Summit. Short end of the switch

[Hawkstar33]

After doing some reading, it seems like we got the worst of this change for tomorrows 10 nt sailing. Itinerary change with us going first to Bermuda from Sat 10am - Mon- 5pm, then Charleston later in week.  Due to Bermudas  arrival protocols.  Bermuda has limited ferry service over weekend, many stores closed on weekend, and 3 ships in port with us supposedly docked first, then moving to tender position for Monday, to accommodate regular schedule.  Hearing about sardine packed tenders recently . Tendering can be a bit challenging at times, especially for those who are physically challenged. Plus we miss the street fair in the middle of the week.   Guess we will see what happens.  Itineraries can change at any time.  

[Arizona Wildcat]

What would you have Celebrity do?  The rules in Bermuda are not Celebrity's fault?   What itinerary would you suggest?

[mayleeman]

2 hours ago, Hawkstar33 said:

After doing some reading, it seems like we got the worst of this change for tomorrows 10 nt sailing. Itinerary change with us going first to Bermuda from Sat 10am - Mon- 5pm, then Charleston later in week.  Due to Bermudas  arrival protocols.  Bermuda has limited ferry service over weekend, many stores closed on weekend, and 3 ships in port with us supposedly docked first, then moving to tender position for Monday, to accommodate regular schedule.  Hearing about sardine packed tenders recently . Tendering can be a bit challenging at times, especially for those who are physically challenged. Plus we miss the street fair in the middle of the week.   Guess we will see what happens.  Itineraries can change at any time.  

 

Good luck.  Years ago, I had a honeymoon from hell when we arrived in Bermuda for 4 days while the country was shut down on holiday for the cricket Gold Cup matches between (I think) India, England, Jamaica, and Bermuda. No cabs, restaurants closed, grocery stores closed...seemed like the whole island was camping on every inch of both sides of every road. Interesting  but not fun when you blunder unknowingly into it!

 

At least you can stay on board if you wish, and have something other than OJ and lunchmeat every day.

[catspaw1]

37 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

What would you have Celebrity do?  The rules in Bermuda are not Celebrity's fault?   What itinerary would you suggest?

I was going to be on this cruise before I tested positive for COVID. Celebrity knew about this months ago.  They should have let people book another cruise at the same price as this one or give a 100% cash refund if you did not like the new itinerary.  Or they could have just skipped Bermuda & gone someplace else. They devalued the cruise but gave no extra OBC or compensation. Tendering will greatly increase COVID probability. Plus with limited weekend public transport, there is limited opportunities to do something.  The ship arrives 10am Saturday  & transport ends late pm- not a lot of time. With no masking, tenders, a crowded ship I fear there will be a covid outbreak 

[Hawkstar33]

25 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

What would you have Celebrity do?  The rules in Bermuda are not Celebrity's fault?   What itinerary would you suggest?

I'm just saying the switch is not in our favor.  I wouldn't have them do anything other then switch it where we wouldn't get stuck with 2 outta 3 days of the weekend, but guess it was not possible.  Bermuda is extremely expensive on the revolutionized, but aging Summit,  to begin with coming outta Bayonne. We live within an hour from the port, so it's closeness and our love of Bermuda, makes this a cruise we do every few years.  I will deal with it and suffer the best I can while there.   Those having to switch plans that were made months ago,  might not be taking it so easy.  Like those with non refundable tickets for a big music fest or concert that is being held in Charleston, during this week.. Amongst other changes that I read about folks having to deal with.   

[Mark_K]

6 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

What would you have Celebrity do?  The rules in Bermuda are not Celebrity's fault?   What itinerary would you suggest?

As I understand it, the original itinerary was fine, then Celebrity changed it to avoid having to test passengers.  So, while Bermuda’s rules are not Celebrity’s fault, their decision to change the itinerary as opposed to conducting covid tests is.

[catspaw1]

5 hours ago, Mark_K said:

As I understand it, the original itinerary was fine, then Celebrity changed it to avoid having to test passengers.  So, while Bermuda’s rules are not Celebrity’s fault, their decision to change the itinerary as opposed to conducting covid tests is.

The bottom line is celebrity did not want to spend the money to test and they were afraid of a high positivity rate of passengers when they do test. So it was a no win situation for them. They probably felt it was just better to inconvenience passengers.  They were not concerned there was no good public transport on weekends. They offered a shuttle to horseshoe Beach for $40 PP when its $9pp on the bus.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Folks, this has been happening since the first cruise to Bermuda et al. on May 4.  If you have been following the boards, you would have had ample warning to cancel.  Because of the reversal of the itinerary, we were unable to get to Newport because of high seas.  So I lost a nonrefundable excursion booked a long time ago.  Not happy, but I'll live.  And, of course, Newport was the only port on the cruise I had not been to previously.

 

So, if this is a BFD for those of you on the rest of the Bermuda cruises, I suggest you cancel rather than come here and wail.  Bermuda is not going to blink on this.  And neither is Celebrity.

[homedepot124]

Celebrity simply did not want to be bothered testing the people on the ship.  Simple as that.  My guess is this is not going to save them any money when all is said and done.  It is not cheap to man and run those tenders for two days.  And if all of the bad weather materializes that is in the forecast, all it is going to take is one person getting hurt during the tender operation and it will end up costing Celebrity a whole more than the Covid tests. 

[Bo1953]

3 hours ago, catspaw1 said:

The bottom line is celebrity did not want to spend the money to test and they were afraid of a high positivity rate of passengers when they do test. So it was a no win situation for them. They probably felt it was just better to inconvenience passengers.  They were not concerned there was no good public transport on weekends. They offered a shuttle to horseshoe Beach for $40 PP when its $9pp on the bus.

Options, options, options...

 

bon voyage

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

1 hour ago, homedepot124 said:

Celebrity simply did not want to be bothered testing the people on the ship.  Simple as that.  My guess is this is not going to save them any money when all is said and done.  It is not cheap to man and run those tenders for two days.  And if all of the bad weather materializes that is in the forecast, all it is going to take is one person getting hurt during the tender operation and it will end up costing Celebrity a whole more than the Covid tests. 

 

Actually, it's not quite that simple.  First, those tests don't drop out of thin air.  They cost money.  And medical personnel to administer them.  Then there's the issue of uploading the test results of all those passengers on limited bandwidth with satellite internet which comes and goes.  And if the seas are not conducive to tendering, they won't be running the tenders.  That's why we didn't get to go to Newport.

 

Best of luck to you.  I hope you can survive your disappointment and have a good cruise in spite of it.

[Mark_K]

4 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

Folks, this has been happening since the first cruise to Bermuda et al. on May 4.  If you have been following the boards, you would have had ample warning to cancel.  Because of the reversal of the itinerary, we were unable to get to Newport because of high seas.  So I lost a nonrefundable excursion booked a long time ago.  Not happy, but I'll live.  And, of course, Newport was the only port on the cruise I had not been to previously.

 

So, if this is a BFD for those of you on the rest of the Bermuda cruises, I suggest you cancel rather than come here and wail.  Bermuda is not going to blink on this.  And neither is Celebrity.

The OP. Never mentioned wanting to cancel or trying to cancel, just that compared to the original itinerary, they were getting  the short end of the switch. Which seems pretty accurate to me.

[LuvCruising88]

HawkStar33 - That is a bummer.  I hope you have a great time regardless of the change. 

 

Mayleeman - you have me worried.  We are going to be in Bermuda for 3 days on the Summit in July, and two of those days are the Cup Match days.  Yikes...

[homedepot124]

3 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

Actually, it's not quite that simple.  First, those tests don't drop out of thin air.  They cost money.  And medical personnel to administer them.  Then there's the issue of uploading the test results of all those passengers on limited bandwidth with satellite internet which comes and goes.  And if the seas are not conducive to tendering, they won't be running the tenders.  That's why we didn't get to go to Newport.

 

Best of luck to you.  I hope you can survive your disappointment and have a good cruise in spite of it.

We are not on the cruise.  We tested positive at CVS and had to cancel.

[WayneLaR]

6 hours ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

Folks, this has been happening since the first cruise to Bermuda et al. on May 4.  If you have been following the boards, you would have had ample warning to cancel.  Because of the reversal of the itinerary, we were unable to get to Newport because of high seas.  So I lost a nonrefundable excursion booked a long time ago.  Not happy, but I'll live.  And, of course, Newport was the only port on the cruise I had not been to previously.

 

So, if this is a BFD for those of you on the rest of the Bermuda cruises, I suggest you cancel rather than come here and wail.  Bermuda is not going to blink on this.  And neither is Celebrity.

HC, maybe a name change is in order?  😀

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

1 hour ago, WayneLaR said:

HC, maybe a name change is in order?  😀

 

Why?  I had two perfectly lovely cruises in spite of all the itinerary changes on the second one.  One must learn to roll with it these days.

[JFontaine]

I saw a contract between a cruise line and Bermuda in October. It said that if there was more than a certain number of cases on board on arrival (a very, very low number) Bermuda had the option to deny the ship the right to dock. By changing the itinerary to having Bermuda early in the cruise, the likelihood of that happening is reduced. 

 

On board tests: in October our on board tests, both all passengers and all crew, were batch tested in Bermuda, meaning they were only looking for positive tests and they had little interest in advising anyone that they were negative.   I never did get the email saying I was negative.   We paid $75  for the Bermuda Travel Authorization,  and my guess is some of this fee paid for the testing.  Obviously the cruise line paid for the crew tests. 

[davy jones]

On 6/1/2022 at 8:52 PM, Hawkstar33 said:

After doing some reading, it seems like we got the worst of this change for tomorrows 10 nt sailing. Itinerary change with us going first to Bermuda from Sat 10am - Mon- 5pm, then Charleston later in week.  Due to Bermudas  arrival protocols.  Bermuda has limited ferry service over weekend, many stores closed on weekend, and 3 ships in port with us supposedly docked first, then moving to tender position for Monday, to accommodate regular schedule.  Hearing about sardine packed tenders recently . Tendering can be a bit challenging at times, especially for those who are physically challenged. Plus we miss the street fair in the middle of the week.   Guess we will see what happens.  Itineraries can change at any time.  

The same thing happened on the May 13 cruise.  It really was not a big deal for us.  Sunday we docked and the Dockyard is fully open.  Plan your day for there or take a shuttle to Horseshoe bay.  Shore excursions are also an option.   On Monday, the ship was docked until about 11:30 AM.  Get off before then and you avoid that tender trip.  On Tuesday, it's all tenders.  It's a lot better than the onboard testing alternatives.

 

If we had followed the original itinerary, the weather in Newport would have been poor.  Instead, we had good weather when we got there.  It's something that you can't control, but it worked in our favor.