Silhouette around Britain staycruisecations

[American_in_York]

Just want to give anyone a heads up if they are NOT a British citizen but a British resident. I showed the my American passport during embarkation and the person was very confused. I showed her my official 'indefinite leave to remain' and she didn't have any idea what it was. She left to speak to her supervisor which took 10 minutes. Therefore, make sure you bring something to confirm your residency. 

 

Also, my husband has 2 middle names. This confused the person again. Seems the computer didn't like that and couldn't put his information in. She had to go back to her supervisor. This took another 10 minutes. 

 

Make sure you screen shot everything. There is NO Wifi connection and I saw loads of people having difficulties. A couple actually showed their NHS cards as proof of vaccination because they couldn't get the NHS app to work. 

 

 

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, sgmn said:

Thank you for all the info 

Is the buffet restaurant open for dinner   we have 6pm dinning this time round and would like to stay on deck for sail away from Southampton and along the coast so am thinking we will probably miss the first nights dinning 

yes 

[chemmo]

50 minutes ago, American_in_York said:

 

 

Make sure you screen shot everything. There is NO Wifi connection and I saw loads of people having difficulties. A couple actually showed their NHS cards as proof of vaccination because they couldn't get the NHS app to work. 

 

 

 

Great advice, thank you, we will definitely screen shot everything!

[the penguins]

50 minutes ago, American_in_York said:

Just want to give anyone a heads up if they are NOT a British citizen but a British resident. I showed the my American passport during embarkation and the person was very confused. I showed her my official 'indefinite leave to remain' and she didn't have any idea what it was. She left to speak to her supervisor which took 10 minutes. Therefore, make sure you bring something to confirm your residency. 

 

Also, my husband has 2 middle names. This confused the person again. Seems the computer didn't like that and couldn't put his information in. She had to go back to her supervisor. This took another 10 minutes. 

 

Make sure you screen shot everything. There is NO Wifi connection and I saw loads of people having difficulties. A couple actually showed their NHS cards as proof of vaccination because they couldn't get the NHS app to work. 

 

 

I posted this before - the check in staff at Southampton are begging everyone to have papercopies of everything - if you do the process is very very quick - if not it's a nightmare - the staff have to scan everything not just look at it. Ideally you want to be carrying your own passport inside of which is  a papercopy of the Setsail pass, covid test result, vacination certificate - all unfolded.

[the penguins]

2 minutes ago, chemmo said:

 

Great advice, thank you, we will definitely screen shot everything!

please not screen shots - very hard for the staff to scan.

[chemmo]

Just now, the penguins said:

please not screen shots - very hard for the staff to scan.

 

Understand, just a good idea as a back up if other things become difficult.

[American_in_York]

5 minutes ago, the penguins said:

please not screen shots - very hard for the staff to scan.

They didn't have any issues scanning the screen shots just putting in 2 middle names.

[American_in_York]

7 minutes ago, the penguins said:

I posted this before - the check in staff at Southampton are begging everyone to have papercopies of everything - if you do the process is very very quick - if not it's a nightmare - the staff have to scan everything not just look at it. Ideally you want to be carrying your own passport inside of which is  a papercopy of the Setsail pass, covid test result, vacination certificate - all unfolded.

My understanding was that we were moving from printing everything and we should be able to show pcr codes via electronic means. This is what Celebrity recommended but I guess I have to go back to the old ways.... more paper.

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, Tipsy252 said:

Hi Geoff

I have to agree with most of your comments.

• Air within the ship much fresher and slightly cooler, but I am happy with that. My hubby feels the cold and used a light fleece over his t-shirt.
• 4 people to a lift - great and no waiting for lifts. Always got one within 2 minutes, mostly empty.
• Sharing a table was a downside, on the whole really happy with the service and the distancing between tables.
• There was distancing at Al Bacio, tables were further apart and you were able to use Sushi on 5 as an extension to Al Bacio. Martini Bar was a bit hectic at times (pre-post dinner), but there were less chairs at the bar hence better spacing, better table service and fewer people pushing for service at the bar.

Just my observations from the 23 July cruise.

 

1 hour ago, KaryEstelle said:

Thank you for your help.

AI Pricing: This is primarily for Elite+ who don't drink alchohol. The CC is getting as lot of comments/complaints about this and Ingrid, the CC Host is forwarding them on to Miami. However Ingrid also says that she is aware that more people are unhappy than are taking the time to complain and as she says "she can only report complaints/comments made directly to her". So if you are unhappy with the new pricing and would like to see a return to the old system where Elite and Elite+ enjoyed free drinks, free speciality coffees etc with a drinks package available for those that want it - now is the time to make your views known. Celebrity are aware of the problem and it is actively under review. 

[the penguins]

1 minute ago, American_in_York said:

My understanding was that we were moving from printing everything and we should be able to show pcr codes via electronic means. This is what Celebrity recommended but I guess I have to go back to the old ways.... more paper.

You are correct but:

Southampton doesn't have good enough wifi. Staff are using hand held scanners in poor/difficult lighting and are having to check far more documents than pre covid.  Geoff.

[C-Dragons]

20 minutes ago, American_in_York said:

My understanding was that we were moving from printing everything and we should be able to show pcr codes via electronic means. This is what Celebrity recommended but I guess I have to go back to the old ways.... more paper.

You are correct, X is trying to move from paper to digital. That's why they created the X App. 😉

But there are certain documents that I will carry paper copies of, just in case.

Edited August 15, 2021 by C-Dragons

[Eglesbrech]

9 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

You are correct, X is trying to move from paper to digital. That's why they created the X App. 😉

But there are certain documents that I will carry paper copies of, just in case.

In which case they need to get their app to work properly which at the moment is does not.

[C-Dragons]

10 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

In which case they need to get their app to work properly which at the moment is does not.

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

It worked perfectly for us on a previous cruise.

Has anyone reported the difficulties to X directly?

[Eglesbrech]

3 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

Sorry to hear you are having problems.

It worked perfectly for us on a previous cruise.

Has anyone reported the difficulties to X directly?

Yes. I have made several phone calls, shared screen shots with IT and it has been escalated. A week on and no joy (and it’s not just me).

[American_in_York]

43 minutes ago, the penguins said:

You are correct but:

Southampton doesn't have good enough wifi. Staff are using hand held scanners in poor/difficult lighting and are having to check far more documents than pre covid.  Geoff.

Sorry but in this day and age this should get sorted either by Southampton or by Celebrity. What is the point of the app and all this technology if we fall at the first hurdle.

[groryjm]

1 hour ago, American_in_York said:

Sorry but in this day and age this should get sorted either by Southampton or by Celebrity. What is the point of the app and all this technology if we fall at the first hurdle.

Technology is a wonderful thing but with every passenger having to show a boarding pass, proof of vaccine and a negative test printing 4 sheets of paper per pax really does expediate the process. This is all to try and get pax through with as little delay as possible to save on the enevitable queues caused by people turning up hours early for their check-in time. 

If you then place those bits of paper into your stateroom bin they will be sorted into the recycling. This in turn will then be sold and the money raised goes to the crew well fair fund. 😎

[isdoo]

No issues with the information on your phone. 

 

Why waste paper and ink? 

 

Thousands of pages of paper per cruise. 

Edited August 15, 2021 by isdoo

[isdoo]

11 minutes ago, American_in_York said:

IT WAS SARCASIM 

 

If you say so 

[the penguins]

5 hours ago, American_in_York said:

Sorry but in this day and age this should get sorted either by Southampton or by Celebrity. What is the point of the app and all this technology if we fall at the first hurdle.

A quick summary

The Celebrity app is not designed to handle UK vaccination certificates.

Southampton is not set up to handle UK cruises

Nothing has ever been needed to check negative test results.

For each passenger staff have to scan:

Passport

Boarding pass

Covid vac certificates 2 sets of dates to check manually and then scannned

Eurofin result to be checked manually and scanned 

Health questionnaire to be checked and signed off.

If items 2,3 and 4 are on 1 phone for 2 people this involves a lot of shuffling back and forward.

Based on their experiences of 3 cruises the staff handling all this on the ground are saying that the quickest simplest way is for everyone to have items 2, 3 and 4 available as printed sheets. Geoff

 

 

[KaryEstelle]

10 hours ago, Tipsy252 said:

I agree 09:00 to 09:30 is the latest to disembark. We had a leisurely breakfast in MDR and then walked off at 09:00. Most others were off and gone before we collected our luggage.

Thank you for your help.

[KaryEstelle]

I wonder if anyone else has had this problem.

 

I was trying to book our cabin, but when I got to Primary Guest I coudn't book as my mobile  phone number was not accepted. It said it accepts digits only. I changed my settings to UK but this hasn't helped.

 

I seem to have about three different numbers to try for Celebrity but I coudn't get through on any of them on Friday.

 

I'll have to try again tomorrow.

[groryjm]

4 hours ago, isdoo said:

No issues with the information on your phone. 

 

Why waste paper and ink? 

 

Thousands of pages of paper per cruise. 

If they had to scan everyones phone 4 times the chances are that most pasangers would end up quing for hours . quite simply @isdoo this is not practicle with all the documentation the needs to be checked. May be when we nolonger need to prove vacines and have PCR tests it might be viable. 

 

They werent in fact scanining the documents but visibly checking them and photographing them on ipads, I asume to keep a record . Photographing a document on the small screen of a phone realy doesnot work. So to expediat your passage on board I highly recomend you have printed copies of all these documents . 

 

As I said earlier you will ultimately benefit the crew wellfarir fund.

[groryjm]

9 minutes ago, KaryEstelle said:

I wonder if anyone else has had this problem.

 

I was trying to book our cabin, but when I got to Primary Guest I coudn't book as my mobile  phone number was not accepted. It said it accepts digits only. I changed my settings to UK but this hasn't helped.

 

I seem to have about three different numbers to try for Celebrity but I coudn't get through on any of them on Friday.

 

I'll have to try again tomorrow.

have you tried omiting the leading zero as from the states to dial our numbers one would dial 044 (usually written +44) and then the normal UK number without the initial zero

 

Ie for 01234 567891 one should enter +44 1234567891

Edited August 15, 2021 by groryjm

[gardening_diva]

Can anyone confirm whether the port used for Inverness is actually Inverness or Invergordon?

Looks more likely to be Invergordon for Sihouette, but itinerary says Inverness!

Thanks!

[KaryEstelle]

22 minutes ago, groryjm said:

have you tried omiting the leading zero as from the states to dial our numbers one would dial 044 (usually written +44) and then the normal UK number without the initial zero

 

Ie for 01234 567891 one should enter +44 1234567891

Thank you for your reply, it won't let me change anything on the page though.