Australia - Covid disembarkation information .

[hammo]

With the news today about 800 passengers testing positive on arrival in Sydney can anyone help with information regarding what happens with testing at disembarkation . We have a flight home at 11am so we are time critical getting to the airport . Generally now we are not forced to isolate on land but not sure of RCCL's and the port authorities procedures now ? . Sad to be nervous now when we are just 6 days away from Quantum .

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, hammo said:

We have a flight home at 11am so we are time critical getting to the airport .

It all depends on where you are flying and the requirements for that destination. 

[Sunshine3601]

What ship had 800 positive?  

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

What ship had 800 positive?  

Majestic Princess.  

[BecAus]

Not a RCI ship - it's Majestic Princess (not that OP said it was a RCI ship) 

News reports say there are ~800 cases among the 3300 guests / 1300 crew. 

The ship had been on a 12day trip around NZ

Naturally some of the news reports are a bit over sensationalised - this made me laugh:

 

"Video posted to social media captured the moment it pulled into the harbour (Sydney) with passengers clinging to their balcony" 

 

-  'clinging to their balcony', really - bit over the top!

 

Like OP, we have an upcoming sailing in a couple of weeks (11n NZ on Ovation) so are a bit nervous in case NZ in particular or Sydney put restrictions in place.  I don't think Sydney/NSW will, I'm more concerned NZ might.

 

According to reports those who tested positive were isolating in their cabins.

Supposedly all unimpacted guests were wearing masks on board

Infected guests are being disembarked separately to those who test negative

Infected guests had to arrange private transport to home or accommodation and to continue to isolate and the company (Princess Cruises) was helping guests to organise this.

According to the company - 'All passengers will have undertaken a rapid antigen test in the 24 hours before disembarking and all will be masked "regardless of COVID status".'

 

Australia is currently in the midst of a covid wave which is expected to peak before Christmas.  At this point it is mostly a carry on as normal approach leaving it up to the individual concerned to hopefully isolate at home if they are unwell, no different to if you've got the flu really.  Hopefully most people have the common sense to stay at home if they are sick, whether it be covid, flu or something else and try to avoid spreading illness around to the general population.

 

Like the OP I too am trying to currently work out what the current protocols for RCI are for pre and post cruise travel and what documents are needed in preparation for our upcoming trip.

 

 

 

 

[hammo]

5 hours ago, Biker19 said:

It all depends on where you are flying and the requirements for that destination. 

Just back to Melbourne , if there are no extended delays we should be fine - if we do test positive that is something we should have prior information about the repurcussions so we can plan accordingly , not just be told post testing . 

[kernow]

We are flying to Sydney later today to embark Ovation on Wednesday.

 

From what I've read there is no mandatory isolation in NSW anymore, things are similar to how they are currently in the UK. We are doing b2b and have not heard anything about testing for the second cruise, I assume they will test us onboard especially as second cruise is NZ one.

 

Not really too worried, I suspect all of the 3 cruises we've done in the last 18 months have had multiple cases onboard, probably a few hundred if they had tested everyone at disembarkation, thankfully we managed to avoid it. We had our second boosters a few weeks ago but I know we could still catch it, if we do so be it.

[Mikamarii]

We did the TP from honolulu to Sydney in October. There was covid on board. No special measures taken and no issues getting off

 

We are currently on Coral Princess on the Queensland cruise. Im sure there is covid on board.  Nothing has been changed. Cruising as normal. 

 

We had followed australian cruising news for our trip. Prior to our Coral cruise rhe Coral Princess had previoulsy done a round australia cruise for 35 days or so. There was covid on the ship. When they hit western australia that is where things tightened up as western australia is still pretty tight with their rules. It was there they required guests to test before disembarking.

 

So far weve had 1 port stop on our current cruise. No requirng of testing to get off in Airlie Beach. No mention of having to test tomm in Cairns. 

 

Things can always change but as now its just media sensationilizing click bait news. 

[hammo]

Thanks cruisers for the information - please keep updating if you get a chance . Enjoy each day and have a crack .

[Biker19]

More than 100 of the 2,850 passengers on Celebrity Eclipse had COVID-19 when she docked in Sydney Friday after a return cruise to New Zealand.

The New South Wales government classified the ship as Tier 2, meaning the number of cases have ‘moderate impact to the vessel which can safely maintain critical services.’ 

 

Other cruise ships

 

Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas and P&O Cruises Australia’s Pacific Adventure also arrived Friday and were given Tier 1 virus status, meaning there were fewer than 30 cases per 1,000 passengers and no to low impact on the vessel.

 

Majestic Princess, which arrived Thursday, was designated Tier 2 and Viking Orion, which also arrived Thursday, was designated Tier 1. 

 

A statement from Celebrity Cruises said less than 4% of the onboard community tested positive for COVID-19.

 

It said the individuals were fully vaccinated, mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic and were monitored by the ship’s medical team.

 

Cruise ships arrive in Sydney with COVID-19 cases on board (seatrade-cruise.com)