Antarctica/ South America winter 2021

[cruiseej]

I would imagine that Chile doesn't want to have to mount any air rescue missions to Antarctica to extract sick passengers in need of medical care from a cruise ship, so requiring the additional test before boarding helps them head off some potential problems.

[Host Jazzbeau]

7 hours ago, taxatty said:

Regardless of that, I can confirm to you first-hand that when we arrived in Santiago from Miami on December 20th for going to the Cloud, everyone was supposed to get a PCR test at the Santiago airport at a well-marked area prior to clearing local immigration and going by bus to the hotel. You then had to stay in your room until a negative test result was received later in the day. A prior negative US test was insufficient. A few who didn't get the PCR test at the airport for whatever reason had to have it done at the Mandarin Oriental itself in an upstairs room set up for that purpose, with results being available within several hours. SS was extremely diligent at checking everyone's test information. Without that PCR negative test result, you could not have boarded the ship as it had to be shown to the Chilean authorities at the dock in Punta Arenas.

My friend recently got back from a land trip to the Atacama Desert in Chile and reported similar testing/hotel quarantine pending test results.  So this isn't just for cruise passengers.

[taxatty]

Glad that we didn't have to deal with this on our Cloud cruise. Yikes. If this is true, how can they keep the cruise going to Antarctica?

 

https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2022/02/articles/disease/over-30-of-crew-members-on-silverseas-silver-cloud-test-positive-for-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR3pvFHklxrP3B46jDbvJJIoneDEgo890EjzbjX6Vl1VXsiTpf0la2ui3XA

 

[rosewood jo]

Are crew being tested every day