I heard a couple got kicked off The Edge for disobeying Covid rules. Is it true?

[VitaminSea53]

A cruise blogger posted a video saying that on the 2nd sailing of The Edge, an unvaccinated couple left a shore excursion to site see on their own.  This is a violation of the rules.  They got caught and were kicked off the ship at a foreign port.  Does anyone have firsthand knowledge of this?

[KKB]

It's true...it is why St Maarten is now requiring all guests who get off at St Maarten to get a COVID test.

Apparently they were on a ship excursion & left the group.

It has been discussed extensively on various threads. 

I suspect both Celebrity & St Maarten would like to keep it on the down low...

[RICCruisers]

That is true. They were kicked off in St Maarten. Not sure if they were on a ship excursion and left the group or if they were able to get off on their own and avoided detection until their return. It delayed the departure by about 2 hours. Not sure where they were taken in St Maarten. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by RICCruisers
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[KKB]

 

[drarill]

9 minutes ago, VitaminSea53 said:

A cruise blogger posted a video saying that on the 2nd sailing of The Edge, an unvaccinated couple left a shore excursion to site see on their own.  This is a violation of the rules.  They got caught and were kicked off the ship at a foreign port.  Does anyone have firsthand knowledge of this?

True... 

 

 

[KKB]

2 minutes ago, RICCruisers said:

That is true. They were kicked off in St Maarten. Not sure if they were on a ship excursion and left the group or if they were able to get off on their own and avoided detection until their return. It delayed the departure by about 2 hours. Not sure where they were taken in St Maarten. 

They could not have gotten off the ship as the were tagged unvaxxed--they would have seen it when they disembarked & would have had to show their excursion ticket.

[drarill]

1 minute ago, KKB said:

They could not have gotten off the ship as the were tagged unvaxxed--they would have seen it when they disembarked & would have had to show their excursion ticket.

 

[KKB]

2 minutes ago, drarill said:

 

Yes I've quoted this thread myself. 

It does not say they wandered off the ship, but wandered into St Maarten on their own.

I guess neither of us can be 100% sure which it was, but it seems FAR more likely they wandered away from a group--which is EASY to do--rather than getting off the ship w/o an excursion. The unvaxxed passengers were few--I'm sure they are tagged in the computer system. 

[RICCruisers]

3 minutes ago, KKB said:

They could not have gotten off the ship as the were tagged unvaxxed--they would have seen it when they disembarked & would have had to show their excursion ticket.

You’re making an assumption that they weren’t able to avoid detection when they got off the ship.

 

I hope you are correct that they wandered off and were then discovered missing. Otherwise there was a breakdown in the process of debar king at the port. The video doesn’t say exactly how they were discovered. 

[KKB]

1 minute ago, RICCruisers said:

You’re making an assumption that they weren’t able to avoid detection when they got off the ship.

 

I hope you are correct that they wandered off and were then discovered missing. Otherwise there was a breakdown in the process of debar king at the port. The video doesn’t say exactly how they were discovered. 

Yep I'm assuming, based on an educated guess & experience.

But I am a librarian. I can put a note on ANY student's account & it alerts me when I pull their account up. Pretty simple program, so that is where my assumption comes from.

[Cruising89143]

3 minutes ago, KKB said:

Yes I've quoted this thread myself. 

It does not say they wandered off the ship, but wandered into St Maarten on their own.

I guess neither of us can be 100% sure which it was, but it seems FAR more likely they wandered away from a group--which is EASY to do--rather than getting off the ship w/o an excursion. The unvaxxed passengers were few--I'm sure they are tagged in the computer system. 

 

This same thing happened to a family on the MSC Grandiosa back in August of last year. They broke away from a ship sponsored excursion. 

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/08/19/msc-cruises-cracking-down-passengers-who-break-covid-19-regulations/5605867002/

[sanger727]

Glad to hear it. We all knew people would book who thought the rules didn’t apply to them. 

[Fouremco]

If there is any repetition of unvaccinated passengers sneaking off from bubble shore excursions, Celebrity should adjust the rules to exclude them from participating in future.

[NutsAboutGolf]

If they walked off the ship w/o an excursion, how did they get caught?  You are allowed free roam there.  I supposed it could be a software hiccup where the computers either failed to flag the unvaxed or the "flag" wasn't prominent enough and the security person scanning their card glossed over it but if that's the case then how did they discover this later?

[Cruising89143]

 

1 minute ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

If they walked off the ship w/o an excursion, how did they get caught?  You are allowed free roam there.  I supposed it could be a software hiccup where the computers either failed to flag the unvaxed or the "flag" wasn't prominent enough and the security person scanning their card glossed over it but if that's the case then how did they discover this later?

 

No one knows for sure how they left the ship. That has not been disclosed. Only guesses at this point. If they left on a ship sponsored excursion then it would be very easy to identify them as missing since the tour guides always takes a headcount when loading buses, etc. 

[naturelovergirl]

Good for Celebrity... The fact is any cruise in normal times has rules which guests must follow... BUT ESPECIALLY NOW the cruises have very specific rules in this restart.

Follow the rules... it's very simple. Just follow them. 

Let's get cruising restarted successfully. 

 

 

[Sthrngary]

Management 101 is, explain a policy, gain commitment and establish a consequence.  No leader wants to punish a associate.  However, those same leaders know someone is going to challenge the policy.  When they do, the consequence happens. Everyone knows the rules to the game.

 

These folks thought the rules did not apply or maybe they could "Beg for forgiveness".  Unfortunately the picked the wrong brand to mess with.  Bravo Celebrity.  Bravo Captain Kate. 

[mom says]

I hope Celebrity also bans them from future cruises.

[Kevinwinston2019]

I am sad for them but, at the same time they did it too themselves. in this time of Covid someone must look out for the rest of the group who actually got vaccinated. Get the shot...it is easy! 

 

 

[GlobalMethod]

6 hours ago, naturelovergirl said:

Good for Celebrity... The fact is any cruise in normal times has rules which guests must follow... BUT ESPECIALLY NOW the cruises have very specific rules in this restart.

Follow the rules... it's very simple. Just follow them. 

Let's get cruising restarted successfully. 

 

 

Well said NLG ... it is such a simple way to do things whether on a new cruise ship or in a new country ... follow the rules!

[ItsADryHumor]

11 hours ago, KKB said:

 

Without giving him the click boost, I’ll answer: yes, it’s fair. 

[ItsADryHumor]

8 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

Management 101 is, explain a policy, gain commitment and establish a consequence.  No leader wants to punish a associate.  However, those same leaders know someone is going to challenge the policy.  When they do, the consequence happens. Everyone knows the rules to the game.

 

These folks thought the rules did not apply or maybe they could "Beg for forgiveness".  Unfortunately the picked the wrong brand to mess with.  Bravo Celebrity.  Bravo Captain Kate. 

I would put Captain Kate on the list of folks who aren’t afraid to say “(mess) around and find out.” She does not suffer fools. 

[1025cruise]

Actually, I'm betting Celebrity wants people to know that they did kick people off. Gives a warning to future cruisers, they aren't joking with the rules.

[NutsAboutGolf]

This wasn't the first time this type of thing happened and won't be the last time as long as "bubble excursions" requirements exist.  No idea what happened here, I'll simply just say I hope in the future WHEN this happens again the ship isn't delayed to leave.  With mandated ship tours, you're going to have the blatant folks who will break off their first chance they get who will elect to not rejoin the group and others who are told to not visit any businesses but who will see a souvenir they like in a shop window, will sneak off to buy it when the guide isn't looking and immediately rejoin the group.  Multiple stories over the past few decades of folks getting kicked off and banned due to bad behavior, the crew packed their luggage for them, no delays in the ships departure.

[Cruising89143]

This was not a normal “put passengers off the ship”. I’m sure that this delay was due to the Covid situation. You can’t just put passengers off of the ship without the local authorities being involved and depending on when the ship found out, reached out to both local authorities and X HQ to gain approval to remove it added extra time to the situation. I expect that the ship had to work with local St. Maarten officials to make sure that the passengers were going to be handled correctly due to the situation. The fact that the ship wasn’t held up longer is a good thing.