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Will Testing Cruise Passengers Before Cruising be the key to the resumption of cruise vacations around the world. I explore the three approaches taken so far and how most have had issues to date, what we have learnt and what the major cruise lines are saying (and doing) on the role of testing cruise passengers to help open cruising up again.
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0:00
is testing going to be the magic key
0:02
that
0:03
unlocks cruising around the world and
0:05
especially
0:06
in the united states the share prices of
0:09
cruise lines rocketed on the news that
0:11
the feud and drug administration in the
0:13
united states has approved
0:15
a rapid covert 19 test it costs just
0:18
five dollars
0:19
and you get the results within 50
0:20
minutes certainly the investors
0:22
and wall street thought this was a
0:24
significant development
0:25
so i'm going to take a look in this
0:27
cruise update around exactly what's
0:29
happening
0:29
with testing as cruising opens up and
0:31
what the cruise lines are saying
0:33
especially
0:34
the leaders of those really big groups
0:36
the carnival corporation norwegian
0:38
cruise lines and the royal caribbean
0:40
group
0:41
there are currently three different
0:42
approaches to testing as cruising has
0:45
opened up particularly in europe
0:46
two of those have had very mixed results
0:49
the first approach of course is no
0:51
testing this is where they rely on some
0:53
screening
0:54
answering various questions and
0:55
temperature checks this has largely
0:58
not worked that well so hutu gruten is
1:01
probably the most
1:02
noted of these where they started up
1:04
expedition cruising
1:05
and one of their ships the roland
1:06
edmondson had a pretty big outbreak
1:08
where
1:09
a large percentage of their crew and a
1:11
large number of passengers
1:12
ended up having a covered 19 and it saw
1:15
the cancellation of many of their
1:17
expedition cruisers and really set back
1:18
cruising certainly for them
1:21
in germany they also started up cruising
1:22
without testing so royal caribbean has a
1:25
partnership with tui cruises and they
1:27
have two cruise lines
1:28
mine shift and habakkuk lloyd when they
1:30
started their cruises they didn't have
1:32
testing as part of the process however
1:35
they are moving to testing and they're
1:36
introducing a partnership
1:38
from september with a chain of clinics
1:40
around germany
1:42
called helios and every passenger who
1:44
goes on their cruises
1:45
now has to go and have a cover 19 test
1:47
within 72 hours of heading off on one of
1:50
their cruises
1:51
that approach being used is really
1:53
representative of the second
1:55
type of approach to testing and that's
1:57
having a test 72 hours or 48 hours
2:00
before cruising this second approach has
2:02
also had a number of
2:04
problems and a setback so for example
2:06
uncrews
2:07
had planned to start up their alaska
2:09
season some passengers came in they went
2:11
through the testing process
2:13
heading into alaska they boarded the
2:14
ship however one of those passengers
2:16
then got a result once the crews had set
2:18
sail
2:19
they discovered that they had a positive
2:20
result the ship had a turnaround head
2:22
back to port
2:23
the ship was sent to quarantine while
2:25
everyone was tested everyone actually
2:27
tested negative including that person
2:28
who'd had a
2:29
positive test that potentially was a
2:30
false positive result
2:32
but the entire alaska season by uncruise
2:35
was cancelled in its entirety
2:37
so that whole approach is flawed the
2:40
third approach to testing which is
2:41
testing passengers before they board
2:43
msc cruisers in europe require you to go
2:46
through an antigen test
2:47
if you test positive you then go through
2:49
a pcr test
2:50
in their first set of cruising everyone
2:53
that failed the first test passed the
2:54
second test
2:55
they went off on the cruises and had no
2:57
problem the second cruise
2:59
in the season that they did they've had
3:01
a french passenger who tested positive
3:03
at both
3:04
of those tests he was not allowed
3:07
boarding his family were not allowed to
3:08
board
3:09
and in fact they had traveled to the
3:10
cruise in a transfer van and all those
3:12
people refused
3:13
cruising in italy which is where msc
3:16
cruisers were sailing from
3:17
once you returned to italy the italian
3:19
passengers had to undergo a test before
3:21
they could head back into italy if you
3:23
had called on a foreign port
3:25
or the italian passengers who've been
3:26
through that first testing process
3:28
when they returned to italy after the
3:29
cruise tested negative so it does show
3:31
that actually
3:32
the testing process before you board can
3:35
be very successful what's important
3:36
though
3:37
is msc once you're on board create a
3:39
bubble so you can
3:40
only leave the ship in port on one of
3:42
their controlled excursions you can't go
3:44
and self-explore so you basically put
3:46
into
3:46
a bubble after that test one of the
3:49
downsides
3:49
of the current testing process is that
3:52
it's reported that it's taking
3:54
up to three hours to board the msc
3:57
cruisers
3:58
because once you have the test you have
3:59
to wait up to 90 minutes to get a result
4:02
so as we look at some of these rapid
4:03
tests
4:04
taking perhaps only 15 minutes this
4:06
could be a big game changer to
4:08
the current process that is in place so
4:10
based on all those learnings is what's
4:12
going on what can we expect happening
4:13
with
4:14
the big major cruise lines quite a few
4:16
of the big cruising destinations in the
4:17
world
4:18
are requiring cover 19 tests before
4:20
they're letting international travelers
4:21
in so we've seen that currently in
4:22
alaska and many of the islands in the
4:24
caribbean so certainly if cruisers want
4:25
to go there
4:26
they're likely to have to have some kind
4:28
of test results to be able to satisfy
4:30
those regions
4:31
royal caribbean have probably been the
4:33
most outspoken about
4:35
testing their ceo who is called michael
4:37
bailey recently said
4:39
and to quote him exactly he said it's
4:42
very likely
4:42
that testing will occur and that would
4:45
be for all of their brands for royal
4:47
caribbean
4:47
it will be for celebrity azamara and
4:50
silversea
4:51
what's important to remember when it
4:52
comes to norwegian cruise line is
4:54
they have the same panel of experts
4:56
advising them
4:57
on the opening of cruising so if royal
4:59
caribbean have that as part of the
5:00
recommendation i think we can safely
5:02
assume that norwegian will
5:04
the carnival ceo arnold donald has been
5:07
less explicit on testing where he
5:09
basically talks about
5:10
how they will review it and look at it
5:12
and it may be part
5:14
of the startup it is important of course
5:17
to remember that carnival have already
5:18
instituted
5:19
testing for costa as they start up in
5:21
italy and they're talking about it
5:23
for aida as it starts up out of germany
5:26
so as a corporation they're already
5:27
committed to testing
5:28
before you board virgin voyages very
5:31
early on
5:32
in their protocols for starting up had
5:33
always spoken about rapid testing of
5:35
chrome passengers
5:36
being part of their protocols in the uk
5:38
we're also seeing some of the ceos on to
5:40
speak out so for example fred olsen
5:42
which is a uk-based
5:43
line which operates a number of ships in
5:45
fact they just bought some of the
5:46
holland america ships that were for sale
5:49
the ceo there
5:50
has said very clearly the ultimate goal
5:53
from a cruise line point of view is that
5:54
you can walk up it's a simple test
5:56
and within 10 minutes you get the
5:57
results and you walk straight on board a
5:59
cruise ship
6:00
testing it seems is going to be a really
6:03
significant part of
6:04
unlocking cruising and letting cruising
6:06
start up again
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amongst many other protocols of course
6:09
to keep people safe once they're on
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board
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i have loads more updates videos and
6:13
tips so why don't you subscribe to the
6:15
channel
6:15
so you make sure you get one of those
6:17
updates every time i release a new
6:19
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