St. Maarten cruise booked!

[HS2BS]

Started the roll call for June 5!

 

Hal

[Host Anne]

32 minutes ago, Oldsweets said:

Thanks for the reply’s and our Insurance questions simply had to do with the concept that Islands like St Marten have a Covid Insurance requirement and we may well see this requirement at other islands.  When faced with this sort of issue in Cuba the Cruise Lines made the process more seamless by including it as  additional fee.  We do understand the “current” St Marten process is payment upon arrival in country and will keep watching for changes.   

I just spent some time reading through the St. Maarten links provided earlier in this thread regarding insurance and travel requirements.  You actually pay for the insurance when you fill out the required travel documents online prior to arriving in St. Maarten.  At least that's how I read it.  I'd like to think the cruise line could coordinate this for all the islands but this is medical related and I'm guessing we're going to have to fill out this paperwork on our own.  

[Fouremco]

41 minutes ago, Oldsweets said:

Thanks for the reply’s and our Insurance questions simply had to do with the concept that Islands like St Marten have a Covid Insurance requirement and we may well see this requirement at other islands.  When faced with this sort of issue in Cuba the Cruise Lines made the process more seamless by including it as  additional fee.  We do understand the “current” St Marten process is payment upon arrival in country and will keep watching for changes.   

Actually, the current process for St. Maarten is to purchase the insurance while completing your entry application in advance of flying to the island, not upon arrival.

 

As of 11 January 2021, the insurance can be purchased during the approval process to enter St. Maarten. The approval to enter St. Maarten can be obtained by completing the mandatory EHAS form prior to your arrival date, available on www.stmaartenentry.com. On the last step of the EHAS form you'll be asked to enter your payment details for the insurance. In case you pay with a credit card, it will not be charged until you've been approved to enter St. Maarten. If you've been declined entrance or no decision has been made within 7 days, the funds held on your card would be released automatically. 

[loge23]

4 hours ago, davekathy said:

Anyone doing or considering a B2B for the two different intinaries? 

We're booked for the b-2-b's for 7/10-24, although it's booked as two separate reservations, in one cabin thankfully.

Suites were already sold out for those dates by 9am - we're going concierge level. 

[Fouremco]

6 minutes ago, loge23 said:

We're booked for the b-2-b's for 7/10-24, although it's booked as two separate reservations, in one cabin thankfully.

Suites were already sold out for those dates by 9am - we're going concierge level. 

Interesting way to (possibly) get around the "no b2b" problem. I wonder if Celebrity will catch this and get you to cancel one or the other, or simply let it slide. Of course, they could also reverse direction again and allow b2b bookings.

[nocl]

29 minutes ago, loge23 said:

We're booked for the b-2-b's for 7/10-24, although it's booked as two separate reservations, in one cabin thankfully.

Suites were already sold out for those dates by 9am - we're going concierge level. 

Will be interesting to see if they catch it about 90 days out when they usually check such things.

[Ken the cruiser]

31 minutes ago, loge23 said:

We're booked for the b-2-b's for 7/10-24, although it's booked as two separate reservations, in one cabin thankfully.

Suites were already sold out for those dates by 9am - we're going concierge level. 

I have to ask, did you book the two cruises online under separate primary names, through a TA who simply figured out a way around your 2 cruises being officially labeled as a B2B, or by some other ingenious method? Curious minds want to know. 🙃

[Mystictraveler]

For those of you who have already booked, what have you learned about the onboard mask policy and how will they handle testing for the return trip to the U.S.?

[sn2792]

We are booked forJuly 17th in a sky suite. Used a FCC from our cancelled cruise from last March. Booked our flights through Celebrity. Booked a hotel room through Booking.com. There weren’t any flights available on day of departure not that we would want to fly down on the day of the cruise.

[sn2792]

2 minutes ago, Mystictraveler said:

For those of you who have already booked, what have you learned about the onboard mask policy and how will they handle testing for the return trip to the U.S.?

I watched a video that said Celebrity will handle the Covid-19 test for return. Haven’t learned anything about mask policy yet.

[1025cruise]

As much as I'd love to book one of these, my normal cruise time is just too close to them starting for me to want to do it. I'd like to wait for the first couple of sailings to occur before being comfortable. But, to all those that book and go, have a wonderful time.

[silkismom]

Well, I fired my TA since "$200 commission isn't worth her time", my Azamara Nov xing and 2 Silversea cruises for 2022 are her loss. I've put up with her bad attitude for too many years, finally today was the final straw. I booked Aug 14, our first sky suite. Hopefully all restrictions will be gone by then.

[larry_s_taco]

8 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Have any of you started a Roll Call for this cruise?

Rick,

There is a roll call for the 6-12 cruise that I booked this a.m.

[larry_s_taco]

2 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Actually, the current process for St. Maarten is to purchase the insurance while completing your entry application in advance of flying to the island, not upon arrival.

 

As of 11 January 2021, the insurance can be purchased during the approval process to enter St. Maarten. The approval to enter St. Maarten can be obtained by completing the mandatory EHAS form prior to your arrival date, available on www.stmaartenentry.com. On the last step of the EHAS form you'll be asked to enter your payment details for the insurance. In case you pay with a credit card, it will not be charged until you've been approved to enter St. Maarten. If you've been declined entrance or no decision has been made within 7 days, the funds held on your card would be released automatically. 

I emailed the St. Maarten officials this morning. If you are flying in for the cruise, and staying less than 24 hrs you do not need to buy the insurance.

[wrk2cruise]

2 minutes ago, larry_s_taco said:

I emailed the St. Maarten officials this morning. If you are flying in for the cruise, and staying less than 24 hrs you do not need to buy the insurance.

 

Wouldn't have been nice for Celebrity to have released a set of FAQ's with answers to the multitude of questions like this which will arise on these sailings.  Major fail of Celebrity.

[larry_s_taco]

10 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Wouldn't have been nice for Celebrity to have released a set of FAQ's with answers to the multitude of questions like this which will arise on these sailings.  Major fail of Celebrity.

Hopefully Celebrity will come out with something like that in short order. Personally I like to see everything in writing from the cruiseline. I hate to go fishing for information on my own.

 

[Fouremco]

17 minutes ago, larry_s_taco said:

I emailed the St. Maarten officials this morning. If you are flying in for the cruise, and staying less than 24 hrs you do not need to buy the insurance.

Interesting interpretation, 24 hrs versus a day. This is what the insurance website says:

 

The insurance is required for all foreign nationals with the exception of visitors who arrive and leave the same day, crew members and transit/transfer passengers who don't need to recheck their luggage. 

 

That seems to suggest that if you fly on the same calendar day as your embarkation, you don't need insurance, but you would if you flew in the day before. What you were told suggests that as long as you fly in 24 hrs or less before embarkation, flying in the previous evening, for example, would be ok. A bit of a contradiction. 

[loge23]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I have to ask, did you book the two cruises online under separate primary names, through a TA who simply figured out a way around your 2 cruises being officially labeled as a B2B, or by some other ingenious method? Curious minds want to know. 🙃

We didn't attempt any trickery as we had no idea, based on everything we read from Celebrity, that b2b wasn't being allowed. Frankly, we're still don't. We have spoken with a Celebrity agent regarding flights and some other details - they obviously seen our reservation - and still no pushback. As far as we know, the 7 day limit is a CDC rule and this cruise is outside of their jurisdiction. 

Our TA did book the cruise(s) this AM - she didn't mention any restrictions either and she booked the two legs - with Celebrity  - with us on the phone. We use a cruise-centric company and the agent is well experienced. 

We have no reason to think that our reservation will change and if it did, we would probably cancel the whole thing. I'm not paying the airfare to fly to St. Martaan for a one week cruise. 

Like for everyone else, the air fares and trip insurance will have to be finalized and paid for very soon.

If there's a one cruise restriction, I certainly hope we're notified pronto. 

[Covepointcruiser]

How many hours is a flight from Miami to St. Martin?   Is Business or First Class really needed?   I understand if it is an overnight flight or if you have money to burn.   We recently took a flight from Hawaii to Chicago.   We were in Business and it was packed, every seat taken.   The tourist cabin had so few passengers that each passenger had at least one row to themselves.    I would look carefully at the seat selection before I would pay for Business Class especially for a 5 hour or less flight when you don’t need a lie flat seat.

[davekathy]

3 hours ago, loge23 said:

We're booked for the b-2-b's for 7/10-24, although it's booked as two separate reservations, in one cabin thankfully.

Suites were already sold out for those dates by 9am - we're going concierge level. 

B2Bs are always booked as two separate reservations. 

[Ken the cruiser]

56 minutes ago, loge23 said:

We didn't attempt any trickery as we had no idea, based on everything we read from Celebrity, that b2b wasn't being allowed. Frankly, we're still don't. We have spoken with a Celebrity agent regarding flights and some other details - they obviously seen our reservation - and still no pushback. As far as we know, the 7 day limit is a CDC rule and this cruise is outside of their jurisdiction. 

Our TA did book the cruise(s) this AM - she didn't mention any restrictions either and she booked the two legs - with Celebrity  - with us on the phone. We use a cruise-centric company and the agent is well experienced. 

We have no reason to think that our reservation will change and if it did, we would probably cancel the whole thing. I'm not paying the airfare to fly to St. Martaan for a one week cruise. 

Like for everyone else, the air fares and trip insurance will have to be finalized and paid for very soon.

If there's a one cruise restriction, I certainly hope we're notified pronto. 

Thanks! Maybe our X PVP got it wrong. We'll have to contact him tomorrow to see if the guidance has changed.

[gone2c]

1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

Interesting interpretation, 24 hrs versus a day. This is what the insurance website says:

 

The insurance is required for all foreign nationals with the exception of visitors who arrive and leave the same day, crew members and transit/transfer passengers who don't need to recheck their luggage. 

 

That seems to suggest that if you fly on the same calendar day as your embarkation, you don't need insurance, but you would if you flew in the day before. What you were told suggests that as long as you fly in 24 hrs or less before embarkation, flying in the previous evening, for example, would be ok. A bit of a contradiction. 

 

[cluso]

1 hour ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Wouldn't have been nice for Celebrity to have released a set of FAQ's with answers to the multitude of questions like this which will arise on these sailings.  Major fail of Celebrity.

 

Just remember, in the Contract for Carriage, all cruise lines put the responsibility on the customer for getting the correct guidance on what I would think most of your "FAQ's" land based questions might be.  Yep, this will be especially hard, but when dealing with international customers it gets to be extremely cumbersome in today's environment.  They gotta cover their backside.. 🤪

[gone2c]

Just now, gone2c said:

 

Actually, it says that day not 24 hours.  I would anticipate a charge if you come in the day before regardless of the hour.  I had an Edge cruise booked the 17th of July with air already paid with a credit on AA from Austin to FLL.  As the CDC is lucky I don't have a vote on their board, I have switched to the cruise on the Connie on the 17th.  I left my air reservations in tact and just added FLL to Maarten in addition.   It's going to cost me more but I will be able to get out of the house and onto a ship eventually!  I was wishing to see the Edge but there's always 2023 (as I now have 5 cruises booked in 2022).  I did get the cabin and location I wanted.  My suggestion to all, book now as these cruises will book fast at an increasing price.

 

15 minutes ago, gone2c said:

 

 

[nocl]

51 minutes ago, gone2c said:

Actually, it says that day not 24 hours.  I would anticipate a charge if you come in the day before regardless of the hour.  I had an Edge cruise booked the 17th of July with air already paid with a credit on AA from Austin to FLL.  As the CDC is lucky I don't have a vote on their board, I have switched to the cruise on the Connie on the 17th.  I left my air reservations in tact and just added FLL to Maarten in addition.   It's going to cost me more but I will be able to get out of the house and onto a ship eventually!  I was wishing to see the Edge but there's always 2023 (as I now have 5 cruises booked in 2022).  I did get the cabin and location I wanted.  My suggestion to all, book now as these cruises will book fast at an increasing price.

 

 

The CDC does not have a Board