JeffB

I'm clearly in the get vaccinated if you want to play crowd - my qualifiers on choice and medical contraindications not withstanding. As harsh as it sounds, you WILL deal with COVID should you choose to not get vaxed because the unvaxed are going to fall I'll from it at some point. The only question for the unvaxed is how ill will I get? It's a craps shoot. You can play the numbers, you may not get sick at all or you could die. I prefer the odds with getting vaccinated. Not everyone does and can tell you the math supporting their choice. I'm fine with it. But, I said it earlier today. Stop haranguing those that have thought this through and made a reasonable decision to not get the shots. Instead focus on the crowd that doesn't know about the shot - and believe it or not there are such people - can't get off work, get relief with child care, lack the capacity to get to places administering vaccines. Focus on that group that is convinceable and we'll get to an 80-99% vax rate in the US. Unfortunately, for us cruisers that's not the case in some Caribbean nations. Ported today in St. John's Antigua. Toured on a ship's tour - the only way you could leave the ship. I asked our small group guide in a private conversation after the tour about labor unrest. Pre-COVID, that was a big deal in the West Indies/Lesser Antilles. Especially in Barbados where violent protests occurred Her response? That's quieted down with expanded social programs. What's causing protests now is vaccinations. She said 50% or more are resisting them. Mostly out of fear. They are fully available now in Antigua down to age 12 ..... but the folks don't want them. Of course that causes the government to restrict mobility and busnesses to keep heath care services from being overwhelmed. These kinds of headwinds are going to impact the travel and leisure economy of the Caribbean nations. They are going to affect cruising everywhere. Clearly the devastating impact can already be seen. The St. St. John's port area had undergone extensive improvements Pre-COVID when the economy was ticking. Now beautifully renovated shops are either boarded up or empty of customers. Forlorn sales staff inside empty stores. Sad.

@Atlantix2000, point taken on why the CDC thinks their data on reinfection is an unercount. But the quote above is critical to my point. The CDC is advancing the need for boosters based on what? Data they can't prove is accurate. This isn't science and fact based policy making. It's pulling stuff out their backside to look like they're doing good things.

I don't believe the outcome of this case means diddly to the cruise lines. Those operating from US ports have agreed to voluntarily comply with the CSO. OTH, if FL prevails, the outcome will be viewed as precedential for impeeding further actions from the executive branch of government that exceed powers given to an agency by congress. This is the bigger deal to me. The cruise industry will find full recovery a ways off given the continuation of unnecessary headwinds created by governmrnts world wide in the form of travel restrictions and vaccination complexity. But they'll be fine.

See my facts on the ground numbers on day 19 of my B3B wrt the infection rates on board Celebrity Equinox. Equinox is operating under similar COVID health protocol choices as Carnival .... the exception is no mask required on board Equinox. TBC, this is not an endorsement of a no-mask policy on board a cruise ship with nearly all vaccinated guests. Mask mandates on board are being implemented for other reasons that I elaborated on elsewhere. But, I take your point. I'll believe it when I see it but my hope is that Carnival and NCL have the same or a lower COVID infection rate than what is being experienced industry wide and that rate is already exceedingly low in almost every mix of layered mitigation measures.

As an example of what I'm talking about - perceptions v. reality and the manipulation, often intentional, of the former - there is this from the respected Economist that appeared in it's Expresso AM news feed of top stories: A new study by Oxford University found that the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine’s efficacy against symptomatic infections dropped to 75% after 90 days, compared with 85% two weeks after a second dose. The study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, also showed that the efficacy of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab declined by 7% over the same period. Sounds bad, right? You might conclude vaccines don't work which is exactly the concern I voiced yesterday about the irresponsible headline announcements yesterday that boosters will start to be administered in September. But these percentages are out of context. What are the actual numbers? I don't know them and I believe they are out there but not being disclosed publicly for political reasons. First, the terms efficacy (determined by controlled studies) and effectiveness (what's actually happening on the ground) are frequently conflated. We can't compare these two figures because they are not released side-by-side. Second, if the efficacy is reduced, in the case of the Pfizer vaccine, from 85% to 75% (a 10% reduction) what are the actual numbers in the study. Let's say 1000 people were in the study, all vaccinated, and the accepted percentage of vaccinated people that actually develop symptoms is around 2% (and that's a high benefit of the doubt number). Given that figure, 20 vaxed people developed COVID symptoms (not hospitalized or dead and that figure is less than 1%). The study demonstrated a 10% reduction in efficacy or 2 more people got symptoms. TWO!!! The bull-shit narrative emerging in the US, partly from misguided analysis of studies in Israel due to the same misleading errors, is that the vaccines aren't working that well and to contain the virus we need boosters. What? This is so horribly wrong that it defies credibility. Look, I think the study authors know this, the Israeli's know this. The US government's PH authorities? They know it but instead choose to encourage or at least allow without rebuttal the misleading press releases. The typical basis attributed to liberal governments like the Biden administration, is paternalism ...... the tendency to believe the government knows best and the details are two complex for Americans to understand. Bull-shit on that one too. I can only speculate the reasons but I suspect they involve convincing the public to not let their guard down. To get vaccinated. They've done just the opposite. The CDC, where this non-sense is coming from, has, for the most part become irrelevant - no one is listening to them despite the fact that there are honest, hard working people there who are probably being ignored.

I don't want to be dismissive of the dangers of SARS2 - it's a nasty virus, no question, and is among the worst the human race has encountered. But, early and retrospectively, global PH response to the virus has been a disaster.....the one highlight being operation Warp Speed using a public/private model to develop mRNA vaccines that will turn out to be akin in value to humanity to Salk's development of the polio vaccine. When the available data is viewed in the proper context and in its entirety, devoid of the shameful politics and media drumbeat of fear good things begin to appear. For nations that didn't impose draconian mitigation measures that we're devastating to, in particular, the travel and leisure sector of the global economy, so damaging to human interactions, what's now on the plates of these nations, in varying degree, is figuring out how to live with and manage this thing. Perceptions of risk are much greater than actual risks in the whole. It is those wrong headed perceptions of risk that are holding back moving forward not the actual risks of COVID.

You're welcome ...... it is near impossible to remain positive about an end to or reasonable control of the pandemic being bombarded with the fear and dire consequences media narrative. I posted elsewhere about this as related to what I consider an irresponsibly unnecessary announcement about the likely need for boosters by the Biden administration. COVID data, IMO, is uniformly unreliable for the purpose of both assessing and formulating PH policy when this is being done by amateurs at our level, including the media. Epidemiology and virology are immensely complicated fields where absolutes rarely exist. I do think the CDC has data and hard working people who interpret it. The problem is that policy formulation has been corrupted by a number of factors, one being politics. Another is incompetence in both interpreting what hard working people who do know stuff are telling the deciders and the decider incompetently turning that into policy and messaging.

NCL, without protocols and 100% vaxed, will have about the same number of on-board positive COVID cases as the lines that have them. Right now the infection rate is exceedingly low in all Vax, masking circumstances based on what we're hearing publicly. I'm aboard Equinox, day 19, of a B3B. We're sailing at 98% vaxed. No masks. We've had 4 COVID positive cases among around 4000 guests total on all 3 sailings - a small number are B2B'ers. That's a 0.01% rate of infection. These were cases that "reported" (I'll get to why I used quotes in a moment) to medical with symptoms. Each time some six close contacts were identified, quarantined, expeditiously tested negative within 1 hour and released. Yesterday on departure from St. Croix, USVGI the captain announced the first fully vaxed COVID positive. An adult. All the rest were kids under 12 with minor cold symptoms that were not eligible for vaccination. All of them were immediately removed from the ship per protocol. The fully vaccinated case was on day 5 and must have presented a negative antigen test to board. I assume he did not contract COVID aboard but rather in route while infection was incubating at the antigen test. On "reported".......We learned from an on-board shop employee, the liquor store, that crew are not to remind passengers to wear tracelets, wash hands, for kids to mask, distance, any of that. However when they observe COVID related suspect behaviors, e.g. no tracelett, not observing hand washing, or appears I'll, they notify security with a description and security may intervene discreetly. Interesting and probably effective. The baseline assumption for the bet is that all lines are cruising under the industry developed STS plan which does include some CDC recommendations.

In my view, the Biden administration's announcement regarding the need for a booster is continuation of the ultra-conservative, looking like we are doing something policies. The unintended consequence of this is that no one will hear the additional information provided in White House and CDC press briefings today that vaccines are still effective in preventing serious illness and death. What they will think, and this thinking will be augmented by the continuous fear narrative from the media, that vaccines don't work and ask, why should I take the shots. I wonder if the administration considered that in what I consider a premature recommendation for boosters in the same ordered priorities as the initial shots were delivered. Lets look at the facts: As of August 9th, 166M Americans were fully vaccinated. 49 states reported 8054 reinfections with COVID. That is a reinfection rate that caused serious illness or death of 0.0048%. Think about that for a moment and ask yourself does that reinfection rate warrant announcements that what will be seen by many as the vaccinations don't work, why should I take them? Worse, even the CDC doesn't like it's data and says so at their cumbersome web site. They then admit that they think the reported breakthrough cases are under counts. On what basis? The one thing I do agree with is their data sucks. I don't trust it, and for good reasons, yet this ultra conservative approach to the pandemic that the CDC is taking, with the requirement for boosters now being official as the latest, is going to precipitate untoward harm both economic and social. The current increase in new cases and concurrently but at a much lower rate of deaths and hospitalizations is both highly regional and strongly correlated with vaccination rates. If we want to contain this thing, the best thing to do is to get as many people as possible vaccinated - I say this notwithstanding a rational decision by many that can't or don't want to get vaccinated. I support that right to choose. Studies show there is a large pool of people eligible for vaccination that don't know about the shot, can't take time off from work, child care, any number of reasons to get one or don't have the means to get to a place where they are being administered. Focus on that pool. Doing that can easily push the number of vaccinated Americans to an 80-90% level! I worry less about COVID than I do about the people's perceptions of the real risks. I've made it clear hear that I don't think the media helps clarifying the actual risks and how to live with COVID and manage those risk preferring instead to pursue this constant fear narrative. I worry less about COVID than I do about governments and businesses caving to public pressure to "DO SOMETHING" and in that process fail to properly evaluate actual risks and evaluate costs of restrictions to mobility and social interaction with PH benefits. Instead, will get more closings and more restrictions. It pisses me off. With that background, the speculative answer to how will the cruise lines react to official announcements recommending boosters is that to be considered fully vaccinated and to board, in general, you'll need a booster. That will precipitate another round for the cruise lines of developing complicated algorithms depending on which vaccine you received to determine if you can board. More confusion entirely avoidable by federal PH officials recognizing that the available data makes it clear that the risk of reinfection precipitating serious disease is incredibly low with 1 shot of the J&J vaccine and two form the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The need for boosters correctly remains unknown for the majority of Americans. Given the known risks of reinfection the CDC's recommendations that boosters be administered to the general public is irresponsibly premature.

As in all COVID mitigation measures, considering benefit is frequently ignored on the assumption that doing something is better than doing nothing (the optics) ..... and in many cases the cost of a given measure is also ignored. Masks don't cost much other than being an inconvenience, but that's not the issue for me. There is only limited evidence that masks actually produce meaningful PH benefit. That position is debateable but I don't wish to debate it. Moving on from that is the larger issue of governments telling us what to do and not do. Right, the feds via the CDC aren't mandating masks or are they? Carnival is mandating masks, a lawful action, undertaken by a business to create a safe environment for employees and patrons. Do they really want to do this? I doubt it. Does carnival need to add additional layers of protection for a fully vaccinated vessel when it is already unpopular among the folks and might, just might reduce bookings? I doubt that it really needs to do that. Even considering the specious argument that they are effective in preventing the spread of SARS2, Carnival is being coerced by the threat of civil liability to mandate them. That is because the CDC - an agency with zero credibility at the moment - is "recommending" them. I have a problem with this, not on the basis of the argument that masks work or don't work, although that they don't in the case of SARS2 is a viable hypothesis, but rather on the basis that an executive agent of the federal government is, for all intent and purpose, telling Carnival their guests have to mask. I think we've already seen what two courts think about government telling us what to do - overreaching their Congressionally authorized authority - under the guise of a PHE.

Well, we have uniform driver's licensing but I take your point. I suspect you are referring to the state government's political stands on vaccine passports. Already a contentious political issue that should not be. Federalism is a thing but I think in the current circumstance a congressional mandate would solve that. Then again politics. Reasonableness is screwed.

Yep, although I have depended on Celebrity to provide both an extension cord and distilled water for my CPAP, the cords have been gorilla's. It's apparent that 100' heavy duty cords are cut to 20' lengths with male and female plugs wired in to both ends. They work fine. They're just bulky, a bit unwieldy and impossible to hide. Early on, I'd email in advance for a cord and distilled water. Now, I just ask my cabin attendant when she introduces her/himself on day one. It ways shows up and in short order. IOW, no need to bring one and potentially have it confiscated.

Don't overthink this. Cruise ships are hands down the safest congregate travel and leisure venue on the planet. Period. I know Matt knows that Celebrity is part of RCG but I can see Celebrity (another line besides RCL) corporate's policy of transparency about the appearance of COVID on board. On my B3B and at day 17 of continuous sailing. The two Captains we've had on Equinox sailing from PEV on Caribbean itineraries have made three announcements of COVID positives - all unvaccinated, presumably under 12, presumably infected enroute and not aboard or on excursions - 14 close contacts - all negative. IOW, safest place on the planet if you want to travel and avoid getting infected by SARS2.

I just can't help but look at the abject failure of the current administration to standardize mechanisms for proof of vaccination. We have passports, right? We have uniformity in state driver's licenses, right? A fake proof vaccine document is entirely doable. It could be done by the states, funded by the US government and issued via the same mechanism that various forms of state IDs are issued. If we had this, stupid stuff like happened here wouldn't be happening and the cruise lines wouldn't have to deal with it. The EU has had problems with getting everyone on the same page but the majority of EU countries have mechanisms to prove citizens have been vaccinated and travel and/or move freely between boarders of states requiring proof of vaccination to enter. As well, vaccine passports can be used to enter venues where proprietors require it on the basis of creating a safe environment in their places of business. Instead, here in the US, we argue about the constitutionality of various PH mitigation measures while at the same time arguing about the potential discriminatory nature of having a vaccine passport. Incredible. When will reasonableness prevail in this storm.

I've posted several reviews of my B3B Celebrity Equinox sailings out of PEV in the Celebrity Azamra thread but there are some specific cross-over observations on issues like mask wearing and antigen testing raised in this thread that I may be able to fill in some information and observations on. First, no intention to start a mask debate but one thing is apparent. There is no uniformity in mask policy ..... anywhere. Not just on cruise ships. That should tell us something about the value or lack thereof of masking as a legitimate COVID mitigation measure. IMO, their utility in stopping the spread of SARS2 in particular is debatable. The subject of the huge variances in COVID related travel restrictions is catching the eye of government regulators - it's choking the travel and leisure sectors of the global economy. I've seen reports of astounding economic losses continuing as the world starts traveling again due just to these disparate travel regulations alone. More uniformity is a tough thing to achieve among nations with varying COVID circumstances but, it could be done. Second, in understanding masking, one also has to separate the debate between the two sides of the restraint of liberties argument. That argument involves questions about government authority granted in a PHE to direct behaviors, in particular masking, in protecting the public health and the constitutionality of limiting freedoms by issuing them. When viewed by encompassing the political and medical/scientific bases of masking it seems to me a legitimate argument can be made that mandatory masking directed by governments, especially aboard cruise ships, is a questionable policy. I believe this may sort itself out in the months ahead. Finally, and on balance ,there is a reliance on businesses, who do have lawful authority to mandate mitigation measures, including masking, to assert that the government is requiring them to do so or is recommending them with the penalty for failing to do so civil liability for COVID deaths or serious illness. IOW, this isn't simple - lots of issues and moving parts in the masking or no masking policies aboard cruise ships. On balance, I'm against them but there are myriad issues and agencies involved in masking policy. Being against them, I would choose to cruise on lines that don't require them indoors. For now, Celebrity is one of them. Vaccination policy is affecting masking policy. Is that reasonable? Notwithstanding the foregoing, I can make a case for masking indoors on a cruise ship that is allowing a hybrid passenger mix. I can also make an argument that it doesn't. Right now, of the majors, RCL is the only line not requiring guest vaccination to board for a sailing. I'm quite certain that the lines know the answer to this question but publicly, it's not going to be known. What is the occurrence rate of all infectious diseases compared to infections with SARS2 in cruise ships with less than 95/98 compared to those with 98/95?..... or, are masks doing anything to make cruising safer? If my experience with a B3B, now on consecutive day 17 (11 more to go) on a fully vaccinated Equinox can be extrapolated to the whole industry (admittedly a stretch) here's how things have gone: We have experienced 3 COVID positives and 14 identified close contacts that tested negative. All positives were unvaccinated. Positives, according to the Captain, were not acquired on board the ship (no other details provided). Masks are not required for vaccinated guests indoors. They are for unvaccinated guests. (Per the Captain, Equinox has reached a a minimum of 98% guest vaccinated on all three of our B3B's legs) I'd assume, based on the current facts on the ground involving this question, that over a similar period involving cruise ships with a larger percentage of unvaccinated, COVID positives would be more numerous. Then, the next question: what is the impact of masking on this cohort? Masks = less positives or not? I'd assume the later mainly becasue of my own personal view of the lack of benefits to masking in the specific congregate setting of cruise ships - YMMV. TBH, cruising presents a unique opportunity for the CDC to look at questions like this. Some analyst in a CDC cubby in Atlanta, might be looking at this but if my hypothesis that masking makes no difference in mitigating SARS2 spread on a cruise ship were supportable in the data (skimpy at this point), we're not going to hear about it. I think similar anecdotal studies could be performed in school settings - I'd like to see that for schools instead of all the arm wavng by the two sides of this debate. Antigen testing. This is simple. It is a good, scientifically based way to prevent the introduction of SARS2 in a congregate setting (a cruise ship). It is also a good way, when coupled with appropriate tracing capability (Apex and Equinox requires all guests to wear traceletts) to keep a single COVID infected person from producing an outbreak. IOW, the benefits of this mitigation measure and all the hassles it imposes is entirely worth it. My experience with Apex out of Athens and now with Equinox out of PEV is that the contractors doing the testing are good at what they do. How the process of scheduling a test and reporting results has been janky. IMO, part of the problem is RCG's decision to not integrate the contractor's process and apps into RCG's apps for check-in and so forth. Not integrating the two apps hurts perceptions of hassle factor but it may be that the code used for writing both of them is different enough to prevent easy integration. It will come. On board debarkation testing done by the contractors has been excellent. We used it for our B3Bs between each debarkation and re-boarding process. Contractors also provide antigen testing for guests who are international travelers not holding US passports (a department of state/home land security imposed travel into and out of the US requirement). None of this uses the QR codes or the apps for reporting results. Guest services provides a list of guests to be tested, the contractor runs the results, reports them to guest services, who then engages medical staff and security to come knocking to the cabins of anyone that tests positive. So far out of over 100 guests to go through this, none, to my knowledge have been positive and tracked down. TBF, every COVID related thing we're experiencing as cruisers in the early stages of the restart have been pretty well handled by the lines. My experience with these and Celebrity has been great and notably lacking in a reduction of the outstanding onboard experiences of the past. My expectations for X have not been diminished by COVID.

I think those kinds of infections are down considerably due to decreased passenger loads, masked crew, a step up in cleanliness of the ship and the general improvement in personal hygiene measures being taken by guests. The ship knows the exact details but that's not going to be public information. In my recent pre-COVID cruise experience, I rarely fell ill on a cruise. I'm probably not going to be a very good test case. After 2 full weeks aboard, not really changing my own hygiene behaviors aboard, I've not experienced any adverse health events ....... except weight gain! I do think masking in ports cuts down on bringing respiratory infections back aboard ship.

Last sea day on our 7n E. Caribbian aboard Equinox then return to PEV for B2B process for the follow-on 12n Southern Caribbean Special. We'll walk off as early as possible tomorrow morning and plan to go home to water plants, bring bigger clothes to replace what's too tight ? and walk back on before 4p. Celebrity does a briefing for B2B'ers in Celebrity Central at 9am the day before return to PEV. The antigen testing is done in the adjacent Quasar Lounge. We were speedily antigen tested and we'll be notified only if positive. Very well organized. We're switching cabins for the next cruise. The one we're in now wasn't available when I last minute booked the 12nighter 6d ago with the Future Cruise specialists. When you move cabins, all you have to do is put most of your stuff on hangers if you can, leave this in the closet, pack the rest in a suitcase, and your cabin attendant will see to it that it is moved to your new cabin. Easy. On Celebrity fares: First, the next 12nighter we're sailing on this B3B was booked on board 6d ago. I shoot for an OV or Veranda fare/day/per person of $220 these days. Prior to COVID you could easily get fares for under $200 per day per person. Not that easy anymore. However, for this 12n cruise, there were multiple incentives for on-board bookings. In the past, I've found these worthwhile to consider booking this way. On Solstice Class ships we book either Verandas or OV depending on pricing. The lowest priced cabins this time around were Verandas in Concierge class. There were incentives to book that cabin class lowering the rate. There were also incentives to book what Celebrity calls "Indulge." It's a plus up to premium bevs from the classic that goes along with their "Everything Included" pricing. The incentive is additional OBCs. When I figured in the $600 OBC I got, this fare came to $170/day/person - keep in mind, I'm not actually getting the $600 OBC in incentives in my pocket! What this amounts to is Celebrity getting a bit more money out of your pocket up front then paying you back in OBC's to spend on-board. Smart marketing. On my side it feels good and makes my per day costs look better. That's about all. Lately, on the RCL blog message boards and other cruise blogs I peek at there has been a lot of comments expressing concern on itinerary changes and cancellations along with speculation for the reasons why. On these three consecutive cruises I'm currently sailing, One of them, an L&S, changed 4x since booked in 2019. The other two were just last minute booked on the front and back end of the L&S. Both of these cruise's itineraries have been changed 1X and 2X respectively. The latest, the upcoming 12n S. Caribbean, just dropped St. Kitts and Grenada and substituted Curacao and Aruba (can't be disappointed about that!). I asked and staff aboard had not been told by corporate as to the reasons for the itinerary changes. I'll not speculate. Could be for a ton of different reasons. None of this is going to be publicly available information. Of course that won't stop cruise bloggers from speculating. I'm not worried about it and I recommend others do the same. It seems like Celebrity, anyway, is doing a great job of continuing to offer an amazing cruise experience in a tough environment to do so. The bottom line is that this is cruising life during COVID. From what I've been reading, travel is going to be disrupted for years. That is because of the myriad rules now emerging for airline and cruise ship travel, country entry requirements, vaccination and COVID testing requirements. None of these are either uniform nor, IMO, based on a reasonable assessment of PH risks wrt COVID - cruise ship travel the notable exception. COVID's not going away and I've advocated everywhere I have a chance to advocate that we must learn to live with it without unnecessarily restricting mobility and social behaviors. It's going to take a while for governments to get their heads out of their asses on this point. I don't think we are going to go back to the draconian measures of early 2020. This, despite the very wrong perception of COVID impact the press and social media have created and government PH official feel compared to react to. I see signs that that perception is being questioned. As well, there isn't the political will to shut things down. Cruising will be fine. Accept that it won't be like it was pre-COVID but, as far as I'm concerned, it's till great!

I was in St. Maarten - Phillipsburg, the Dutch side - yesterday (Celebrity Equinox). If both St. Maarten ports are closed, that order was implanted in the last 18 hours. I just read an article in the Economist that advocated for baseline global uniformity in boarder regulations. IOW, boarders (implied to include airports and cruise ports) should be generally open for travelers with a bare minimum of public health mitigation measures. In the opinion of this author and consistent with mine many of the PH meansures are both unnecessary and not based on facts on the ground or available scientific data. The author cited convincing economic data that realistically assessed the ridiculous costs of these crazy PH patch-work boarder entry requirements to the travel and leisure sectors of the global economy. Amen.

Day 6, Celebrity Equinox, 7n E. Caribbean out of PEV. Port of calls in order have been Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Maarten. Now in first sea day of 2 before debarkation in PEV on Sunday. Sailing during the Hurricane season....... Over the last 10 years I've chartered sailboats out of Tortola, BVI 3X and cruised Caribbean waters at least half a dozen times. I may have been lucky but none of those events were interrupted by a hurricane. Where they around? Yes. Why does the navy pull all their ships out of port when a hurricane is approaching one of them? Because being at sea during a hurricane is the safest place to be. Given today's weather forecasting technology, it's easy to predict the paths of these things, not with 100% accuracy but with about 90%. Today's sailing vessels with the capability to reach speeds of 30kts can easily avoid them. That's what Equinox did with Fred. It is what I expect it will do with Grace and any other storms that might follow on my next cruise aboard her - 12n S. Caribbean starting Sunday 8/15. The weather on the current cruise has been beautiful, sunny with seas not exceeding 2-3m. Barely feeling sea motion aboard. So, yeah, Celebrity would not be sailing the Caribbean waters during the hurricane season without knowing that they can sail around them, rearrange port calls and pretty much guarantee a smooth ride. Any menu changes in the venues I've experienced? Nope. Standard fare in Ocean View Cafe, Tuscan Grill, Murano, Spa Cafe, Sushi on Five. Did not go to Q-SIne, La Petite Chef. I don't think 30 minutes passed by without some kind of food available in the OV Cafe..... that 30 minutes where it's roped off to allow food table changes. In fact, there is nothing different from my Celebrity experiences of the past compared to now except guest load. It has been nice and is what prompted me to book a B3B. This is a great time to cruise. European travel is a bit more difficult but still entirely doable if you understand and comply with all the differing country entry protocols. Itinerary changes and COVID related stuff. While in St. Maarten yesterday we learned from the grapevine and confirmed by locals that St Kitts had "closed it's port to cruise ships with over 750 passengers." This was based on a cruise ship (not RCL's but I forgot which one) being turned away and instead porting in St. Maarten the day before we arrived. This turned out to be false. On further clarification it was because St. Kitts, along with most Caribbean ports of call are either already at or are moving toward requiring cruise ships to be at least at the CDC recommended 98%/95% vaxed levels. This ship, whichever one it was, had somewhere around 90%, and possibly other undisclosed factors, e.g., passengers or crew aboard with COVID and isolated. Local COVID related health conditions are going to drive itineraries. To be sure, island governments are pro-cruise ship visits. TBH, I don't think we're going to see a lot of turning back. Access and fewer COVID mitigation measure will predominate as time goes on. The press COVID hysteria that has driven and in some cases continues to drive perceptions, and accordingly governments and PH authorities react to these, is being discovered to be just that .....hysteria not based on facts on the ground. As these emerge, especially in countries where tourism accounts for most of the local economy, PH authorities will move more toward improved management of and living with SARS2. The Celebrity app provides along with the printed daily, all port COVID protocols. Per these publications, masks are required indoors and outdoors in the ports we visited. However, when I asked locals about wearing masks outside in St. Maarten, I was told just indoors. Ask an then be respectful of spacing. Still, you've seen the news. Isolated COVID + crew and pax are happening. Everyone of them that I am aware of is being managed in accordance with protocols. There have been no unmanaged outbreaks aboard a cruise ship and only news of positive cases being reported by the lines themselves as handled routinely and correctly despite open press reports of them that imply COVID chaos - but that's their thing. I ignore it. In the 2w we've been aboard Equinox, there has been one announced + COVID case aboard - a passenger who reported to medical with symptoms - the day before the end of the first week. 6 contacts - all negative. The one COVID = pax got off at Fort Lauderdale and handled per protocols. We've also seen two occasions while in port where ambulances appeared and, in both cases, some one was transported. ALos in both cases, ambulance personnel that had direct involvement with the transported individual were wearing Hazmat/PPE equipment. My take is that is SOP for them. I think we would have had an announcement from the Captain if either of these evacs had involved COVID. I believe Celebrity has a policy of complete transparency with respect to COVID cases onboard, of course, consistent with privacy concerns.

One other comment. This is Hurricane season in the Caribbean and we're dealing with a tropical cyclone that is passing over St. Thomas right now. Tropical soaking rain and some winds but not over 30kts. Our captain mentioned it today and said it is of no concern to our itinerary. I have a friend in St. Maartin that I talked with yesterday. It was getting stormy there but the storm will pass today (it already has) and weather will be fine tomorrow. Supposedly same for St. Thomas tomorrow according to our captain. It is supposed to pass over Hispaniola, then South of Cuba and enter the FL straights passing west of the FL peninsula and into the gulf as a tropical depression. It will probably be rainy in S. FL this weekend if you are traveling there for a cruise.

Quick update Celebrity Equinox 7n E. Caribbean, day 3 (at sea). We visited Nassau on Day 2. We're just there l;ast week. This time all the shops were open and we took the usual walk with a side trip to pick up some Tide laundry powder at the local food store for our cabin attendant. Those that have been here before might remember a large open market on the main street close to the port. That is not open right now but we were told opening will happen soon as pandemic restrictions are eased. One thing to note, Bahamian shop owners were very welcoming and not pushy. Just glad to see us. Masks and distancing are required all of Nassau, inside and outside, though outside masking does not seem to be enforced - and there are Royal Bahamian police very visible. On this 7d itinerary there are 3 port calls (Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten). We lost the 8th night a long time ago (CDC) and Tortola, BVI about a month ago on an itinerary change) and 4 sea days - yes, you need to like ship activities and life. These early cruises aren't about seeing the sights ashore. Fortunately we like ship life and we'll get plenty of it on a now B3B, Western (done), Eastern (on it now) and Southern Caribbean (coming up after this one). For the S. Caribbean sailing, we'll be getting off the ship, quickly going home - to get bigger clothes ?- then returning. We'll walk off as early as possible and have a list of things to do like water plants then use our transit pass to re-board. We've used these in the past and pre-COVID. There was a separate gangway for that process. Not sure how it will work in COVID times. Hopefully, we'll get antigen tested the day before debarkation, walk off and back on easily using the transit pass. I'll report on that process. Some random thoughts on Equinox. After 40+ Celebrity cruises this is the first cruise I bought the 3n specialty dining package. Since there are just 4 specialty restaurants on the Solstice class ships, we didn't book the one we have no interest in - Q-zine, La Petite Chef. We booked Murano (our fav) 2x, Tuscan 1X and Sushi on 5 1x. Ate at Tuscan last night. I never liked the move away from the Golden Age of Cruising themed specialty restaurants that were a thing on Millennium class ships and Tuscan was one of the replacements. Past experience with Tucson was mixed with the mains being just as good as Tuscan. That wasn't the case last night. Menu selection, food quality, presentation and service were 5*. The ship is still running at just a shade over 1/2 restaurant staff but, then, the ship is sailing at only 40-50% guest capacity. I thought timing and overall service were good. We really enjoy formal dining. It's not for everyone. But the capacity of the matre'ds and wait staff to deliver a formal dining experience on Celebrity is pretty high. It takes a lot of training to pull this off. I've seen other unmentioned lines try to do this, others don't try and in both cases it's a bit disappointing and since this is such a big part of the cruising life we like we just avoid sailing on those lines. The bottom line is right now, it's a great time to cruise mostly because of the necessary accommodations that the lines have to make for COVID that tend to produce a better experience with things we like. YMMV. I can say without hesitating that Celebrity is pulling this off and delivering a first class experience at a very reasonable price on a cost per day, per person basis. Then again, I'm highly biased and my tastes are different from others.

Speculating because I don't know what kind of arrangements RCL has with shore based agencies wrt the handling of COVID positives or where the line is drawn between the terminal's responsibility to deal with a COVID positive and RCL's. But, it's unlikely that a COVID positive guest identified in the terminal or on the ship is simply going to be told to go home. RCL is definitely going to want to make sure close contacts are identified, the guest is at least told he needs to mask and quarantine and sign documents he is informed and will comply or if on the ship, will get quarantined, then appropriately transferred to limit exposure to others, etc. My take is that the number of people this is happening too is very small. We'd hear about it via a prying media trying to get a scoop if there were a lot of them. One other point. The OP stating that Antigen testing for vaxed guests is overkill and not consistent with the science is fundamentally correct. It would probably not be necessary based on CDC guidance to not test asymptomatic people, still present even in the presence of Delta, in any other setting but the cruise lines. The reason is that the risk would not justify the cost. For example, are indoor sporting events, casinos or resorts doing it? Nope. The cruise lines are a different animal. In that circumstance, it is an appropriate investment and consistent with the goal of keeping the shipboard environment as safe and COVID free as possible. I disagree with the OP that it overkill for the cruise lines to require it.

Pre-boarding or pre-entry anything Antigen testing is overkill based on actual risks but is an appropriate approach for businesses. If one wants to cruise, get used to it. It's going to around for a while and certainly through 2021. Options are available like don't go......if its not too late to cancel, that's an option. If your risk tolerance is low, buy trip insurance with cancel for any reason. No need to blame cruise lines for keeping their places of business as safe as possible for customers and employees.

Going through B2B process now. We got tested yesterday and only notified if positive. We weren't notified. Around 8pm, yesterday evening the Captain made an announcement that 1 person who presented to medical with symptoms tested positive for COVID. 6 close contacts were tested, none positive. Positive guest was isolated and left the ship today. Private transport to airport and home arranged. The B2B process started at 9:30am when we assembled in the Ensemble lounge. There were 71 guests doing B2B. Vaccination cards were checked and we were registered. Guest relations staff kept us informed along the way. Around 10:05 we were escorted off the ship to the terminal where the group passed quickly through CBP check points using facial recognition equipment. Staff led us to a seating area and we were provided our room cards and traceletts. Around 10:50, like clockwork, we were led back out of the CBP area directly to the arrival terminal and onto the ship. Done by 11:05. Very well organized.

PCR is a diagnostic, not a screening tool. You want enough of a sample to get it right the first time.