lostchild

8 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

this cruise was a close to 100% as you can get...it was the first and it had two positive results. Sorry but not that remote and it will be a very long time before children of all ages can be and will be tested so those cruises that cater to families will never be 100%,

I think this kind of things will happen even with 100% vaccination on the cruise.  When it is required to have procedural testing (not because of symptoms), you are going to get some positives in a large pool of people traveling.  You don't just teleport directly from home to the cruise.  You have air travel, transportation, hotel, restaurants, etc... in between.   The cruise maybe 100% vaccinated, but the world is not.   There are probably a lot of vaccinated people cannot get on a flight to the US because they tested positive for covid.   But you don't see that on the news.   This is why I am not doing any international travel until routine covid testing is not required for vaccinated/asymptomatic person. 

My family coming from UK did that on purpose last time we cruised out from Ft. Lauderdale.  It was closer to the airport they came in (MIA) and Miami beaches are more famous than Ft. Lauderdale. They went to Miami a few days earlier to enjoy the beaches.    We, on the other hand, just went straight to FLL the night before and stayed at a hotel there like most other folks.

What are they going to do with the results of the contact tracing I wonder.  Just tell them they might be exposed or quarantine them as well for the rest of the trip?

1 hour ago, happy cruzer said:

You would assume that there are backup ways to do all the items that are provided in the App.  After all the APP will "break", people will misplace or break their phone,  etc.  How many times have you seen people in line to get a room card replacement?  I like the medallion on Princess because it is their equipment to maintain and replace 🙂  Everyone is different!

I am sure there will be alternative, but probably less convenient ones.   When I was taking 1st dose of vaccine, they required everyone to schedule the 2nd dose on their phone by scanning the code.   Not everyone has a phone or have data, so the nurse was coming around with a tablet to do it for them.   At most restaurants here, if you don't have a phone to scan the code for the menu, the waiter or waitress will read you the menu.   

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Priced a balcony cabin on Summit July 23 with basic level of AI refundable at $2625 pp all in.  

For comparison, our cancelled 2020 May Alaska cruise on Eclipse was $1833 pp with all the perks (drink package, tip, internet) and a few hundreds cruise credit.

The problem with non vaccinated kids are not as high for health problem but for the risk quarantine when one was found with covid because of symptoms.   My son is currently in quarantine from school because one of his classmate on his sport team tested positive.   That person just got back from Cuncan on a family vacation and came down with symptoms and tested positive after went back to school for a day.   So now everyone in the team and everyone in classes with the team are under quarantine for 10 days.   Our kid is fine without symptoms for 5 days already.   We will be taking him to do a test today.   But because of this exposure, we can't take him to visit grandma on Mother's Day.  We don't want him to pass covid to my nieces and nephews even though all the adults are vaccinated.

I don't want this to happen on a cruise.   I will not go back on a cruise unless the entire ship is vaccinated or if the cruise line will spell out exactly what will happen when someone is found with covid while cruising.

You could order 2 main at Murano.  My wife could not decide between 2 different ones and after hearing she said that,  the waiter just said why don't I bring you both?  This was a few years back though.   We really like Murano and would definitely go back.

The list of Level 4 is now almost the entire world outside of USA.  Canada, Italy, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Russia, etc....   The places that are not level 4 (like Australia) don't want outside tourists.   They should just say Do Not Travel (period) instead of listing all the countries LOL.

4 minutes ago, margie1221 said:

Just wondering... if you don't book a Celebrity-sponsored excursion, you can't get off the ship??

If they let you get off the ship, it would defeat the purpose I think.

15 hours ago, nocl said:

not 8 percent  of the Florida economy it  is .8%

 

the 9% is compared to overall tourism spend.  

 

When it comes to taxes paid  the 89 billion total tourism spend spent in the state  results in 13.3 billion in Federal taxes and 11.4 billion in state and local taxes.  Taxes paid by the cruise industry is an extremely small fraction.

 

To put it simply Disney World has more of an impact on the Florida economy than the entire cruise industry with it generating 18.2 billion in economic impact.

The actual impact may be more than 9%.   My family has visited Disney World and other theme parks at Florida 2 times in the last 6 years.   Both times were because we were there for a cruise and then stay an extra week for the parks.   If we were not there for the cruises, we were not have gone to there just for parks as we live in SoCal.   We already have most of the parks here locally.

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

To your question and points- Here is the fine print from Royal Caribbean in their marketing email yesterday on Adventure of the Seas sailing in June from the Bahamas.  I would bet that Celebrity Millennium has the same fine print.

 

NOTICE: Prior to booking, please consult all applicable U.S. Centers for Disease Control travel advisories, warnings, or recommendations relating to cruise travel, at cdc.gov/travel/notices. If a certain threshold level of COVID-19 is detected onboard the ship during your voyage, the voyage will end immediately, the ship will return to the port of embarkation, and your subsequent travel, including your return home, may be restricted or delayed.

Interesting.  If you go to the Celebrity travel alert site you get a "For US cruises and guests" in front of that and the Millennium cruise is not exactly a US cruise right?   You would think it would belong to "For cruises and guests worldwide".   I guess for this cruise, they are following the US cruise guideline even though it is not an US cruise.

For U.S. cruises and guests: Prior to booking, please consult all applicable U.S. Centers for Disease Control travel advisories, warnings, or recommendations relating to cruise travel, available at http://www.cdc.gov/travel/notices. If a certain threshold level of COVID-19 is detected onboard your cruise ship during your voyage, your voyage will be ended immediately and the ship will return to the port of embarkation, and your subsequent travel, including your return home, may be restricted or delayed. 

For cruises and guests worldwide: Health and safety protocols, guest conduct rules, as well as regional travel restrictions and clearance to visit ports of call, are subject to change without notice based on ongoing evaluation, public health standards, and government requirements. Onboard and destination experiences, features, itineraries and guest conduct rules vary by ship and destination and are subject to change without notice.

Just now, PTC DAWG said:

 

They are ready for "Chic nights"!

If you really like the feel of sweat pants, look into Levi's jeans that has the name "Flex" in it.  They are very stretchy not like regular jeans.  I have black Levi's 512 Flex and they feel just like my Jogger sweat pants.   They are so stretchy that I went one inch smaller and don't have to wear a belt.  They look like designer jeans but feels like sweat pants.

We take one of the ship tours during the day and specialty restaurant for dinner.   We books specialty restaurant for sea days because we would be too tired to eat after shore days excursions.  Those tours are pretty cool.  When we tour the kitchen, we get to know how many lobsters get to die on lobster night LOL.

https://www.amazon.com/Travelon-Travel-Clothes-Line-Black/dp/B007712D4Q

5 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

OK I will state a food opinion.  Always dangerous! 😀 

I am surprised there is so much discussion here over a free scoop of mediocre gelato (and a very small scoop at that).  I do not feel that Celebrity gelato is much different than the always-free ice cream in the Oceanview Cafe.  It is called gelato but compared to real gelato served on land it is a poor substitute.  OK yes that is my opinion and my taste buds I guess.  Some of you might alternatively think it is the best you ever had.  By the way outside of just about anywhere in Italy where have I found the best gelato?  Croatia.  And Quebec City too.  Also had some pretty darn good gelato in Finland.

I would say that you have refined taste buds.  We ate Gelato everyday when we visited Italy each time.  To be honest, I think store bought Haagen-Dazs ice cream tasted about the same other than Haagen-Dazs is sweeter.

49 minutes ago, ExArkie said:

Is "specialty coffee" different from "premium coffee"? The Classic or Premium packages both list "premium", but I found no reference to "specialty."

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/content/dam/celebrity/pdf/beverage-package-flyer-optimized.pdf

 

Maybe they changed it now, but back about 4 years ago, I thought there were certain coffee that Classic package were not included.   I remember getting something for my wife (not Affogato) and my cousin wanted the same but she can't because she had Classic and we had Premium.   The water was different too at the time.  She can only get 16oz generic brand water and we get the big bottle of Evian water.

Just now, memoak said:

Your friend sounds pretty strange

If the bed is not on the right side, it is obviously on the wrong side.   Joking aside, I would also prefer the bed on the right side.   My reason is that when looking at the bed from the foot of the bed, I always sleep on the right side and my wife on the left side.   So in a cabin, if the bed is on the right side after entering, my wife would be closer to the balcony and that's the side she likes.    Happy wife, happy life. 😄

On 2/6/2021 at 6:35 PM, NantahalaCruiser said:

It is included in the Classic Beverage Package and thus now in the Always Included fares.

 

In the past, if you did not have a beverage package you could purchase the Affogato for around $5 or $6 plus the gratuity.

Are you sure?  I thought it is considered specialty coffee so you need to have Premium Beverage Package not just Classic.

3 hours ago, TechieTechie said:

Hi,

 

I am NOT a cruise person, but my Mom really wants to visit Hawaii, and we have family on the West Coast. Thought it might be nice to do a one way cruise from the West Coast to Hawaii...then stay a few extra days to sightsee. Seems like this is not a common itinerary for a luxury line. Am I missing something?

 

Thanks

I don't think it would be much fun to do as a non-cruise person.   It is 5 days of sea days instead of 5 hours flight.   I think most people would rather spend those 5 days at Hawaii.

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

I am starting to wonder who will own these cruise lines?  They had borrowed money to last until the end of March.  Will creditors issue more loans?

 

Will we be sailing Amazon or Bezos Cruises?  

 Elon Musk.  He could buy the luxury line with smaller vessels.  Make them all electric powered by Tesla battery.  The ships will be Full Self Drive so no captain onboard.  Internet will be provided by Starlink.   In the middle of the cruise, the ship will turn into a submarine and go thru a underwater tunnel drilled by the Boring Company.   At the end of the cruise, you will be arriving at a SpaceX launch and take you out to space for a few nights at the SpaceX space hotel.

4 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

Exactly.......  I don't get the big deal about it anyway.  I wear a mask 10 hours a day 5-6 days a week.  Just part of life now and have no issue with doing the same on a ship.

By now, wearing a mask is kind of like wearing my seat belt.   Ordering doordash is like ordering from Amazon.   I think it would be kind of uncomfortable at first when we don't have to wear a mask with people around and eating again at the restaurants...

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

See:  Fake "Service Dog" IDs available, e.g., on Amazon.

You can get a "real" service dog tag really easily here in California.  I know many people got one for their dog so they could take them into shopping malls.   Californians love their dogs. 

If the cruise line is requiring vaccine to board, it is not there to protect you.  You are already mostly protected if you are vaccinated.  It is really there to protect the cruise line.   It is so easy to fake vaccination documents.   I know many parents here in California has fake ones so their kids could go to school.   I look at my kid's vaccination paper and I could print one out just like it with my $50 printer.   And the school or cruise line cannot call to check because of patient privacy law here in California.

I am not saying that the cruise line can't 100% check that everyone is vaccinated.  They probably could, but that's not really their goal.  They are just creating an outlet in case something does happened, then they could say we tried, it is not our fault that someone faked documentation.

48 minutes ago, margo2011 said:

Hello , I am from the UK and our sale of goods act states if you do not receive the service paid for you should receive a full refund within 14 days .

I am considering requesting a charge back as my TA is now saying that once my money is received by them  from Celebrity , I could  be waiting up to 90 days for a cash refund .

My cruise was cancelled by Celebrity on March 23 rd andI called  them a few weeks ago and spoke with a very apologetic Lady who said my TA should refund all monies with 10 days .To add to this confusion they emailed me last week asking for my bank details to help with the refund which I reluctantly gave after checking the email came from the same person I had spoken to but I am worrying as I paid on my credit card not from my bank .Can anyone advise if they have been refunded to a different payment  method .
Whilst I empathise with companies at this sad time I do feel an extra  90 days To wait  is not realistic .I am checking my bank daily in case this was a scam and it is adding to my worry .Thanks In anticipation .

Kind of odd that they don't refund to your credit card (unless your credit card account was closed).   If they issue refund to your bank account directly, they lost the 2 to 3% they paid for the credit card fee.   Also refunding to the credit card establish a record of the refund so you can't do a chargeback later on.   Now if you decided to do a chargeback after you got the money in your bank, your TA will have to prove that they refunded the same person using a different method.