Steve_MI

Thank you all for your help. While I certainly hope the requirement changes, this is Australia we are talking about so I won’t hold my breath. Thanks again.

We have a Celebrity cruise out of Sydney later this year. Assuming the same protocols are in place, Celebrity says that they accept a photo of a negative self-administered rapid antigen test. Does anyone have any experience with submitting a photo? Does it have to be timestamped in some specific fashion? Thanks in advance.

Thinking of booking a celebrity cruise from Sydney to the South Pacific islands, but I can’t tell if their mask requirement is still in place. The website for Australia cruises is somewhat cryptic: ”All guests should wear a mask while traveling through the terminal and in public indoor spaces or crowded outdoor spaces onboard” What does “should” mean? Is this a recommendation or a requirement?

UPDATE. Well, the cruise is over. In some ways it was better than I expected, in other ways it was worse. First, the (comparatively) good: There was a minimal number of kids on board and the ones that were there were pretty well behaved. I didn't see any children running around unsupervised causing a problem. Also, no drunken disturbances, fights, or outrageous rowdiness by anyone on board (although we never did go to the nighttime deck party or the night club). The Celebration being such a new ship, it was pretty nice and in pristine shape. I must say that this part was better than I had expected. Now, the disappointment: food and food/drink service. Yuck. I didn't have very high expectations here, but I have to say that Carnival still managed to disappoint. The MDR was a joke. The food was like something out of a hospital cafeteria, and the service was abysmal. Our drink orders took forever and were usually wrong (or substituted do to inventory). Any cocktails ordered in the MDR or pool deck were horrible. This includes the saddest espresso martini I have ever seen. While the MDR staff was slow, at least they were pleasant. The same could not be said for virtually any other place we ate aside from the one night we did the steakhouse (which was actually very good and reasonably priced). The biggest turnoff for us (other than the food) was the overall vibe. Carnival calls themself the "Fun" ship, but I have very different ideas of what constitutes "fun" than they do. The ship was very crowded, and we found the packed deck parties and constant commotion, obnoxious music, and whooping/hollering from the other passengers to be nothing short of annoying. We spent the majority of our time outside up in the Loft 19 area, which was decent but lacked a bar, conventional pool, or any sort of eating area. I'm not going to disparage the other passengers or comment on demographics, etc., but I will say that there were noticeable differences between this crowd and what we are sued to on Celebrity. I won't say that it was a "problem"...but it was noticeable and awkward at times. All in all, it was an acceptable time. We were there with friends, and that made a big difference. Had it just been the two of us, I would certainly have had a much worse time. Carnival is just not for us and I can't imagine that I would ever sail with them again.

We absolutely love Celebrity: the food is amazing; the ships are immaculate; the drinks are included; and it’s a polite, respectful crowd. We’ve never seen any drama on a Celebrity cruise - no belligerent drunks, no fights, no crass/obnoxious behavior. We are only doing this CCL cruise because we’re going with some good friends. Oddly enough, it’ll be our most expensive cruise we’ve ever taken since we booked a suite (and a near top-of-the-line one at that) so that we’d have ample room to escape if the crowd was just too much for us. We’ve never even booked a suite on Celebrity!

Lots of great feedback - thank you CCers! We certainly prefer the premium experience when we vacation, and I think that’s what attracted us to Celebrity. Like others, we’ve heard the negative opinions of Carnival and we’ve seen the videos of fights, foolish behavior, etc. and just sort shuddered. I’ll take the advice to have an open mind (admittedly a challenge) and try it out. I will say I just hate the whole drinks-not-included thing though and having to shell out almost $1k for a drink package.

We’ve only ever cruised with Celebrity before and are heading out on Carnival Celebration with friends. We really love Celebrity and don’t know what to expect. Any thoughts, tips, or pointers?

Ahhh ok this makes sense. Thank you so much for the info. It seems MSC really is different. I'm used to Celebrity so this should be interesting.

Hoping someone can help me out. Several sites (including MSC's own site) show an 8 night cruise on the Seashore on 12/27/22 RT Salvador and also on 12/30/22 RT Santos (Sao Paulo). I've searched around quite a bit and can't determine which one is actually correct. I've never sailed MSC but I know enough not to bother calling them. Does anyone have any input? Thanks in advance!