P&O are not allowing children on cruises

[TinaYouFatLard]

I know many on here think we should not be travelling at all this summer but for many of us a summer break is a real lifeline.

After the really disappointing “green list” yesterday (Tristan Da Cuhna FFS) I thought I’d look to book a family break closer to home and investigate a UK cruise.

P&O are saying that all passengers are required to be one week post second vaccine. Children are welcome on board but the vaccination policy does not have an age limit. I think this is rather shitty.

Try Royal Caribbean. Probably more fun for the kids too. Vaccinations required for over 18s only.

@TinaYouFatLard

I know many on here think we should not be travelling at all this summer but for many of us a summer break is a real lifeline.

After the really disappointing “green list” yesterday (Tristan Da Cuhna FFS) I thought I’d look to book a family break closer to home and investigate a UK cruise.

P&O are saying that all passengers are required to be one week post second vaccine. Children are welcome on board but the vaccination policy does not have an age limit. I think this is rather shitty.

I have two children and also looked at cruises

Its disappointing but I agree with the stance.

It’s clear cut. All welcome one week after vaccine.

Yes it’s skewed towards favouring older people! But that’s been the approach to the vaccine rollout, and the travel industry sensibly following suit

Yes Royal Caribbean is way better for kids.

The last place I would want to be is on a Cruise ship at the moment. It only needs one infected person to get on and there's a risk of it going through the ship quickly.
There's a risk of that even if everyone is vaccinated so I can understand the reluctance to have children on board.

That's fair enough I think.

It’s only for their “staycation” cruises this year. Personally I agree with their stance, they have chosen the way that they feel they will be able to safest get those cruises going in order to get some income.

When the normal cruises can resume then the boarding policy will change.

Yeah there's no way I'd be risking being stuck on a cruise ship in a teeny cabin potentially for week op.

Why not book somewhere like Whitby where there's loads to do or you can just go to the beach. Have a real bucket & spade holiday.

Week's

To be fair cruises are absolutely notorious for spreading viruses and I suspect they can justify such discrimination on that basis. I’d be pretty angry if an ordinary restaurant or hotel or tourist attraction was implementing such a policy, but actually on a cruise ship I think it’s fair enough. And no one in my family has even had a first vaccine yet, so we definitely won’t qualify by the summer. It’s just an unfortunate byproduct of a very reasonable medical decision to prioritise vaccines for older people. It’s not likely to be permanent, just pick a different holiday- the green list is highly likely to expand by mid summer anyway.

You aren't their target audience OP so I can see why they've taken this stance.

We looked into this having had cruises for last year and then the rebooked one for this year cancelled. We found loads of cruise companies doing round the UK cruises but only allowed vaccinated people which excluded our 7 year old. Disney cruises were another one of the few allowing under 18s which you might want to look at. We decided against it in the end given the heavily restrictive rules on the ship and the inability to get off and explore for ourselves which is the fun part for us.
I'm disappointed too but I can understand the reason for the rules and why most only want vaccinated people- can you imagine how quickly covid would spread on a cruise ship?

MSC are doing UK cruises for all ages.

Not thinking about Portugal or Iceland then? Or the Falklands?

Yes it’s skewed towards favouring older people! But that’s been the approach to the vaccine rollout, and the travel industry sensibly following suit

The majority of those vaccinated are under 60.