Ken the cruiser

Here’s how to upload some of the pictures that are currently in your device’s Photo Gallery. 1. Open a new post in the thread you’re interested in posting to, like this one. Add the text you would like to add. 2. Then click on “choose files”, then “photo library”, at the bottom of your new post . Then select the photos you want to upload. 3. Now, once they’re uploaded to the bottom of your new thread, here’s what you do. Put the cursor anywhere in the new posting you want to Insert a particular picture, then click on the Insert link present in that particular picture. It’s pretty easy. If you want to remove a picture from the pool of pictures you loaded, just click on the X. Hope this helps.

We’re currently booked on a B2B RT Santiago in Jan 2024, with one leg spending 4 days cruising around the Peninsula. Our first time to Antarctica was on the Zaandam back in 2018. But we were wowed so much by that 22 day cruise from BA to Santiago, we just had to go back again, only this time with Princess.

Just saw this article regarding the Polar Code and what appears to be a related Paris Memorandum of Understanding. https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/27734-polar-code-inspection-underway-by-paris-mou.html I wonder if its results will affect Princess’, as well as other cruise lines’, upcoming Antarctica “drive by” cruises where passengers only see Antarctica from afar rather than setting foot on it like on more expensive expedition cruises. If you’ve been following the evolution of the Polar Code as it relates to “drive by” cruising near the shores of Antarctica over the past few years, especially around the peninsula, it’s been an interesting one. At one point the “word on the street” was that all ships would require a Polar Ice Class 6 certification by Jan 1, 2022 or else no cruising past the 60 degree parallel. But as that date came and went, cruise lines such as Azamara, Princess, HAL, Celebrity and NCL seemed to figure out a way to navigate through the various aspects of the Polar Code with regards to “drive by” cruises. Not quite sure what the ramifications, if any, are going to be once the Paris MOU inspections are done, but thought some might be interested, especially if you’re like us and have a “drive by” cruise booked in 2023 and beyond.

FWIW using our Celebrity App, we just checked in for our Aug 7th Summit cruise, minus adding the Health and Safety portion we do within 24 hours of boarding, with the result being an Express Pass being generated which we will show the folks at the terminal when we actually check in. Of course, we will also have our CDC cards, passports and negative antigen test results in hand. Not quite sure why we would need to bring a paper copy of our cruise boarding pass, but I’m sure my DW will have it just in case as well.

According to @Trash Queen on the July 18 Regal Roll Call, who appears to be a B2B, they did not test. ATHENS: 1. They did not test us for COVID or anything else last night, nor did they this morning. That is for continuing passengers; I have no idea if those disembarking had to get tested or not.

I guess I’m wondering if Greece doesn’t require a negative test anymore to fly into Athens, why not just wait to take the “free” antigen test at the terminal prior to boarding?

We’re scheduled to board the Jade in Athens the middle of November and just read this “interesting” pre-cruise testing requirement limitation, which no other cruise line we cruise with stipulates. Now, it’s awhile before our ship sails, but it got us to thinking. We can use one of our home tests before we leave to make sure we don’t have C19, then get the NCL sponsored antigen test administered for free at the pier. In addition this might explain why when some passengers checked in at the Athens terminal prior to boarding, they were issued the antigen test regardless of whether or not they had the results of a valid (medically supervised or proctored test) in hand. Or are we reading this wrong?? 🤔 For cruises embarking in Greece: all guests ages 2 and older must show proof of negative NAAT (PCR) performed 72 hours prior to embarkation or Antigen test performed 48 hours prior to embarkation. Medically supervised or proctored self-tests will not be accepted. If guest does not show proof of a valid test, an antigen test will be administered at the terminal covered by Norwegian. http://ncl-drupal6.ncl.com:9050/travel-requirements-by-country

Agree. We've been on 4 Celebrity B2Bs (72 days in all) since cruising started back up and we had to upgrade to Premium, if we weren't booked in a Suite AND there were at least 1100+ passengers onboard, in order to even log onto CC. But when we did, the service was more than adequate.

Our first Princess cruise was an 18 day Panama Canal cruise last month in an aft-facing vista suite and we had a wonderful time and have no issues with sailing with Princess again. In fact we’re booked on the Regal for 21 days starting Jul 2 in a CC mini-suite, which I will be posting the highlights in a “Live From” thread!

Glad to hear you weren't knocked offline while doing internet "stuff" in your cabin. It was quite annoying, especially when my DW was sending an email with a large attachment (5 mb) and would continually lose the connection (on a daily basis) to the router during the middle of the "sending" process. Although back then, you only paid to upgrade if you wanted to stream, like watching a movie online. But you still received the same bandwidth service as if you were still using the "free" service. At least on Celebrity when you pay the additional fee for Premium, your bandwidth is usually double or triple the speed of the Basic internet service.

We used to cruise with Oceania. But on our last cruise in the fall of 2018, which was 45 days, our internet-enabled devices would get knocked off the router near our cabin about every 2-3 minutes, which was really annoying. Why? Because about 2 months early, O HQ decided to give every stateroom on the ship one free internet account without upgrading their router capacity. It wasn’t too big of deal on the smaller R class ships. But on their larger O class ships, it was a total different story. BTW the internet speed was fine. It was just staying connected to the nearby router that was the issue. Maybe they’ve upgraded their router capacities since then, no idea as we have moved on.

FWIW here’s the link I’ve been periodically checking to see if any more pre-cruise testing requirement changes get posted to the CDC Cruise Ship Travel Guidance document, last updated on June 13th. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/cruise-travel-during-covid19.html

Makes sense when it comes to the second C19 booster shot. However, the CDC does include some special situations other than focusing on folks over 50 years old. nCoV_template_PPT_GEN_PUB (cdc.gov)

It sounds like you’re having a great time and we’re looking forward to following along. If I might ask, are you using the Celebrity Basic or Premium internet package. On earlier cruises where there were over 1100-1200 passengers onboard, logging onto CC was a big pain unless you had purchased the Premium internet package.

As a thread on the CC Princess forum. Here’s our itinerary. https://www.princess.com/search-cruise/details/?voyageCode=G228B

Hopefully, that's not the case and @CruzerDebis just having too great of time on her cruise and just hasn't had the time to post as of late. I hope that's the case anyway. 🤞 We'll be boarding the Regal in a little over a week in Barcelona for our 21 day family cruise around the Med and plan to post to a "Live from" thread daily.

This might be a little dated, but here is a link to a “Live From …” thread I did back in August when we were on the Edge on a B3B in a sky suite for 21 days in the Caribbean. I tried to take a lot of pictures of the various entertainment venues we visited, among other things. 😁

FWIW CDC just added an alternative today, June 22, to quarantining an up-to-date vaccinated passenger, most likely for those that were traced, but tested negative. Notice the difference between those that have been "fully vaccinated" versus those that are "up-to-date" on their vaccines. Note: I know it's not what some folks are looking for with regards to potential pre-cruising testing requirement changes. But it definitely helps if you were "traced" while on a cruise to someone that did test positive. Hopefully, those potential CDC pre-cruise testing modifications are just around the corner. One can hope anyway. 🤞🤞 Onboard COVID-19 Testing for Symptomatic Travelers (Crew and Passengers) and Testing and Quarantine of Close Contacts Travelers Who Are Not Up to Date on their COVID-19 Vaccinations Travelers Who Are Up to Date on their COVID-19 Vaccinations Testing of Travelers with Signs and Symptoms of COVID-19 NAAT Viral (NAAT or antigen) Negative antigen test must be confirmed with NAAT Testing and Quarantine of Asymptomatic Close Contacts without Documentation of Recovery in Past 90 Days Testing: Viral (NAAT or antigen, NAAT preferred) immediately and on day 10 before ending quarantine Quarantine: until at least 10 days after their last exposure (the day of last close contact is counted as day 0). *Alternatively, cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may opt to quarantine these travelers until 5 days after their last exposure followed by 5 days of daily viral testing. **See guidance above for masking and dining requirements Testing: Viral (NAAT or antigen, NAAT preferred) immediately and on day 5 before ending quarantine Quarantine: until at least 5 days after their last exposure (the day of last close contact is counted as day 0) *Alternatively, cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may opt to test these travelers with a viral test daily until 5 days after their last exposure in lieu of a 5-day quarantine. **See guidance above for masking and dining requirements Testing and Quarantine of Asymptomatic Close Contacts with Documentation of Recovery in Past 90 Days Testing: Not Applicable Quarantine: Not Applicable Technical Instructions for Mitigation of COVID-19 Among Cruise Ship Crew | Quarantine | CDC

FWIW CDC just added an alternative today, June 22, to quarantining an up-to-date vaccinated passenger, most likely for those that were traced, but tested negative. Notice the difference between those that have been "fully vaccinated" versus those that are "up-to-date" on their vaccines. Onboard COVID-19 Testing for Symptomatic Travelers (Crew and Passengers) and Testing and Quarantine of Close Contacts Travelers Who Are Not Up to Date on their COVID-19 Vaccinations Travelers Who Are Up to Date on their COVID-19 Vaccinations Testing of Travelers with Signs and Symptoms of COVID-19 NAAT Viral (NAAT or antigen) Negative antigen test must be confirmed with NAAT Testing and Quarantine of Asymptomatic Close Contacts without Documentation of Recovery in Past 90 Days Testing: Viral (NAAT or antigen, NAAT preferred) immediately and on day 10 before ending quarantine Quarantine: until at least 10 days after their last exposure (the day of last close contact is counted as day 0). *Alternatively, cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may opt to quarantine these travelers until 5 days after their last exposure followed by 5 days of daily viral testing. **See guidance above for masking and dining requirements Testing: Viral (NAAT or antigen, NAAT preferred) immediately and on day 5 before ending quarantine Quarantine: until at least 5 days after their last exposure (the day of last close contact is counted as day 0) *Alternatively, cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may opt to test these travelers with a viral test daily until 5 days after their last exposure in lieu of a 5-day quarantine. **See guidance above for masking and dining requirements Testing and Quarantine of Asymptomatic Close Contacts with Documentation of Recovery in Past 90 Days Testing: Not Applicable Quarantine: Not Applicable Technical Instructions for Mitigation of COVID-19 Among Cruise Ship Crew | Quarantine | CDC

FWIW CDC just added an alternative today, June 22, to quarantining an up-to-date vaccinated passenger, most likely for those that were traced, but tested negative. Notice the difference between those that have been "fully vaccinated" versus those that are "up-to-date" on their vaccines. Onboard COVID-19 Testing for Symptomatic Travelers (Crew and Passengers) and Testing and Quarantine of Close Contacts Travelers Who Are Not Up to Date on their COVID-19 Vaccinations Travelers Who Are Up to Date on their COVID-19 Vaccinations Testing of Travelers with Signs and Symptoms of COVID-19 NAAT Viral (NAAT or antigen) Negative antigen test must be confirmed with NAAT Testing and Quarantine of Asymptomatic Close Contacts without Documentation of Recovery in Past 90 Days Testing: Viral (NAAT or antigen, NAAT preferred) immediately and on day 10 before ending quarantine Quarantine: until at least 10 days after their last exposure (the day of last close contact is counted as day 0). *Alternatively, cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may opt to quarantine these travelers until 5 days after their last exposure followed by 5 days of daily viral testing. **See guidance above for masking and dining requirements Testing: Viral (NAAT or antigen, NAAT preferred) immediately and on day 5 before ending quarantine Quarantine: until at least 5 days after their last exposure (the day of last close contact is counted as day 0) *Alternatively, cruise ship operators, at their discretion, may opt to test these travelers with a viral test daily until 5 days after their last exposure in lieu of a 5-day quarantine. **See guidance above for masking and dining requirements Testing and Quarantine of Asymptomatic Close Contacts with Documentation of Recovery in Past 90 Days Testing: Not Applicable Quarantine: Not Applicable Technical Instructions for Mitigation of COVID-19 Among Cruise Ship Crew | Quarantine | CDC

Thanks Rick! Hopefully, being over 65, we’ll be able to take it in the Fall as our next booster before our 38 day NCL cruise, even though up to now we’ve only taken Pfizer shots. Unfortunately, FT wants me to subscribe to read the article. Here’s a similar one from NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/08/1103659340/moderna-vaccine-booster-omicron

Here's the Cruise Hive article posted today. Carnival-Owned Cruise Line Temporarily Drops Pre-Departure Testing (cruisehive.com)

Just finished watching this YouTube video by La Lido Loca where among other cruise stories, which were quite informative, he first discussed in a little more detail the issue regarding CDC reevaluating the pre-cruise testing requirement.

I'm just going to speak to the cabin itself. I'll let others talk about the other amenities. We just spent 18 days on the Caribbean Princess in an aft-facing vista suite, the smallest cabins in their suite class, and loved it! As far as the cabin goes, it's more like a Celebrity suite with a separate sleeping area. There is a separate walk-in shower AND a full-size tub. There is even a separate room for the sink and toilet. Also, our aft-facing balcony was the width of the cabin, roughly 20', and about 10' feet deep, fully covered! I'm not aware of any Celebrity aft-facing suites offering a fully covered balcony.

There you go. I agree.