skatie

In 2022, I've travelled in Europe, US and Canada. I was very anxious on my first trip out, but my comfort level with all aspects of travel has improved the more I ventured out.   Basically in Europe and US everyone has declared it over and moved on and you rarely see masks and no one stares if you cough etc.  I mean no one is denying its around, but it just feels like in those countries they are moving forward "back to normal".   In Canada I see this happening more and more - lots fewer people wearing masks, but I still see masks way more than in other countries.  I was on the a flight from Paris back to Toronto on the first day when no masks were required - the flight over masks were mandatory but I'd say only 20% of the plane wore a mask on the way home and there was lots of coughing.  I have had covid twice now - the first bout was a lot of heavy coughing but the second bout was just sniffles.   Everyone has their own comfort level and if you wore a mask while traveling I don't think anyone would give it a second thought.  As you say, this is going to be around for a while - someone said to the the other day - prior to covid I used to get a cold twice a year, now I expect I'll get covid twice a year.   

Just got back from a quick trip from yyz to Chicago. Our outbound flight was at 10am on Saturday. The security line was pretty normal starting outside in the hallway.  I have nexus and was able to bring my husband through with me so security was quick.  I had already prepped our passports in the app and filled in the questions ahead of time (was a bit confusing when it asked what your entry airport was - I figured out I needed to out Toronto since this is where customs was) and when I got to airport I clicked the button that says “are you at airport now” and it prompts you to take a selfie of each person and then produces a QR code that must be shown to customs officer along with your passport.  The line for Nexus and regular passengers without anything we’re both longer than this app line.  Some people were coaching others on how to download app and fill it out on the spot so they could join our line!  

I just love swimming in warm waters of the Caribbean, but the medication that I'm on makes me sensitive to sun and I break out in itchy rashes.  So I'm looking for a beach with good shade an relatively calm waters.  We will rent chairs with an umbrella, but I'd also like to be sitting under a tree with more shade coverage.    We dock in Crown Bay on Celebrity Beyond on Dec 1.  We have an early arrival so were thinking to get a taxi to a beach around 8:30am and stay until just before noon.    Any advice for shady beach?  Thanks

About three weeks ago I applied to renew my Nexus that was expiring March 2023. Yesterday I was notified that it was approved and extended to 2028!  Guess my new card will come in the mail.  Unfortunately my husband who forgot to renew prior to expiring during pandemic is still waiting for his new application to be approved and then I guess he’s need an interview?  

9 hours ago, LHT28 said:

If you can pay a deviation fee to fly in/out on different days than the cruise  I would do that

Also you can usually pick your flights  so look for Non stops  which is doable from YYZ

 

Not sure how NCL works  but their sister Company does it this way  

We choose  to pay the deviation to pick our flights & also arrive a day or more early

JMO

Hi, I have the deviation for two days on both ends to ensure we get there on time and a bit of exploration in those destinations.  I’ll have to check to see if we can pick our flights.  I thought we didn’t have any control over the flights !?   I believe I can cancel the flight portion of trip prior to final payment so I will keep looking at the prices as I prefer to have control over how I get to places (ie direct) but  I highly doubt I’ll be able to come close to that price!

Next September I booked a 10 day cruise with NCL From Iceland to SouthHampton.  For the first time I booked the air with NCL as the price for two of us to fly to Rejkievik and home from London was ridiculously cheap at $1100 CDN for both of us.  Does anyone have experience using cruise line air transportation?  We will be flying from Toronto. There are many direct flights to and from both of these destinations- do they try to put you on direct flights or will we be relegated to multiple stops if a price for them is cheaper?  Do they usually use the main air carriers (AC / WestJet?).  Any experiences out there from Canadians?!   Thanks. 

4 hours ago, jelayne said:

Try clicking on the items in your order history.   I have order history for 1 of our booking that shows a dining reservation and 2 additional entries with no $ or obvious description.  I clicked on them and one was the wi-fi the other was the drink package.

I have same issue. I have the upgraded drink and wifi packages and the Two  icons in my history Just have a picture of drinks and internet, but no confirmation these are the upgrades. Also no mention of free gratuities.   What is odd is that I see over $1000 OBC and according to the indulge package I have it should just be $600.   I asked my travel agent to send me a copy of Celebrity’s invoice which does show my upgrades, gratuities and $600 OBC so not sure why website is so different.  I will for sure be taking a copy of this invoice with me.  

I just tested negative on a rapid test yesterday and that was 16 days from symptom onset.  I was very congested and that just finally abated about 3 days ago.  I still have a lingering cough, but at least am now showing negative.

2 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Despite no mention of cruising, I doubt that they would treat passengers arriving by cruise ship more strictly than those arriving by air or land; it really doesn't make any sense. However, it is the government, so who knows.

 

We should know for sure in a day or two, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was no mention of people arriving by ship in either the press conference or in the press release tomorrow.

I think the issue with cruise ships is that there is a high concentration of people in a relatively small space on a ship so GOC see that as higher risk of possible covid cases walking into the general public.  I get it that all people on board would be vaccinated, but it just feels like a higher risk of people entering the Canadian port.  The US has no tracking of their citizens coming off the ships and they stopped testing on board for Canadians so there is really no good measure of how many covid cases are now on board any given sailing. 

Are there any indicators/rumours from there cruising industry about dropping the pre-boarding tests - this test exists right now for all people boarding in US not just "international passengers" correct?  So I wonder what indicators they are waiting for to remove the pre-boarding testing?

I always do my own research first comparing the big box store pricing with the cruise line pricing fir same cruise.  Often they are same price but I can get an additional gift card of ~$300 for booking that cruise with BBS.  This time the cruise line was cheaper so I called BBS and they called Celebrity and the price celebrity was offering was due to a group price and they said BBS could give me that price.  So I got the best price plus the $330 gift card for BBS to be used after cruise.  Other than wait time on the phone, I’ve been pleased using Big Box store TAs to get what I need.  

We are Canadian and on our Mediterranean Cruise a few years ago (with RC) we signed permission for my son (19 at the time) to drink - this exception on board allowed him to purchase beer and wine only (no hard liquor).  We thought he'd be ok to drink at that age without the exception since it was Europe, but I believe they said they use the US drinking age across the fleet?

My son had Covid mid December and had a positive PCR test on December 18.  He has a screen shot of the positive result from the government website.  Is this screenshot proof acceptable and how does he present this - Arrive Can app or just at Customs?   Also what does he need to fly out of Canada to US or Mexico?  Does he still need to have a negative Rapid antigen test 24 hours before departure or use this screenshot proof of positive result?   I knew exactly what to do when none of us had Covid but now this positive result has me a bit confused! Thanks!

If you scroll down to the Cruise with Confidence section of these FAQs I think it will answer your questions https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/travel-alert/frequently-asked-questions

This was a document that a Celebrity Equinox cruiser who caught covid on board was sent this morning as he disembarked.  It does outline what they were willing to cover cost-wise if you had to quarantine in a hotel until you could fly back home -so doesn't sound like they put you in a hotel rather you have to find your own and apply for reimbursement.  Its decently generous in daily costs they will cover, but as soon as you disembark you are on your own.  Not sure how long they will keep this reimbursement up in light of they are already moving end of cruise testing off ship!

3 hours ago, Froufie said:

So about to cancel my upcoming Celebrity cruise (under the Cruise with Confidence policy) - I understand I will get an FCC (including celebrity booked flights) and eventually a refund as well for excursions/dining I booked more recently.  

 

I am however hoping that things settle down soon and considering booking another Celebrity cruise at the end of March - so do I have to wait until I get the FCC (I believe this might take over a month to be finalized) to do this?  Can I just use the FCC immediately (when I call to cancel) to book the new cruise?  

 

I am also assuming new cruise would be covered by the same Cruise with Confidence policy?

 

Would love to hear from anyone with experience in Celebrity cancellations?

So I just got off the phone with my Big Box Travel Agent to cancel our paid-in-full Feb 12 Celebrity Apex cruise (total of 2 hours between waiting to get to agent and then they kept putting me on hold to talk to Celebrity).   I was prepared ahead of the call on which cruise and cabin I wanted to rebook (go on Celebrity site and peruse which itinerary/ship/cabin/cost for your rebook).  So I have now canceled my Feb Apex Sunset Veranda ($4999) and rebooked an Infinite veranda on Beyond for Nov 27.  There was a very good price of $4286 for the Infinite (no sunsets available at this point) - so I asked if they would give me OBC for the $700 difference.  Celebrity said they couldn't give straight OBC, but they have set me up with the Indulge package which will give me upgraded streaming wifi, premium beverage and I think he said $600 OBC.  I'll keep that for now, but if a sunset verandah comes up I'll switch to that and eliminate the indulge package if the cost for SV puts me over the FCC total.   So I'm getting the $300 in taxes/port fees back on credit card, and they said they will apply the FCC to my new booking within 24 hours and send me the confirmation.  I have a booking reference # for new cruise so will keep an eye tomorrow to make sure this is all changed correctly!  Hopefully I haven't been too confusing, but ideally, be prepared ahead of the call with what you want to change to as it will probably help things along.  

I'll be cancelling our Celebrity Apex Feb cruise this week and am looking at rebooking and using our FCC in November.  But just for curiosity I'm following a number of live reports on Celebrity boards and seems like a lot of ports are beginning to deny ships from stopping due to number of covid cases on board.  I think the next two weeks will be havoc for ships' itineraries and we will see the numbers of on-board cases see a significant uptick.   Stay Safe everyone!

Based on the new CDC warning, I’ll wait a few more weeks to see if they cancel on me and maybe get a refund vs FCC??

40 minutes ago, Susanb10567 said:

That’s very disappointing to hear…we have been discussing all day what to do about our 2/6 Edge cruise. I thought we would just be able to switch it since people had posted they were able to do that. If that is not the case I think we will just not cruise this winter. I am not giving them more money at this point. I am glad we were able to enjoy a land based Hawaii trip at the beginning of December. 
 

I guess we will use the FCC for our 2/6/23 cruise…hopefully we will have it by May to apply it. 

Try calling and see what they say - I'm tempted to call again tomorrow to see if I get a different answer - I didn't cancel Feb 12 yet!   Let us know what your response is!    

I just tried to move our Feb 12 Apex cruise to identical Apex cruise March 26 and our TA spoke with Celebrity and they said they can't just move it - they have to cancel it, refund Tax and create FCC which they told TA would be available in 30 days.  I asked him to confirm if 30 days would be guaranteed so we could rebook using FCC and they came back and said no guarantee.  So if I want to book March 26, I'll have to book it using my own funds now and end up with a full cruise FCC that I'd have to use later.  This is my first time with Celebrity so have no idea if I'd even want to cruise with them again in the future.  Ugh.  Thought they would be more accommodating to moving the booking out to a new date vs cancel and FCC to keep their clients happier 😞     No idea what I want to do now.  I feel Feb 12 is too soon with OMi sweeping across the world, but feel end of March we will all be in a better place.  Will have to re-think this all.  Cruising planning for me used to be fun LOL!

We'd like to move our Feb 12 Apex cruise to March 26 to hopefully give this current wave a little more time to get behind us -  Feb 12 and March 26 are identical ship and identical itinerary and very close in price to what I originally paid.   I'm already paid in full - will my TA be able to just move us to this March 26 cruise or will I have to cancel current Feb 12 cruise and wait for a FCC - which won't come in time for us to pay the March 26 cruise so we'd have to pay fully for that cruise without this FCC?   

We are scheduled on Apex Feb 12 and paid in full now.   As much as I think this will be a swift wave, and we are three dosed, I think this sailing will still have many restrictions and maybe more testing that will make things even more difficult to execute and I want to destress during vacations and not add stress!  I was pleasantly surprised to see a late March sailing of same ship and route for basically same price (only difference is no $200 OBC).  I think 6 weeks might make more of a difference in smoother sailing vs beginning of February. So I think I’ll call the big box travel agent tomorrow to cancel. I assume I will have to cancel and rebook (although it would be nice to be able to keep same reservation and just move to new date since as of right now Celebrity is saying free onboard PCR testing for those who need one to get back home if you Booked before mid November I believe).

We have already paid in full for Celebrity February 12 cruise - I am sooo torn.  I personally believe there is going to be a very high spike in cases that will drop very quickly.  My son had Omicron 10 days ago and it was more like a head cold - which is what we are hearing are the symptoms vs Delta - so he's been in his room isolating and ready to come out!  Surprisingly we are living in same household and hubby and I are negative ( we had our booster 4 days before he tested positive).  This thing is going around like wildfire tho - this may be the way to end it, if, fingers crossed, its mild.   I haven't booked our airfare yet.  The AC website says that you can cancel and get a credit for future travel, but it doesn't indicate if you have to book your airfare by a certain date to get this assurance.  I had heard that was maybe over Dec 30 - can anyone confirm?

Just saw on the news huge line ups again for drive through clinics for COVID testing in Florida.  With the surge of cases it may be difficult to get appointments for tests and timely results for the next while. 

@jy_cruisefan thanks for your first hand information.  We are also on Celebrity in February leaving from FLL - I know the airport is very close, and in past we have booked a noon hour flight to get home to YYZ, but is there more time needed these days for disembarkation so we should maybe book the 5pm flight just to be safe?  Thanks

Thanks Ken for all the info. We are on the east route of the Apex in February. We were booked in an inside cabin but just tonight I changed to a SV sunset balcony on deck 9.  Super excited for the large balcony and loved your pics and intel that we should ask for loungers!   You mentioned that these aft cabins have a vibration and lilt. Was this constant and something you always felt?  I have a tendency to motion sickness if lots of motion but really wanted to try this location.  Any other Cons to these cabins??  Thanks!