foze

A lot of prices went up significantly in mid/late december. The irritating thing is that in Luminae about half of the wines have tripped over the $15 limit. My two conspiracy theories: It is to stop passengers simply draining bottle after bottle of wine and getting a little... raucous. It is to stop the wine servers from just filling your glass up when half empty and recording it as a full glass, with the subsequent "tip" a lot more frequently. The new CEO is apparently a real bean counter, so...

Summary: the same thing I experienced. COVID is just another cold/flu. Ho hum. Get norovirus, though and watch them go to work. Priorities, I guess!

Boots in the UK has a great big display of them right inside the front door. Another one of those things where you don't know when you've got it so good! We're off to Oz and then an Antarctic cruise in a month. We have 10 test kits! Wouldn't want to give COVID to the penguins and capybaras! (can't be too careful...)

I managed to get a cold. It has been utterly stinky but finally on the downside...

you miss the point. we were perfectly happy to have a test, and indeed expected a simple LFT. but no, a consultation and then... perhaps... assuming the medical person (doctor, i don't know...) permitted a test. Quite the opposite of your question, they were trying very hard to dissuade us from a test. I suspect because then they know they have an infected person on board and... what then...?

Not without merit at all. I managed to catch a very stinky cold, which I am now on the downside of. They were very serious on people presenting norovirus, though. That has to be a Good Thing (tm)!

Oh, come on! Who doesn't love a nice argument! The one thing I have been incredibly impressed with in this thread is that it has been serious all the way. Not a single denier or peddler of "interesting cures". It has also been quite informative to get people's perspectives. Now, what was that you said about my haircut!?!

There's the $64M question. It's clear Celebrity don't care. Well, they may, but insufficiently to be proactive about it. I'd probably isolate as best and as much I could. I'd be really annoyed if they insisted that you isolate. It'd be an interesting test...

I'd stupidly assumed that the ship would have a load of test kits anyway. We have boxes of the silly things now. As for OTC meds... the ones that actually do something useful like paxlovid are only available on prescription in the UK, and even there severely restricted to "not my demographic"! Anyway, taking our own tests next time... sigh... 😉

Your point on "minimal" I agree with. Why not carry a stock of LFT's and either charge a few bucks for them or simply give them away as they're dirt cheap? However, your story on refunds is very interesting. In my case the Retreat folk brought NYE dinner to my room as we were more or less isolating. I was more concerned about the demographic on board. Anyway, it is a thing. On another one in 27 days... we have a load of tests with us, already!

That last part about spreading it were our main concern. We're no spring chickens, but we were probably somewhere at the 30th percentile for age distribution. A lot of really quite elderly folk having a great time, but on a ship and catch COVID? We'd hate to be the cause. Anyway, we already have our own test kits for the next cruise in 4 weeks time. Funniest thing on our cruise was that one day all of the outdoor staff were wearing masks. What the...? Then I discovered the cause: a very large ship being filled with "raw" cement and there was huge plumes of dust in the air. Not COVID at least... 😉

That's pretty much my experience except Celebrity wouldn't say those words. I guess the cruise industry is not interested in being locked down again! Good call on the paxlovid, too!

270% of the reason that we cruise is to eat different kinds of food, and do quite a lot of research of ports we're visiting. This time, cruising on Celebrity Infinity, included Casablanca and so decided I needed to have a traditional pastilla. More study and settled on a nice looking restaurant in the old town. Restaurant in question was Restaurant Dar El Kaid in the Old Town. Lovely thing, too, it is an old synagogue and very beautiful. Pastilla with shredded pigeon was excellent, and yes, that is icing sugar on it, this is the traditional way of serving it. Right, main course. Eventually we settle on "slow roasted lamb for two". We both love a bit of roast lamb, yes, we'll have that please. Expecting a nice plate of slow cooked lamb, what arrived was a whole roasted shoulder of lamb. My goodness it was a thing of beauty! I attacked it with a fork and spoon - yes it was that tender - and we fought over the "crunchy bits". Whilst we did finish it off - I did say we love lamb - it'd easily serve 4. Anyway, if you think that sounds good, and the pastilla is "the" Moroccan thing, apparently, but if you like roast lamb, your mouth will love you forever! Oh, and the vegetables with garlic butter were divine!!! Postscript: just as we were coming to the end of the meal, in walks a person with a "big friendly X" on a paddleboard, trailed by perhaps 20 people. They go upstairs. Minutes later another group turns up, and then another. Part of one of the "experience Casablanca" tours. They had a huge and really good looking buffet.

Awesome, and quite amazing! I simply hope it becomes a yearly vaccine like the flu vaccine.

Agreed on all of the above. I appear to have a run of the mill cold. It is bloody awful! Luckily viruses don't exist... right...? ahhhhhhh... choooooooo!!!!! 🤧