Shorewalk Holmes

It's not a 'theory' at all. It's true by definition. As long as the test can correctly detect positive cases, and positive testers are refused boarding, testing cuts down on the total number of positive cases aboard the ship. By the way, I'm amazed at how many people fall for the argument that 'if there's still covid cases after X, that proves X doesn't work' -- whether it's vaccines, masks, or testing. These precautions work to reduce the probability of spread, they don't eliminate it. Yes, some people will have covid but not test positive until after they board. Some people will get covid ashore. None of that means that precruise testing doesn't work to reduce the number of cases aboard. As I said earlier, the key question is how many people are denied boarding due to positive tests. I'm hoping that one of the TAs here knows (and is willing to say) roughly how many boarding refusals there are.

At least The Bahamas gave us time to get the tourist visa approved, as opposed to Bermuda, for which the testing/approval timetable was way too tight IMHO.

This is an important point. What's a typical number of precruise positives per 5000 passengers, including both the people who test positive at home and those at the port? 1? 100? 300? The cruise lines probably know this, at least approximately. Maybe someone here also knows.

No, but it helps. I guess we don't know how bad things would have been all this time without testing. Unless maybe someone knows of a real case of a line with large ships and no testing.

The key word is 'helps'. He didn't say it keeps all Covid off.

Can you elaborate? What was your point then? It appears you were suggesting that because people go ashore there's little point in precruise testing. Clearly this isn't a logical position. Precruise testing reduces the infection stream coming aboard, as @BirdTravels said. It's beneficial whether people go ashore or not. That said, I hope you're right that someday testing will go away when the chance of illness disrupting people's cruises is much smaller.

People go ashore whether you test or not. Precruise testing cuts down on another stream of possible infection.

Thanks for the information. Our problem with Bermuda cruises wasn't the testing per se, but the extremely short timeline after reporting the results for the Tourism Office to get approval back to the passenger to allow boarding.

Hard to argue with this.

What we expect is that people will follow the ship's rules regarding health precautions. In a removed post, someone earlier said they won't obey mask rules unless forced to. We should expect better of people.