Explorer Port Restrictions?

[Mullwi]

hi everyone! My son is going on explorer in November for his honeymoon. I had heard at one point that you may only be allowed to leave ship on shore excursions? Can you still take taxi to a beach… on your own? For instance in st. Thomas, we used to take a taxi to coki beach. Thanks for any info!

[Biker19]

43 minutes ago, Mullwi said:

I had heard at one point that you may only be allowed to leave ship on shore excursions? Can you still take taxi to a beach… on your own?

Some of those details may not be confirmed for another month or more.

[brillohead]

Currently, if you're vaccinated, you can do your own thing in ports.  If unvaccinated, you have to take a cruise ship excursion.

[kjenaz]

Not sure where Brillo is getting the details, but what we are told is that based on current state, we can book our own ONLY in St. Thomas and St. Martin.  The other stops are currently listed as Bubble Excursion ONLY.  I am basing this on what Celebrity is currently experiencing.

 

[Sea Dog]

4 minutes ago, kjenaz said:

Not sure where Brillo is getting the details, but what we are told is that based on current state, we can book our own ONLY in St. Thomas and St. Martin.  The other stops are currently listed as Bubble Excursion ONLY.  I am basing this on what Celebrity is currently experiencing.

 

I think Royal will spell it out the closer we get our sailing on November 7th. I agree that port rules take precedence. We booked all Royal excursions to play it safe.

[kjenaz]

Sea Dog - We are a group of 8 and we will be booking shore excursions for most, but are hoping that it will ease up.

 

[Sea Dog]

1 minute ago, kjenaz said:

but are hoping that it will ease up.

I hope so too.

[Mullwi]

Thanks everyone!

[Lou33]

9 hours ago, kjenaz said:

Not sure where Brillo is getting the details, but what we are told is that based on current state, we can book our own ONLY in St. Thomas and St. Martin.  The other stops are currently listed as Bubble Excursion ONLY.  I am basing this on what Celebrity is currently experiencing.

 

Do you have a link that you can share?  This is the first that I have heard that there are restrictions for "vaccinated" passengers.  If there are restrictions, it would certainly be in RCI's best interest to publish them.  This would be an important consideration for passengers if they would choose to cruise at this time.  

[Ashland]

I'm hoping that by the time we (vaccinated) go to the caribbean in March 2022 we'll be able to go off ship on our own. I can't imagine having to book cruise excursions only on this itinerary.

[kjenaz]

Lou33,

Below is a link to the section for Celebrity (Sister of Royal) and the only one I am able to find information for the ports we are going to.  Scroll to the "While Ashore" section.  T

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/healthy-at-sea/us-travel-requirements

 

Karla J.

[beshears]

I had not read any of the postings here, but I wanted to add my 2 cents to the post or question. We are planning on cruising on the Explorer the 9th of January, 2022. I have been concerned about not getting my passport back as yet, but RCL said as long as I'm cruising from, and back to San Juan, I should be alright, if the passport does not arrive in time, by using my birth certificate (raised seal) and drivers license with the star. I was concerned about the 7 ports we would be visiting if I did not have my passport, so customer service rep with RCL check it out, and she said I should be fine without the passport.

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, beshears said:

I had not read any of the postings here, but I wanted to add my 2 cents to the post or question. We are planning on cruising on the Explorer the 9th of January, 2022. I have been concerned about not getting my passport back as yet, but RCL said as long as I'm cruising from, and back to San Juan, I should be alright, if the passport does not arrive in time, by using my birth certificate (raised seal) and drivers license with the star. I was concerned about the 7 ports we would be visiting if I did not have my passport, so customer service rep with RCL check it out, and she said I should be fine without the passport.

Drivers license and birth certificate will work for the embarkation center at the PA pier in SJ. We've been to the ports on your itinerary multiple times and we have never been required to take our pass ports with us while visiting the ports. 

Edited October 8, 2021 by davekathy

[beshears]

DaveKathy, thank you for your input on this. I am "hoping/praying" that my passport will arrive before our January cruise, but I'm so thankful to read that things may go smoother (if I don't get my passport in time), than what I was thinking.

[brillohead]

@beshears, I hope you can relax about the passport issue -- official birth certificate and government-issued driver license (doesn't even need the star) are perfectly legit for your cruise.  

(But I also hope it arrives in time -- they seem to be speeding up a little.)

[sharonlacey]

I had a excursion booked on my own that just cancelled:

Greetings,

 

We are reaching out to you with an important updated regarding your Resort for a Day booking. At this time, the islands of Antigua, Barbados and St. Kitts are requiring that cruise passengers be allowed to disembark in port only through cruise lines operated tours and excursions, and not through independent tour providers (Resort for a Day). Unfortunately, at this time we do not anticipate any of these regulations changing prior to your travel dates. In order to provide you the time to research and book an alternate excursion option, your Resort for a Day booking is being cancelled and refunded.

 

We are in the process of proactively refunding all impacted Resort for a Day guests. Rest assured, no action is required on your part.  Your refund will be processed back to the credit card it was paid with. Depending on your bank, it can take a few business days to see that credit reflected back into your account. 

 

I wish that we were afforded the opportunity to serve you, please keep us in mind when you are ready to cruise again. In the meantime, stay safe & stay well!

 

Thank you,

Resort for a Day

 

I would think that this info is true as they are losing bussiness.

[dianajo67]

Interesting.  Going to Antigua in Jan on Harmony.   Guess we’ll do a back up royal excursion just in case.

[beshears]

Sharonlacey, those are some of the ports we are to be stopping at in January. At this time we had not booked anything in those ports, but I have booked a tour in St. Lucia. I checked with them, and ASK, if I did not have my passport, but my birth certificate and drivers license with the star, would I be alright, and they said yes, and not to worry about it. I have been blessed to visit all these ports before, and if I just get off and do some "shopping," I'll be fine. I know 3 months from today seems like a long ways off, but with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas coming up, our cruise will be here before we know it. I know one of my sons was planning on booking some things, so I don't know if he will run into problems or not.  Time will tell.

[MandyMooToo]

On 10/8/2021 at 1:22 PM, beshears said:

I had not read any of the postings here, but I wanted to add my 2 cents to the post or question. We are planning on cruising on the Explorer the 9th of January, 2022. I have been concerned about not getting my passport back as yet, but RCL said as long as I'm cruising from, and back to San Juan, I should be alright, if the passport does not arrive in time, by using my birth certificate (raised seal) and drivers license with the star. I was concerned about the 7 ports we would be visiting if I did not have my passport, so customer service rep with RCL check it out, and she said I should be fine without the passport.

 

Oddly enough, I was concerned about my daughter-in-law as she only had a passport card and I emailed RCCL to be sure about this very same thing (I read somewhere, cannot remember where, that things had changed for some ports due to covid).  RCCL got back to me and said that yes, you do need a passport for cruises out of PR at this time.  She sent in for her passport and paid for expedited and received it in a few weeks.  What I read somewhere said some ports were requiring passport books at this time due to possible repatriation issues with covid illnesses and that is what prompted me to ask.  Just an FYI.  This is the email I received back from them regarding our Explorer cruise 11/28/21 out of PR:

 

 

Dear Mandy,



Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you today.

Regarding your inquiry, a passport book is required for your sailing. We hope this information helps.

Once again, thank you for reaching out to us. We look forward to welcoming you on Explorer of the Seas!



Sincerely,

Kelly Ulloa
Royal Guest Experience Management

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by MandyMooToo

[beshears]

MandyMooToo, well I don't know what to tell you.  It looks like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, as my TA DID check with RCL to see about my passport issue.  Yes, I'm hoping it will be here, and when (it is very hard to get a hold of anyone at the Passport office) I did speak to someone a month or so again, they said I could expedite it, but I may not need to do it, so I'll see what happens. At least you got your passport issue taken care of.  It doesn't make sense, even "without" expediting the passports, that some come sooner than others.  I was just renewing mine, so why it is taking longer, I have no clue.

[sharonlacey]

On 10/9/2021 at 8:59 PM, beshears said:

Sharonlacey, those are some of the ports we are to be stopping at in January. At this time we had not booked anything in those ports, but I have booked a tour in St. Lucia. I checked with them, and ASK, if I did not have my passport, but my birth certificate and drivers license with the star, would I be alright, and they said yes, and not to worry about it. I have been blessed to visit all these ports before, and if I just get off and do some "shopping," I'll be fine. I know 3 months from today seems like a long ways off, but with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas coming up, our cruise will be here before we know it. I know one of my sons was planning on booking some things, so I don't know if he will run into problems or not.  Time will tell.

We booked the beach excursions thru the ship just incase these Islands do not lift the restriction as ship excursions will fill up very fast and we always do the beach.  So we just have to go with the ship now.  Usually I like to pick our beach and cab it but I would rather go with the ship than not at all.  We can always cancel if they lift restrictions.

[beshears]

Sharonlacey, I understand where your coming from, but for us, we will probably just go with the flow.  I know my sons love to snorkel, and they may or may not get to do it, as time will tell. 🙂 Two of my sons said if they don't get off the ship, it will be fine, as they just want to RELAX, and I understand where there coming from, but hopefully we WILL be able to get off the ship. 🙂

[sharonlacey]

4 hours ago, beshears said:

Sharonlacey, I understand where your coming from, but for us, we will probably just go with the flow.  I know my sons love to snorkel, and they may or may not get to do it, as time will tell. 🙂 Two of my sons said if they don't get off the ship, it will be fine, as they just want to RELAX, and I understand where there coming from, but hopefully we WILL be able to get off the ship. 🙂

I hope they will allow us to get off.  But just incase I don't want to be stuck on the ship as we have plenty of time on this cruise.  We can always cancel if things change.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 10/9/2021 at 2:36 PM, dianajo67 said:

Interesting.  Going to Antigua in Jan on Harmony.   Guess we’ll do a back up royal excursion just in case.

we are going to Antigua on Harmony in November, and the only reason we booked an RCI excursion is because we have an unvaxxed kid with us.