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Jim: That is interesting. On one of our Apex B2B cruises in the spring, we had so much OBC (due to a price guarantee match after final payment) that we maxed out the amount of table pre-paid credit we could buy. So we used the rest on a slot pre-paid credit. I don't remember the slots working the same way on Apex (i.e., I think we could go from machine to machine). But anyway, we prefer the table play credit and would use that whenever possible. There is no similar problem with the table pre-play credit (assuming they still sometimes offer it) and I am pretty sure that we have used it on all three classes of ship. Tom & Judy

If you are also an MVCI member (or even if you are not) you could also consider the Marriott Vacation Club Pulse property on South Beach. We stayed there a few years ago prior to a cruise. It is a very nice property, but think hotel room (not vacation club villa as in the non-urban properties). Tom & Judy

@azalice: I should have added one more thought. I think either AMA Waterways or Avalon (or perhaps both) also offer a Jewish Heritage itinerary. The problem is, at least when we were looking into it, I think they only offered it once or twice, in the middle of summer, which is not when we would choose to go just from the standpoint of summer heat. The nice thing about the Uniworld cruises is that the Jewish Heritage itinerary is available for all or most cruise dates on that itinerary all year long. So you can take a fall Rhine Jewish Heritage cruise, as we did, or a spring Danube Jewish Heritage cruise (as we had originally intended to take before the pandemic messed around with our schedule). The Uniworld Rhine cruise is Remarkable Rhine and Historic Holland, and the Danube cruise is Delightful Danube. Tom & Judy

@azalice: We took the same cruise with @Roz. We are Jewish, this was our first river cruise, and we did all of the offered Jewish Heritage excursions. The name of the cruise was Remarkable Rhine. (It is now offered as a longer cruise, called Remarkable Rhine and Holland.) We enjoyed it a lot, and we liked Uniworld as our first foray into river cruising. This past May we finally got to take another river cruise on Uniworld, this time on the Danube. We had planned to take the Jewish Heritage version of the Danube cruise with some friends, but after two postponements during the pandemic, from a scheduling standpoint, the only Danube cruise that would work with our friends was one that was not the Jewish Heritage itinerary. We also enjoyed that cruise quite a bit, although we did not find the Cruise Director to be nearly as engaging as the one on the Rhine. In December, we took a Mississippi River cruise with Viking on their brand new ship, our first Viking cruise of any kind, and our only non-Uniworld river cruise. The decor contrast between Viking and Uniworld could not be more striking, as we had assumed. Uniworld's decor is ornate to the point of being gaudy, while Viking is of course very clean and Scandinavian. I can see why people are loyal to Viking, although on this brand new ship they don't have their act completely together yet. Feel free to let me know if you have other questions about Uniworld, either in this post or by email (my address is linked in the signature file when seen on a laptop or desktop computer). Tom & Judy

From post 6163, FWIW: Not yet and only a week left, however, and not sure of the authenticity but I heard there are 2 PUP'S offers coming in February. Fingers crossed. Tom & Judy

Way too tight for my tastes, too. I don't know if this is possible, but I would call Flights by Celebrity to see if they can put you on a different, earlier flight, and if so, how much extra that would cost. If the flight arrives on time, and you have no trouble retrieving your luggage, and no trouble getting a taxi or car service, great. Maybe you get to the port by 3:00 pm. But if there is any hold up on arrival time, getting luggage, or getting a taxi, you could be in trouble. Tom & Judy

We were in a forward-facing end S3 on Apex. I doubt that the balcony is bigger than the middle S3s. It does have the corner pillar, which I suppose reduces the floor area by a few square feet, but we found the forward window to be a nice feature. Tom & Judy

I guess it is a moot point for you, now. But just for others reading this, let me say that we were in the forward Magic Carpet Sky Suite (Cabin 7194) on Apex in May, and I can 100% assure you that on Apex, the door to the connecting IV cabin is not inside the Sky Suite. It is in the vestibule between the public hallway and the door to the Sky Suite. If you had both cabins booked, you could prop open the Sky Suite door and wander back and forth between the SS and the IV cabins. But if someone else has booked the IV cabin, they would have access to the common vestibule, but there is no door linking the IV cabin directly into the SS. By the way, I believe that the IV cabin also has its own outside door directly into the hallway. So if unrelated guests occupy the two cabins, there is no reason why the IV guests would ever have to go into the vestibule. Tom & Judy

Just to express a slightly different view, I thought I would give you our experience. We have only been cruising for the last 9 years, and during that time, we have taken 8 cruises on Celebrity, with a couple more scheduled in the future. We have taken one Oceania cruise on Marina, and have another scheduled on Vista next year. We like both, but at this point we still prefer Celebrity. We liked the smaller size of Marina, and we thought the "free" access to each specialty restaurant was great, and we thought the specialty restaurants were really outstanding. We were much less impressed with the main dining room on Marina. In fairness, our recent cruises on Celebrity were in Sky Suites, so we are in a sense comparing Marina's main dining room to Luminae on Celebrity, which might not be considered a fair comparison. We liked the reasonable size of cabins on Marina. We were in a Concierge Veranda, which is listed at 291 Sq. Ft. This is comparable to a Sky Suite on Celebrity, but is probably 50% bigger than a regular veranda on Celebrity (depending on which ship). I understand that the R class ship cabins are significantly smaller, closer to the size on Celebrity ships. This might seem like a small item, but we really liked the availability of self-service washers and dryers on Oceania, and wish that Celebrity had the same. Particularly on an extended trip, that is a huge convenience. Tom & Judy

@Roz: The same thing happened to us on our back to back to back cruises in May and June. As we were leaving to drive to Los Angeles to fly to Fort Lauderdale for the first cruise, we learned that the short hop flight from Prague to London Heathrow have been canceled. As a result, our perfectly reasonable 3.5 hour layover turned into a 6.5–7 hour layover. We were not notified directly by either British Airways, or it’s partner American Airlines, but learned of the cancellation through somebody else who was going to be with us on the third cruise. This is happening a lot now, from what I read. Tom & Judy

Three years ago, we booked a shuttle through this company for a Prague to Passau transfer, with a stop in Cesky Krumlov. https://www.praguetransport.com/ This was for a June 2020 river cruise (which obviously did not happen). When we finally took a version of that cruise at the end of May, 2022, this time we ended up getting an extension directly from Uniworld, so we never needed a private transfer, and did not end up using this company. Of course, we didn't end up getting a stop in Cesky Krumlov, either. I found the company after searching for options on the internet. Their TripAdvisor reviews are outstanding, and the story (as I recall it) is that Chris was an American who studied abroad, met his wife, and decided to stay and start this company 20 years ago. I am sorry that we never got a chance to use them. I remember that there were a number of companies with similar names, but the link above is to the correct company. Tom & Judy

I wonder if I am the only one who thought of steamer trunks, when I first saw the title of this thread? I never had a real steamer trunk, but I used to take a similarly shaped camp trunk to my 8 week summer camp as a kid. Apparently they sell them with wheels now! Tom & Judy

We were on the Marina in October, having just finished a land tour the day prior to the cruise. So we had lots of laundry to do, and we did in fact do it on embarkation day. Tom & Judy

I think everything said above is correct, except that I have read here on other threads that you can set up a single account to contain more than one family member. We had already set up separate accounts before hearing of this, so I have never actually checked on that. But if you are setting up an account now, you could look into that. Tom & Judy

My cruises were April 30 and May 14, so I was completely up to date on Celebrity's requirements at that time, and, as I recall, at the time only a positive PCR test would suffice, along with a Certificate of Recovery. But it appears to me as if that has changed, at least for some locations. I understand from the OP's signature line that he or she is embarking at NJ for a cruise to Bermuda. So the US protocols for embarkation will apply: https://www.celebritycruises.com/healthy-at-sea/us-travel-requirements Beginning with sailings departing on or after March 18, 2022, guests who have recently recovered from COVID-19 may present a Certificate of Recovery and proof of the positive PCR or Antigen test result taken between 11-90 days prior to the sail date in order to board. We will not accept a Certificate of Recovery in place of a vaccination record. Additionally, please be aware that some ports of call do not accept a Certificate of Recovery for the purposes of debarking and enjoying the destination. For more details, please visit our FAQs. *Pre-Cruise testing requirements may continue throughout 2022. So somewhere along the way, it appears that Celebrity has changed the protocol so that a documented (supervised) positive Antigen test is now also accepted. Now I know that there are special issues about Bermuda, but I have not been following that. Maybe that is what creates the problem, but I don't know if the Bermuda problem means that you can't get off the ship in Bermuda without a negative Antigen test, or whether it means that Celebrity will not let you board in NJ for a Bermuda cruise without a negative Antigen test. Tom & Judy

Robin: That is interesting. On our recent Uniworld Danube cruise (late May to early June), we noticed something similar. We had just finished two Celebrity ocean cruises days before, and with that experience in close proximity, the service on Uniworld seemed less attentive, and also less attentive than on our previous Uniworld cruise a few years ago. (On the first Uniworld cruise, as soon as we entered the dining room, someone would pull us aside and point out which items were inconsistent with our dietary issues. This didn't happen on the recent Uniworld cruise, which was fine, because we could figure it out ourselves. But it was symptomatic of a less personalized and attentive service ethic.) Interestingly, there was one waiter who provided ocean cruise level service - just as an example, he would make sure that the guy we were traveling with who had requested ice in his glass the first day always had plenty of ice. And he had a sense of humor, and would tell us about his family when we asked. Hi background was that he had worked ocean cruises for years before coming to Uniworld to be closer to home and his family. We speculated that his better service was because of his ocean cruise experience, and he was the only person we gave an extra tip on the final day. Maybe they have had trouble staffing back up after the pandemic? Or maybe it was just a fluke. But we did notice a difference. Tom & Judy

Brenda: For what it is worth, here is a draft I sent to my doctor after my first infection. I never used it, because it was too old by the time of the cruise, but I wrote it with Celebrity's website description of a CoR in mind. Draft Letter Certificate of Recovery [On Official Letterhead, including Dr. X's name, address, phone number and date] To whom it may concern: My patient, Tom Y. Z. (DOB October xx, xxxx) received a positive Covid-19 Test Result on a nasal RT-PCR test done on January 4, 2022, with results received on January 7, 2022. I spoke with him at the time and recommended isolation protocols during his recovery. He has completed his isolation and recovered, and is now cleared to travel. AAAAA B. CCCCCC, MD You need to check the country requirements page for the country where you are embarking to be sure there are no special requirements for that country. We were boarding a transatlantic in the US, and here is what the US requirement said at the time: Beginning with sailings departing on or after March 18, 2022, guests who have recently recovered from COVID-19 may present a Certificate of Recovery and proof of the positive PCR or Antigen test result taken between 11-90 days prior to the sail date in order to board. We will not accept a Certificate of Recovery in place of a vaccination record. Additionally, please be aware that some ports of call do not accept a Certificate of Recovery for the purposes of debarking and enjoying the destination. For more details, please visit our FAQs. Tom & Judy

@cruisingaussies: Just bear in mind two things. (1) While your timeline should work perfectly (positive PCR on July 7, doctor's appointment and hopefully CoR on July 18, cruise on July 21), I believe that the way the X requirement reads, it only requires that the positive test be 11 or more days prior to the cruise. If the doctor is prepared to give a CoR after 7 days (because you have recovered and are symptom-free), I believe that is adequate. (2) I would be more concerned about you (Brenda) since you could be incubating a case right now and could get a positive result in a few days. For that reason, I just want to emphasize that for either of you, if you are able to produce a proctored negative antigen test prior to the cruise, that is sufficient. When we boarded at the end of April, I had a positive PCR from more than 11 days prior to the cruise and a CoR, but because I was able to produce a negative antigen test from the day before the cruise, I never had to go through the hassle of trying to use the CoR. My concern (as explained somewhere above in this thread) was that the doctor's CoR was rather wishy-washy, even suggesting that it could have been a false positive, so it seemed simpler to rely on a negative antigen test if I could get one (which I did). Obviously, check the current requirements on Celebrity's website for your embarkation port - I don't claim to be 100% current on these protocols anymore, since our next cruise is months away. Tom & Judy

We were on a transatlantic on April 30, followed by a British Isles cruise May 14, followed a few days later by a river cruise. So our experience is somewhat recent. On both ocean cruises, it started off with very few people wearing masks (maybe 10% at best). As the days went by, more and more people started wearing masks - maybe word was spreading that people were getting quarantined. By about the 11th day of each cruise, the captain announced that we had hit 3% of passengers testing positive, and either "required" or "requested" that people wear masks outside of the cabin. Quite a few people ignored this. Although we were traveling by ourselves on the ocean cruises, we were meeting good friends on the river cruise. So we wore masks everywhere outside the cabin, sat in the most remote area of the theater, etc., because we did not want to get sick and miss the river cruise. It worked out for us, but others who were just as careful (like @Jim_Iain on a different ship) nevertheless got Covid. Anyway, in our fairly recent experience, you would have plenty of company either being careful or not being careful, and nobody is going to give you the stink eye either way. Or maybe I should modify that, nobody will give you the stink eye unless you are coughing all the time and not wearing a mask. Tom & Judy

Others with a medical background can give a better answer, but my (lay) understanding is that the current variants are highly contagious, and that shots and boosters don't really protect you against becoming infected; they just protect you against becoming seriously ill. Since we went on three cruises in May/June, I have been following all this closely, and there have been multiple reports on the Celebrity boards of people who have been vaccinated and had two boosters nevertheless becoming infected, and some of those took all possible precautions including wearing masks when outside the cabin. So in my mind, there is really nothing you can do to absolutely prevent infection if you are going to live a somewhat normal life - all you can do is improve your chances in the way you do things. In the last two weeks, we have signed up for another river cruise and a European land tour within the next 12 months, so I guess the odds (to us) are good enough to proceed. Tom & Judy

Just be aware that whatever kind of test you use, it must be supervised/proctored and give you results in either printed or electronic form. You can order home tests from the government or from a pharmacy, but you still need to arrange for some kind of proctoring. I haven't done that (we have only used eMed Abbott proctored tests), but I understand that others have done so. On your original question about insurance, though, in our case we are on Medicare with a Medicare supplement plan. I submitted to the supplement insurer the invoice for the tests we bought through eMed.com, and to my surprise they reimbursed us 100%. With eMed or Navica (basically the same operation), you normally need a separate account for each person who is going to take a test. I have heard (but cannot confirm) that you can set up your account so as to allow multiple family members to take the test under the same account, so you could check that out. We have observed others taking the test on a phone, but we have only done ours on laptops. In my opinion, laptops are easier, but others probably differ on that view. Tom & Judy

Yes, I don't know if it is quite fair to say that you "should have" listened to warnings about Flights by Celebrity." This spring we had B2B Celebrity cruises followed by a river cruise and extension ending in Prague. The first Celebrity cruise was a transatlantic, so we just booked one way domestic tickets to FLL. To get home from Prague, we decided to use AA miles to purchase BA business class tickets the first day they became available, 11 months prior. So there was no TA involved, just me using our AA account to purchase BA seats using miles. As we were leaving town the day before flying to FLL, one of the people who was going to be traveling with us on the river cruise called me to alert me to the fact that the short hop flight we were both taking from Prague (PRG to LHR) had been cancelled. I looked at my AA account and my BA account and realized that he was correct. I tried to call BA, but their hold time was estimated in hours. So I called AA and got through, and eventually was able to re-book the short hop for an earlier flight, resulting in an 8 hour layover at LHR. But we got home. My point here is that neither AA nor BA ever notified us of the cancellation of the short hop flight in a timely manner. I don't even remember if we ever heard this directly from the airlines. Fortunately my friend got notice and alerted us. So at least right now, in the world of airline understaffing, the airlines can screw this up all on their own, without needing Flights by Celebrity to screw it up for them. Tom & Judy

We have taken 8 Celebrity cruises, with maybe the last 5 of them being in suites. We took one Oceania cruise last October, in a Concierge Veranda on the Marina (one of their larger ships). We booked another cruise with Oceania while on board, the Panama Canal for next year. Since you have done several cruises in the Celebrity Retreat, our experience might be relevant. We really enjoyed the Oceania cruise, but based on what we heard from our TA, we expected to be blown away by the food. We were not (although we might be in the minority on this). The fact that one visit to each of the specialty restaurants was included was great, and the specialty restaurants were truly outstanding. But we were not that impressed with the main dining room, where we ate the bulk of our meals. In fairness, we were comparing the Oceania main dining room with Luminae, so maybe it is not a fair comparison. But for whatever it is worth, that was our reaction. As a separate point, we found the Oceania O Life cruise fares options to be truly confusing. I know lots of people complain about the Celebrity IT department (rightly so) but you have to really spend some time figuring out O Life. Fortunately, there are some very useful threads on the Oceania boards that help with this. But just for starters, you can book in multiple ways that are not obvious from the website: without O Life, with O Life including airfare, with O Life without airfare, and with airfare but without O Life. Whereas you can sometimes find good Business Class airfares through Celebrity Air, everyone will tell you that if you intend to book Business Class, you should book your cruise with Oceania without airfare, because otherwise you in effect pay for economy airfare plus your Business Class tickets. And then the O Life options take some explaining. We chose the excursions option, which worked for us. Really heavy drinkers might choose the beverage package option. But nobody should choose the onboard credit option, because in doing so you are really just converting your cash into non-refundable credit (dollar for dollar, i.e., there is no extra OBC applied. Tom & Judy

@Jim_Iain: I assume that you are 100% right, and if it were me I would act on that assumption. However, I note that the OP is referring to language under the Alaska Cruisetour section of the Country Requirements that says: All Celebrity Cruises requires all guests ages 2 and older to present a digital or physical copy of a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 2 days of the land tour start date. This test may be taken as either an Antigen or PCR test and is not required to be monitored testing. In light of this, I am left with some uncertainty as to what exactly the requirement is, and why Celebrity might have written a different rule for Alaska Cruisetours. Tom & Judy

We have used the big box TA on a number of cruises. I am sure that this will improve as time goes on, but during the pandemic, they were so understaffed that you could not get through to them. I would call at different times of the day, and many times I would get a greeting that would end with them saying that they could not take the call right now, please try back later. When I didn't get that message, I would sometimes have to wait an hour on old to get through. So when we booked a new cruise onboard last month, we sent that reservation to someone else. Tom & Judy