TFree

Hi @cangelmd: sounds like you were on Jonathan’s Giants Causeway tour with us. We were among the maskers. Wish we had met you. I cannot say that I was really surprised by this morning’s announcement by the captain. I think it was about day 11 of the transatlantic cruise when we got the same announcement. I think maybe the cruise lines are coming to different conclusions about how to move forward. Unless it has changed recently, I understand that Viking (at least for river cruises) is testing people every day. Next week we will be on a Uniworld river cruise, and to the best of my understanding, they are requiring proof of vaccination, but not any testing, presumably on the theory that the countries they will be traveling in do not require it, so why should they? Celebrity‘s approach, I am beginning to think, is somewhat akin to “don’t ask, don’t tell.“ They require you to show a negative test to get on board, (maybe they are required to do so because they are selling large ships, I don’t know). But after that, they are not requiring B2B testing. They are not saying much, if anything, about Covid case count, until a threshold is reached. If you buy or get a voucher for a test kit from Celebrity, they will not deliver it to you until after you are in the terminal getting your baggage. So they really don’t seem anxious to find out about cases on board. This is one way to move toward normalization of the necessity of living with the virus. There is lots of room for argument as to whether this is the best approach. Tom & Judy

It is a space up on the walkway where books make up part of the content of the shelving unit. My interpretation is that, by design or by guest action, this has become a “take one, leave one“ type library. There is no mechanism to check out books, so I feel pretty confident you can just take one and return it later, or put another one in there in its place. Tom & Judy

I just discovered a small library on Apex, on the walkway above the Eden performance space. There are about 50 books on the shelves. Tom & Judy

Also, bear in mind that some travel providers (including Celebrity) require not only that the positive results be from a supervised test, not a pure home test, but also that it must be a positive PCR test. Antigen tests would not be acceptable to Celebrity, at least as I understand it. So a proctored EMed test would not be good enough. So be sure to check the details if you are trying to rely on a Certificate of Recovery. Tom & Judy

We are on the B2B. They did NOT reinstate B2B testing. It WAS true that masks were required of everyone for the last few days of the TA. It was not really enforced very much, but that was the policy. Now that we have started a new cruise, there is apparently no requirement or request for passengers to wear masks. We are sitting in the theatre right now for Claire Maidin’s show. From where I am sitting, I can only see a handful of passengers wearing masks (including us). Tom & Judy

At least as of the time we boarded the first of our B2B cruises on April 30, the time period for a certificate of recovery was 11 to 90 days in some locations, and 11 to 180 days in others. So be sure to check the time limit in the place where you will be boarding. The answer is that a certificate of recovery SHOULD excuse you from having to have a pre-boarding test. See the discussion of this question at the thread linked below, and in particular my update in post number 48. Tom & Judy

I asked the retreat concierge here on the Apex transatlantic, and what he said suggests that while this is a fleet wide company policy, it still might not apply in every case. He said, for example, if there is a heavy load of Covid cases on a particular ship, they might decide to have back to back testing. Or, if local rules in the turnaround port require testing, then they would have to do testing. I know that this answer is not quite as definitive as people might like, but it seems that this is the new general corporate policy. Tom & Judy

I can’t confirm that as of now. If I find an appropriate person to ask, I will see if I can get an answer. As someone else mentioned, we are currently on the Apex transatlantic to Amsterdam. Tom & Judy

Guest Relations here on the Apex says no B2B testing. So it looks as if this really is the new policy. Everyone here on board is pretty quiet about Covid cases. They will acknowledge, if asked, that there are a “small number” of cases on board, but I have heard no official announcements. Tom & Judy