Question to those who have cruised during COVID delta

[sch1st]

Hey all!

 

We have a cruise scheduled out of Long Beach at the end of October. We assumed that vaccination/testing would make this a nice way to finally relax after this pandemic. But it does appear that, with delta, breakthrough infections are more common than we'd like. Unfortunately, the CDC website provides very little actual information about potential onboard transmission. The "yellow" category potentially ranges from case rates lower than we face in our local community to case rates dramatically higher than anything we've experienced thus far. And after a ridiculous amount of searching, we cannot find any actual data, aside from a couple times that Carnival (or other cruise lines) verified cases that were leaked by others. 

So we were wondering what folks who cruised during delta have thus far experienced. Have folks seen any evidence of COVID transmission? Have passengers been medically offboarded at ports or otherwise? Has anyone talked with the doctors in the medical center? And has anyone here tested positive either during or within a couple weeks after cruising?

Moreover, we're wondering how the conditions have been. Is it relatively easy to avoid crowded indoor spaces? Are there plenty of less crowded outdoors spaces? Are buffets still open, so that it's easy to eat outdoors? 

We'd appreciate any insights or thoughts you might have. 

Thanks!

[tallnthensome]

Read the occupancy rate on panorama thread in the forum. Much of what your asking has been discussed extensively lately in the threads.  

[tallnthensome]

No reports of any covid on my panorama cruise last week BTW. 

[Sailin_Pirate]

As stated above read other posts 

 

Yes to all of your questions though

[KmomChicago]

I was on the 2nd Mardi Gras sailing. Bloggers ParoDeeJay (a married couple named Dee and Jay) were on the 2nd of a B2B during my sailing. Halfway through, Dee became ill and they voluntarily self-quarantined immediately.  He stayed with her and I "heard" at the end that 14 people, including those 2, were disembarked at the end of the cruise via a separate gangway from the hoards. I also heard that at that point, 5 of those 14 were Covid positive. Jay did become sick several days after they returned home. They are both fully vaccinated, have recovered, and are back out this week on another cruise to Alaska. 

 

My party of 5 included two septuagenarians and a 15 year old, in addition to us two middle agers. We were of course all fully vaccinated.  We took no special precautions on the ship except wearing masks some of the time when it was expected in certain group situations and in port.  We otherwise felt it was surprisingly, almost like all our other cruises back in "The Before."

 

We did not contract Covid as far as we know, unless we were all asymptomatic.  My husband did develop a nasty sore throat a couple of weeks after returning home which would have been the far end of potential incubation period, immediately was tested (negative) did not lose his sense of smell or taste, and got better in about 3 days. None of the rest of us caught whatever he had. 

 

It is easy to avoid crowds but not to do so and still do all the things you might have normally done.  For example early Punchliner shows were sometimes less than half full, but late ones were completely sardine full.  We were adequately far from other parties when in dining rooms, but couples report being 2 inches from other couples as always.  Trivia was in large enough places that you could choose a table away if you want to distance. If you ate in the buffet, for example, there was A LOT of seating and it would have been effortless to find tables well away from others. 

 

There is a ton of desk space with lots of chairs so it was easy to find one off away from crowds pretty much the entire cruise. Now keep in mind, this is Mardi Gras, a really big ship and we were sailing about 2/3 full. 

 

We found it all enjoyable enough that we are planning to go on Carnival Legend at Christmas, so we will just have to see how that goes. It might be more crowded due to the holiday, or less because of all the worries, or who knows, it might be cancelled. Meh. Not going to worry either way.

[arkaine23]

Did not see/hear about any cases on Vista last week, although there were nearly 50 over a 2 week period a month ago..  There were some on Panorama and Mardi Gras recently, supposedly with some disembarked at foreign ports for medical (not necessarily covid) reasons.  Seems a handful of covid cases is typical (all ships almost always yellow status), but not disclosed.

 

MSC Virtuosa seems to have had the worst outbreak so far.

Edited September 8, 2021 by arkaine23

[BlerkOne]

27 minutes ago, arkaine23 said:

Did not see/hear about any cases on Vista last week, although there were nearly 50 over a 2 week period a month ago..

 

I thought it was more like 27 over a 2 week period.

[arkaine23]

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

I thought it was more like 27 over a 2 week period.

Depends if you buy into cruise lawyer's onboard sources and math (42 crew and 5 passengers over 2 weeks), or take the numbers 26 & 1 reported by the Belizian authorities for the day the ship ported there in week 2 of the trouble.

Edited September 8, 2021 by arkaine23