Questions related to all things Covid testing relating to Princess Cruises

[Willwils]

** Princess Cruisetour TESTING REQUIREMENT CHANGES ** My wife just found out this evening from new FB post from  admin that Princess is now requiring Covid testing prior to Alaska land cruisetour(land first). Passengers must pay for this within 2 days. This is in addition to the testing they will provide prior to getting on ship(during land portion). However, Princess still hasn't posted it to their public website. Other than on one of the FB pages for Princess, you can only officially see it when you log onto your Princess cruise personalizer where it now pops up. You can't proceed without acknowledging it. One would hope they would send us an email, but with Princess who knows? This is the message that pops up.. SEE ATTACHED. 

 

Princess cruisetour testingupdate 052922.docx

[jvaka]

The bitly link does not work and I do not see anything on Facebook or in my Cruise personalizer that mentions this. Under FAQ's stills says the following:

Edited May 30, 2022 by jvaka

[Willwils]

17 minutes ago, jvaka said:

The bitly link does not work and I do not see anything on Facebook or in my Cruise personalizer that mentions this. Under FAQ's stills says the following:

I was skeptical because of the odd  bitly link that doesn't work(it's a 3rd party app for abbreviated web address-crazy). That's until I logged onto my cruise personalizer. Princess really needs to post it on their public web under the FAQ's for Health Protocols. Or perhaps it's only for certain cruisetours? Were you able to open my word doc? 

[jvaka]

Yes I was able to open. I was able to sign in to Princes and look at my cruise and there was nothing to acknowledge. We leave tomorrow for Fairbanks at 8am pdt. Literally have no where to go to get tested in the next 12 hours. When is your trip?

Edited May 30, 2022 by jvaka

[Expo67]

1 hour ago, Willwils said:

** Princess Cruisetour TESTING REQUIREMENT CHANGES ** My wife just found out this evening from new FB post from  admin that Princess is now requiring Covid testing prior to Alaska land cruisetour(land first). Passengers must pay for this within 2 days. This is in addition to the testing they will provide prior to getting on ship(during land portion). However, Princess still hasn't posted it to their public website. Other than on one of the FB pages for Princess, you can only officially see it when you log onto your Princess cruise personalizer where it now pops up. You can't proceed without acknowledging it. One would hope they would send us an email, but with Princess who knows? This is the message that pops up.. SEE ATTACHED. 

 

Princess cruisetour testingupdate 052922.docx 378.84 kB · 12 downloads

Gee what a surprise. 😡 Another change which passes the responsibility off to the client. How many of these changes are going to keep coming that make cruise vacations more stressful to deal with. It used to be so calming to prepare for a cruise but that seems to be a thing of the past. 

[travelbuds]

38 minutes ago, jvaka said:

Yes I was able to open. I was able to sign in to Princes and look at my cruise and there was nothing to acknowledge. We leave tomorrow for Fairbanks at 8am pdt. Literally have no where to go to get tested in the next 12 hours. When is your trip?

No message on my cruise personalizer and we leave for Anchorage in 2 days. Hope to get through to Princess tomorrow-hope open on holiday. The person who posted that "new protocol" is administrator for that Facebook group said she did not know the effective date. There were several members who opened their personalizer and the new protocol message popped up. 

[Rudy888]

I received an Email this morning about the new testing requirements.Not leaving until July.

[coolbreeze!!!!]

We are sailing southbound from Whittier on the Royal on 6/18/22. We have added an additional cruise tour day to our pre-cruise land tour in Anchorage on 6/11/22. The additional day is included in my Princess cruise tour package which departs from Anchorage on 6/13/22. Does the PCR/Antigen time clock begin running on 6/11 or 6/13?

[Willwils]

My cruisetour starts 7/5/22 in Fairbanks. I got an email message from Princess this morning about the additional testing. This in addition to the pop-up message I posted last night. I guess Travelbuds will have to be exempted due to the timing?? However, in the long run I think the additional testing is a good thing for safety. It should have been this way all along. 

[TVlife]

2 hours ago, Willwils said:

My cruisetour starts 7/5/22 in Fairbanks. I got an email message from Princess this morning about the additional testing. This in addition to the pop-up message I posted last night. I guess Travelbuds will have to be exempted due to the timing?? However, in the long run I think the additional testing is a good thing for safety. It should have been this way all along. 

I agree that it should have been this way all along but for me it really complicates things as we decided to fly in two days before our land tour starts. Now what!  Just venting. Looks like we really need to consider using their “book with confidence” cancellation policy.  I travel the end of July.  We did not get the email notification yet. Good luck!

Edited May 30, 2022 by TVlife

[zerwey]

My cruise departs from Southampton on Saturday July 9. I am flying from California to London on Wednesday July 6. The current requirement for my cruise is to get a negative covid test within 3 days before travel. If I get tested in California the morning of Wednesday July 6 (which is the afternoon of Wednesday July 6 in London), will that present any problems since the test result will be in the California timezone (although the timezone isn't explicitly listed, and in absolute terms it's within 3 days before the cruise)?

[d9704011]

27 minutes ago, zerwey said:

My cruise departs from Southampton on Saturday July 9. I am flying from California to London on Wednesday July 6. The current requirement for my cruise is to get a negative covid test within 3 days before travel. If I get tested in California the morning of Wednesday July 6 (which is the afternoon of Wednesday July 6 in London), will that present any problems since the test result will be in the California timezone (although the timezone isn't explicitly listed, and in absolute terms it's within 3 days before the cruise)?

Testing anytime Wednesday, July 6 in CA will be good for a Southampton departure on July 9.

[travelbuds]

9 hours ago, Willwils said:

 I guess Travelbuds will have to be exempted due to the timing?? However, in the long run I think the additional testing is a good thing for safety. It should have been this way all along. 

Talked with Princess today. Said our voyage was exempt from new ruling. He was pretty tight lipped about it when I asked for explanation. Impression I got, maybe right or  wrong, was that June sailings would not be involved with those tests. Anyone out there that has a June sailing that is being tested prior to AK land cruise?

[zerwey]

Has anyone successfully used the Azova + Flowflex online proctored covid tests for pre-departure cruise testing?

[insidecabin]

If traveling to UK if  hotel WiFi not good enough for proctored test find a Wetherspoons , test in a quiet corner and have a beer while waiting for the results.

 

[Firepath]

We were supposed to be on a cruise this week but cancelled because my daughter (who was going with us) tested positive for Covid. Now I have it. Went to Urgent Care to get anti-viral and tested negative even though I had a sore throat that day. Doctor told us we must have symptoms at least a full day before you will test positive. I tested positive on home test two days after starting symptoms. You could wake up feeling bad the morning of your cruise and assume you don’t have Covid because your test was negative but if you went, could be spreading it and not know it.

[stevenr597]

33 minutes ago, Firepath said:

We were supposed to be on a cruise this week but cancelled because my daughter (who was going with us) tested positive for Covid. Now I have it. Went to Urgent Care to get anti-viral and tested negative even though I had a sore throat that day. Doctor told us we must have symptoms at least a full day before you will test positive. I tested positive on home test two days after starting symptoms. You could wake up feeling bad the morning of your cruise and assume you don’t have Covid because your test was negative but if you went, could be spreading it and not know it.

Unless the symptoms are really significant, it is estimated that up to 50% of those individuals who have and can transmit Covid will test negative when using the simple antigen test. 

[travelhound]

On 5/29/2022 at 9:20 PM, Expo67 said:

Gee what a surprise. 😡 Another change which passes the responsibility off to the client. How many of these changes are going to keep coming that make cruise vacations more stressful to deal with. It used to be so calming to prepare for a cruise but that seems to be a thing of the past. 

Yup, Princess is making this way too difficult.

[nini]

12 minutes ago, travelhound said:

Yup, Princess is making this way too difficult.

 

13 minutes ago, travelhound said:

Gee what a surprise. 😡 Another change which passes the responsibility off to the client. How many of these changes are going to keep coming that make cruise vacations more stressful to deal with. It used to be so calming to prepare for a cruise but that seems to be a thing of the past. 

 

I must say, our May 9th cruise on the Emerald was incredibly stressful and we would choose to NOT do this again! As much as we wanted to visit the British Isles (canceling 3 times), this was NOT worth the stress.

1. Testing at our London hotel and depending on their WiFi ( which was great) and praying that we BOTH tested negative!

2. Keeping our fingers crossed that we would FIGURE out a where and when to test before flying home; because the Emerald had been such a TOTAL DISASTER up until our cruise!!!

3. Praying that we tested negative before flying home (BOTH of us!)

 

Some advice... test at home before flying and only fly in one day ahead. You can not control the rest for flying home. We were around people who tested positive, but I swear, that virus literally picks its victims! It is so strange! And it has now been 10 days since leaving the ship and we are still healthy.

 

 

[Expo67]

25 minutes ago, nini said:

 

 

I must say, our May 9th cruise on the Emerald was incredibly stressful and we would choose to NOT do this again! As much as we wanted to visit the British Isles (canceling 3 times), this was NOT worth the stress.

1. Testing at our London hotel and depending on their WiFi ( which was great) and praying that we BOTH tested negative!

2. Keeping our fingers crossed that we would FIGURE out a where and when to test before flying home; because the Emerald had been such a TOTAL DISASTER up until our cruise!!!

3. Praying that we tested negative before flying home (BOTH of us!)

 

Some advice... test at home before flying and only fly in one day ahead. You can not control the rest for flying home. We were around people who tested positive, but I swear, that virus literally picks its victims! It is so strange! And it has now been 10 days since leaving the ship and we are still healthy.

 

 

 

We are definitely following your advise on the inward travel. As we fly out on the return home the same day on Princess EZ Air it looks like the test will be performed onboard the day before according to their section on Covid. Hope you continue to stay safe and healthy.

[sjde]

I haven’t read through all these posts but I’m wondering how people handle this dilemma . We’re told we need a negative PCR Covid test within 48 hours of departure. However , Walgreens cannot guarantee the results back in 48 hours ! So they suggested we also do a quick test with them in case the other results aren’t back in 48 hours , but I don’t know if the quick test is a PCR test or if it is accepted? 

[nini]

2 hours ago, sjde said:

I haven’t read through all these posts but I’m wondering how people handle this dilemma . We’re told we need a negative PCR Covid test within 48 hours of departure. However , Walgreens cannot guarantee the results back in 48 hours ! So they suggested we also do a quick test with them in case the other results aren’t back in 48 hours , but I don’t know if the quick test is a PCR test or if it is accepted? 

 

The antigens are accepted. Go to the Princess website. The example is for sailings from the UK. We did the antigen from our hotel in London (BinaxNow).

 

Based on current European Union Healthy Gateways (EUHG) guidelines, to board the ship, all guests ages five years and above will require a medically observed, negative viral COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen) result taken within three days of embarkation. These protocols are subject to change and we’ll communicate any updates as they become available. Current testing requirements are as follows:

Vaccination Status	European Union Healthy Gateways Guideline	Pre-Travel Test-Type	When to Take Test Before Boarding
Fully Vaccinated (ages 18 years old and above)	At least 14 days past completion of a primary vaccine series and no more than 270 days (9 months) from the date of disembarkation since receiving the last dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine. A booster dose is required for guests 18 and older if the last COVID-19 vaccine dose in series is older than 9 months (270 days) from the date of disembarkation.	Antigen or PCR	Within 3 days
Fully Vaccinated (ages five to 17 years old)	Received primary series of COVID-19 vaccines with final dose at least 14 days before embarkation.	Antigen or PCR	Within 3 days
Not Fully Vaccinated	Either not up to date or has not received a complete COVID-19 vaccine series.	PCR	Within 3 days

[sjde]

Thank you. We are in the US and going on an Alaskan cruise ( with a stop in Canada). 

[travelhound]

7 hours ago, nini said:

 

 

I must say, our May 9th cruise on the Emerald was incredibly stressful and we would choose to NOT do this again! As much as we wanted to visit the British Isles (canceling 3 times), this was NOT worth the stress.

1. Testing at our London hotel and depending on their WiFi ( which was great) and praying that we BOTH tested negative!

2. Keeping our fingers crossed that we would FIGURE out a where and when to test before flying home; because the Emerald had been such a TOTAL DISASTER up until our cruise!!!

3. Praying that we tested negative before flying home (BOTH of us!)

 

Some advice... test at home before flying and only fly in one day ahead. You can not control the rest for flying home. We were around people who tested positive, but I swear, that virus literally picks its victims! It is so strange! And it has now been 10 days since leaving the ship and we are still healthy.

 

 

Yup, we are going to have to rethink about cruising if these ridiculous protocols continue.

[nini]

1 hour ago, travelhound said:

Yup, we are going to have to rethink about cruising if these ridiculous protocols continue.

Unfortunately, the USA is the ONLY country that requires testing before flying home. However, if you re-enter by vehicle, ship or illegally through a border, then no testing is required. I guess covid only knows how to re-enter our country.