What's with Bermuda?

[Merion_Mom]

Lots of countries have entry fees/visas.  Until recently, in order to sail to Brazil, you had to have a visa which cost $130.  If you didn't have the visa stamp in your passport, you didn't even get into the cruise terminal to board the ship.  Australia has a fee, which you must have to sail there.  etc. etc. etc.

[CPT Trips]

7 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Several islands / countries had implemented this travel authorisation in the last 2 years.     Bahamas, Jamaica and I believe Aruba had it and Barbados still has it.   Not sure who else but most were charging $75 pp.    

IMO cruise passengers should pay less than travelers entering the country by plane as their fee of $40 covers a covid test at airport before leaving Bermuda, based on what I read on bermuda website. 

Barbados did NOT have such a requirement in December of 2021. Their website on entry requirements now also dos not indicate the need for a paid travel authorization. 

[Sunshine3601]

15 hours ago, pstone1 said:

Thanks, but we would have preferred to keep the time in Bermuda which is why we booked this specific cruise. To each is own I guess!  We have a few B3B’s and B4B’s coming up, so I think we will be taking lots of tests onboard in the future.

I'm sorry are you saying they removed Bermuda from your itinerary?

If that happened then I would be upset as Bermuda is one of our favorite islands. 

 

Royal offers all b2b or s2s cruises Free covid tests onboard.      We just did a b2b on Anthem and the last sea day we had to report to one of the dining rooms between 8 and 10 am and they administered the test then emailed us the results in about 2 hours.    On Anthem they have Eurofin lab people living onboard to administer the tests for passengers and the crew on various days every week.    

Edited April 9, 2022 by Sunshine3601

[Sunshine3601]

10 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

Barbados did NOT have such a requirement in December of 2021. Their website on entry requirements now also dos not indicate the need for a paid travel authorization. 

My understanding with Barbados was the travel authorisation form was needed if you flew into barbados to board a cruise or stay on their island for a personal vacation. 

If you were on a cruise (as i was Jan 2022) to Barbados for a port day then you did not need the travel authorisation.     

[arsenic74]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I'm sorry are you saying they removed Bermuda from your itinerary?

If that happened then I would be upset as Bermuda is one of our favorite islands. 

 

Royal offers all b2b or s2s cruises Free covid tests onboard.      We just did a b2b on Anthem and the last sea day we had to report to one of the dining rooms between 8 and 10 am and they administered the test then emailed us the results in about 2 hours.    On Anthem they have Eurofin lab people living onboard to administer the tests for passengers and the crew on various days every week.    

 

So does this mean you would need to purchase an internet package to even access your email for the results?

[Charles4515]

17 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I believe it was April 1st that Bermuda announced their updated health protocols. 

 

The changes were announced on March 7. The changes were clear. They reduced the requiremnets and the fee from $75 to $40.  Unfortunately Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have been awful at passing along the information on Bermuda requirements. Royal has no excuse as a Travel Authorizaion has been in effect for at least year. So that a TA was required was not a surprise. Royal really dropped the ball. NCL on the other hand has done a much better. 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Charles4515

[Sunshine3601]

14 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

The changes were announced on March 7. The changes were clear. They reduced the requiremnets and the fee from $75 to $40.  Unfortunately Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have been awful at passing along the information on Bermuda requirements. Royal has no excuse as a Travel Authorizaion has been in effect for at least year. So that a TA was required was not a surprise. Royal really dropped the ball. NCL on the other hand has done a much better. 

Yup the bermuda TA was in place last summer too but they had stricter requirements last summer and is one of the reasons why royal cancelled their sailings out of bermuda.   

Royal has been sticking to their policy of releasing protocols around 30-days before sailings so not sure why you think Royal dropped the ball.  Anyone with a computer can view the requirements of any island/country.     I have been monitoring the bermuda gov site for updates on a regular basis since we have 2 future bermuda sailings booked and was not the least bit surprised when I received my email from royal the other week. 

I know that NCL had started sailings to Bermuda last fall and they had a lot of confusion on their first couple of sailings but I haven't followed since then. 

 

One thing all of us have learned during covid is anything can change at anytime.   I will probably wait until a week or so before my sailings to apply for the TA just in case their policy changes.

[Sunshine3601]

25 minutes ago, arsenic74 said:

 

So does this mean you would need to purchase an internet package to even access your email for the results?

If you do not have internet and you fail your test they will call your cabin and if not there they will make an announcement over shipwide intercom for you to call guest services or medical center immediately.     I heard this twice on my sailing for b2b passengers that failed their tests.    Those people were then confined to their existing cabin and disembarked separately from other guests the next morning.

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

My understanding with Barbados was the travel authorisation form was needed if you flew into barbados to board a cruise or stay on their island for a personal vacation. 

If you were on a cruise (as i was Jan 2022) to Barbados for a port day then you did not need the travel authorisation.     

I just checked barbados website and appears they done away with their TA requirement.

[pstone1]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I'm sorry are you saying they removed Bermuda from your itinerary?

If that happened then I would be upset as Bermuda is one of our favorite islands. 

 

Royal offers all b2b or s2s cruises Free covid tests onboard.      We just did a b2b on Anthem and the last sea day we had to report to one of the dining rooms between 8 and 10 am and they administered the test then emailed us the results in about 2 hours.    On Anthem they have Eurofin lab people living onboard to administer the tests for passengers and the crew on various days every week.    

No, that’s not what I said.  They changed the order of our itinerary to make Bermuda the first Port.  This move allowed them to avoid testing everyone on the ship and I’m sure it saved them money.  Nice, but when they did that, they shortened our first day so it will not be possible to do what we had planned.  We now arrive in Bermuda, Day 1, at 6pm, and it will likely take at least half an hour to clear the ship.  If that were the original itinerary, we wouldn’t booked it.
 

My point about the testing was that we are not afraid of testing, and would have gladly had another test onboard to keep the itinerary as we booked. 
 

Our issue with Royal is the poor communication.  I know, I shouldn’t be surprised.  Like I said, they still haven’t told anyone the ship will be arriving at a different terminal.

 

I know theses are first world problems.  It’s also OK for you to have a different opinion.

[Sunshine3601]

23 minutes ago, pstone1 said:

No, that’s not what I said.  They changed the order of our itinerary to make Bermuda the first Port.  This move allowed them to avoid testing everyone on the ship and I’m sure it saved them money.  Nice, but when they did that, they shortened our first day so it will not be possible to do what we had planned.  We now arrive in Bermuda, Day 1, at 6pm, and it will likely take at least half an hour to clear the ship.  If that were the original itinerary, we wouldn’t booked it.
 

My point about the testing was that we are not afraid of testing, and would have gladly had another test onboard to keep the itinerary as we booked. 
 

Our issue with Royal is the poor communication.  I know, I shouldn’t be surprised.  Like I said, they still haven’t told anyone the ship will be arriving at a different terminal.

 

I know theses are first world problems.  It’s also OK for you to have a different opinion.

I understand now you arrive at 18:00 instead of 13:00.     yes, the lose of those couple of hours for people on the may 15th and may 28th sailing would be upsetting.    

 

At the same time I can completely understand why royal switched the itinerary as it is not an easy task to test 3000 +/- passengers plus their crew.    I am sure they want to avoid the expense of testing and the risk of having to put numerous passengers into quarantine that may fail a test mid cruise.    Plus I am not sure what the acceptable number of positive cases onboard could prevent a ship from being permitted to dock in Bermuda.    

 

Were you originally going to dock at Kings Wharf and now docking at royal navy dockyard.     Aren't they basically the same area?     We miss the days of docking in Hamilton.   

[Charles4515]

15 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Were you originally going to dock at Kings Wharf and now docking at royal navy dockyard.     Aren't they basically the same area?   

 

They are refering to a change of the embarkation terminal  at Port Canaveral.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Charles4515

[orville99]

20 hours ago, cruise1957 said:

my mistake i meant $200 for the covid test.

Probably because they didn’t realize that they could order the tests through RCL for ~$30 per person, and the free rapid test options like cvs are not available where they live.

[pstone1]

3 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

I understand now you arrive at 18:00 instead of 13:00.     yes, the lose of those couple of hours for people on the may 15th and may 28th sailing would be upsetting.    

 

At the same time I can completely understand why royal switched the itinerary as it is not an easy task to test 3000 +/- passengers plus their crew.    I am sure they want to avoid the expense of testing and the risk of having to put numerous passengers into quarantine that may fail a test mid cruise.    Plus I am not sure what the acceptable number of positive cases onboard could prevent a ship from being permitted to dock in Bermuda.    

 

Were you originally going to dock at Kings Wharf and now docking at royal navy dockyard.     Aren't they basically the same area?     We miss the days of docking in Hamilton.   

We had plans for Day 1 that we were forced to cancel.  I am also sure Royal will be doing what’s best for them.  I’m just not sure that’s what we want to do.

 

As I mentioned earlier, we’ve never visited Bermuda before as the sailings for a day and a half never interested us.  No idea if the dock changed - we really wouldn’t know the difference anyway.

 

The rest of our Bermuda cruise is Nassau and Coco Cay.  We are cruising  to both of those this weekend.

 

No matter what we do, I hope you get to cruise to Bermuda again soon!

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, pstone1 said:

We had plans for Day 1 that we were forced to cancel.  I am also sure Royal will be doing what’s best for them.  I’m just not sure that’s what we want to do.

 

As I mentioned earlier, we’ve never visited Bermuda before as the sailings for a day and a half never interested us.  No idea if the dock changed - we really wouldn’t know the difference anyway.

 

The rest of our Bermuda cruise is Nassau and Coco Cay.  We are cruising  to both of those this weekend.

 

No matter what we do, I hope you get to cruise to Bermuda again soon!

We have been there several times on cruises and land vacations.    It is our family favorite.    It is a lot different than other caribbean islands and I hope you get there this summer. 

[Charles4515]

34 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

We have been there several times on cruises and land vacations.    It is our family favorite.    It is a lot different than other caribbean islands and I hope you get there this summer. 

It is not a Caribbean island. That is why it is a lot different than Caribbean islands. It is one of my favorite islands. I stopped counting after 15 times. But I am unfortunately not going this year. 

[Ocean Boy]

6 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

 

Were you originally going to dock at Kings Wharf and now docking at royal navy dockyard.     Aren't they basically the same area?     We miss the days of docking in Hamilton.   

I agree. Docking in Hamilton is the best. It is such a convenient location to be in.

[Sunshine3601]

43 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

It is not a Caribbean island. That is why it is a lot different than Caribbean islands. It is one of my favorite islands. I stopped counting after 15 times. But I am unfortunately not going this year. 

Yes, I am aware of that and shouldn't have said other caribbean in my post.

[PC Skier]

CDC has Bermuda at high level 4.  NCL is changing ports from Bermuda.  Royal Caribbean should do that too.  $40 per passenger is a lot of money for Bermuda even if we don't get off the ship.  

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, PC Skier said:

CDC has Bermuda at high level 4.  NCL is changing ports from Bermuda.  Royal Caribbean should do that too.  $40 per passenger is a lot of money for Bermuda even if we don't get off the ship.  

So what is the US level? The rate of the population affected and the rate of deaths is lower in Bermuda than the US. 
 

NCL is not changing ports from Bermuda. They have adjusted some itineraries so that Bermuda is first so they don’t have to test 3000 passengers onboard but they are still going to Bermuda. 

[PC Skier]

NCL changed to Bar Harbor instead of Bermuda

[shof515]

5 minutes ago, PC Skier said:

NCL changed to Bar Harbor instead of Bermuda

They removed an removed a sea day and added Bar Harbor towards the end of cruise. This is for sailings out of Boston.

[Charles4515]

16 minutes ago, PC Skier said:

NCL changed to Bar Harbor instead of Bermuda

Wrong. They added Bar Harbor. They are still going to Bermuda. 
 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Charles4515

[Ocean Boy]

10 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

Wrong. They added Bar Harbor. They are still going to Bermuda. 
 

 

 

That is good as substituting Bar Harbor for Bermuda would not even be close to a similar trade.

[smokeykat]

10 hours ago, PC Skier said:

NCL changed to Bar Harbor instead of Bermuda

No change at all. Going on NCL Joy at the end of April still going to Bermuda.