Return to Phase 2: Implications for flights, staycations and cruises

Singapore will adopt tighter COVID-19 containment measures from 8-30 May 2021. Here's how your travel and leisure plans will be affected.

Singapore will return to Phase 2 conditions from 8-30 May 2021, in the hope of arresting a recent surge in COVID-19 community cases. 

Source: Straits Times

You’ve no doubt already read about the implications for social and work arrangements, i.e gatherings capped at five people instead of eight, 50% of staff working from office instead of 75%, and TraceTogether-only check-ins brought forward to May 17. 

In this post, I’ll take a closer look at the impact these tightened restrictions will have on air travel, staycations and cruises. 

Air Travel

General Arrivals

The SHN duration will increase for the vast majority of arriving passengers

All travelers arriving in Singapore after 7 May 2021 2359 hours will be required to serve a 21-day SHN, unless they’re originating from a handful of lower-risk countries like Australia and New Zealand. A 21-day SHN is already in force for arrivals from the UK, South Africa, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Arriving FromSHN Duration
(Effective 7 May 2021 2359 hours)
🇦🇺AustraliaN/A
🇧🇳BruneiN/A
🇨🇳ChinaN/A
🇳🇿New ZealandN/A
🇹🇼TaiwanN/A
🇭🇰Hong Kong SAR7 days at place of residence
🇲🇴Macao SAR7 days at place of residence
🌏All other countries🆕 21 days in SDF*
*SDF= SHN Dedicated Facility. Arrivals from Fiji and Vietnam have the option to serve the last 7 days in their own residence

Those under the existing 14-day SHN regime who have yet to complete their SHN as of 7 May 2021 2359 hours will be required to serve an additional 7 days at their current SHN location. However, if they are arriving from Fiji or Vietnam specifically, they have the option to serve the additional 7 days at their place of residence. 

The increase in SHN duration will obviously lead to an increase in cost, as illustrated below:

 14 days21 days
Single adultS$2,000 per personS$3,000 per person
Two adults*S$1,300 per personS$1,950 per person
MinorsDepends on ageDepends on age
*Only family members (defined as grandparents, parents, spouse, parents-in-law, siblings or children) are permitted to share a room

My understanding is that those who arrived under the existing 14-day SHN regime will still be be liable to pay the additional costs, so long as their SHN period remains uncompleted as of 7 May 2021 2359 hours. 

Air Travel Bubble with Hong Kong

The Hong Kong ATB continues as planned

The recently-announced Air Travel Bubble (ATB) with Hong Kong is still continuing as planned, with the launch date of 26 May unchanged. 

While there is an inbuilt mechanism to suspend the ATB in the event of a spike in COVID-19 cases, it should be noted that this is based on the average number of unlinked community cases. For the moment, the vast majority of cases in Singapore remain linked, and the seven-day moving average of unlinked cases was 1.43 as of Monday, well below the suspension trigger of 5. 

According to the SCMP:

In response to a question from This Week in Asia on whether the situation in Singapore would affect the quarantine-free travel arrangement, (Education Minister Lawrence) Wong said the bubble suspension mechanism would not change. However, he added that travellers must be “mentally prepared” that the “fluid” situation could change, and the bubble would not start if Singapore reached the threshold before May 26.

“It’s highly unpredictable, there will be ups and downs in our infection controls from time to time,” said Wong.

So it’s a wait and see situation. The authorities are no doubt prepared to postpone the bubble if the situation warrants, but there’s little point speculating at the moment. If anything, the tightening of measures should increase the chances that the ATB can proceed as planned. 

Staycations

Raffles Hotel safe distance marker
Raffles Hotel safe distance marker

Staycations can still be booked and stayed from 8-30 May, subject to general safe management measures. 

However, the increase in SHN duration from 14 to 21 days for the vast majority of inbound travelers means that hotel capacity will be stretched. Guests with bookings at Park Hotels, Dorsett and Mandarin Orchard have already reported their staycations being cancelled.

There is no comprehensive list of hotels which are serving as SDFs, and remember, some have been authorized for “dual use”, i.e partial staycation and partial SDF. These will typically have separate towers or wings which allow for those serving SHNs to be hermetically sealed off, such as the Fairmont Singapore. 

Gym at Clan Hotel
Gym at Clan Hotel

Gyms are considered higher-risk settings for COVID-19 transmission, and will be closed from 8-30 May 2021. This naturally includes gyms within hotel settings, so you can expect these facilities to be unavailable from Saturday onwards. 

Damai Spa, Grand Hyatt
Damai Spa, Grand Hyatt

Spas will continue operations for the moment, although the MOH has said that further action will be taken should the community case situation fail to improve. All other outdoor facilities like pools and playgrounds are unaffected, subject to capacity limits and cleaning regimes. 

Buffet breakfasts have resumed at hotels like Grand Hyatt

On 12 April, hotels received the green light to resume offering buffets. I stayed at the Grand Hyatt last week, and having a buffet breakfast at Straits Kitchen was a welcome return to normality, albeit not quite the same as before. All food must be portioned out and served by staff members, and food displays are protected by clear plastic or glass barriers. Diners must wear their masks when queueing for food, and maintain a minimum distance of 1m from the next person. 

These arrangements will continue until further notice, although the maximum number of diners per group will be reduced from eight to five people. 

Cruises & Attractions

Cruises will continue with 50% capacity caps

All scheduled cruises will continue as planned, with capacity still capped at 50%. There was some earlier talk of increasing capacity to 65%, but to the best of my knowledge, it never actually happened- and certainly won’t for the next month or so.

During my previous cruise in March, I actually noticed that some of the cruising measures had been relaxed- there was no more post-cruise swab and it wasn’t necessary to show your TraceTogether app or token when entering venues (although obviously you had to wear your tracelet). I suspect some of this will be rolled back in light of what’s happening. 

Update:  The following additional restrictions have been added for Royal Caribbean cruises:

  • Fitness centre closed
  • Audience capacity for shows reduced from 250 to 100; all guests may book a maximum of one show for the entire cruise or two if they’re in suites (YMMV- see comments)
  • Maximum gathering size for any restaurant/activity booking decreased to five
  • No delivery of alcohol to staterooms before 8.30 p.m on boarding day

I understand imposing a limit of one show per guest to ensure everyone has a chance to see something, but man, people are going to be disappointed.

While a previous version of the email stated that any guest whose TraceTogether app or token flags a possible exposure would be denied boarding, this policy has since been reversed.

Affected guests can opt to reschedule for free, or take a full refund.

Attractions on land will have their operating capacity reduced from 65 to 50%, and the maximum tour size offered by tour operators will be reduced from 50 to 20 attendees. Interestingly enough, according to the STB’s webpage the enhanced restrictions will only apply till 14 May, instead of 30 May like the ones in broader society. It could simply be a typo, or they might be taking it week by week. 

Don’t worry about not being able to spend your SingapoRediscovers Vouchers however. The expiry dates were recently extended a further six months from 30 June 2021 to 31 December 2021. 

Conclusion

Returning to Phase 2 conditions after the relative freedom of Phase 3 will no doubt be a downer, but the hope is this will be a relatively short period of tightening. 

As Lawrence Wong said at yesterday’s press conference:

“We have more testing capabilities. We also have better contact tracing capabilities, where we are able to move in faster, identify the potential close contacts, and even the wider ring of possible exposures and get everyone tested so that we can more quickly ring-fence the cases and prevent further spread of the virus,” said Mr Wong, adding that he believed Singapore will be able to “snuff out” the current clusters.

“But as an additional pre-emptive step, we are taking this move that we have just described, bringing the whole suite of measures back to phase two and taking a much tighter posture overall. And we believe that if we do that, and if everyone cooperates from now to May 30 or end of May, we have a good chance of bringing cases down and getting things back on control,” he added.

Wear your masks, practice good personal hygiene, get vaccinated if you’re eligible, keep calm and carry on. 

Aaron Wong
Aaron Wong
Aaron founded The Milelion to help people travel better for less and impress chiobu. He was 50% successful.

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JW19

I’m glad our government never waited too long to act and clamped down on correct venues for crowd control. Looking at actions across the border and beyond, it safer to be in Singapore.

Ben

LOL. I guess banning India and Nepal arrivals even later than UK (which hasn’t exactly been the world leader in Covid-19 clampdowns) counts as never waiting too long to act.

Ronald Sison

I fully agree. Singapore is leading this control initiatives across the globe. My family feel very safe residing in Singapore. We are one of the very fortunate ppl residing here. Kudos to Singapore govt / Covid task force, its governance, etc and essentially hats-off to our front liners / medical team.

Wee Lin

I would go as far as: The uber cautious approach is actually good news for the ATB. Gym closures seem a little harsh, so I’ll run or swim instead but the lesser chances to get to 5 unlinked cases/day the better.

Zhi Wey

Aaron, here is the latest feedback on Royal Caribbean cruise for the affected period: 1.    Gym /Fitness center will be closed until further notice. 2.    Any group gathering, such as: check-in, North Star ride and restaurant table occupancy will be decreased from 8 to 5. 3.    Show. Audience account will be decreased from 250 to 100 .All guests can only book one show the entire cruise. 4.    Complementary Liquor and beers are not allowed to deliver to your suite by Genie or room service before 8:30pm onboarding day when Quantum is inside of Singapore water. However you are still able to enjoy your drinks in… Read more »

T C

“Audience capacity for shows reduced from 250 to 100; all guests may book a maximum of one show for the entire cruise” – do we know whether this is one show per venue, or one show across all venues?

Zhi Wey

Cocktail party can be arrange for Star class guest on the loft suites. Used to be very nice way to enjoy the cruise. Let’s see what changes under the new norm.

Rachel

Hi! Can I please check, where did you obtain the “max one show” feedback from? I tried calling the RC hotline but they mentioned there’s no such restriction, just the down to 100 pax one. 🤔🤔

Helena

How sure are you regarding the show limit? It does not say in the email from RC. Only the 100 pax restriction

Jimmy

 “but i’ve seen the email sent from the concierge to suites guests”

Cruiser

All guests can only book one show the entire cruise” is false.

i just boarded today and booked 1 of EACH show.

Pissed off

False info say false info la. Have the balls to admit it please. Others have already verified by BOARDING the ship. Please don’t anyhow “suspect”.

Tom

“Pissed off,” aside from having extremely poor English, is being unfair as well, I am also on the ship RIGHT NOW and was told it was one show per room for the entire trip. If some managed to get lucky (maybe their app didn’t update?) and book extras then good for them but this was not what everyone was able to do with a 100 person capacity limit.

Cruiser

My app was definitely updated for sure. We even clarified yesterday with Guest Services that we are allowed to book 1 of each show and booked each different show without any issues. As for whether it is capped at 250 or 100 pax, i wouldn’t know.

Dave

Wow, those cruise boomers are fierce!

Frederic

They take umbrage so easily

jonathan

here’s the wording my concierge sent me

“With the continued increase in the number of local cases, the Multi-Ministry Taskforce (MTF) announced that further tightening of SMMs will be taken to reduce the level of interactions and break the chains of transmission. As a result to this, our capacity of show has been reduced rapidly, and we’re only able to accommodate all guests with one show throughout the voyage.

However, as a suite, we would like to accommodate you to choose two shows from below two venues(The Royal Theater & the Two 70 theaters ) “

RailTravel Station

I guess STB’s restrictions till 14 May are in line with TTSH community testing which is projected to end on 16 May, as most of the at-risk individuals would have gotten their results by then. Meanwhile, here’s Dream Cruises now-edited advisory for sailings till 19 May: https://railtravelstation.com/world-dream-cruise-phase-three-heightened-alert/

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