Virgin Voyages just dropped testing

[nancipants]

It amazes me that some of you seem to never want things to return to normal. The question is why?

There is nothing more I would like than to never have to worry about Covid again. I have enough illnesses to worry about in daycare. Unfortunately, Covid doesn’t care what anyone wants.

 

[Intr3pid]

EDIT: Eh, never mind. I don't want to get a thread locked because we talk about Covid-19 too much.

I'll just say that a fully vaccinated family can still get rather sick. They likely won't require hospitalization, but they will likely require antiviral medicine and/or steroids. Hopefully, the cruise ships start packing enough medicine to handle the increased caseload.

Anyway, at least on Disney's ships, they aren't quarantining everyone that tests positive and their contacts. They're only quarantining the person that tests positive. Everyone else in the room is advised to wear masks, but otherwise they're free to enjoy the rest of the cruise. That doesn't apply to someone that tests positive before the cruise, of course. Then, sure, the whole group is denied boarding, but not quarantined.

Have you traveled much internationally during COVID? Not sure how many fret over a bout of sickness with a tiny probability - but I know they will if they and their party are thrown in a brig for a week in a foreign country following a positive test.

 

[dreamer17555]

The current testing done by DCL is clearly not keeping it off the ships. The 90 day recovery letters make no sense when you can antigen test (the PCR might pick up a previous infection but not an antigen). If you test positive on an antigen you are positive. Plus antigen tests are not very sensitive to the current variant. In May we had symptoms for several days before finally testing positive on an antigen test.

PCR testing at port at least made sense. It really helped to keep COVID off the ships. What is currently happening is not doing enough and is annoying plus an added cost to guests.

Virgin has the right idea. Mostly vaccinated and skip the theater of testing 2 days before.

 

[DMMarla07860]

It amazes me that some of you seem to never want things to return to normal. The question is why?

Things are returning. Maybe not at fast as people want I mean I feel pretty normal now minus not cruising since August 2019. But your normal may not be my normal

 

[cvjw]

I'll just say that a fully vaccinated family can still get rather sick. They likely won't require hospitalization, but they will likely require antiviral medicine and/or steroids. Hopefully, the cruise ships start packing enough medicine to handle the increased caseload.

Have you had covid recently? Almost my whole entire family has had omicron in the last few weeks. Old and young alike. No one got any medicine from their doctors. Supposedly, the new medicine only goes to those with co morbities or pre existing conditions. That is what we were told by 4 different doctors in 2 different states. We were all told to take Tylenol and rest.

 

[Kwami]

Have you had covid recently? Almost my whole entire family has had omicron in the last few weeks. Old and young alike. No one got any medicine from their doctors. Supposedly, the new medicine only goes to those with co morbities or pre existing conditions. That is what we were told by 4 different doctors in 2 different states. We were all told to take Tylenol and rest.

I haven't had Covid-19 at all, thankfully. However, my wife tested positive a few days ago. She's actually out of town to visit some family. Her father caught the virus from a friend at church and brought it home with him, then spread it to my wife, her mother, and two of her grandparents. All five of them are vaccinated and boosted, but they all suffered from fevers of 101F+, severe aches, disturbed sleep, very sore throats, lots of coughing, and so on. The doctors gave steroids to the grandparents and Paxlovid to the other three. Every one of them saw a different doctor.

So, maybe it varies from state to state. I don't know. But I'm glad that everyone was able to get medicine. They all turned around much more quickly than they otherwise would have.

Have you traveled much internationally during COVID? Not sure how many fret over a bout of sickness with a tiny probability - but I know they will if they and their party are thrown in a brig for a week in a foreign country following a positive test.

Most countries no longer require testing, though, and the US has removed the testing requirements for returning travelers. You're probably not too likely to be thrown in a brig anymore unless you fail a test to get on a cruise ship.

 

[AquaDame]

This thread has little to say about cruise ships but lots to say that is opinion and anecdotes about Covid and thus goes against our policy. I’m going to lock it.