Alaska Cruise Tours why so many positive Covid?

[peachykiehn]

8 hours ago, jvaka said:

We were on Cruisetour in early June. My estimate is 10% of the people wore masks on the flights we took to Fairbanks. My wife and I were usually the only ones who wore masks on the bus rides from one city to the next and also on the train from Talkeetna to Whittier. We were required to wear masks while inside the ship. Many times I saw 6-7 people cram into an elevator we half not wearing masks. The COVID shot is an immunization not a vaccine. 

Just to clarify so people aren’t confused by your comments. The Covid shot is a vaccine. Immunization is the process by which a vaccine works within the body to make you immune or have resistance  to a disease. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

My friend (mid 50’s) and her 80 yo dad did a land cruise tour on HAL mid May. Cruise first. Both vaccinated and boostered. They shared a cabin and hotel rooms, went on the same tours, sat next to each other on the bus.  He rarely masked, she did (KN95) whenever near others, shows, busses, tours etc…. Very few others ever masked. 

 

She got Covid he did not. Getting sick or not has a lot to do with your own physiological make up. Of course viral load in the air matters the most. But some people have systems that are more successful in fighting it off. Masks work when everyone wears them because they keep the viral load low allowing people with varying degrees of immunity response systems to stay healthy. 
 

 

[broker1217]

I returned from Majestic Princess yesterday. My husband and I both tested positive this morning.

We wore masks all the time (except when eating). We ate all but 4 meals outdoors and away from others.

We did not go to any shows or participate in activities on the ship. Frequent hand washing and sanitizing.

We did 3 shore excursions.

What you need to understand is that Princess does NOT enforce any mask or distancing policies anywhere on the ship. People will get in the elevator without masks.

They never checked for a negative test result at the beginning of our trip.

Most people did not wear masks when flying, on busses, or on the ship.

Most people wore no mask in the buffet while getting food and we saw some enter without washing their hands.

 

Our first coach driver (between two lodges) did not wear a mask, complained of a sore throat multiple times and was coughing.

 

When we were disembarking yesterday it seemed almost everyone was coughing, and still no masks even though we were jammed together. The woman behind us on the bus to the airport asked her travel companion how she felt and the person said they 'didn't have to take any medicine today' for her symptoms.

 

So make sure you build in a plan for if/when you get COVID on board.

I feel horrible that I may have been contagious on the plane yesterday---I would never knowingly expose others.

 

So to all you who did not wear masks or get tested when you had symptoms---thanks!

 

 

[zentraveler]

2 hours ago, broker1217 said:

I returned from Majestic Princess yesterday. My husband and I both tested positive this morning.

We wore masks all the time (except when eating). We ate all but 4 meals outdoors and away from others.

We did not go to any shows or participate in activities on the ship. Frequent hand washing and sanitizing.

We did 3 shore excursions.

What you need to understand is that Princess does NOT enforce any mask or distancing policies anywhere on the ship. People will get in the elevator without masks.

They never checked for a negative test result at the beginning of our trip.

Most people did not wear masks when flying, on busses, or on the ship.

Most people wore no mask in the buffet while getting food and we saw some enter without washing their hands.

 

Our first coach driver (between two lodges) did not wear a mask, complained of a sore throat multiple times and was coughing.

 

When we were disembarking yesterday it seemed almost everyone was coughing, and still no masks even though we were jammed together. The woman behind us on the bus to the airport asked her travel companion how she felt and the person said they 'didn't have to take any medicine today' for her symptoms.

 

So make sure you build in a plan for if/when you get COVID on board.

I feel horrible that I may have been contagious on the plane yesterday---I would never knowingly expose others.

 

So to all you who did not wear masks or get tested when you had symptoms---thanks!

 

 

Appalling really. Beginning to seriously wonder about this upcoming cruise.

 

Another thing to consider is that vaccines effectiveness wanes over time. Not even close to zero and still prevents serious illness, but it does wane. I was eligible for my second booster in March but "saved" it until last week as close as possible to 3 cruises, a trip to Hawaii and a trip to Europe in the next two months. 

[broker1217]

11 minutes ago, zentraveler said:

Appalling really. Beginning to seriously wonder about this upcoming cruise.

 

Another thing to consider is that vaccines effectiveness wanes over time. Not even close to zero and still prevents serious illness, but it does wane. I was eligible for my second booster in March but "saved" it until last week as close as possible to 3 cruises, a trip to Hawaii and a trip to Europe in the next two months. 

 

We are both quad vaccinated. And isolated before the cruise, wore KN95's at the airport, on planes, busses, trains. Did not visit casino or theater and did not chat with anyone other than each other. We hung out on our verandah or outdoors away from others. The busses were really crowded with most people not wearing masks---for us, that was probably the culprit. But most people were freely socializing in large groups with no masks and lots of loud talking/laughing which we all know sprays a lot of virus. 

Based on the behavior of others---we would rule out sailing on Princess again. This was our first mass market cruise and there was a marked difference between our experiences on smaller ships.

 

Just know what you are getting into. And make sure you know your insurance coverage for any potential quarantines/isolation if you pick up COVID. Understand when you will be required to test and have a plan if you test positive.

 

 

 

[caribill]

44 minutes ago, broker1217 said:

 

We are both quad vaccinated. And isolated before the cruise, wore KN95's at the airport, on planes, busses, trains. Did not visit casino or theater and did not chat with anyone other than each other. We hung out on our verandah or outdoors away from others. The busses were really crowded with most people not wearing masks---for us, that was probably the culprit. But most people were freely socializing in large groups with no masks and lots of loud talking/laughing which we all know sprays a lot of virus. 

 

 

You did all that you could do to avoid catching the virus in a situation where many did not.

 

It must be realized that N95 and KN95 masks are named that because they are 95% effective. If other people around you are not also N95/KN95 masked, that 5% can get you.

[broker1217]

46 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

You did all that you could do to avoid catching the virus in a situation where many did not.

 

It must be realized that N95 and KN95 masks are named that because they are 95% effective. If other people around you are not also N95/KN95 masked, that 5% can get you.

Could not agree more! 

We took a gamble and we lost. We honestly did not expect that so many people would be maskless on Princess. Lesson learned.

 

[nini]

Heck, Fauci was vaccinated twice and boosted twice. He is just now getting over covid again with a relapse.

He most likely does not believe in taking supplements.  We do and believe it really helps our immune system. And yes, we have been boosted. People on our cruise did get it and we were close to them without masks. Gotta drink and eat, right?

[zentraveler]

2 hours ago, broker1217 said:

 

We are both quad vaccinated. And isolated before the cruise, wore KN95's at the airport, on planes, busses, trains. Did not visit casino or theater and did not chat with anyone other than each other. We hung out on our verandah or outdoors away from others. The busses were really crowded with most people not wearing masks---for us, that was probably the culprit. But most people were freely socializing in large groups with no masks and lots of loud talking/laughing which we all know sprays a lot of virus. 

Based on the behavior of others---we would rule out sailing on Princess again. This was our first mass market cruise and there was a marked difference between our experiences on smaller ships.

 

Just know what you are getting into. And make sure you know your insurance coverage for any potential quarantines/isolation if you pick up COVID. Understand when you will be required to test and have a plan if you test positive.

 

 

 

Sorry you got nailed on this brooker1217, doing all the right things. This is our first Princess and mass marketing cruise also and we plan to do exactly what you did, except we have been to Alaska on several [smaller] cruises and no longer do the expeditions. We are also not on the inside passage trip so we have fewer places we would care about expeditions anyway.

 

We live here, so no planes, have good N95's and are going to get a lot of exercise avoiding the elevators. Would not dream of doing a show with that many people in an indoor space and I hate casinos. We will need to eat so will likely mostly eat outdoors too 

 

We have managed, despite quite a lot of travel, resorts and planes to not test positive so far and I am hoping to keep it that way. My husband has arranged travel insurance and evacuation insurance (for Greece and Turkey) and as a physician I know what to bring and do if we do get unlucky. I hope you are both feeling better.

[12cruise2]

3 hours ago, broker1217 said:

 

We are both quad vaccinated. And isolated before the cruise, wore KN95's at the airport, on planes, busses, trains. Did not visit casino or theater and did not chat with anyone other than each other. We hung out on our verandah or outdoors away from others. The busses were really crowded with most people not wearing masks---for us, that was probably the culprit. But most people were freely socializing in large groups with no masks and lots of loud talking/laughing which we all know sprays a lot of virus. 

Based on the behavior of others---we would rule out sailing on Princess again. This was our first mass market cruise and there was a marked difference between our experiences on smaller ships.

 

Just know what you are getting into. And make sure you know your insurance coverage for any potential quarantines/isolation if you pick up COVID. Understand when you will be required to test and have a plan if you test positive.

 

 

 

We are elite Princess cruisers but cruised Celebrity in May, after 12 weeks last sept-April on HAL with no covid, and on the one week on Celebrity in May, we got covid and were put off the ship because we were on B2B and they tested us between the two cruises.  DH tested positive, and only that day after the test result did he have any symptoms (7 days into the cruise); they made me isolate with him as a close contact, and I got it, too, a day later.  They booted us off the ship to isolate in a local hotel.   Same problem on Celebrity--no one wants to wear a mask, we had 2300 passengers, maybe 10 of us wore masks, not a fair fight.  No one cares and they are off the cruise in 7 days, then go home to get really sick.  Of course they are infected but just keep on going for the 7 days.  We tried our best to stay away from groups, away from folks, but it's everywhere, so we'll try eating more in our cabin honestly as we cruise one (last time) more cruise in a week--again for B2B--we have a bit of immunity from just having had covid.  We had 1% isolated, and probably three times that many sick but not isolating.

Edited July 3, 2022 by 12cruise2

[broker1217]

We won't do a mass market cruise for the time being--just not worth the risk.

It was eye opening how people behaved, and not in a good way.

We have done trips to Nevis where we test prior to flying, test upon landing and have to quarantine until there is a negative result. It worked fine. We also did 2 cruises on Viking with daily testing---no issues. And people were mask-compliant and respectful of distancing.

This was a whole different world.

[zentraveler]

The mass cruise lines - and Princess was the poster child for this - got the worst PR in history when covid first began. If people/Princess keeps this up - no masks required etc - they are going to be in the same boat (ha!) again. If I had had any idea it was this bad I never would have booked this cruise. 

 

I am  sure they are not required to publish any data about incidence and pretty much everyone (at least in my world) thinks it is crazy to get on a cruise ship, so even the news seems to think it is old news.

[zentraveler]

1 minute ago, broker1217 said:

We won't do a mass market cruise for the time being--just not worth the risk.

It was eye opening how people behaved, and not in a good way.

We have done trips to Nevis where we test prior to flying, test upon landing and have to quarantine until there is a negative result. It worked fine. We also did 2 cruises on Viking with daily testing---no issues. And people were mask-compliant and respectful of distancing.

This was a whole different world.

That was our experience too on Seabourn last December. Most everyone wore masks, were respectful  and it was a whole different scene. I booked these two summer larger ship cruises (Princess and Carnival post-return to school for kids) because they leave and return to San Francisco and we had some time. And this being SF, people are generally tuned in and well behaved. And if this Princess Alaska trip goes badly I am cancelling the next one. 

[Coral]

2 hours ago, broker1217 said:

Could not agree more! 

We took a gamble and we lost. We honestly did not expect that so many people would be maskless on Princess. Lesson learned.

 

Hope you are doing ok!

[pamps2801]

Ok, so here was our experience, in regards to taking supplements. We did a 15 day Panama Canal  cruise back in March. I did get covid when I returned home. My wife, who was taking "One Zinc" tablet a day, never got covid. Yet, we were in the same room, in the same bed. My symptoms were mild, and within a week I tested negative. We're both vaccinated and boosted. We've done 3 cruises since, and I now take the "Zinc" tablets. My wife still hasn't contracted the virus. "Zinc" tablets Boost your immune system. Are these tablets a miracle stopper ? Who knows, but I'm taking them now. Just saying.

[sfaaa]

2 hours ago, broker1217 said:

 

It was eye opening how people behaved, and not in a good way.

 

Tell me about it. Besides not washing their hands or skipping hand sanitizer, what really disgusts me was most coughers didn't even bother to cover their mouths when they coughed out loud and sprayed gems at buffet, MDR or theater.

[broker1217]

9 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

Tell me about it. Besides not washing their hands or skipping hand sanitizer, what really disgusts me was most coughers didn't even bother to cover their mouths when they coughed out loud and sprayed gems at buffet, MDR or theater.

Yep. And my personal favorite---some people who had a mask on would pull it down when they had to sneeze.

 

[pamps2801]

1 minute ago, sfaaa said:

Tell me about it. Besides not washing their hands or skipping hand sanitizer, what really disgusts me was most coughers didn't even bother to cover their mouths when they coughed out loud and sprayed gems at buffet, MDR or theater.

Look, I've seen one wipe her nose with her hand then grab the tongs to serve herself some salad. Disgusting to say the least. Yes,  one person was coughing in the hallway back to their room, and the person didn't cover their mouth. Both times I said something, and they have the audacity to look at you like your the idiot. Unbelievable Stupidity on their part.

[SightCRR]

One earlier 2022 HAL cruise tour with the land first only 17 out of 33 in group were allowed to board the ship because of + c-19 tests. Not all were positive but had at least one person traveling together +. 

sightcrr

[Riley_Mon]

I said this after my cruise on another thread. If you are cruising you need to be prepared to be around Covid positive people….probably a considerably higher number than you would normally be comfortable around by the end of the week.I think the number of people getting Covid is vastly underreported on cruises and the reason why is that the symptoms aren’t much more than a bad cold for most. Just like some one else reported, my bus ride to the airport was full of people coughing. 
 

I don’t think many people are interested in taking a cruise, testing positive and then being isolated to a cabin, so they don’t say anything. That is also probably true in non cruise situations but the difference is you don’t have to interact with those people everyday for 6 says straight like you do with Covid positive cruise passengers.

 

I don’t blame princess or any cruise line, it’s just the nature of things. 

Edited July 4, 2022 by Riley_Mon

[pamps2801]

Yup, sad to say, but, if you cough on a cruise now, in a public venue, even a simple harmless cough, because you might of swallowed the wrong way, you get stared down. You can read their faces........ Which say...Why are you in public, contaminating everyone, when you should be isolated. Whats wrong with you. GET AWAY FROM ME !

[nini]

2 hours ago, pamps2801 said:

Ok, so here was our experience, in regards to taking supplements. We did a 15 day Panama Canal  cruise back in March. I did get covid when I returned home. My wife, who was taking "One Zinc" tablet a day, never got covid. Yet, we were in the same room, in the same bed. My symptoms were mild, and within a week I tested negative. We're both vaccinated and boosted. We've done 3 cruises since, and I now take the "Zinc" tablets. My wife still hasn't contracted the virus. "Zinc" tablets Boost your immune system. Are these tablets a miracle stopper ? Who knows, but I'm taking them now. Just saying.

Told ya! See my post #31! Zinc is in our arsenal and a few others!

[time4u2go]

1 hour ago, broker1217 said:

Yep. And my personal favorite---some people who had a mask on would pull it down when they had to sneeze.

 

I like it when someone wears a mask over their mouth but not over their nose. I guess they don't breathe through their nose?

[boltnut55]

On 7/2/2022 at 2:58 PM, zentraveler said:

Have been wondering this myself as we are about to get on an Alaska Ruby cruise from SF on 7/19. Lots of reports of people turning positive during the cruise. Actually made me concerned about going at all,  despite vaccinated like a lot of people. 

I came off the 6/19 Ruby to Alaska and back.  Do you have any references to stats on "people turning positive" recently?  I've been searching online to see if there were any news about our ship but haven't seen anything.

I'd encourage you to still go but take precautions.  I went for my physical about 2 weeks before, so my doctor reminded me to use N95, K95, KF94, or surgical masks because cloth masks aren't as helpful if everyone around you is not wearing one and to mask up as much as possible.  I thought about 20%-30% were masked, but maybe that's too high of an estimate🤷🏻‍♀️ My husband and I wore N95s throughout the cruise except for the 2nd to last day when we tried on the South Korean KF94.  There were some close quarters such as during golf and dart tournaments, but most of the time people did try to distance (not 6' but maybe 3').  For example, during the show, there was always at least 2 spaces between us and the parties who say nearby.  We also brought medications, thermometer, etc. just in case.  Have fun!

[zentraveler]

13 minutes ago, boltnut55 said:

I came off the 6/19 Ruby to Alaska and back.  Do you have any references to stats on "people turning positive" recently?  I've been searching online to see if there were any news about our ship but haven't seen anything.

I'd encourage you to still go but take precautions.  I went for my physical about 2 weeks before, so my doctor reminded me to use N95, K95, KF94, or surgical masks because cloth masks aren't as helpful if everyone around you is not wearing one and to mask up as much as possible.  I thought about 20%-30% were masked, but maybe that's too high of an estimate🤷🏻‍♀️ My husband and I wore N95s throughout the cruise except for the 2nd to last day when we tried on the South Korean KF94.  There were some close quarters such as during golf and dart tournaments, but most of the time people did try to distance (not 6' but maybe 3').  For example, during the show, there was always at least 2 spaces between us and the parties who say nearby.  We also brought medications, thermometer, etc. just in case.  HavNo e fun!

No stats, but just reading this and other threads where many, many people report turning positive during or after they get off the ship. There are a lot of people on these cruises so the people reporting here may not be a huge percentage, but we will never know what that figure is, but what seems more people than I would like were trying to be careful and came down with covid despite their precautions.