Shanghai Disney closing again in response to Covid outbreak

That's surprising, I would have expected Celebrity to be more on top of it. Their ramp up was careful and deliberate. For cruises that long, they should be doing mandatory testing at 3, 6 and 9 days at least. I thought they were already doing that for crew.

Jeff said:

That's surprising, I would have expected Celebrity to be more on top of it. Their ramp up was careful and deliberate. For cruises that long, they should be doing mandatory testing at 3, 6 and 9 days at least. I thought they were already doing that for crew.

this was a cruise from Hawaii (US) to Vancouver (Canada). Canadian rules are if you pop on board, cruise line is responsible for your costs of isolation. so they weren't doing mandatory testing, and in fact, you could buy tests on-board, but were handed them only after you swiped off the ship in Vancouver.

I've been a loyal Celebrity customer but this left a very sour taste.

Forgive me if I seem naive, but is testing every third day in a confined space with repeated exposure to the same people really going to contain the spread of a respiratory virus?

If you consider "contain" to be binary, where any number of cases = not contained, then no, of course it won't.

But if you consider "contain" to mean reduce the spread, then yes, there will be some non-zero amount of containment.

Mulfinator said:

Forgive me if I seem naive, but is testing every third day in a confined space with repeated exposure to the same people really going to contain the spread of a respiratory virus?

I'm not an epidemiologist, but testing and then required mandatory isolation in a cabin would most certainly reduce some spread, but not all. That's what happens on a ship, you pop, you quarantine/isolate in your room until x number of days. Which is essentially the same information you would and do get from current health advisories if you were at your home. It's more difficult to "isolate" the air on a cruise ship cabin (especially an inside, non-balcony cabin), but then this isn't a fool-proof exercise.

In fact that was exactly what happened as the trip continued, more and more crew "disappeared" (went into isolation) and same thing happened with passengers. The dining room, a two story large banquet style affair, was noticeably emptier each night towards the end. You can't help but see the same people when you have a set "dinner seating", yes, people can opt out for the buffet or up-charge restaurants. However, when you see them at the beginning of the cruise and then don't see them again, you know something's up.

I'm not questioning if testing will reduce any spread, rather if the 3-day window of testing is appropriate. If they are testing every third day that's potentially a large spread in a closed population in confined spaces. It just seems pointless to even bother testing asymptomatic people with that much space in between tests.

My suggestion was a completely arbitrary number of days, don't overthink it. The "right" number would be prescribed by scientists with expertise about this sort of thing, not me. And yes, testing obviously makes a difference, especially with a disease that can be spread by asymptomatic carriers.

Sorry, misread. I interpreted the 3 day window as an industry standard.

I think the scientists recommend not cruising but f those guys.

I dunno, I cruised in the middle of the omicron surge, and none of use contracted the disease. Crew and guests weren't disappearing. The alcohol was flowing (and on Disney, no less).

there was a window when, with testing and vaxx requirements pre-boarding, that cruising was "ok" (my words, not a technical term). I think that window has closed, given the current variants and age of initial vaccine doses and lack of universal 3rd/4th shots

Disney is still requiring testing, so I don't agree with that generalization. There isn't any data to make that conclusion.

Royal wants you to prove negative from home and at the port prior to boarding. It looks like Celebrity only requires a single test. The reality is that you could test negative from home and then at the port, but still be infectious the next day.

The CDC dashboard doesn't give many details but basically every ship in the fleet is under investigation for covid spread.

For the record I have a Celebrity cruise booked for the week after Christmas.

Jeff said:

Disney is still requiring testing, so I don't agree with that generalization. There isn't any data to make that conclusion.

The more than anecdotal evidence that I encountered on this cruise and watching the YVR airport, along with reading Cruise Critic, and the CDC reporting on current sailings is enough to convince me. I'm not naive nor overly panicked here, but I can tell you that we are ahead of a major issue with cruise lines, and this current set of protocols is no longer sufficient.

Again, I don't think it's fair to generalize. Every line has not responded the same way.

COVID is so 2020. All of the cool kids are into monkeypox now.

I think you mean monkeypox is into all the cool kids.

Monkeypox is just starting to happen. Get in now to be on the cutting edge of the next pandemic!

-Impress your friends
-Attract the ladies
-Die in style

(I may be showing my age, but I'm imagining those old comic book ads)

-See thru clothing!

…sorry.

I’m just eagerly awaiting the arrival of my government Monkeypox stimulus check.