Carnival Cruise Line Abandons Terminal-Based COVID-19 Testing Plans

Saturday, September 18, 2021

Carnival Cruise Line has scrapped plans to offer mobile COVID-19 testing services at its U.S. home ports.

This is because the logistics of doing so are too complex.

Just two weeks ago, Carnival announced it was working to set up mobile COVID-19 testing locations pier side.

This is for assisting cruisers who are unable to get tested for COVID-19 within the new two-day time frame according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mandate.

Passengers booked on upcoming Carnival sailings were given the heads-up from cruise line president Christine Duffy.

Duffy explained that they had previously raised the possibility of more on-site testing at their terminals.

But, the logistics of making this service widely available to a large number of guests does not make this a viable option.

All passengers embarking Carnival vessels within the United States will need to provide proof of negative COVID-19 test.

It is either antigen or PCR, or a medically-supervised “at home” test kit like the Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test.

This news does not affect the recently-announced initiative by Carnival Corporation to offer pre-cruise COVID-19 testing at more than 1,500 locations across the continental United States.

Carnival isn’t the only organization to backtrack on new plans in recent days.

On Wednesday, the Netherlands announced it will no longer force fully vaccinated travellers staying more than 12 hours in the country to quarantine for 10 days.

The Dutch government had previously announced this- a ruling that threw European-based river cruises into disarray.

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