TeeRick

Well testing might go away by then anyway. Time will tell. As for me, I would just get a new Omicron-specific booster vaccine a few weeks before my cruise if available this fall. I am much more stressed of thinking of possible quarantine and isolation by testing positive on board than the stress of a pre-cruise test.

This was your personal advice from your doctor and it related to your own booster timing, age, health, etc. and cruise timing. The current (original) booster is well known to help prevent hospitalizations and serious disease. It is not really very good in preventing actual infections. Waiting for the new one (hopefully!) means better protection from infection with the circulating Omicron variants when you cruise in October.

Interesting. Hard to know if this includes all RCG cruise lines. They tend to go their own way on things like testing, masks, vaccination policy, etc.

Do you have the FCC number? You might need to call them unfortunately.

Dear @LunastellaThank You. Thank You. Thank You. And thanks to DM and DS too. Outstanding review! It should win an award! 🏆

The original Covid virus that ALL of the current vaccines were designed against is very long gone. Current highly infectious Omicron variant strains are really very different and the vaccines used now will not protect against infection. But we will get protection from serious disease. For protection against infection, we need to wait for the Omicron booster vaccines coming out soon. Let's see what happens then.

very interesting points

Some MD's will do this. Many others will not. In general the prescribing guidelines say that you need to be infected with early symptoms.

Probably a good way to get counterfeit Paxlovid. Why would you even consider this?

Thank you for taking the time to write this. We typically do not hear the perspective of the partner to the person in isolation. Your post should be required reading for people about to cruise and worried about the isolation procedures. Yes there is a definite chance this could happen to any one of us.

Not sure what they do in NJ. In Philadelphia, it is usually White American and/or Provolone. And some also add Cheese Whiz. Never Velveeta. I do not like them with Cheese Whiz either. I would not order a cheese martini in any form or in any place. Just gross.

I'm from the Philly area and I don't even eat cheese steaks with Velveeta.

MrsGUk, assuming you are from the UK? I think all children over 5 can get a vaccine there. They will likely need to be vaccinated to cruise. What does Celebrity say for your specific cruise?

Den- showing your age. There are no more records or broken records. No cassettes. No DVDs or CDs. Everything is digital now. But it is OK to repeat yourself. I find I like talking to myself too.😁

At this point with so much Omicron around (all variants), pre-cruise testing does very little to keep the virus off cruise ships. Lots of people are reporting symptoms on ship or just after the cruise. Many more just do not report symptoms for fear of isolation. If pre-cruise testing stops a few infected people from boarding, what does that really accomplish? There are still lots of infected people walking around the ship anyway. So what I personally would like to see is for all passengers and crew members to be required to be "Up To Date" on vaccines versus "Fully Vaccinated". That means 1 or 2 boosters at this point for every adult depending on age and health requirements. And vaccines for children if approved for them. And then in the future, being Up To Date would include a seasonal, strain-specific booster when they become available. That's it. We will take our chances with the vaccines stopping serious disease as they do. They will not stop actual infections so why are we counting on them to do so? Just manage the virus on the ships as everywhere else. No need for pre-cruise testing. Exactly like no need for pre-flight testing. The advantage on ships is that you know everybody on board would be Up To Date.

Maybe ask on your roll call or on the AUS/NZ board. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/48-australia-amp-new-zealand/

Luminae can have invited guests of the suite passenger for Breakfast ($10pp), Lunch ($20pp) or Dinner ($30pp). Clear it with the Maître 'D as @jelayne said.

You can order dinner through room service and have it on your balcony. But no butler to set it up for you if not in a suite.

No knock at all on @Pickelscomments as they reflect what many still believe. Unfortunately what we have been led to believe from the beginning of the pandemic was that COVID would "quiet down". Then happily ever after cruising! This is the mythical COVID-Zero state. First, lock downs, social distancing and masks. We were waiting for herd immunity by natural infections or then by vaccines. Then boosters. Then more boosters. The virus was doing what RNA viruses do- that is mutate and keep infecting. Fortunately we are in the better position now with a much less virulent strain(s). Highly infectious- which helps to out compete more dangerous variants. So it will not calm down and go away. Never really. We must learn to live with it. And cruise with it if we are so inclined.

I guess I missed that. Sorry. Even before COVID I have been on Celebrity cruises where priority tendering was not offered to Elite/Elite+ members. Also, once on Reflection, we were in a sky suite and had to go to Michael's Club to get tender tickets - with no other priority. Line was still very long. So the practices vary by ship I think.

Not sure why you are making the OP's comments into a suite vs non-suite issue.

Edge and other Celebrity ships will use their own tendering boats and crew in many cases, but certain ports require their own local tender boats and operators. I know the Edge tenders are modern and comfortable when they are used.

In your Mom and Dad's situation they had no symptoms, and did a routine screening test for the B2B. But they would not likely be expected to quarantine or isolate waiting for the B2B test result. Only if positive. Not sure why it took all day.

I think you are on track here in dealing with COVID on ship in the future. Eventually people will need to be involved in the self-decision to isolate in their own cabins if they feel ill. As you say, like Noro or anything else. Perhaps that will be more effective than mandatory isolations - as that policy is not really working if people don't report their symptoms because of that threat. There will be very good cruise citizens that self-isolate. Maybe they do a Covid test kit in their cabins. There will be others (in the minority I think) that will ignore everything and go about the ship. I'm not saying that is OK IMO, but this will be a risk that we will have to live with on cruises. I am hoping less of a risk when true variant-specific vaccine boosters are used, and updated every year. The cruise lines cannot go on much longer bearing all the responsibility for quarantine and isolation. Passengers need to take their own responsibility. But cruise ships are also subject to procedures for the ports visited.

I have family members and friends (not judging here) that have refused to get the vaccine. All have come down with COVID at some point (from one or another of the Omicron variants). None of them got serious COVID symptoms. I know others do get very sick. But I think with Omicron variants the cases are milder in near everybody.