12cruise2

We do back to backs all the time; I haven't read all of the responses, but a tip that we use if you have to change cabins--we carry 6-8 grocery bags--you know the ones that we re-use and don't weigh a thing--and if we have to change cabins, we put all the bath things in one, all the shoes in one, all the drawer stuff in one or two, that idea, then you don't have to really pack again. Steward helps put all the hangers on a trolley, plus the bags, and it's pretty simple. Each port has its own requirements re border protection/immigration checks; we were on the Zuiderdam in April Sea of Cortez back to back; for us, immigration came on board, we were told to go at a time certain to the dining room, pass through with our passports, and at the end, immigration came on board, checked us, then we went back to our cabins, got our stuff and disembarked. We were using the very small terminal at San Diego so maybe that made a difference as to how things were handled--it has no space for waiting, hanging out in the "terminal."

We are in just an ocean-view cabin on the Infinity right now. Clothes line still high and across the length of the shower. Really useful! Again, I have metal coat hangers to use to help things keep their shape as they dry, undies over bent corners, socks on a hanger with clothes pins. Works just fine. However, this is only our first cruise on millennium-class ships on Celebrity and second cruise on Celeb., so I don't know the ins and outs of Celeb. ships. The carpet is new in the Ocean View--some man was complaining because, as we know, brand-new wool carpet sheds on top as it is walked on, looks terrible, and needs to be vacuumed often. He thought it was old and hadn't been replaced. They just don't have the staff to keep all this up. I saw one staff member vacuuming on 9 today and told her the story--she thanked me repeatedly for telling the passenger that, over and over. They are doing the best they can. So, Samsung, non-interactive TVs, no movies one can choose in the room, no TV guide, just quite a few channels. Lunch in Ocean View today--totally cold, uncooked fish (cod) and chips, chili had unidentifiable chunks of something in it and was inedible, all hot food was cold; it's put out 15-20 minutes ahead of time and they didn't have steam tables on. Others complained, and I contacted one of the head chefs who went to check on the problem. Most is self-serve. For us, completely unacceptable placement of smoking areas--midship on 10 by the pool in the middle of where everyone, non-smoking, is sitting. Then midship on 5 starboard as well--smoke wafts straight up. Comfy seats for smokers with big cushions, etc. More pillowed outdoor seating needed for everyone else. Seats and loungers hard as rocks and very uncomfortable outdoors. Still (I assume) use the four, identical, navy bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion and shower gel. One cannot read what's in them even in good light--for sure they cannot be read in shower with no light and no glasses. One lady at dinner said, oh I didn't even know we had lotion, I just put them all in the shower! We laughed, she probably had shampooed her hair with lotion, who knows. We believe Ocean view cabin is nice, tho HATE the hangers that stay hung onto the bar, where you take off just the bottom portion of the hanger then have to fiddle with hanging that part back on the top, metal part when you have a clothing item on it. GREAT air conditioning--VERY controllable and more air than one needs. Upstairs cabins are warmer I believe--we're near the front desk and I've overheard a couple of complaints! I don't know what else you all are used to--this is only our second Celebrity cruise but will probably be our last; we're on next week, too.

Also, turn on the water faucet in the sink when you put the child on the potty. The sound of water is a great inducement to peeing--for kids and adults!

Thank you so much for your post; I so enjoy reading about others' experiences, especially in Europe. I, too, am leary and mask everywhere. I say don't let your guard down near the end of the cruise as that's when you are most vulnerable! We are in Fort Lauderdale ready to board the Infinity this morning for B2B cruises in the Caribbean.

We had a wonderful 9 weeks (three separate boardings/cruises) fall 2021. Honestly, we've never enjoyed cruising more. The crew was fantastic, top notch, no problems at all. Looking forward to boarding a similar ship Eurodam for two weeks in August.

On a fall 2019 Youtube video with instructions, it seems to ask for Year/Month/Day in that order. Don't know if that is accurate now. . . .but point is, watch the order of the entry as stated above. Here is the Youtube link:

I agree with Jim--we wore masks on the Equinox in May with 2300 passengers--only 10 or so folks wore masks including us. And on the 5th day there were 10% of passengers in isolation per capt., and THEN he announces masking in casino and theater only. And we were on B2B, got covid, thanks everyone I'm sorry to say, and were booted off between cruises with mandatory testing; and we had no symptoms until the day of testing. We are going on another B2B this Sat. and hope that our immunity will help keep us safer; most people cruise for the 7 days, perhaps ignore symptoms as they are getting off soon, or have no symptoms until they get home. Just so you understand the playing field. I was aghast to find that neighbors were on a Princess cruise, people with health problems, 15 days through the Panama Canal, felt symptoms and did NOT report the symptoms because they "didn't know what they'd have to do" if they were diagnosed with covid. Gone are the days with low passenger counts; the cruise lines need to fill up the ships so can't be so concerned re covid. Again, so you understand the higher passenger counts as well.

The other thing you can do is get a few wire coat hangers from the cabin steward, hang the wet clothes on them and then hang the hangers over the shower door bar, or shower curtain bar. Of course, bring some sturdy clothes pins along with you for the socks and bend the hangers for undies. I've done this for years and it works perfectly.

Thank you so much for posting the above video. Wish I would have known about these cabins. We're brand new to Celebrity and will have our second cruise B2B on Infinity as we prefer the smaller ships. Of course I should have asked y'all on cruise critic which were the best ocean view cabins--I know better!

Thank you so very much for all this info. Yay. Now I just have to book a Princess cruise! We're so disappointed they sold off all their 650-passenger ships. They were our favorites, but we knew it was inevitable.

Someone just posted in the other thread Infinity Sails Again June 25--"IslandFamilyTime" is poster: "My sister and her husband boarded yesterday after booking the cruise earlier this week. Only had Oceanview window available and were really worried about the A/C issue. I spoke with her today while they were in Key West and she said everything has been wonderful. She went to guest services directly upon boarding to ask if she could pay to upgrade to a balcony. They did not have any available but took her info. Also told her that A/C was a real problem last week but an independent company had boarded when they docked in FLL yesterday and worked on it all day. Around 6, she got a call from same woman at guest services saying they had a concierge level balcony available and to please stay in room for a little bit. Within 30 minutes, that woman showed up with new keys, housekeeping to help carry their bags and moved them to their new balcony room. Best part, no additional cost! Sister and husband said the Oceanview's room temperature was cool and the balcony is slightly warmer but still comfortable (and my sister runs hot). They said all the linens look newer and were told the carpet throughout main parts of ship are new. They are used to mega ships (with their 6 and 9 yr old kids). Went in with lower expectations because of the older boat but said the staff and food have been great! They're keeping a positive attitude because their main goal this week is to just enjoy mom and dad time and some peace and quiet while I have the kids 😀 Hopefully this helps alleviate any nerves for cruisers traveling on Infinity soon!"

Thank you so much for this update. We've been hoping to hear something.

Thank you all so very much. Glad they have added a computer/internet version..

Our prayers are with you. We'll be on the July 9 cruise as well.

Has Princess developed the web site again where we can check in and do what is necessary using a computer and the internet? They said 6 mos. ago they were "developing" that tool (for use, as in the "old" days), rather than forcing everyone to use the Medallion ap, which is totally unreliable. I looked online and it seems we can access the Cruise Personalizer. Anyone know? Thank you for your help.

We are elite Princess cruisers but cruised Celebrity in May, after 12 weeks last sept-April on HAL with no covid, and on the one week on Celebrity in May, we got covid and were put off the ship because we were on B2B and they tested us between the two cruises. DH tested positive, and only that day after the test result did he have any symptoms (7 days into the cruise); they made me isolate with him as a close contact, and I got it, too, a day later. They booted us off the ship to isolate in a local hotel. Same problem on Celebrity--no one wants to wear a mask, we had 2300 passengers, maybe 10 of us wore masks, not a fair fight. No one cares and they are off the cruise in 7 days, then go home to get really sick. Of course they are infected but just keep on going for the 7 days. We tried our best to stay away from groups, away from folks, but it's everywhere, so we'll try eating more in our cabin honestly as we cruise one (last time) more cruise in a week--again for B2B--we have a bit of immunity from just having had covid. We had 1% isolated, and probably three times that many sick but not isolating.

Bump

We'll be on this Sat. July 9 for a B2B, so also July 16. I'm hoping that the A/C issues and gas smell issues have been resolved. Hopefully someone will report from onboard this week. We'll be in an ocean view near the front desk.

So to clarify, you did NOT need the 48-hour-prior-to-sail negative test to board, just the letter of recovery and the positive test result, correct? Seems to me the whole point of Ltr and Pos. test result is that if we are tested within 90 days of having had covid, we could test positive but actually be "over covid with no symptoms", etc. Did they take your temp. or anything like that at secondary screening?

Thanks for the update that no quarantine info is needed. What do we figure 72 hours to--say a noon embarkation Seattle time, or? what about time difference from where we live (central time) to whatever time ArriveCan is in? What has everyone done with that? Thank you for your help.

What do we figure 72 hours to--say a noon embarkation Seattle time, or? what about time difference from where we live (central time) to whatever time ArriveCan is in? What has everyone done with that? Someone on an earlier cruise, not the Eurodam, posted this letter from HAL that showed the highlights of how to fill out the ArriveCAN form. Here are the highlights: You're entering Canada for Discretionary/Optional Travel Entering by Marine Country of Original Departure: U.S. Date: XX/XX/2022 (I believe this is the departure date of the cruise). Port of Entry: Victoria Date of Arrival: xx/xx/2022 Enter your phone number Scan your passport or manually add your passport details You will be requested to enter your vaccination data (from what I understand using a computer, I will upload a PDF of my vaccination card; whatever you do for a smartphone)(I don't believe you can manually enter the data but have to enter a PDF/photo of the card instead) Follow the steps until you come to the Quarantine plan, then add as follows: Street name and number: MS Eurodam (or whatever the name of your ship is) Apt. or Unit #: your stateroom number City: Victoria Province: British Columbia Postal Code: A1A1A1 Once completed, you will receive a QR code that needs to be printed out and brought with you--note the number given you. Or I guess saved on your smartphone--we don't use smartphones so that isn't an option for us. I believe they send an email as well with the info on it. For B2B, we have to do this process for each cruise; apparently we can save the vax certificate upload and other data in our ArriveCAN account so that it can be used again, making the second entry for second cruise departure and trip into Canada easier.

Glad to have that confirmed; we are doing a B2B in August and the ArriveCAN rep I spoke with by phone said yes, two entries. Point is, if you make an entry on ArriveCAN to enter Canada for the first cruise, then you leave Canada, you have to make another ArriveCAN submission to go into Canada a second time on the second cruise. One report on a thread I saw says that HAL gives passengers a form to manually write down the number issued by ArriveCAN and turn it into HAL on the ship. Yes, the entry is tied to our passport info for ArriveCAN records.

Same here at Walgreen's Texas near us. CVS still does the rapid antigen without provider visit at a location 20 miles from us, and WITH a provider visit at a location close to us. Appts. for two days after current day. I don't know about a charge. . .

Once you board the ship for the above-mentioned cruise, if that cruise then enters Canada and stops at a Canadian port, you will need to do ArriveCAN before boarding the cruise. This is the way I understand it. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.