AmaWaterways to Require Full Vaccination of Passengers

Image: AmaWaterways River Cruise along the Rhine River Gorge (photo via AmaWaterways) ((photo via AmaWaterways))
Image: AmaWaterways River Cruise along the Rhine River Gorge (photo via AmaWaterways) ((photo via AmaWaterways))
by Jim Byers
Last updated: 12:30 AM ET, Thu August 5, 2021

Effective immediately, AmaWaterways will require all guests to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to their river cruise. The company said Wednesday that the decision was made following recent changes in certain European countries that now require up to a 10-day quarantine period for unvaccinated travelers upon entry. Many countries have implemented procedures that strongly encourage travellers to be vaccinated and, in some cases, restrict access to certain venues unless they are vaccinated or can provide a negative COVID-19 test result valid for 24 hours.

Further details can be found on the Travel Update page of the website. Guests who may be affected by this change should contact their travel advisor for options or call their reservations centre at 1-800-626-0126.

"AmaWaterways acknowledges that vaccination is an important tool in mitigating the health risks associated with COVID-19 worldwide," said AmaWaterways President and Co-founder Rudi Schreiner. "In order to support this effort and safeguard the onboard experience, we will now only be allowing vaccinated guests on board our ships. The vast majority of our guests are already vaccinated and they, along with our travel advisor partners, have expressed support of this new policy as an added layer of protection to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all guests and crew on board."

The company's website says the following about vaccines:

Guests must be fully vaccinated at least 14 days (in the case of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca or 28 days for Johnson & Johnson) prior to their sailing date. We also recommend all guests take a PCR test within 72 hours prior to departure and bring documentation of a negative result with them on their sailing, as a precautionary measure.

It wasn't immediately clear if passengers with mixed vaccine doses will be allowed on board.

For full details and the most up to date information, visit AmaWaterways.ca/Travel-Updates.

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Jim Byers

Senior Editorial Director

Senior Editorial DirectorJim Byers was travel editor for five years at the Toronto Star, which has the largest travel section in North America. He has also had his own travel blog for years and now writes destination stories for several publications, including Postmedia and Sun Media websites newspapers across Canada...and now TravelPulse Canada.

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