On Silhouette 1/15/22

[Wolf 8]

My wife and I are onboard the Silhouette which departed yesterday on a 10 day Southern Caribbean voyage.  At this morning's Captains announcement he said there were already quarantined passengers but did not say how many.  Yesterday after her performance the female guitarist/singer was chatting with several passengers and mentioned that last week ALL the ship's officers had been quarantined during the last voyage.

 

The weather has been perfect, the food delicious and the staff gracious as always.  To be candid, the staff is carefully following the mask and safety rules.  A good number of passengers, however are not.  You cannot go anywhere inside the ship without encountering people who are not eating or drinking but do not have masks on. 

Getting Covid-19 here means isolation and, depending on the next port of call, being put off and in left the hands of local authorities.

This afternoon I asked Guest Relations about the protocol for leaving the ship early and flying home.  We would fly home Monday if we could but a passport is required and we are only carrying birth certificates and driver's licenses.

This is nothing close to the Celebrity experience we've always enjoyed in the past.  I deeply regret being here.

[RTShaker]

Not bashing, but with all that is going on, why would you travel without a passport?

[debant]

We were on the ship last week. The captain stopped giving the amount of people with Covid after a few days. He would only say there were over 1% with it. He also made it sound like it was only crew but no mention of which crew. 
The house band the  Cardinals stopped playing a few days before the cruise was ending due to the bass player getting Covid. Yet, they played once without him when he first was quarantined and then you never saw them again. Not sure if more of the band got it.

Most people were wearing masks. 

[LGW59]

25 minutes ago, Wolf 8 said:

My wife and I are onboard the Silhouette which departed yesterday on a 10 day Southern Caribbean voyage.  At this morning's Captains announcement he said there were already quarantined passengers but did not say how many.  Yesterday after her performance the female guitarist/singer was chatting with several passengers and mentioned that last week ALL the ship's officers had been quarantined during the last voyage.

 

The weather has been perfect, the food delicious and the staff gracious as always.  To be candid, the staff is carefully following the mask and safety rules.  A good number of passengers, however are not.  You cannot go anywhere inside the ship without encountering people who are not eating or drinking but do not have masks on. 

Getting Covid-19 here means isolation and, depending on the next port of call, being put off and in left the hands of local authorities.

This afternoon I asked Guest Relations about the protocol for leaving the ship early and flying home.  We would fly home Monday if we could but a passport is required and we are only carrying birth certificates and driver's licenses.

This is nothing close to the Celebrity experience we've always enjoyed in the past.  I deeply regret being here.

Why no passport??

[jelayne]

ALL the ships officers were quarantined sounds like an exaggeration.  Maybe she doesn’t realize how many officers are in every department of the ship.  

[Wolf 8]

5 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Why no passport??

In hindsight I would gladly have secured passports in order to extricate us from this mess.

[Wolf 8]

6 minutes ago, jelayne said:

ALL the ships officers were quarantined sounds like an exaggeration.  Maybe she doesn’t realize how many officers are in every department of the ship.  

You could be right about that.  After all, her role is humming and strumming not navigation.  The salient point, however is that Covid-19 and it's consequences is apparently much more widespread on at least this vessel than expected.

[SusieV]

41 minutes ago, Wolf 8 said:

This is nothing close to the Celebrity experience we've always enjoyed in the past.  I deeply regret being here.

 

May I ask, what specifically is lacking from the normal Celebrity experience?

[LGW59]

1 minute ago, Wolf 8 said:

You could be right about that.  After all, her role is humming and strumming not navigation.  The salient point, however is that Covid-19 and it's consequences is apparently much more widespread on at least this vessel than expected.

Sounds like you did zero homework before going on this cruise 

[jwlane]

20 minutes ago, Wolf 8 said:

this mess.

Which is?

[ymncruise]

In July there was a huge backlog for passports—even for the renewals.  My friends had to use their birth certificates because they couldn’t get expedited processing for their renewals. The wait was over 6 months. 

[Wolf 8]

14 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Which is?

Answer:  This mess involves a virulent disease spreading in a confined place with plenty of morons behaving in precisely the ways that spread it.  The ships officers and crew are unwilling to deter that behavior. 

[cruisestitch]

I was on the cruise last week and saw many officers so the idea that they were all quarantined is a complete fabrication. They were not out gladhanding the passengers as usually happens on Celebrity, but the Captain and many other senior officers atended the Captain’s Event for Captain’s Club members, which was held on an outside deck.  I saw the hotel director, the chief housekeeper, the F & B manager and many others during the cruise.  The cruise Director was not out and about among passengers very often but was on stage every night introducing the shows.  The idea that all the officers were quarantined is simply ludicrous.

[cruisestitch]

Here are my suggestions to the OP, having spent the last cruise on the ship. I enjoyed outside venues as much as possible, when I was inside I tried to stay as far away from other people as I could, which wasn’t very difficult because there are only about 1/3 of the number of passengers to ship usually carries. It was easy to sit far away from others in the theater and in the Buffet.  

[cruisestitch]

3 hours ago, Wolf 8 said:

My wife and I are onboard the Silhouette which departed yesterday on a 10 day Southern Caribbean voyage.  At this morning's Captains announcement he said there were already quarantined passengers but did not say how many.  Yesterday after her performance the female guitarist/singer was chatting with several passengers and mentioned that last week ALL the ship's officers had been quarantined during the last voyage.

 

 

How very odd that she would say that, since she played at the Captains welcome event, where he spoke, so clearly he was not quarantined nor were the other officers who attended the party with him.

[Kluvs2travel]

How many passengers are onboard for this sailing?

 

[cruisestitch]

Approximately 900.

[RichYak]

3 hours ago, Wolf 8 said:

The weather has been perfect, the food delicious and the staff gracious as always... This is nothing close to the Celebrity experience we've always enjoyed in the past. 

Sounds exactly like all the Celebrity experiences that I've always enjoyed in the past.

[GottaKnowWhen]

2 hours ago, ymncruise said:

In July there was a huge backlog for passports—even for the renewals.  My friends had to use their birth certificates because they couldn’t get expedited processing for their renewals. The wait was over 6 months. 

My wife’s passport would have expired about now. We have a lot of travel planned for 2022-2023 and last May we applied for her passport renewal and for both of our Global Entry cards. The passport took about 12 weeks, the GOES cards were a bit faster. No GOES interview required, so that helped!

Stan

[RichYak]

3 hours ago, ymncruise said:

In July there was a huge backlog for passports—even for the renewals.  My friends had to use their birth certificates because they couldn’t get expedited processing for their renewals. The wait was over 6 months. 

Did your friends even try? I sent mine in for renewal on July 20 and had my new passport in hand on August 14. That's less than 4 weeks.

[GottaKnowWhen]

3 hours ago, Wolf 8 said:

My wife and I are onboard the Silhouette which departed yesterday on a 10 day Southern Caribbean voyage.  At this morning's Captains announcement he said there were already quarantined passengers but did not say how many.  Yesterday after her performance the female guitarist/singer was chatting with several passengers and mentioned that last week ALL the ship's officers had been quarantined during the last voyage.

 

The weather has been perfect, the food delicious and the staff gracious as always.  To be candid, the staff is carefully following the mask and safety rules.  A good number of passengers, however are not.  You cannot go anywhere inside the ship without encountering people who are not eating or drinking but do not have masks on. 

Getting Covid-19 here means isolation and, depending on the next port of call, being put off and in left the hands of local authorities.

This afternoon I asked Guest Relations about the protocol for leaving the ship early and flying home.  We would fly home Monday if we could but a passport is required and we are only carrying birth certificates and driver's licenses.

This is nothing close to the Celebrity experience we've always enjoyed in the past.  I deeply regret being here.

You have been getting a lot of push-back to your post! I do sympathize with your position. It is tough to make plans, let the anticipation build up, and then find that reality doesn’t cooperate. But to be fair, maybe your expectations were a bit fanciful? There is a pandemic going on (two years now) and circumstances continue to change as the situation evolves. I don’t expect that my cruise in two weeks will be like anything I have done before, but then I don’t really know what to expect! My plan is to go and experience and hopeful enjoy. I think that is all any of us can do right now. I am sorry your experience did not meet your expectations.

Stan

 

[ymncruise]

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

Did your friends even try? I sent mine in for renewal on July 20 and had my new passport in hand on August 14. That's less than 4 weeks.

No, we booked at the last minute so they only tried to do the in person renewal. I’ll let them know that the mail in process may be faster than they say. 

[sayvan]

I’m not buying into this thread…. Something seems off.. others on same cruise are reporting differently (and positively) and you’ve only been gone a day…..could someone be crying “wolf” … 

[chemmo]

Anyone who has boarded a ship in the last year should have done so with eyes wide open….There has been plenty of information. Things are not ‘normal’.

 

We boarded Silhouette in September for a staycation cruise knowing masks needed to be worn, that we would be avoiding mixing with others (normally a pleasure of cruising) and that even taking every precaution there was some risk…I am not saying it was a ‘usual cruise experience’ but it was still a wonderful break after a difficult year.

 

OP, strongly suggest you follow some of the advice given by cruisestitch and try to make the most of your cruise.

4 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

Here are my suggestions to the OP, having spent the last cruise on the ship. I enjoyed outside venues as much as possible, when I was inside I tried to stay as far away from other people as I could, which wasn’t very difficult because there are only about 1/3 of the number of passengers to ship usually carries. It was easy to sit far away from others in the theater and in the Buffet.  

Edited January 16, 2022 by chemmo

[deliver42]

Mayve the OP is looking for his 15 seconds of fame.