Process Details for the Celebrity Millennium Sint Maarten Sailings

[seacruise9]

Hi Seany527,

 

Thank you very much for your extremely informative posts. I am sorry that two passengers tested positive, but it sounds like Celebrity handled this situation very well.

 

I am booked on a similar cruise on the Celebrity Summit that departs from St. Maarten on July 10. Celebrity's response makes me feeling better about being booked on this cruise.

 

Thanks,

 

Chuck

[lhsail]

1 hour ago, EatonDoolittle said:

 

To put things in perspective, lets recall the good old days, just for a moment. 

Raise your hand if you ever had a bout (or 2, in my case) of Noro....

Remember, you thought you were going to die for 24 hours???

 

Noro was a not so pretty part of cruising, but did not stop us from going. Heck, many never even bothered with simple prevention like hand washing. 

 

12 hours in the cabin, pampered with food and beverage, doesn't sound so bad now, does it. 

 

 

 

Been there. We are scheduled on a B2B in August. So far nothing that would deter us. Continuing to watch and learn. 

[Seany527]

On 6/11/2021 at 1:22 PM, bup1224 said:

Sean that definitely is strange in Curaçao.  I live here and that is not a Curaçao requirement (there is no a masks on the beach or outside requirement on my island) at all for anyone. Nor was the requirement for cruisers to be in the bubble. 

My guess is because of all the last minute changes,  the cruise sponsored excursion(s) chose to keep the bubble requirements.

Yes you are correct. Tours offered by Celebrity in Curaçao were required to be kept in bubble. Once our tour was over, we returned to the ship, had lunch and went back out to explore on our own. We moved about the island freely and only put on our masks when we were on the pier of if we entered someone’s store. 

 

On 6/11/2021 at 7:14 PM, Jeremiah1212 said:

Not that I have seen or heard. The reporter from TPG who is onboard was determined as a close contact by being on the same shore excursion. 

Same shore excursion, same cabin, physical contact. 
“Travel party” appears to just be classified as people staying in the same room, even if you are traveling with a large group.

 

23 hours ago, BigAl94 said:

St Maarten residents seem unimpressed!  https://stmaartennews.org/new-cruise-rule-no-vaccine-needed-latest/?fbclid=IwAR1IOoSLEbgo1erkzC0p1ST75LrFwFBiHyOXeWK3nw5wsUHv6W3X3VMhMfs

That’s not what I experienced from the people of Sint Maartin. They were thrilled to have the Millennium in port. One woman told me the ship “has given her hope”

[Seany527]

20 hours ago, disneylover89 said:

The 20 other people who were quarantined were very lucky it was the end of the cruise and they were only quarantined for the 12 hours and then they got off the ship.  If it was earlier in the cruise, their vacation would be ruined.  Another reason for me to wait until next year to cruise.

Sorry, I should have specified. They were placed in precautionary quarantine, given PCR tests and when the results came back negative 12 hours later, they were free to leave their room again.  

 

18 hours ago, jg51 said:

.

Those who have read about the actual experience of one of the quarantined people know that ...

(1) she was not the least bit angry, but instead was understanding and full of compliments,

(2) she did not "miss a whole night of dining," because an excellent meal was brought to her, along with chocolates, champagne, etc., and ...

(3) she was probably further compensated for the inconvenience she suffered.

.

Our opinion is that, immediately after she had tested "negative," she should have been released (which is what may happen in future cases), but Celebrity used an (over)abundance of caution and asked her to stay in her cabin until all the other contacts had been tested.

.

Yes, you are correct. The people who were quarantined for the night were not angry at all (at least the ones I talked to) They had a great dinner in their rooms and Celebrity bent over backwards to do anything to make them happy. 

 

17 hours ago, cachouonacruise said:

I know, some members were questioning the reasoning behind the crew requirement to wear masks. I believe this experience is the answer. The crew was not infected and remains ready to welcome a new group of passengers.

Yes I agree. It keeps the crew safer in the event sometime goes really long. The waiter who served the two women who tested positive was also placed in quarantine pending a PCR test. 
 

I answered your questions in red—

 

16 hours ago, syesmar said:

I have some questions:
-If the next day after finding out about the positive tests was not a sea day, would passengers have been allowed off the ship as planned? -I believe yes, because contact tracing was complete and we had our negative tests. Celebrity turned around the testing, very very quickly. I think for the next cruise happening right now, they only test on the last sea day. 
-Did the ship ask passengers to report any symptoms to them over the next few weeks? Not directly, but it was in literature about the resource available to use if we did not feel well. On two Celebrity Excursions, we were told to report to someone if we were not feeling well. Island touring was much more restrictive than ship life. And this applied to both Celebrity and Independent excursions.  
-I know CDC doesn’t recommend that vaccinated people get tested after exposure unless symptomatic, but did the ship give any advice whether or not they recommended close contacts get tested again in a few days? I don’t know about that. I personally will get a test again in a few days since I was inside SXM for a few hours and on the flight to JFK. 
-I know Celebrity is flying the passengers home, are they quarantining in a hotel first? They disembarked the ship, stayed in Sint Maarten for one night and then are flying home today, Sunday to Atlanta. 
-Do you know if the 2 room mates traveled together, i.e., had been together prior to the sailing? Yes, they had spent time together prior to sailing so they could have gotten it 72 hours before Sint Maartin and had it onboard the entire time. Or they could have gotten it in Barbados. 

 

Sounds like you had a wonderful cruise! As normal life begins to resume, I’ve often wondered how a case onboard would be handled in the real world, and seeing how Celebrity has handled it gives that insight.

 

16 hours ago, CalTexCruiser said:

 

Thank you for taking time away from your vacation to share with us.

 

Maybe I missed it, but how does Celebrity perform contact tracing?  

 

I don't recall people having to wear contact tracing bracelets like on the Singapore Quantum sailings.

Your key card and then looking at the cameras to see who you are with as well as where you sit at dinner and which excursions you take. 

[syesmar]

Seany527,

THANK YOU so much for taking the time to answer our questions and share your experiences! Much appreciated!

[wesport]

St Maarten has changed the PCR test to 72 hour before arrival and the antigen test 48 hours before(same as before).  Seems like its cutting it close. 

[megfla]

6 minutes ago, wesport said:

St Maarten has changed the PCR test to 72 hour before arrival and the antigen test 48 hours before(same as before).  Seems like its cutting it close. 

Please note...this is effective July 1.  Per the S.M. website.

[MrsBBuffalo]

Seany, if you are still watching this great thread, may I ask what they were doing about providing restroom access for the people standing outside the airport waiting for hours??

[Oldsweets]

I can answer the restroom question.  They did allow you into the airport lobby in order to use the restrooms. 

[phoneman69]

On 6/4/2021 at 5:20 PM, Seany527 said:

No problem. The post is actually obnoxiously long. I should have broken it up a little. 

Not at all the more info the better. Thank you for your effort

[gmjc2]

We were on the 12th-19th cruise. Had no issues at the airport at all. Everyone was very nice and we even had lost all our documents and they still let us in by looking us up on the computer!

No issues when we left either. 

[FlyerTalker]

On 6/11/2021 at 2:46 PM, 39august said:

I've been to Barbados several times. Never asked to show a passport. 

 

If those visits were by cruise ship, the ship's clearance officer and staff processed your passport info for the Barbados officials.  You were out of the loop

[cangelmd]

Seany527 - I apologize if you have already answered this question, I looked through the dailies you posted but I'm not familiar enough with the Millenium to answer my question

Did you see any venues that never opened? Were there enough waitstaff and bartenders to provide normal service?

Thank you for sharing your vacation - we are booked on the Equinox for August 1 - her second cruise - we cannot wait.

[larry_s_taco]

13 hours ago, cangelmd said:

Seany527 - I apologize if you have already answered this question, I looked through the dailies you posted but I'm not familiar enough with the Millenium to answer my question

Did you see any venues that never opened? Were there enough waitstaff and bartenders to provide normal service?

Thank you for sharing your vacation - we are booked on the Equinox for August 1 - her second cruise - we cannot wait.

We just got off the Millennium Saturday. We never saw any venues closed. They did not have an early show in the theater. There was only one show at 9:00PM. There were more than enough staff. You never waited for anything. There was about 500 passengers on board for our cruise.

[cangelmd]

5 hours ago, larry_s_taco said:

We just got off the Millennium Saturday. We never saw any venues closed. They did not have an early show in the theater. There was only one show at 9:00PM. There were more than enough staff. You never waited for anything. There was about 500 passengers on board for our cruise.

Thanks, that is helpful