zanderblue

I had my 3rd appointment earlier this week as a participant in the Novavax stage 3 trial.

Brief medical check of vital signs and a blood sample taken for antibody testing.

I had a chat with doc regarding being vaccinated with approved vaccine. When I am invited to be vaccinated I need to call the study team and they will drop me from study and advise whether I had placebo or vaccine. If latter, she mentioned having further antibody test before decision being made in how to proceed.

8 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

A question for anyone that has taken a Covid test.  Has anyone every received written confirmation of your results?  I only received a phone call.  I would think that all of the testing clinics are too busy to provide a written report so I could cruise within the next day or two after the results are back.

I was tested last month at my first appointment for the Novavax vaccine trial. I was notified by email and sms text confirming my result.

3 hours ago, tert333 said:

In the past, if a cruise is cancelled, they have allowed the move the cruise to another cruise maintaining the same price as the previous cruise.   Traditionally, they have given options which you can select from,  and if you choose not to select the options provided, then you would get an OBC with the new booking at the prevailing rates. 

 

I am booked on a March 19 Infinity cruise and it does not look like there is a corresponding Summit Cruise.   I am onhold with my TA, who is trying to get in touch with Celebrity and is onhold with them.

@tert333we are booked on the same cruise. 

I had an email from my TA yesterday advising that we would be booked on equivalent Summit cruise, but like you, we can’t see a sailing on Summit for that date.

appreciate any update or info you may come up with.

1 hour ago, govanguy said:

Just received my email this morning. Edge B2B cancelled with an offer of OBC to book a similar cruise on Silhouette at an increased price (prevailing rates). 

Edge initially was at a premium price and may still be.  

I`ve given up with the pricing malarky. 

 

With continuing uncertainty regarding CDC 7 day rules and with regret, I cancelled.

 

In addition, I have a B2B Transatlantic booked for October 2021 on APEX which is looking more and more unlikely. I`m thinking the 9 DAY Caribbean sector  in 2021 will be cancelled and the Transatlantic eastbound in May  2021also being  cancelled. I also have to consider air transport bookings for this trip and the time it takes to receive a refund from the airline , if I cancel.

Not good......I quit.

 

It's looking more and more likely I`ll be moving on to A.I. land based or even a land based tour where I may get more certainty.

 

Finally, I don't seem to fit the new demographic for a Celebrity cruise....c`est la vie. . After 15 years, we`re moving on. Nice while it lasted.

 

I feel your pain. I can’t help but think that X have been a bit unfair as to how they have rolled this out and the poor conditions they have imposed on existing customers.

It does appear that that the redeployment has been implemented under the guise of COVID, but has been done in such a way to maximise income.

Im pretty sure they will have modelled likely outcomes before implementing this and are prepared to lose customer goodwill to get the optimum business outcome for themselves.

Such a pity, I think you are correct; it may well be time to move on!

I have just received an email from my TA, but it looks like a boilerplate statement from Celebrity, see below.......

“Dear Valued Guest,

We are reaching out to provide an update on the status of your  2021/22 cruise vacation. As the world continues to work towards a new normal, our primary goal continues to be a healthy return to service for our guests, crew and the communities we visit. While working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other local health and government authorities towards this shared goal, we are evaluating all current itineraries to ensure we offer your clients the best possible vacation experience in each destination. This means some of our sailings will need to be modified. 

Specific to your  future Celebrity Infinity® sailing, these deployment adjustments will require a change of ship for their Caribbean voyage to the fully revolutionized Celebrity Summit®. We are pleased to advise all departure dates, itineraries and booked stateroom categories will remain exactly the same. No action needs to be taken on your part as our Customer Service Teams are working to automatically move your client's reservation to the Celebrity Summit. Once the process is complete you will receive a refreshed booking invoice via email with your client's new stateroom number. We anticipate it will take us a few weeks to complete all the transactions. Please feel free to log-in to your My Celebrity account within the coming weeks and check out everything the Celebrity Summit has to offer as well as their new stateroom number. 

If you pre-booked any shore excursions, beverage, internet, specialty dining or other onboard packages, through Celebrity Cruises, these will also automatically be moved over to the Celebrity Summit. Guests with independent shore excursion arrangements should contact their tour operators as soon as possible to advise them of this change. “

 

18 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

We are booked on the Infinity March 28, 2022, 5 day and the date is not on the list for the Summit.  I am so disappointed as we got an incredible rate...$580 TOTAL for 2, inside room(one of the larger ones on 7), AND $100 OBC.  Oh well, lol.

ETA:  My sailing has been chartered.  I wonder if they will give me the option to move to a different sailing at same rate.

We are in same situation, our date is not on Summit schedule. Where did you find out that your sailing had been chartered?

We were booked on Infinity March 19th 2022 sailing. We should transfer across to Summit, but I can’t  see a Summit departure for that same date.

Has anyone heard anything about that particular cruise?

thanks

Us too. I see a new schedule has been rolled out for late 21- early 22.

We were booked on a B2B in March 2022, now looks like 2nd cruise on Infinity won’t be happening ☹️

Ive heard nothing from my TA to date..........

Similar to @cruise kitty I attended my 2nd appointment for the Novovax study last week. Vital signs were monitored followed by a short exam by doctor which focused on my neck and throat (lymph glands???) and then listening to my lungs.

Then the injection; bit of a reaction to it in the form of intense burning sensation during and immediately afterwards. Settled down after 20 minutes or so. 

Back in a coupe of weeks for further checks and to provide blood sample for antibody testing.

For what it’s worth, I got chatting to the research nurse during my observation period about the Pfizer vaccine and she said that their study announcement was hugely encouraging.

8 hours ago, upwarduk said:

There will be an order that the vaccine will be administered in UK:

Care home residents and workers

Over 80’s

Age below 80. 
I am surprised that Hospital workers are not on this list and certainly not people who wish to go on a cruise. 
This however is on our NHS, no mention of private treatment.

I had a discussion just yesterday with a friend about private treatment. She was trying to make the case that private patients allocation would not come from NHS quota, and as such would have no impact on availability to NHS. 

My position is that no one should be allowed to jump the queue just because they can afford to pay for it.

2 hours ago, markeb said:

 

 

There are at least a couple of challenges, first and foremost that there are still things we don't know about the SARS-CoV-2. There is what appears to be a very successful global effort at developing a vaccine less than a year after the virus was first recognized. Most previous vaccine efforts were directed at pathogens where there were decades or more of research. It's pretty apparent, for instance, that there's an asymptomatic carriage state where people are capable of transmitting the virus but have no evidence of disease. There's apparently no good consensus, other than mass screening, to account for those people in vaccine trials.

 

The current vaccine trials have primary endpoints that measure reduction in disease (symptoms). The Pfizer trial performs nasal swabs on everyone with symptoms, and their 90% reduction in disease (simplified) is that 90% fewer people in the vaccinated group developed symptoms and were PCR positive on swab (their criteria for diagnosing COVID-19, which correctly used is the disease caused by the virus, not the virus). There's no testing of asymptomatic people to see if they can recover the virus.

 

Now, the good news, I think. There's no good way to prove that vaccinated individuals can't transmit the virus. That's different from saying they do. The mechanism of all these vaccines targets a fundamental process of viral replication. That at least gives me hope, even if it can't currently be demonstrated in a clinical trial, that viral load, viral shedding, and transmission should all be reduced by the same mechanism that appears to be reducing disease. but it may be a long time before we actually know. Once enough people are vaccinated, you should see fewer asymptomatic swab positives, for instance, even in unvaccinated people, if the vaccine is blocking transmission. And if we can hit the 60-70% vaccine rate with a 90% effective vaccine, and it blocks transmission, we should stop sustained transmission (not all, unfortunately).

 

Hope that helps.

Thanks for explaining. I think I’ve got it.

In summary, if you are vaccinated then that will significantly reduce the risk of you becoming infected. 

But if you are not vaccinated, then your risk of becoming infected remains as is. (Quite high as I understand it, since the infection spreads readily?)

As far as I can see, the losers are those who cannot or refuse to be vaccinated?

Hi Davie,

thanks for posting. 

We were on same cruise and reading your review has brought back some great memories.

Rio was on our bucket list and for us it was the highlight of the trip.

I see upthread some folks are asking about study protocols.........

I am participating in the Novavax trial. I had my first appointment 2 weeks ago. At that appointment they took a blood sample to test if I’d ever had Covid. They also took throat and nasal swabs to test if I currently had it. Then I was vaccinated. ( I had results back within 48 hours, indicating negative). 

I was also given list of symptoms that I had to look out for and given details of actions I had to follow if I did get any of these symptoms. Basically, I have to take throat and nasal swabs on 3 consecutive days and contact the study team. I was provided with 3 test kits to take home with me.

I am due back for my 2nd appointment next week where the 1st session will be repeated.

I have a 3rd appointment for 3 weeks after that, then 3 further appointments in the following 10 months.

I was also asked to participate in reporting my symptoms or lack off using an ediary.

As I said earlier, my perception is that the study is highly organised and being well executed.

10 hours ago, cruise kitty said:

hi there, just dropping in to report my experiences so far in the phase 3 Pfizer trials

 

Received my first shot on Friday around 4...  after a very long day of many pokes, swabs & paperwork, & lots of waiting.

 

I have an app on my phone to do self reporting of any symptoms...

 

No reactions at all until Sunday evening, body aches....  then Monday morning, woke with slight headache, which progressed to a slight fever, chills, body aches, sore throat building over the afternoon, all, very, very mild.... 100% better today.  

 

I am only reporting what I was told....  they are very hopeful that sometime in December they will have enough data to "unblind" the study, & vaccinate all who received the placebo,  this is not guaranteed at this time...again, only what we were told.   

 

I go back for my second shot on November 12th....

 

Any more detailed questions I'd be happy to answer if I can.  

Just add my experience participating in the Novavax phase 3 trial.......

first session last Tuesday. All very slick and well organised. Vital signs checked, then exam from doc, followed by vaccination. I was in and out in around 90 minutes.

Here we are 9 days on and no adverse affects whatsoever. Back in a couple if weeks for second shot.

I was told that if an approved vaccine became available I would be notified by team and free to go get it.

I’m enrolled in the Novavax phase 3 trial here in Scotland. First appointment on Tuesday next week.

A bit like an earlier poster, however small it may be, I feel as though I’m helping.

We were not impressed with ship access/egress arrangements or the terminal to be honest. 

The terminal is quite a distance from the dock and requires you to use a bus. Access and egress to ship is via a very steep ramp. there were restrictions in place to manage how many people were on it at any one time, which obviously led to delays.

my memories of the terminal are vague, but I seem to recall that ground areas adjacent to terminal were quite uneven.

I am sure there will be arrangements to assist you, but I doubt it will be as straightforward as in Miami or port Everglades.

@Bruin Steve

a data point for your L and S delay............

we requested one early last week thru our TA along with a request for a specific cabin. It took a week to come through as confirmed on celebrity website with same cabin as original booking. Then a further 3 days for cabin to update to reflect our requested one.

Have to say we think it’s a pretty good option. We did a lift n shift for infinity in March 2021 and pushed out to March 2022 back in June. More recently booked Edge for March 2021 with the specific intention of lifting and shifting to Apex in March 2022 and put us on a sorta b2b with the infinity one. (We had a really good offer from our TA, which we couldn’t pass up)

I asked our TA to action L n S last week but still not changed in our online booking. If not changed by cob today I reckon I’ll need to get her to chase up with the deadline impending.

We’ve just given Celebrity an interest free loan in the form of a deposit!

Received a promo email from our TA yesterday. A concierge cabin on Edge for $1300pp with all 4 perks. This in March 2021.

Might be time to change insurers? There are plenty in UK who will provide Covid medical cover, even for right now, never mind 2022. Travel disruption/cancellation cover is another matter, but you should only be exposed for the deposit amount. If the deal is that good you may want go for it??

Out of interest; do you mind sharing who your insurer is?

Exactly what @K.T.B. said

7 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

I’m on the website trying to do this, but it says they will select the “best available” stateroom in my category. Can we choose our own?  I don’t want to proceed and not get the suite we have now. (It’s available)

We were able to select the cabin we wanted, it was a different cabin than in original booking, but obviously same category.

2 hours ago, HaveWeMetYet said:

They are mainly cargo runs and very few fare paying passengers, a few like exchange students returning home.

Pretty much this as above.

My understanding is that most airlines have been accommodating in allowing pax to change bookings, or take credit vouchers or get refunds. But this is being done on a rolling basis, primarily to help manage their cash flow, but also to prevent their customer service departments from becoming swamped. Each airline has its own policy but they are all similar.

One point worth noting for the OP though; if your particular flight is not cancelled, the airline are actually proving the service, it’s a case that you are not able to use it. I guess that’s why good travel insurance is necessary. I hope it all works out for you.

@upwarduk

Thanks for your input.

I did think that there might have been an option to sell the ship, but then discounted it due to there likely not being any buyers in todays market. 

But then again, I recalled that Pullmantur recently scrapped 3 really old vessels. I guess it’s possible that older ships like Infinity might start sliding down the food chain.

@FlorenceItaly, 

We have done same as you and moved March 2021 out to March 2022, but that’s a situation we have never considered. Do you mind sharing why you think that the Infinity may not be around?