MSC cruises ..are masks required on board

[mimi217]

Just booked a back to back cruise yesterday. Just heard that masks will be required on the ship. Is that true?

[MotownVoice]

Protocols are slightly different from port to port but in general MSC requires masks in all public areas including excursion buses except while seated socially distanced or eating.  

[mimi217]

I was under the impression if you're vaccinated you didn't have to wear a mask. That is so disappointing!

[phissy]

Cruising out of Florida ports on MSC seems to still be changing weekly.
Cruising guidelines have been revised twice. Depending on when you are cruising, policy may change.  We are on B2B in November.  Still not sure what policy on masking or vaccination status requirements will be. Seems like fully vaccinated passengers will have more mask less venues available. To be continued…….

[zekekelso]

15 minutes ago, phissy said:

Depending on when you are cruising, policy may change.

I think we can bump that up to “no matter where you are cruising, policy will certainly change,”

[MotownVoice]

1 hour ago, mimi217 said:

I was under the impression if you're vaccinated you didn't have to wear a mask. That is so disappointing!

 

Unfortunately the cruiselines are having difficulty garnering any support for a system for verifying that a person has been vaxed.   So there’s no way except taking a person’s word for it.  So blame the anti vaxxers/anti vax passport people. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by MotownVoice

[hamrag]

1 hour ago, mimi217 said:

I was under the impression if you're vaccinated you didn't have to wear a mask. That is so disappointing!

On what basis did you gain that impression?

[Tapi]

24 minutes ago, hamrag said:

On what basis did you gain that impression?

I also booked a cruise a few days ago. On that day, the protocols on the MSC website stated that vaccinated guests didn't have to wear a mask indoors. I checked again today, and the protocols now read that vaccinated guests DO have to wear a mask. So that's probably why the OP was under that impression. 

 

The MSC website was also very vague about protocols for children under 12, but now it has thankfully clarified the issue.

 

Long story short, it seems like protocols for these cruises have been tweaked and will continue to be tweaked as time progresses. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Tapi

[Jeremiah1212]

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/health-and-safety-measures/caribbean-cruises

 

Keep an eye on that portion of the website. For now, they are saying masks are required indoors. Expect many more changes to come.

[Acadie]

We are fully vaccinated and hoping for a maskless (at least on board) cruise.  If the policy remains the same, we will jump ship and head over to NCL or Celebrity.  Hoping that will not be the case!  

[BoundForSea]

15 minutes ago, Acadie said:

We are fully vaccinated and hoping for a maskless (at least on board) cruise.  If the policy remains the same, we will jump ship and head over to NCL or Celebrity.  Hoping that will not be the case!  

Just got back from 14ni on Celebrity Millennium out of SXM (2nd out of the gate June 12th) and had an incredible time. I can only imagine how great Edge must be. We and the crew were maskless (granted we were all vaccinated and only at 30% capacity) and not a single case three weeks straight. We are frequent MSC clients and I just moved my Sept to Celebrity and added a November Celebrity snd have a holiday Seashore December on the books. We don’t want to wear masks. I love the YC and MSC but not enough to have to spend thousands on vacation and wear that damn thing everywhere. Especially since we were spoiled for two weeks without it. 

Edited July 11, 2021 by BoundForSea

[mimi217]

49 minutes ago, Acadie said:

We are fully vaccinated and hoping for a maskless (at least on board) cruise.  If the policy remains the same, we will jump ship and head over to NCL or Celebrity.  Hoping that will not be the case!  

When is the date of your cruise? I was ready to cancel . Our first cruise is Aug.16 so I guess there is a chance that  they can change the protocol and go maskless..

[Jeremiah1212]

45 minutes ago, BoundForSea said:

Just got back from 14ni on Celebrity Millennium out of SXM (2nd out of the gate June 12th) and had an incredible time. I can only imagine how great Edge must be. We and the crew were maskless (granted we were all vaccinated and only at 30% capacity) and not a single case three weeks straight. We are frequent MSC clients and I just moved my Sept to Celebrity and added a November Celebrity snd have a holiday Seashore December on the books. We don’t want to wear masks. I love the YC and MSC but not enough to have to spend thousands on vacation and wear that damn thing everywhere. Especially since we were spoiled for two weeks without it. 

 

Ahh the waiting game. Many of us in that same position. We have an MSC final payment due at the first of November. I expect a lot to change between now and then but we are prepared to eat the YC deposit and jump ship depending on their policies at the time. 

[Tapi]

The cruise that I booked a few days ago on MSC is the 3 night on Meraviglia. Yes, as of right now masks will be required indoor, but once again, its only 3 nights with one stop in Ocean Cay where we can go ashore unrestricted and don't have to wear masks. The best part about it? It's dirt cheap! (Balcony stateroom for 4 at $95pp before taxes and port charges). 

 

So even if the mask mandate remains, I'll stick with it. It's a short, cheap cruise. However, if it were a longer cruise, with multiple ports of calls and restrictions, I would think twice about it. 

[Raintree]

1 hour ago, mimi217 said:

When is the date of your cruise? I was ready to cancel . Our first cruise is Aug.16 so I guess there is a chance that  they can change the protocol and go maskless..

We are also hoping that masks will not be required on MSC for those that are fully vaccinated.  We have October, November and December booked in the Yacht Club.  We just got off of Celebrity EDGE Retreat without wearing a mask.  It was wonderful.  We are fully vaccinated and do not want to wear a mask on MSC even if it is the Yacht Club.  We have full payment coming up for the October cruise and are thinking of cancelling if masks are required--jumping ship to Celebrity. Where there is will there is a way for MSC to follow suit.  

[CruiseMH]

If 100% of the guests will be vaccinated then MSC will change to no masks required.I can`t imagine that they want to risk to lose customers to other cruise lines.

If not all guests are vaccinated(i don`t know the current regulations and laws regarding this in the US/north american continent) then MSC will not risk it.

At least thats what i think...but i might be also completely wrong. 😉

 

 

 

[deliver42]

MSC goes out of Florida, and they can't ask if passengers are vaccinated there. It will probably be 95% vaccinated and 5% unvaccinated, in which case vaccinated will have to wear a mas some places inside, and non vaccinated will be restricted where they can go, just lie Royal Caribbean and Carnival. This cold change by the day. 

[phissy]

19 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

MSC goes out of Florida, and they can't ask if passengers are vaccinated there. It will probably be 95% vaccinated and 5% unvaccinated.

MSC site has changed again.  By my count, fourth revision.
For Caribbean cruises, it specifies that Covid insurance now required for non vaccinated passengers.  

So, they must be able to identify non vaxed passengers ,  perhaps indirectly?

Maybe  those that do not upload vaccination proof will be put under umbrella of unvaccinated and need to comply with those requirements?

For the safety of the other passengers and crew, I would think this would be essential.

[lovemycruisetoo]

On the web checkin I did for our October cruise, it specifically asked if we would be completely vaccinated by the time of the cruise. You had to check whether you will or will not be but no requirement to upload proof. Guess the depending on everyone being honest. 
 

I also noticed the health and safety changes since the time I took screenshots of them. 

[Jeremiah1212]

3 hours ago, CruiseMH said:

If 100% of the guests will be vaccinated then MSC will change to no masks required.I can`t imagine that they want to risk to lose customers to other cruise lines.

If not all guests are vaccinated(i don`t know the current regulations and laws regarding this in the US/north american continent) then MSC will not risk it.

At least thats what i think...but i might be also completely wrong. 😉

 

 

 

 

For now, starting next week, the CDC's guidelines change from requirements to suggestions for Florida sailings so cruise lines can do pretty much whatever they want. 

 

2 hours ago, deliver42 said:

MSC goes out of Florida, and they can't ask if passengers are vaccinated there. It will probably be 95% vaccinated and 5% unvaccinated, in which case vaccinated will have to wear a mas some places inside, and non vaccinated will be restricted where they can go, just lie Royal Caribbean and Carnival. This cold change by the day. 

 

They can ask, but they aren't allowed to require proof of vaccination. But if you fail to prove your status you are treated as unvaccinated. This is exactly what Celebrity is doing. The requirement for the 95%/5% path goes away (albeit temporarily...maybe) next week. 

 

For instance Carnival is having you confirm your status 30 days out. If you don't respond, they are canceling your reservation.

[sverigecruiser]

 

We have been told by MSC that masks will be required during the summer but that was a few months ago so what they said then may not be correct now!

 

We were prepared to loose our deposit if we had to but MSC let us change our cruise to next summer and hopefully masks won't be required then.

[Rhea98]

55 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

For now, starting next week, the CDC's guidelines change from requirements to suggestions for Florida sailings so cruise lines can do pretty much whatever they want. 

 

 

They can ask, but they aren't allowed to require proof of vaccination. But if you fail to prove your status you are treated as unvaccinated. This is exactly what Celebrity is doing. The requirement for the 95%/5% path goes away (albeit temporarily...maybe) next week. 

 

For instance Carnival is having you confirm your status 30 days out. If you don't respond, they are canceling your reservation.

Exactly what I've read and also what cruise vloggers have been reporting--some from first hand experience (cruising now). And, if we didn't know before, we know that Celebrity, at least, is dead serious about following protocols. 

[BoundForSea]

4 hours ago, CruiseMH said:

If 100% of the guests will be vaccinated then MSC will change to no masks required.I can`t imagine that they want to risk to lose customers to other cruise lines.

If not all guests are vaccinated(i don`t know the current regulations and laws regarding this in the US/north american continent) then MSC will not risk it.

At least thats what i think...but i might be also completely wrong. 😉

 

 

 

You won’t see MSC ever require Vaccinations. A large portion of the revenue out of FL is from European and South/Latin American clients on holiday. They would lose out on such a huge portion of their base if they did. The vaccine in Europe is not something as prevalent as it is here in the US and we still are at 49.6% last I saw today. So I’m not super hopeful on the drop the mask, however I have until December for my next voyage on them (It’s X and NCL for me until December on three voyages, MSC lost out on me on two of those due to the mask requirement and their Shenzhen only ban for Europe cruises) 

Edited July 11, 2021 by BoundForSea

[Acadie]

7 hours ago, mimi217 said:

When is the date of your cruise? I was ready to cancel . Our first cruise is Aug.16 so I guess there is a chance that  they can change the protocol and go maskless..

We only sail Jan 16th, so there is time for the policy to change 10 time before then.  We will see what the policy is at final payment, and go from there.  

[GOLDENBONNY]

I really hope MSC will read this board and see how many people will move to Celebrity , include our party of 6 . I hate to do this , I prefer to stay with MSC but we are not wearing masks on vacation.