Va man

I am on the APEX now and very few people wear masks or follow social distancing.  My partner and I wear masks all the time. We use the stairs if the elevators are crowded. 
 

My fully vaccinated father caught COVID and died last month.  People need to understand how dangerous Delta is and stop taking risks. I hope Celebrity makes masks mandatory tomorrow. 

Sheffield, you have it all wrong.  We are all empathetic and most of us are horrified that we exposed others, like those on the Azamara Pursuit, to COVID-19.  However, given the information known at the time, most of us believe Celebrity did the right thing.  It was the CDC, HHS, and US Coast Guard that made the decision to debark.  They should be held accountable by not making us stay onboard until they knew what the test results were.

Blackfick59

Per the Captain’s message to all passengers on the evening of March 14.  All passengers were required to debark in San Antonio, Chile as the cruise to San Diego was cancelled. If everyone had debarked on the 15th as planned, I wonder if anyone from the ship would have gotten sick. 

Foxtrot, we don’t know what Celebrity told the authorities.  I suspect all of the cases of illness were reported to CDC as required.  Celebrity and Captain Leo are not so stupid that they would have failed to report.  Also, as of March 30, we had no cases of COVID-19 on the ship.  No one had been tested so all Celebrity knew was that they had A small group of passenger with pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses, just like any other cruise. 
 

It was announced on the evening of the 14th that the cruise to San Diego was canceled and all passengers would debark in San Antonio.

If we had flown home on March 15 as scheduled.  There would have been no COVID-19 on board.

Before the cruise left on March 1, I was aware that COVID-19 was on the horizon. It wasn’t a big issue in the US, except for Seattle. It wasn’t an issue at all in South America.  It is because of Chile closing their port that we are talking about the illness on board. That was something none of us could have forseen in late February.

Some people started their cruise on February 14.  Others arrived in BA several days before our March 1 cruise.  At that point there was 1 case in South America and few known cases outside Asia.  No one from the effected areas was allowed on the ship.  It is easy to look back and say we should have known, but not much was known about the virus in February.  For example, it wasn’t known that many of the cases were asymptomatic. Hindsight is always 20/20.

I was on the sailing and agree that Celebrity was doing all it could.  They also didn’t lie to us twice a day as they stopped talking about no illness on board about the 25th.  It was so noticeably absent that we talked about it.

We will never know why they didn’t consider that illnesses might be COVID-19, but the fact that no one wore protective equipment and Captain Leo was there to see us off shows it wasn’t on their radar.

How do you know the ship didn’t communicate the probability of COVID-19?

Also, if you look at all of the other ships that came to US ports from cruises in South America, all of them had active COVID-19 cases/deaths and their passengers were not quarantined, but allowed to fly home and self quarantine.  Only the last ship to dock in Miami had to charter passengers home.

It is like the current policy of telling essential workers that they still have to work, even if they have known exposure to COVID-19.  It may be critical, but it puts others at risk.  Just like us.  Makes me crazy that the government isn’t limiting exposure.

It kind of is that clear cut because we were never given the option to quarantine or even knew anyone was sick.  
 

I feel awful about possibly exposing people, but wore my mask in the airport and taxi.  I regret that I didn’t wear it on the plane, but sat with my partner.

From all the bullying, complaining, and blaming, I couldn’t imagine it coming from experienced cruisers.

I have been on at least a dozen cruises( most 12 nights or longer).  On every cruise passengers, including me, have developed a respiratory illness.  Just because some had a respiratory illness in the age of COVID-19 doesn’t mean it was a probable case.  It depends on what other symptoms the person was presenting.

Further, there is no proof any one key anything off of the radar. In the U S. With the exception of the that docked in Oakland, I believe all passengers were immediately flown home on commercial jets.  The only exception was the Princess ship that recently docked in Miami and the government required them to charter planes to fly people home.

I really wish people would only post facts and even the San Diego reporter doesn’t know what was reported.

The San Diego reporter also believes more than half the ship was sick.  I guarantee 1,400 people were not sick.  We don’t know how many were sick on the ship, but those posting represent well less than 1%. 

Tiggy85

I have been in touch with the reporter and she is under the mistaken belief that one- half of the ship was sick.  We will never know how many reported flu like symptoms, but I would guess it was less than 1%.  As a result her spin is off based. 

I think all of the comments blaming Celebrity for letting us debark and fly home are valid but misdirected.

CDC requires ships to report all illnesses https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/reporting-deaths-illness/index.html.

The decision to allow a cruise ship to dock and debark is not made by Celebrity.  The decision to allow us to dock is made by the US Coast Guard in consultation with DHS, CDC, and state, local, and port authorities.

A very small number of passengers were sick, however, I agree that we should have been quarantined before we flew home.  However you look at it, authorities had to have been aware of the person taken off in an ambulance.  At that point, they should have put a hold on letting us leave the ship until they had the results of her COVID test.  Government authorities screwed up in giving Celebrity permission to disembark us.  Why is nobody talking about that. It is inexcusable, given that someone left by ambulance, but it was not Celebrity’s call.

Most  of us didn’t know anyone was sick until we were home.  We are grateful to be home, but we had no idea we might be spreading COVID-19.  I think all of us regret that we might have spread the disease.  

I am on that site as well.  Almost all of the people who post got sick after they were on their way home.  I noted fewer than a dozen that said that they went to the infirmary with symptoms related to the flu (or probable COVID 19).

What is “a goodly number”?  No one knows how many had flu like symptoms on board.  We have heard anecdotal comments that the waiting room was full and about a handful of people were seriously sick.  We don’t know why people were in the waiting room.  Lots of people get upper respiratory infections on long voyages. It is possible most of they passengers waiting were not there with flu like symptoms.  We will never know.  

None of the passengers was responsible for spreading the virus.  Most of us had no idea anyone was sick.  We thought we dodged a bullet.  Whether any of us had fun is immaterial.

i I also don’t think the medical staff blithely disregarded any of the sick patients.

The Captain is required to file forms with CDC when there are sick passengers, especially if they have flu like symptoms.  None of us can honestly say whether he did or not.  My guess is he did file the paperwork, rather than breaking the law and ruining his career.  You can find the forms online.

The Captain was not operating in a bubble and we don’t know who else was involved in the decision making.  For all we know, the CDC could have told him that quarantining on a ship was not advisable, given the experience with Princess. CDC, US Coast Guard, DHS, and state and local officials authorized us to dock and debark.  Just like CDC is allowing exposed workers to continue working, it wouldn’t surprise me if they had all the facts and didn’t require the Captain or passengers to take any action.  

I have read every post.  People were glad to be home, relieved to be home, excited to be at home, etc. I didn’t read any post that was gloating about being home

The only gloating that I saw was from people who thought they were smarter than anyone else by not putting themselves in our situation.

i am sorry if things you read made you think people were gloating. Writing is an inexact art and it is easy to misinterpret.

I was also on board and verified with my partner that he absolutely said that there was no illness on board and it was conspicuously absent starting about the 25th.  Maybe our recollection is wrong, but that is what we remember. The 

It is almost like we had two different cruises.  My partner and I went to the infirmary on about the 21st and the waiting room was almost empty.  Most of those there were checking on meds.  We didn’t go back to the infirmary and never ran into anyone who knew someone who was sick.  We were all worried about the disease and what we faced at home, but tried to enjoy the cruise.

Those who went to the infirmary later, or were sick themselves saw others who were sick and that shaped their perspective.  They were apparently focused on all the sickness they saw and the lack of action being taken to prevent the disease from spreading.

Those of us who thought they did an amazing job had no idea anyone was sick. We were thankful to be fed and entertained and know Celebrity was going to get us home.  I am sorry we didn’t know passengers were sick so we could have started praying for them sooner.

I apologize for thinking that.  I never saw that document until today and a lot of people are describing conditions on the ship that are not even close to what I experienced. 
 

We noticed more people cleaning their hands and fewer people coughing than on any of the other dozen or so cruises that I have been on.  We saw no evidence of illness.  People were concerned, but no one I talked to was aware anyone on the ship was sick.  We all thought we had dodged a bullet.

I have never seen a copy of the March 31 Corona Virus Health Protocols. We were already home.

Yoi obviously are going to find reason to blame Celebrity.  We weren’t in the infirmary, we don’t know who was sick when, and we don’t know what their diagnosis was, except the one lady in ICU.  You are entitled to your version of the truth.

You evidently didn’t notice him leaving that out of his updates after about the 25th.  His failure to mention it has been commented on by more than one person.

Many of us thought they did an amazing job.