Caribbean on Discovery

[hthrdean]

Hi all. We're booked on the Discovery out of Barbados on the 5th December.

 

I was wondering if we have anyone going prior to this and if they'd be willing to give feedback.

 

We booked last January and have been waiting for it to be cancelled but it's 3 weeks tomorrow and it still hasn't happened and they have a shedload of my money. I think I have everything sorted but don't know if I'm excited or apprehensive.

Edited November 13, 2021 by hthrdean
Grammar

[Brummijam]

The Discovery is just coming to the end of it’s repositioning trip from palma to Barbados so you may have to wait a few days to get any feedback from returning passengers.There is a bit of info on the other thread on this board.

We recently did a Med cruise and I was a little bit apprehensive but it went well and we enjoyed it ,certainly no regrets.( Apart from having to come home) All of the form filling and testing can look daunting but  there is helpful info on the Marella site and the relevant government sites.

Be exited, it’s a holiday.👍😉

 

[so,ton saint]

1 hour ago, hthrdean said:

Hi all. We're booked on the Discovery out of Barbados on the 5th December.

 

I was wondering if we have anyone going prior to this and if they'd be willing to give feedback.

 

We booked last January and have been waiting for it to be cancelled but it's 3 weeks tomorrow and it still hasn't happened and they have a shedload of my money. I think I have everything sorted but don't know if I'm excited or apprehensive.

Hi hthrdean have done two Caribbean cruises on Discovery and enjoyed the ship very much i would say just the right size for the Caribbean and the ports you visit. as for traveling to Barbados you will fly in there modern 787 Dreamliners which are very strict on hygiene having just got back from Lanzarote found the flight no problem at all as the aircraft would have be sanitized even the air from the blowers smelt different, enjoy your cruise get a balcony if you can and be safe.

[hthrdean]

Thank you both your your replies. We have cruised before but not with Marella and not to the Carribbean. 

 

We went to Spain a few week  ago just for a few days just to 'break the ice' and it was all very easy so that made me more confident.

 

We've got testing for Barbados booked and Marella say any other tests we need will be provided and will be free of charge so I'm just going with the flow🏝️🏝️🏝️

[Jh1968]

Hi guys do we have any feed back yet from Discovery in the Caribbean? 
we’re on the week after 12th and starting to fill out paper work.

would be great to here from someone who’s been there this month.

[mabellloyd]

We’re back last week from the repositioning cruise on Discovery Palma to Barbados. Was worried for months whether the cruise would take place re COVID testing as most Caribbean islands require a PCR test. As it turned out Marella had negotiated a lateral flow test. We had one 48hrs before the first island Antigua and one 72 hrs before arriving in Barbados all at Marella’s expense.

Our itinerary was changed 2 weeks prior to sailing we should have gone to Cape Verde instead we went to Malaga overnight, Cadiz, Lanzarote, Tenerife, 6day crossing, Antigua, Tortola, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Greneda, Barbados.

With reduced passengers onboard the ship felt very safe. In the entertainment venues there are certain chairs with stickers on “Keep me free”.  But once people got to know one another this rule goes out the window. Whilst indoors you need to wear a mask, exeptions are on the pool decks and whilst seated in venues and the dining rooms.

When in St. Lucia and Greneda you cannot leave the ship unless you are on a ships tour. All the other islands you were free to visit without restrictions .

 

We used the onboard app Navigate after boarding. There was no muster on the open deck we had to watch the info on the app. Your cruise card was not enabled until you had watched it. We had major problems when it was time to come home. 48hrs before disembarking we had to print our own boarding passes using the app but the volume of people using it was overwhelming the ship’s internet. We ended up queuing at reception where two receptionists had to do it for us and then used our phone to take a picture of it. The day after they made apologies about the internet situation and we still needed to fill in our Passenger Location Forms. We were told to wait until we got to Barbados to fill these in and we would use the cruise terminal with a much better connection.  There were only 3 flights back to the UK and we were on the last one to Manchester. They called you by flight and then deck to come to the terminal were they checked you had your COVID vaccine status and boarding pass. After this you went to the next room to complete your PLF when we went in it was chaos. Hundreds of people competing for internet time we were there for 2 hours. People were sat on the floor but most were in a very long queue filling it in as they went. All in all the last 48 hrs were so stressful I was in tears on more than one occasion.

When  we got to the airport we still had to go to the check-in desk where they didn’t look at the boarding pass we had stressed about just scanned our passport and gave us a paper boarding pass. Then when we got to Manchester went through Passport Control no trouble, went to the luggage belt no one looked at the PLF. There were about 6 officials at the bottom of the stairs where they randomly stopped someone, about 6 per plane.

We did enjoy the cruise but if we did another one we would stick to European cruises as we would still have internet access.

 

[squink]

16 hours ago, mabellloyd said:

We’re back last week from the repositioning cruise on Discovery Palma to Barbados. Was worried for months whether the cruise would take place re COVID testing as most Caribbean islands require a PCR test. As it turned out Marella had negotiated a lateral flow test. We had one 48hrs before the first island Antigua and one 72 hrs before arriving in Barbados all at Marella’s expense.

Our itinerary was changed 2 weeks prior to sailing we should have gone to Cape Verde instead we went to Malaga overnight, Cadiz, Lanzarote, Tenerife, 6day crossing, Antigua, Tortola, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Greneda, Barbados.

With reduced passengers onboard the ship felt very safe. In the entertainment venues there are certain chairs with stickers on “Keep me free”.  But once people got to know one another this rule goes out the window. Whilst indoors you need to wear a mask, exceptions are on the pool decks and whilst seated in venues and the dining rooms.

When in St. Lucia and Greneda you cannot leave the ship unless you are on a ships tour. All the other islands you were free to visit without restrictions .

 

We used the onboard app Navigate after boarding. There was no muster on the open deck we had to watch the info on the app. Your cruise card was not enabled until you had watched it. We had major problems when it was time to come home. 48hrs before disembarking we had to print our own boarding passes using the app but the volume of people using it was overwhelming the ship’s internet. We ended up queuing at reception where two receptionists had to do it for us and then used our phone to take a picture of it. The day after they made apologies about the internet situation and we still needed to fill in our Passenger Location Forms. We were told to wait until we got to Barbados to fill these in and we would use the cruise terminal with a much better connection.  There were only 3 flights back to the UK and we were on the last one to Manchester. They called you by flight and then deck to come to the terminal were they checked you had your COVID vaccine status and boarding pass. After this you went to the next room to complete your PLF when we went in it was chaos. Hundreds of people competing for internet time we were there for 2 hours. People were sat on the floor but most were in a very long queue filling it in as they went. All in all the last 48 hrs were so stressful I was in tears on more than one occasion.

When  we got to the airport we still had to go to the check-in desk where they didn’t look at the boarding pass we had stressed about just scanned our passport and gave us a paper boarding pass. Then when we got to Manchester went through Passport Control no trouble, went to the luggage belt no one looked at the PLF. There were about 6 officials at the bottom of the stairs where they randomly stopped someone, about 6 per plane.

We did enjoy the cruise but if we did another one we would stick to European cruises as we would still have internet access.

 

Thanks for the feedback, my own experience at Manchester on Sat returning from Lanzarote was the same, no PLF check at Immigration .

Can I ask a couple of things for clarity;

Did you fill in the Barbadian BIMSafe App prior to entry to Barbados off the ship as well,

and were there covid tests at all of the other islands (I noted Marella do say any necessary tests will be at their expense onboard which is good),

and lastly by boarding passes do you meant he usual flight boarding passes? I presumed I would already have these after completing check-in whilst in the UK.

Sorry for the list.

Edited November 23, 2021 by squink

[Jh1968]

Mabellloyd great info very detailed no wonder the opening link (just back from a cruise give us your feed back) is no closed funny enough with no response very suspicious. Looks like we will enjoy the cruise and heat not the islands so much and definitely not getting home. 
I just hope they get slicker as they go.
 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Jh1968

[mabellloyd]

No I didn’t download the Bimsafe app it was just off the ships Navigate app. No we didn’t have to have a test for every island some require a test done 48hrs prior to arrival and some 72hrs. So we only had 2 tests in the Caribbean. Yes they were just the normal boarding passes perhaps it was because we were away for 19 days. Perhaps on a shorter cruise you may be able to print in the UK.

[wingnutta]

Thanks Mabellloyd for your detailed post and that will help others who are still to travel.  I have a couple of questions which you or someone else may have the answers to.  I just want to know if you can go ashore independently at all ports, I know you said you couldn't get off at St Lucia but it says on the Tui website that you can now so hopefully that is the case.  We are also on a back to back cruise on 5th December so how does it work with getting off in Barbados in the middle?  Our worry is we can only go ashore on an organised excursion but by the time we find this out they may be sold out.

 

Any help & feedback much appreciated.

[squink]

20 hours ago, mabellloyd said:

No I didn’t download the Bimsafe app it was just off the ships Navigate app. No we didn’t have to have a test for every island some require a test done 48hrs prior to arrival and some 72hrs. So we only had 2 tests in the Caribbean. Yes they were just the normal boarding passes perhaps it was because we were away for 19 days. Perhaps on a shorter cruise you may be able to print in the UK.

Super, thanks for answering, helps everybody I hope. Good to know island access may be simpler than first feared