Posted on 02/02/2021 10:49:02 AM PST by Capt. Tom
Sister companies American Queen Steamboat Co. (AQSC) and Victory Cruise Lines (VCL) became the first U.S. cruise lines to announce they will require proof of COVID-19 vaccinations from all passengers and crew members given at least 14 days before boarding the ships.
The measure, which goes into effect July 1, 2021, expands upon the enhanced health and safety measures announced in 2020, which include pre-cruise COVID-19 testing of all guests and crew and mask-wearing in public areas where social distancing is not possible.
The first to announce a passenger vaccine requirement was a U.K. line, Saga, which requires proof of the two-dose vaccine at least 14 days before boarding the ship, effective May 4.
Also, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is considering a vaccine mandate for guests but would require it for crew members.
“We are exploring all options regarding vaccinations for guests and crew, and it is our intention that all crew members be vaccinated before boarding our vessels to begin their duties, subject to availability of the vaccine,” according to a NCLH company spokesperson. “We will share additional updates as they are available.”
John Waggoner, CEO and founder of American Queen Steamboat Company, said, “Our new vaccination requirement, coupled with comprehensive health and safety protocols and risk-free booking policy, will give our loyal guests another added level of assurance to join us as we return to sailing.”
While some states are struggling with the vaccine rollout, Phase 1c includes transportation workers and that “vaccinations should be readily available and able to be administered to crew members before the July 1 target date,” AQSC/VCL said in a press release.
The company also said it expects that most of its guests would have access to vaccines before July 1. “The majority of our guests represent the 65-plus population, who are eligible now or will soon be eligible to receive the vaccination. If a guest is not able to receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine prior to their scheduled trip, we will rebook them for a future sailing at no charge,” the press release stated.
Guests who can’t get both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine before their trip – or who have no intention of receiving the vaccine – should contact the reservations department.
All guests will be required to present verified documentation of vaccination upon boarding.
The company noted that it plans to resume cruising in April. “To date, we have received strong interest for our April-through-June itineraries from guests who are confident in our current measures,” the company said. “Additionally, a good number of these guests will have had access to the vaccine prior. This, combined with our belief that crew will be vaccinated per the CDC recommended Phase 1c vaccination rollout, which includes maritime transportation workers, further ensures our confidence to cruise safely.”
I’ve read varying reports, from the US airline industry, on this.
First....some thought that they’d, too, go happily along with the “vax” mandate, since they gleefully pushed the mask mandate.
Now, I’m reading that airline pilots unions/other unions are pushing back....because they see that this edict will NOT help to fill up seats, on their planes.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.
We are fine with not traveling, by plane...our usual distance travel mode....if they keep up these absurd, NOT based on REAL science rerequirements.
good luck filling your boat, I for one will not be on your stinking garbage scow.
A friend of mine regularly goes on the American Queen cruises on the Mississippi, West coast Rivers ,etc.
I sent an e- mail to him about his cruise line AQ, wanting "passengers" to be vaccinated.
His response is how a lot of elderly people feel about cruising. However, you won't fill all the big cruise ships with this attitude. His text to me below.
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"Tom, This is good news - “travel is coming back” but I think it will be at least 2022 before we sign up for anything. And who knows what kind of shape we’ll be 2 years from now. Still it’s good to see the safety and the deals being offered. We want them back also."
Had the rats not stolen the election the CLIA could have taken a more measured response to the CDC and to their guidelines and treat them as suggestions rather then total capitulation, Trump would have backed them. With Biden and his band of Marxists in their the cruise lines don’t dare offer any resistance to the CDC. The cruise lines are screwed like the rest of us. I just read where Biden has just diverted 30 Billion of aid to farmers and is giving it to the climate hucksters. It hasn’t even been 1 month, l shudder when l think if where we will be in 4 years.
Years ago I did the Grandparent/grandchild cruises with my grand children (but one at a time :) )
They were great the little ones love the trips and it was fun...
This year I had planned to take one of my semi shut in friends on one of the Fall cruises ...they had them every weekend during Sept?Oct..
However theyre not happening...
Too bad if when they start up again they require a vax...she cant have one due to her medicine...
Cruises are considered to be something only ‘rich white guys’ can afford...
so do you really think Emperor Joe and his henchmen are in a hurry to bring them back...
Plus its something that would make Americans happy and the Democrats arent here for that...
As they say “That’s not us”
“requires proof of the two-dose vaccine”
I can understand that requirement. The cruise lines have probably interviewed potential passengers and found that that’s the most viable way to get people to come on the ships.
Some of those ships pack in 5000 people!
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I feel the same way. I don't want the experimental DNA modifying injection (which is not a "vaccine"). Two, three, four years from now there will be countless stories of the deaths and injuries from the coronavirus panic and the deadly "vaccines".
Already at our limit on restrictions. Any company that implements these requirements will not receive our business.
If this means my wife and I are living in a lean-to on a mountainside and hunting squirrel for dinner in six months, so be it.
This may not be the mark of the beast but we are on that path...in a Lamborghini...with no brakes
18 months ago or so, we were on Oasis of the Seas ship with 6000 passengers. Of the 36 cruises we have done, that one was the least crowded ship. Because it is humongous large complete with a forest of live trees & bushes where birds live permanently. The most crowded ship was also a royal caribbean ship Monarch of the Seas, which had the smallest passenger capacity yet was lines every where and was a small ship.
I don’t want any of the COVID shots available at this time.
They will need a true vaccine and better reason for me to take it, not just their demands.
I’ve never taken the flu vaccine, either.
I think the only vaccines I’m interested in are the pneumonia and shingles.
Has anyone noticed the usual Flu deaths are almost non-existent in year 2020? So instead of dying from the regular flu, the same group of people are dying from covid.
Yes, as l’ve said a number of times these leftists punks who have all the power now consider cruises nothing but floating playgrounds for rich white people. Biden and the rest of them would like to see them go under and they couldn’t care less about the thousands is people who will be hurt.
I get the Medicare paid flu vaccine every year, since 2006 when I went on Medicare. Never had flu even once. I don’t know if it was the vaccine or just my natural ability to resist flu.
Not really a correction; just a clarification. Vaccines have never prevented a pathogen from entering a person’s body. If you have the polio vaccine, poliovirus isn’t magically prevented from entering your body. What the vaccine has done is prepare your body to immediately overwhelm the infection before it can do enough damage to cause any real harm. That’s why we don’t have kids getting paralyzed by polio these days.
The open question with the current COVID-19 vaccines is whether a vaccinated person could still transmit the virus to others. The real answer is “probably not”, but the caution being urged during the vaccine rollout is because we haven’t had time to sort out that answer so it’s theoretically possible.
Not directed at anyone in particular, just putting the information out there so there’s clarity on the subject of what the vaccines do and don’t do. We know they do a lot of good, but we don’t yet have the data to define the full extent of how much good.
Influenza spreads the same way COVID-19 does, but Influenza's R0 (rate of spread) is ~1-1.3 and SARS-CoV-2's R0 is ~4.3-5.7 (latest variants). So the same control measures (social distancing, masks indoors in public places, etc.) currently being used against COVID-19 will be far more effective against Influenza. Also worth noting that seasonal flu can peak as late as March. So we may yet see a normal flu season in the 2020-2021 flu season (flu seasons run across calendar years).
"So instead of dying from the regular flu, the same group of people are dying from covid."
Seasonal flu kills an average of 36,000 people per year. 2020 saw ~473,000 more deaths than 2019. That's a 17% increase year-over-year. Normal yearly increases in death numbers are 0.3% - 0.7%.
Thanks for that clarification 2aProtectsTheRest.
My gripe about COVID-19 in general is that it’s arguably being treated like the first virus that was ever discovered, major overkill imo.
I don’t recall in recent decades that the common flu has ever gotten as much attention as Coronavirus has.
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