Celebrity Equinox January 21, 2022 excursion questions

[msbmommy99]

This is our first cruise on Celebrity.  We will be boarding the Equinox on Friday, January 20, 2022.  We have all of our excursions planned and booked.  I was looking online tonight because I can't sleep and noticed this little bit of information that could put a damper on our plans.  Am I reading this correctly?  We must take a Celebrity Excursion and cannot plan our own excursion on these islands.  We are going to Bimini, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.  

 

All vaccinated guests may go ashore on their own in ports where it's permitted.

Please be aware that as destination conditions change, you may be required to go ashore on a shore excursion provided by Celebrity Cruises. This will help to keep you safe and healthy for the rest of your vacation.

Unvaccinated guests and families with unvaccinated children may only go ashore on a shore excursion provided by Celebrity Cruises.

Shore excursion guidance is listed below. We will continue to monitor and update as any changes to local requirements occur.

Excursions provided by Celebrity Cruises are required in: 

• Belize City, Belize
• Bridgetown, Barbados
• Castries, St. Lucia
• Colon, Panama
• Falmouth, Jamaica
• Kingstown, St. Vincent
• Kralendijk, Bonaire
• Oranjestad, Aruba
• Roatan, Honduras
• Roseau, Dominica
• St. George's, Grenada
• St. John’s, Antigua
• St. Thomas, USVI       
• Tortola, BVI
• Willemstad, Curacao

 

[jelayne]

Yes you are reading it correctly.  The ports requiring s ships excursions have changed many times & frequently in the past few month. As of today the only port you can DYI is Bimini.

We had a port stops in St Thomas & Roatan recently and we could DYI, but I see that has changed.  

Unfortunately in these times of omicron ports are having to be changed sometimes with no notice.  We leave in 3 weeks and are prepared to have ports changed or cancelled .  6 weeks ago our all our ports were open since then 1 was cancelled and  replaced with Nassau 😥, and the other 3 we could DYI.  Now 2 of the other 3 are no longer DYI and the remaining one will most likely be cancelled and replaced with a sea day.

Edited January 13, 2022 by jelayne
Correction

[msbmommy99]

This breaks my heart because we were supposed to swim with sea turtles in curacao and Celebrity doesn't have that excursion.  Thanks for the information.

 

[CapeCodMom4]

When we sailed in august you were able to take a “government approved taxi tour” in addition to cruise line excursions. Not the same ports, but I wonder if this will be allowed? 

[tmp123]

Does this mean you cannot get off the ship at all unless on a Celebrity tour even to walk around the port on your own?

[Jim_Iain]

6 minutes ago, CapeCodMom4 said:

When we sailed in august you were able to take a “government approved taxi tour” in addition to cruise line excursions. Not the same ports, but I wonder if this will be allowed? 

Same with us in a number of the ports in October.   On some of the restricted ports all passenger could get off the ship to the restricted dock area with shops and there were vendors selling Government approved Tours.

 

You can also use Private Journey by Celebrity to arrange a custom tour in advance for you.   Having a large non-refundable OBC we used that on the ports OP listed.

[Jim_Iain]

Just now, tmp123 said:

Does this mean you cannot get off the ship at all unless on a Celebrity tour even to walk around the port on your own?

All the ports you could get off the ship to the restricted fenced off port area.   There were shops and duty free open but limited. 

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, tmp123 said:

Does this mean you cannot get off the ship at all unless on a Celebrity tour even to walk around the port on your own?

On our October cruise our ports were either DYI or ship only to get off.  None of our ports offered the walk around and “government approved tours”.  What was the situation then can be different tomorrow and change again a week later.  

Some of our ports for February do not show at all on the list of ports- not sure what that means.

[TourDeCruise]

5 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

All the ports you could get off the ship to the restricted fenced off port area.   There were shops and duty free open but limited. 

 

Ugh. We have the ABCs and Bimini on our upcoming Equinox cruise next week. The ABCs are more of an open-port design as opposed to Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel, St. Kitts, St. Maarten etc which have the secure/restricted fenced off areas. Can you see how the ABCs can have restricted areas where we can walk on our own? For Curacao maybe the area where Starbucks and Renaissance (or whatever hotel it is) are? For Bonaire, maybe the little "downtown" area? Maybe Aruba the shops and outdoor bars down to Starbucks near the park and Anne Frank statue?  Any thoughts?

[Islandhop9]

4 hours ago, TourDeCruise said:

 

Ugh. We have the ABCs and Bimini on our upcoming Equinox cruise next week. The ABCs are more of an open-port design as opposed to Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel, St. Kitts, St. Maarten etc which have the secure/restricted fenced off areas. Can you see how the ABCs can have restricted areas where we can walk on our own? For Curacao maybe the area where Starbucks and Renaissance (or whatever hotel it is) are? For Bonaire, maybe the little "downtown" area? Maybe Aruba the shops and outdoor bars down to Starbucks near the park and Anne Frank statue?  Any thoughts?

Those areas you mentioned are outside the gated port area. I'd be surprised if they let everyone outside the gated area as you'd be mingling with locals.

You might might see if anyone the previous cruises roll call knows. 

 

There were a few souvenir types shops in the gated areas. 

 

 

 

 

[TourDeCruise]

6 hours ago, Islandhop9 said:

Those areas you mentioned are outside the gated port area. I'd be surprised if they let everyone outside the gated area as you'd be mingling with locals.

You might might see if anyone the previous cruises roll call knows. 

 

There were a few souvenir types shops in the gated areas. 

 

 

I know I was being optimistic! lol. Our rollcall will be on the lookout for feedback on Cruise Critic. Unfortunately, this appears to be a new change and our cruise is in a week so not much time for feedback. We did book a Klein Bonaire tender ride/beach break for Bonaire where we can go in the water and hike around the island. Klein Bonaire should give us the option to social distance fairly well and get a few miles of walking and some swimming.

 

6 hours ago, Islandhop9 said:

 

 

[Gyurci]

On 1/13/2022 at 12:48 AM, msbmommy99 said:

This is our first cruise on Celebrity.  We will be boarding the Equinox on Friday, January 20, 2022.  We have all of our excursions planned and booked.  I was looking online tonight because I can't sleep and noticed this little bit of information that could put a damper on our plans.  Am I reading this correctly?  We must take a Celebrity Excursion and cannot plan our own excursion on these islands.  We are going to Bimini, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.  

 

All vaccinated guests may go ashore on their own in ports where it's permitted.

Please be aware that as destination conditions change, you may be required to go ashore on a shore excursion provided by Celebrity Cruises. This will help to keep you safe and healthy for the rest of your vacation.

Unvaccinated guests and families with unvaccinated children may only go ashore on a shore excursion provided by Celebrity Cruises.

Shore excursion guidance is listed below. We will continue to monitor and update as any changes to local requirements occur.

Excursions provided by Celebrity Cruises are required in: 

• Belize City, Belize
• Bridgetown, Barbados
• Castries, St. Lucia
• Colon, Panama
• Falmouth, Jamaica
• Kingstown, St. Vincent
• Kralendijk, Bonaire
• Oranjestad, Aruba
• Roatan, Honduras
• Roseau, Dominica
• St. George's, Grenada
• St. John’s, Antigua
• St. Thomas, USVI       
• Tortola, BVI
• Willemstad, Curacao

 

Where did you find this information I called celebrity twice and they stated that you can do your own excursion I’m confused 

[TourDeCruise]

10 hours ago, Gyurci said:

Where did you find this information I called celebrity twice and they stated that you can do your own excursion I’m confused 

 

I got an email from Celebrity with the same for our upcoming cruise next week.