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Celebrity Edge Now Red?


Biff215

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31 minutes ago, Biff215 said:

Just saw this but can’t find anything else about it. Confirmed myself that Edge is red on the CDC site and they were testing the crew recently. Hope it’s temporary or a mistake!

 

Interesting.  The "coding" tool could be used legitimately or misused to control the industry further - we'll have to wait & see.    Hoping the CSO injunction remains in place to put an end to some of this madness.

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Red doesn't necessarily mean someone has covid

 

Red Ship Criteria

  • One or more cases of confirmed COVID-19 that do not meet criteria for Orange status, or
  • Ship received ship-to-ship transfers from a ship that was Red,
  • If land-based crew embarked, they were not immediately quarantined (unless fully vaccinated or recovered in past 90 days) upon embarking the ship, or
  • During the past 14 days, the ship missed one or more daily submissions of the EDC form.
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The CDC site does state "Last updated June 22, 2021 with EDC data submitted June 21, 2021" So this is information that Celebrity has had since Monday.  If they were going to cancel, they've had at least 48 hours at this point, probably longer to make that decision.

Also, Celebrity sent out an "Welcome to your cruise!" email from the CEO of Celebrity this morning around 9:30am eastern.  Would seem strange they wouldn't stop that email if they were mulling a cancelation since monday.

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46 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Red doesn't necessarily mean someone has covid

 

Red Ship Criteria

  • One or more cases of confirmed COVID-19 that do not meet criteria for Orange status, or
  • Ship received ship-to-ship transfers from a ship that was Red,
  • If land-based crew embarked, they were not immediately quarantined (unless fully vaccinated or recovered in past 90 days) upon embarking the ship, or
  • During the past 14 days, the ship missed one or more daily submissions of the EDC form.

I understand that and they did mention that in the video, it’s just concerning with a ship who just tested and sets sail in a matter of days. Hopefully it’s something minor!

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22 minutes ago, Biff215 said:

I understand that and they did mention that in the video, it’s just concerning with a ship who just tested and sets sail in a matter of days. Hopefully it’s something minor!

Especially since its tied to protocols.  I would have expected for the latest protocols to be in place and approved under current guidance that close to first cruise.

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Here’s the official statement from Celebrity on this:

During last week’s routine crew testing, all of our more than 900 crew tested negative with the exception of one asymptomatic positive crew member. That crew member has since been moved off the ship and all crew have retested negative within the last 24 hours. We remain in final preparations for Saturday’s sailing and Celebrity Edge will sail with an approved CDC certificate. We look forward to welcoming our guests back onboard.

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11 hours ago, Atlantix2000 said:

Based on the title, I expected discussion of repainting the Edge red and was all set to agree that it would be a shocking decision by Celebrity.  The actual topic is far less thrilling.

I was thinking the same thing. And yes, the actual topic far less thrilling than had they decided to actually repaint the ship red!

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Just watched Edge sail from PEV on the port's web cam. Captain Kate backed her down into the shipping channel, did a 140 and off she went.

I literally got all choked up and balled my eyeballs out. Funny thing, I could have sailed on this trip if I hadn't gotten all wrapped up in thinking sailings from US ports wouldn't happen before September with the CDC's stand and the hardships of complying with the CSO requirements facing the lines. Thought Europe would be first for sailings with US citizens. Booked Reflection out of Amsterdam in February for a early June sailing to Norway - then Europe fell apart with another outbreak. Cancelled that booking and moved it to tourism friendly Greece. That one is going on July 9th but I have to fly 11h to Athens ...... and wear masks inside and outside (standard exceptions) due to Greek COVID protocols that mandate masks. Isn't Celebrity and it's weird.

So, could not do both although I was sorely tempted. Burned through all my FCCs. If I hadn't I would have booked Edge for today.

Anyway, it was spectacular watching that beauty leave the pier. Some stories I read today that the crew was jazzed and so were the passengers. 40% capacity. Celebrity announced they were 99% pax vaccination rate. Celebrity has the same vaccination rules as RCL but they don't attract as many families ..... obviously with that rate. I'd like to know how they got there.

Edit: Just checked ....... Greece just yesterday removed max mandates  ....... outdoors for now. Other restrictions on restaurant capacity and gatherings are being eased too. Still have the mask mandate indoors and I expect Celebrity will honor that unless the Greeks give them a free pass with pax and crew fully vaccinated. That would be welcome. Go Lisa! You can do it!

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2 hours ago, JeffB said:

Just watched Edge sail from PEV on the port's web cam. Captain Kate backed her down into the shipping channel, did a 140 and off she went.

I literally got all choked up and balled my eyeballs out. Funny thing, I could have sailed on this trip if I hadn't gotten all wrapped up in thinking sailings from US ports wouldn't happen before September with the CDC's stand and the hardships of complying with the CSO requirements facing the lines. Thought Europe would be first for sailings with US citizens. Booked Reflection out of Amsterdam in February for a early June sailing to Norway - then Europe fell apart with another outbreak. Cancelled that booking and moved it to tourism friendly Greece. That one is going on July 9th but I have to fly 11h to Athens ...... and wear masks inside and outside (standard exceptions) due to Greek COVID protocols that mandate masks. Isn't Celebrity and it's weird.

So, could not do both although I was sorely tempted. Burned through all my FCCs. If I hadn't I would have booked Edge for today.

Anyway, it was spectacular watching that beauty leave the pier. Some stories I read today that the crew was jazzed and so were the passengers. 40% capacity. Celebrity announced they were 99% pax vaccination rate. Celebrity has the same vaccination rules as RCL but they don't attract as many families ..... obviously with that rate. I'd like to know how they got there.

Edit: Just checked ....... Greece just yesterday removed max mandates  ....... outdoors for now. Other restrictions on restaurant capacity and gatherings are being eased too. Still have the mask mandate indoors and I expect Celebrity will honor that unless the Greeks give them a free pass with pax and crew fully vaccinated. That would be welcome. Go Lisa! You can do it!

These first cruises have been so  hit-n-miss.  I thought for sure something would happen to force a delay.  Happy to see this go.  Its like unclogging a drain - things should flow easier now.  ?

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I'm not a regular FB user but Lisa Lutoff-Perlo has a FB page so I messaged her and asked if she might use her good offices with the Greek government and get them to give Apex a pass on indoor masking being that almost everyone on that ship will be vaccinated. I doubt she'll respond. Her page isn't very active. There is one sailing of Apex before the one I'm booked on. It's possible there wont be a mask mandate indoors for my cruise. The Greek SARS2 situation is improving rapidly as vaccines are finding arms. Even 2w ago, things were improving in the face of open boarders with proof of vaccination or negative COVID test required to enter. 

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Excerpt from today's Celebrity update:

"But we’re not done yet. Next, Celebrity Silhouette will return to sailing with UK residents on July 3 from Southampton. Celebrity Flora will mark our return in the Galapagos on July 4. We start sailing to Alaska on July 23 and then Celebrity Equinox begins sailing from Ft. Lauderdale on July 25. By the end of September, we expect to have nine of our fifteen ships back in-service sailing with at least 95% fully vaccinated guests and crew. And we will continue to work diligently with local health and government authorities and the ports we visit until all our ships are back to cruising all over the world. "

Unclogging the drain...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update:   Edge is leaving Phillipsburg.   Passengers reported that the crew passed passports to the authorities.  Two additional people were reported leaving the ship.  So looks like 9 left the ship.  Edge departed.

 

Perhaps medical issue or accident required departure of the passengers.

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Apex, 8n Greek Isles Itinerary, July 9th to 17th. Quick update Day 2. Airport Arrival: We were nearly 4h late to Athens. Airport Customs and Immigration were highly organized and went smoothly. As you lined up and entered immigration, two airport officials checked that you had your passports, vaccination records and Greece Entry forms you filled out in advance and received a QR code in your email. Our QR codes were easily retrievable in my G Mail Account without an internet connections (stored - nice feature of G Mali for off line access).

We arranged for airport transfer to the ship - normally we don't because we don't like to wait for the bus to fill up. Celebrity was prepared for our late arrival, we picked up our bags pff the carousels, cleared immigration (no customs), easily ID'ed Celebrity Reps, went straight to a waiting bus with 5 other couples and off we went to Piraeus. IOW, no wait for the bus to fill up. You can hire a limo or get a cab easily but that's going to cost upwards of 60 euro. Because of COVID, we felt better using Celebrity provided transport ($75). It was a good call. Athens airport is new,clean, everything is well marked and also in English, and nice. Trip to Piraeus took about an hour in heavy late afternoon traffic.

Celebrity Check-in. After getting off the bus, lots of Celebrity staff pointing where to go. The check in facility is a tent - fancy but still a tent. There were fans and industrial style AC units that blew cool air but it was still quit warm but not uncomfortable. To enter, you show your passport and express pass as usual. The new part is the pre-boarding antigen testing. If you downloaded the Trust One App (the company that is doing the antigen testing), you registered, received a confirmation email and QR codes. I took pictures of these and saved them on my phone - good thing because to retrieve them for check-in, from the app you need an internet connection. After showing the QR codes we went to an area where there are several lines and staff with tablets )there's no check-in desk. You again show your passport that gets scanned to the tablet and your express pass gets scanned - your checked in. Not so fast. Next, we were directed to the antigen testing area, got tested (nasal swab), waited about 15 minutes in a designated area within the tent and in front of a big TV screen that flashed your QR code number. Took about 15 minutes for the number to show on the screen. Went to the people signing you off and got a sticker so you could proceed to the ship ...... after you went through security. To complete the entire check in process, your dealing with your phone, where you stored testing QR codes on it, your hard copy passport and your express pass. I had every thing I needed on my phone and printed out for back-up. Used both. The whole process was different, more complex and took longer. Normally an Edge class check-in takes about 10 minutes. This took about 45. It was very well organized though. I'll post a ship review next.

Apex, the second edge class ship is brand new. It was supposed to start revenue sailings in Europe in May/June of last year. She had been floating around with minimum crew in the Med. I was surprised to learn that Celebrity started bringing staff back aboard 2 months before the first sailing in late July, 2021. Almost 100% of key engineering and departmental supervisory staff were brought back. Enough hotel, kitchen, spa and fitness staff brought back to allow the ship to practice full operations. Crew were moved to guest staterooms, were scheduled to drink at all the bars (there are 7 of these) and dine in all shipboard restaurants - there are 9 of these - the ship, for all intent and purpose, was fully operational as a practice sailing. I was told the crew had a ball.  By the time that the first revenue sailing took place, most of the kinks of a restart were ironed out. We were the 4th revenue sailing from Athens.  

 

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Edge class ships are different and Celebrity, learning from Edge, created a better design for Apex. There's a better balance of wood (although most of it is engineered) and plastic so Apex feels more "shippy" than Edge did.  Beautiful color schemes, both modern and traditional decor, overall beautifully decorated and appointed. Easy to find your way around with everything marked. There were around 800 guests (up from 300, then 400, then 600) on Apex's 4th revenue sailing. I'd guess maybe 25 kids under 18. Pretty sure this is "managed" - IOW Celebrity wants "fully vaccinated" sailings and bookings are controlled in some way to keep it like that.  We felt like we were getting  luxury level service - exceptionally attentive and welcoming staff at every venue. Celebrity is like this anyway but this was a different level. Certainly that the ship had less 1/3 of it's capacity (around 3200) made staff attentiveness, lack of lines, exceptional service possible. My advise is to go on these early sailings even though getting there and getting aboard can be a PITA. So far, it's totally worth it. One of the differences in the Edge class ships are the dining venues. There are 4 "main" dining rooms, all aft and stacked on top of each other, port and starboard, decks 4 and 5. There's a buffet (Ocean View Cafe) all the way aft, a burger grill on the pool deck and 6 specialty restaurants with different themes. The premiums to dine in each of these varies but it's expensive. On this sailing (8n) there are 8 dinner seatings. We purchased the dining package for 4 specialty restaurants deeply discounted (each dining venue costs around $30/person instead of the usual $45 - $55 if you booked separately and aboard. The Celebrity Edge class ships are perfectly suited to do this. We will dine in all four of the complimentary main dinning rooms and 4 of the 6 specialty restaurants. One of the specialty restaurants is on the top deck and outside. It's a steak place featuring outdoor grilling. There's also an outdoor movie theater up there. The pool deck is divided into indoor (Solarium) and outdoor pools. The indoor pool area has a cafe serving coffee and healthy stuff for breakfast only. The spa and fitness center is forward on the deck above. Big and well equipped including a spin and HIT studio.  Another different sort of thing is what is called Eden. Like a garden with lots of live foliage, it is a bar, entertainment and restaurant (2 of them - one complimentary and one specialty)) area that takes up decks 5 and 6 and a good portion of the entire aft 1/4 of the ship on those two decks. Adjacent to it is a small theater with an adjoining bar. Full production and acrobatic shows are done here along with single performer acts. As a guest, you are right on top of the performers, feet away on the ground floor, 50 feet away on the second level. The main theater is, as in the case of most ships, all the way forward and on two decks, 4 and 5 aboard Apex. 

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Apex Day 3: We were in Limmasol Cypress today. It is a very popular vacation spot for Brits and EU citizens. Americans visit this city via cruise ships. Its economy is tourism and from the looks of it, pre-covid it was very developed and making lots of money. It's slowly coming back but I'd say it's only about 50% back.

Life with COVID protocols aboard ship: Celebrity has a policy of everyone over 15/12 has to be vaccinated to board.Local masking policy in Greece dictates on board masking requirements.  All the time inside (except cabins and the usual exceptions). No masks outside - and this was just recently changed about 2w ago. Before that masks were required indoors and outdoors. Case numbers are rising again in Greece after months of declines. Deaths and hospitalizations continue dow trending. The Greek government is considering require masks outdoors again. Aboard ship, no staff are telling guests who are unmasked to mask. I'd say 30% don't wear mask indoors. There is ample signage about spacing. They ask elevators be limited to 4 - one person in each corner. That seems to be pretty well adhered to. I don't mind the masking so, it's no big deal to me. With the protocols, ship life still seems about normal. What's really nice is the pax load - about 800. Nothing is ever crowded. There are no lines. We haven't taken a cruise ship tour since the nearly 2000s when we first started cruising. We booked two on this cruse and finished one yesterday in Lammisol. 16 people on a 3h walking tour. Guide was a PhD Greek art history professor that is based in Cairo Egypt and teaches at university there. She was excellent. Ship tours are reasonably priced with three tiers: Normal Group, Small Group and Private Journeys. Private Journeys are very expensive and involve things like balloon rides, private yacht sailings, helicopter tours are mainstays. Not ever port has the Small Group which is a group under 10. Rhodes, where we will be on day 4, is one. Its a 4h tour with lunch included. Around $90pp. Not terrible, Could probably get for less but during COVID feel better about using ship tours. 

More later.   

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7 hours ago, JeffB said:

Apex Day 3: We were in Limmasol Cypress today. It is a very popular vacation spot for Brits and EU citizens. Americans visit this city via cruise ships. Its economy is tourism and from the looks of it, pre-covid it was very developed and making lots of money. It's slowly coming back but I'd say it's only about 50% back.

Life with COVID protocols aboard ship: Celebrity has a policy of everyone over 15/12 has to be vaccinated to board.Local masking policy in Greece dictates on board masking requirements.  All the time inside (except cabins and the usual exceptions). No masks outside - and this was just recently changed about 2w ago. Before that masks were required indoors and outdoors. Case numbers are rising again in Greece after months of declines. Deaths and hospitalizations continue dow trending. The Greek government is considering require masks outdoors again. Aboard ship, no staff are telling guests who are unmasked to mask. I'd say 30% don't wear mask indoors. There is ample signage about spacing. They ask elevators be limited to 4 - one person in each corner. That seems to be pretty well adhered to. I don't mind the masking so, it's no big deal to me. With the protocols, ship life still seems about normal. What's really nice is the pax load - about 800. Nothing is ever crowded. There are no lines. We haven't taken a cruise ship tour since the nearly 2000s when we first started cruising. We booked two on this cruse and finished one yesterday in Lammisol. 16 people on a 3h walking tour. Guide was a PhD Greek art history professor that is based in Cairo Egypt and teaches at university there. She was excellent. Ship tours are reasonably priced with three tiers: Normal Group, Small Group and Private Journeys. Private Journeys are very expensive and involve things like balloon rides, private yacht sailings, helicopter tours are mainstays. Not ever port has the Small Group which is a group under 10. Rhodes, where we will be on day 4, is one. Its a 4h tour with lunch included. Around $90pp. Not terrible, Could probably get for less but during COVID feel better about using ship tours. 

More later.   

Are the private journeys excursions “tailorable to accommodate special interests or just higher end transportation modes?  Or both?

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1 hour ago, cruisellama said:

Are the private journeys excursions “tailorable to accommodate special interests or just higher end transportation modes?  Or both?

Yes, they'll make an itinerary to fit your needs. They call these "curated" explorations. I will say this. We booked two ship's tours out of 6 ports and got our money's worth. I'd be hard pressed to pay for one of these curated tours. If you want privacy, I'd check out tours by locals and do your own depending on circulating virus conditions We just did the second one today. First the prices were reasonable for what was delivered. Especially today. This one was a "small group" tour of Rhodes. I think there were 15, maybe 20 people. This was a 4.5h tour of Rhodes that included a tour of the Knight's castle (weirdly destroyed in a explosion and fire in 1856 and completely restored by the Italians 1936-1943 by none other than El Duce, Benito Musilini. The highlight was a "brunch" in a shaded park inside the fortress that surrounds the castle. Three courses with red or white wine - as much as you wanted. Fabulous. The guide went through an impressive 3000y history of Rhodes dating back to 1000 BC. Both guides were really good. First time with a serious effort to book tours through the ship. I was surprised how high the quality of them was ..... the days of a day trip in a cab or hire for $60 are long gone. Good guides that are licensed know there is demand and arranging a tour on your own is both risky for a you pay for what you get standpoint and pricing. Ce;ebrity markets their tours as vetted and high quality. Celebrity delivered. I will probably book another if I still can.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

Today's Edge boarding experienced long delays due to new testing requirement.  Capt Kate was handing out water.   Many didn't know about the new requirement so underwent pop-up tests.  Have not seen a post yet from folks who were able to pre-test on own.  Sure we'll get the low down soon.

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20 minutes ago, cruisellama said:

Today's Edge boarding experienced long delays due to new testing requirement.  Capt Kate was handing out water.   Many didn't know about the new requirement so underwent pop-up tests.  Have not seen a post yet from folks who were able to pre-test on own.  Sure we'll get the low down soon.

I guess that answers the question of whether Celebrity will provide on-site testing for those who weren't able to get it ahead of time.  Maybe they won't continue to provide the tests ?

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2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I guess that answers the question of whether Celebrity will provide on-site testing for those who weren't able to get it ahead of time.  Maybe they won't continue to provide the tests ?

I think there are a lot of passengers that don't follow the community blogs and may even miss cruise line emails (especially when in transit).   Ship capacity is being kept very low,  if you start turning away large numbers of guests who are unaware of the newly released requirement, that adds to the bad press for the industry on the guest service side.  (There's already built in negativity every time a cruise related case is reported.   Its interesting to watch RCL stock movement between Covid reports and periods of no reports.  )  I think it wise if Celebrity and others offer the pre-test as part of embarkation process.   It helps the guest fill a square , and gives the cruise line a more current baseline of passenger infection status (+/-).

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13 minutes ago, cruisellama said:

I think there are a lot of passengers that don't follow the community blogs and may even miss cruise line emails (especially when in transit).   Ship capacity is being kept very low,  if you start turning away large numbers of guests who are unaware of the newly released requirement, that adds to the bad press for the industry on the guest service side.  (There's already built in negativity every time a cruise related case is reported.   Its interesting to watch RCL stock movement between Covid reports and periods of no reports.  )  I think it wise if Celebrity and others offer the pre-test as part of embarkation process.   It helps the guest fill a square , and gives the cruise line a more current baseline of passenger infection status (+/-).

I totally agree with you - that Celebrity is best served by offering the tests on site....but I had read elsewhere that Celebrity was NOT going to offer the tests on site.  I doubted that to be the case and it turns out NOT to be the case, looks like.

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