bremenkat

We have a Celebrity cruise booked for this summer on Ascent which we are looking forward to trying. So far we have only cruised with Celebrity in balcony rooms. 
However our  next cruise after that is with Azamara. We got a fantastic deal from a TA including flights, pre cruise stay etc so are looking forward to trying another line. 
 

17 hours ago, deliver42 said:

It's on specific sailings and specific ships. Unfortunately. my Ascent cruise isn't one of them

Keep checking as I was just able to get the deal on my Ascent cruise which is next August. The price had dropped from a few hours ago. 

It will depend on what month you travel. August is the big holiday month for most of Europe so if you are travelling then you can expect more Europeans to be on the ship. 
When we did the Med in August a few years ago we departed from Rome and there were quite a lot of Italians on the ship. 
British were the largest group at that time of year. There were also quite a lot of Aussies and Kiwis as they were escaping their winter. Less Americans on our particular cruise. 

You should be able to see it in the app under dining. It was in one of the tabs at the top when we cruised in July. 

A few weeks ago now but we were on the Silhouette 16-23 July when my husband caught Covid. He was moved to deck 3 and there was a number of people there who had been moved due to having Covid. He was moved so that my daughter and could still move around the ship (with masks on as we were both testing negative). My daughter tested positive the day before we got off and she was given the choice of being moved or staying in our cabin. She stayed with me but that meant I wasn’t  allowed to leave the room even though I was still negative. 

We had drinks service on the Silhouette in July. On the lower level they were coming round taking your orders and there was also a table at the entrance where you could get drinks from. 

In July ( on the Silhouette) they were asking to see the cards each time. A couple of people tried to show their packages on the phones when they boarded as they hadn’t yet been to their cabin to get their cards. Each time they were told they would accept it this time but they needed their card for future drinks. 
 

In July there was a mixture. Saw some DJ’s and long dresses also saw smart polo shirts with normal trousers. 
So you will be fine whichever you choose. 

1 hour ago, matmoo said:

Bremenkat, did you obtain your test kit from Chronomics? If not where did you get it please. TIA

Yes I ordered it online from them. It cost £25 for the supervised lft test 

https://www.chronomics.com/us-travel-testing

My husband has had issues with this on the app as well. It shows our Sept cruise but not the one we are going in this weekend. 
We tried adding the reservation, deleting the app and then reinstalling etc. Nothing worked. 

It will now show the cruise after searching for the cruise through the ship but not as if he is sailing on it i.e he could not check in on the app. It doesn’t show all the options and he won’t be able to use his phone as a key. 

5 hours ago, Rustyman said:

Our flight is at lunchtime from Edinburgh and we have to test beforehand. We could manage a 9am test but unfortunately the earliest available near us is 9:30 which is too tight.

So I’ve looked at home testing, I see the testing has to be supervised. This being the case does anyone know if Officialrapidtests.com are acceptable? If not can you recommend an acceptable UK based home test company? We cruise in less than 3 weeks.

As long as it is supervised it should be fine. Celebrity advised me that it didn’t matter which company as long it was supervised and they issued a certificate.
We used Chronomics today for our supervised test. We could log on from 9am onwards - you don’t book a slot just connect and they allocate you someone. We had someone online within a couple of mins and results through within 10 mins of sending the photo through to them. 

It may well come back again. I uploaded the vaccination records for my husband and I this morning but when I went to upload our daughters records, the option had disappeared. I checked again a little while ago and the option was back again. So I uploaded hers whilst I could. 

Whether you need a health form or not depends on what certificate of vaccination you have. If your certificate is not acceptable you still have to complete the form 

All passengers arriving in Spain by air (except children under 12 years of age and those in international transit), regardless of the country of origin, including Spaniards returning to their home, must have one of these documents:

• DIGITAL COVID CERTIFICATE OR EU EQUIVALENT  vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative certificate of an active infection diagnostic test or a certificate of recovery after passing the disease. You can check if your certificate is valid on the website  https://spth.gob.es or in the Spain Travel Health app -SpTH- (Android, iOS, Huawei).

  Upon arrival at the airport follow the signals indicating the ORANGE WAY .

• QR SPTH . If you do not have the EU Digital COVID Certificate or EU equivalent, you must fill in the SPTH Health Control Form manually entering the data of your vaccination, recovery or diagnostic test certificate through the website https://spth.gob.es  or the Spain Travel Health application -SpTH- (Android, iOS, Huawei). The system will send you a QR code that you will have to present both prior boarding, and upon your arrival in Spain. In the health control, you may be required to present this document certifying vaccination, diagnostic test or recovery.

  Upon arrival at the airport follow the signals indicating the BLUE WAY .

The UK certificates are acceptable. Below is the link to the page where you can upload your info to see if your certificate is acceptable or if you need to complete the form 

https://spth.gob.es/spain-validator

Below is the message I sent to Celebrity and the response I got from Jack. 

Hello

I have just seen the updated Southampton travel requirements for this summer. As up to date guests we have to take a pre-arrival test. On the website it only provides details of a test kit provided in the US. 
Can you advise which kits we can use for UK customers? Are there any restrictions on the companies we can use as there are various suppliers in the UK who offer tests with digital/hard copy certificates? 

Many thanks

Hi 

Thank you for your message,

We do not have any recommended providers for the UK.

As long as they provide your result on a certificate that can be emailed to you that is perfect.

Thanks,

Jack

so definitely not going to be US FDA approved but then even the info on Celebrity UK is geared more to the US than the UK. 

Just now, Stu UK said:

I am U.K. based and doing a short May cruise on Silhouette not including Spain. I understand that I need to test in the two days prior to testing. Has anyone established if it’s a supervised / Celebrity accredited test or can it be a self administered LFT ( non NHS).  

I contacted Celebrity as well to clarify which companies we needed to use in the UK to get the test done. Apparently as long as they provide a certificate (either digital or hard copy) it doesn’t matter who we use. 
A lot of the companies will provide a certificate if you take the test at home and send them through a photo of your result. So it doesn’t look as if we have to be monitored taking the test. Iwonder if that is because the UK and Europe have dropped mostof the restrictions now if you are vaccinated? 

The wording on the RCCL website is a bit clearer.  I would have thought Celebrity would be the same. 
 

Required Testing for Guests Sailing on Transatlantic Cruises departing from the U.S.

Required Pre-Cruise Testing   

Before arriving on boarding day, all guests on transatlantic sailings departing from the U.S. need to take a COVID-19 test on your own, at your own expense, to meet boarding requirements.

Most transatlantic guests must show a negative result for a PCR or antigen test taken no more than 1 day before boarding day. This is due to a requirement from the government of Spain for ships that visit the country. Guests on the May 2 Anthem of the Seas sailing to the U.K. will have 2 days to complete this test.  

International guests flying into the U.S. must complete a PCR test taken within 1 day of flying. If timed properly, this same PCR test result could satisfy Royal Caribbean’s boarding day requirement, except on sailings that touch Spain. Learn more about this requirement.   

Have questions about which tests are accepted?  

READ OUR DETAILED FAQ ON ACCEPTED TESTS.  

Additional Testing  

In addition to the pre-cruise test, guests whose vaccination status is not up to date will require additional testing to be completed onboard during the course of the sailing. For details on vaccination requirements to be considered up to date, please visit our Vaccine Requirement FAQ.  

During the Cruise 

• For cruises visiting or ending in Spain  
  Guests whose vaccination status is not up to date will be required to take an antigen test onboard every 4 days for the duration of the sailing, beginning on the 4th day following boarding day. 

• For cruises visiting or ending in the Netherlands 
  Guests whose vaccination status is not up to date will be required to take an antigen test onboard every 4 days for the duration of the sailing, beginning on the 4th day following boarding day. 

• For cruises visiting or ending in Italy, France, Portugal and Belgium 
  Guests whose vaccination status is not up to date will be required to take a COVID-19 test onboard. The test may be a PCR test taken 48 hours after embarking or an HRS test taken 24 hours after embarking. Guests who are not vaccinated with an European Medicines Agency (EMA) authorized vaccine (as well as CoviShield in Belgium) will be considered unvaccinated and will need to complete additional testing before going ashore.  

Prior to Disembarking  

• Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands  
  Guests whose vaccination status is not up to date will be required to take an antigen test onboard 24 hours prior to disembarking in Barcelona, Amsterdam, or Rome. 

The U.K. does not currently require additional testing on transatlantic cruises departing the U.S. and visiting or ending in the U.K. 

so if you are up to date with your vaccinations no test should be needed to go into Spain. You will just need to complete the health form for individuals which can be found under the arriving by ferry on the Spanish site. 

You only need to take a test before entering Spain if you are arriving from a high risk country and have not been vaccinated. Currently there are no countries on their high risk list. 

When we docked there the other year, the first people were allowed off about 7-7.30am.

We were recommended not to get a flight before midday to be on the safe side. Flying to the UK we would have been more than fine with a flight at that time. It took us less than an hour to get to the airport and we had a car waiting at the port for us. 
There were long queues to get through security and it wasn’t the best organised airport I have ever used. 
 

If you book your test through Eurofins you don’t have to pay anything. Celebrity handle it all. 
I would book as soon as you get the link to do so. There maybe limited slots available at some locations. My in laws are on the 9th July cruise and I had to book theirs for them as they don’t have internet etc. They are going to a travel agents to get the test done and there were limited slots for that day. For example there was 1 slot at 9.10am, 1 at 9.20am then 1 at 11.10am then the next one was 1.40pm. So if 2 or more if you are travelling you will want to try and get slots next to each other. 

I was on a call with a travel agent and a member of Celebrity last night.
At the moment re the Caribbean they are hoping that their first cruise there will on Edge sailing 3rd July. It would be probably be sailing at 50% capacity. Masks would have to be worn in certain areas until such restrictions are lifted. 
Re Europe they are not sure yet. It will depend on whether other countries accept ships as well as virus rates etc. They are still hoping to do the season they currently have. 
They said it will be the newer ships that are likely to be back sailing first. 

We are being messed about with our booking as well. I followed up with our travel agent as we have 3 in one of our cabins. We were told that if we could not get our original cabin back then we would be upgraded. 

We then got an email today from Celebrity via our TA saying that we have been given another cabin. Moved from deck 7 to 8 and from a 2A to a 2B (based on the current deck plans). Our previous cabin is now a 2 berth but the cabin 2 rooms along is showing as a 3 berth for future cruises and is available for our cruise!

So our travel agent may have just received a sharp email from me informing them of my annoyance with our new allocation!

We did this when we finished our cruise in Rome. We were allowed to stay on board until about 3pm.

I booked it through Celebrity in advance (even though our cruise was booked through a TA). We could put our luggage out later in the evening - I think it was 11pm though our steward was getting concerned that they didn’t have our luggage and they asked for it several times. I had to show him the letter in the end saying luggage was to go out later. You just keep hand luggage with you. 

I think there was about 30 of us that stayed late at the end of our cruise. We had to all report in that morning and we had a brief period where we couldn’t get drinks, use the pool etc. Non alcoholic drinks were included in the price we paid but we had to pay for any alcohol we wanted. 

We booked a transfer to the airport for 3.30pm though in fact we were picked up about 15 mins before that. It took about 1hour 10 mins to get to the airport so had plenty of time before our flight.

i am not sure what they charge now, I think it was about £ 30 when we did it a couple of years ago but we thought it was worth it. Especially as we had done several days in Rome before the cruise so didn’t want to go back in again.

It was lovely having an empty ship for a few hours and found it amusing to hear some boarding passengers comment on how some people were lying out in the sun already and they were surprised we weren’t exploring the ship!

We stayed in 1120 doing the med 2 years ago. There was only 3 of us in the room so our daughter used the sofa bed rather than the pullout. She found the bed really comfy unlike the sofa bed on Eclipse. It will only sleep one.

We enjoyed the large balcony as it gave us more space and plenty of room for the extra chair our steward got for us. We got a fair bit of sunlight at the front of the balcony and mainly shade at the back. I did find it almost humid at the back on occasions. We didn't get a lot of breeze even though it was forward facing. But that could be because of where we were cruising.

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We did the Baltic's cruise from Southampton 3 years ago in music August and had fantastic weather most of the time. Could lie by the pool on all but the last sea day.

Mid 20's most of the the time so never needed the layers we took. The cruise before though had mainly rain and overcast days.

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Nothing showing up now on the UK site after the TA in April 2019.

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