Kartgv

Yes, we've about decided that we're done - the 40 year 'romance' is over.   We had exactly 365 nights onboard cruise ships large and small, traveled most of the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, plus Hawaii, Australia/New Zealand, the South Pacific, northern Europe, British Isles, Scandinavia, and Iceland.   We cancelled 3 cruises when Covid first hit and at first couldn't wait to get back to it, but the current sailing conditions make it less and less attractive.   

Right now, all my energy is going to fighting health issues, but even if that were not the case, I'm not sure we'd want to cruise again.  Over time since our first cruise in 1980, the cruise atmosphere, food, service, and experiences have deteriorated, even as prices climbed.  I think part of our decision is that we don't want a bad cruise experience (which is much more likely with current conditions) to ruin our memories of a great part of our lives.   Yes, occasionally we see something that brings back that 'itch' to go again, but then reality sets in and I think we're done.   

No, there was a scheduler that walked around the waiting area, scheduled your time and gave you a reminder card.    I was very impressed with the efficiency of the entire process - a very pleasant surprise after all the difficulty getting that first appointment.  

One of the frustrations I had trying to schedule an appointment was choosing a supposedly available time slot, completing all the information, then at the very last step getting a notice that "time slot is not available".   It finally occurred to me to try choosing the LAST time slot on the list, hoping that most people would start at the top.   It worked - I've had my first dose, and  the 2nd shot was scheduled while I was in the 15 minute "observation" period.   

I suspect the 'cruise bubble' excursions are at least partially to protect port residents from possibly infected cruisers; some ports may make it a requirement before allowing ships to dock.   Many island destinations don't have the medical infrastructure to handle large outbreaks that might result from just one infected cruiser wandering around wherever he/she chooses without any restriction.   

Back in 2016 we flew to England and boarded a ship for a 28 night cruise around the British Isles, Norway, Iceland, ending in New York.  The first night dinner service was the usual madhouse for anytime dining.  We were tired and decided not to wait for a table for 2, so were seated at a large table for 10.   As we all sat down, I looked across the table and thought the woman looked familiar - it turned out to be a realtor who lives and works in our little San Diego county senior community of 1600 homes.    By the time we all got settled, we learned that everyone at the table lived within about 20 miles of us.   

We received another $342 refund today from our May cruise that we cancelled in March (most of our original payment was refunded within a few days of cancellation.).    This means we've now received $170 more back than we paid - have no idea what the extra is from but don't think I'll attempt to give it back!

We don't count cruises - they're too variable, with ours varying from 4 nights to 34.   Instead we just kept track of the number of nights onboard.    We managed to hit 365 nights on the last night of our last cruise ending in October.    Since we've had to cancel 3 this year and now have medical conditions that probably mean we'll never cruise again, it's nice to have hit that 'one full year' milestone.    

San Diego County beaches have been showing green Bioluminescence (probably the same as or similar to phosphorescence) for the last week.   Google "Photos bioluminescence San Diego" and there are plenty of spectacular pictures.  It happens pretty frequently, often in May.   It coincides with a 'red tide' which makes the water look brownish during the day.       

We've seen a green flash twice - once on the Big Island in Hawaii and once sailing out of Papeete.   Haven't seen a green ray, but did see a glowing pink one, also on the Big Island.  

Can anyone confirm that both ships are still in San Diego?   The Marine Traffic website says they're there, but I can no longer find a working webcam for the harbor area.  Anyone know of one?  I really would love to get a view of the harbor!   We used to see the ships during evening local news broadcasts, but now most of the shows are being broadcast from home.   

On 4/27/2020 at 6:29 AM, LauraS said:

...Also, would you (or anyone else) please forward the email w/o making any changes to it to me at:  community@cruisecritic.com...

I tried forwarding mine, but the originator has found a way to somehow block forwarding - just get an error code.   I could cut & paste, but mine is basically the same as the OP's.   A neighbor posted on Nextdoor receiving a similar message and when she tried forwarding, hers turned to unreadable garbage.   The people sending these are pro's, guess they'll continue as long as a small percentage of people panic and send them money.   

Laura - 'luvforsun' is right.    We received the identical email and, like them, only use that particular screen name and password combination for Cruise Critic.   Yes, the letter did have the actual password.   Somehow the Cruise Critic database has been hacked and I suspect you will hear from others with the same problem.   

Deposit refunds hit our credit card today.   Cancellation was on 4/6 for a mid-September cruise.   

We cancelled a May 9 Princess cruise on 3/11, had the refund on our credit card on 3/14.   Cancelled a Celebrity mid-September cruise on 4/7, still nothing.    

Our earliest cruise memories are from the early '80's, so much of what we experienced has already been described by other 'old timers'.   One thing that I haven't seen emphasized is that the cabins were TINY, unless you were in a suite.  The beds were also tiny - our first cruise (Sitmar) had a "double" bed that was barely larger than what we'd call a twin.   It was pushed against the wall, which was paper thin, and it was soon obvious that right on the other side of that wall was an identical bed.    I swear we could hear them turn over in bed, among other things.    I also remember passenger costume parties and talent shows that attracted the whole ship and were lots of fun - people got very creative.   

The September cruise was not until 9/18, so no commission for the agency.   We'll stick with the TA for several reasons.   Whether or not we stick with Celebrity is another story!

Yes, they can charge a fee if it was disclosed to you at the time of booking.   Ours does charge a $50pp fee; they waived the fee on our cancellation of a May cruise, but did charge it on a September cancellation.  I don't  begrudge them the small fee - they've given us many thousands of dollars in OBC over the years as well as good service.   We just hope they can stay in business until (if?) cruising picks up again.  

According to a USA Today article, the US Center for Disease Control reports that passengers on as many as 20 different ships/sailings may have been exposed to Covid-19.  Here's a link to the article and list of the affected sailings:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/if-you-sailed-on-these-cruise-ships-you-may-have-been-exposed-to-coronavirus/ar-BB12hnoE?ocid=spartanntp

The lists include only cruises that made port calls or disembarked in the U.S., not those that did not make stops at any American ports, so in reality the list of ships which had possible exposures is much longer.   

We had our first HAL experience last year after cruising mostly with Celebrity and Princess for over 30 years.  I'll now find it difficult to go back to unstaffed buffets.   For the first couple of days I hated the HAL buffet - couldn't quite figure out where to enter lines, disliked telling someone what I wanted instead of just reaching for myself, etc.   However, I soon reversed my opinion and loved it.  

First of all we really appreciated knowing we weren't handling utensils that had been already handled by dozens of others, many with questionable manners and common sense.   The staff we had always honored any requests for 'more' or 'just a little', many got to recognize us and remember our choices.    The salad bar was amazing, and the always hot and fresh breakfast items much better than the usual fare on Celebrity and Princess.   It didn't seem to take much longer to get through the lines and our per diem cost was lower than on the Solstice several months later.   What Celebrity and Princess do with their buffets when (if?) they return to business will definitely influence my future bookings.  

Just to clarify, does this change apply to existing GeoBlue policies (ours runs through September) or only new ones?   We did not receive any notification of change which they surely must provide if it affects existing policies.  It probably doesn't make much difference since we've cancelled all cruises through September, but I am curious.        

27 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Pushka, you can’t treat everyone with a respiratory symptom as having COVID 19!   Only about 8% of the people who were exposed and had symptoms have tested as positive.

Anyone who has symptoms should stay home until they either get over them or have trouble breathing!   That is the current guidance in the U.S.    In addition, anyone who has been out of the country or in any of the U.S. hotspots is expected to self quarantine for 14 days.    To blame a cruise line because one passenger on board had what they thought was another problem is unrealistic.

True, you can't TREAT everyone with respiratory symptoms as having COVID 19, but in this situation any reasonably educated and responsible person should have recognized the very real possibility and not told passengers and authorities that there was NO illness onboard.   And, yes, those who have been out of the country are supposed to 'self quarantine',  but in this case that quarantine would begin AFTER they arrived home.   By that time, if they were infected (and we now know some were), they would have already infected others.   I don't believe the cruise line thought the one passenger's illness was "another problem", I believe they chose to take a huge risk and lost the gamble.    

Mine just a few minutes ago said that my Norton anti-virus program expired today, "click here to renew now".   Since I don't have Norton, I immediately shut down my system and it was gone when I restarted.   I had simply clicked on the next page tab at the bottom of the page on a Celebrity thread.    My DH had a similar occurrence earlier today.    Definitely only happening on Cruise Critic.   

Courtesy of a very funny neighbor on NextDoor:

"People are mad about not being able to go places. Please. I was grounded about 90% of the time between the 7th and 12th grade. I trained for this!"

2 hours ago, TeaBag said:

.... Sorry this is so long but it upsets me to read the things people are saying who were not on this cruise and never experienced the stress involved.

I think everyone sympathizes with the stress on the passengers and crew and we're all glad you're home.  We're just not happy with Celebrity's lack of transparency and misleading statements that caused unnecessary risk to non-passengers.   It sounds like you did everything you could do to reduce the risk to others and we wish you a restful and healthy 2 week recovery period at home.   If I believed that every departing passenger was as careful as you were, I'd feel better, but as we've all seen lately there are too many people who are totally clueless or feel too 'entitled' to obey the rules.    

It does sound like Celebrity treated the passengers well...all except for that one tiny detail, leaving out the information about the ill passenger and crew.    

20 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

Jesus... take it easy. Ok a few people were sick but there won't be thousands of Covid Zombies running through Gaslamp Quarter.

How do you think this whole thing started?   With one, or a very small group of people.   No one said all the cases would be here in San Diego (and the Gaslamp already has its share of Zombies, thank you).  The passengers who were potentially exposed/infected before leaving the ship were mostly transported to airports (new exposure opportunity #1), made multiple contacts traveling through the airport and on the plane (multiple exposure opportunities), then the reverse process getting from airport to home (more opportunities, etc.), possibly stopping for groceries or prescriptions.   Then they hug Mom and/or the kids, pay the dogsitter, get their mail from the neighbor who had been picking it up.   

If only one passenger was in the early stages of the virus, then that's still multiple opportunities to pass on the virus - BEFORE starting their suggested 14 day self quarantine.   Then, each of those potentially infected people will expose more, etc., etc., etc.   The CDC this morning confirmed that up to 25% of infected people may show no symptoms, so they'd not know they were playing any part in expanding the epidemic.   

In my opinion, Celebrity should have informed passengers of the potential cases onboard and delayed disembarking at the port until the ill passengers/crew were tested and results known.   Then more controlled and informed decisions could have been made about getting other passengers home or into controlled quarantines.   

15 minutes ago, Jaxweb said:

What if Celebrity management says they were oblivious to the issue because the medical staff didn't report it to anyone else?

They can say they will retrain the medical staff on procedures and promise to handle any similar situations differently next time.

Then that would be just one more unbelievable excuse. There's no way, in the current situation, that the medical staff would not have reported the sick patient to the captain, if only to cover their own ….. 

I'm really angry about this one.   We've made excuses for Celebrity, and the entire cruise industry, to ourselves, our families, our friends for the last 2 months, but believe this is the final straw.   Celebrity let passengers loose in my community, in thousands of their (passenger's) home communities, without full knowledge of the facts about their risks.   There will be a ripple effect of hundreds, if not thousands, of cases directly leading back to this decision on the part of Celebrity management.