Heads Up.............if you have a B2B2B booked............

[cruise wizard]

Ahoy mates...........we just received bad news from the Guest Services Manager............we cannot stay on the Celebrity Edge for next week. Celebrity in Miami said no more than 2 consecutive cruises (B2B)...........vaccinated or not.............no exceptions!!!!!!! Also heard from the Future Cruise group that NO B2B's for unvaccinated passengers and a max of B2B for vaccinated passengers. We did have to have an antigen test last week from our 6/26 cruise to board on this 7/3 cruise...........so we were "safe".

 

The GSM said that he wasn't sure if it is all RCCL brands but the memo came from RCCL Miami. He said that he received the memo last night and tried to get a reprieve since we have been on the ship for 2 weeks already. Others are getting the same bad news and most of them are families (kids and relatives) and most with flights. I checked with the Future Cruise leader onboard and she said that they are booking B2B's on the Equinox which are 10 & 11 days = 21 total.........so it appears not to be number of days driven but number of voyages. 

 

Nice to learn about this after paying for all 3 cruises and been on board for 2 weeks. What a kick in the head!!!!! Pretty poor Corporate communications if you ask me - find out with 2 days left on this cruise that sorry - you have to go home!!!!! We were having coffee this AM and Capt. Kate started her conversation with us - "I'm so sorry".............so these new restrictions were a part of a management meeting.

 

SO..............if you are in this B2B2B category - you may want to contact your TA or Royal Caribbean soon and get clarification. I don't want you to have the same disappointment as we have experienced!!!!

[soremekun]

I would love to hear the scientific reasoning behind the decision.

[cruise wizard]

Just now, soremekun said:

I would love to hear the scientific reasoning behind the decision.

 

Me too...............I suspect the statement would be........."out of an abundance of caution blah - blah -blah". All B2B's had to have an antigen test the day before the "next cruise" - I think that there were about 50 - 60 from the 6/26 cruise and we all passed the test...........so why can't that be done again??????????????? 

[cruisinghawg]

7 minutes ago, soremekun said:

I would love to hear the scientific reasoning behind the decision.

You thinking what I'm thinking?

[cruisinghawg]

Oh and welcome back Wizard. Talk on our roll call

[cruise wizard]

5 minutes ago, cruisinghawg said:

You thinking what I'm thinking?

 

Somebody flipped a coin..............and we got "TAILS"!!!!!!!!!!!

[bonsai3s]

23 minutes ago, soremekun said:

I would love to hear the scientific reasoning behind the decision.

 

Exactly!

 

 

So if it's not the number of days...then a 4/3/4, b3b, the 3rd one won't be allowed? or what about a 7/3/4?

[cruise wizard]

1 minute ago, bonsai3s said:

 

Exactly!

 

 

So if it's not the number of days...then a 4/3/4, b3b, the 3rd one won't be allowed? or what about a 7/3/4?

 

What we were told by Celebrity - it is the number of voyages - only a B2B (consecutive voyage) - so in your example a 7/3/4 won't be allowed (3 voyages)...........the 7/3 or 3/4 would be ok.

[Jimbo]

Tracing may be more difficult (more risk) with 3 sets of passengers, rather then just  2 sets of passengers.

Thus they allow a 10/11 day  B2B, rather then a B2B2B , 4/3/4 day

[cruise wizard]

5 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Tracing may be more difficult (more risk) with 3 sets of passengers, rather then just  2 sets of passengers.

Thus they allow a 10/11 day  B2B, rather then a B2B2B , 4/3/4 day

 

Could be but all B2B's are required to have an antigen test and had one the week prior - seems to me the B3B people would be the "safest" passengers on board!!!!!

[Sea Dog]

@cruise wizard Sorry this happened to you. I hope you can get a real answer as to why they are making this call. They should not be changing horses in the middle of a stream.

[bonsai3s]

16 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

What we were told by Celebrity - it is the number of voyages - only a B2B (consecutive voyage) - so in your example a 7/3/4 won't be allowed (3 voyages)...........the 7/3 or 3/4 would be ok.

Thank you Cruise Wizard.

 

We'll just have to wait until RCCL makes it official.

 

 

[smplybcause]

Cruises are going to be "changing horses in the middle of the stream" for a while still. The current environment is very fluid and the cruise lines are going to be making changes. See requiring tests before boarding Adventure, or changing excursion rules last minute, requiring insurance for some passengers.

 

Honestly I'd probably say at least until Oct if not until the end of the year I would expect to go with the flow if you go on a cruise. 

[firefly333]

6 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Could be but all B2B's are required to have an antigen test and had one the week prior - seems to me the B3B people would be the "safest" passengers on board!!!!!

News to me. I assume this is just a rcl decision, as I'm booked b2b in october but on carnival. 

 

I'd like to know about this required antigen test for b2b. Yikes. 

[firefly333]

6 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

Could be but all B2B's are required to have an antigen test and had one the week prior - seems to me the B3B people would be the "safest" passengers on board!!!!!

News to me. I assume this is just a rcl decision, as I'm booked b2b in october but on carnival. 

 

I'd like to know about this required antigen test for b2b. Yikes. 

[bonsai3s]

3 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

Cruises are going to be "changing horses in the middle of the stream" for a while still. The current environment is very fluid and the cruise lines are going to be making changes. See requiring tests before boarding Adventure, or changing excursion rules last minute, requiring insurance for some passengers.

 

Honestly I'd probably say at least until Oct if not until the end of the year I would expect to go with the flow if you go on a cruise. 

Agree....BUT, there are those that have flights already booked.

[LorraineP]

11 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

News to me. I assume this is just a rcl decision, as I'm booked b2b in october but on carnival. 

 

I'd like to know about this required antigen test for b2b. Yikes. 

Would also like to know about B2B antigen test as we have four booked through March 2022 with RCL. 

[Ken the cruiser]

So, we know this new B2B2B restriction has now been implemented on Celebrity sailings. In fact we also found out it had been implemented in late June on the Millennium sailings out of St Maarten. 

 

Does anyone know if this policy has actually been issued for B2B2B bookings on any of the Royal Caribbean cruises sailing out of a US port in the July/August time frame as well as currently out of the Bahamas (similar to those Celebrity cruises sailing out of St Maarten) where the CDC has no jurisdiction? Just trying to figure out if this is a RCG wide policy or simply limited to Celebrity sailings.

[smplybcause]

6 minutes ago, bonsai3s said:

Agree....BUT, there are those that have flights already booked.

 

I'm not saying it doesn't suck...but there's a reason why the cruises I've booked are ones I drive to. And also why I haven't committed to the Europe trip I want to take this fall/winter because I'm waiting to see how things shake out for the first few months before I commit non-refundable funds to a trip. 

 

There's just a bit of risk to any travel right now once you start adding lots of players. And cruises have a lot of players. 

[molly361]

15 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

News to me. I assume this is just a rcl decision, as I'm booked b2b in october but on carnival. 

 

I'd like to know about this required antigen test for b2b. Yikes. 

First I have heard about the tests.  I have a b2b in November, might have to re-think that

[cruisequeen4ever]

Wow, I know we don’t know who’s to blame for figuring this out long after the system allowed you to book the B2B2B, but this really should have been figured out long before you boarded. It’s not right to stick you and others in a predicament of spending your final time onboard changing flights, plans, and then of course the major letdown and missing out on your final cruise. I hope Celebrity will cover any costs you incur as a result of this! This just shows how things really can change at any second and have a huge impact on you.

[Jimbo]

9 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

Wow, I know we don’t know who’s to blame for figuring this out long after the system allowed you to book the B2B2B, but this really should have been figured out long before you boarded. It’s not right to stick you and others in a predicament of spending your final time onboard changing flights, plans, and then of course the major letdown and missing out on your final cruise. I hope Celebrity will cover any costs you incur as a result of this! This just shows how things really can change at any second and have a huge impact on you.

That's why you should buy travel insurance, shi$ happens. Adjust your schedule.

[neverbeenhere]

Well, this is a cluster cluck.

[bonsai3s]

22 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

 

I'm not saying it doesn't suck...but there's a reason why the cruises I've booked are ones I drive to. And also why I haven't committed to the Europe trip I want to take this fall/winter because I'm waiting to see how things shake out for the first few months before I commit non-refundable funds to a trip. 

 

There's just a of risk to any travel right now once you start adding lots of players. And cruises have a lot of players. 

Agree again...just wishing we had moved to Florida back in 2019 like we originally planned it...we would be able to drive to a few embarkation port. 😌...sigh.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

52 minutes ago, bonsai3s said:

Thank you Cruise Wizard.

 

We'll just have to wait until RCCL makes it official.

 

 

 

To clarify it's now RCG.....Royal Caribbean Group and RCI for Royal Caribbean. Agree that it's definitely not a good thing to make a decision like this while passengers are on a cruise. 

Edited July 8, 2021 by suzyluvs2cruise