p18750

As I said the decision to test passengers before boarding is voluntary (except a few destinations) and I believe will be subject to Celebrity view on whether more people will cruise with the testing or without the testing. Celebrity is a business and continuing to sail with half empty ships does not bode well for their survival. I am not sure what Celebrity is taking into consideration in making this decision, but I am pretty sure it is a business decision as much as a health decision.

So that may be a good sign. While the US still had a testing requirement it was not hard for Celebrity to rationalize having a testing requirement. Now that the US has dropped the requirement perhaps Celebrity will decide they can do so also. Of course there may still be testing requirements from countries the cruise visits but if you can take cruises that do not have a testing requirement ....

My wife and I talked about this many times and the requirement to test before returning was a much bigger deal than the Celebrity pre-board test. Our rationale was that if we get to Italy and test positive we will just get a VRBO and see a new part of Italy. The cost of the VRBO would be partly offset by the credit for the cruise. Also we can isolate ourselves at home for a few days before we take our Covid pre-board test (now that the requirement is two days instead of one) and increase the likelihood of a negative test. The return test was much more invasive since there is little change to isolate yourself (what is the purpose of a cruise if you self quarantine in your cabin the last 5 days so you can hopefully test negative for your flight). So while we would prefer both tests went away it is easier for us to live with the pre-board test.

I try to look at this from Celebrity operational perspective and I think vaccinations and testing are viewed differently. Vaccinations drastically reduce the chance of a serious medical conditions on the ship. Since this is very expensive and disruptive to Celebrity operations there is little reason for Celebrity to remove the vaccination requirement as long a Covid is circulating. In addition the vast majority of cruisers are fully vaccinated so there is not a large push back on this requirement. Testing on the other hand is largely a customer perception issue since (as others have pointed out) testing reduces but does not eliminate people with Covid from boarding and spreading Covid amongst their fellow passengers and crew. So I think as soon as Celebrity deems they can remove this requirement and gain more cruisers than they lose the testing requirement will be gone. From the posts it appears there are still a significant number of people who would not cruise without the testing this may still take a while.