Required Celebrity Shore Excursion in St. Maarten?

[susiesan]

I am surprised so many are willing to just go along with a Celebrity rule that is the opposite of what they state on their web site about going ashore on your own where allowed by local authorities. If people can go ashore from a RC ship then why can't they go ashore from a Celebrity ship unless X has made a deal with local tourism companies to control and get a piece of the touring revenue. AS I said before, money grab.

 

From the web site under protocols:

On-Your-Own tours are available unless locally restricted.

[Turtles06]

9 hours ago, susiesan said:

I am surprised so many are willing to just go along with a Celebrity rule that is the opposite of what they state on their web site about going ashore on your own where allowed by local authorities. If people can go ashore from a RC ship then why can't they go ashore from a Celebrity ship unless X has made a deal with local tourism companies to control and get a piece of the touring revenue. AS I said before, money grab.

 

From the web site under protocols:

On-Your-Own tours are available unless locally restricted.

 

Yes, and Celebrity is telling us that for *its* ships, there are local restrictions.  Ships from different cruise lines are sailing different itineraries, and possibly under different protocols.  It is not surprising that the lines may have different agreements with specific islands. We are in the middle of a pandemic; the islands in the Caribbean that are even allowing cruise ships at all are walking a fine line between trying to protect the health of their citizens and the state of their economy.   It's not a question of being willing to "just go along with a Celebrity rule," it's a matter of abiding by what the rule is once you are on board.  If you don't like the rules, you are free not to sail.  But to say you are going to sneak off and break the rule, and with a pandemic going on no less, it's easy to see why you did not get much sympathy here.

[Duke95]

I certainly don't agree with the concept of sneaking off, but I do understand the frustration. There simply is nothing about this that makes sense - why would an Allure cruise with a couple thousand pax be safe in allowing people to do their own thing while the Celebrity cruise with less than one thousand pax are somehow in need of protection by the good folks at the Celebrity Private Journeys staff?

[Gatordad1967]

1 hour ago, Duke95 said:

I certainly don't agree with the concept of sneaking off, but I do understand the frustration. There simply is nothing about this that makes sense - why would an Allure cruise with a couple thousand pax be safe in allowing people to do their own thing while the Celebrity cruise with less than one thousand pax are somehow in need of protection by the good folks at the Celebrity Private Journeys staff?

because Private Journey, with the 400% markup is safer on fully vaccinated ppl than on your own tours.

 

[ymncruise]

I wonder how long celebrity will have the excursion rule for sxm. I would sail with Royal, but they require masks indoors.  I like to spend my time at the beach while in port and the excursions don’t give you much beach time.