Thread: Yellow fever shots

We are currently booked on a RCI cruise from Valparaiso to San Diego. I have been trying to find out if Yellow fever shots are required. There seems to be a lot of confustion regarding it. The ship departs on April 26. Stops in Chili, Peru, Equador, Costa Rica and Mexico before arriving in San Diego. Does anyone have any info?

You can check out this site and check by country.

Yellow Fever in South America and the Caribbean—Evolving Situation | CDC Travelers' Health

Great link Sue.. also, the cruiseline will tell you... or your travel agent.

We just disembarked the Mariner of the Seas 46 day around the horn cruise from Port Canaveral to Los Angeles.
Neither RCi nor your travel agent have a clue about yellow fever shots. The CDC does not always have the latest country info.
We had a weeks long discussion on our roll call about this subject.
Costa Rican consulates and their tourist bureau were adament that if you were in Peru within 10 days of docking at Costa Rica, the yellow fever shot was mandatory, no exceptions.

Here's what actually happened. Some folks walked off the ship and were not asked for anything.
Some folks were stopped by a Costa Rican official and asked for their yellow card showing they had the shot. If they didn't have it with them, they had to go back to the ship to get it. I would assume if they didn't have it, they would have been denied entry. Luckily everyone had theirs.
Most of us got the shot just because yellow fever is a terrible disease and if the wrong mosquito found you,
you lose. The shot is good for 10 years, so if you decide to go someplace where YF is endemic, you're covered.
The only reaction I heard of was the same as I had.
A day or two of very light chills and half a sore throat.
Barely noticeable.

Our decision was to get the shot and we feel it was the correct one.

Also, have $131 PP in new, small bills when flying into Santiago to pay their entry fee.

Thanks Paul (glgolfer)! There's nothing like getting the correct information right from someone who has "been there-done that"!

Thank you for your info. You are right. We were told by RCI that it was only required if you were on the Amazon side of Peru. The CDC web site was very confusing. I couldn't make sense out of it.

Dick

Thanks for this thread, Dick! Also, thanks to eveyone who has replied.

It's hard to find this sort of information and how it applies to exactly where we're going.

We had a situation in 2007 when we did a PanAmerican cruise round trip from San Diego -- staying over night at Gatun Lake and then going down to Ecuador.

When we first booked this cruise yellow fever shots were not required. Then just 3 months from sail date Nicaragua suddenly said that all crew and passengers had to show proof that they had the yellow fever shots because we were stopping in Eucador. HAL began a battle with Nicaragua explaining that we were only going to be on the western side -- not the eastern side or in the jungles. The battle went on for a couple of months. In the meantime HAL arranged for those crew members who hadn't had the shot to get them and we all received letters to bring our yellow cards.

Knowing that our yellow fever shots were to expire at the end of Jan 2008, we also got official letters indicating that we can no longer get the shots due to health reasons - we were worried that the officials might say that our shots were due to expire and wouldn't let us off the ship.

We got on the ship -- no one asked us for our yellow cards or letters. So I asked around and found that the Nicaragua officials changed their minds about 2 weeks before we sailed!!!

The best we can determine is that Costa Rica might require the yellow fever shots if you have visited Peru. Very confusing. RCI doesn't seem to know since they told our TA they were required only if you visit the Amazon area. Our shots expired in Dec 2008. Timing is everything!

Originally Posted by Dick

The best we can determine is that Costa Rica might require the yellow fever shots if you have visited Peru. Very confusing. RCI doesn't seem to know since they told our TA they were required only if you visit the Amazon area. Our shots expired in Dec 2008. Timing is everything!

I'm sorry, but I have to ask if you read my post.