TeeRick

It is a COVID risk to book Celebrity ship excursions. I understand the reasons for a small excursion. Probably better to book private tours if at all possible.

Not sure where you are from but before your trip you can go to your local bank and get some euro's to take with you.

Cruise ships have been treated as special cases pretty much from day 1 by the CDC and other health agencies. Airlines have not. Hotels have not. Buses and Trains have not. Is it reasonable or fair? No. But the cruise industry had to get going again and had to jump through hoops to sail with passengers. It is a real irony that the only mode of transportation that can pretty much guarantee close to 100% vaccination status, is cruising. When I get on a passenger train I have no idea who is vaccinated and I know that most passengers were not tested in the past 48 hours.

Well at least you are going in with eyes wide open.

And COVID is not convenient for some people.

It seems that 1% infected on a ship is a common number seen here on CC from the occasional reporting by Celebrity. And that unfortunately does not include the people not reporting symptoms and infecting fellow passengers. And it does not include the people reporting positive post-cruise.

Not sure how the two are related. The US dropped testing (like most of the world) to allow entry by international flight passengers. There is a large number of infected or previously infected people with Omicron and sub-variants wandering about so a few from an international flight would just blend in the background. This could change if a completely new variant of interest arises. As for cruises, Celebrity is in the "voluntary" CDC program on ships leaving from US ports. As such- they could decide to drop pre-cruise testing in agreement with the CDC. I don't see that happening any time soon. They will be conservative until the cases on board are very minimum as Omicron will spread easily on a ship. Then perhaps testing will go away. Most cruise ships are still in the orange zone unfortunately.

Once there are new versions of vaccines to match Omicron variants (later this year?) then the requirement to get a Omicron-specific booster for everybody cruising will be the likely next step. Testing will continue.

Yes I think so. But the increased capacity and space in Luminae on E-Class comes with more noise and a less relaxing experience than on the other ships.

Also consider in your calculation that the upper level (RS and above) suites get unlimited specialty dining. So that detracts a bit from Luminae occupancy. I think the % of upper suites is higher on E-Class. The thing to look at really is the number of sky suites on each class of ship. That is what mostly affects Luminae crowding.

I understand your opinion which is shared by a lot of people. Let's just step back and reflect. The Omicron variants, along with vaccines, have helped transition the original virus and resulting COVID disease to "cold-like" status for many people. Few hospitalizations. Far fewer deaths. But some "long COVID" symptoms do exist for a portion of the population. Unlike common cold. Very good news overall. And there are upcoming vaccine versions aimed at Omicron. So the world is progressing from the "no immunity" pandemic stage in 2020 to the mostly protected endemic stage in mid 2022. The CDC, WHO and other government health authorities are slowly changing from COVID panic mode to COVID long-term management mode. It takes time. There will still be surges and new variants. But all must be managed in a routine way for decades to come. Cruise ships will get there and improve in how they treat COVID on board. Right now they isolate and if we choose to cruise we know that before we pay and before we board. But it would not be wise to allow Covid-infected people even with minor symptoms to walk around the ship. And Irresponsible. But Why? Because Omicron is still one of the most highly infectious pathogens known. Would you allow people infected with measles (high infectivity too) to roam the ship? Not likely.

Yes COVID has changed what we are obsessed with!

It seems so from recent posts from people in isolation. But not sure about every case on every ship. Probably some exceptions.