Getaway - 12/27/21 to 1/5/22

[sunshine4me2]

We were booked for this "bucket list" cruise and cancelled 5 days before departure due to Covid concerns.  Every day I think about this cruise, and wonder what we've missed!  Are all the ports open, and the entertainment, anything cancelled?  Hows the capacity?

Hoping everyone is having a great time, here in Chicago, it's snowing!

[Sand and Seas]

We are on the 9 day cruise after this one.   Our itinerary was changed so we lost Bonaire and traded GSC for Nassau.   Did they change ports for this cruise?

 

Would love to hear anything about the current cruise.

[CL1978]

We are on the cruise starting the 18th. Have GSC, but no Bonaire.  We're now the ACD cruise and would really appreciate input as to how the current and next cruise go. We also love the thermal spa and the pools. Would love someone to tell us if it is open? 

[omyjamie]

We're on the cruise from the 5-14. It seems like NCL is having a bit better luck than other cruise lines with outbreaks.. probably because of the testing beforehand and 100% required vaccination rate. We get our rapid tests today, so fingers crossed we're all good to go! From what i've read, the thermal spa is open and they really arent requiring masks but have the super limited capacity. Also part of me thinks others will have cancelled like the OP and there should be lower capacity. We'll see 🙂 fingers crossed it will all be ok!!

[missnd]

I’m on this cruise, and I kind have wish I could have/would have cancelled.  My gut is telling me that there is a lot of Covid on this ship. People say there are a lot of rooms with red tags on the doors, and at least one person on the FB group was moved into isolation (though in an aft balcony!). I also hear people coughing everywhere. I just don’t think people are asking to be tested because they don’t feel that bad and don’t want their fun to end. 

 

I haven’t been following closely, but it seems lots of entertainment has been canceled. Syd’s has hardly had anything but karaoke. 
 

I don’t feel like the masking or social distancing is being enforced much at all. People are wearing masks for the most part, but there are plenty who aren’t - or aren’t wearing them properly. The pool decks are packed with lounge chairs, and I’ve been seated at tables in the dining rooms closer to others than I am comfortable with. 

[sunshine4me2]

39 minutes ago, missnd said:

I’m on this cruise, and I kind have wish I could have/would have cancelled.  My gut is telling me that there is a lot of Covid on this ship. People say there are a lot of rooms with red tags on the doors, and at least one person on the FB group was moved into isolation (though in an aft balcony!). I also hear people coughing everywhere. I just don’t think people are asking to be tested because they don’t feel that bad and don’t want their fun to end. 

 

I haven’t been following closely, but it seems lots of entertainment has been canceled. Syd’s has hardly had anything but karaoke. 
 

I don’t feel like the masking or social distancing is being enforced much at all. People are wearing masks for the most part, but there are plenty who aren’t - or aren’t wearing them properly. The pool decks are packed with lounge chairs, and I’ve been seated at tables in the dining rooms closer to others than I am comfortable with. 

I am so sorry to hear!  Hoping the Covid cases are NOT getting worse, fearing that CDC could shut NCL and other lines down.  Thanks for your update, hoping you and all other will be safe!

[CruisinMaterial]

You were wise to cancel and hopefully received some form of compensation back through travel insurance. My small group of three (individual rooms) formed a travel bubble and we hung out after day 3 of the cruise exclusively and adhered to proper CDC guidelines. We would wear masks even when out on deck as distancing wasn't occurring. Luckily, all three of us are negative as of Tuesday PM. We will retest in 4 more days. However, given the amount of crew spread...as the cruise went on there was less and less to do and more of the bartenders disappeared. Production casts in quarantine (Million Dollar Quartet), cruise staff in quarantine and only running things that largely generated a profit for NCL. We had a female DJ who disappeared and anything late night was cancelled with Bliss being closed. It was a crap show and lots of folks got sick or will show symptoms. I feel bad for the crew though. Real crap situation for them.

[chuckhendo2]

On 1/2/2022 at 2:36 PM, missnd said:

I’m on this cruise, and I kind have wish I could have/would have cancelled.  My gut is telling me that there is a lot of Covid on this ship. People say there are a lot of rooms with red tags on the doors, and at least one person on the FB group was moved into isolation (though in an aft balcony!). I also hear people coughing everywhere. I just don’t think people are asking to be tested because they don’t feel that bad and don’t want their fun to end. 

 

I haven’t been following closely, but it seems lots of entertainment has been canceled. Syd’s has hardly had anything but karaoke. 
 

I don’t feel like the masking or social distancing is being enforced much at all. People are wearing masks for the most part, but there are plenty who aren’t - or aren’t wearing them properly. The pool decks are packed with lounge chairs, and I’ve been seated at tables in the dining rooms closer to others than I am comfortable with. 

As mentioned in other posts, I was one of the people quarantined (in aft balcony as well, I believe next to the person you're referring to from the FB group)

 

Didn't even have a red tag on the door, and neither did many others I heard were in quarantine. So if red tags indicated a quarantine, there are even more than you'd think. I know that there was one couple in a haven corner suite near us that were not in quarantine, but we found out as we were disembarking that they were literally surrounded by quarantined cabins (at least two in each direction)

 

I have a lot of negative things I could say about NCL right now, but after getting blasted on Reddit (that was a mistake) for being a cry baby, I'm done talking about it. We'll just leave it at being in quarantine was a really negative experience beyond being stuck in a room, and unless NCL makes some changes there is no scenario I will be sailing with them again

[TNcruising02]

26 minutes ago, chuckhendo2 said:

As mentioned in other posts, I was one of the people quarantined (in aft balcony as well, I believe next to the person you're referring to from the FB group)

 

Didn't even have a red tag on the door, and neither did many others I heard were in quarantine. So if red tags indicated a quarantine, there are even more than you'd think. I know that there was one couple in a haven corner suite near us that were not in quarantine, but we found out as we were disembarking that they were literally surrounded by quarantined cabins (at least two in each direction)

 

I have a lot of negative things I could say about NCL right now, but after getting blasted on Reddit (that was a mistake) for being a cry baby, I'm done talking about it. We'll just leave it at being in quarantine was a really negative experience beyond being stuck in a room, and unless NCL makes some changes there is no scenario I will be sailing with them again

It sounds like you had a miserable experience.  I would be interested to know what things you think Norwegian could have done better to make the experience less miserable.  For one, I think quarantined people should get free internet.  I could not imagine being stuck in a cabin with nothing to do and not at least having internet.

Edited January 6, 2022 by TNcruising02

[chuckhendo2]

Just now, TNcruising02 said:

It sounds like you had a miserable experience.  I would be interested to know what things you think Norwegian could have done better to make the experience less miserable.  For one, I think quarantined people should get free internet.  I could not imagine being stuck in a cabin with nothing to do and not at least have internet.

- Free internet - at least to streaming/social sites or something

- Food options other than crappy room service (I've heard from some others here that we could have asked for MDR food, but nobody on board told us this). Food should also have been hot instead of room temp when we received it

- Constant access to fluids - we were denied bottled water. They would deliver pitchers of ice water, but we'd have to wait on it. If we had a coughing fit or something and drank through it quickly, we'd need to wait for more to be delivered (with a long wait) or drink from the sink. Found out after other cabins had bottled water waiting in the cabin when they arrived in quarantine.

- Communication - communication was awful. When we arrived in the cabin, we just had a letter saying "Sorry you're in quarantine". When it was time to disembark, we weren't told what would happen for us. They went through all of the luggage tags, and then multiple times said "ALL passengers must proceed to the gangway at this time". We called and found out that this didn't apply to us, guess we weren't passengers at that point. Asked them to make an announcement to that effect since others in our FB group were confused. They refused. Disembarkation started around 8am. The last of the people in our quarantine chat left the ship around 2pm. Who knows how many more were still on since that was just the people we were able to make contact with while in quarantine. Additionally, we drove down, and couldn't get a clear answer as to whether or not they'd let us drive back or if we'd have to quarantine in a hotel. Nobody could answer that for us. We literally found out as we were being loaded into the van that they were going to carry us to our car

- Contact tracing - they say they do it. They don't. None. They didn't ask us if we had spent any time around anyone. A couple we met in quarantine said they were on the cruise with 4 other people. They told the nursing station the names of those people and the cabin numbers. No testing was done. 

 

It's hard to explain, it was just generally unpleasant. I knew being trapped in a room for 5 nights wouldn't be a great experience, but it went from feeling like "You're important to us!" to "We really wish you weren't on this ship any more!". Thanks - feeling was mutual 

[chuckhendo2]

Also, every announcement our cruise director's catchphrase was "Stay positive with a negative test" - by day 3 of quarantine I was ready to leave my cabin and track him down lol. Like, not really angry - but  come on man

[TNcruising02]

2 minutes ago, chuckhendo2 said:

- Free internet - at least to streaming/social sites or something

- Food options other than crappy room service (I've heard from some others here that we could have asked for MDR food, but nobody on board told us this). Food should also have been hot instead of room temp when we received it

- Constant access to fluids - we were denied bottled water. They would deliver pitchers of ice water, but we'd have to wait on it. If we had a coughing fit or something and drank through it quickly, we'd need to wait for more to be delivered (with a long wait) or drink from the sink. Found out after other cabins had bottled water waiting in the cabin when they arrived in quarantine.

- Communication - communication was awful. When we arrived in the cabin, we just had a letter saying "Sorry you're in quarantine". When it was time to disembark, we weren't told what would happen for us. They went through all of the luggage tags, and then multiple times said "ALL passengers must proceed to the gangway at this time". We called and found out that this didn't apply to us, guess we weren't passengers at that point. Asked them to make an announcement to that effect since others in our FB group were confused. They refused. Disembarkation started around 8am. The last of the people in our quarantine chat left the ship around 2pm. Who knows how many more were still on since that was just the people we were able to make contact with while in quarantine. Additionally, we drove down, and couldn't get a clear answer as to whether or not they'd let us drive back or if we'd have to quarantine in a hotel. Nobody could answer that for us. We literally found out as we were being loaded into the van that they were going to carry us to our car

- Contact tracing - they say they do it. They don't. None. They didn't ask us if we had spent any time around anyone. A couple we met in quarantine said they were on the cruise with 4 other people. They told the nursing station the names of those people and the cabin numbers. No testing was done. 

 

It's hard to explain, it was just generally unpleasant. I knew being trapped in a room for 5 nights wouldn't be a great experience, but it went from feeling like "You're important to us!" to "We really wish you weren't on this ship any more!". Thanks - feeling was mutual 

Thank you for your post.  Maybe someone from the cruise line will be interested in reading it so that they can consider making changes to the way they communicate with those who are quarantined.   Also, they should have let you know that you could have ordered from the MDR and given you bottled water to keep on hand.  Free internet to those quarantined should have been a no brainer to NCL.

I am sorry to hear of your difficult experience.  This may help others be prepared for what may be in store for them should they be quarantined.  The risks of cruising sound worse by the day.

[ElizaSTN]

34 minutes ago, chuckhendo2 said:

 

- Contact tracing - they say they do it. They don't. None. They didn't ask us if we had spent any time around anyone. A couple we met in quarantine said they were on the cruise with 4 other people. They told the nursing station the names of those people and the cabin numbers. No testing was done. 

 

 

Ugh, that is horrible.  I’m so sorry that happened.  There’s been a lot of talk on here about “close contacts” of those testing positive also being quarantined.  It sounds like maybe that’s not the case any  longer?  Just actual positive cases (and perhaps cabin-mates)?  my biggest fear is sitting next to someone who later tests positive, and then having to quarantine based on that fact alone.

 

And NCL better wise up…if they’re relying on people to self-report symptoms, knowing the nightmare that quarantine is, they’re going to have people just not do that.  They should do everything they can to make sure quarantine is as tolerable as possible.  
 

[Oceansaway17]

On 1/1/2022 at 10:56 PM, sunshine4me2 said:

We were booked for this "bucket list" cruise and cancelled 5 days before departure due to Covid concerns.  Every day I think about this cruise, and wonder what we've missed!  Are all the ports open, and the entertainment, anything cancelled?  Hows the capacity?

Hoping everyone is having a great time, here in Chicago, it's snowing!

 

I think the guy upstairs wanted you to build a snowman instead of a sand castle.

In the end, pick a cruise down the road that you were meant to go on.

In the meantime, read cc and or watch You tube reviews.   We are getting snow tomorrow about 3 inches - yippee   so I shovel in the morning and then in the evening on PTZ watch ships leaving various ports like Nassau or Miami or other FL ports.  

 

[Oceansaway17]

4 hours ago, chuckhendo2 said:

Also, every announcement our cruise director's catchphrase was "Stay positive with a negative test" - by day 3 of quarantine I was ready to leave my cabin and track him down lol. Like, not really angry - but  come on man

 

 

Yes, that phrase would be annoying.  

[sunshine4me2]

19 minutes ago, Oceansaway17 said:

 

I think the guy upstairs wanted you to build a snowman instead of a sand castle.

In the end, pick a cruise down the road that you were meant to go on.

In the meantime, read cc and or watch You tube reviews.   We are getting snow tomorrow about 3 inches - yippee   so I shovel in the morning and then in the evening on PTZ watch ships leaving various ports like Nassau or Miami or other FL ports.  

 

Definitely Divine Intervention floated in, and that we cancelled the cruise!  Sure it sucked staying home for another New Year's Eve (our cruise for NYE 2020 was cancelled by Covid) but I'm hoping next NYE will be different (may do an All Inclusive instead)  Reading horror stories of cancelled cruisers, and NCL's reaction, leaves a bad gut feeling for us.  To make matters worse, we got a super deal to cruise on the Encore on April 3rd, this year - well, at the way this is going, I'm thinking not going to get on this one either.

I filled our Platinum Insurance claim with AON on 12/26- heard nothing yet, won't get worried till perhaps end of January.  We're not the only ones!

So sorry for all the 12/27 Getaway folks that didn't have a stellar time, hoping they are healthy!