The CDC program for cruise ships is no longer in effect

[Dis_fool]

Sorry to hear you are now positive. Are you symptomatic? We've had it twice already, delta and omicron.

Hopefully this means they remove all vax requirements and testing. It's clear at this point that it's not going away and only those who are willing to take the risk should cruise. If they remove the vax requirement we'll book something the same day.

Symptomatic. Congestion, cold like and sore throat. I will beg to disagree about vax requirements. Not here to argue about that aspect , merely my opinion that vaxes should be required.

 

[DCLMP]

Antigen tests 48 hours before a cruise aren't worth much, though. That's the biggest problem, I think. The embarkation day PCR tests were stressful and nobody liked being turned away at the port, but those tests probably did more than anything to keep Covid-19 off the ships.

Except they pick up previous infections and more false positives so not that valid.

 

[tidefan]

Exactly this. Vaccines don't prevent COVID in every instance, but they greatly reduce your likelihood of severe COVID/hospitalization/death. DCL is going to have to weigh the potential consequences of dropping a vaccine mandate (primarily whether their onboard facilities can provide adequate care for more severe cases) against how much business they may or may not lose with a mandate. I would go out of my way to book a cruise that required vaccination, especially traveling with kids. I would choose that over other cruise lines that didn't require it, if all else was equal, and I can safely say that's true of the majority of my friends as well. I know there are others who feel differently, but my overall point is we just don't know to what degree the vaccine mandate financially impacts Disney. And in the end, we have to KNOW that's what the decision will be based on... $$$.

I wonder if Disney might mitigate the financial risk of unvaccinated passengers by offering a discounted rate for vaccinated guests, to compensate for the potential higher costs of having unvaccinated folks aboard.

So my DW got COVID on Princess in early June (they took great care of us, BTW - as an aside, I quarantined with her for 2 1/2 days and drove 3 days across country with her and I never got it) and when we were talking to the super nice quarantine crew member, whom had recently recovered herself, she said that while they were getting lots of cases still onboard, that they hadn't had a serious case in over 5-6 months. Princess required the Alaska sailings to be 100% vaccinated, so I am pretty sure that you are seeing the effect of that here. People are still getting it, but they are not seeing the serious cases that they did say a year ago. In a completely non-scientific sample of the folks we met by socializing around our balcony partitions up in the COVID area, it seemed like it was always one of the two in the party that had got it, and strangely enough, it seemed as though the person that had got it had never got it before. At any rate, most of those, at least around us, were feeling better on the last day, which for most was 2 days in.

 

[RedHead0186]

Many on my last trip tested negative the first test with symptoms but positively the second test. Now friends in my area (Wisconsin and Illinois) are saying the same thing. “I was negative but I tested again and now I’m positive”. I think it’s a B5 thing because I haven’t heard that before the last 2 months, but I’m no doctor.

It is. Tests are less sensitive with the new variants (because they were developed before these variants existed, and each new variant is less similar to the original variants used to develop the tests so it gets less sensitive). Especially the rapid antigen tests, a study I just saw today showed they were only about 20-30% effective at detecting the newer variants. PCR continue to be more accurate (as they have been all along).

So yes, it's a lot more common now for people to test negative but still have it (and then test negative later on).

 

[DCLMP]

My wife flew out today without me, for what was supposed to be a B2B on the Wish for both of us. We booked last year thinking that with the lifting of vax mandates, including the lock down champion of the planet, Australia, they couldn't possibly still be in effect for a cruise 8 months away. Boy were we wrong. So, she is treating a couple of her girlfriends to their first Disney cruise. I too will book something the instant they drop the increasingly questionable vax mandate.

I’m glad to hear they opened the prison doors down under. Maybe I’ll visit some day.

 

[AquaDame]

Sounds like this thread has outlived its purpose and moved on to opinion once again; locking it.