Celebrity boarding rules change again for cruises from St Maarten - posted 05/31/2021

[garyg2000]

NEW E-MAIL JUST RECEIVED--BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!

*****??????NO MENTION IN THE LATEST E-MAIL 5 MINUTES AGO ABOUT 72 HOUR COVID TESTING REQUIREMENT.  IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE????????????

AGAIN *****/ IS CELEBRITY DOING

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/e-lite/CEL/Common_Elements/cel_logo.png About your upcoming travels   Dear Guest,   We look forward to welcoming you aboard Celebrity Millennium® for your 7-Night Aruba, Curacao & Barbados cruise sailing from Philipsburg, St. Maarten.  Before we depart, we have some important information to share regarding your itinerary.  Celebrity Cruises has been working closely with health and government authorities, in each country we sail from, to outline a clear path for cruising with new health and safety measures.  As we thoughtfully plan our return to service, we are evaluating all current itineraries and the status of travel conditions around the world.  This means some of our sailings will need to be modified.  Specific to your future Celebrity Millennium sailing, our port order has been modified to visit Bridgetown, Barbados on Monday, followed by a relaxing day at Sea, Oranjestad, Aruba on Wednesday and Willemstad, Curacao on Thursday.   For your convenience, we’ve included your revised itinerary below.     While visiting the Caribbean, on-your-own tours will be permitted in St. Maarten, Curacao and Aruba. However, Celebrity Cruises curated tours will be required in Barbados. Please note, all shore excursions booked through Celebrity Cruise Planner, will be automatically be adjusted to our new arrival dates.  Guests with independent arrangements should contact their tour operators as soon as possible.   Celebrity Millennium will sail with a vaccinated crew.  US Guests 16 years and older must be fully vaccinated with all COVID-19 vaccine doses administered at least 14 days prior to sailing.  As of August 1, 2021, all US Guests age 12 and older must be fully vaccinated.  Requirements for Non-U.S. guests vary, for details please visit  https://www.celebritycruises.com/healthy-at-sea.  Face masks are not required on board and optional for guests who choose to wear them.  However, face masks may be required while ashore based on local regulations.  We’re sailing with fewer guests for more space – and more luxury with even more activities to avoid large gatherings in public spaces.  Additional testing and protocols will be confirmed closer to your sailing departure date in line with the most up to date recommendations from local government and health officials as well as our Healthy Sail Panel.  These measures, including vaccination and testing requirements, will evolve along with public health standards.   Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through these unique circumstances.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Celebrity Cruises at 1-844-418-6824 in North America or (316) 554-5961 worldwide. We look forward to welcoming you aboard soon for an amazing Celebrity Cruises vacation.     Sincerely, Celebrity Cruises

[taxiang]

If they said nothing about it, then the 72 hours stands?  This looks like the whole thing is about new Barbados requirements that went into affect on May 30.  Hence, the late notice.  Not a whole lot X can do about the island ports changing their rules.

Edited June 2, 2021 by taxiang
punctuation

[Fouremco]

As this email doesn't mention Celebrity requirements for testing of any type for any age, I wouldn't draw any related conclusions from it.

[GeorgesGal]

On 6/1/2021 at 9:53 AM, cruisemom42 said:

 

I somewhat understand the frustrations. But, honestly, didn't those booking early cruises understand that there were going to be a lot of changes and confusion and a need to be flexible if booking some of the first cruises to resume sailing??  

 

It has been said many times that those who want to be on the first cruises out of the gate would need to take these things in stride...

Well said!  Kind of similar to wanting to be on the inaugural sailing of a new ship, or the first sailing after a major refit.

[FlyerTalker]

The email has a link to a webpage.  Which leads you to the same May 31st information.

 

I think we can draw NO conclusion, as we still have multiple sources presenting incomplete and/or differing messages.

[miamiboater]

This last minute change was extremely frustrating for me. I am going to St Maarten a day before the cruise and had scheduled my test for 9:00 am on June 1st. This would have allowed me to meet the 120 hour requirement for St Maarten AND Celebrity and also have time to submit the paperwork to get approval from St Maarten to travel. I took the test at 9:00 am and at 11:30 am I received the first email that said I would now have to have a test 72 hours prior to boarding. I was so angry that Celebrity decided changed the rules 4 days prior to the cruise. I called them and they, in no uncertain terms, said that this was the policy and I had to comply with it. Now, I've had to schedule another RT-PCR test and pay $195 per person (4 of us traveling) and I'm wondering if my insurance will even reimburse me since I just took a test yesterday that was covered. By the way, the first test we had to pay and additional $75 each to get the results the same day. This is a huge waste of money. When I indicated to the Celebrity representative at their "resolutions" desk that St Maarten had not changed the 120 hour requirement and I knew this wasn't a CDC requirement, the representative acknowledged that the change was made by Celebrity.  My big complaint is that they should have changed this last week so that we could plan for it or allow the June 5th sailing to go as is and then make this change for the June 12th and forward sailings. I feel that springing this on the passengers 4 days prior to the cruise is extremely unfair. It makes me think they are just arbitrarily making changes with no thought as to how this will affect their customers. Anyway, I've already come to terms with this (I have no choice) and have scheduled my next PCR test for tomorrow. Hopefully, the cruise will go smoothly and we'll have a great time!

[Jeremiah1212]

The website now says updates as of June 2 but the content is the same.  I think I know what the problem is but I'm not going to speculate. Keep an eye on the website. I have a feeling it will be changed soon. Unless this change is related to a port stop this was not Celebrity's intent the past few weeks. 

[BoundForSea]

If this last minute change adding the PCR was to accomodate Barbados, I bet our fellow travelers would have rather doubled up days in Aruba or taken a sea day. Im not sure all of this was worth saving a day in Barbados. 

[Jeremiah1212]

7 minutes ago, BoundForSea said:

If this last minute change adding the PCR was to accomodate Barbados, I bet our fellow travelers would have rather doubled up days in Aruba or taken a sea day. Im not sure all of this was worth saving a day in Barbados. 

 

It still wouldn't make sense because your <72 hour test upon boarding on Saturday could very well expire prior to the Monday arrival into Barbados. That is unless they have made some other agreement with Barbados to loosen the guidelines a bit. 

[miamiboater]

***Update***

 

The agent that I always deal with at Celebrity just called me and explained that the reason they are requiring the test within 72 hours is because one of the ports are requiring it. They also had to change the order of ports so that we could make the testing requirements of that port. He didn't indicate which port it was but from the two prior posts it seems like it may be Barbados. 

[BoundForSea]

14 minutes ago, miamiboater said:

***Update***

 

The agent that I always deal with at Celebrity just called me and explained that the reason they are requiring the test within 72 hours is because one of the ports are requiring it. They also had to change the order of ports so that we could make the testing requirements of that port. He didn't indicate which port it was but from the two prior posts it seems like it may be Barbados. 

Confirmed. I have that from a seperate Celebrity source as well. 

 

Celebrity if youre listening to us (doubtful).. DROP Barbados like a bad habit. 

[AbbyCruiser45]

12 minutes ago, BoundForSea said:

Confirmed. I have that from a seperate Celebrity source as well. 

 

Celebrity if youre listening to us (doubtful).. DROP Barbados like a bad habit. 

Agree, that's pretty disappointing. I wonder if there was already some contract in place to guarantee a port stop. I feel like it would have been easier to put out fires regarding losing a port day, rather than deal with people calling and complaining (justifiably) about tests that could cost $100s of dollars per travel group. Not to mention all the ensuing confusion. 

[LGW59]

1 minute ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

Agree, that's pretty disappointing. I wonder if there was already some contract in place to guarantee a port stop. I feel like it would have been easier to put out fires regarding losing a port day, rather than deal with people calling and complaining (justifiably) about tests that could cost $100s of dollars per travel group. Not to mention all the ensuing confusion. 

100% understand the frustration you all are dealing with re start of cruising!  I’m thinking that Celebrity is more than as well.  I guess it comes with the territory of resuming uncharted waters, so to speak.  Safe sailing and best to you all!!

[ppatterson21]

I think some of the change may also be coming from the change Saint Martin made on May 24th. All persons traveling from Barbados,  Curacao and Aruba now have to have been tested. While the requirements for US travelers hasn't changed,  they have changed for some of the Islands these early cruises are going to.

[lhsail]

24 minutes ago, ppatterson21 said:

I think some of the change may also be coming from the change Saint Martin made on May 24th. All persons traveling from Barbados,  Curacao and Aruba now have to have been tested. While the requirements for US travelers hasn't changed,  they have changed for some of the Islands these early cruises are going to.

I actually sent an email to the St. Maarten authorities when I saw this. Their response was it applied to residents of those islands?

[BoundForSea]

1 minute ago, lhsail said:

I actually sent an email to the St. Maarten authorities when I saw this. Their response was it applied to residents of those islands?

Yes, the press conference mentioned this. It onlybapplies to residents entering SXM not tourists returning from those locations. 

[BoundForSea]

46 minutes ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

Agree, that's pretty disappointing. I wonder if there was already some contract in place to guarantee a port stop. I feel like it would have been easier to put out fires regarding losing a port day, rather than deal with people calling and complaining (justifiably) about tests that could cost $100s of dollars per travel group. Not to mention all the ensuing confusion. 

The NY Times will have a reporter on site in SXM boarding the cruise to report on the first cruise back. Several Influencers and Vloggers as well. I really hope X knows what they’re doing here, because if my guess is right based on what’s being posted from my fellow cruisers here for the 5th, it’s going to be messy at the Port and it’s not going to be a good look for X, esp prior to being first out of the gate in the US two weeks later. Just my $0.02. If I were them I would be making this as simple and smooth and good looking as I could. 

[tallyho8]

I don't think it will be the people on the cruise doing the most complaining. It will be the people who were not able to board the airplane in the US to go to St Maarten because they could not get PCR results back in time.

 

Since Barbados requires a PCR test within 120 hours, the only way Celebrity could go to Barbados was to change them to the first stop and require a 72 hour PCR test. That way it meets the 120 hours for Barbados.

 

I would have preferred to just skip Barbados as I might not get my results back in time to go.

[AstoriaPreppy]

Am I the only one who thinks some level of ship provisioning is happening in Barbados? It doesn’t make sense that the line would jump through hoops to stop there unless there was an underlying reason… getting stuff. 

 

Barbados is one of the few cruise ports in the Caribbean that acts as a home port for cruise ships in any capacity, so I guess I just always assumed that Celebrity would be bringing on supplies I when docked there. I think Royal Caribbean is doing the same thing in Freeport, which is why all of their Nassau itineraries stopped there.

 

Complete speculation on my part, but it would explain a lot 🤷‍♂️

[abbydancer2003]

I'm on the 7/31 cruise, and at the moment glad I gave it some time to shake out.  I have two sites that I get free tests from, so will be using both if necessary.  I saw on the Roll Call that the reason was the Barbados change of requirements.   I'm hoping by the time we sail the St. Maartin test won't be necessary and we'll see about Barbados.

 

[bucfan2]

13 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

The NY Times will have a reporter on site in SXM boarding the cruise to report on the first cruise back. Several Influencers and Vloggers as well. I really hope X knows what they’re doing here, because if my guess is right based on what’s being posted from my fellow cruisers here for the 5th, it’s going to be messy at the Port and it’s not going to be a good look for X, esp prior to being first out of the gate in the US two weeks later. Just my $0.02. If I were them I would be making this as simple and smooth and good looking as I could. 

It's expected that cruise lines will have to work out the kinks (new protocol, 16 months w/o sailing, etc).  Having the misfortune of a NY Times reporter on site ensures that every little hiccup will be greatly magnified.  Perhaps the reporter won't get past customs/immigration and save us all from hearing from them.

Edited June 3, 2021 by bucfan2

[AstoriaPreppy]

16 hours ago, BoundForSea said:

The NY Times will have a reporter on site in SXM boarding the cruise to report on the first cruise back. Several Influencers and Vloggers as well. I really hope X knows what they’re doing here, because if my guess is right based on what’s being posted from my fellow cruisers here for the 5th, it’s going to be messy at the Port and it’s not going to be a good look for X, esp prior to being first out of the gate in the US two weeks later. Just my $0.02. If I were them I would be making this as simple and smooth and good looking as I could. 

Who is the reporter?? I hope it's Caity Weaver, who famously covered the Celebrity Reflection Paula Deen cruise while writing for Gawker.

[BoundForSea]

6 minutes ago, AstoriaPreppy said:

Who is the reporter?? I hope it's Caity Weaver, who famously covered the Celebrity Reflection Paula Deen cruise while writing for Gawker.

I saw this on a post here in CC at some point and it stuck in my head. Ill try and find it. 

[AstoriaPreppy]

I'm on the 12 June sailing, and we're scheduled to visit Tortola (BVI), Saint Lucia and Barbados. It appears the St Maarten travel requirements were updated yesterday, 2 June. The modified verbiage outlines the testing requirements more clearly, but one odd thing stuck out for me. From the "While Ashore" section (bolding mine): 
 

---

While visiting the Caribbean, on-your-own tours will be permitted in St. Maarten, Curacao, Aruba, and select approved on-your-own tours will be allowed in St. Kitts & Nevis. However, Celebrity Cruises curated tours will be required in Barbados and the British Virgin Islands. 
---

So it seems that Celebrity excursions will be required in both Barbados and Tortola... but no mention of Saint Lucia? I already assumed we're going to be re-routed to Barbados first (like the 5 June sailing) to meet their testing requirements. Now, I'm not sure if mentioning St Kitts is a Celebrity typo (very possible), or if we're being sent to a new port in lieu of Saint Lucia? 

[sanger727]

Anyone who is surprised or upset by last minute changes really has no business cruising right now. I truly don't understand why this is unexpected. Things change sooooooo often anymore. Vaccinated, not vaccinated. Covid test, not covid test. PCR test, antigen test. Vaccinated or covid test. Vaccinated at 18, vaccinated at 16, vaccinated at 12.  It's constant. You are dealing with your home country, St Martin, curacao, aruba, and barbados. 5 separate entities with their own requirements that change as they see fit. Of course these cruises are going to have changes. Anyone who felt the need to be on the "first" cruises should have anticipated this. I really hope the people on later June cruises think that this is the last change... of course it's not. It's going to keep changing. International travel right now, especially as complicated as cruising is a matter of being flexible and rolling with the punches. 

 

I have a land trip to two countries planned for September/October. As of today, I need to take 4 separate covid tests. What will it be in September? No fricken clue. 

Edited June 3, 2021 by sanger727