lexmiller

Spa Cafe is definitely open to all - that and the Mast Grill are excellent ways to help syphon off some of the crowds from the main buffet. Wanted to give a shout out to the salmon salad offered at the Spa Cafe daily, so good! Like tuna salad, but made with salmon, yummy! I usually take 4 of the items (the portions are small) and combine them, very nice.

Yup, the time has come. As many of us posted on a prior post (which Host Ann shut down, btw......), it is well past time to end testing - keep the requirement to be vaxxed/boosted, but testing to board, B2B testing and self-reporting your runny nose must stop. Virgin, Azamara, NCL, Carnival, Holland - probably many others - have all stopped testing to one degree or another. Nowhere else, in any hospitality venture (any venture at all??), is testing required. 2022 covid is not 2020 covid.

https://www.cruisehive.com/norwegian-cruise-line-drops-pre-cruise-testing/75917 Effective August 1, Norwegian has dropped pre-cruise covid testing except where it is required by local regulations......as is Holland, even sooner. https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/holland-america-line-drops-pre-cruise-testing-requirement-for-select-sailings.html Let's hope that this is the beginning of the end of testing, period, for vaccinated guests. I understand the requirement for guests to be vaccinated and boosted, in order to minimize severity of the sickness should they get it - it's just common sense. But where we stand today in 2022, it is time to stop the testing, period. In no other travel/hospitality venture is testing required, and to isolate and quarantine passengers, essentially criminalizing them through the process - because they have cold symptoms? It's just all gone beyond the pale. It's a bit of a broken record, but if you have health issues, are immunocompromised, etc, then you need to take your own personal precautions and do what you see is best. But the world has moved on and the cruise industry needs to financially recover - which it cannot do if it is reimbursing passengers because they test positive for what is effectively a cold two days before their cruise or giving passengers refunds because they self-reported their runny nose. The time is now, long past actually, for passengers to take on the 'burden' of self-reliance, take responsibility for their own health. Vaccinate, boost and cruise - or do something else. But testing to cruise must end.

That sounds amazing! Was that publicized at all, was it listed in the Celebrity Today newsletter? That's something you wouldn't want to miss......

Agree! We were just on the Millennium in Aqua Class, and the slippers were basically paper! VERY different quality from past pre-covid Aqua Class sailings.

OK, Rick, but my real point is the one I made way above, so I'm going to let this go.🙃

Well, my point with that is that most stations currently in this "staff must serve you, keep your mitts off the serving utensils" plan, is that there is only 1 person serving the guests, so the lines are insanely long. I definitely feel that self service SHOULD return, then 1 staff person per station monitoring things is enough.

As has been said, all on board are vaxxed, boosted, and very aware of their own personal health conditions - meaning, if they are immunocompromised they aren't onboard at all, or are taking their own precautions - taking responsibility for their own health. And most importantly, the covid of today is not the covid of January 2020 - not even close. Don't feel like an idiot, but more and more, to self-report, well - self-report what? That you have a cold, scratchy throat and maybe a low fever? If so, as with any cold, you won't want to spend a lot of time around others and you would additionally want to wear a mask to save someone else from getting a cold. Covid has evolved, which is why testing to board is being dropped by more lines - Viking Ocean has dropped it altogether, and NCL has dropped it for cruises departing from countries other than the USA.

Simply but perfectly expressed.

That is undeniably gross for sure........but if they don't bring back self service in the buffet, then the staffing must be beefed up CONSIDERABLY. If self service goes back to the way it always was, which is what I personally am in favor of, then the person that staffs each station must be more vigilant to catch the outliers, meaning the few and far between disgusting people. Because they are the outliers, ruining it for the rest of us it would seem.

But see, that is exactly my point. If you use a napkin as a barrier between your hand and the serving utensil and then use a squirt of your sanitizer before you use your personal utensils - you are all set, protected from the germy offenders. Celebrity has done a phenomenal job of installing sinks in all of the ships in the buffet. AND, they still have hand sanitizer stations at the entrances. Some people will be nasty but you can easily protect yourself from them. The behavior you mention about people touching the food and returning it to the serving tray is of course super disgusting! But also, after 27 cruises with Celebrity, and being a big fan of the buffet for breakfast and lunch, I have never witnessed that behavior.

I wrote above, that the Apex and the Beyond have two full production casts - one full production cast for the main theater and one full cast for Eden. Edge does NOT have two production casts. We were on the Edge transatlantic this spring and correct, no production shows in Eden as there is "only" 1 production cast on Edge. How cool, btw, that there are TWO production casts on Apex and Beyond!? I was exhausted on the Apex in the evenings, running between the main theater and Eden!😄

I would be thrilled to have the buffet return to self-serve. People need to take responsibility for their own health. Don't worry about other people washing or not washing their hands - wash your own hands when you enter the buffet and then be sure to again wash your hands/sanitize before touching your own personal silverware set before you put anything into your mouth. Another good tip is what my sister has always done at the buffets in Las Vegas - she carries her napkin in her hand and uses the napkin as a barrier between her hand and the communal serving utensils. We were just on the Millennium two weeks ago and the lines in the buffet at lunch time were awful - easily 25 people deep at the salad bar alone. There simply is not enough staff to handle the crowds. It's your health, take responsibility for it and let's get the buffet lines moving as they used to do.

What is interesting to us, is that on the Apex and on the Beyond, there are TWO FULL production show casts! One full production cast for the theater, and one full production cast for the Eden shows! That blew my mind, to be honest. Two full production casts, separate and distinct - two full sets of singers, dancers! So the experience in Eden on the Apex and on the Beyond is very different from the Eden shows on the Edge - as the Edge "only" has the full production cast for the theater. Celebrity has a huge commitment to full blown theatrical live entertainment, and we for one, absolutely appreciate that. And deepens our commitment to the newest ships......And dinner in Eden, wow! Love it!

Hi, I was on the Edge Transatlantic this spring - I save all of the "Celebrity Today" newletters from all of our cruises, so I thought I'd go back and look at them for you. I am a big gym rat but I do not do the classes that have a fee - however, I have often seen them and the HIIT class is definitely a strong class, intense, I am sure you'll love it and if you need more, you can push it higher and also do more in the gym itself. What I've witnessed in the gym on my many Celebrity cruises, is that they are not "easy" - they definitely push you! So, going through the schedules of our Transatlantic, HIIT is not offered every day - there are several for fee classes and they alternate. On boarding day, be sure to go to the gym and get the printed class schedule so you can plan ahead. You can also refer to your Celebrity app. So for instance, on the first full sea day of the TA, the fee classes were Slow Flow Yoga at 8am and and HIIT at 4pm. Next sea day, Power Flow Yoga at 8am and Contender Cardio Boxing at 4pm. Next sea day, Slow Flow Yoga at 8am, RYDE Indoor Cycling at 9am, Pure Form Pilates at 4pm. Next sea day, Power Flow Yoga 8am, RYDE Indoor Cycling 9am, LIT Bungee Fit 4pm. Next sea day, Slow Flow Yoga 8am, RYDE Indoor Cycling 9am, The HIIT 4pm. Next sea day, Power Flow Yoga 8am, RYDE Indoor Cycling 9am, Contender Cardio Boxing 4pm. Next sea day, Slow Flow Yoga 8am, RYDE Indoor Cycling 9am, LIT Bungee Fit 4pm. The next day was a port day and the fee classes drop to two a day - Power Flow Yoga 8am and The HIIT 4pm. Classes vary somewhat fleet wide, depending upon all sorts of variables, but I think this should give you a very good idea of what happens. Sorry though that I can't tell you the specific cost of the above fee classes.

This is absolutely accurate real time on the ground information. We are currently on a precruise land tour, started in Anchorage on June 11. Celebrity website is “clear”, in it’s inimitable unclear way, about the test not needing to be monitored. We brought photos of our home test kits and we brought our actual test kits that we had used, showing only the control line proving we were negative, in a baggie. Our tour guide never even looked or asked, saying they weren’t needed. He said that if our tour had started one day later, that we would have to show “some sort of proof”-but, that was weird as the Celebrity site has never changed-no difference between June 11 to June 12, still has the verbiage of not needing to be monitored-our guide said that he will be looking at photos or used test kits for the next land tour he guides. Unproctored is absolutely the case. We are so glad that we did not waste our money on a proctored test!

All domestic flights have been as you describe so colorfully, for many months now. NO other western country was still requiring a test to fly in from a foreign country. This is an extremely welcome move and makes sense scientifically and economically. SO HAPPY!!!!!!

So very well put and thank you for sharing your personal experience. THIS is what I'm talking about. Life goes on. My daughter, BTW, has cerebral palsy, not at all the same health concerns you have experienced, but, well, you know, I understand the heartache. So well put, SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LETTING FEAR INTERFERE!!!!! I love how you put that. This madness has got to stop.

I of course appreciate your situation - and you are self aware, exercising self reliance, you are taking precautions to protect yourself such as masking, vaxxing, boosting, avoiding crowds. We are at a stage with this virus where the impacts have diminished in intensity if one is vaxxed and boosted. This is not March of 2020. Much is known. And thus, life has appropriately, for most, moved on. What the cruise lines are doing is not commensurate with any other form of travel. People are not tested before going to an all-inclusive resort or well, you name it. The vast majority of people that now test positive for covid, as long as you are vaxxed and boosted, have minor cold symptoms if any symptoms at all, and are able to continue on with their normal daily functionality. But because it's covid, they are treated like pariahs - on cruise ships. Pariahs which are carrying some deadly plague - even though how odd, they have a sore throat and not much more if anything at all. Economically, the model cruise lines are following is not sustainable. And I won't get started about the test required to fly back to the US - law abiding US citizens are not allowed to fly home to their own country if testing positive incurring thousands of dollars - or their travel insurance is incurring the expense or a cruise line. No other western country is testing to fly in. OK, so I got started, I'll stop with that. But in any case, you are taking care of yourself, as you do need to do. Covid is most transmissible when the person who has it, has no symptoms - they may in fact never have any symptoms. And the majority of the population, if vaxxed and boosted, if they get it, will be totally fine. You are doing what you need to do to protect yourself from those that have it and unknowingly pass it on to you - because it is that mild.

I'm with you, Lovin, 100%. We must all vax and boost and get on with it. We cannot protect those that choose to not vax and boost - they must protect themselves as they deem fit.

We have discovered that the basic wifi on the Edge class ships is vastly better than the wifi on the M or S class ships - probably because they are indeed new ships and have been purpose built to be more or less up to date/state of the art, electronically. We actually had a repeater in our room. I was in fact, using the basic wifi on both Edge and Apex, to upload photos to FB - not in a large batch, no, but singly. And ditto, able to text photos on the basic wifi. We are elite plus so we get a few hundred free minutes of the "fancy wifi" as I liked to refer to it to my husband throughout the voyages - which we used to upload larger batches of photos and of course to take the dreaded covid test to fly back home, which absolutely needs the "fancy wifi" in order to hold the connection.

Interesting to hear that the plastic bottles are coming back! Anyway, I wanted to say that we do NOT think that the water in the aluminum cans taste "tinny", as occasionally is reported - definitely not. It tasted fresh and crisp. The provenance of the water is well labeled, spring water - one of our cruises it was sourced from Idaho, and also, I believe from Colorado. Another thing about the aluminum bottles is that be careful how you seal it up again - if you don't thread the screw top back exactly right, it is prone to leakage. I soaked my bag before I realized what was happening.

NYC to Boston (where we live) is a short train or bus ride! Come on up! We used to take the train to NYC then discovered the Go Bus - beautiful bus and super cheap!! To meet cruises in Bayonne, we now take the Go Bus the day before, stay in Manhattan, see a play, dinner etc, then take an Uber to Bayonne. We are selfishly happy that the Summit is now for the time being, based in Boston for the fall.

So, will you not be continuing on, doing the NE/Canada run? At first reading I thought that you were, and I was very happy as I'd really love to meet you and thank you in person, as your recent account of your travails with covid on your multi BtoB was so helpful to so many people, including us. Celebrity, and I don't know how these sorts of deals are made, worked with Boston to have Boston be the home base for the Summit for the fall Canada/NE cruise. So for the full month of Sept and October, Summit is based in Boston. I am not absolutely certain, but I am pretty sure that 2019 was the first year this happened (could have been 2018). Then, covid struck and we all know what happened, especially with Canada saying no to cruises - so this year is the first year back for this itinerary and homeport.

The Summit goes out of Bayonne, NJ and also for the fall, Boston. We are very excited to be sailing on the Summit round trip out of Boston on the New England/Canada cruise, overnight in Quebec City. It's just a short drive to the port for us, yay! We've been trying to do this cruise for a few years now, thanks so much, Mr. Covid. The third time is the charm!