Anybody onboard currently?

[Mackdogmolly]

Ok, here’s where it pays to be a more experienced traveler than me . Paid a bundle in Sint Maarten for a beach excursion with open bar and lunch. It was very nice, but found out later that could have taken a $7 (RT) water taxi to downtown and a better beach with reasonable chair rentals for a fraction of the price. Live and learn!

[Mackdogmolly]

Destination Celebration last night. Steel drum band followed by 1 of 3 of the original local singers (2 had COVID so couldn’t perform) and 1 fill in. Very nice, and then a lovely dinner in Discovories ( veal for DH and duck breast for me). A little bottle of local rum liqueur was waiting for us in our cabin with our turn down treats.

COVID testing scheduled over next two days - ours on the 29th. The good news is so far have not heard of any positive cases and most people are following protocol.

Today we arrive at Dominica at 1:00.

[Mackdogmolly]

Oops, the band is upside down!

[cruisefam38]

Azamara went all out to invert the whole band.  Motely Crue only flipped the drummer, Tommy Lee.

The rum bottle is a very nice touch.

Thanks for sharing some aspects of your cruise, Mackdogmolly.

[Mackdogmolly]

Update: The COVID testing scheduled over today and tomorrow has now been changed to all testing today, due to 2 positive antigen cases. These will be followed up by PCR tests to verify. We were scheduled for tomorrow, but had ours earlier this morning due to an early shore excursion tomorrow.

Update #2: On January 3rd, San Juan now canceled and replacing with Tortola. Fortunately (at this time), we can go ashore independently.

[uktog]

34 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Update: The COVID testing scheduled over today and tomorrow has now been changed to all testing today, due to 2 positive antigen cases. These will be followed up by PCR tests to verify. We were scheduled for tomorrow, but had ours earlier this morning due to an early shore excursion tomorrow.

Update #2: On January 3rd, San Juan now canceled and replacing with Tortola. Fortunately (at this time), we can go ashore independently.

Thanks for the updates, what a lot of rejigging the officers will be having to work on.  Fingers crossed results go well for everyone 

[macmax]

45 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Update: The COVID testing scheduled over today and tomorrow has now been changed to all testing today, due to 2 positive antigen cases. These will be followed up by PCR tests to verify. We were scheduled for tomorrow, but had ours earlier this morning due to an early shore excursion tomorrow.

Update #2: On January 3rd, San Juan now canceled and replacing with Tortola. Fortunately (at this time), we can go ashore independently.

Hopefully they were false positives.  That's too bad about San Juan.  Do you know if it affects all ships or just Quest?

[Mackdogmolly]

14 minutes ago, macmax said:

Hopefully they were false positives.  That's too bad about San Juan.  Do you know if it affects all ships or just Quest?

I don’t know, but I told it was because of COVID, so maybe all?

[Roel94]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Update: The COVID testing scheduled over today and tomorrow has now been changed to all testing today, due to 2 positive antigen cases. These will be followed up by PCR tests to verify. We were scheduled for tomorrow, but had ours earlier this morning due to an early shore excursion tomorrow.

Update #2: On January 3rd, San Juan now canceled and replacing with Tortola. Fortunately (at this time), we can go ashore independently.

I love Tortola but PR was where Sasha and Demi were to get on. Demi in states but Sasha in Holland. Much harder flights to get to ship.

 

crew are all now double masking. Very hard to breathe ..I tried it, not sure why not 95 masks.

 

this make five guests over three cruises  and it is since we arrived in Miami.

Guests should  test before flying or in Miami before ship.

 

Staying  in FL for a few days.plan on testing before I see next ship.

 

 

 

[takemewithyou]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Update: The COVID testing scheduled over today and tomorrow has now been changed to all testing today, due to 2 positive antigen cases. These will be followed up by PCR tests to verify. We were scheduled for tomorrow, but had ours earlier this morning due to an early shore excursion tomorrow.

Update #2: On January 3rd, San Juan now canceled and replacing with Tortola. Fortunately (at this time), we can go ashore independently.

Thought something must be going on because CDC has Quest color coded  yellow, meaning Covid cases onboard.

[Roel94]

15 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Ok, here’s where it pays to be a more experienced traveler than me . Paid a bundle in Sint Maarten for a beach excursion with open bar and lunch. It was very nice, but found out later that could have taken a $7 (RT) water taxi to downtown and a better beach with reasonable chair rentals for a fraction of the price. Live and learn!

You never asked on roll call. Most of us know that.also can walk to town. Gone to French side ,gone to see airplanes take off.

chairs run about 20 fir two with umbrella. Drinks vary by bar and food. Lunch yesterday was more than last time.

 

Ask cruisers who been to all these ports. You only really need tours in ports not allowed off alone. 

[Roel94]

2 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

Thought something must be going on because CDC has Quest color coded  yellow, meaning Covid cases onboard.

For the bird sailing 

[Roel94]

For the third sailing out of Miami 

[excitedofharpenden]

20 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Ok, here’s where it pays to be a more experienced traveler than me . Paid a bundle in Sint Maarten for a beach excursion with open bar and lunch. It was very nice, but found out later that could have taken a $7 (RT) water taxi to downtown and a better beach with reasonable chair rentals for a fraction of the price. Live and learn!

Don't beat yourself up. I've done the same thing in the past and ended up feeling foolish when talking to people back on the ship. Travel is definitely a learning process. I'm looking forward to getting back to school! Lol 

 

Phil 

[Baynanno1]

5 hours ago, Roel94 said:

Guests should  test before flying or in Miami before ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Testing prior to boarding is a requirement!

 

"Prior to boarding, guests are required to show proof of vaccination, complete a health questionnaire and provide a negative SARS-CoV-2 test result. Testing at the terminal prior to embarkation and onboard prior to disembarkation will be conducted by licensed and accredited third-party testing providers."

[Mackdogmolly]

We were in Dominica today and only ship excursions allowed. We opted for a “River Tubing Adventure. This entailed an hour drive on twisty mountain roads at breakneck speeds before arriving at the river. The tour guides said there would be small rapids, and I guess that really meant was any time the river was actually moving. The rest of the time, it was so still that we had to link together and be dragged to the next “rapid.” The water was also pretty shallow, so when going through the faster water, we would scrape against large rocks beneath us. All in all, it was pretty fun, but not quite what I expected!

[uktog]

2 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

We were in Dominica today and only ship excursions allowed. We opted for a “River Tubing Adventure. This entailed an hour drive on twisty mountain roads at breakneck speeds before arriving at the river. The tour guides said there would be small rapids, and I guess that really meant was any time the river was actually moving. The rest of the time, it was so still that we had to link together and be dragged to the next “rapid.” The water was also pretty shallow, so when going through the faster water, we would scrape against large rocks beneath us. All in all, it was pretty fun, but not quite what I expected!

You have a great attitude making lemonade every day.  

And better than sitting on the ship from what I read into your post!

[uktog]

36 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Don't beat yourself up. I've done the same thing in the past and ended up feeling foolish when talking to people back on the ship. Travel is definitely a learning process. I'm looking forward to getting back to school! Lol 

 

Phil 

Yep, how many times have we been and gone and done it and got that t shirt.......  

 

Learning by doing and making mistakes is the purest form of learning if you want the psychology theories 🙂

 

And going back to school would be such fun 

[Mackdogmolly]

The captain just announced that we have 12 confirmed COVID cases onboard ( confirmed with follow up PCRs). We were in port yesterday with some other cruise ships with many positive cases. Captain said they have not been transparent with guests and have only required testing at embarkation.

[Mackdogmolly]

Really grateful for our wonderful captain. And no crew have tested positive.

 

[uktog]

1 minute ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Really grateful for our wonderful captain. And no crew have tested positive.

 

Every measure he will take will be to keep everyone as safe as he can. Probably having to improvise in some areas to do so. 

[uktog]

5 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

The captain just announced that we have 12 confirmed COVID cases onboard ( confirmed with follow up PCRs). We were in port yesterday with some other cruise ships with many positive cases. Captain said they have not been transparent with guests and have only required testing at embarkation.

Probably as well you were on a ship’s excursion after all! 

[Mackdogmolly]

19 minutes ago, uktog said:

Probably as well you were on a ship’s excursion after all! 

That’s what we think!!

[takemewithyou]

Of all the ports we went to last week, St Maarten had very lax Covid protocols.  We had at least 2 other ships in port with us…..one enormous MSC floating City and a Crystal ship.  There were a couple of ambulances that were seen by us outside Crystal.  
We only went shopping at the terminal but we were surprised that shop employees were not wearing masks and there was no way to sanitize our hands!  One shop had hand sanitizer dispenser but it was empty!  
Other shops in other ports required you sanitize hands as soon as entering!  

Edited December 28, 2021 by takemewithyou

[Mackdogmolly]

30 minutes ago, takemewithyou said:

Of all the ports we went to last week, St Maarten had very lax Covid protocols.  We had at least 2 other ships in port with us…..one enormous MSC floating City and a Crystal ship.  There were a couple of ambulances that were seen by us outside Crystal.  
We only went shopping at the terminal but we were surprised that shop employees were not wearing masks and there was no way to sanitize our hands!  One shop had hand sanitizer dispenser but it was empty!  
Other shops in other ports required you sanitize hands as soon as entering!  

We found that most onshore people were  masked, at least in shops