Carnival Cruise Line has made some amendments to cruises sailing in Europe, specifically for cruises onboard Carnival Pride and the maiden transatlantic crossing from Southampton onboard Carnival Celebration later this year.
The cruise line has sent a letter to guests and travel agents informing them of the new requirements, which include updates to testing and vaccination protocols, such as the addition of self-administered tests being allowed. Cruises that include Greece and Spain will continue to see stricter guidelines than those sailing in the rest of Europe.
Carnival Cruise Line Provides Updates to Europe Cruises
In a letter sent to guests booked onboard a cruise sailing in or from Europe this year, Carnival Crusie Line has provided some updated health and safety measures that guests will need to comply with.
The changes are for Carnival Pride, which is sailing several cruises in the United Kingdom, Western and Northern Europe, and in the Mediterranean through November. The new protocols also apply to Carnival Celebration, which is sailing her maiden transatlantic voyage and first cruise ever from Southampton, UK, on November 6.
For all cruises, except those visiting Greece and Spain, all unvaccinated guests ages five and older should provide a negative result of a lab-administered or supervised (by a medical professional), self-administered PCR, or antigen COVID test taken up to 3 days before embarkation.
Cruises sailing to Greece
For cruises that visit Greece, all guests five years old and above must have a negative result of a PCR test taken within three days before sailing or an antigen test within two days before sailing. This is especially relevant for those sailing onboard Carnival Pride.
If guests are fully vaccinated but have not yet received their booster shots if eligible, Carnival Cruise Line will consider those guests as being unvaccinated. This means they will be subject to additional testing on board which will be provided on a complimentary basis by Carnival.
Guests are not allowed to present a document of recovery for cruises that visit Greece. All guests must comply with the vaccination and testing guidelines.
Self-tests that have not been medically observed are not valid for cruises to Greece.
Cruises visiting Spain
For cruises that visit Spain, which includes both Carnival Celebration and Carnival Pride, all unvaccinated guests, 12 years and older, must present the negative results of a PCR test taken within three days before sailing or an antigen test within two days of sailing.
As is the case with sailings to Greece, if a self-test is not supervised by a medical professional, it is not acceptable to travel to Spain.
Although European countries have been relatively quick with easing requirements for cruise ships, there are still significant differences between all nations. This means that guests must be cautious when traveling to Europe and not assume that protocols for one destination are necessarily the same for all destinations.
In the last weeks, cruise lines and destinations have been extremely quick to change protocols and procedures on a near-constant basis. This has already led to the Bahamas releasing plans to drop most requirements and most cruise line’s dropping vaccination requirements in the US and most destinations worldwide.
