for choosing Holland America Line, and we look forward to seeing you on board soon.

 

Kind regards,

Holland America Line

I contacted HAL.  You are on a select experimental cruise. If all goes well, they may drop the requirement on more!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

OK, I have a bit more information. The three dates below for the Rotterdam is strictly a TEST for 3 Embarkation dates ONLY. 

I guess it will depend on how things go for these sailings if it will continue.

 

We are reaching out to advise you of a change to our COVID-19 testing requirement that affects select Rotterdam sailings. As health protocols around the world continue to evolve, we are adjusting our policies to align with those of the countries we visit. As a result, guests are no longer required to undergo pre-cruise COVID-19 testing or produce a negative test result at embarkation for the following voyages:

 

• Rotterdam – July 10, 2022 – Voyages Y249 & Y249A
• Rotterdam – July 17, 2022 – Voyages Y252 & Y252A
• Rotterdam – July 24, 2022 – Voyages Y253 & Y253A

 

Our COVID-19 vaccination requirements remain in place:

 

• All guests 12 years and older are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with the final dose of an approved vaccine received at least 14 days prior to embarkation.
• Guests 18 years and older must have received a COVID-19 booster dose if their final dose of an approved vaccine is older than 9 months (270 days) from the last day of their cruise.
• Guests who do not meet these vaccination requirements must receive an approved vaccination exemption from Holland America Line in advance of their cruise.

 

[Nang]

11 minutes ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

OK, I have a bit more information. The three dates below for the Rotterdam is strictly a TEST for 3 Embarkation dates ONLY. 

I guess it will depend on how things go for these sailings if it will continue.

 

We are reaching out to advise you of a change to our COVID-19 testing requirement that affects select Rotterdam sailings. As health protocols around the world continue to evolve, we are adjusting our policies to align with those of the countries we visit. As a result, guests are no longer required to undergo pre-cruise COVID-19 testing or produce a negative test result at embarkation for the following voyages:

 

• Rotterdam – July 10, 2022 – Voyages Y249 & Y249A
• Rotterdam – July 17, 2022 – Voyages Y252 & Y252A
• Rotterdam – July 24, 2022 – Voyages Y253 & Y253A

 

Our COVID-19 vaccination requirements remain in place:

 

• All guests 12 years and older are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with the final dose of an approved vaccine received at least 14 days prior to embarkation.
• Guests 18 years and older must have received a COVID-19 booster dose if their final dose of an approved vaccine is older than 9 months (270 days) from the last day of their cruise.
• Guests who do not meet these vaccination requirements must receive an approved vaccination exemption from Holland America Line in advance of their cruise.

 

Where does it say this is strictly a test? This may well be the case but what is does say is "we are adjusting our policies to align with those of the countries we visit" which suggests to me there may be other sailings from other ports soon to be announced in the no testing required category. Time will tell.

 

Luckily our upcoming cruise is one of those listed, woo hoo!!!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

25 minutes ago, Nang said:

Where does it say this is strictly a test? This may well be the case but what is does say is "we are adjusting our policies to align with those of the countries we visit" which suggests to me there may be other sailings from other ports soon to be announced in the no testing required category. Time will tell.

 

Luckily our upcoming cruise is one of those listed, woo hoo!!!

There were only three embarkation dates listed, no more, no other ships. No wording of Effective a certain date, or effective immediately. This coming Sunday is not included nor is July 31st.

[ewildcat7]

2 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

The three dates below for the Rotterdam is strictly a TEST for 3 Embarkation dates ONLY. 

 

If there is no testing, it stands to reason that there will be no positive cases.  So I don't see how this test can be anything other than wildly successful.

[SargassoPirate]

6 hours ago, ewildcat7 said:

 

If there is no testing, it stands to reason that there will be no positive cases.  So I don't see how this test can be anything other than wildly successful.

 

Excellent point.  It's time to focus on people who are actually sick, not wholesale testing of people who are not sick.  

[*Miss G*]

6 hours ago, ewildcat7 said:

 

If there is no testing, it stands to reason that there will be no positive cases.  So I don't see how this test can be anything other than wildly successful.

 

5 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

 

Excellent point.  It's time to focus on people who are actually sick, not wholesale testing of people who are not sick.  

 

Except — when people get sick on the ship — there will be testing.

[SargassoPirate]

26 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

 

Except — when people get sick on the ship — there will be testing.

 

And when that happens, it will be a true "case". 

 

The CDC has been counting every positive test on a cruise ship as a "case".  And with a virus that is here to stay coupled with wholesale testing of people who are not sick, there will always be "cases".

 

 

[rodndonna]

7 hours ago, ewildcat7 said:

 

If there is no testing, it stands to reason that there will be no positive cases.  So I don't see how this test can be anything other than wildly successful.

 

Well - try this again (post was removed for some reason?), I assume they will continue to test the crew.

[gerard55]

Thans for the information. Very helpful. We are on the cruise out of Amsterdam july17th bit have not received the mail from the HAL yet. Wondering why. Anybody have any thoughts/suggestions?

[VMax1700]

14 minutes ago, gerard55 said:

Thans for the information. Very helpful. We are on the cruise out of Amsterdam july17th bit have not received the mail from the HAL yet. Wondering why. Anybody have any thoughts/suggestions?

Did you book directly with HAL?  Or with a travel agency? If you booked with a travel agency it may take them a day or two longer to contact you.

Did you check your spam email folder?

Post #28 is the definitive answer, so you do not need a test.👍

[syesmar]

1 hour ago, *Miss G* said:

Except — when people get sick on the ship — there will be testing.

I wonder if passengers aboard the 3 sailings will be asked to notify HAL if they feel ill within a few days of disembarkation? I know there’s already supposed to be a protocol for this, but just curious how much data they’ll collect, whether soley onboard or if it will be a bit broader. I would imagine the impact to crew will be one deciding factor whether to implement it on a wider scale.

[aliaschief]

One thing Hal should already know is what percentage of passengers have been unable to cruise due to a positive Covid test prior to embarkation. To me that should be an indicator whether prior testing is necessary.

[cruiseadventure]

This is really great news. I am hopeful that it will be broaden as I have more cruises in September out of Montreal, Canada.

I really believe that HAL will continue to test staff and crew and that anyone passenger sailing who feels unwell get themselves tested. If we all take precautions then and only then will we prevent the spread of this virus. I just don't want to be sick on what is going to be a great voyage.

Stay well.

 

[lstrong]

Does HAL now require a booster on all cruises?  I have been vaxed but not boosted due to illness after first two doses.

[BermudaBound2014]

I think the language about this being a "test" came from the P&O press release last week where they stated pre-testing was "temporarily" being removed on Iona as more ships remove testing in foreign countries. 

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-owned-cruise-line-temporarily-drops-pre-departure-testing/74640

 

Baby steps.

 

 

[gerard55]

3 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Did you book directly with HAL?  Or with a travel agency? If you booked with a travel agency it may take them a day or two longer to contact you.

Did you check your spam email folder?

Post #28 is the definitive answer, so you do not need a test.👍

Thanks Vmax1700, i did check my spam email but no luck. I booked directly with HAL (European office). To contact the European office of HAL is nearly impossible. But as you stated post #28 is very clear, no test needed.

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, cruiseadventure said:

This is really great news. I am hopeful that it will be broaden as I have more cruises in September out of Montreal, Canada.

I really believe that HAL will continue to test staff and crew and that anyone passenger sailing who feels unwell get themselves tested. If we all take precautions then and only then will we prevent the spread of this virus. I just don't want to be sick on what is going to be a great voyage.

Stay well.

 

Except, at least at this time, Canada requires a negative test to board a ship in, or sailing to, Canada.

[Oceansaway17]

I would concerned if my booster was  over 9 months old and did not catch the wording and showed up.

 

So now the going forward issue with ships might be booster and age of booster.

[RoonlouX2]

We also received this email today as we are on the 14 night cruise departing Amsterdam on the 10th July. I’m just wondering how the Verifly app is going to handle this change as it still has the section for pre-departure covid test results? 🤔 

[VMax1700]

The 9 months (actually 270 days) comes, I believe, from the EU, which stated that the C19 Vax certificates were only valid for 270 days after the final dose of a primary course of vaccination.  In Europe, for a Vax cert to be valid, you need a booster, if the original course was completed more than 270 days ago.

[VMax1700]

5 minutes ago, RoonlouX2 said:

We also received this email today as we are on the 14 night cruise departing Amsterdam on the 10th July. I’m just wondering how the Verifly app is going to handle this change as it still has the section for pre-departure covid test results? 🤔 

From what I have read, Verifly is no advantage to use for European embarkations.  Certainly in Italy they wanted the paper version of everything.

[FrankieSue]

I believe that Antigen tests are very unreliable and have no value whatsoever.  Anybody can test negative before cruising and be positive the next day, or could get covid during a port call or excursion when there is no testing… so whats the point, except to create an extra level of difficulty and extra cost to the passenger… I am all in favour of vaccination but I am really looking forward to testing requirement being dropped.

[Kamfish642]

1 hour ago, NavyCruiser said:

 

So will they test me when I get sick with food poisoning/norovirus...?

 

So will they test me when I get sick with sunburn...?

 

So will they test me when I get sick with STD...?

 

So will they test me when I get sick of my roommate...?

Need to get a new roommate!