While countries like Canada or
opening their borders to travelers,
they say in the coming weeks
we'll see what happens.
Cruise season has set sail and more
passengers are flying once again as
people are growing more comfortable
with traveling during the pandemic.
But a lot of questions still
linger about mask policies.
What's different for vaccinated and
unvaccinated travelers and where can
you travel now so Jeannie more from
cruise planners is joining us to get.
You answers,
here's how you text her a question.
The number is 336-379-5775.
Remember this is a text only,
so don't call. So Ginny.
First and foremost,
I know you just got back from a cruise.
So what was the big thing?
The big takeaway for you
about what has changed?
So the big takeaway for me is
this is the time to cruise,
so I was actually on a cruise ship that
holds normally 3500 passengers and the
cruise ships are making sure there is
plenty of room for social distancing,
so there were only 1000 passengers on board.
It was amazing, you know.
It was also the cruise ships coming out
of Florida or only allowing approximately
5% of people who were unvaccinated.
So once we were on the ship the only time.
We were wearing masks,
was in the hallways so it was wonderful. OK,
so we kind of went over a little
bit of what cruises look like.
Sometimes masks are necessary,
testing required. Can we go over that?
There is if you are vaccinated,
there is not any testing required.
Those that are not vaccinated
do have to do multiple tests
before when they get there.
They also will test
approximately every two days.
Alright, and what about getting off the ship?
Were you able to do excursions and
how does that looking for most folks?
So again, it depends on where you go.
I actually went to NASA and Royal
Caribbean Private Island and I was
able to get off and do whatever I want.
Again, if you were not vaccinated,
you did have to stay in a
torque with the cruise ship,
but different islands do have
different regulations and so you were
saying that they have diminished
capacity so you didn't feel like it
was usually the full you know shoulder
to shoulder cruise experience,
which may be kind of an upside. Exactly,
it was amazing. There was no
looking for chairs by the pools,
no waiting in lines.
It was phenomenal. OK, so with
that, let's talk about some
travel industry changes.
Kind of like what changes
have you noticed in recently
in the travel industry?
What locations are open and
that kind of thing? So as
of right now, there are about 75 locations
that are even 75 countries rather that
are either open or getting ready to.
Open in the next couple of weeks.
Also Canada, but has that's been one
of the ones that's been a big holdout.
Canada is opening in the next
couple weeks along with the Canadian
waters which should or schedule
to open up in November. You know?
One thing I can say is that there are still
lots and lots of different requirements.
Most of these countries will either have
a PC negative PCR test requirements or
vaccine requirements and some will have both.
So it's very important that you check with,
you know, a professional that's going to
be able to keep track of those for you,
and they're changing still daily.
Yeah, they are changing daily,
and that was something that was
interesting to me was who is the
one who determines whether or not
you need a vaccination or not?
Is it the airline?
Is that the cruise line?
Is it the country?
Is it all of it?
It's a little bit of all
when it comes to a cruise,
but primarily if when you are flying
and this is a big I guess sense of you
know people like there's a lot of confusion.
The airline monitors.
It is their responsibility to make
sure that you have the correct paperwork.
The correct vaccinations,
correct testing to get on board their plane.
However it is the country where you were
going the destination that determines
what the requirements are, right?
So don't just look on delta.
Or American and say, oh,
I've checked the boxes for them.
You have to check the box for
the country that you're going
to or even passing through.
Is that true too?
If you have a connecting flight?
That is true. Some of the countries,
especially when going to Europe, Asia.
Depending on where your layover is,
and even if it's just a layover,
you're not leaving the terminal,
they're requiring that you have testing on
their for their countries requirements too.
So it's very important to check each
and every step of the way, right? This
is good to
know. All right, you can
continue to text your
questions. The number at the
bottom of the screen there,
336-379-5775. We'll be right back.