lexmiller

Read very closely as surely, clarification will be (should be?) forthcoming - contradictory information within a few lines - stating that the test is supervised, but also a few lines down, unsupervised is fine. https://www.celebritycruises.com/healthy-at-sea/transatlantic-travel-requirements Pre-Arrival Covid-19 Testing All guests ages 2 and older must present a digital or physical copy of a supervised, negative COVID-19 test result at check-in to board their sailing. Guests must present a negative antigen test result taken within 2 days prior to sailing and no more than 2 days before their sailing. Accepted tests are PCR or antigen tests taken in person, supervised virtually, or unsupervised self-administered. Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results, a clear photo of your self-test result, or your actual self-test in hand.

Back to Back MONITORED testing is currently occurring on all of the Eclipse sailings "down under". Your B2B test, which the staff will conduct on you/to you, will also serve as the test that is required for the TransPacific. I too will be on the TP with you, however we are not doing the 3 day taster cruise prior. We board the Eclipse on March 26, I have been following all of the Eclipse roll calls closely. The monitored B2B testing is another testing issue that seems to have come as a big surprise to many who thought that B2B testing was a relic of the past - but alas, it is very much alive and well "down under" due the government regs down there.

Thank you, Kim, as always. Very much appreciated, looking forward to hearing what does or does not happen.

Hello, @Redking- can you please let us know how things went regarding this insurance issue with Fiji - were you checked on boarding, is it actually an issue at all or are cooler minds prevailing? What exactly is the procedure? I believe Fiji is your first port of call......? Definitely want to hear about it, thank you! I mean, it's absurd to think that Fijian government officials are going to sit around and evaluate every passenger's personal insurance policies! And again as we've stated, we are in Fiji for a day, as cruise passengers - under no circumstance would covid insurance ever come into play in this actual situation. If a passenger has covid, they wouldn't be allowed off the ship! And no one is going to be like, oh wow, it's noon now on my one day in Fiji, I'm just got off the ship a few hours ago, I need to be back on board in a few more hours, but gosh I think all of a sudden I feel ill and will go for a covid test! Never gonna happen. I concur with you, that this is yet one more anti-cruise move designed to discourage cruise ships from coming. The government says it's open to cruise passengers but naaaaahhh, not really. Thanks in advance!

There is (sadly in my opinion) no longer entertainment in the Eden dining room. There is however entertainment in the Eden Bar - this is the case on all 3 Edge Class ships.

Love your style, looking forward to following along as I mentioned to you on another topic, we join the Eclipse at the end of March in Sydney and stay on until Vancouver - so we are keen to hear about the B2B monitored testing and hope it stops, but probably a futile hope! We are big Celebrity cruisers, 30 under our belt so far, but it's this monitored B2B testing that has us in a kerfuggle as we are coming from half way across the world for this amazing itinerary (in your backyard, you lucky person you) and don't want to miss a single moment of it! Looks like you are off to a fantastic start to your adventure, enjoy! And I loved your post about your pet sitter - we have two cats who are VERY social, and leaving them behind is so hard as finding the perfect pet sitter arrangement can be very tricky. Bon Voyage!

I honestly do not understand the issue here. The OP has never posted any proof whatsoever, no documentation, of the supposed chatter about a relaxation in the dress code. Without a doubt, shorts at night are "not permitted" as per Celebrity's site. And I hope it stays that way. https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/what-to-wear-on-a-cruise Celebrity Cruises’ dress code for smart casual is fairly flexible, though there are some restrictions. T-shirts, swimsuits, robes, bare feet, tank tops, baseball caps, and pool wear are not allowed in the main restaurant or specialty restaurants at any time. In addition, shorts and flip-flops are not permitted during the evening hours.

Shorts and flip-flops are not allowed in the evening hours. Maybe you didn't actually read what you posted - says right there, "shorts are not allowed in the evening hours" And proof please, about what you're claiming about Celebrity responding to people's inquiries that the dress code has basically all gone down the tubes? Cuz I can't believe it.

The Eclipse is there now, you can follow along on the roll calls - this whole season, Eclipse has been in Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific islands then on to Hawaii and eventually to Vancouver, mid-May - then, their Alaskan season begins. This is the first season that this part of the world has re-opened to cruise travel - though they still have strict testing restrictions for back to back passengers, imposed by the local governments, which other itineraries have dropped.

Absolutely agree!! Same as if on land, if you're sick, take precautions - don't be a jerk! And also, if you are immunocompromised, you must take responsibility for your own health, take extra care, be on higher alert - on land, sea, in the air! At the end of the day, your life is in your own hands and you must take responsibility for your own health, welfare and safety. And as I said, if you are sick, don't be a jerk, lol, so succinct!

Thank you so much - confirming what I believe is the case throughout the fleet, that the only back to back testing is occurring on the Eclipse which is sailing the season in Australia/NZ - that it is their governments which are requiring it, and thereby making cruising a far less appealing form of vacation at this time, better to do a land tour or wait until next year (maybe?) if you want to cruise this area of the world back to backing.......again, thank you!

For your December Reflection B2B, was mandatory monitored testing done - were the B2B passengers required to undergo it? All of the Eclipse sailings currently are forcing all B2B passengers to undergo mandatory monitored B2B testing - because of the "down under" itineraries - the Australia and New Zealand governments are requiring the tests apparently is the word. I am keen to know if any other itineraries are forcing B2B passengers to test. In the case of Australia and New Zealand, to board the ship passengers need only present an at home self-test (NOT monitored) and yet the B2B passengers must be tested in person by the crew. Thanks in advance!

Just want to correct something you mentioned - absolutely NO SMOKING is allowed onboard any Celebrity ship in the casino - no smoking inside anywhere at all. Smoking is only allowed OUTSIDE in a strictly designated small area.

Wow is right, to be coughing that severely and not wearing a mask - even if she was let's say, choking, or having some sort of allergic reaction to whatever.....in this environment, on a cruise ship of all places, to not be aware, to not "read the room" so to speak.....kudos to the man who spoke up!

I've been following your updates on the other media platform which you can access onboard, so thanks for that, loving it! I haven't caught up, but any covid updates, any mention of upcoming monitored B2B testing and how exactly it will be handled?

Yes, what @RichYak said, and they are in general, much more active than the roll calls on this platform. Lots and lots of first hand information which is very helpful if you have a particular interest - ie for me, I am glued to the Eclipse roll calls as I am extremely concerned about B2B monitored testing. You have to request permission to join most of the roll calls, the admin has a few general automated questions, very simple. I think that the roll calls are more active on that other media platform as it is more well known, most people already are "on" it, plus it's an easier platform to use, generally speaking, from your phone. For specific cruise related topics as well as access to more seasoned cruisers, this platform does seem to be a great resource, overall.

Thank you for your live reporting! We are scheduled to board the Eclipse in Sydney in two months and stay on until Vancouver, so this is certainly pertinent to us! Will you be staying on for the next cruise? Would love to hear all about B2B covid testing, any covid information at all, thank you! About your first night dinner problems, this seems to be a fairly common refrain, sadly, for the first night on most all of the post-covid restart cruises. I honestly don't understand why, frankly, the first night of every cruise is horrible and yet the second, everything is running as pretty near to spot on as one could hope. This has happened to us personally several times this past year. Anywho, enjoy your time and thank you again for taking the time to do this!

Passengers on the Eclipse currently in isolation are definitely allowed to remain in their own cabins. Another improvement in this horrible process is that your cabin partner is allowed to remain with you if they test negative, and are allowed to leave the cabin and ship, while masking - however, the partner is tested daily and can only move around the ship if testing negative.

In order to board the Eclipse in Australia or New Zealand, a negative home test must be presented. https://www.celebritycruises.com/healthy-at-sea/australia-new-zealand-travel-requirements Sailing Testing Requirements Pre-Arrival/Embarkation Covid-19 Testing All guests ages 2 and older must test negative for COVID-19 in order to board their sailing. Accepted test options include: A PCR test taken at a private laboratory within 3 days prior to boarding; Any commercially available Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), including self-tests, within 1 day of boarding. Tests do not have to be supervised or proctored. (For guests selecting this option who are traveling internationally, we strongly recommend pre-purchasing your test kit in your home country and traveling with it to Australia.) Antibody tests will not be accepted. All guests ages 2 and older will be asked to present proof of a negative test result. Test results may be presented as a printout, screenshot or photo of the test result or the actual test. For guests traveling internationally and selecting the RAT testing option, we strongly recommend purchasing a test kit in your home country and traveling with it in order to meet the one-day prior-to-boarding testing requirement.

IF evening turn down is eliminated on Celebrity, then what I’d been suspecting for some time is true - that the post-covid cutbacks will be made permanent. Remember pre-covid, when we had two stateroom attendants? And I don’t mean in suites, I mean in every cabin category. We had the main attendant then his/her assistant. I am sure we will never see that level of staffing again, as the cruise line adjusts to the post covid cutbacks and realizes how much money is being saved. Now, one attendant is in charge of a much higher number of cabins than pre-pandemic, and on his/her own, no help. We have seen notable staff shortages across the board on our 7 Celebrity cruises in 2022, as have you all, I know. We have been struck in particular by the lack of sommeliers in the dining rooms - in Aqua in Blu, there was only one sommelier for the entire dining room, on our Infinity cruise - he did an AMAZING job, but the hustle he had to produce was incredible and not at all fair IMHO. The other cutback that has been very notable to us, is the quality of beef, post-covid. In the MDRs, even in Blu, a definite lesser quality of beef. Only in Luminae and in the specialty restaurants, have we had beef of the pre-covid standards. To be clear, we sailed on Equinox, Beyond, Apex, Edge, Summit, Millennium and Infinity this year - and noticed this decline on all of the ships. We are well past the half way point in the elite plus category, as we love Celebrity - it has offered the perfect mix of “modern luxury” coupled with excellent entertainment and activities - it is in fact this precise mix which keeps us coming back. But as the “modern luxury” components are reduced, the excellent entertainment and activities are not going to be enough to keep us loyal…….the luxury lines such as Regent and Oceania are looking better and better…….sad that we no longer earn Captains Club points on Azamara…...

I wish people who are currently cruising in Europe now would chime in with their experiences regarding testing to board and B2B testing (OH, and this is my edit - it's January, not much cruising going on currently in Europe! Oops!) - that would be very helpful. I recommend that you do as I have been doing for several months now - monitor roll calls on that other social platform and ask questions. You usually have to ask permission to monitor the roll calls on that other media platform which is fine. The roll calls here on Cruise Critic vary a lot as far as passenger participation on said roll call. I find the other media roll calls to be generally much much more active - I think because the other platform is simply far easier to use on your phone. My personal focus right now is on Australian/New Zealand/South Pacific/Hawaiian-TransPacific cruises and for me, the B2B mandatory MONITORED testing is what is paralyzing us - I am following all of the Eclipse roll calls and people are getting snared and forced into isolation even though they are asymptomatic, feeling great, etc - Australia and New Zealand are over a year behind the rest of the cruising world due to their near zero covid policies which they held dear up until recently. This makes cruising there fraught with anxiety. Testing to board however, is not bad as passengers are only required to do a home self-test, NOT MONITORED.

Our B4B on Eclipse is THIS spring, 2023, and boy oh boy do we regret it!! We were originally scheduled for spring of 2020, and now we wish we'd not rescheduled the trip at all. B2B testing is "so yesterday" on other itineraries, but Australia and NZ are still insisting on it. The latest posts I've read on another social platform, are that if you self report or get caught in the B2B testing dragnet, on an Australian itinerary, you are in covid jail for 5 days, in your cabin onboard - not forced off the ship. However, if the cruise has NZ ports, you are in covid jail for 7 days, onboard. Just today, and I am seeking clarification on this, a covid positive passenger posted that he was put off the ship in the Bay of Islands, in NZ, not allowed to stay on board and isolate. This was the first I'd heard of this, on a recent Eclipse cruise, of being put off the ship - would love confirmation and clarification on this.

Another update on covid quarantine - Australia and New Zealand are still unyielding about back to back passengers - they must be tested, having to undergo monitored B2B testing and if positive, if an Australian itinerary, must be in isolation on board for 5 days but if there are New Zealand ports on the itinerary, the passengers must be in isolation onboard for 7 days. Some passengers onboard the Eclipse now, who tested positive in the mandatory monitored B2B testing dragnet, were told they'd have to stay in isolation for 5 days and then just when they thought they were going to be sprung from covid jail which was just in time for Christmas as it so happened, were told nope, too bad, you have to stay in jail for an additional 2 days because those are the rules which New Zealand has made. How extremely disappointing for these guests and frankly for the cruising community as a whole. I would love to know if mandatory monitored B2B testing is occurring anywhere else in the world any longer - I don't think so.......?

Trying to figure this out (not sure if I mentioned that we have 4 Eclipse cruises booked for the spring so the specter of B2B testing has us VERY concerned), as to why Celebrity's (thus, RCCL) testing for B2B is so different from Princess, as per @traveldayzfirst person account above......to wit, that Celebrity's B2B testing is MONITORED by crew, but Princess isn't testing at all - or, and this was mentioned earlier, that Princess passed out self-tests to the appropriate cabins and the cabin stewards returned later to collect the results - and thus, NOT monitored. So how is this being driven, who is making the rules and what are they based on, as you mentioned, international vs domestic perhaps......not sure I am grasping this.........?? Thank you for any more light you can shed!

Thanks for your reply! Interesting what you're saying, because for the Dec 20 Eclipse cruise, the B2Bers were tested on Dec 20!!!, and had already settled into their new cabins (for those that had to switch cabins for their next cruise, often happens that you can't book the same cabin for both cruises), so were given the option to leave for a FCC or could stay onboard......so as such, if what you're saying is the case about local protocols, if not tested until after they'd reboarded onto the next cruise, then they could in fact stay on........very interesting!