John H announced masks and Mandatory testing,

[SNJCruisers]

6 hours ago, Shipcats6 said:

Was booked on Horizon sailing 8/15.  Canceled.  We live in Texas.  Got vaccinated in April and haven’t worn a mask since.  Not going to do it on vacation.

Were you planning on driving from TX to Miami for your cruise? Because if you were flying you would have been wearing a mask in the airport and on your flights, which constitutes vacation.

[Joe817]

13 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

I had a two week window starting tomorrow through CVS minute clinic.

The same for me. Their schedule calendar only goes out 13 or 14 days. We are also calling tomorrow to schedule an appointment, and pray they will have the testing kits when our day rolls around, which will be Wed., Aug. 18.  🤞

[hurricane0226]

37 minutes ago, Fredric22 said:

So you don't have to wear them while you are just walking around?  Also, I am assuming once you are in a venue you can buy a drink and take the mask off? Just curious as to how it is being handled there... 

how about the pool areas, and serenity and hot tubs? 

[Hockeydad1972]

6 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Not this far out. CVS only schedules out two days and walgreens only schedules out two weeks. Unless I have it backwards. It's one or the other. Either way I can't schedule until next week.

 

I just scheduled ours for next Friday 8/13 for my 8/16 sailing on the Magic at CVS.. Just an FYI that it’s at least 10 days out as I could have booked up to Sunday 8/15..

[Hockeydad1972]

3 hours ago, LHARTWICK said:

I’m having trouble finding rapid testing centers in our area. And now I’m reading that pharmacies and testing centers are running out of the testing supplies.  Lovely.  So even if we don’t cancel, we may not be able to get the test.  Then we’ll be forced to cancel.  Can’t win.  

Has anyone heard if they will let you pay for a rapid test at the terminal at check in??

[Joe817]

1 minute ago, Hockeydad1972 said:

Has anyone heard if they will let you pay for a rapid test at the terminal at check in??

Yes. Carnival has said that no testing will be available at the terminals.

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, hurricane0226 said:

how about the pool areas, and serenity and hot tubs? 

Not needed outside at all.  Needed in casino, buffet, waiting for MDR, elevators, shops, entertainment venues and other areas that will have signs posted where people congregate.

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, hurricane0226 said:

how about the pool areas, and serenity and hot tubs? 

Those are outdoors.

[EdmundXXIII]

Can we all just appreciate how badly Carnival screwed up this announcement?

 

The wording was vague as to what “3 days” before meant, IE: does embarkation day count as day 1 or day 0 in your math.

 

This is the difference between being able to test on Thursday or not for your cruise Sunday cruise.

 

And amidst this confusion, John Heald has posted one answer, and people’s PVPs are sending them a different answer!

 

What a mess!

Edited August 5, 2021 by EdmundXXIII

[atexsix]

4 hours ago, Spif Barwunkel said:

Is it contempt for logic, common sense and any modicum of precautionary measures? Is it the inability to see beyond the tip of your nose while at the same time blindly reaching as far as you can for another snippet of aimless drivel? Indeed, the saying “ignorance is bliss” holds a lot of sea water on this thread.

 

Everyone needs help to be safe, in anything, but that responsibility starts with us, for ourselves. Beyond that, when we venture into another realm we should be aware of, and, beholding to what others wish to provide in our best interests. You don’t have to like it but once you enter, you better be all in.

 

Carnival is asking you to do that, for everybody’s sake. So, if you can’t handle some inconvenience and you feel a personal, unnecessary affront toward your well-being, cancel your cruises and stay away….please! As absurd as some of the comments are in these posts, I can’t imagine having to listen to them in person on a ship. Talk about spoiling the cruise, that would do it.  

  

Carnival is ignoring or doesn't care about the main issue: availability of test appointments, for a Sunday sailing people don't have 3 days, they might have Thursday afternoon through Friday. This was an ignorant, careless, and uninformed decision on the part of Carnival to just push it on their passengers, if I were a first time cruiser I'd run for the hills.

 

[BlerkOne]

35 minutes ago, EdmundXXIII said:

Can we all just appreciate how badly Carnival screwed up this announcement?

 

The wording was vague as to what “3 days” before meant, IE: does embarkation day count as day 1 or day 0 in your math.

 

This is the difference between being able to test on Thursday or not for your cruise Sunday cruise.

 

And amidst this confusion, John Heald has posted one answer, and people’s PVPs are sending them a different answer!

 

What a mess!

JH said (not that his words are legally binding) Carnival isn't going to time everything to the exact minute. I imagine clarification will be coming forthwith.

[Honolulu Blue]

6 hours ago, enfuego4cruising said:

Well, we just received our "emergency notification" regarding the latest updates on the Covid roulette wheel. What a disappointment. As being fully vaccinated, we were looking forward to sailing on a fully vaccinated ship and enjoying normal, i.e. no masks etc. 

 

I'll be calling my T.A. tomorrow to push our three 2021 cruises well into 2022. Hopefully the Omega variant won't screw those up.

 

Well, Omega is the end.  Whether it's the end of civilization (as we know it) or of the virus, I'm not really sure.

 

6 hours ago, Fredric22 said:

If only we would be able to accept the fact that some vaccinated folks might test positive or get cold-like symptoms we could probably move on from COVID a lot sooner than we will with our current way of thinking.  Oh well... eventually this will be the way forward, but unfortunately there is s bump in the road right now.  I just hope the industry can weather this storm for the immediate future. 

 

Imagine a world where everyone is either fully vaccinated or has natural immunity.  People will catch the virus, some may show symptoms, but few will get seriously ill.  I would say at this point getting the virus would be a shrug of the shoulders to the vast majority.  The good news is we'll eventually get to this point.  The bad news is it's taking a while because we have to protect those who aren't vaccinated in the meantime.

[Bevv]

6 hours ago, Hockeydad1972 said:

Has anyone heard if they will let you pay for a rapid test at the terminal at check in??

duplicate response

Edited August 5, 2021 by Bevv

[SNJCruisers]

3 hours ago, atexsix said:

Carnival is ignoring or doesn't care about the main issue: availability of test appointments, for a Sunday sailing people don't have 3 days, they might have Thursday afternoon through Friday. This was an ignorant, careless, and uninformed decision on the part of Carnival to just push it on their passengers, if I were a first time cruiser I'd run for the hills.

 

For a Sunday sailing, you have all day Thursday and all day Friday.  It is also not Carnival's choice, but rather Carnival's reaction to what is going on in the country with regards to how Covid is running rampant in various parts of the country, mainly due to the Delta variant. 

 

The last thing that Carnival wants or needs is a shutdown of the industry and the powers that be have decided that this is the best thing to do at this time.  Yesterday on the Vista, there were cases reported of people being positive and the Captain made an announcement that made masks mandatory on board immediately. Regarding the new protocols being implemented next week, if people don't like it, they can get a one time refund or if they don't want to lose some OBC, they can flip it to a future sailing or they bite the bullet and proceed with the new protocols.

[Bases5]

34 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

For a Sunday sailing, you have all day Thursday and all day Friday.  It is also not Carnival's choice, but rather Carnival's reaction to what is going on in the country with regards to how Covid is running rampant in various parts of the country, mainly due to the Delta variant. 

 

The last thing that Carnival wants or needs is a shutdown of the industry and the powers that be have decided that this is the best thing to do at this time.  Yesterday on the Vista, there were cases reported of people being positive and the Captain made an announcement that made masks mandatory on board immediately. Regarding the new protocols being implemented next week, if people don't like it, they can get a one time refund or if they don't want to lose some OBC, they can flip it to a future sailing or they bite the bullet and proceed with the new protocols.

Saturday you have Wednesday Thursday and Friday 

[SNJCruisers]

33 minutes ago, Bases5 said:

Saturday you have Wednesday Thursday and Friday 

I said that if it was a Sunday sailing, you would have Thursday and Friday, assuming your traveling to the port on Saturday.

[Earthworm Jim]

10 hours ago, Shayhooper said:

Not all rapid tests are antigen tests.  NAAT are also rapid tests and frequently available at pharmacies but they are NOT antigen tests.

 

OK, so if you go to CVS for your test, which of the below test options should you choose?

 

The rapid test option doesn't specify that it's antigen, so perhaps it's NAAT, which Carnival doesn't accept? But the PCR test implies that might be the NAAT as well. If NAAT counts as a rapid test as you say, it seems that you might get the NAAT test regardless of which option you choose.

[stellarose]

so now do I ask for an extension on final September payment to see how things go with the new protocols/ variants?

[SNJCruisers]

12 minutes ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

OK, so if you go to CVS for your test, which of the below test options should you choose?

 

The rapid test option doesn't specify that it's antigen, so perhaps it's NAAT, which Carnival doesn't accept? But the PCR test implies that might be the NAAT as well. If NAAT counts as a rapid test as you say, it seems that you might get the NAAT test regardless of which option you choose.

You choose the Rapid result test, which I just proved to you in the other thread that it does indeed say antigen once you start looking at individual CVS locations and choose which type of test you want and then choose your day and time.

[SNJCruisers]

10 minutes ago, stellarose said:

so now do I ask for an extension on final September payment to see how things go with the new protocols/ variants?

You have over a month to make up your mind.  Many things can and will change over the next 4 1/2 months till your cruise.  Keep an eye on the different threads and when it's time to make final payment, discuss the options with your family and make a decision.

 

[MRVEGAS711]

13 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

This is a huge plus if fleet-wide. Non-smoking casinos!

It would be a dream come true to eliminate smoking on board Carnival cruises!

[cyclist_guy1]

20 hours ago, MT_Sea_Cruisers said:

Negative antigen test may be tricky for those who fly into port a day ahead of time.  Last test I took, it took 3 days to get the results.

 

 

i think youre confusing the pcr test which takes 1-3 days for results with the rapid antigen test which takes as little as one hour to get the results. vax folks can take the rapid antigen, accepted by carnival.

 

i have a funny feeling your "took 3 days to get the results" was a pcr test.

[CABINET]

For those getting all gung ho about the UK cases dropping you should be aware that a lot of people have stopped testing recently.

 

Schools have broken up and won't go back until September, University students are also not at uni at the moment and large numbers of people are avoiding being tested because a positive test will threaten their planned holidays or other activities.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

14 minutes ago, MRVEGAS711 said:

It would be a dream come true to eliminate smoking on board Carnival cruises!

 

Has Carnival explicitly come out and indicated no smoking inside the ship, anywhere? (it makes sense, if we're supposed to be masked).

 

Tom

[Applealex]

20 minutes ago, MRVEGAS711 said:

It would be a dream come true to eliminate smoking on board Carnival cruises!

They used to do that with Carnival Paradise. Had one of the strictest smoking policies at sea, and there would be hoards of people hot boxing on the pier at port. As it turns out, non-smokers gamble significantly less than smokers, so they were losing their shirt in the casino. Eventually, they started allowing smoking in more places onboard.

 

But yeah, having been to a few smoke-free casinos (especially now with the pandemic) is heaven. Nothing worse than having a good time at a favorite (or hot!) slot machine and someone sits next to you, lights one up, and blows smoke in your direction. Yuck!!