From 1st May no complimentary Pre Boarding Covid tests

[harrodsfan]

Quite honestly all of this is so discouraging to me. A trip constantly worrying about whether I am going to get sick does not seem fun to me. 8 months ago when I booked this the world seemed to be heading in a lot more positive direction. Now with the vaccines not working anymore to prevent most cases I am a bit scared about being stranded in a foreign county with a serious illness. Will the boat have the medicine we need to combat it if we are symptomatic? No one seems to think they will? Really? 

[Grandma Cruising]

7 hours ago, harrodsfan said:

Quite honestly all of this is so discouraging to me. A trip constantly worrying about whether I am going to get sick does not seem fun to me. 8 months ago when I booked this the world seemed to be heading in a lot more positive direction. Now with the vaccines not working anymore to prevent most cases I am a bit scared about being stranded in a foreign county with a serious illness. Will the boat have the medicine we need to combat it if we are symptomatic? No one seems to think they will? Really? 

The thing about the vaccine is that if you are vaccinated you may still get COVID (tho’ less likely to do so) but you will certainly be far less likely to be seriously ill, more like ordinary flu.

[marinaro44]

4 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

The thing about the vaccine is that if you are vaccinated you may still get COVID (tho’ less likely to do so) but you will certainly be far less likely to be seriously ill, more like ordinary flu.

This may not be a major issue if you are at home, but if it happens in the middle of your three-week cruise vacation in the Adriatic it can be quite disruptive to your enjoyment.

[Josephgray1]

Normal used to be people got a cold and the reason one knew they had a cold or flu was because they felt sick and had symptoms. This new system of mass testing of people with no symptoms is futile. Can you imagine if we tested everyone with no symptoms for the cold or flu?  Of course there would be to be positive ones. And then we went a step further and quarantined them?
 

If all passengers and crew are vaccinated and and boosted as required by Azamara doing covid tests seems silly unless someone feel ill. The reason I assume we are all vaccinated is to protect us from getting horribly sick or dying of covid. 

 

Two years into covid the world has made great progress. We have vaccines, boosters and treatments readily available if someone gets sick.
 

The old normal with any illness was that you have a symptoms and go to the dr to get treated. Covid could be the same. I think that’s what I’m hoping it goes back to. 

[Josephgray1]

@marinaro44I agree getting sick with anything on a cruise can ruin the trip. Hopefully Azamara has treatments available for all of the most common illnesses. 

Edited May 6, 2022 by Josephgray1
Typo

[SunnyNy]

The possibility of having to quarantine during or post-cruise is a reality we all have to plan for until U.S. lifts it's negative covid test requirement.  We have the choice to accept that, or postpone our travel to a later date.  

My understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that, if quarantined, we may return to the U.S. when 1) we eventually test negative (which is some cases can take weeks) ; or

2) if ten days has passed, with our positive test results and a Certificate of Recovery from a doctor or other health authority.

In the case of #2,  it's important to know how one gets in touch with such an authority, a detail Azamara has not shared other to say they will arrange for medical care.

Has anyone here been through this on a recent cruise? I think we'd all feel a little more in control if we're armed with the details.

[Pizzasteve]

Did anyone get a response from Azmara regarding using onboard credits to pay for required testing, either pre board or disembarkation?

[SunnyNy]

It's been reported here a few times that OBC is not allowed for testing.  Likely because they're using third party testing staff.

 

[Oakton Girl]

If you are tested onboard for disembarkation, surely this is ship personnel doing the testing and one should be able to use OBC to pay for testing. Very disappointing if not able to do so. 

[Ayden]

5 minutes ago, Oakton Girl said:

If you are tested onboard for disembarkation, surely this is ship personnel doing the testing and one should be able to use OBC to pay for testing. Very disappointing if not able to do so. 

It has been third party testing on our 2 most recent cruises with Azamara.

[Oakton Girl]

We are paying 22 euros for each Antigen test tomorrow from a pharmacy in downtown Rome. Really quite a markup on Azamara. Well, no choice when we return. Must be paid and will do so to get back to the USA. 

[Baynanno1]

3 hours ago, Oakton Girl said:

We are paying 22 euros for each Antigen test tomorrow from a pharmacy in downtown Rome. Really quite a markup on Azamara. Well, no choice when we return. Must be paid and will do so to get back to the USA. 

 

Two tests at €22  is less than one test at US$59.

 

Current exchange rate US$59 = €55.93.

[mdpa]

1 hour ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

Two tests at €22  is less than one test at US$59.

 

Current exchange rate US$59 = €55.93.

If you can’t tell cruise lines are trying to get out of the medical business and back to cruising. How much they charge doesn’t matter, since most people should be doing this on their own. Probably the only way to speed up the move to eliminating the hassle (testing) is to have people actually pay for things they are receiving.

[laurieb]

1 hour ago, mdpa said:

If you can’t tell cruise lines are trying to get out of the medical business and back to cruising. How much they charge doesn’t matter, since most people should be doing this on their own. Probably the only way to speed up the move to eliminating the hassle (testing) is to have people actually pay for things they are receiving.

Yes yes yes!  Cruise lines are not medical clinics !

[beatnix]

Just got this in my Azamara account for our cruise on Quest "Spain intensive" starting tomorrow.

[Vivasea]

Complimentary - excellent news

[Oakton Girl]

That’s great news, but a little late for some of us. We have already paid to get tested.  They need to get their act together because until today they were advertising that we would have to pay $59 per antigen test. What’s going on with them?  Hope they are better organized on board. 

[beatnix]

5 minutes ago, Oakton Girl said:

That’s great news, but a little late for some of us. We have already paid to get tested.  They need to get their act together because until today they were advertising that we would have to pay $59 per antigen test. What’s going on with them?  Hope they are better organized on board. 

For us too, we did our free PCR-testing yesterday afternoon - but the result maybe will be available on Sunday morning when we are on our flight to Rome. So we did an antigen test for € 10,00 this morning.

[Josephgray1]

2 hours ago, beatnix said:

Just got this in my Azamara account for our cruise on Quest "Spain intensive" starting tomorrow.

I have a feeling that info, although posted on your cruise page is not accurate. I believe the email that was sent out stating that we need to do our own test ahead of time or pay to have one at the port is the accurate info. The reason I say this is that I look at our cruise booking info every day (we are on May 17th Pursuit) and the testing info literally changes every couple of days. The sail date test info appears and disappears randomly. I have multiple screen shots of it. 
 

The conflicting and inconsistent info from Azamara is enough to make a person crazy. 

[marinaro44]

Here's an example of today's "normal" just posted on the Windstar board.

 

"I’m not involved but we were booked on the SanDiego to Puerto Vallarta portion of this Breeze series but cancelled but still interested.

"Passenger currently on the Breeze in Cabo was just informed that the rest of that cruise to San Diego and the following up to Vancouver have been cancelled and they have been asked to disembark half way through the scheduled itinerary.

"A few passengers were infected on the way down and now it’s the crew."
 

Edited May 7, 2022 by marinaro44

[travelberlin]

3 hours ago, Josephgray1 said:

I have a feeling that info, although posted on your cruise page is not accurate. I believe the email that was sent out stating that we need to do our own test ahead of time or pay to have one at the port is the accurate info. The reason I say this is that I look at our cruise booking info every day (we are on May 17th Pursuit) and the testing info literally changes every couple of days. The sail date test info appears and disappears randomly. I have multiple screen shots of it. 
 

The conflicting and inconsistent info from Azamara is enough to make a person crazy. 

I agree with you. Azamara informed my travel agent that we have to bring our own test results and that no test is being done complimentary from their side.

Cruisers boarding on Sunday please let us know how it goes.

Ivi

[travelberlin]

5 hours ago, beatnix said:

Just got this in my Azamara account for our cruise on Quest "Spain intensive" starting tomorrow.

It is a Spain intensive cruise and you are embarking in Lisbon or is it a mistake on their web page?

Ivi

[beatnix]

26 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

It is a Spain intensive cruise and you are embarking in Lisbon or is it a mistake on their web page?

Ivi

We embark tomorrow in Civitaveccia and disembark on 19th in Lisbon.

 

[Josephgray1]

@travelberlin My parents boarded Pursuit 2 days ago in Istanbul. They used the Emed Covid tests at home before they left and presented the results when they boarded. Everything was good, no issues. 

[travelberlin]

1 hour ago, Josephgray1 said:

@travelberlin My parents boarded Pursuit 2 days ago in Istanbul. They used the Emed Covid tests at home before they left and presented the results when they boarded. Everything was good, no issues. 

Is this Emed test an antigen test? Did they make that test within one day of embarkation?

Ivi