American Empress CDC Investigation

[ericosmith]

Looking forward to a cruise on her next week but noticed that the CDC is now showing that she's under investigation.  I'm not sure exactly what that means but wondering if anyone out there has any further info.  

[Oldone79]

This is the meaning.

"Yellow: The ship meets the threshold for investigation (for crew or passenger COVID-19 cases), or a state or local health department has notified the CDC of passenger cases occurring within five days of disembarkation"

Apparently today per Reuters Aug 20, 2021 "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday people at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 should avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, irrespective of their vaccination status.  Older adults and people with medical conditions are more likely to get severely ill from the disease and should take professional advise before cruise ship travel, the agency said."

Edited August 23, 2021 by Oldone79

[bebtwice]

Just returned from a cruise on the Empress a week ago and had no knowledge of there being any Covid issues. If anyone got sick during the cruise, it did not become public knowledge, There were plenty of hand sanitizing stations throughout the ship and of course everyone had to be vaccinated and pass a Covid test before even boarding the ship.

[midwestchick]

On 8/31/2021 at 12:25 PM, bebtwice said:

Just returned from a cruise on the Empress a week ago and had no knowledge of there being any Covid issues. If anyone got sick during the cruise, it did not become public knowledge, There were plenty of hand sanitizing stations throughout the ship and of course everyone had to be vaccinated and pass a Covid test before even boarding the ship.

Can we get a Covid test at home before we cruise?  I would rather not do a rapid test. Too many false positives and negatives. 

[ericosmith]

1 hour ago, midwestchick said:

Can we get a Covid test at home before we cruise?  I would rather not do a rapid test. Too many false positives and negatives. 

You can, but I doubt that will work.  We went directly from registration to the covid test room.  I doubt that you're going to get on the ship without going through that process.  You do the test on day 1 and get the boarding card on day 2.  

[midwestchick]

1 hour ago, ericosmith said:

You can, but I doubt that will work.  We went directly from registration to the covid test room.  I doubt that you're going to get on the ship without going through that process.  You do the test on day 1 and get the boarding card on day 2.  

Okay. Thanks I’ll call them tomorrow.

[Frncie]

Just got off the Queen yesterday in Tunica. Our favorite waiter and our butler disappeared from the boat on Thursday. None of this was explained until Sunday. 

It turns out that two guests from Deck 3 had gone to the medical center for some reason and were given Covid-19 tests again. They were asymptomatic but tested positive. Contact tracing was done. The boat docked late at night somewhere in northern Mississippi and put off at least six people, four guests and two employees, including our butler and our waiter. Despite lots of questions from all the guests who knew them, the only explanation we got was “family emergency.” We never saw them again. 

 

The way that AQSC handled this was inexcusable. These events happened Wednesday, and no official announcement was made until Sunday. Guests were wondering why most of the crew were suddenly masking up again, so apparently someone knew. But no one said anything until, just before the Captain’s Farewell Reception in the Saloon on Sunday afternoon, the Captain made the announcement over the PA system. 
 

So for four days, there was a potentially serious situation aboard the boat, and everything proceeded as if nothing had happened. Groups continued to gather in dining rooms and bars, in the Saloon. Masks were still required on the buses, but not on the boat. The demographic for our group of passengers was obviously high risk. 
 

According to cruisemapper, the Queen left Tunica yesterday with a new group of passengers. 
 

[midwestchick]

That’s horrible to read. They need to be open and honest in a situation that you presented. The masks don’t concern me as much (hold the criticism please) as the lack of transparency, as well as putting many others at risk. I contracted Covid WEARING A MASK when I had to have. CT scan last November. Eight days later I had Covid.  We were around no one. We did all curbside pickups, wiped everything off with disinfectant wipes before bringing them in the house and no one came in our home. We didn’t even see our kids or grandkids.  The scan was the only exposure I had to other people.  

Edited October 2, 2021 by midwestchick