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The vessel received an unusually low score of 67, nearly 20 points below the agency's passing grade. However, COVID generally presents a lesser risk nowadays, with most people having some level of immunity from vaccination or previous infection. The outbreak on the Grand Princess appears to have been much smaller in scale. Dual outbreaks of gastro and COVID on the Grand Princess cruise ship that docked in Adelaide on Monday have now been declared over by the doctor on board.
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Passengers can find more information on ship protocols on their cruise line's website. While only one ship had a failing score, the MSC Seaside with a shocking 67 rating, the following ships were all given a score of 90 or below this year. According to the CDC’s website, the following ships were all given a score of 100 in 2023. During COVID, the options for cruises were limited, but now that restrictions have been lifted, more people are deciding to take that cruise they had been putting off. "[Outbreaks] are about as common as they are everywhere in the world on land, it's just that they tend to get reported more on ships," she said.
Oceania Cruises
There are requirements on select voyages (you can look up a specific voyage’s requirements on the line’s website). "Our member lines continuously monitor health conditions onboard and employ health and safety protocols commensurate with those conditions," Anne Madison, a spokesperson for Cruise Lines International Association, told USA TODAY in an email. "This may result in cruise lines adjusting protocols when appropriate in consultation with medical and other health experts in order to continue to make science-driven and medically informed decisions." On Royal Caribbean International, masks are optional for passengers who are vaccinated. On Princess sailings, masks are recommended but not mandatory in most areas of the ship, though the cruise line notes on its website that "you may need to wear them in select venues or certain situations." Masks are optional on all Norwegian voyages.
What happens when you test positive for Covid on a cruise ship in 2023? Family shares their experience
As noted above, health authorities no longer are quarantining whole ships when a few -- or even a lot -- of passengers and crew test positive for COVID-19. Health authorities no longer are quarantining whole ships when a few -- or even a lot -- of passengers and crew test positive for COVID-19. The current protocol on most ships is to isolate COVID-19-positive passengers and crew but otherwise continue on with voyages as planned.
A growing number of cruise lines are canceling sailings on short notice, citing the disruptions caused by COVID-19. The world's largest cruise operator Royal Caribbean on Friday canceled soon-to-depart sailings on four of its 25 ships, including the next three departures of the world's largest ship, Symphony of the Seas. Cruise lines in recent weeks have faced a growing number of ports that are balking at allowing ships with COVID-19-positive passengers or crew to dock. It's also important to note that the detection of COVID-19-positive passengers or crew on board your ship won't necessarily impact your sailing (unless you are among those testing positive).
Cruise ship passengers win Carnival COVID outbreak lawsuit in Australia - Axios
Cruise ship passengers win Carnival COVID outbreak lawsuit in Australia.
Posted: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
In the wake of the pandemic, cruise ships have upgraded their health and safety systems, from hand sanitizers throughout the ship to medical-grade air filters in the ventilation systems to robots that shoot ultraviolet rays to kill bacteria. Most cruise lines have dropped both their vaccine and testing requirements. Those that have lingered into 2023—mostly lines operating smaller ships—have been quietly scaling back their requirements. To try to help prevent the spread of stomach viruses at sea, the CDC randomly inspects cruise ships and scores them on a scale of 0 to 100 through the Vessel Sanitation Program. Inspection scores of 85 and lower are considered "not satisfactory" by the agency. Cruise ships are required to report gastrointestinal illness cases to the CDC before arriving from a foreign port, or when 2% of the crew and passengers have the illness.
"Whether that's prisons, boarding schools, aged care, for example, they're all places where if there is an outbreak it is of concern, so we tend to document it more than we would in, say, a hotel or resort," she said. "If they do have symptoms … go and see the ship's doctor, they have guidance in place about who might need to quarantine," she said. "Keeping distance where you can, staying outdoors on the ship as often as you can rather than being in shared indoor settings, avoiding crowded areas within indoors on ships," she said. As Australia approaches the summer holiday period, the fate of the Grand Princess has brought holiday illness into the spotlight. Here's a look at everything you need to know if you've got a cruise booked in the coming weeks -- or further out.
The reported occurrence of gastrointestinal diseases on cruises is worse than pre-covid
VSP may also post information on gastrointestinal illness outbreaks of public health significance that do not necessarily meet the above criteria. On cruise ships, people tend to crowd together in confined spaces for extended periods. These include dining halls, and during social activities in casinos, bars and theatres. The risk of getting sick with gastro was significantly higher on bigger ships and longer voyages. This is because the longer you are in close contact with others, the greater the chance of exposure to an infectious dose of viruses or bacteria.
CDC drops its COVID-19 risk advisory for cruise ship travel
They also recommend cruise ships have a plan to identify and contain any outbreaks, including testing and treatment capacity, and communicate to passengers and crew how they can reduce their transmission risk. Other cruise lines have similar protocols in place, like Norwegian, which advises passengers who have COVID symptoms while sailing to contact the ship's medical center, which is equipped to test on board, per its website. On cruise ships, health officials are legally required to track any illnesses that occur, while this same reporting is not required on land. For this reason, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that outbreaks are reported more frequently on sea than on land. The most recent outbreak occurred on a Viking Cruises ship, which traveled from Iceland and docked in New York City.
The exact cause for the increase in the number of norovirus cases is not clear, but the increasing demand for cruises could be one explanation for the rise in reported cases, said Labus. Chair in epidemiology at Deakin University Professor Catherine Bennett says cruising is like any other form of holiday, and people should think about the specific risks and what they could do to stay well. Another large line, Norwegian, just last week extended its pandemic-era Peace of Mind policy to allow passengers to cancel any sailing taking place between now and May 31. For now, the cancellation needs to be done by Jan. 31, and the refund would come in the form of a future cruise credit to be used on any sailing that embarks through Dec. 31. For what it's worth, more than 80 countries around the world -- including a good chunk of all the places you might want to travel -- are on this list.
While health authorities no longer are quarantining whole ships when a few passengers or crew test positive for COVID-19, the presence of the illness on board a vessel still could result in notable disruptions to your itinerary. Travelers worried about cruise ship COVID-19 cases, which continued to climb. By the summer of 2020, most cruise lines had suspended operations worldwide—and the entire travel industry came to a standstill. For sailings embarking from the United States, which are the bulk of Disney Cruise Line’s sailings, no vaccination or testing is required.
The ports have since reopened after Mexico's Health Department overruled the decisions of local port officials. Beginning June 1, 2023, Windstar will no longer require guests to be vaccinated. Masks are optional, with the line highly recommending guests wear masks in indoor public spaces. The number of outbreaks might also be a sign that ridership on cruise ships is returning to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, nearly 15 million people took cruises in the US, while that number was down to only 2 million in 2021, and about 5 million in 2022.
Another company that just announced a change in testing requirements is upmarket cruise line Azamara. Effective July 25, 2022, it will no longer require pre-cruise testing, except in ports where the country requires it. “The easing of our testing policy marks a step in the right direction toward a return to normalcy for the travel and cruising industry,” Carol Cabezas, the president of Azamara, said in a statement. But you’d never guess that based on the state of the cruise industry today. Cruise terminals are bustling with excited passengers, and cheery crew members welcome voyagers aboard. Sure, you might see the ship’s crew donning face masks, along with a few passengers.
The outbreaks happened on Celebrity Cruises, Viking Cruises, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean International and P&O Cruises. Respiratory infectious outbreaks on cruise ships may be caused by a range of pathogens including SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) and influenza viruses. These can be spread by respiratory droplets and aerosols released when people breathe, talk, laugh, cough and sneeze. All guests 5 and up must provide "a medically supervised COVID-19 test with written negative result" on cruises 16 nights or more. Travelers need to test within three days of embarkation, and unvaccinated travelers must still request an exemption.
In 2020, around 19% of Diamond Princess passengers and crew docked in Japan tested positive to COVID. Ultimately, nearly one in four Ruby Princess passengers and crew docked in Sydney tested positive. A spokesperson for Princess Cruises, which operates the ship, said a number of passengers had presented with symptoms on a previous voyage. But the ship has since been disinfected and the number of people who were ill when the ship arrived into Adelaide was said to be in single digits. ►Disney Cruise Line will no longer require fully vaccinated guests traveling on the Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy, Disney Wonder and Disney Wish to take a test before their cruise beginning Sept. 23, according to its website. A recent norovirus outbreak occurred in May on Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Summit, which earned a perfect score.
No other segment of the travel industry has been as uniform in requiring almost every customer to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As I saw myself during a cruise to Antarctica in recent weeks, many sailings are operating relatively normally, even when there are COVID-19 cases on board. According to the Cruise Lines International Association, cruise-related jobs dropped by 51% from 2019 to 2020. While cruises have rebounded somewhat, you still may experience issues related to reduced staffing while at sea. While even the cleanest of ships can still harbor germs, passengers can now rest assured that these ships have been vetted and cleared for launch. Started in 2010, Royal Caribbean Blog offers daily coverage of news and information related to the Royal Caribbean cruise line along with other relevant topics of cruising, such as entertainment, news, photo updates and more.
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