In quarantine on Equinox. Ask me anything. I’m bored.

[davekathy]

We'll just wait for Celebrity or whoever we are cruising with to decide if we are going or not. 

[Loracpin2]

1 hour ago, riversound said:

We are taking next cruise on Equinox 1/9.

Flying from LAX on 1/8

see cancellations on roll call opting for future cruise in the Spring…I am on the fence .. so much to cancel hotels/Air/etc.

appreciate your advice ..

We were also on this sailing and cancelled last week under the FCC policy. Will rebook that for a sailing  January 3, 2022.  Also have a 55th Anniversary sailing booked for 16 of us with 7 cabins on RCI for July. Will be completely cancelling that with no intention of rebooking!!  

[wishuponasea]

18 hours ago, jimmybean said:

I'm really enjoying the photos you have posted showing your meals, Parkerson.  

 

IF I am quarantined on the January 9th cruise, I will order the same delicious looking (and/or sounding) items.  

 

 .....Or, maybe these things will be available in the MDR and I can just skip the covid???  

 

Time will tell.

 

You are certainly taking your quarantine in stride and with good humor.   Kudos to you!    It's never fun to feel sick.    And, I'm sure it's no fun to have your movements restricted.    

 

You have made the best of a bad situation.

 

Can't wait to see what you order for breakfast.    

 

The best to you!   Get well soon.

 

Triple masked and staying that way---  yours truly Jimmybean

 

 

 

 

We'll see you on the 9th, unless we chicken out.

[lexmiller]

18 hours ago, AliceS said:

My question is, would you cruise now, if given the choice?

Yes, definitely, without hesitation.  We have been glued to this thread, and others, where so very many people are reporting that they are cancelling their cruises for this month so we thought, hmmmm, this could be a good opportunity, thinking that prices may be coming down a bit, but no, prices remain high, no price drop whatsoever.  We are watching the Celebrity site closely and we are ready to book, watching the prices.....

 

We of course don't want to end up needing to isolate on board, but we trust that the cruises toward the end of the month, after the holiday surge, and before the ships are back to sailing at full passenger capacity, hold the promise of being very special.  Before the current surge, many have reported that as long as you don't care if a port is missed - meaning, if the destination is not the point, but rather the onboard experience - that these "cruises in the time of covid" have been some of the best on Celebrity that they've ever taken - due to reduced passenger capacity, no lines, service higher than the already excellent service Celebrity is known for, etc.  

 

We are booked on the Edge TA in April, followed by a week on our own in Italy, before heading to Amsterdam to board the Apex for the British Isles cruise.  Those are ports that we won't want to miss, plus testing will be trickier and there will be more of it......but, this latest variant should be on the wane, more people should be vaccinated and the world will hopefully be taking a more measured approach to this virus that will be with us forever in one form or another. 

 

Before that, if we can sail in the Caribbean where we don't care if we miss a port, we would love to experience Celebrity at lower passenger capacity, but no of course, not from a quarantine room.  We still feel, for us and our health status, that it is absolutely worth the risk.  We wish our best to all of the passengers who are experiencing symptoms and that you make it home without too much trouble!

[Beachin2]

19 minutes ago, lexmiller said:

Yes, definitely, without hesitation.  We have been glued to this thread, and others, where so very many people are reporting that they are cancelling their cruises for this month so we thought, hmmmm, this could be a good opportunity, thinking that prices may be coming down a bit, but no, prices remain high, no price drop whatsoever.  We are watching the Celebrity site closely and we are ready to book, watching the prices.....

 

 

With the ability to do price drops as late as 2 days out now, doubt you will see significant price drops to attract additional bookings.

[wishuponasea]

1 hour ago, riversound said:

We are taking next cruise on Equinox 1/9.

Flying from LAX on 1/8

see cancellations on roll call opting for future cruise in the Spring…I am on the fence .. so much to cancel hotels/Air/etc.

appreciate your advice ..

We are on this cruise too (Equinox 1/9). We are on the fence, but we also don't know if our flight will be canceled or not, given all the flight cancellations lately. Sure don't know what to do at this point. Don't want to cancel and spend the next few weeks looking outside at the snow covered land.

[Issyalex]

1 hour ago, MISTER 67 said:

That's good.

Yeah it is as are the wearing of masks.

[nocl]

54 minutes ago, esther e said:

And I hear you can fold a coffee filter and place inside the mask also.

Only for decaff covid 😁

 

Actually no, because even if it was a valid filter, a mask is only as good as the fit.  If there are gaps around the filter material then that is where the air flow will go.

Edited January 3, 2022 by nocl

[jimmybean]

44 minutes ago, wishuponasea said:

We'll see you on the 9th, unless we chicken out.

DH and I were firmly "going" until late last night when we saw that Florida's covid surge was up almost 1000%.    Yikes!    

 

I have our suitcase entirely packed.   We have until tomorrow to cancel first motel for the drive south.

 

We have no problem masking, but there will be people in Florida and people on the ship who don't mask (or won't mask).  

 

Covid will be aboard and it will spread.   Not everyone will catch it, but DH has an aversion to being quarantined (unlike Parkerson, DH does not imbibe--could make all the difference with having a mellow disposition in the confided space or being unhappy and cross and surly...)

 

Good luck with your decision, Wish!    We are working on ours.

 

Jimmybean

[TeaBag]

I, too, wish everyone who was quarantined on this cruise a complete and fast recovery.  Cruising should be a joy and not a worry.  We're still on the fence regarding our sailing in April.

Edited January 3, 2022 by TeaBag

[Parkerson]

Hello all! 
 

Disembarkation was surreal. Like an episode of Black Mirror. 
 

It was around 10am when they came for me and my luggage. They took my neighbors at the same time, but I’m keeping it simple. 
 

We took the regular elevators down to the 2nd floor, right by Medical, ironically. They had me wait at the elevators while they gathered the Mrs from our old room. 
 

They had a large sheet of paper on the wall with, what I presume, we’re the names of all the Covid peeps. Once we were together, they asked our names and cabin numbers and then checked us off. 
 

After we scanned out with our sea pass card and exited the ship, we found numerous private vehicles waiting dockside.  No Wellness Tent, no CDC, no CBP, no one asking anything about Covid or our well-being. Didn’t even get a Buh-bye. 
 

They asked where we were going (Park n Go), loaded us up in the blacked out Yukon and we were off. Right out of the gate and straight to Park n Go. 
 

It could’ve felt very VIP-like, but was really more Be-Gone like. 
 

The girl working for the private transport company had two large sheets of paper with everyone’s names they were transporting. I did my best to half-ass-quick-count over her shoulder and guesstimate there were 50 names on each of two lists. 
 

We’re about an hour from home and I’m in the backseat pushing my luck on car sickness.  I probably missed some things, but i’ll leave it here for now. 
 

[TeeRick]

I would be interested to know about the number of positive tests potentially among crew members and what are the plans for the ship to continue on or return?  We tend to think of this from a passenger perspective.  How many crew can be taken out of service and quarantined for 5+ days before the cruise is materially impacted for passengers?  What if the Omicon virus tears through the crew running the ship (engineers? key operational staff?  captain and officers?).  Is anybody worried about this?  I would be for the next several weeks.

[RollWave]

5 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

I would be interested to know about the number of positive tests potentially among crew members and what are the plans for the ship to continue on or return?  We tend to think of this from a passenger perspective.  How many crew can be taken out of service and quarantined for 5+ days before the cruise is materially impacted for passengers?  What if the Omicon virus tears through the crew running the ship (engineers? key operational staff?  captain and officers?).  Is anybody worried about this?  I would be for the next several weeks.

"Is anybody worried about this?"

 

YES! 

[TeaBag]

I'm even worried and we don't sail till April.

[TrulyBlonde]

@Parkerson

Did they have your wife in the van with the other Covid positives or just a private car for the two of you? I hope just the 2 of you. 

[LGW59]

1 hour ago, gold1953 said:

Coffee filters are no longer recommended for DIY masks The new study showed that while coffee filters are extremely effective at filtering microparticles, they score very poorly on the breathability scale, knocking them off the list of recommended DIY mask materials

Darn and now it is too late for me to ask Mr Coffee for a refund!

[peanut head]

Your posting has been refreshing, scary, enlightening and funny.  I'm curious to know what your wife's experiences were being on the "outside"?  What information was she getting regarding the outbreak on the ship?  What restrictions, if any, were the non-infected passengers being asked to do or not?  

 

All the best for a speedy recovery...and for all of us to continue to stay safe...

[Pinboy]

1 hour ago, LGW59 said:

I suppose it is helpful to see what other actual cruisers are experiencing ,then we can extrapolate from that and decide for ourselves what we would do.

Based on the extremely unfortunate situation some folks on this thread experienced and the many posts regarding uncertainty people are now feeling, it shouldn't be a difficult decision.

Again, Is cruising " that " important at this time ?  Not for us !!

( I guess everyone has a different " risk " level ) ?

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, Pinboy said:

Based on the extremely unfortunate situation some folks on this thread experienced and the many posts regarding uncertainty people are now feeling, it shouldn't be a difficult decision.

Again, Is cruising " that " important at this time ?  Not for us !!

( I guess everyone has a different " risk " level ) ?

Obviously. 

[Parkerson]

4 minutes ago, TrulyBlonde said:

@Parkerson

Did they have your wife in the van with the other Covid positives or just a private car for the two of you? I hope just the 2 of you. 

Private vehicle for each family. They were lined up waiting. 
 

They were staggering our departures so we didn’t bunch up inside or out. We were able to watch a bit while they retrieved one on my wife’s bag from inside the terminal. 

[LGW59]

2 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

Based on the extremely unfortunate situation some folks on this thread experienced and the many posts regarding uncertainty people are now feeling, it shouldn't be a difficult decision.

Again, Is cruising " that " important at this time ?  Not for us !!

( I guess everyone has a different " risk " level ) ?

Def not to us either.  We had April and October 2022 booked, we cancelled both a few months ago.  At the time not because of COVID.  Our next cruise is October 2023.  If we had not cancelled the 2022 cruises, in particular April because of COVID, we would be now.  

[Essiesmom]

23 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

I would be interested to know about the number of positive tests potentially among crew members and what are the plans for the ship to continue on or return?  We tend to think of this from a passenger perspective.  How many crew can be taken out of service and quarantined for 5+ days before the cruise is materially impacted for passengers?  What if the Omicon virus tears through the crew running the ship (engineers? key operational staff?  captain and officers?).  Is anybody worried about this?  I would be for the next several weeks.

I think this is the important point, the stumbling block.  They have/had a good plan on place.  It worked great…until first, the positives snowballed, and the the crew…. I would bet nothing in the plan provided for a large number of crew also being quarantined.  And all of the cruise lines are dealing with this.  look at Cunard and the Queen Mary 2, stuck in Barbados until they could get more healthy crew.  EM

[Carefree123]

Amazing thread by great folks.  I wish you all quick recoveries.  It's nice to know that in these crazy times,  there are people out there who care about another human being.   Happy New Year.

[Pinboy]

5 minutes ago, davekathy said:

( I guess everyone has a different " risk " level ) ?

LOL--- That's a " good one " .

Hey, I never said I was the " sharpest knife in the drawer ".

No, Please don't tell me " Yes, we noticed that after your first post ".

 

[TrulyBlonde]

20 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Def not to us either.  We had April and October 2022 booked, we cancelled both a few months ago.  At the time not because of COVID.  Our next cruise is October 2023.  If we had not cancelled the 2022 cruises, in particular April because of COVID, we would be now.  

I canceled my April 2022, as well. Instead we will hope for Nov 2022 and will try the Edge in an S-1 vs our Equinox suite. 2 land trips planned instead. At least we have control over our lives by doing the land trips in the USA.