klflote

FWIW, here's our experience from last Thursday with 4 ships in port: RCCL Explorer OTS from 7 - 8, Celebrity Infinity from 7 to 10, Costa Pacifica from 8 - 7, Celestyal Olympia from 4 - 9; total passenger load over 11,000).

We got in line for the cable car in the morning about 10:15 am and it took 75 minutes. We got in line for the return about 4:45 pm and it took 70 minutes. The line to come back looked particularly discouraging in length, but because it is a narrower line, it moves much faster.

So it wasn't as bad as I'd heard (YMMV of course), though not nearly as nice as our trips in earlier years when we were the only ship in port. If Santorini wants to support this many ships, they really do need to upgrade their facilities.

16 minutes ago, KKB said:

3.4 % of US population vapes. 30% of US population has cruised.

In theory about 1% of passengers vape.

 

Well, math doesn't work like that. Assuming these numbers, then If the cruise is entirely US passengers, 3.4% of the passengers vape (on average, subject to the other demographic factors you mention). It doesn't matter how much of the US population cruises for this calculation.

3 hours ago, ldubs said:

My indignation is greatly relieved by calling and browbeating some low level CSR.  

Yep.

I had to wonder why the CSR needed to keep reminding the caller that the call was being recorded. Hopefully not for the reasons I'm thinking...  

I've searched and found lots of posts about buying a carpet in Kusadasi, but none are recent, and none are post-pandemic (if that changed things). Wondering if anyone has any recent experiences, good or bad, to share. We're taking a Celebrity ship tour in the morning so we'll get dropped off at the Celebrity-aligned store, but we can look elsewhere of course. I'm not expecting a huge bargain or anything, but I am buying a new dining room rug, and it would be fun to talk with dinner guests about having bought it in Turkey.

I just came to post the same thing. I had an afternoon of work meetings, and my next RCCL cruise isn't actually until summer 2024, but I've decided that this is a message that cannot be ignored, and so I'll be leaving immediately.

I have read conflicting things about the $20 per day, and whether it is per restaurant per day, or just per day. It seems like it should be per restaurant per day, in case you wanted Johnny Rockets for lunch and Sushi for dinner or something like that. But without saying "per venue", it seems like it really is just once per day, period.

6 hours ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

Good morning from the Equinox!! I’m currently sipping coffee and watching the sunrise, and runners that are way more motivated than I am. We had a great first day boarding this full ship. I did want to pop in and say we had quite the awful experience at Tuscan last night. I’m not one to really complain but to briefly summarize, we were only served our steaks over 2 hours after sitting down. The pasta course came 15 minutes later and was cold with hardened sauce. We left before dessert because we wanted to get to bed, which is unfortunate because the limoncello cheesecake sounded incredible. The server was incredible and apologetic, it sounded like kitchen issues. Oh well though! Onto what will be a great sea day today. 
 

Also for those curious, I’m posting this with the basic Wi-Fi and it was a little slow to load, but fine overall. 

Had a similar experience at Tuscan last night, though at least every dish we were (eventually) served was fantastic. It would have been sad to miss the pappardelle with short ribs and the fig gelato in particular, and that filet was amazing, so in the end I was happy.

Definitely a kitchen issue; the wait staff was attentive enough. Hope that staffing issues aren't a general problem; Captain just announced that they're setting a post-COVID record this cruise with 95% capacity. Hope the same is true for the staff levels.

Looking at itinerary next year on Celebrity that starts with an overnight in Ravenna. We did that once when the ship could dock in Venice, and it was amazing having the ship as a base of operations for 2 days (1.5, really, with a 5 pm sailaway). But now it seems...impractical with a 5 hour RT commute. The timing for the reverse itinerary doesn't work for us (when we could just extend at a hotel actually in Venice), and I'm searching for earrings why this itinerary would work but coming up empty...

Has anyone done a similar itinerary yet?

17 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

In addition the COR has to be issued 11 days after the Positive test date.

I know you said whomever you're working with confirmed that verbally, but is that actually written down and documented anywhere? DH's positive test date was 14 days before our sail date, and we'll have left town 4 days before sail date, and so were planning on getting the COR before we go.

Why is everyone assuming the testing requirement will end (and end quickly)? The article mentioned above (https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/environmental-health/and-just-cdcs-covid-19-program-cruise-ships-has-ended) posits this:

------

Protocols not likely to go away

However, this doesn't necessarily mean an end to cruise lines' own COVID-19 protocols. Industry sources said it's unlikely lines will stop their voluntary practices that have been so successful at protecting passengers, crew and communities visited. 

------

That seems likely to me. 12 days until boarding and DH is still planning on getting a certificate of recovery, and I'm hoping I'm still negative for 12 days....

We've always flown in a day before the cruise, but for our trip from FLL later this month, we've been debating whether that is enough. But frankly, I don't think just flying an extra day early may help: stories I hear about cancellations are that you are unlikely to be re-booked the next day. So instead, we made a one-way refundable reservation on a different airline for the next day. Best case, the first flight goes and we refund the second flight. Plan B, we get a refund on the canceled flight and take the other flight the next day. If there's a two-day disruption....

As it happens, we had booked a separate return, which is one reason Plan B works here. I'm a big fan of booking separate returns when possible; every now and then, the extra flexibility comes in handy.

On the vain hope that someone from Celebrity is listening: bring back Elite Elegant Tea!

12 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

All I do know is that when lines like Regent say tips included, when one asks about tips above and beyond that one is advised to make a donation to the crew fund. This fund takes care of personal problems the crew may have.we have always donated to it. 
 

As you can see, I am balancing the merits of a Celebrity  suite cruise against those of a Regent cruise in a lower category on that line. It seems they are close to the same price. After more Regent cruises than I can count, we stumbled on cruises in Celebrity suites. We feel that suite room accommodations on Celebrity are better, as is food in the Luminae. We also feel that the avoidance of dreaded lines and crowds was actually a plus for Celebrity suites — even though this factor is great on Regent. As a plus for Regent, tips are really not expected, and have often been declined. And some shore excursions are included in the fare on Regent, but they tend to be bus rides. The better excursions cost extra.

 

All I am here to ask about tipping with AI in the Retreat is to get information to compare “apples to apples” As I’m deciding between this and Regent when we book our next cruise. And that will be when the Covid situation, the labor shortage, the airline flight lack of dependability, and the supply shortage all become more under control.

So say you are expected to tip $5 for room service breakfast. And say the cruise is a full 14 days (meaning 13 days of breakfast). The $65 you'd spend is what, 0.001% of the total cruise price? This is an important factor in your decision?

Tip whomever brings you breakfast -- in your case, tip the butler extra at the end of the cruise.

Okay, but what about elegant tea for Elite -- has that been reinstated? It wasn't on our trip last summer. I know it's not as fancy as some offerings, but we always look forward to it. And the scones are quite good.

The OP is returning to the US via ship (RT Seattle), not flying to the US from Canada. They needn't test to return to the US. We considered that itinerary for precisely that reason -- we had a European cruise scheduled, and the thing that pushed us over the edge in canceling it was the hassle in getting tested the morning of our return flight home. Ultimately we're doing the Caribbean for the same reason -- RT to Ft. Lauderdale doesn't require a test to return to the US.

1 hour ago, Cruise Gopher said:

This makes no sense, if you’re fully vaxed and boosted then you are on your own to arrange for your own testing. But if you’re just fully vaxed and not boosted, or not vaxed at all then they will pay for it and do the test prior to boarding? Seems so odd. 

You have to pay for it, along with the rest of the required tests ($55 each). But I really wish the at-port testing was available for those who are up-to-date with their booster. I really don't want to spend my pre-cruise time in Europe doing a test in the hotel room or otherwise looking for a test site. Though frankly even that will be easier than dealing with the ship Wi-Fi to take a test the day before flying home; that's the real question mark IMO.

I read this article earlier today and had to revisit it after seeing the complaints on this thread. Still not sure where the complaints are coming from.... Yeah, there's a picture of the hibachi grill on Carnival which is clearly identified as being from, um, Carnival. Are we upset that it's not Celebrity? In the big picture, the Carnival experience is more reflective of what's going on.

The words "petri dish" do not appear and in fact are never alluded to in the article.

The Apex cruiser may not be legitimate? Maybe, but his experiences (especially the quarantining in an inside cabin) jive with other experiences I've read about, including on the first page of this forum with someone presently in quarantine on the Millennium. And last week's live report of quarantining on the Equinox didn't exactly inspire confidence that Celebrity was handling this surge without issues. They're doing their best I'm sure, but let's not pretend it isn't hard for them, nor that things are a bed of roses in general right now.

But of course bashing the NYT is a favorite pastime for some subscribers, so...

I'll add my thanks with the others; this was a great first-hand report. We were to have left today on Equinox, but we cancelled at the last possible minute...before this thread even. But this thread makes me believe we made the right decision. Looking forward to everyone cruising safely soon!

Booked on Equinox for 1/3.

Cancelled; will use FCC for a cruise in the summer.

For us, it was the realization that things are different. Ships had 163 cases from the start of cruising until a few weeks ago; they'd had 5000 in the two weeks before the CDC issued their latest advisory. For the short term, it will only get worse.

We had no issues being on on Equinox in August when the protocols worked to avoid catching it. Omicron behaves differently; it took us a long time to accept that fact, but the simple truth is that everyone is likely to catch it no matter what at some point. Boosted, so not at all worried about getting very sick, but that's not the point: I don't want to quarantine on board, deal with reduced staff on board, and so on. So happy to let this wave work itself out and travel later.

I mean, if you haven't been to Cafe al Bacio, have you even been aboard a Celebrity ship?

31 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

This is the 3rd thread on this subject.

I didn't really pay attention to the first thread. The second thread convinced me to look into it, and I saved 25% off (and ended up with more OBC) an on-board booking I had made for Europe next summer. Plus the $700 pp savings on business class airfare brought Celebrity's price to less than half the price of booking direct with the airline.

So I'm happy to bump the third thread in case anyone else is on the fence about looking into it. YMMV of course, but...

Things may change by January, but our next cruise leaves on Monday, January 3. Due to the New Year's Holiday, everything will be closed on Saturday. Most testing places are closed on Sunday when we fly, and even those that are open will likely be closed by the time we arrive at 4 pm.

Has anyone tested at the airport on arrival? They seem to take appointments online, and operate late into the evening. Though clicking through the appointment site, they seem to targeted to departing flights only. Plus everyone else will have that idea and they'll be overwhelmed (though fortunately only 4 ships that I could find depart on Monday). 

I know we can do the home test in our hotel on Sunday night, though we'll have to see how late that runs (and how overwhelmed they'll be with Equinox/Apex cruisers leaving on 1/3...). Given the long waits to be seen mentioned earlier on this thread, that seems less optimistic.

I guess an early Monday appointment is the other option if we can find one.

Hopefully Celebrity comes up with a better solution, or the CDC relaxes their protocols.

5 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

i believe that Equinox is using tracelets and it reports anyone that has been within 6 feet which is considered the infectious zone.     Probably a real small subset of PAX

Correct, so they only tested close contacts.

On the other hand, Celebrity emails and the healthy at sea website said everyone would be required to be tested before stopping in St. Thomas and Sint Maarten, but that isn't happening. In St. Thomas now, and SMX tomorrow, and no testing.

3 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

So 2 lines covering 30 minutes each or were there more out of the shot?

 

There were at least 5 lines. I don't think there were enough to cover all possible times, so likely the 11:30 line was repurposed later, and so on. But in general, if you showed up early you waited and probably didn't get in6 why sooner.

3 hours ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

I wonder what it looked like at the Suite entrance? Did they have time assigned lines to divide the lines between people arriving early and people arriving at their assigned times.

There was one line for suites. I would guess times didn't matter at all but I have no first-hand knowledge of that.

2 hours ago, cltnccruisers said:

Just pulling out to the channel now at 7:45.  Why so late?  I had port radio on an it sounded at one point like they were waiting for a test but it wasn't too clear.

Captain announced at 6:15 that we had to wait for a test result. Not clear if it was the result for a new crew member, unvaccinated youth, or someone abusing Florida's stupid no vax executive order (which I see on another thread has been stayed). So we left late with the end result that we saw a glorious sunset over Florida as we went out to sea.

2 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

 

Do you know if non-suite high level casino tier players are  allowed to check in with the suites?

(We we allowed on the suite line pre-Covid)

 

No idea.

1 hour ago, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

If you get a chance can you tell us how they were handling the Covid tests?  Were they just taking pictures of your test info and asking if it was PCR or antigen?  Any idea if they were closely checking for 72 hours or if anytime 3 days ahead of time was ok?

We tested (antigen) at 3 pm Thursday, so 69 hours before our noon embarcation. The check-in person looked at least for a date since he was crinkling his forehead until he found that. Whether he calculated the 3:00 test time is anyone's guess, but to me that seems unlikely. Then he took a photo of the results and sent us on our way.

Which is another point.... The slowest part of this procedure was waiting for people to fish documents out of their bags of find them on their phones. Do everyone else a favor and have your electronic sea pass, physical passport, physical vax card, and physical test results out and in hand when you get to the top of the lines.

Celebrity seems to have gotten the embarkation down: there were separate lines by time slot when we arrived this morning. We arrived right at noon for our noon boarding; it took about 10 minutes for us to enter the terminal (they would let in a few people from the line at a time) and about 30 minutes until we went through the various checkpoints. 

There were long lines in the 12:30-1 slot and the 1-1:30 slot, and shorter ones in the later lines. I doubt many of them made it in early. The way to spend the least amount of time in line: arrive 15 minutes into your half-hour time slot.