Will Carnival Follow RCI and End Testing for Under 6 Days?

[Lee Cruiser]

Just saw that Royal Caribbean is ending testing for vaccinated guest for cruise under six days.  Hopefully this is just the first phase out.  Hopefully Carnival will follow.

[Lee Cruiser]

He also mentioned that they expected to drop testing for vaccinated guests on longer cruises in the near future.   This is great news!

[rrraydon]

I love where RC slipped in they are transitioning to allow EVERYONE to vacation with them. To me that means even the unvaccinated with not a lot of hurdles to jump to make it happen. My fingers are crossed the update they put out the first week of August with the updated policies reflects this. And I’m hoping ALL of the major cruise lines follow suite….especially Carnival as I’m looking to book a Sunshine cruise in March and take my unvaccinated granddaughters. 
 

Fingers crossed!

[rrraydon]

[KendallGator]

It's obvious who is the leader and who is the follower.

[Lee Cruiser]

1 minute ago, KendallGator said:

It's obvious who is the leader and who is the follower.

Really doesn't bother me who does it first.  I just hope Carnival does it as well and that it leads to an end of testing on longer cruises as well.

[KendallGator]

1 minute ago, Lee Cruiser said:

Really doesn't bother me who does it first.  I just hope Carnival does it as well and that it leads to an end of testing on longer cruises as well.

Doesn't bother me either, but first to make the call matters.

[Concretemanstan]

C'mon Carnival!  8 days or less!  Take the bookings!

[Lee Cruiser]

Here is what he is saying about longer cruises:

 

"We're starting off here by doing the five days or less, and we're going to look at that."

"I think our our expectation here, call it in the next 45 days or so. And, of course, following local requirements, which will somewhat dictate in some of our destinations what those testing requirements will be, that the majority of the testing requirements will will be lifted, especially around the majority of our of our deployment."

[ledges1]

Carnival will have to make a decision to reduce RCL's competitive advantage. 

[Lee Cruiser]

Just now, ledges1 said:

Carnival will have to make a decision to reduce RCL's competitive advantage. 

Agreed.  I think that within a matter of days Carnival and NCL will follow.

[pe4all]

Great news! Don't quite understand the testing for cruises more than 6 nights or longer if vaccinated- people could still test negative upon embark and be "brewing" covid and develop it during the cruise, whether it be 6 days or less, or 6 days or more.  Time to get rid of testing completely for vaccinated.

Edited July 28, 2022 by pe4all

[Concretemanstan]

Unless they all had a meeting and decided in unison

[kdr69]

Welp since i have never cruised 6 days or less it doesnt mean much to me at this point.

[Lee Cruiser]

Just now, kdr69 said:

Welp since i have never cruised 6 days or less it doesnt mean much to me at this point.

Yes. Most of our cruises are 7 days, including our Vista cruise in September.  We do usually take a five day cruise out of N.O. every January, but the others are longer because we fly to the ports.  However, it certainly looks like they (RCI) are going to move in the direction of including longer cruises soon.  He mentioned 45 days or so.  That's certainly a step in the right direction.  I don't think Carnival will have any other choice but to do it as well.

[jsglow]

21 minutes ago, ledges1 said:

Carnival will have to make a decision to reduce RCL's competitive advantage. 

Carnival will go one of two ways.... match the protocol immediately or alternatively try to 'one up' and go straight to 6 or 7 days.

 

Announcement by close of business tomorrow I'll wager.

[klfrodo]

Nothing more exciting in life than speculation.

[Lee Cruiser]

19 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

Nothing more exciting in life than speculation.

Yes, it is all speculation at this point, but since RCI has made the first move, Carnival will just about have to do something.  Hopefully soon! 

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

52 minutes ago, kdr69 said:

Welp since i have never cruised 6 days or less it doesnt mean much to me at this point.

Agree. Most common cruise is a 7 day cruise. One more day? Come on.

[ultrafighter]

If Carnival even just matches this it will eliminate testing for my cruise in September, and I'll be happy.  🥳

[BlerkOne]

Yet another misleading thread title. Royal is experimenting with dropping testing for VACCINATED cruisers on short cruises. Better vaccines are coming.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

20 minutes ago, ultrafighter said:

If Carnival even just matches this it will eliminate testing for my cruise in September, and I'll be happy.  🥳

7 night Harmonuy in September, We have a 5 night for Halloween. The other one for this year is a 7 night. Next year we currently have one 7 night, two 8 night and one 14 night sofar. Wonder how long it will take the major lines to just drop the testing all to gether? I guess by years end maybe?

[Lee Cruiser]

10 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Better vaccines are coming.

Not sure if that has anything to do with it.  They aren't indicating that they are changing the definition of "vaccinated", which I did include in the initial post.  The only way better vaccines would matter would be if they had changed that definition to include boosted.  His comments don't suggest that move at all.

[ProgRockCruiser]

1 hour ago, pe4all said:

Great news! Don't quite understand the testing for cruises more than 6 nights or longer if vaccinated-

 

48 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Agree. Most common cruise is a 7 day cruise. One more day? Come on.

Two more days - RCI is removing the test req't (for vaxxed) for cruises lasting 5 days or less.

 

And I suspect the reason for 5 days or less is: that limits the itineraries to the places that are "near eastern/Western Caribbean", like Bahamas, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, maybe Cozumel (Mexico), etc.  IIRC all of those do not require testing if vaxxed.  (I need to find that link someone shared...)

 

EDIT: here it is:

 

https://www.travelweekly.com/Caribbean-Travel/Caribbean-readies-for-a-wave-of-reopenings

 

Many of the islands that still require testing are further afield - e.g. St Kitts, Antigua, Bermuda (updated this based on link).  Those are on the longer itineraries.

 

Once they lines prove the 5-days or less cruises are working with no testing (of vaxxed), those other islands will acquiesce, and perhaps all testing will be lifted.

 

Then will come the decision about allowing unvaxxed en masse, perhaps still tested, perhaps not.

Edited July 28, 2022 by ProgRockCruiser
Updated based on info from link

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

5 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

 

Two more days - RCI is removing the test req't (for vaxxed) for cruises lasting 5 days or less.

 

And I suspect the reason for 5 days or less is: that limits the itineraries to the places that are "near eastern/Western Caribbean", like Bahamas, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, maybe Cozumel (Mexico), etc.  IIRC all of those do not require testing if vaxxed.  (I need to find that link someone shared...)

 

Many of the islands that still require testing are further afield - e.g. St Kitts, St Maarten, again IIRC.  Those are on the longer itineraries.

 

Once they lines prove the 5-days or less cruises are working with no testing (of vaxxed), those other islands will acquiesce, and perhaps all testing will be lifted.

 

Then will come the decision about allowing unvaxxed en masse, perhaps still tested, perhaps not.

You are correct. it says less then 6 days.