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6 Things You Need To Know About Cruising And Vaccines
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Jan 28, 2025
You are probably asking the wrong question about cruising and vaccines. What is the latest on cruising and vaccines? Cruising vaccinations is a hot, and often divisive, topic. Will you need to have a vaccine to cruise? What about people who do not want to be vaccinated to go cruising? There are 6 key questions that you should be asking and need to know about when it comes to cruising and vaccination. I explore what you should really be asking, what we know and what the answers are - and those that are still uncertain BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA ——————————————— TikTok: @garybembridge Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers
View Video Transcript
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there are a number of key questions that
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travelers like you
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and me should be asking about cruising
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and vaccines
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and it's not the one that most of us are
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asking
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right now i'm gary bembridge and i'm
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going to explore what you should
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actually be asking yourself your travel
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agent
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and the cruise lines about vaccines and
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cruising especially
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if you have existing bookings or are
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thinking of making
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a future cruise booking i also have the
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answers to many of them to share so
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let's
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begin if you're asking will the cruise
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lines require passengers to be
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vaccinated
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before they can travel with them you're
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focusing on the wrong
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thing the much more important question
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to ask
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is will i need to be vaccinated before i
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can go
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cruising and the answer to that is more
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than likely
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as many countries and ports of call are
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going to require it
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and this in my view is going to drive
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what most cruise lines are going to have
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to do
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on vaccines so for example in big news
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the european union
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has now agreed on the introduction of a
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digital vaccination passport
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by this summer and that's going to allow
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free travel within
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all of the eu initially by their own
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residents and then for non-eu travelers
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to enter
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europe so if you want to cruise to any
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country
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that's in europe as this rolls out the
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lines will have to insist
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you have proof of vaccination to meet
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that rule
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another example is royal caribbean
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who've been allowed to start selling the
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new odyssey of the seas from
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may out of israel calling on greece and
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cyprus if they were carrying
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only vaccinated crew and passengers now
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those three countries they've agreed for
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residents who have proof of vaccination
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to be able to travel without
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restrictions on arrival between
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each of them all passengers over the age
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of 16 have to be vaccinated
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and this was the country requirement not
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one the line
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put in place themselves the countries
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required it
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will caribbean islands also require this
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it seems
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very likely because many of them
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currently have a combination of testing
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and quarantining
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for travellers arriving there of course
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that's impossible
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for cruise passengers the only way for
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cruise passengers to be able to get off
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the ship
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to explore freely on their day while
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they're there
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would be with some kind of vaccination
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password to get around all of that
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so if countries on cruise itineraries
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require
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proof of vaccination then the cruise
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lines will have to insist
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on august having it too so why do i say
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that well currently
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if a country that a cruise is calling on
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has an entry visa requirement
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everyone on the ship even those who are
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not planning to get off
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in a particular port have to have a visa
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and the cruise line has to check that
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everybody on the ship has a visa because
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the lions
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cannot enter country unless everybody
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has a visa so they won't embark anybody
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without a visa
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or they just won't be able to go to
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those particular countries
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so the same seems inevitable if vaccine
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proof is required by country
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the cruise lines are going to have to
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ask
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everyone to show proof of vaccinations
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the other trigger of course
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may be that authorities like say the cdc
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in the united states or the equivalent
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in the uk in australia and all those
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other countries if they make that part
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of the return to cruise protocols that
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of course would be another trigger
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so if you are planning a cruise watch
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what the countries you're calling on
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are going to require for you to enter
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not just the cruise lines so the example
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of
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europe they're moving before the cruise
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lines what if you want to travel with
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children under the age of 16
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where no vaccine has yet been authorized
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for use by
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kids so the lines that are already
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requiring
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vaccines irrespective of the itinerary
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so that's things like
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crystal saga cruises american steamboat
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and victory they are either adult any
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lines
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or they mostly have an over 60s
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passenger mix
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so they have all qualified kind of early
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for vaccines
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so that's not really a key issue for
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them so first off
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though you cannot take any under 16s
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with you on those lines that i've just
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mentioned because
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all of their vaccine policies do not
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allow anyone
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who cannot be vaccinated for any reason
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that includes medical
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or age or pregnancy or whatever
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anyone who chooses not to be vaccinated
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for any reason
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or has not yet been vaccinated due to
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the pace of the road
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in the country or region they don't
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allow any of those people on so you
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simply can't travel
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with kids in that case secondly in
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theory you need to wait to see what
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rules are put in place domestically and
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then of course by countries
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that will require or do require proof of
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vaccination for entry to know whether
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you can cruise with children
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until of course they can be vaccinated
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however it seems
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basically unthinkable that children
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under the age of 16 are going to be
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excluded from traveling internationally
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until it can be vaccinated
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because of course that could be a very
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long time off so while
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of course we may have to wait to know
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for sure i think we can assume
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there is going to be some form of
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accommodation some form of rule
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for those under 16s to be able to travel
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and by definition crews
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whether the line make the rules or the
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places they call on actually make
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the rules of course some people do not
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want to
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or cannot be vaccinated so can you
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cancel and actually get a refund
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if you're one of those people now based
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on what the lines that have introduced
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the
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vaccine policy to date the answer is
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very simple
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it's yes all of those lines have offered
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passengers
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you know the ability to cancel and get a
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full cash refund
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if they don't want to get vaccinated for
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any reason
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or they cannot be vaccinated in time for
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their crews
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for whatever reason or they cannot be
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vaccinated for medical reasons for
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pregnancy reasons
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or if one of their travel party falls
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into any of those categories
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so it's a very simple yes you can get a
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refund so i think therefore
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that we should assume that this will
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also happen across the board
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if and when vaccine policies are
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introduced for whatever reason
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they are brought in i've been asked by
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some travellers and qualified crew
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members in countries that are receiving
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russia's
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sputnik china's sinovac binobiotek
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and india's bharat biotech vaccines
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if those will be accepted now this is a
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really really good question
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absolutely for sure and it's one that
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we're going to have to keep on asking
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especially
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if you're receiving one of those
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vaccines cruise lines who've introduced
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the vaccine policies so far they've
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defined
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what vaccines they will accept so for
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example crystal cruisers
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they only accept those that are approved
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by the european union
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or by the united states fda so that's
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the food and drug administration
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so that at the moment includes like the
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fisa
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binotech vaccine the moderna vaccine
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and the astrazeneca oxford vaccine and
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others to come like the johnson and
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johnson one
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now if you reside in the united states
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and the eu then you know it basically
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seems
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pretty safe to assume that whatever
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vaccine you have is going to be on the
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list
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no matter whether the lines require them
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or the countries require them
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so if you do receive one of those in
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your country from that list you are
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likely to be covered and shouldn't have
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to worry now
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as many of the countries where crew are
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based are using some of the other
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vaccines this is a big unanswered
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question
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as it is for passengers say in brazil
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that i know are getting different
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vaccines
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it's one we don't have the full answer
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to yet so one to keep asking
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and checking on whether your vaccine
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will be accepted
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will you still be subject to the other
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protocols being put in place for
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cruising as it resumes things like
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wearing a mask social distancing and all
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those other kind of rules
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that are being put in place yes
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again is the answer all the lines that
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have introduced the vaccine policy have
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added it to their existing protocols it
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basically adds
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to the various layers of protection that
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are being put in place on cruise ships
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now this of course is first of all
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because there's no
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full data yet on if and extent the
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vaccines
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stop you from catching and spreading the
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virus you know the data
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is around stopping people getting
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seriously ill and dying
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you know from the virus but of course
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there's more data coming around spread
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which may change things
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and secondly and very importantly the
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protocols
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have been agreed with the relevant
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health authorities
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and so they're going to remain in place
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basically until they are mutually agreed
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to be adjusted or modified which i
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actually suspect is going to be pretty
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slow to happen
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because everyone is really going to want
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to be really cautious
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about lifting those kind of restrictions
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for cruising
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at present there are differing positions
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on if both crew
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and passengers will be vaccinated so
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there is no
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clear answer on this one though there
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are some pretty clear directions
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on the one hand saga are going to insist
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that guests have a requirement to be
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vaccinated before the crew canada that's
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due to timing of when they think crew
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can be vaccinated
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so what they're doing is they're putting
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in place other measures like extra
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testing for the crew
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while others are going to insist that
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both passengers and
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crew are vaccinated the big groups like
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norwegian and royal caribbean
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they're saying that crew will be even if
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passengers are not required
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however it seems to me that there's
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going to end up being
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some kind of consistency across both
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crew
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and passengers it just makes sense
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whichever way it goes
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and i think the answer to this more
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clearly will emerge as we see whether
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the lines lead setting the vaccine
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requirements
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or they follow the rules from the
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authorities and countries which may
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have a much more blanket requirement i
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hope you found this
9:36
interesting if you did i have hundreds
9:38
of other episodes that are packed full
9:41
of cruising updates advice and tips so
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why not
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go and enjoy another one right now
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