Posted on 11/24/2021 7:48:27 AM PST by Capt. Tom
MSC Cruises today announced that all guests for its winter sailings fleetwide must now be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and also take a COVID-19 test before their scheduled embarkation date, according to a press release.
The measures have already been in place for all of the line’s winter voyages in other regions and now Mediterranean sailings have been added with the new requirements thus extending to guests booked on both MSC Grandiosa and MSC Fantasia.
Guests on any of the line’s winter sailings on its two ships operating in the Mediterranean travelling from Dec. 4 will now also need to be fully vaccinated.
Guests are considered vaccinated if they have received the full set of COVID-19 shots more than 14 days before the start of their holiday at sea.
All guests will also be required to undertake a COVID-19 test up to 72 hours of the ship’s departure time, the company said.
Gianni Onorato, CEO, MSC Cruises, said: “Our health and safety protocol has led the way in the industry not just because we were the first major cruise line to resume international operations but also because of its flexibility to adapt to the evolution of the pandemic ashore.
“This approach has reassured our guests, our crew and the destinations we visit with our ships and we saw last winter with our sailings in the Mediterranean that even during a new peak of the pandemic ashore we were able to adapt our health and safety measures appropriately and continue to offer the highest level of protection to our guests and crew.
“This is the case once more as some countries in Europe are seeing an increase in infection rates ashore and to ensure the wellbeing of those on board our ships and at the communities they call, our approach again demonstrates that health and safety is our number one priority.”
Any existing guest who will not be fully vaccinated in time for their departure date can opt to either postpone their cruise with MSC to a later date or request a refund.
Guests under 12 years of age, since not eligible for vaccination, will continue to be welcome onboard under the current measures.
Can they admit failure any more obviously?
Go out of business then.
A boatfull of viral transmitters. Note Israel, Gibraltar and other highly vaccinated states. Good luck with that.
Heck I thought all cruise lines had already been requiring it.
From the princess cruise line website:
“Health Protocols for Cruises Through February 28, 2022
Cruises are available for guests who have ALL of the following:
Received their final dose of an authorized COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days before the beginning of the cruise
Proof of vaccination
Sailings from the United States: Proof of a negative viral COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen) taken within two days of their embarkation”
That's my take on it.
We are being flooded with cruise happy talk now, but as long as the cruise lines have to bend to the medical authorities without a vaccine that actually works, they are , IMHO, not going to make a long-term comeback. -Tom
We will not go on anymore cruises until this madness ends.
Everybody wants to get in on the action—beta testing for concentration camps.
If they get good at it they can get some really cool government contracts!
“Why do people put up with this crap? “
You’ve asked a very serious question and I’ve invested some time thinking about the answer. I know a couple in their late fifties. They are extremely successful. They work very hard for a few weeks or months and then go on a cruise.
They are conservatives, but don’t read any articles or listen to the “news” or really know what’s going on. They work. They go on cruises. And, I know this is going to be hard to believe, they “trust” the CDC, the FDA, the FBI...incredible, I know. In their minds this is an earlier time when even I trusted those self-discredited agencies.
I think a few things are in the process of happening. Those people who trust the government are going to die at an increasing rate. Some of them will learn the hard way and survive, but probably not for as long as they would have if the hadn’t listened to the government. The remaining people will be very antigovernment.
I suspect that when this is all “over” that the government, whatever it looks like at that time, will dissolve many of those formerly trusted agencies and reform them under new names and new management. For a while, even when those agencies issue legitimate information, no one will listen or take action and we’ll all suffer for it. Then, in say fifty years, we’ll again trust the government and liberals will again eventually slither under doors and through cracks to eventually control them and the distrust cycle will begin again.
In the meantime, I pray for my friends who believe and trust.
“They are conservatives, but ... they “trust” the CDC, the FDA, the FBI...”
Um ... they’re not conservatives.
“We will not go on anymore cruises until this madness ends.”
Ditto for us. Love cruising, but we don’t want to be on a cruise and see even one mask or have to take a clot shot. That’s OK. We’ve cruised so often, we can re-tool our vacation and leisure activities.
Idiots deserve to go out of business.
Mrs. CC and I went on a NCL cruise from Rome and went to Croatia and Greece then back to Italy early last month. We had a wonderful time. All the Covid protocols/paperwork on top of normal international travel stuff was a bit challenging.
To get on the ship, we had to have a locator form, proof of the jab, and get rapid tested at the terminal. I wondered the same thing about the jab and testing. A total admission the jabs are not what we were sold. The rapid test at the terminal was pretty streamlined. You had to be pre-registered with your pre-registration paperwork read to be scanned so they knew who you were. I lost count of how many people that were pre-registered did not have their paperwork ready or could not find it after standing in line for 20 minutes. I don’t understand how people can be that unprepared but I guess a lot of people stumble through life totally unprepared for what they are going to encounter. Sheesh. A lot of the people thought their locator form was the rapid test pre-registration. Mrs. CC helped a few people straighten that out before we got to the front of the line.
They basically swabbed you, slapped a barcode on your sample, and then had you wait in a separate room to stare at a screen for 15 minutes until your “number” came up. If your number came up, you were given a wristband and shown the way to board the ship. If your number didn’t show up, you were most likely Covid positive.
Funny story, my wife and I went to different stations to get swabbed. She finished before me and after I was done, we went to the waiting room together and waited. My number came up within 10 minutes so I was negative and I received my wristband to board the ship. Hers didn’t come up so we waited until the next round of numbers. Next round, no number. Next round, no number. Next round, no number. She asked the attendant what that meant. She said if your number doesn’t come up, you are positive. My wife started slightly panicking. With my wristband on, I chuckled and said...See ya’ on the ship or at home in a couple weeks...ha ha ha. Not a good move :) So the attendant looked on her phone app and said it was still “processing”. The next round came up and my wife really started panicking and said her number wasn’t there. I found her number right away but her panic must have made her miss it. Talk about a tense situation! We joke about it still.
Also got another rapid test on the ship a day and a half before leaving the ship. The protocols on the ship were really pretty good and commonsense. I personally think they did a good job of giving you a normal cruise experience (sans the embarkation) with all the burdens imposed by the local governments.
copaliscrossing wrote: “I wondered the same thing about the jab and testing. A total admission the jabs are not what we were sold.”
The vaccine wasn’t sold as being 100% effective. Since breakthrough infections occur, there will be testing to ensure passengers are not infected when they board.
copaliscrossing wrote: “Agreed. My bigger point about being sold something else is the use of the term “vaccination”. I argue at best it is a therapy. As I like to tell people, thank God I didn’t get a “breakthrough” case of polio, or mumps, or measles, or....etc..... I believe using the term “vaccination” was a ploy to convince a lot of the sheeple to go along. I submit that was not needed. Tell people the truth and let the chips fall where they may.”
None of the vaccines are 100% effective. Do you consider them ‘therapy’ too?
“”either postpone their cruise with MSC to a later date or request a refund.””
And shop for another cruise line whose executives don’t live by PC rules.
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