higgib

We got a concierge cabin through ‘Move Up’. We were not told the time of the embarkation lunch and nobody thought to check that we would be on board in time. Also Southampton was rammed when we arrived so by the time we got on board we’d missed lunch. There were no binoculars, umbrella or hairdryer in our cabin and we had to go down to the concierge office to get some. We were not offered sparkling wine or the pillow menu, and only realised that these should have been available when it was too late to have them. All in all, I’m glad we didn’t pay full price for the concierge cabin as I’d have been devastated. My husband said that what we did have was the most expensive cubes of cheese we’d ever had! 

On 7/24/2022 at 4:59 PM, busymumofthree said:

Hi All

 

I am a long time poster - I think I've been here for over 10 years and we've now done 11 cruises with Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, P&O and Princess.  We love cruising.  The time allowed for me to complete my Celebrity survey has expired and I want to share some thought son our experience on the ship - both as a warning to other passengers and as feedback to Celebrity - I'm sure you're reading this. 

 

We were on the Celebrity Reflection out of Rome on 13th June, for 11 nights.  Everyone had to provide proof of a negative test from within the last 48 hours and I'm sure you all know the rules about vaccinated/ up to date etc - so all of the right precautions were taken by everyone on board.

 

Before we sailed we were aware that if you tested positive while on board you had to isolate, but I think we didn't know the details.  We knew that Covid rates on all ships according to the CDC's list of 94 ships under their watch were running on average at 1 to 2%.  So with a passenger cohort of around 2000, just less on our sailing, the chances of catching it were very small and not at a high enough risk for us to consider cancelling - it was very unlikely to happen to us.  

 

But although the chances are small, the consequences are HUGE.

 

Each day the captain makes an announcement at some point about health and safety on board.  His typical comment would be ' we have 2 passengers tested positive today and they are fine and they are being looked after'.   At no point does he say exactly how many in total have Covid and how many are in isolation.  Latterly, we understood that 19 passengers from the previous cruise were positive and had to stay on for this cruise, and the most we heard about was 50 at one time in isolation (both passengers and crew).  This came directly from one of the medical team who visit each 'isolatee' each day.  At the change over of our cruise, we understood that there were 35 passengers in isolation needing to stay on - this comes from observation in the venue were all of the partners were gathered on disembarkation day to find out our new cabin assignments for the next cruise.

 

Our sequence of events was that on day 7 of the 11 night cruise, my husband had a sore throat and a headache and thought he might have Covid.  The instructions given to passengers are very clear - if you have any Covid type symptoms phone the medical centre - it is the right thing to do and we still think that.  We are certain that not everyone on board followed this - there were many coughers and sneezers around the ship.  We went to the medical centre, my husband tested positive and was told, nicely and professionally, that he had to pack immediately and would be escorted to isolation.  Within 10 minutes 2 crew from housekeeping arrived to take his luggage and he was taken down via the crew access corridors to deck 6, to a cabin with a balcony, where he did not leave the cabin for 10 whole days.  

 

Under the balconies of deck 6 is the promenade deck so depending on the location of your partner along that deck you could be lucky and be able to have a chat.  Not so for us - my husband's cabin was above some kind of big blue engineering structure which meant we could see each other at a distance but could not talk - we relied on speaking on the phone.  So at least I saw him most days, at a distance of maybe 30 feet.  I say most days as the access to that deck was on occasion, seemingly frequently, blocked for maintenance, disembarkation, the chance of winds....  

 

For both the 'isolatee' and their partner, Celebrity immediately upgraded the Wi-Fi from basic to premium - this was much appreciated as it was then possible to keep in touch with family back home on video calls.

 

The quality of meals delivered to my husband was brilliant if sometimes entertaining - eg 4 boiled eggs for breakfast one day! - but the dining room menu was available to him.

 

The standard spiel from Celebrity is that all movies including pay for view movies would be available.  Reflection had the worst TV and Movie options of any ship I've ever been on and there were no pay for view movies.  And even the premium Wi-Fi is nowhere near good enough to stream on your Netflix account.

 

The CDC protocols changed during my husband's isolation - it was the case that you need TWO negative tests on consecutive days after day 5 to be 'released' but it changed to being ONE negative test after day 7.  In any event, it didn't matter to us as my husband never did test negative - freedom came at day 10 no matter what the test result.  As it did for most people.....

 

As a partner of someone in isolation you are also restricted.  The requirement was for me to be tested for 5 consecutive days and I remained negative throughout.  All of the partners were tested in the same place at the same time each day - so we got to know each other a bit - that is why I can say of the group of us on that cruise, most did not test negative before day 10.  But for partners, restrictions were also in place - we were not allowed to use the dining rooms for 10 days and had to wear a mask anywhere out of the cabin.  Wearing a mask was not hard, but 10 days of room service, alone, was no fun.  I admit that I preferred to lunch up at the open air burger bar on deck where I thought I was no danger to anyone - especially after 5 days of consecutive negative tests.  And a group of us did towards the end of the 10 days (all of our husbands were within 1 or 2 days of each other going into isolation) meet at the open air end of the buffet for an evening meal where we would again be no danger to anyone.

 

But partners can and did get off the ship at the ports - we were not that restricted.  Personally, I choose to be as far away from others as possible whilst still going to the theatre and the game shows - that was allowed. So I could participate to a certain extent - but I would describe it for me as being 'lonely in a crowd'.

 

However, having been in a changing group of maybe 20 partners and talking among ourselves for a few days it was obvious that the rules were not enforced - some never had the letter saying they should have room service and so carried on as normal.  So it is clear that those rules were never 'policed'. 

 

For those actually in locked down isolation, 10 days is a long time to be in one small room - no walking up and down the corridor was allowed and even if you wanted to you could not get past the big bulk head door which locked off both side of deck 6 from the rest of the ship - that's a lot of cabins with people in isolation.  My husband commented that even if he was in jail, there'd have been access to an exercise yard.  It took 11 paces to walk from the door to the edge of the balcony - and there's only so many reps of that walk you can do each day.  If you were minded you could of course do some strength and floor exercises but nothing aerobic.  

 

It was particularly harsh for couples were the second partner tested positive a few days after the first partner - they would be placed in separate cabins - not necessarily near each other.  I only found this out after someone who had been in isolation came 'out' and said his wife was still 'in' in a different cabin.  

 

When it got to our scheduled disembarkation day, which was only day 5 for my husband so he was not yet free to leave isolation, we were given the choice to continue isolation together in an Italian hotel (were we would be escorted by guards) for a minimum of another 5 days.  We would lose the chance of getting out on day 7 (which didn't happened anyway but it was still a chance at this stage).  I don't know of anyone who took that option. 

 

Celebrity did many, many things right on this trip.  I imagine they have no choice but to follow the CDC rules.  We stayed on the ship at no cost (except gratuities and drinks of course) until after the 10 days isolation and then onto the most sensible port for getting home (which was Naples for us, on our day 20,  - flight timings from Dubrovnik and Kotor were impossible with the ships docking and tender times).  

 

But the non financial cost for us was huge.  Once my husband was in isolation my holiday was damaged too - OK I could see Athens, but not the way we hoped to do it together; I could go to the theatre but with no one to share it with.  And I dined in my room alone.  But for him, the physical impact was horrible too - he was a only bit poorly for just a few days (for which we are thankful of course) but with no way of getting any exercise and with very little mental stimulation or entertainment.  

 

He was well supported by the medical team and the food and beverage service but there were quite a few things which went wrong which were not in themselves overly significant - and for those things which he reported, he'd like to thank Antoinette for her attention.

 

For those partners who found themselves unexpectedly alone - which left me tearful once or twice in public - it was a lonely time trying to navigate through a changed  holiday alone.  I would not have expected there to be any support in place for me in those circumstances so I am grateful to 3 people in particular who went out of their way to check in on me once they knew the circumstances - thank you Byron, Annadulce and Cranston - I really appreciated someone thinking to ask me how I was doing.

 

With all that in mind, under the same circumstance, knowing what the real consequences would be, would we have gone to the medical centre and self reported?  And especially knowing that others were obviously sick around the ship.  My answer is - we can't honestly say.  We'd like to think we'd still do the right thing and get tested but we certainly wouldn't want to do that again.  For sure though, we won't be cruising again until such time as the isolation requirement on board is removed or significantly reduced.  Different countries are different and we know Italy is strict and the CDC rules are strict.  I think our next trip will be here from the UK where there is no legal requirement to isolate, just a common sense duty to isolate if you're obviously poorly. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were on Silhouette round the UK and Iceland in June. We both tested positive halfway through the cruise and had to isolate. We were ‘fortunate’ to be allowed to remain in our balcony cabin (I think this was because the isolation cabins were already full) but were not allowed out for anything. As you say, a truly miserable time. We were allowed to disembark in Southampton at the end of the cruise (under escort and with our luggage wrapped), but have no plans to cruise again anytime soon. Btw, don’t forget to claim on your insurance for cabin confinement for your husband. 

49 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

@higgibthey have all sorts of apps delivered to state room on Concierge class. I've had shrimp and hummus which we enjoyed. And if you don't care for something delivered you can ask for a substitution. I also like the sparkling wine as I order OJ in the morning and make my own mimosas.  No drinks package on this upcoming cruise. 

I think reading this that we were short changed. We were never offered any alternatives to the canapés and never offered sparkling wine either. Also, the binoculars and hairdryer that should have been in our cabin were also missing.  I couldn’t see the point of the concierge making restaurant bookings etc for us as it was just as easy to do this ourselves, and the concierges didn’t answer their phone anyway. Whenever I wanted to contact them, I ended up queuing at their office. As I say, and expensive mistake that we won’t be repeating! 

1 minute ago, Alakegirl said:

They really don’t have any way of assigning move ups a special boarding time. YOU pick your boarding time when you do your check in.

The earliest time we were offered at check in was 1pm. And that was on the day on line check in opened. I assumed that embarkation was being started in the afternoon to allow for thorough cleaning between cruises, and the lunch would be timed appropriately. It took over an hour for us to get through the terminal, and we were horrified to discover that others had been on board since 11am and we’d missed the lunch. 

2 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

Thats not good enough.  I would have complained and taken it further. That embarkation lunch is not free; we pay for it as part of the concierge class.

You’re right, but we’d waited 3 years for this holiday, and just wanted to enjoy it - not spend hours sat in the concierge office moaning. I did mention it to them again a couple of days later, and ask for the matter be escalated, but we then both contracted Covid so wasn’t able to follow it up.  I don’t actually think concierge is worth it (my husband said it was the most expensive plate of cheese cubes we’d ever had!) so lesson learned. We won’t be doing that again. 

3 hours ago, sgmn said:

It was on boarding day on Silhouette in May and Beyond in June. Both finished by 1.30 or 2pm I believe, so if you had late boarding time  you were out of luck 

On Silhouette they kept plying us with wine, we didn't have the DP so we thought it was part of the 'special' lunch, but on Beyond we were charged for our wine.

 

We were on Silhouette in June. We were successful in Moving Up to concierge and one of the things we were really looking forward to was the embarkation lunch. Prior to the move up we had been allocated an embarkation time of 1 - 1.30pm. We arrived at the port on time and were then kept waiting in the terminal for over an hour prior to boarding. We didn’t reach our cabin until 2.45pm to find our invitation to the lunch from 12 to 1.30pm. We were so disappointed and as we were starving had to use the buffet, which I hate on embarkation day, and was one of the main reasons for moving up to concierge. I complained to concierge the following day, and asked why no-one checked the move ups to make sure they were allocated an earlier embarkation time if necessary, and they just shrugged and thanked me for the suggestion!!!

By far the worst speaker I’ve ever heard on a cruise was Colin Van Geffen on Ventura a few years ago. He had a whole list of talks, but the one I went to was about the Red Arrows. He had a boring monotonous style, and way, way too many PowerPoint slides that just went on and on and on. One of the best i’ve Seen was a lady called Dale who was the producer of the Human Planet. She was really very interesting

. 

Hi, our flight booked by celebrity arrives in Athens at 11.25am. I believe it takes around an hour to transfer from airport to port, so allowing for time to get through the airport, we should be able to board around 1pm ish? They will probably start boarding Possibly an hour or so before this though. Hope this helps. :)

Have you considered turning the sofa around so the seat part is against the wall? The back part then is a barrier so she can't fall out and it would be plenty big enough for a toddler. The cabin steward will provide linen and make it up for you. That would also free up the proper beds for the adults.

In the UK we can buy anti viral foam which we

always use on board in addition to washing our hands. It stays on the skin

for up to 6 hours and protects against noro, which the anti bacterial gels n board do not. We have been on a coup,e of cruises that had outbreaks of noro (ship taking full precautions, staff serving at buffet, no salt and pepper pots or butter curls on tables etc), and have never been affected. We also carry our own pen for signing bar receipts, as no matter what precautions the ship takes, bar waiters still hand you a pen which has been who knows where to sign with!

So many guys put their hats on tables designed for dining these days, but to me this seems so unsanitary:eek:. Am I the only one bothered by this? Putting the hat on a chair might work just as well! On the other hand, a hat left on a table at the Oceanview would definitely keep me from even thinking about claiming a seat there:rolleyes:.

DH has a big leather Ozzie bush hat (his nickname is Hatman!) he puts it on the table upside down, so not unsanitary, and I think it would probably fall or get knocked off a chair.

On Oceana, I left my hoodie on the chair, and my DH left his hat on the table whilst we both went to get food. Like a lot of people we don't use the buffet often as I really hate doing table tag, and either eating cold food, or eating alone whilst DH gets food or vice versa. When we returned with our trays, another couple were sat at the table. When we remonstrated they refused to move, and said they thought we had left and forgotten to take our belongings. We ended up wandering around with our food looking for another free table. Now we only go up there for a quick snack sometimes, and never at breakfast or lunch times.

Looking forward to your review. We will be on constellation this October in Europe.

Find a table leave your things go and choose your food , simples !!!

You'd think so wouldn't you? On Oceana we gave up on the buffet after a day or two. 1st time I kept a table whilst hubby got his food, then he came back and I went to get food. By the time I got back he had finished. 2nd day, we got fresh drinks, found a table where we left our jackets on the chairs, and both went to get food together. When we got back, there was another couple sitting leaning on our jackets, and they had moved our drinks to the edge of the table. We then had to wander round the crowded restaurant looking for another table. That was us done with the buffet. For the rest of the cruise we used MDR for all meals.

I would think that this would be a safeguarding issue. Airlines are not going to take the chance of litigation if they insist that a child sits next to a stranger unless their parent has paid to sit together. No airline is going to put themselves in this position in case there is an allegation of impropriety of some description between said stranger and the child. Quite apart from the chaos that would ensue if parent and child are separated in an emergency.

Perhaps they have :confused:? If you can't get to the port gates from the ship without paying, in my opinion, it's a poor show. Shame as it's super easy to do on your own - perhaps that's why they've changed it :rolleyes:? Not surprised though, no RCI staff wanted to admit about the free shuttle to my DH and he did have words with a member of the activities staff on the quay who was ushering pax to the chargeable shuttles. Obviously, they wanted everyone to take their tours and pay ;).

We were very surprised about the charge. As we were with our 2 daughters it cost us £35 to get into town :-( even more surprising as in Le Havre the previous day, port shuttles were frequent and free!

There was no free shuttle to the port gates last Friday. There is a mobile ticket office at the end of the gangway selling tickets to Blankenberg. Other than taxis and ship excursions, there were no other options to get out of the port. We were advised of this the previous evening by the CD, and also in the daily planner for that day. Maybe things have changed recently?

We have just got off the eclipse and called at Zeebrugge last Friday. The ship runs an excursion to brugge but not a shuttle, and it is expensive. Unless you want to stay on the ship, it will cost you to get off and go anywhere. There is a port shuttle to the nearest town, Blankenberg, but this costs 12€ per person for 1 return trip. You cannot do this independently as Zeebrugge is a large container port and pedestrians are not allowed. This bus will drop you by the train station to Brugge. There is 1 train per hour each way. We had a lovely time in Blangenberg. There are shops, cafes, and the beach is at the end of the main street.

Just to explain I am not being provocative - just asking is there really a discount for nhs employees and why specifically nhs employees out of all the public service employees like policemen, fireman, teachers etc etc

There is a 5% discount available to emergency services staff via membership of bluelightcard.co.uk. :)

Check the room when they claim they have packed their bags before debarkation. I thought I had done this when my 2 dds shared a cabin. I looked in all the drawers and cupboards to check they were empty. When we got home and unpacked, 1 of them had left 1 expensive boot behind! I think it must of been kicked under the bed, and she was so busy having fun with new friends, she left it to the last minute to pack and just threw everything into the bag at the last minute. I rang the cruise line to ask if it had been found, and they said that any clothing or shoes left in cabins was always destroyed. Very expensive lesson learnt!

Parking at Tilbury is really easy. There is a covered car park right next to the terminal. Porters take your large bags before you park, and you can just walk into the terminal with your carry ons.

We visited Venice 2 years ago with another cruise line. We complied with the request to carry passports, and when we returned to the ship were confronted with an enormous queue. We stood in this queue for an hour and a half,(in baking heat) and on reaching the front discovered that 2 security officers were x raying passengers bags as well as checking passports. We were then finally allowed back on board, where the ship's security x rayed our bags again. Out of 7 ports, 4 of which were in Italy, this was the only place this happened.

Thank you Cruisegirl - it is very interesting as a parent of teen girls to hear your perspective on parents putting boundaries in place for their kids. Last year we took our girls, then agen 17 and 14 on our first cruise. We cruised from Barcelona around Italy, Monacco and Croatia. My 14 year old decided she wasn't going to observe a 1am curfew on a night before a port stop, and as a result she ruined the day I was most looking forward to in Venice.

I have loads of lovely photos of her scowling, she refused to walk with us, and insisted she had to only eat at Mcdonalds! There were several nights on the cruise where I was walking the decks at 2am looking for her as she had not come back to her cabin (the girls were next door to us). Whilst I take some of your points about giving kids some freedom, and allowing them some independance, I still think that whilst your parents are a) responsible for you until you are 21 on most cruises, and b) paying for you to be on the cruise, it is their right to make rules with which they feel comfortable, and your responsibility to abide by them. Kids will push at any boundary put before them, and have to learn that not all behaviour is acceptable. I don't care if their friends are running around the ship at 2 or 3am, my kids will be in their beds! I and my husband work very hard to save the thousands of £ to take our family on holiday, and kids should appreciate that and make an effort to make sure that everyone enjoys it, not just them!

Rant over - sorry, didn't intend for this post to be a rant, and I really do appreciate your views, but really, there is only one rule.... until you are paying for your holidays, you are not in a position to make the rules!!!

Cruising the Fjords in August on AOS, so really interested in everyone's opinion of the ship. :)

TravelScoot.

Please explain the controls.

How do you go forward?

How do you stop?

How do you make a sharp U-turn like the guy in the elevator?

Are both rear wheels power wheels? If yes can you put power to just one of them?

.

Oooops, sorry. Ignore previous post. I meant either post the question on one of the previous threads about travel scoots, or start a new thread on the Disability board if you need to. You may not get a response as your question is on the 'bigger passenger' thread.

Sorry if I confused you - wasn't concentrating!