Mid-cruise report aboard Solstice

[Mark_K]

6 hours ago, upwarduk said:

Surely all adults are required to be vaccinated, it will only be children under 5 who are not ?

You can apply for a religious or medical exemption, not sure how many are granted.

[kcmo74]

2 hours ago, Rjbobalou said:

Thanks for the review. Did you have to do the ArriveCan App  and fill out questionnaire within 72 hours of arrival.

Thanks

Yes we did it, it is very easy, but like I mentioned nobody ever asked to see or scan our QR code.

[TeeRick]

2 hours ago, Mark_K said:

You can apply for a religious or medical exemption, not sure how many are granted.

Babies over 6 months can now be vaccinated by Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.  What actual true religions request their congregations or members not to get vaccinated?  None that I know of.  If a medical exemption is needed, probably too risky to cruise anyway.

[IDL]

3 hours ago, Mark_K said:

You can apply for a religious or medical exemption, not sure how many are granted.

Per the Celebrity app it states all guests over 12 years old must be fully vaccinated with no mention of exemptions.

[Mark_K]

2 hours ago, IDL said:

Per the Celebrity app it states all guests over 12 years old must be fully vaccinated with no mention of exemptions.

 

From the Healthy at Sea FAQs at the Celebrity website:

 

If vaccination is medically contraindicated because of a disability or pre-existing medical condition; if I am not vaccinated for religious reasons, who should I contact?

 

Please contact our Access Department at (866) 592-7225 or locally (954) 628-9708 or send an email to special_needs@celebrity.com so that our team can guide you on what documents will need to be submitted for consideration. You should contact them as soon as possible and ideally no later than 30 days before your cruise departs. You can also have your local travel agent or International Representative contact us. Should you require it, our fax number is (954) 628-9622.

[IDL]

1 hour ago, Mark_K said:

 

From the Healthy at Sea FAQs at the Celebrity website:

 

If vaccination is medically contraindicated because of a disability or pre-existing medical condition; if I am not vaccinated for religious reasons, who should I contact?

 

Please contact our Access Department at (866) 592-7225 or locally (954) 628-9708 or send an email to special_needs@celebrity.com so that our team can guide you on what documents will need to be submitted for consideration. You should contact them as soon as possible and ideally no later than 30 days before your cruise departs. You can also have your local travel agent or International Representative contact us. Should you require it, our fax number is (954) 628-9622.

Thanks, would be interesting to know if Celebrity would actually grant a religious exemption as cruise lines are having a challenging time mitigating covid with all the protocols that are in place.  Outside of children who are not eligible for the vaccine I am not interested in cruising with the unvaccinated. 

[Jim_Iain]

It will be interesting to see if the Vaccination age for children in the U.S. sailings is modified now that vaccination has been approved for children 6 months and above.

[Rjbobalou]

20 hours ago, kcmo74 said:

Yes we did it, it is very easy, but like I mentioned nobody ever asked to see or scan our QR code.

Thanks

[tweetylori]

Love your review and tips...much appreciated, thank you!

 

[RollWave]

On 6/17/2022 at 4:57 PM, kcmo74 said:

Sitting in SEATAC now waiting for our flight I’ll give some final thoughts as the last 2 days weren’t near as event filled as the first 5. Finally asked yesterday and there are 2089 pax aboard. The captain (Charis not Harris btw) finally mentioned some Covid cases on day 6 but said they were all asymptomatic, and on day 7 he reported some more cases but that we were still under 1% or less than 20. I would highly recommend Camp if you have a younger child that loves arts and crafts and netting new kids, our daughter enjoyed every session she attended. The service on the boat was phenomenal and my daughter (and the rest of us) made a special connection with our assistant waiter and buffet attendant Radha from Mauritius. Our family enjoyed the Passport Bar a lot as it was a great place to play cards and was never busy so bar/waiter service was always fast and good. There have been differing things across the board about getting off in Canada, but for us it was the smoothest port of them all. All we needed was our seapass cards to get off and to pass back through to get on. We didn’t need our passports, and even though we completed it as required before our sailing, we never needed the ArriveCAN code at any point. As for Victoria, since we stop there in the evening 90% of the stores are closed, so it’s really only nice to get off if you are planning to eat in town. I also heard from others that the whale watching trips in Victoria didn’t see any whales, so definitely do your whale watching in Juneau if it’s on your list. To conclude, we had a fantastic trip and would definitely sail on Celebrity and the Solstice again. I think it made cruising fans out of my wife and daughter who were on their first cruise ever. I think Disney may be our next cruise though because the 4 year old won’t stop talking about it, and she’s the real boss of the family.

Thank you so very much for your helpful & informative thread! Sounds like you had a fantastic trip!

 

We are on the Solstice July 1st sailing (sooooo looking forward to this trip)!

 

If you have a moment will you explain the ArriveCan process and embarkation. I was under the impression that we were to complete this process within 72 hours of boarding the ship in Seattle. For us this is Tuesday June 28th.

I recently received an email from Celebrity with my boarding time and procedures. The email states:

CANADA ENTRY FORM

Complete entry form prior to arrival in Canada.

 

What exactly happens during the boarding process with ArriveCan?

[RollWave]

On 6/18/2022 at 7:39 PM, twodjs said:

Amazing to us the number of people from Texas and Florida and the attitude that most seemed to have. I remember one guy boasting loudly to another - "we all come from Florida and my brother went to visit some friends in California "a lock-down state" (his emphasis) and he got Covid". As if somehow justifying Florida' approach to the pandemic.

 

As a Floridian with a son who lives in Texas I want to stick up for both places. BTW - we are fully vaccinated & boosted and wear masks when we deem necessary.  I tend to doubt any state has residents in 100% agreement with any policy/procedure/thought process. It is unfortunate that the Floridians & Texans who you encountered had attitudes & beliefs disagreeable to you.

 

Florida & Texas are very large and diverse states. 

[C4HCG]

On 6/19/2022 at 12:39 AM, twodjs said:

We were on the same cruise, masked whenever we left the cabin and two days after disembarking, my wife has tested positive. It was frustrating that so many people were maskless, only protected their chin, or held a drink throughout their time in the theater or Celebrity Central, not caring about how completely selfish and disrespectful those actions were. Amazing to us the number of people from Texas and Florida and the attitude that most seemed to have. I remember one guy boasting loudly to another - "we all come from Florida and my brother went to visit some friends in California "a lock-down state" (his emphasis) and he got Covid". As if somehow justifying Florida' approach to the pandemic.

We passed up crowded elevators, only ate in the OV once, and never in the MDR. Yet if only a few are masked, and masks help keep those who are asymptomatic from spreading the virus, it is bound to spread to those with masks also. We have cruised several times since the startup. This time our luck ran out.  

I have said this before so apologies for being boring but our view is if you travel on any type of holiday do it with the knowledge that you are likely to catch covid. If you don’t want to take that risk best not to travel but to be honest and with respect, expecting people to voluntarily wear masks when not mandated is not realistic and on our recent cruises, we only wore them on excursions when we had to, never otherwise.  If you find that selfish and disrespectful then we will politely agree to disagree. We are back on the Equinox at the end of August and will follow the same rules, if it’s mandated we will gladly follow the rules.

[Plaidlulu]

33 minutes ago, RollWave said:

Thank you so very much for your helpful & informative thread! Sounds like you had a fantastic trip!

 

We are on the Solstice July 1st sailing (sooooo looking forward to this trip)!

 

If you have a moment will you explain the ArriveCan process and embarkation. I was under the impression that we were to complete this process within 72 hours of boarding the ship in Seattle. For us this is Tuesday June 28th.

I recently received an email from Celebrity with my boarding time and procedures. The email states:

CANADA ENTRY FORM

Complete entry form prior to arrival in Canada.

 

What exactly happens during the boarding process with ArriveCan?

 

Also, interested in experience with the ArriveCan. When I reviewed the information on the ArriveCan website it states the below which makes me think you cannot submit until your in that 72 hour window and must be boring.

You'll need to submit your information within 72 hours:

• before your arrival to Canada
• and/or before boarding a cruise ship destined for Canada

[kcmo74]

5 hours ago, RollWave said:

Thank you so very much for your helpful & informative thread! Sounds like you had a fantastic trip!

 

We are on the Solstice July 1st sailing (sooooo looking forward to this trip)!

 

If you have a moment will you explain the ArriveCan process and embarkation. I was under the impression that we were to complete this process within 72 hours of boarding the ship in Seattle. For us this is Tuesday June 28th.

I recently received an email from Celebrity with my boarding time and procedures. The email states:

CANADA ENTRY FORM

Complete entry form prior to arrival in Canada.

 

What exactly happens during the boarding process with ArriveCan?

We did the basic ArriveCan setup with scanning our passports and entering our vaccine info maybe a month before our cruise. Then the night before our cruise in the hotel we completed the process through the app. It is a set of several questions about how, where, and when you are entering Canada; all in all it took less than 5 minutes to complete. It expressly says (somewhere on the ArriveCAN site, but I don't have a link) that for cruises you are to complete the process before your sailing even if you don't enter a Canadian port until a later date in the cruise. So upon filling out the ArriveCAN on June 9th we entered that we would be arriving at Victoria - Ogden Point Pier on June 16th. Upon completion we got our QR codes. Upon check-in at the cruise terminal we were never asked for our ArriveCAN code or any type of verification, and at Victoria we were not asked to show or scan our code. So in summation, for us, nothing happened pertaining to ArriveCAN during the boarding process.

 

All in all if you ask me it is just a measure the Canadian government is requiring and cruise lines are agreeing with, as a cover their butt type move in case something should happen. The info won't be needed unless there is some sort of Covid issue that occurs while on Canadian soil, or as a tracing measure later on. The process is very quick to complete so I recommend just doing it as Celebrity and Canada has asked us to, but the likelihood that it is actually needed or scanned is small. I can't speak for cruises out of Vancouver as it seems that they may actually be asking for the receipt at airports in Canada.

[kcmo74]

4 hours ago, Plaidlulu said:

 

Also, interested in experience with the ArriveCan. When I reviewed the information on the ArriveCan website it states the below which makes me think you cannot submit until your in that 72 hour window and must be boring.

You'll need to submit your information within 72 hours:

• before your arrival to Canada
• and/or before boarding a cruise ship destined for Canada

Yes that is the info I mentioned above that I didn't have a link for. For anyone entering Canada they must submit within 72 hours of entering, except for those entering on a cruise, they must submit within 72 hours of boarding the cruise ship that will eventually dock in Canada.

[mauimary]

We finished filling out our arrive CAN app a few days before we boarded. It will not take the entry date more than a few days befor you embark.  They did not ask us at the terminal in Seattle to show it. 

[OysterD]

On 6/19/2022 at 12:39 AM, twodjs said:

It was frustrating that so many people were maskless, only protected their chin, or held a drink throughout their time in the theater or Celebrity Central, not caring about how completely selfish and disrespectful those actions were.

We passed up crowded elevators, only ate in the OV once, and never in the MDR. 

That will be me in a few months. I will not be wearing a mask and I will most definitely be holding a drink while in the theatre! 🍸 🍹 

 

You are obviously in the minority, as you stated, so to expect everyone else to change their behaviour to appease you is actually the definition of selfish. 

 

I will bite my tongue and not say exactly what I'm thinking, let's try and keep this amicable lol. However, I don't appreciate being called selfish and disrespectful for simply trying to enjoy myself on the first holiday I'll have been on in 4 years. Its frustrating enough that we will probably have to go through the hassle of getting tested in a foreign country before we board (we're hoping that requirement is dropped before we sail), but if its a requirement obviously we will have to. However, we will most certainly not voluntarily wear flimsy masks everywhere on the ship just to appease a handful of people who are still scared of catching covid. 

 

I say all this in an effort to as nicely as possible, request that those with similar views as you just stop and think about how everyone else feels. I don't want to be on holiday with people looking at me like I'm some sort of leper just because I'm not wearing a mask. It's ridiculous. If 95%+ of people are not bothering to wear masks, then maybe the <5% who are wearing them need to understand and accept that there's nothing wrong with that. 

 

We are all paying a lot of money to go on holiday and to enjoy ourselves, and for those who aren't retired it may well be our only break from work all year. After not having to wear masks anywhere in our country for the last 4 or 5 months, don't expect me to voluntarily do so for 2 weeks while on holiday! There shouldn't be any animosity between those who do and don't wear masks when not required. If you're genuinely that concerned about catching covid, and I understand some people might still be, then maybe cruising isn't right for you. But you're just as likely to catch it at home in the supermarket or restaurant etc. 

[hcat]

Sorry OP had Covid issues. BUT singling out any state or groups of people by state for any reason is not nice.

 

  We live in NY..a previously locked down state (some of it was very arbitrary).  We enjoyed being in Fla this winter able to enjoy fresh air outdoors and more freedom to decide how and where we'd be safe,  thus protecting others in the process.

 

We mask when appropriate...however being vaxed and masked  and washing hands are not guarantees to avoid Covid. It is unfortunate some of us will catch Covid, but blaming others is not helpful!   Cruising has its risks...

 

Thanks to OP for a great review. Sounds like it was an enjoyable cruise....

[slcutcruiser]

I could use some advice here. I just booked the holiday cruise over Christmas on the Celebrity Solstice. We have 3 adults and 3 children. The children will be 9, 16 and 13 when we cruise. I have recently read a lot of people saying the kids will probably get bored. That's obviously not what I want. This is the only cruise available that still had rooms left departing out of CA around Christmas so it's what we booked. We still have time to cancel if need be. Can you tell me if you saw any other teens? I know there is an arcade but it costs extra, there is a small teen lounge but it doesn't look like much. Does anyone have thoughts or experiences? Thanks

[itsanita]

14 minutes ago, slcutcruiser said:

I could use some advice here. I just booked the holiday cruise over Christmas on the Celebrity Solstice. We have 3 adults and 3 children. The children will be 9, 16 and 13 when we cruise. I have recently read a lot of people saying the kids will probably get bored. That's obviously not what I want. This is the only cruise available that still had rooms left departing out of CA around Christmas so it's what we booked. We still have time to cancel if need be. Can you tell me if you saw any other teens? I know there is an arcade but it costs extra, there is a small teen lounge but it doesn't look like much. Does anyone have thoughts or experiences? Thanks

 

We are in the same 'boat' as you!   We are going on Solstice to Alaska in July with our 3 grandkids, ages 8,11,13.  We decided to go just a few weeks ago and we liked the itinerary better and could get the cabins we wanted.  We rationalized that Alaska ports were more important than the things kids would find on a larger ship. 

I asked this question on the family board...check this out.

So we shall see.  I'll let you know when we get back! 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/camp-at-sea  

Edited June 21, 2022 by itsanita

[bludevil]

22 hours ago, RollWave said:

As a Floridian with a son who lives in Texas I want to stick up for both places. BTW - we are fully vaccinated & boosted and wear masks when we deem necessary.  I tend to doubt any state has residents in 100% agreement with any policy/procedure/thought process. It is unfortunate that the Floridians & Texans who you encountered had attitudes & beliefs disagreeable to you.

 

Florida & Texas are very large and diverse states. 

Ditto... says this Floridian. 

[mauimary]

We are on this cruise now and have a 7yr old grandson with us.  He loves Brent Nixon nature lectures.  He is not bored.  He has taken advantage of having the heated outdoor swimming pool practically to himself.  We have done some excursions too.  There are also teens on board. We have seen a group that have eaten together and attended the show.  We have seen this nice group in the coffee shop too. This is the second time he has been to Alaska with us. 

[mauimary]

I think it is time for this can of worms between the maskers and maskless  to stop!  It creating bad vibes.  Cruising is just plain different now from what is was last summer and fall.
  

Edited June 21, 2022 by mauimary

[itsanita]

1 hour ago, mauimary said:

We are on this cruise now and have a 7yr old grandson with us.  He loves Brent Nixon nature lectures.  He is not bored.  He has taken advantage of having the heated outdoor swimming pool practically to himself.  We have done some excursions too.  There are also teens on board. We have seen a group that have eaten together and attended the show.  We have seen this nice group in the coffee shop too. This is the second time he has been to Alaska with us. 

 

That's great to hear!   Only 3 weeks till it's our turn.  

[lovecruzin]

For those hoping the Celebrity will drop the testing for Solstice Alaska cruises, if the Government  of Canada is still requiring it, then it will still need to be done.