Covid Tests

[Joneill]

Certainly helps to explain your expansive travel opportunities!

Agreed - I probably could have bought my own liveaboard for what I've spent raising my kids! College tuitions alone would certainly have funded multiple liveaboard trips each year for the rest of my life!

 

[living4experiences]

Why do you feel the safety protocol once on board was a joke?

Here's an excerpt from their mandatory rules.
"Practice shipboard self-distancing (SSD) that include:
• Wearing masks (mandatory) in all common areas unless seating during meal times.
• Avoiding all non-essential contact or close proximity with others on board.
• All spaces on the ships, including your stateroom, will have been disinfected with vital oxide application
by fogging machines. Minimum 1 week hold time.
• Staggered meal service, dive and safety briefings, dive times.
• We will issue sanitized individual second stage regulators on all white shark trips.
• Option to decline or limit daily room cleaning service.
• Crew assistance with buffet meal service and drinks.
• Use the designated space for your equipment."

There was no enforcement of the mandatory mask wearing. I was the only one who wore a mask in the dining and salon areas. Obviously, you can't wear a mask while gearing up on deck. The captain didn't even wear a mask while indoors.

You can't social distance on a liveaboard, so that's a rule that can't be followed in the first place. I requested no daily room cleaning, but the gal came in anyway while I was in the room and did a spritz of something from a machine to "sanitize". A puff of air is not sanitization.

During meal service, the crew wore masks but not gloves. Meals were pre-plated, covered in plastic, then served to you by the crew. No buffet and you got whatever was put in front of you. We were not allowed to self serve any beverages at any time, which meant no self-serve tea or coffee outside of mealtime. Yet, during cocktail hour, there was a communal bowl of snacks that everyone's hands went into.

 

[Dan]

I was in Nautilus Belle Amie in January, May & August, 2021. They Covid tested all the guests prior to boarding. That action itself to me help screen out potential spreader. None of us got sick in those 3 trips. I wish other liveaboards do the same.