Shorewalk Holmes

Thanks for the review Goodtime. Hope you both have time to rest--maybe watching Hercules and his friends 🙂.

We had a great time! I realize that some people aren't used to wearing masks, but if the captain asks, people should either be prepared to wear one, or do as @Keksie does and wait until the 'threat' of wearing a mask is over.

Well you're too late. I was on Princess recently, wearing a mask when appropriate.

I was being facetious, but thanks!

Also, since so many people drive to the port, we should get rid of seat belt requirements. I'm not cruising until they're gone. How can you live life when you're strapped in a seat... 😀

Oops, forgot to respond to the OP's question. I wouldn't sail after a recent positive test, not only because I wouldn't want to expose others, but for the reasons mentioned above.

Joking aside, the point is that the consequences of COVID on a cruise are much more dire than the consequences of COVID while shopping or eating at a restaurant at home. With grocery shopping you aren't trapped on the ocean, you don't deal with FCC's, you don't miss shore excursions, you didn't pay thousands of dollars to get there only to be sick all week, etc. So we should expect protocols for cruising to be more strict.

Yep. I had symptoms while buying groceries. They quarantined me for a week in the vegetable area.

You keep saying this, but I truly don't understand what the problem is. Not wearing a mask at dinner risks some exposure. Not wearing a mask at the theatre risks some more exposure. Wearing a good mask at the theatre reduces that chance of exposure, so overall less chance of getting COVID.

Just checking to see if someone knows a person who boarded with the US CDC vaccine card.

Interesting. Bringing the mask requirement back seems like a difficult decision that they would only make reluctantly. Maybe removing the masks resulted in substantially more infections.

Glad to hear you're vaccinated! It matters because you are less likely to get seriously ill and cause the ship to divert to provide shoreside medical care. More unvaccinated passengers means more disrupted cruises.

I wish more politicians had some actual in-depth scientific background.

Yes, I already agreed that the tests will miss some cases. I also agree that testing at boarding would miss fewer cases, although it would be even more of a pain for those who test positive. But your second point, that tests are bogus, doesn't follow at all. Tests find positive cases. Those people don't board. So there are fewer initial sources of Covid than if they all got on the ship.

It's because there are other sources of Covid. People can get exposed after the test, they can have Covid and not yet be positive, they can get Covid from shore excursions, etc. But each valid positive test eliminates a possible Covid source. So people can talk about missed cases, other diseases, cruises vs. Walmart, whatever. None of that gets around the fact that halting testing would mean more Covid sources aboard ships. More Covid sources could mean more quarantining and disruption. How much more? Wish we had those numbers.

Bill wears a seatbelt, but still was injured in an auto accident. According to your logic, this proves seatbelts don't work.

It would be great to know how many cases the testing is not finding. But the number that counts the most is the number of positive cases that testing finds before boarding. Because if this number is actually very small, then maybe testing wouldn't be warranted. Unfortunately, out of thousands of passengers, there could be many who were exposed a week before and test positive. I haven't seen data that suggest any credible number.

Agree that some covid is always likely to be on cruise ships, at least for now. But can we agree that less covid is better than more covid? Every time someone with covid doesn't board, you get less covid on the ship. We apparently don't have the data to be absolutely sure it's worth the time and money. I hope somebody in charge does.

You have been a voice of reason on these boards, and I respect your opinion greatly. So before quibbling about one of your points, I should make sure I understand it. I agree that people could be exposed to covid after a negative test on Days 2 or 1, so current testing misses those people. Testing at boarding would stop more covid than testing two days out. I can see why, from a medical point of view, you'd say testing 2 days out (instead of at boarding) is ridiculous. But as a passenger with a few cruises since opening, I'm not sure I would have booked them if I could be denied boarding after flying all the way to port. It's a compromise, maybe a bad one. However people do actually test positive at Day 2 and Day 1 (from being exposed in the days previous), and they do get denied boarding. The number of such people will depend on how widespread covid is. Clearly, as you say, this number would be smaller than you'd get if everyone were tested at port. But is there a reason why this number must be insignificantly small? Why couldn't it be large (but not as large as port testing) if community spread is high?

Of course not. See post #38.

Maybe officials are just being extra cautious about covid because it is new. Maybe they are afraid that uncontrolled spread could allow it to mutate again and evade the vaccines. I'm not sure that we know the end of the covid story yet.

In that case it would be especially useful to have the positive test and case data from the cruise lines so we could make up our own minds.

Presumably the cruise lines believe they are gaining fewer disruptive required quarantines, among other logistical hassles. Haven't had covid yet, so I don't know for sure, but I suspect that for someone in his seventies, it could be much more than a cold. Nevertheless I agree that the key question is how many positives the tests are picking up. If it's 2 or 3, and none of these is a superspreader, then by the end of the cruise there might be a relatively small effect. Doubt if I could justify testing in that case. On the other hand, if its 100...

It's true that the whole system treats covid differently than these other diseases. For example, covid could get you quarantined and ruin your cruise.

As long as precruise testing correctly detects positive cases before they get on the ship, it has already made a difference. Not sure what other kind of proof you are looking for. As I said, the important question is how many positive cases testing detects. If it's 100 out of a ship of 5000, then I don't want to see testing go away. I don't know any of the TAs who post here personally but to me they seem to know a whole lot about cruising.