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St. Maarten Sailings - Health Protocols


Fouremco
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Celebrity has announced its latest health and safety initiatives:

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/health-and-safety?allowMobile=y&ecid=em_23315049&rid=273182386&mes=Celebrity Caribbean Loyalty Follow-Up MAR 23 2021 EM&emsc=CCC_SEL_OUR_NAN_ML_CAN_ON_3_TA&empf=Y&emct=S&lnkid=SEC2_CTA 

 

Also, Celebrity is offering Captain’s Club members double points on these sailings. "From March 25 through August 21, Classic members and above will earn double points when you book a veranda stateroom or higher on these Celebrity Millennium sailings, departing June 5 - August 21, 2021 from St. Maarten." 

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I saw this but it seems to just reference the healthy sail panel report.   I saw someone post the RCL faq on the Bahamas sailings which certainly had more details (still not enough detail for me).   Has anyone seen the equivalent for Celebrity?

 

RCL link https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Deployment/2021_2022/AD_FAQs.pdf

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That info from the Healthy Sail Panel is what they released last September, nothing new  that I can tell.  

 

I haven't seen anything like the Adventurer FAQ for Celebrity.  I bet they will be very similar if not identical.   The only thing I was was a Q & A posted by a TA from the webinar for TAs when they announced the  St Maarten sailings.

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I think it's a bit disingenuous to post the Health Sail Panel directly associated with these sailings as I'm sure they won't be implementing all the recommendations as written given the age of the document and the things that have changed since.   At best it's some background information used to develop the actual protocols whatever they end up being.   May not know for sure until the first sailing!

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The Celebrity team if they are reading Cruise Critic just need to address one key item (for me anyway).  What is the threshold level of COVID positive adults or kids on board that would be the decision point for stopping the cruise and returning to St. Martin?  And then what happens?  Pretty simple to include in a Q&A about the Millennium cruises.

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The way they present it in today's email and on the new webpage, it certainly suggests that they have adopted the recommendations of the Healthy Sail Panel as the health and safety protocols going forward. We were told that the protocols would be published prior to bookings opening up the day after tomorrow, so I'm not really expecting to see anything new being provided tomorrow, as much as we'd all like to see an up to date document. Maybe Celebrity will surprise me, but I'm not holding my breath.

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I can't  see anything in the Adventurer Q & As that define a threshold level of COVID positive that would result in the cruise being discontinued.  Although I think they have answered one of the other big questions;  that being What costs are covered if a guest tests positive during the cruise.  

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2 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

The way they present it in today's email and on the new webpage, it certainly suggests that they have adopted the recommendations of the Healthy Sail Panel as the health and safety protocols going forward. We were told that the protocols would be published prior to bookings opening up the day after tomorrow, so I'm not really expecting to see anything new being provided tomorrow, as much as we'd all like to see an up to date document. Maybe Celebrity will surprise me, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

The Royal document linked in one of the earlier posts is about as detailed as anything seen so far. 

 

13 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

The Celebrity team if they are reading Cruise Critic just need to address one key item (for me anyway).  What is the threshold level of COVID positive adults or kids on board that would be the decision point for stopping the cruise and returning to St. Martin?  And then what happens?  Pretty simple to include in a Q&A about the Millennium cruises.

 

They still aren't willing to address that, but this bit makes it seem like if the ship did have to return, Royal is covering the quarantine costs. So if something terrible happens, SXM officials freak out and say everyone onboard is quarantining/testing negative/etc before getting off the ship or flying home....Royal is paying the bill?

 

What costs are covered if a guest tests positive for SARS-CoV-2 during the cruise?
If a guest who followed our protocols tests positive during his/her cruise and is required to quarantine onboard, is removed from the ship mid-cruise or denied reboarding as a result, the impacted guest will receive a full refund. Additionally, Royal Caribbean will cover the cost of onboard medical treatment and any required land-based quarantine for that guest and will arrange and pay any additional costs incurred by the guests for safe travel home

 

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So there are at least 4 undefined responses that could impact your trip when even following the safety protocols.   No specifics provided (test results, contact tracing, #'s affected) on what triggers each response.   My opinion is they won't be transparent with these details.   Hopefully I'm wrong as this information is what I want to judge my risk tolerance.

  1.   Require to quarantine onboard
  2.   Be removed from ship mid cruise
  3.   Denied re boarding
  4.   Cruise terminated and returns to embarkation port
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2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

The Celebrity team if they are reading Cruise Critic just need to address one key item (for me anyway).  What is the threshold level of COVID positive adults or kids on board that would be the decision point for stopping the cruise and returning to St. Martin?  And then what happens?  Pretty simple to include in a Q&A about the Millennium cruises.

I doubt that they will ever put that number in print. 

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But does testing positive asymptomatic get you disembarked at the next port for quarantine?   Or even just contact traced to someone else who tested positive?

 

From the just announced Bermuda RCL info it seems they are just saying "trust us"

 

"Details on the health and safety measures to be implemented will be announced at a later date. "

Edited by wrk2cruise
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21 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

But does testing positive asymptomatic get you disembarked at the next port for quarantine?   Or even just contact traced to someone else who tested positive?

 

From the just announced Bermuda RCL info it seems they are just saying "trust us"

 

"Details on the health and safety measures to be implemented will be announced at a later date. "

I think is it more that RCL does not know exactly how they will handle things as opposed to asking us to just trust them.  I think the details will depend on how much news/interest is generated if a few people get infected and end up in quarantine.  In the past, passengers died all the time on cruises, and it generally received little or no attention.  I was on one cruise where according to what I read in various posts here, three people died from my cruise and the previous Transatlantic cruise.  There were a lot of folks sick on both cruises, but it received no attention other than here.  I am sure that if there were a similar level of illness and deaths on the upcoming cruises, it would be front page news.

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8 minutes ago, cruiserchuck said:

I think is it more that RCL does not know exactly how they will handle things

 

Really.   That's worse than what I was thinking!

 

Their response should be.   It happened.   We had a plan.  We followed the plan.  And see it worked.  Everyone got proper treatment and nobody died.

 

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I think what happens may depend on how many are testing positive,  what symptoms are they experiencing,  can they get retested at the next port to ( false positives are not uncommon), where is the ship , is a port close or is quarantine onboard the best option.  
 

A number of our friends have had the virus many with a just fever, mild aches and stayed home, worked in their yard and caught up on the shows they had taped. Others were very sick and in bed for 2 weeks.  In the first example quarantine on board could be sufficient.   With those on the other end of the spectrum disembarking the ill passengers may be necessary and if the number  begins to approach a size that exceeds the capacity of the medical staff/facilities then the cruise gets cut short.  

If all adults are vaccinated then the risk of contracting a serious  case of Covid is minimal.  So if I get on the ship being vaccinated  & with a negative test  and I get Covid  on board they are paying much of the expenses.


Heck, there is risk in going out of the house.  I refuse to let fear control what I do. (If I did I wouldn’t drive on some of our highways).  I try and take all reasonable precautions and then go on with life.

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If those were the protocols I would have no trouble with the risk.   If on the other hand I was at in a lounge next to someone who later tested positive and was contact traced as a contact and I was put off at the next port I don't think I'd pay $300 pp/pd for a 2C on Millie for that risk.

 

I think they are going to error way on the side of caution for their reputation and reduce their risks at all costs.   Given their silence on the subject I suspect the protocols will be harsher than one may expect.

 

 

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12 hours ago, cruiserchuck said:

I think is it more that RCL does not know exactly how they will handle things as opposed to asking us to just trust them.  I think the details will depend on how much news/interest is generated if a few people get infected and end up in quarantine.  In the past, passengers died all the time on cruises, and it generally received little or no attention.  I was on one cruise where according to what I read in various posts here, three people died from my cruise and the previous Transatlantic cruise.  There were a lot of folks sick on both cruises, but it received no attention other than here.  I am sure that if there were a similar level of illness and deaths on the upcoming cruises, it would be front page news.

But they are asking us to trust them without providing this key information by opening up bookings and taking our deposits.

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10 hours ago, jelayne said:

I think what happens may depend on how many are testing positive,  what symptoms are they experiencing,  can they get retested at the next port to ( false positives are not uncommon), where is the ship , is a port close or is quarantine onboard the best option.  .

 

I can't disagree that they may want a play it by ear approach since that's what they've miantained for a year, but this mindset could be exactly what is preventing them from making more headway with the CDC as well. Letting unvaccinated people on, lackadaisical metrics and no concrete plan could tank them. We have no interest in booking any of these cruises, but the lack of transparency before bookings open is really quite irresponsible IMO. 

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