We were on the Apex April 30 TA and saw people dropping like flies with Covid. I think they announced 61 at one time, but I am sure it was much higher. Never saw anyone with a deck 6 room key so that was the “Covid” deck.
Celebrity had the Infinity anchored off of Ft Lauderdale and dropping off Covid crew on their way into port. We heard they dropped off about 60 crew from the Apex heading into port before the April 30 TA. It’s hilarious that Infinity shows as “Green” status on the CDC dashboard when it is the hospital ship and not in service. ALL Celebrity and RCL ships are now Orange (3%+ Covid) on the CDC list.
We were not rolling the dice on a Covid test and had no symptoms, so we didn’t test at all, flew to Toronto on Air Canada, drove across the border at Buffalo and flew home. Canada has no pre-flight testing if you are fully vaccinated, but interestingly they require a mask on all flights and in the airports.
The other benefit is the Air Canada flight was barely 1/2 full and $1,000 cheaper than our AA flight for the two of us. We had nobody else in our aisle of the plane.
We will not be taking anymore overseas cruises until the US lifts the pre-flight testing for fully vaccinated. The sooner we realize Covid is another viral illness like the flu and get on with life, we would all benefit. The Norovirus has worse systems than Covid if you are fully vaccinated (unless you are immune compromised).
This was our first cruise post pandemic and will be the last until things get better. Too many places we can travel in the US in our RV to worry about others having control over your life like we have read in this thread.