MSC Just Removed Testing To Match RCCL and CCL. Is NCL Next?

[BermudaBound2014]

4 minutes ago, DwayneG said:

Guess I'm just a cynic but if NCL were to change the testing rules on the day of their earnings report I would think that would be pretty upsetting to those who set sail in the days just before.  It would be sad to go through all the effort of getting the tests just to learn NCL only made you do it because they wanted to withhold announcement until earnings day.  

But I guess marketers rule!

 

I don't think they would make the change immediately. Example, they make the announcement on August 9th but say something like "beginning with all cruises after Sept 1st" (note, I entirely made up the Sept 1 date as an example).

 

 

[BermudaBound2014]

5 hours ago, oteixeira said:

It was reported via the carnival release on testing that the require it.  I am more confused then ever.  

 

https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-clarifies-which-sailings-require-testing/77920

 

4 hours ago, Debde said:

Yes. I found the same information and find it hard to understand that testing is being reinstated from June with no mention on the official Bahama website to date???🤔

Totally confused now.🥴

 

This was bugging me because it doesn't make sense even on the carnival page.

 

I just spent some time poking around the Carnival site. This would be a huge error on Carnival's part, but it looks to me like someone uploaded information incorrectly and switched the testing requirements for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. 

 

This is the blurb for FULLY VACCINATED guests and it does specify the Bahamas:

If you scroll down the page a bit:

This is the blurb for Unvaccinated guests and it mentions nothing about the Bahamas:

 

Is it possible that someone at Carnival put the Bahama requirement in the wrong blurb? In other words, at the very least, shouldn't the Bahama requirements for pre testing also be included in the Unvaccinated section?

 

I'm probably making this more confusing, but if you switch these blurbs and exclude Bahamas from the vaccinated requirements and add Bahamas to the unvaccinated requirements (in other words the Bahamas is asking for a pre test for unvaccinated people) it all makes more sense to me. 

 

Here's the link. the Vaccinated blurb is first. Scroll down for the Unvaccinated blurb.

https://www.carnival.com/legal/covid-19-legal-notices/covid-19-guest-protocols

 

[hallux]

32 minutes ago, DwayneG said:

Guess I'm just a cynic but if NCL were to change the testing rules on the day of their earnings report I would think that would be pretty upsetting to those who set sail in the days just before.  It would be sad to go through all the effort of getting the tests just to learn NCL only made you do it because they wanted to withhold announcement until earnings day.  

But I guess marketers rule!

How do you think people traveling between when RCI and Carnival made their announcement and when it took effect felt/feel?  Point is - there's always SOMEONE right on the edge between testing or not that is going to be upset that they had to when people the following day don't need to.

[BermudaBound2014]

33 minutes ago, hallux said:

How do you think people traveling between when RCI and Carnival made their announcement and when it took effect felt/feel?  Point is - there's always SOMEONE right on the edge between testing or not that is going to be upset that they had to when people the following day don't need to.

 

No, there isn't. Carnival and RCL made their announcements effective several weeks after they made the change. Therefore, no one was right 'on the edge' between testing or not since you can't test until 72 hours prior. Everyone sailing had 2-3 weeks notice. 

[BermudaBound2014]

 

 

59 minutes ago, hallux said:

How do you think people traveling between when RCI and Carnival made their announcement and when it took effect felt/feel?  Point is - there's always SOMEONE right on the edge between testing or not that is going to be upset that they had to when people the following day don't need to.

 

No one was exempt from testing 'the following day' either. Seems cruise lines chose their effective dates so this wouldn't happen. Although I do get what you are saying now about being close.

 

Carnival goes into effect August 4th. There are no Carnival 3-5 days cruises departing August 3rd 

MSC goes into effect August 4th. There are no 3-5 day cruises departing August 3rd

RCL goes into effect August 8th. There are no 3-5 day cruses departing August 6th or 7th. 

[prmssk]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

 

This was bugging me because it doesn't make sense even on the carnival page.

 

I just spent some time poking around the Carnival site. This would be a huge error on Carnival's part, but it looks to me like someone uploaded information incorrectly and switched the testing requirements for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. 

 

This is the blurb for FULLY VACCINATED guests and it does specify the Bahamas:

If you scroll down the page a bit:

This is the blurb for Unvaccinated guests and it mentions nothing about the Bahamas:

 

Is it possible that someone at Carnival put the Bahama requirement in the wrong blurb? In other words, at the very least, shouldn't the Bahama requirements for pre testing also be included in the Unvaccinated section?

 

I'm probably making this more confusing, but if you switch these blurbs and exclude Bahamas from the vaccinated requirements and add Bahamas to the unvaccinated requirements (in other words the Bahamas is asking for a pre test for unvaccinated people) it all makes more sense to me. 

 

Here's the link. the Vaccinated blurb is first. Scroll down for the Unvaccinated blurb.

https://www.carnival.com/legal/covid-19-legal-notices/covid-19-guest-protocols

 

I don't follow your confusion here.  Bahamas was specifically listed in the five nights or less section because that is an exception to the rule that vaccinated individuals don't need to test.  It's not listed in the unvaccinated section because unvaccinated individuals have to test regardless of length of cruise or destination.

 

Bermuda and Canada are separately identified in both paragraphs because they have shortened testing windows (72 hours for PCR or 2 days for antigen).

[BermudaBound2014]

2 minutes ago, prmssk said:

I don't follow your confusion here.  Bahamas was specifically listed in the five nights or less section because that is an exception to the rule that vaccinated individuals don't need to test.  It's not listed in the unvaccinated section because unvaccinated individuals have to test regardless of length of cruise or destination.

 

Bermuda and Canada are separately identified in both paragraphs because they have shortened testing windows (72 hours for PCR or 2 days for antigen).

 

Thank you!! I don't understand my confusion anymore either :).

 

Seriously, THANK YOU!!! 🙂 

Edited August 3, 2022 by BermudaBound2014

[prmssk]

There is a lot of questions on the Carnival board as to why Bahamas was included as a port that required testing mostly because Royal has not come out with a similar announcement and Margaritaville at Sea is as we type sailing back and forth between Florida and the Bahamas with no pre-cruise testing requirement for vaccinated passengers. Virgin Voyages also has no pre-cruise testing requirement for vaccinated passengers and they sail to Bimini in the Bahamas.

[BermudaBound2014]

3 minutes ago, prmssk said:

There is a lot of questions on the Carnival board as to why Bahamas was included as a port that required testing mostly because Royal has not come out with a similar announcement and Margaritaville at Sea is as we type sailing back and forth between Florida and the Bahamas with no pre-cruise testing requirement for vaccinated passengers. Virgin Voyages also has no pre-cruise testing requirement for vaccinated passengers and they sail to Bimini in the Bahamas.

 

yes, I've been reading there too. It does seems something is amiss with the Carnival announcement (especially since it's not on the Bahamas official site), but I also find it hard to believe someone could goof that bad at CCL with an updated announcement. What a hot mess. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

 

But again, thanks for unspinning my head. It gets in my way often 🙂 

[prmssk]

3 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

yes, I've been reading there too. It does seems something is amiss with the Carnival announcement (especially since it's not on the Bahamas official site), but I also find it hard to believe someone could goof that bad at CCL with an updated announcement. What a hot mess. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

 

But again, thanks for unspinning my head. It gets in my way often 🙂 

Glad I could help clarify your confusion.  It really isn't written very well.

 

To me, it doesn't surprise me if something wasn't on the general Bahamas tourism site because often countries during the pandemic have had different requirements for cruise ships than they have for those coming in by land and air.  Canada is a great example.  What puzzles me is the lack of consistency with the other cruise lines currently sailing to the Bahamas.

 

It will be very interesting to see how it plays out.  Fortunately my next cruise on Carnival only stops in Mexico so hopefully the no test for sailings five nights or under will stick for that sailing.  And hopefully NCL follows with similar protocols before my December cruise (which is a five night cruise stopping in Mexico).

[hallux]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

No, there isn't. Carnival and RCL made their announcements effective several weeks after they made the change. Therefore, no one was right 'on the edge' between testing or not since you can't test until 72 hours prior. Everyone sailing had 2-3 weeks notice. 

 

44 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

 

 

No one was exempt from testing 'the following day' either. Seems cruise lines chose their effective dates so this wouldn't happen. Although I do get what you are saying now about being close.

 

Carnival goes into effect August 4th. There are no Carnival 3-5 days cruises departing August 3rd 

MSC goes into effect August 4th. There are no 3-5 day cruises departing August 3rd

RCL goes into effect August 8th. There are no 3-5 day cruses departing August 6th or 7th. 

Re-read the post I quoted.  The way I read that post was that the person was referring to people sailing in the days before the earnings call being upset that they were forced to do the testing process only because NCL decided to hold off a few extra days until the (now delayed) earnings call.

 

My point was that no matter when the protocol is changed (IF it's changed), some group is going to say "why couldn't it have been changed a few days sooner and include my sailing if they knew they were going to make the change".

[oteixeira]

11 hours ago, hallux said:

 

Re-read the post I quoted.  The way I read that post was that the person was referring to people sailing in the days before the earnings call being upset that they were forced to do the testing process only because NCL decided to hold off a few extra days until the (now delayed) earnings call.

 

My point was that no matter when the protocol is changed (IF it's changed), some group is going to say "why couldn't it have been changed a few days sooner and include my sailing if they knew they were going to make the change".

My point is someone will always be frustrated.  I sailed in December 2021, the cruise before mine was no masks, mine was the first one with masks required due to the jump in cases.  Do you think I was not frustrated/mad with the change.  Someone will always be a day or two off of the change and be frustrated, but at the end of the day, the lines have to pick a date.

[hallux]

24 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

My point is someone will always be frustrated.  I sailed in December 2021, the cruise before mine was no masks, mine was the first one with masks required due to the jump in cases.  Do you think I was not frustrated/mad with the change.  Someone will always be a day or two off of the change and be frustrated, but at the end of the day, the lines have to pick a date.

I think we're making the same point...

[Karaboudjan]

12 hours ago, prmssk said:

To me, it doesn't surprise me if something wasn't on the general Bahamas tourism site because often countries during the pandemic have had different requirements for cruise ships than they have for those coming in by land and air.  Canada is a great example.  What puzzles me is the lack of consistency with the other cruise lines currently sailing to the Bahamas.

 

 

It looks like Carnival has 7 or 8 ships stopping in the Bahamas.  Virgin and Margaritaville have two between them.  Maybe the Bahamas are opening the tap slowly and waiting to see how things go.

 

[BermudaBound2014]

Well this is interesting. Here is RCL's official policy. Notice they are not requiring pre-testing on short cruises for those who are vaccinated. 

 

[Andersoncd]

Curious to know if anyone else has been told this by their Dr ...... I went to see my Dr a few weeks ago and inquired about getting a second booster shot. She told me to wait until this Fall when a new formulation of vaccine comes out.  Told me the vaccine given today is still the same one as two years ago, and that another booster would provide little or no protection against the new strains of Covid circulating today. Anyone else heard this?

[hallux]

38 minutes ago, Andersoncd said:

Anyone else heard this?

I have, on the news...

[BermudaBound2014]

It seems change is happening rapidly. RCL gave a formal announcement yesterday about cruises departing after August 8th, but added a blurb today that there will be more changes made on August 14th.

 

[hallux]

51 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

It seems change is happening rapidly. RCL gave a formal announcement yesterday about cruises departing after August 8th, but added a blurb today that there will be more changes made on August 14th.

 

Keeping a close eye on this.  I have a friend sailing with Royal on August 21, they were supposed to call me for some more info on the proctored testing and have not yet called.  This may change what they need to do.

[helene109]

Just frustrating to pay $128.00 at Walgreens. Went on a cruise in May there was no charge!

[cruiserbear55]

27 minutes ago, helene109 said:

Just frustrating to pay $128.00 at Walgreens. Went on a cruise in May there was no charge!

Call your Congress man/woman or Senator. Those freebie tests were courtesy of the US government. They (Walgreens, RiteAid, CVS) weren’t doing them out of their good graces. They were being reimbursed.

 

 

 

[helene109]

3 minutes ago, cruiserbear55 said:

Call your Congress man/woman or Senator. Those freebie tests were courtesy of the US government. They (Walgreens, RiteAid, CVS) weren’t doing them out of their good graces. They were being reimbursed.

 

 

 

We leave next Friday and not familiar with a home test. Only option!

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 minutes ago, cruiserbear55 said:

Call your Congress man/woman or Senator.

 

Have you ever actually tried to get help from a politician?  I've tried with Senators and Governor, and all were a total joke.  Some intern responds with boilerplate blah, blah, blah, thank you for your support!

[cruiserbear55]

3 minutes ago, helene109 said:

We leave next Friday and not familiar with a home test. Only option!

We did e-meds. Easy Peazy!  You order the tests ( which I would order today and ship priority to ensure you receive them by your test day which would be next Wednesday),Tests were 25.00 per person plus shipping.We ordered six, so total bill was about $167.00. You then register each person under e-meds “NAVICA” app. 
  Come test day, you log into the app and a Procter/Supervisor will come on and walk you through the test. Generally, it takes twenty to thirty minutes per person. You get your results almost immediately. You can then just keep the results on your phone, or print them if you wish.( The folks at the pier love you if you show up with printed results.) As long as your tests were negative, you’re good to go! A lot cheaper than what you were quoted.

[cruiserbear55]

29 minutes ago, helene109 said:

We leave next Friday and not familiar with a home test. Only option!

Forgot to mention. You can go on You-Tube and watch any number of videos that will show you the testing process.